22 



Humboldt's cttba. 



Atlantic and the Pacific States. The other passage 

 is the narrow channel between the eastern end of St. 

 Domingo and the island of Porto Rico, and is 

 under the immediate control of the powers holding 

 those two islands, being commanded by the bay of 

 Samana, in St. Domingo, and the harbors in the 

 Spanish island of Porto Rico. 



Of the territory comprised in this long extent of 

 country, Cuba, being one-half, and Porto Rico, one- 

 tenth, belong to Spain, the government of which can 

 barely be said to be an independent power; while 

 St. Domingo, comprising about one-third, is held by 

 the negro dynasty of Hayti and the mongrel govern- 

 ment of Dominica, neither of which has a self-ruled 

 policy. Jamaica, in possession of Great Britain, 

 laps the contiguous extremities of the two greater 

 islands. Cuba alone, of the Antilles, possesses suffi- 

 cient territorial power to keep these passages open 

 to our commerce, and to guarantee their safety. 

 These territorial relations of that island, possessing as 

 they do an important bearing upon all the neighboring 

 countries, and conferring a moral power upon the gov- 

 ernment that holds it, are the subject of solicitude to 

 the governments of Western Europe, and seem wor- 

 thy of the watchful care of the statesmen of America. 



II. The political relations of Cuba, strictly speak- 

 ing, are those of the crown of Spain, to which it is 



