TOPOGRAPHY OF CUBA. 



375 



settlements had been made on a cay on the north coast. But the incursions of 

 the French and English buccaneers drove the inhabitants to take refuge farther 

 inland, where they founded Santa Clara ( Villa Clara) in 1690. Lastly, a fifth 

 city, Sagua la Grande, on the river of like name some 12 miles from the sea, 

 gradually replaced a group of huts at the head of the fluvial navigation. In this 

 district of the Cinco Villas are found the auriferous sands worked by the first 

 settlers ; they are now nearly exhausted. 



Fig. 178. — Teoidad and its Haeboitrs. 

 Scale 1 : 25O.0n0. 



/9°58' 



West op breenwich 



73°^a- 



Reefs exposed 

 at low water. 



Depths. 



Oto 16 

 Feet. 



16 Feet 

 and upwards. 



6 Miles. 



The provinces of Santa Clara and Puerto Principe are separated by the Moron 

 depression, where the two sections of the island are, so to say, soldered together. 

 Camaguey, capital of Puerto Principe, and the chief place in the central region of 

 Cuba, claims to be the most créole (" criolisima ") of Cuban towns. The Cama- 

 gueyanos, as the natives are fond of calling themselves, are certainly the finest, 

 the most valiant, and independent people in the island. Puerto Principe, the 

 official name of Camaguey, is the largest city of the interior, for, despite its name, 

 it lies, not on the sea, but on an extensive plain about midway between the 



