222 CUBA 



places are the most truly Cuban and representative in their popu- 

 lation of any towns on the island. 



Santa Clara is a beautiful city, dating from previous centuries, 

 and surrounded by charming scenery. It possessed, the year 

 before the revolution, a cultured Creole* population. The insur- 

 rection has raged most fearfully around this place, and it is prob- 

 able that its most representative people have been largely driven 

 away or destroyed. 



Camaguey, as the Cubans Call the town, or Puerto Principe, 

 as it is officially designated, although remote from the seacoast, 

 is the chief interior city of Cuba, and claims to be the most Creole 

 of Cuban towns. The city lies on a plain about midway be- 

 tween the two coasts, and is connected by rail with Nuevitas to 

 the northeast. 



In the basin of the Cauto, Bayamo is the principal place. This 

 is a very old town, which was founded on a southern affluent of 

 the main stream during the first years of the conquest. It was 

 at Yara, a little southwest of this place, that the great republican 

 rising took place in 1868. The next year, when the Spanish 

 troops made their appearance, the inhabitants themselves set fire 

 to their houses. During the present revolution Bayamo has been 

 an important stronghold. Holguin, lying to the northward of 

 the Cauto, is also an important city of this portion of Cuba. 



Returning to the northern seacoast, several important points 

 remain to be described east of the central meridian of the island. 

 Without considering the innumerable smaller landings, the 

 principal towns are Nuevitas, Padre, Gibara, Banes, Nine, and 

 Baracoa. These are all antique and interesting places, pos- 

 sessing many old ruins and fortifications. Baracoa, the eastern- 

 most port of the north coast of the island, is of historic interest, 

 inasmuch as it is the oldest continuous settlement of the New 

 World, having been settled by Diego Columbus, the son of Chris- 

 topher, in the year 1511. t The inhabitants still point with pride 

 to the ruins of his house. It will also go down in history as the 

 point near which, on the 25th of February, 1896, Antonio Maceo 

 and his valiant band of nineteen followers, by a most daring and 

 successful landing, started the present revolution, and from which 

 within a year's time he marched to the western extremity of the 



* The word Creole, as used in this paper, means white descendants of the Latin races. 

 The impression on the part of some people that the word implies a mixture of negro 

 blood is an ignorant and, to the Creole, an insulting mistake. 



fin the illustration the date is erroneously given as 1508. 



