218 CUBA 



HIGHWAYS 



Good highways are both short and few. In past centuries a 

 few good roads were established of the class called Camino el Rey 

 (the King's highway), leading from Habana into Pinar del Rio 

 and from a few interior cities to their entrepots. Aside from these 

 roads, which were absolute necessities, the government has con- 

 structed no highways leading into the country through or around 

 the island, and hence inland communication is much impeded. 

 Had a more far-sighted policy of road construction been under- 

 taken, such as has been carried out by England in the adjacent 

 island of Jamaica,* Spain would have been in no danger of 

 losing her colony, the lack of good military roads having been^ 

 one of the factors which have made possible the success of the 

 present revolution. 



Although Cuba is so situated geographically as to command 

 the commerce of the entire American Mediterranean, trade and 

 communication with the adjacent regions, other than Mexico, 

 have neither been cultivated nor encouraged. To reach any of 

 the adjacent islands, such as Haiti or Jamaica — each less than 

 100 miles distant — it is usually necessary for the Cuban to pro- 

 ceed first to New York and thence to his destination. A per- 

 petual quarantine appears to exist against the island on the 

 part of all its neighbors. The completeness with which Cuba 

 is isolated commercially is illustrated by the fact that not even 

 the Habana cigar, the most far-reaching of its products, can be 

 found in a single Caribbean city. 



CITIES 



Habana, which bears upon its escutcheon " Llave del Mundo," 

 the " Key of the New World," is the political capital and prin- 

 cipal city of Cuba. It is situated mainly on the west and south 

 sides of a capacious harbor and surrounded by eminences ris- 

 ing to 150 feet in height. It is a picturesque and beautiful place, 

 presenting, even in the midst of the most horrible tragedy of the 

 centuries, the gay appearance of a European city. In fact, in 

 population, interest, customs, and dominant political feeling 

 the city (being the seat of the foreign government which rules 

 the island) is thoroughly Spanish, and in this sense is entirely 



♦ Jamaica, while only one-tenth the size of Cuba, possesses over 2,000 miles of superb 

 highway, affording easy communication to every part of the island. 



