266 CATTAL O* OU1NES. 





of the coffee tree), which furnishes an exportation of the 

 value of three millions and a half of piastres. Industry, 

 guided by a greater mass of knowledge, has been better 

 directed. The system of taxation that weighed on national 

 industry and exterior commerce, has been made lighter since 

 1791, and been improved by successive changes. Whenever 

 the mother- country, mistaking her own interests, has at- 

 tempted to make a retrograde step, courageous voices have 

 arisen not only among the Havaneros, but often among' 

 the Spanish rulers, in defence of the freedom of American 

 commerce. A new channel has recently been opened for 

 capital, by the enlightened zeal and patriotic views of the 

 intendant Don Claudio Martinez de Pinillos, and the com- 

 merce of entrepot has been granted to the Havannah, on the 

 most advantageous conditions. 



The difficult and expensive interior communications of the 

 island, render its own productions dearer at the ports, not- 

 withstanding the short distance between the northern and 

 southern coasts. A project of canalization, which unites the 

 double advantage of connecting the Havannah and Batabano 

 by a navigable line, and diminishing the high price of the 

 transport of native produce, merits here a special mention. 

 The idea of the Canal of Guines had been conceived for more 

 than half a century, with the view of furnishing timber at a 

 more moderate price for ship-building in the arsenal of the 

 Havannah. In 1796, the Count de Jaruco y Mopox, an 

 enterprising man, who had acquired great influence by his 

 connection with the Prince of the Peace, undertook to revive 

 this project. The survey was made in 1798, by two very 

 able engineers, Don Francisco and Don Felix Lemaur. 

 These officers ascertained that the canal in its whole develop- 

 ment, would be nineteen leagues long (5000 varas or 4150 

 metres), that the point of partition would be at the Taverna 

 del Rey, and that it would require nineteen locks on the 

 north, and twenty-one on the south. The distance from the 

 Havannah to Batabano is only eight and a half sea-leagues. 

 The canal of Guines would be very useful for the trans- 

 port of agricultural productions by steam-boats,* because its 



* Steam-boats are established from Havannah to Matanzas, and from 

 the Havannah to Mariel. The government granted to Don Juan O'FarriU 

 (March 24th, 1819), a privilege oo the barcos de vapvr. 



