COMMERCE AND TRANSPORTATION S, 



of the finest harbors in the world. Notwithstanding their 

 natural excellence, so admirably adapted for anchorage and 

 protection from both storm and human invasion, they are 

 but little improved, and are often allowed to fill up with 

 refuse and sediment. 



The narrowness of the island and the abundance of good 

 harbors make nearly all parts of it convenient to maritime 

 transportation. Not only Havana, but Cabanas, Cienfue- 

 gos, and Santiago are regularly visited by American, 

 French, and Spanish lines of steamers, while coastal steam- 

 ers circumnavigate the island, touching at the minor ports, 

 which are also sought by many tramp steamers and sail- 

 ing-vessels in search of cargoes. 



The shipping-trade, both foreign and coastal, is exten- 

 sive, the American tonnage alone amounting to one million 

 per annum. About twelve hundred ocean vessels, steam 

 and sail, annually clear from Havana, while the sugar-crop 

 finds outlets at all the principal ports. Lines of steamers 

 coast the island, the north coast being served from Havana 

 and the south from Batabano, the southern entrepot of 

 Havana. The tonnage of Havana and eight other ports, for 

 1894, amounted to 3,538,539 tons, carried by 3181 vessels. 



Although Cuba is so situated geographically as to com- 

 mand the commerce of the entire American Mediterranean, 

 trade and communication 'with the adjacent regions, other 

 than Mexico, have been neither cultivated nor encour- 

 aged. To reach any of the adjacent islands, such as 

 Jamaica, each less than one hundred miles distant, it is 

 usually necessary for the Cuban to proceed fii'st to New 

 York and thence to his destination. A perpetual quaran- 

 tine appears to exist against the island on the part of nil 

 the neighboring West Indies, especially the English islands. 

 The conn leteness with which Cuba is isolated commercially 

 is illustrated by the fact that not even the Havana cigar, 

 the most far-reaching of its products, can be found in any 

 of the Caribbean cities, except those to the east in the track 

 of European steamers plying to Havana. 



