PORTO RICO 



4773 



PORTO RICO 



"THE STORifeOF POPJCTRI 



AORTO RICO, pohr'toh re' ko, a beautiful 

 and productive island of the West Indies, which 

 became a possession of the United States in 

 1898, at the conclusion of the Spanish-American 

 War. It lies about 1,000 miles southeast of 

 Key West, Fla., and eighty miles directly east 

 of the island of Haiti. Among the Greater 

 Antilles Cuba, Jamaica, Haiti and Porto Rico 

 it ranks fourth in size, but, with more than 

 300 persons to the square mile, is the most 

 densely populated of the four. Having the 

 general shape of a parallelogram, Porto Rico is 

 about 100 miles from east to west and thirty 



frqm north to south; its area of 3,435 

 square miles is about one-third less than that 

 of the state of Connecticut. If a few small 

 islands along the coast, belonging to it geo- 

 graphically, are considered, the area is 3,606 

 square miles. No point on Porto Rico is more 

 th:tn eighteen miles from the sea. 



The People and Cities. About one-third of 

 the inhabitants are negroes and people of mixed 

 negro and Spanish blood, the descendants of 



; icans who were brought to the island as 

 slaves. The majority of the whites are Span- 

 i-h, hut many American and European business 



i i ;ive recently acquired interests in the 

 sugar and tobacco industries; the population 

 has been also increased by the immigration of 



laborers. In 1910 the island had .. 

 population of 1,118,012. In 1916, according t<> 

 an estimate of thr United States Census Bu- 

 reau, it had increased to 1,216,083. The esti- 

 mate for the capital, San Juan, for the same 

 year was 48,716. Next in sire is the city of 

 Ponce, with 35,005 inhabitants. Only two other 

 places have more than 10,000 inhabitant 

 are Mayaguez, with 16,563, and Caguas, with 

 10354. (These figures do not include popula- 

 tions of suburbs or outlying districts.) There 



are about sixty smaller towns on the island and 

 about twelve villages. More than sixty-three 

 per cent of the natives are engaged in agri- 

 cultural pursuits and in fishing; about twenty- 

 one per cent are in domestic and personal serv- 

 ice; eight per cent are in manufacturing, and 

 eight per cent in trade. 



Surface and Drainage. A range of forest- 

 covered hills, 2,000 to 3,000 feet high, stretches 

 across the island from east to west, and slopes 

 down on both sides to the level lowlands along 

 the north and south coasts. These lands are 

 the grazing places of the Porto Rican eat tie. 

 In the north the rivers are longer, and many 

 lagoons border the shores, but on the southern 

 coast severe droughts often occur, and Artificial 

 irrigation is necessary. Many rapid rivers ris- 

 ing in the interior hilly region furnish water 

 power, and forty-seven of Porto Rico's tl. 

 hundred streams are of good size, although not 

 navigable for any distance. The Bayamon, the 

 Loiza, La Plata, the Manati and the A 

 flowing to the northern coast, the Jacaguas in 

 the south and the Blanco in the west are among 

 the most important. 



Climate. As in most hilly, tropical count ries. 



mperature varies at dilTermt. altitude.*. 



but Porto Rico has the most pleasant and 



healthful climate of any of the West India 



islands. The intense heat of the lowlands is 



modified by the northeast trade winds, and the 



nights are generally cool. During the 1 



r the temperature is rarely mor< 



100, and in the highlands during the cold 



; the thermometer seldom falls below 



50; there is an occasional frost or hailstorm, 



but snow is unknown. During the "hurricane 



months" July, August and September the 



winds and rainstorms are Beverr. The central 



l^< thr northeast winds, 



