Durango semi-weekly herald., 1907-05-23

business. There are several thousand
Americans in Puerto Principe prov
ince and several hundred In the neigh
borhood Of Camaguey, which is the
headquarters OF Sir William Van
Hornes railroad. Mr. Collins, q real
estate agent, formerly OF Chicago. tells
me that the official records show not
less than 10000 transactions in real
estate by Americans in this province
since dependence-mostly farms and
cattle ranches bought for investment.
American settlers have also gone into
fruit quite extensively. but their or
chards have not yet reached the point
of bearing. Considerable mineral land
has been purchased and several pros
pectors are now here making examina-
tions. A syndicate from Scranton, Pa,
has purchased what they claim to
be the finest body of iron ore ever
discovered-even better than that on
Lake Superior-only twenty-five miles
from Camaguey, in the Cuyitas valley,
and propose to build a railway from
the mines to Nuevitas to get their
ore to tide water. The ore lies about
thirty miles from that point.
The Spanish-American Iron company
which has been operating near Santi-
ago for many years, has recently OBJ
tanned a large deposit north OF that
city In the mountains near Nipa bay.
on the northern coast of Cuba II lies
on a level plateau. 5000 feet above
the sea. Immediately on the surface
of the earth, and, according to com
mon report, can be scooped up by
machinery like gravel.
Sir William Van Horne proposes to
make modern American city of An
| tilla, which is now the northern termi-
nus of his railroad on the Bay of
| Nipa, the nearest harbor to deep wa
| ter at the eastern end of the island
twenty-four hours nearer New York
than Havana, and twelve hours near
er than Santiago. The people OF the
| latter city, which is the metropolis
of eastern Cuba. have not been kind
or even cordial to the American Rail
road company. On the contrary, the
business men of the town have made
| Sir william Van Horne and his as
sociates all the trouble they can, ever
to obstructing the importation of ma
terial and supplies for his railroad
One would naturally suppose theS
would feel it to their interest to dC
everything in their power to promote
such an enterprise, but, for some rea
son or other, they opposed the rail
road, and Sir William will punisl
them by building a new town on the
north coast where he can get all the
land he wants for practically nothing
and have his own way. There is moth
ing there now.
The railroad company has never
been able to get suitable sites for
its terminals and warehouses in San
tiago. It has been boycotted from the
start 1t would have built a fine
| hotel to attract tourists and adver-
| tise the city, but 1t could not get a
| desirable site. The moment Sir VII.
| liam attempted to do anything In
| Santiago he was always subjected to
| distractions and embarrassments.
There is plenty of land for sale
in Cuba, but 1t must be bought from
private owners. There are many
American land agents here, and spec,
ulators also, but buyers must look
out for themselves and be sure OF
their titles. Nearly all of the land
available for fruit or agriculture is
in private hands. The state lands
af A..tl ,,l. hoo n,-l
of the island was granted in large
tracts centuries ago by the Spanish
government to favorite Spaniards and
Cubans, and the descriptions in the
grants were SO indefinite that it is
difficult to find boundaries. The
grants often overlapped each other
and frequently two persons are found
to have lawful titles to the same tract
Then again many of the estates are
covered with squatters whose ances-
tors, finding the land unoccupied, set
tied down and have had possession
ever since. There is also a great
deal of irregularity in the records.
They are defective because of care
| lessness in the settlement of estates
| and because of the indifference oil
owners of what was considered worth.
less territory. For these reasons 1t
behooves land buyers from the United
States to be extremely careful before
they purchase an interest in a law
| suit.
Forest land is worth from $50 to $40
an acre; stumpage brings s14 per l.,
| 900 feet for standing ceda., mahosany
| and other timber. 1t costs $35 per /
600 feet to cut, trim and square logs
and haul them to railway station
| from which they are shipped by raj
to the nearest port and then by steam
er to New York or sailing vessel &c
Europe. Sir William Van Horne has
arranged with the MuDson Line and
the Ward Line to make regular stops
at Antilla. his new port on the Bay ol
Nipa.
Mr.. Alcides Betancourt, land com
missioner of the Americal railroad
tells me that 1t costs about SIG an acre
| to clear timber land for sugar, and
that 1t is the best sugar land because
| 1t is full of chemicals and is covered
with vegetable depaSits that hava haap