16 



THE CUBA REVIEW 



THE NORTH EAST COAST OF CUBA 



The writer of this article spent six weeks, in March and April, on a horse-back trip 

 between Santiago and a point due south of Baracoa. From the Yateras River, which 

 is about 10 miles east of the United States naval station, on the Bay of Guantananio, 

 to Cape Maisi, the "contrabando de los negros" was a common subject of comment. 

 Everybody talked of the number of negroes who were being smuggled into Cuba. Fires 

 far up on the mountain sides appeared nightly at different points, sometimes small, at 

 others flaring into sudden intensity. Inquiry at the time as to the cause of these fires 

 elicited the information that it was some negroes making charcoal. The fallacy of this 

 was explained by calling attention to the improbability of any one making charcoal so 

 far away from the coast, when it could be burnt much nearer and be more convenient 

 for loading in schooners for shipping to market. The second explanation was that it 

 was probably some negro burning off a piece of new ground. The frequency of these 

 fires along the coast at that time is now easily explained as having been signals for the 

 small schooners which remained in the offing until nightfall, awaiting an opportunity to 

 approach the coast and unload their contraband cargoes. 



This coast is for the most part a rocky cliff, from 50 to 60 feet high, which, coming 

 down to the shore's edge from a coast line of rocky hills, forms a comparatively narrow 

 shelf, then drops sheer to the water. Many are the places where good pilots can land 

 men against the very faces of these cliffs on the narrow strip of beach, which, 

 hidden from above, form thresholds of large caves. At other places the shelf descends 

 almost to the level of the Caribbean ; and' again there are small stretches of rock lined 

 beaches in the bights of the coast line where good anchorage is to be found. In some 

 few places small inlets give still greater protection. 



The entire immediate coast line from the ^'ateras River to Cape Maisi is desolate and 

 is but little traveled. At Tortuquilla, about five miles east of the mouth of the Yateras, 

 a few fishermen's huts are assembled near the shore of a small cove. Although the 

 Bay of Raitiquiri, which affords entrance to good sized schooners, is but 15 miles east 



Stretches of Rock lined sliores on the Xortli Coast. 



