GEOGRAPHIC LITERATURE 513 



conditions. Then come ten chapters on the island of Cuba, depicting 

 the physical features and the climate, flora, and fauna, describing the 

 conditions of health and sanitation, defining the geographic subdivisions, 

 setting forth the resources of the island and the facilities for commerce 

 and transportation, analyzing the population, describing the cities, and 

 discussing the future of the island. These chapters are based chiefly on 

 first-hand knowledge, supplemented by historical and statistical research ; 

 they give a remarkably clear picture of the Pearl of the Antilles and her 

 people, and bear inherent evidence of fair and dispassionate judgment. 

 In discussing health and sanitation, the author departs from his custo- 

 mary impersonal treatment long enough to offer suggestions which every 

 tropical traveler would do well to note. '* Three rules I have followed in- 

 variably: first, to adapt my habits of dress, food, and hours of work and 

 rest to those of the people of the country ; secondly, never in any circum- 

 stances to drink a drop of native water where it could possibly be avoided, 

 and if so always to boil it. For this purpose I have always carried an al- 

 cohol-lamp and a tin canteen, in which, when boiled water could not other- 

 wise be obtained, I could myself attend to the matter. Twice when, in 

 desperation after tedious exercises,- I yielded to the temptation of drink- 

 ing the native water unboiled, the results were almost fatal. The third 

 rule has been never to linger around the densely crowded and unsanitary 

 areas of cities, and always to choose a room facing on the street" (page 

 60). He also advises against miscellaneous eating of fruits. The chap- 

 ters on the people of Cuba and the future of the island are warmed by 

 appreciation of a kindly and hospitable folk who, despite languorous 

 antecedents and enervating climate, have struggled long and shed their 

 blood freely for civil liberty. Chapters fifteen to nineteen are 



devoted to the island of Puerto Rico, and present a clear picture of this 

 newly acquired insular territory of the United States; then follow three 

 chapters on Jamaica, the well-ordered island, justly considered a model 

 British colony. The lively paragraphs, enriched by well-chosen incident, 

 indicate that while the colony. is indeed British, the white Anglo-Saxon 

 nucleus about which the darker plasma flows is very small, and, albeit 

 effective in governmental control, of only moderate influence in shaping 

 the current thought of the prevailing population. ' ' The Jamaica negroes 

 are sui generis; nothing like them, even of their own race, can elsewhere 

 be found — not even elsewhere in the West Indies" (page 227). The 

 twenty-third chapter , describes the much-named island of Santo Do- 

 mingo—the designation preferred by the author if the old name " His- 

 paniola" must be abandoned; and a chapter is devoted to each of 

 the two republics planted on the island. The central body of the Antil- 

 lean group, this island is the most striking of all in its culminating alti- 

 tude, in topographic diversity as well as in natural picturesqueness, and 

 even more interesting in historical associations ; the site of the first Euro- 

 pean colony in the New World, the place of introduction of African sla- 

 very into America, the field of frequent battle and reeking bloodshed, 

 the scene of the dark tragedy of Toussaint l'Ouverture and site of the 

 Black Republic, this miniature continent has played a leading role in the 



