2G6 
OAWAL or GUIKES. 
of the co^e tree) which furnishes an exportation of the 
a half of piastres. Industry, 
+ 1 mi mass of knowledge, has been better 
• ' 1 system ot taxation that weighed on national 
industry and exterior commerce, has been made lighter since 
1 /yi, and been improved by successive changes. Whenever 
““®*®hing her own interests, has at- 
irisPii'^Tinf retrograde step, courageous voices have 
the Sn.u?V"Y Havaneros, but often among 
Inmni ^ f of the freedom of America^ 
ea^tarb +1,'^ has recently been opened for 
c.ipital, by the enlightened zeal and patriotic views of the 
intendaut Don Claudio Martinez de Pinillos, and the com- 
merce of entrepot has been granted to the Havannah, on the 
most advantageous conditions. 
The diificult and expensive interior communications of the 
island render its own productions dearer at the ports, not- 
withstanding the short distance between the northern and 
southern coasts. A project of canalization, which unites the 
double advantage of conueetingthe Havannah and Batabano 
by a navigable hue, and diminishing the high price of the 
transport of native produce, merits Lre a special mention. 
The idea of the Canal of Guines had been coneeivedfor more 
than half a century, with the view of furnishing timber at a 
more moderate price for ship-building in the arsenal of the 
Havannah. In 1796, the Count de Jaruco y Mopox, an 
enterprising man, yiho had acquired groat influence by his 
connection with the Prince ofthe Peace, undertook to revive 
this project. The survey was made in 1798, by two very 
able engineers, Don Prancisco and Don Pellx Lemaur. 
ihese ofiicers ascertained that the canal in its whole develop- 
ment, would bo nineteen leagues long (5000 vai-as or 4150 
metres),thatthepomtofpartitionwouldbeatthe Taverna . 
el Mey, and that it would require nineteen locks on the ' 
north, and tw^ty-one on the south. The distance from the 
Havannah to Batabano is only eight and a half sea-leagues. ‘ 
I he canal of Guines would be very useful for the trans- 
port of agricultural productions by steam-boats * because its 
tl * from Havannah to Matanzas, and from 
granted to Don Juan O’FarriU 
(March 24th, 1819), a privilege on the iarcot de vapor. 
