OTHER CUBAN CITIES 123 



Between Cardenas and Juacaro, at the station of Pijuan, 

 there was a very fine sugar-estate known as the Flor de 

 Cuba. It contained about three thousand acres of beauti- 

 ful rolling land, upon which were a substantial factory and 

 elegant dwelling. 



Sagua la Grande is the next place of importance along 

 the north coast, east of Cardenas. It is twenty-five miles 

 from the mouth of a river of the same name, and two hun- 

 dred miles from Havana. The city is entirely devoted to 

 the sugar-trade. In comparison with other Cuban towns 

 it is an unattractive place, although in climate and sanitary 

 arrangements it is superior to most places. It is the 

 eastern north-coast termination of the Havana railway 

 system. 



A railway crosses the island from Sagua to Cienfuegos. 

 This may be said to mark the boundary between the Vuelta 

 Arriba, or western Cuba, and the more broken configura- 

 tion of Camaguey. East of this line for a considerable 

 distance the urban centers of life and industry are shifted 

 from the northern to the southern seaboard, toward Cien- 

 fuegos and Trinidad, although Remedios and Caibarien, on 

 the north coast of Santa Clara, are important places. 



Cienfuegos, on the south side, is a modern place, situated 

 on a magnificent landlocked harbor, with a narrow 

 entrance known as the Bay of Jagua. It was this bay 

 that Columbus visited on his first voyage, and which 

 Father Las Casas, in speaking of, described as the most 

 magnificent port in the world, comprising within its shores 

 six square leagues. Although surveyed by Ocampo in 1508, 

 and spoken of by Herrera as a haven unrivaled in the 

 world, the town was settled only in 1819 by refugees from 

 Santo Domingo. Within the past twenty years its trade has 

 increased enormously. It is now the second seaport in the 

 island. 



The water of the bay is a beautiful transparent green, 

 through which, at a great depth, can be seen the white 

 sandy bottom. Its depth at the anchorage is twenty-seven 



