206 JOB OS HARBOR 



dozen great leaps they have sprung forward, at once in territorial 

 growth and strength of character and breadth of intelligence, 

 outpassing their fellows of older nations ; at every step they have 

 borne the Strong Mail's burden — and few among them today 

 would willingly cast it off. 



JOBOS HARBOR 



Mr Robert T. Hill's allusion to the rediscovery of Puerto Rico 

 by the Americans is a witty characterization of our'ignorance of 

 that lovely island. Among other rediscoveries made there, is 

 that of the harbor of Jobos, for as long as 30 years ajro Wappans, 

 in Stein's " Handbuch der Geographie," said that ''especially 

 Jobos might be made a seaport of great importance." The 

 Spaniards, however, never charted it. Perhaps that is why the 

 American troops did not land there. Be that as it may, it did 

 not escape the keen observation of Captain Whitney, the young 

 army officer who risked his neck in traveling through the length 

 and breadth of Puerto Rico at the outbreak of the war in hum- 

 ble disguise, and who reported on the possibilities of the place. 

 Later on General Roy Stone brought to Washington a sketch of 

 the harbor, showing a few soundings, and finally the U. S. Coast 

 and Geodetic Survey undertook the mapping and charting of the 

 locality, and the preliminary survey at this date has probably 

 been completed by Mr Hodgkins, commanding the Blake. 



The western entrance to the harbor is about 25 miles east of 

 Ponce. The harbor itself is formed by a line of low wooded 

 coral reefs, between which and the mainland there is a perfectly 

 sheltered narrow sound with ample depth for vessels of moderate 

 draft. Vessels of the deepest draft can enter through the west- 

 ern entrance, but our present knowledge leaves us in doubt as 

 to the width of the channel inside, and not until the Blake's 

 work has been received will the actual value of the harbor be 

 known. A second entrance, four miles to the eastward, bears 

 the suggestive name of Boca de Infierno, and carries but 12 feet 

 of water. From this entrance the sound runs about two miles 

 north and then two or three miles to the eastward, forming a 

 bight in which the water is decidedly shoaler than in the west- 

 ern part. 0. H. Tittmann. 



