406 CUBA AND PORTO RICO 



cases that one can get from an English island to any of 

 these. 



My advice to the traveler would be to plan two separate 

 tours, giving a winter to each. One should be devoted to 

 thf French and Spanish islands; the other to the English 

 colonies. The first-mentioned tour can be initiated by 

 leaving New York by rail for Tampa, Florida, whence one 

 can go to Havana within less than a day. Steamers can 

 also be taken directly from New York either to Santiago 

 or Havana, from which places coasting- vessels in time of 

 peace skirt the island. Cuba alone is worthy of a winter's 

 stay; but if the reader wishes to proceed farther, he can 

 take a regular line from Havana to Haiti, and from Haiti 

 to San Domingo, Porto Rico, and the Danish Virgin Islands 

 as far as St. Thomas. There he will find means of reach- 

 ing Martinique and Guadeloupe. The traveler who makes 

 this journey should remember that he is almost constantly 

 exposed to disease and contagion, and should acquire such 

 sanitary and hygienic knowledge as will enable him to 

 avoid them. 



The second tour can be made in either of two ways. 

 The Quebec steamship line carries travelers directly from 

 New York to St. Thomas, and thence down the English 

 Caribbees to Trinidad and Barbados. At Barbados con- 

 nection can be made semi-weekly with the excellent 

 steamers of the English Royal Mail, proceeding thence to 

 Jamaica. The second and preferable method of making 

 this tour will be to leave New York by one of the better 

 steamers of the Atlas line for Jamaica direct. These 

 steamers, as a rule, do not carry sugar, and one avoids 

 the horrible stenches of sugar-ships. After seeing Ja- 

 maica the Royal Mail can be taken from thence eastward 

 to Barbados, from which point one can use the subsidiary 

 steamers of the same line up and down the English 

 islands, south to Trinidad or Demerara and north to St. 

 Thomas, where connections can be made for the United 

 States. I will not vouch for the excellence or comforts of 



