214 



CUBA. 



certain homeliness that causes it to be read and 

 loved wherever English is spoken. Her last 

 completed literary .work was an article for 

 " The Forum," published in New York, and at 

 the time of her death she was at work upon 

 another article for the same periodical, entitled 

 " Nearing the End." She left an estate of 

 about $85,000. 



The following list of Mrs. Craik's works 

 was made last year by her husband, with 

 her co-operation, adding one or two that 

 have since appeared. N ovels : " The Ogilvies " 

 (1849); "Olive" (1850); "The Head of the 

 Family " (1857) ; " Agatha's Husband " (1853) ; 

 " John Halifax, Gentleman " (1857) ; " Chris- 

 tian's Mistake" (1865); "A Noble Life" 

 (1866); "Two Marriages" (1867); "The 

 Woman's Kingdom " (1869) ; " A Brave Lady " 

 (1870); "Hannah" (1871); "My Mother and 

 I" (1874); "The Laurel Bush" (1876); 

 "Young Mrs. Jardine" (1879); "His Little 

 Mother" (1881); "Miss Tommy" (1884); 

 " King Arthur " (1886). Miscellaneous works : 

 " Avillion and other Tales" (1853) ; " Nothing 

 New " (1857) ; " A Woman's Thoughts about 

 Woman " (1858) ; " Studies from Life " (1861) ; 

 "The Unkind Word and other Stories" 

 (1870); "Fair France" (1872); "Sermons 

 out of Church " (1875) ; " A Legacy, being 

 the Life and Remains of John Martin, School- 

 master and Postmaster " (1878) ; " Plain Speak- 

 ing " (1882) ; '' An Unsentimental Journey 

 Through Cornwall" (1884); "About Money 

 and Other Things" (1886); "An Unknown 

 Country " (1887). Poetry : " Poems " (1859), 

 expanded into " Thirty Years' Poems, New 

 and Old " (1881) ; " Children's Poetry " (1881) ; 

 " Songs of Our Youth " (1875). Children's 

 Books : " How to Win Love ; or, Rhoda's Les- 

 son "(1848); "Cola Monti" (1849); "Alice 

 Learmont, a Fairy Tale" (1852); "A Hero" 

 (1853); "Bread Upon the Waters" (1852); 

 "The Little Lychetts" (1855) ; "Michael the 

 Miner " (1846) ; " Our Year " (1862) ; " Little 

 Sunshine's Holiday" (1875) ; " Adventures of 

 a Brownie " (1872)"; " The Little Lame Prince " 

 (1874). She also prepared the " Fairy Book " 

 and " Is it True ? " two volumes of old fairy 

 tales translated from Mine. Guizot de Witt's 

 " Motherless, or a Parisian Family," " A French 

 Country Family," "The Cousin from India," 

 and " Twenty Years Ago," and edited a series 

 of books for girls. 



CUBA, an island in the West Indies, belong- 

 ing to Spain. (For statistics of area, popula- 

 tion, etc., see "Annual Cyclopaedia" for 1883.) 



Army. The Coniinander-in-Chief and Cap- 

 tain-General of the island is Don Saba Marin, 

 and the Segundo Cabo, Sefior Sanchez Mira. 

 The strength of the Spanish forces in Cuba in 

 1887 was 19,000. 



Finance. The Cuban budget for 1887-'88 es- 

 timates the outlay 31122,862,541, being $3,097,- 

 194 less than for 1886-'87. The income is es- 

 timated at $23,273,100, hence there would re- 

 sult a surplus of $410.559 in spite of the sup- 



pression of the export duties on sugar, molasses, 

 and rum, the reduction by 20 per cent, of the 

 consumption tax, and the annual reductions 

 fixed with reference to the traffic between Cuba 

 and the Peninsula, sucli reductions being esti- 

 mated to aggregate $2,721,625. 



A highly creditable measure was the pay- 

 ment by anticipation of the custom-house 

 bonds of 1878 still in circulation, and of the 6- 

 per-cent. hypothecary bonds of 1880 at par, in 

 Cuba, Madrid, Paris, and London, on July 1 

 and Oct. 1, 1887, respectively. The directors 

 of the Spanish Bank declared on July 1 a semi- 

 annual dividend of 4 per cent, gold; and the 

 Bank of Commerce declared a semi-annual 

 dividend of 3 per cent. A new bank is to be 

 founded at Havana by tobacco- exporters, for 

 the purpose of facilitating their dealings. 



General Condition. Cuba, being thinly popu- 

 lated, mountainous toward the east, and thick- 

 ly wooded, with comparatively few railways 

 and good high-roads, while lying within the 

 tropics, is still suffering from the disorders re- 

 sulting from a ten years' insurrection and the 

 abolition of slavery. The daily press teemed 

 in 1887 with accounts of highway robberies, 

 the kidnapping of well-to-do farmers, and even 

 children, held for a ransom, incendiarism, and 

 even a few landings of filibusters. Soldiers, 

 mounted police, and armed bands of citizens 

 have been keeping up a lively warfare with 

 those anarchical elements, but the task is diffi- 

 cult, and it may take some time yet ere the 

 island is purged of those disorderly elements 

 continually cropping up again in consequence 

 of the deep demoralization which seems to ex- 

 ist in a portion of the lower stratum of society. 

 To a considerable extent it also exists among 

 merchants and Government officials, notably 

 revenue officers; hence the Captain-General 

 was compelled to take energetic measures to 

 arrest gigantic frauds at the Havana Custom- 

 House, the existence of which had been no se- 

 cret for a long time. Small pox and yellow- 

 fever were exceptionally malignant in 1887 at 

 Santiago de Cuba and elsewhere. Extensive 

 and destructive inundations also occurred, and 

 an earthquake visited Santiago September 23, 

 but without doing much harm. Yet planters 

 have borne these visitations with patience, as 

 the great planting interest is evidently entering 

 upon an era of comparative prosperity through 

 the better organization of labor and the sugar 

 industry, the gradual appreciation of the value 

 of the staple, and several well-timed reforms, 

 chiefly in the interest of the agricultural and 

 mercantile classes. 



Suspicions having been aroused that the 

 treasury was systematically defrauded through 

 the connivance of custom-house officials at 

 Havana, the Captain-General, on Aug. 18, 1887, 

 ordered the military seizure of the custom- 

 house, all means of outlet to the wharves and 

 warehouses having been closed, and guards es- 

 tablished over every wharf and avenue. For 

 several days following a committee of investi- 



