CHAPTER XV 



THE ISLAND OF PORTO RICO 



Situation and physical features. Configuration. Outline. Picturesque 

 topography. Drainage. Abundance of rivers. Flora and fauna. 

 Geology. Climate. Hygiene and sanitation. 



OWING to current interest, the normal order of arrange- 

 ment, which would lead to a consideration of Santo 

 Domingo, will not be followed, but Spain's most eastern 

 Antillean possession, the island of Porto Rico, will next 

 be described. This has justly been spoken of as " one of 

 the most lovely of all those regions of loveliness which are 

 washed by the Caribbean Sea ; even in that archipelago it 

 is distinguished by the luxuriance of its vegetation and the 

 soft variety of its scenery." Situated at the eastern extreme 

 of the Antillean chain, a thousand miles from Havana, it 

 presents many strange contrasts to Cuba. Although chil- 

 dren of the same mother, the Cuban island, so varied 

 in relief, configuration, diversity of resources, and settle- 

 ments, seems continental in proportion to Porto Rico, 

 which is a small insular microcosm, only one-twelfth the 

 area of the former island, and hardly equal in dimensions 

 to its smallest province, yet six times inmv densely popu- 

 lated. In form of government, and in the character and 

 condition of the people, there are even stronger contrasts 

 between these countries, one being a despotically ruled 

 colony, whose children despise the pace from which they 



10 145 



