GOVERNMENT AND LAW. 



19 



bridges being of stone or iron, and the station 

 buildings substantial. English engines are 

 used, which make 45 miles per hour. The 

 Government assisted in the construction of the 

 road by making valuable concessions of land 

 with right of way its entire length and by 

 guaranteeing 8 per cent, per year upon the 

 stock of the road for a period of ninety-nine 

 years, when it is to become State property. 

 So far, adds the Consul, the road has paid 

 more than 10 per cent, per annum to share- 

 holders. 



Mr. Elliott also states that the Compania 

 Transatlantica (Manila-Liverpool) maintains 

 a monthly service to Europe ; that there are 

 four lines of steamers to Hong Kong, and many 

 local lines plying between Manila and the 

 provinces, the largest having twenty-eight 

 steamers of 25,000 tonnage. 



GUAM (LADRONES). 



The Island of Guam or Guahan, the largest 

 in the Marianne or Ladrone Archipelago, was 

 ceded by Spain to the United States in 1898, 

 and will probably be used as a coaling station 

 for the United States navy. The island is 

 about 32 miles long and 100 miles in circum- 

 ference, and has a population of about 9,000, 

 of whom about 0,000 are in Agafia, the capital. 

 The inhabitants % are mostly immigrants or the 

 descendants of immigrants from the Philip- 

 pines, the original race of the Marianne Islands 

 having become extinct. The recognized lan- 

 guage is Spanish, but English is also spoken. 

 On the island there are 18 schools, and nine 

 tenths of the islanders can read and write. 

 The island is thickly wooded, well watered, 

 and fertile, and possesses a roadstead. 



CUBA. 



Government. Cuba after having been 

 continuously in the possession of Spain from 

 its discovery, was by the peace preliminaries 

 and by the definite treaty signed by the Peace 

 Commissioners at Paris, DecemberlO,1898, and 

 ratified by the Senate February 6, 1899, and'by 

 the Queen Regent of Spain March 17, 1899, re- 

 linquished by Spain, and thus has the position 

 of an independent state. The direct armed 

 interposition of the United States in the 

 struggle against Spanish domination has, how- 

 ever, brought the island into close association 

 with the United States Government, and 

 though Congress has affirmed Cuban independ- 

 ence, the island is now held in military 

 occupation by the United States forces. So ! 

 long as the occupation lasts the United States j 

 Government assumes and discharges the result- 

 ing obligations with respect to the protection I 

 of life and property, and a military Governor ' 

 General has been appointed, who will control i 



all branches of the administration, civil and 

 military ; while in Havana and each of the six 

 provinces military governors have been or are 

 being appointed, who will receive instructions 

 from the Governor General. 



Area and Population. The area of 

 Cuba is about 45,872 square miles. Ten per 

 cent, of the area is cultivated, 7 per cent, is unre- 

 claimed, and 4 per cent, is under forests. There 

 are large tracts of country still unexplored. 

 The population % of the island in 1894 .was 

 given as 1,631,696, of which 65 per cent, was 

 white, the remainder being negro. The 

 capital, Havana, has 200,000 inhabitants ; 

 Matanzas (1892), 27,000; Santiago de Cuba, 

 71,307; Cienfuegos (1892), 27,430; Puerto 

 Principe, 46,641 ; Holguin, 34,767 ; Sancti 

 Spiritu, 32,608; Cardenas (1892), 23,680. 

 Education was made obligatory in 1880. 

 There are 843 public schools in the island, 

 and Havana has a university. 



Consul Hyatt, of Santiago do Cuba, in a 

 report dated January 8, 1897, and printed in 

 Consular Reports No. 197 (February, 1897), 

 p. 262, says that the area of Cuba is about 

 equal to that of the State of Pennsylvania, the 

 length being 775 miles and the width varying 

 from 30 to 160 miles. The productive soil, 

 mineral wealth, and climatic conditions of the 

 island entitle it to rank among the foremost 

 communities of the world. The soil is a 

 marvel of richness, and fertilizers are seldom 

 used, unless in the case of tobacco, even 

 though the same crops be grown on the same 

 land for a hundred years, as has happened in 

 some of the old sugar cane fields. The moun- 

 tains are of coral formation, while the lowlands 

 of eastern Cuba at least seem to be composed 

 largely of fossils of sea matter from prehistoric 

 times and are extremely rich in lime and 

 phosphate, which accounts for their apparent 

 iuexhaustibleness. 



Although founded and settled more than 

 fifty years before the United States, Cuba has 

 still 13,000,000 acres of primeval forests ; ma- 

 hogany, cedar, logwood, redwood, ebony, 

 lignum-vitae, and caiguaran (which is more 

 durable in the ground than iron or steel ) are 

 among the woods. 



If all the land suitable to the growth of 

 sugar cane were devoted to that industry, it is 

 estimated that Cuba might supply the entire 

 Western Hemisphere with sugar. The island 

 has already produced in a single year for ex- 

 port 1,000,000 tons, and its capabilities have 

 only been in the experimental stage. The 

 adaptability of the soil for tobacco culture has 

 long been known. Cuba takes great pride in 

 the quality of her coffee, and until the war the 

 plantations were flourishing. 



