3 wi~ , /A vv\ ^ r; jflap Calfe on i^liggions in ^orto KMco a n ti Cuba By MRS. CHARLES L. THOMPSON — ^ j - r: Literature Department of the Woman^s Board of Home Missions of the Presbyterian Church, f56 Fifth Avenue, New York City Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2017 with funding from Columbia University Libraries https://archive.org/details/maptalkonmissionOOthom PORTO RICO It was in November, 1493, on his second voyage, that Columbus discovered Porto Rico. The first mention of it is in a letter addressed to the Chapter of Se- ville by Dr. Chanca, a physician to the fieet of Colum- bus. “We discovered another island called Buren- quen, which we judged to be thirty leagues in length, for we were coasting along it the whole of one day. This island is very beautiful and apparently fertile. Hither the Caribbees come with the view of subduing the inhabitants, and often carry away many of the people. These islanders have no boats, nor any knowl- edge of navigation.’' Porto Rico was thickly populated at the time of its discovery with a quiet, docile race. In common with the other Indians of the West Indies they compressed the head artificially in infancy, rendering the skull very hard, and it is said to have required practice and skill on the part of the Spanish soldiers to crack open the head of an aborigine without injuring his good sword. None of the Indians wore clothing, but they painted themselves elaborately, and as late as 1853, Humboldt says, “To go out of the hut without being painted would be to transgress all rules of Carib decency.” The friendship with which the Indians of the more northern islands greeted the Christian voyagers was sadly abused. The white races have never felt that any man could read his title clear to land, if he were unable to prove his claim by superior physi- cal force. In this case, as with the Indians of North America, and the negroes of Africa, the title could not be proved, and the Spaniards entered into posses- sion. Columbus, while depriving the natives of their terrestrial titles, took pains to explain that they mere- ly exchanged them for titles celestial. He writes : “In all the countries visited by your Highnesses’ ships I have caused a high cross to be fixed upon every headland, and, have proclaimed to every nation that I have discovered, the lofty estate of your Highnesses and of your Court in Spain. I also tell them all I can respecting our holy faith, and of the belief in the holy Mother Church, which has its members in all the world, and I speak to them also of the courtesy and nobleness of all Christians, and of the faith they have in the Holy Trinity.” The first white settlement on Porto Rico was made by Ponce de Leon, who came to the island in 1508 and founded his capital the following year on the north shore, calling the place Caparra. In the same year, however, he began to build San Juan, to which town he shortly moved. The discovery of gold in Hayti created a demand for labor and the natives were caught and shipped to the mines, there to be beaten and worked and starved until they died. There were always more to take the places of the dead, and it did not pay to consider complaints. After the passing of the native came the introduction of African slavery though never in large proportions till the nineteenth century. Although there was no mineral wealth in Porto Rico, its tropical beauties attracted the cupidity of other nations, and in 1538 France invaded the island. The English tried it six times in all. The Dutch took a hand in 1625, and our own Admiral Porter, in his successful raids on the West Indian pirates, could not resist the temptation in 1824. Seventy-four years later. Admiral Sampson fired a few shots which injured a church and El Morro, and departed, leaving 4 the island in peace till the arrival of General Miles. In 1815 was issued a royal decree entitled “Regula- tions for promoting the Population, Commerce, In- dustry and Agriculture, of the Island of Porto Rico.” This decree held out the most flattering prospects to worthy foreigners, conferring on them the rights and privileges of Spaniards. Free land was granted, and freedom from taxes. For flfteen years they were relieved from tithes and exportation duties. That this was a wise and enlightened policy has been proved by the fact that the period of Porto Rico’s prosperity dates from that time, its population and wealth hav- ing increased in greater measure than in any other of the West Indian islands. In 1873, slavery was abolished, and thirty-four thou- sand negroes were given their freedom. After five years they were granted the franchised The indemni- fication of the masters was appropriated from the Porto Rican budget. In 1870 Porto Rico was made a province of Spain, with representation in the Cortes, elected by universal suffrage. In 1897 autonomy was granted. By it the island had a Premier and a House of Representatives. This form of government was not fully tried, for in 1898 the flag of the United States was raised over Porto Rico and she was declared to he part of the territory of our Union. RESOURCES. PoETO Rico is not a large country, being in fact but one-half the size of New Jersey, or about one hundred miles long and forty miles wide, mountainous in the center, with a flat rim around its sea coast. These fertile plains around the island’s edge are planted with sugar and produce eighty thousand tons of sugar annually. 5 Coffee is raised on the mountains and highlands, and is of a good quality. When we consider that the coffee bill of the United States amounts to over eighty-seven millions of dollars a year, it seems some- what unfortunate that we should pass by Porto Rico in our search for the so-called Mocha which comes from the highlands of Brazil. The fruit culture of the island has not been well developed. Oranges are abundant in a semi-wild state. Bananas are the most prolific crop, with half a dozen varieties, from datalies to plantains. Porto Rico is said to ship annually two hundred millions of bananas. Tobacco is one of the smaller crops. Cattle-raising is profitable, owing to the abundance of pasturage. Besides these industries, which represent the main wealth of the island, there are a few smaller ones, among which are the various forms of weaving in straw and inlaid work in woods. Woman’s work is clearly defined; it is needle-work. A few there are who teach, but very few, and the beautiful embroider- ies and fine drawn- work which are shown to the ad- miring guest speak of many hours passed with needle and scissors. The population of the island is about eight hundred thousand, and forty per cent, of these are of colored blood. The Spanish and their descendants are, of course, in the majority among the whites. Many of them are wealthy and maintain the pride of their estate with all the dignity of Spanish grandees. THE TRIP TO PORTO RICO. When we leave the harbor of New York we sail for fourteen hundred miles to the southeast, and so 6 come to San Juan, the capital. No frost ever touches this beautiful tropical island ; summer and winter the temperature is very much the same; the humidity is great, however. On the northern coast the annual rainfall is about 120 inches, and at night, especially in the mountains, everything is drenched with heavy dews. On the southern coast conditions are different, and the dry season there frequently lasts for two or three months. The harbors of Porto Rico are inferior to those of Cuba : on the other hand, the highways are somewhat better. The most famous of these is the military road which crosses the island from San Juan to Ponce, a distance of eighty-five miles. It is one of the best highways in the western hemisphere, climbing the mountains with easy grades and beautiful curves to a height of twenty-five hundred feet, then dropping to the level plains of the southern coast. The scenery on this long drive is of great beauty. As it climbs higher into the mountains the cocoa palm is replaced by the royal palm, with its gray shaft, like a granite column, and its plume-like crown of verdure. Coffee plantations creep to the very crown of the mountains. Men and women are dotted over the val- leys working in the tobacco fields. The fiamboyan tree with its foliage like a sensitive plant, and its brilliant Vermillion fiowers, shades the road. Groves of banana trees with their gigantic, glossy leaves, and the single red blossom pendant at the end of the bunch of fruit accentuate the tropical note. Oranges^ fall on the roadside. The bread-tree with its many- fingered leaves stands ready with its fruit. The thatched huts of the peon fit easily into the land- scape. As we look we see a man ploughing with a pointed stick in good Biblical style. His primitive 7 machine answers the purpose very well in the rich, moist soil around us. The beauty of a tropical scene has been well de- scribed by Dr. E. Rufz, a native of Martinique : “The sea, the sea alone, because it is the most colossal of earthly spectacles — only the sea can afford us a term of comparison for the attempt to describe a great forest, but even then one must imagine the sea on a day of storm, suddenly immobilized in the expression of its mightiest fury. For the summits of these vast woods repeat all the inequalities of the land they cover ; and these inequalities are mountains from forty-two hundred to forty-eight hundred feet in height, and valleys of corresponding profundity. All this is hidden, blended together, smoothed over by verdure, in soft and enormous undulations — immense billowings of foliage. Only, instead of a blue line at the horizon, you have a green line ; instead of flashings of blue, you have flashings of green — and in all the tints, in all the combinations of which green is cap- able : deep green, light green, yellow green, black green.” MISSION STATIONS. San Juan, our landing place, gives also our flrst view of mission work. The Board of Home Missions has here three organized churches. In San Juan proper there is an English church where work is car- ried on amongst the Americans, civilians and soldiers. This work is in a rented room. There is also a Span- ish church which is ministered to by the pastor of the church at Santurce. This work is also in a rented building. At Santurce, a suburb of San Juan, the Board has a beautiful church, built in a somewhat 8 Spanish style of architecture. This was the first Presbyterian church in Porto Rico, and was built in 1900 by our first missionary in San Juan. It has been- well filled from its beginning, and is growing constantly. In addition to these churches in the city, our mis- sionary and his three native helpers go from week to week to various out-stations, ten to fifteen miles from San Juan, where they preach and teach many more than come to our churches in the city itself. These stations are at Melilla, Alto del Cabro, Machuchal, Gandul, Zebrurnco, Cangrejo Arriba, Toa Alto, Naran- jito, Corozal. In the two last named, we have organ- ized churches. Supplementary to this evangelistic work our Wo- man’s Board conducts a school in San Juan, principal- ly among the poor. It has two efficient teachers. Last and by no means least is the San Juan Hospital, with its far-reaching and beneficent work. The hospital has been built on the cottage system, and consists now of four buildings, dispensary, administration building, the wards, and Training Home for Nurses. There are two resident physicians in charge of the hospital. The staff of the training school consists of a head nurse and a number of native assistants who are taking the regular course in nursing. Isabela, about fifty miles west of San Juan, is our next station. We travel by train to Camuy, where we take a carriage for the remaining twelve or fifteen miles. We have a church building here, and a well-organized work. Our missionaries endeavor to be most thorough in indoctrinating their converts, and every effort is made to make them thoroughly intelligent regarding the Protestant faith. Besides the ordained minister at Isabela we have also 9 a native Bible reader whose chief work lies in house- to-house visitation. The out-stations are Quebradillas, with an organized church, Jabos, Guerrero, and La Marino. Aguadilla. a drive of about ten miles brings us to this beautiful town, stretching away for a mile or more along the sea coast, and still supplied with water by the same fountain from which Columbus watered bis ships. Here we find a beautiful church building, with a fiourishing church of nearly four hundred mem- bers. This church was on the honor roll of the Pres- byterian churches in the United States for the num- ber of members added during the year. The missionary and his native helpers preach from time to time in many out-stations : Aguada, La Carcel, Espinal, Palmas, Victoria, Voladora, Guayobo, Piedra Blanca, Corrales, Moca and Malesa Alta. We have organized churches in the last two towns, with a good chapel building in Malesa Alta. Aguadilla is also headquarters for a medical work of great usefulness. We have a dispensary in a rented building in the town, and the physician visits the out-stations on stated days, giving medical aid to many who receive no other care. Our school is a flour- ishing one, with three teachers in charge. The classes are full and as far as possible the school is graded. San Sebastian is reached by going back into the mountains for sixteen miles. Here a church is in the process of building. Our missionary, like all the others on the island, goes on horseback to the nearby towns. His out-stations are Las Marias, where we have also a Bible reader, Hoya Mala, Goacio, with a chapel building, and — Lares, high up in the mountains. Here we have an 10 organized church in a rented building and a school conducted by two teachers. Part way by carriage and part by train we come to Anasco, with its organized church, held in a rented building. The school has two teachers. Mayaguez, we reach by train. It is an at- tractive town of about twenty thousand inhabi- tants, with the sea at its feet and the mountains rising beautifully green behind it. It was here that the first missionary of our Board was sent in June, 1899, and time has strengthened the work, which is now large and well established. Our church is in a beautiful building, and all its services are well at- tended. There is also a dispensary, and the resi- dent physician cares for the poor not only of Maya- guez, but of the neighboring towns as well. He and the missionary, with the native helpers, are kept busy with the many out-stations, most of which must be visited on horseback. They are Playa North, Playa Central, where we have a chapel, Mayaguez East (all in the city) ; Balboa, Santo Domingo, La Cuesta, Guanajibo, Hormigueros, Maricao, Salispuedes, Al- garrobo. Two of the native helpers here are con- verted priests, men of fine education, who are doing a great work amongst their people. Our schools are full, the one at the Playa — down by the shipping quarter — is among the poorer classes, whilst the school in the centre of the town draws its pupils rather from the well-to-do classes. It is called the Collegio Americano. Boys are admitted to the lower grades until they are ten years of age. It is not usual in those southern countries to have co-education, and it has been found best to con- form to the Spanish custom. Girls are given a good 11 education and the graduates are taken as far as the first high school grade. We have six teachers in this school. One of them, a native Porto Rican, gives instruction in the Spanish classics. As in all our schools, the Bible is in daily use. From Mayaguez we travel by train to San German, where we have an organized church for which a building is being erected. The missionary and his native helpers serve organized churches in the following neighboring towns : Sabana Grande, La Pica, Cabo Rojo and Lajas, besides preaching at Santa Rosa and Ancones. We have now gone the rounds of our work in Porto Rico. It will be seen that, aside from work in the capital all our stations are in the western part of the island. This is the result of the comity agreement between the different denominations working in the island at the close of the war. It was agreed by the secretaries of the various Boards that the island should be districted. The portion for which we as a Presbyterian Church are responsible is the western coast. It will be helpful and interesting to look briefiy at the good work now being done by the other denominations. The Baptists, working in the neighborhood of the Military Road, from San Juan to Ponce, have thirty- five stations, four men and six women missionaries ; twenty-one organized churches with fifteen hundred members, and one school. The Congregatioiialists, in the eastern part of the island, have twenty-seven stations with eleven mission- aries, including teachers ; seven native helpers, five organized churches, five hundred and fifty members, and one day school. 12 The Methodist Church, working largely to the west of the Military Road, has ninety-one stations with twelve missionaries, and eighteen native helpers. They have seventeen organized churches with twenty- five hundred members. The Protestant Episcopal Church has ten stations, four clergymen and five women missionaries; three organized churches with nearly five hundred members, and three day schools. The United Brethren have a work in the southern part of the island. They have ten organized churches and four missionaries with three hundred and fifty members. It is the hope of several of these denominations soon to found a Union Bible Training School, where the Bible and the fundamental doctrines of evangelical truth shall be taught, together with methods of church work. The faculty shall consist of one member of each of the co-operating denominations. This will declare to the Porto Ricans the essential unity of Protestantism. 13 CUBA Much of the early history of Porto Rico is dupli- cated in Cuba. It was discovered by Columbus in 1492. He named it Juana, in honor of Prince Juan, son of Ferdinand and Isabella. After the death of Ferdinand the name was changed to Fernandina. Later it was called Santiago, and again Ave Maria. Cuba is said to be the name given to it by its native inhabitants. Columbus visited the island on two later trips, in 1494 and 1502. In 1508, it was circum- navigated and proved to be an island, and in 1511 Diego Columbus, the son of the discoverer, fitted out an expedition for its colonization. In 1514 Santiago and Trinidad were settled. Havana was founded in 1519. At the time of its discovery Cuba is supposed to have had a population of about three hundred thou- sand. At the end of the century few of these sur- vived. The same severe and bloody tactics which de- populated Porto Rico were employed in Cuba, and with the same results. After 1580 negro slaves were imported in large numbers to work in the cultivation of tobacco and sugar, both of which industries became active at that time. The early history of Cuba was not peaceful. The French, English and Dutch all attacked its shores. In 1762, after an invasion by the British, about one-fourth of the island was sur- rendered to the English, but it was restored to Spain by treaty a few months later. After this time Cuba entered upon a period of prosperity which continued for many years. In 1825 King Ferdinand issued a decree which gave the captain-generals almost abso- lute authority over the island. These officers were not natives of Cuba, and many of them used the office 14 solely as a means of acquiring a fortune. The people of Cuba were excluded from ofiSce, heavily taxed to support a standing army, and deprived of civil and religious liberty. As a result the native population was filled with a bitter hatred of the Spanish officers. In 1868, after a series of insurrections, a rebellion broke out which lasted for ten years. Spain sent more than 150,000 soldiers to quell this revolt, but in the end was obliged to offer favorable terms to the insurrectionists. The promised reforms, however, were not realized; taxa- ation continued as heavy, officials were as corrupt and restrictions on commerce were as severe as before the rebellion, and the natural result was a fresh out- break of hostilities. This occurred in February, 1895. For three years Spain sought in vain to suppress the trouble, sending 200,000 men to the island, and using measures whose barbarity filled the world with horror. Under Captain-General Weyler the country people were driven from their homes, their houses and crops destroyed, and it is estimated that more than 200,000 of them died of disease and starvation. President Palma said of that time, “Only in the United States was there sympathy for the oppressed and the outraged.’’ Money and provisions were sent to feed the starving, and a strong sentiment in favor of warlike aid arose. This sentiment crystallized when the battle-ship Maine was blown up in the Ha- vana harbor, in February, 1898, and on April 21st war was declared between the United States and Spain. Within four months war was at an end and Cuba was free. By the terms of the peace protocol, Spain agreed to remove her forces from Cuba, and this was done on the first of January, 1899. On that day the 15 United States entered into a temporary military occu- pation of the island until a stable government should be established by the Cubans. This was accomplished in 1902, when a republic was constituted and Palma was inaugurated as president. PHYSICAL CONDITIONS. Cuba is the most western and the largest of the Great Antilles. Because of its beauty and fertility, Columbus first gave it the title of the Pearl of the Antilles. “It has but a small proportion of untillable declivities and rocky areas, such as are found in New England; no barren fields of volcanic lava, such as occur in the Central American lands ; no arid areas like those which make up so large a proportion of Mexico and the western half of the United States ; no stretches of sterile, sandy lands, like those of Florida and other coastal Southern States. Its pro- portion of swamp lands is less than that of the average American seaboard State. The whole island is covered with rich soils — ^^fertile calcareous loams — which under constant humidity yield in abundance every form of useful vegetation of the tropical and temperate climes.” Its area, including the adjacent islands, is about 45,000 square miles, or slightly less than that of New York State. It is nearly seven times as long as Long Island, and stretches between the longitudes of New York and Cincinnati, about 720 miles. It is less than one hundred miles wide. Its sea-coast is very ex- tensive. With all its indentations and including its bordering islets — about thirteen hundred in number — it is over 6,800 miles. There are fifty-four ports, only fifteen of which have heretofore been open to the com- merce of the world. The light-houses along the coast 16 are very few, and many of the harbors greatly need improving. Cuba has a backbone of highlands, which in the province of Santiago becomes a mountain range of bold proportions, culminating in the Pico del Tur- quino, which rises very abruptly from the sea to a height of about 8,500 feet. Cuba is famous for its beautiful and fertile valleys, many of which are wide plains watered by rivers and streams on their way to the sea. One of the most beautiful is the peculiar circular basin west of Matanzas, called the valley of the Yumuri. “This comparatively level depression is some five or six miles in diameter, and dotted with pictui^esque estates and long avenues of royal palms. Through its center winds the beautiful Yumuri River, which finds an outlet at Matanzas through the verti- cal walls of an exquisite canon. It is enclosed on all sides by steeply sloping walls rising some five or six hundred feet to the level of a plateau out of which the valley has been cut. It has been truly said that it is impossible to describe the charm of this ‘Happy Valley,' so rich in its vegetation, and so delightfully is it watered by the river Yumuri and tributary streams : so delicious, even on the hottest summer days is its atmosphere, tempered by the Atlantic breezes.” There are many streams on the island, two hundred of them rising to the dignity of being called rivers. The largest of these is the Cauto, about one hundred and fifty miles long. One peculiarity of the water courses is that many of the streams sink into the earth and follow subterranean passages, sometimes never reappearing. The caverns of the country are very beautiful in snow-like whiteness and delicacy of the stalactite and stalagmite forms. 17 Much of the island of Cuba is still covered with an uncleared forest of tropical luxuriance. Many of the finest woods of commerce are to be found there. The palm, with over thirty species, is everywhere present. RESOURCES. Three hundred years of cultivation have extermin- ated the forests from the valleys of the center and west of the island, and vast fields of sugar have taken their place. Many of the estates embrace sev- eral thousand acres, and the superior methods of handling cane and extracting the juice have made the cultivation of cane-sugar profitable in spite of the competition of beet-sugar, which has so impoverished many of the other islands of the West Indies. Cuba produces over one million tons of cane-sugar — twice as much as Java, the next largest cane-sugar country of the world. Tobacco is secondary to sugar as to the area under cultivation, but is more profitable in proportion to the acreage. It is said that with care three thousand dollars worth of tobacco may be raised on a single acre. About eighty thousand persons are on an aver* age engaged in its cultivation. Coffee at one time was an important crop, but at present it is nearly all consumed locally. Fruit and nuts have been profitable, and can be made increasing- ly so. Vegetables for the northern market are a source of revenue. Along some portions of the coast turtle and sponge fishing are active industries. Cattle- raising is becoming an increasingly profitable indus- try owing to the large area of rich pasture lands. Iron ore has been so far the chief metallic resource of Cuba. Asphaltum is found in a few places, there is 18 also some copper and salt, but the mineral wealth of the island is not great. The means of communication are poor, as aside from a few main highways the roads are in a poor condition. There are about sixteen hundred miles of railway. The principal line runs from Havana to Santiago. Some of the lines connect with private railways built by the planters for convenience in moving their crops. The fact that most of the large towns of Cuba are seaports, taken with the additional fact of the narrowness of the island and the numerous good harbors, has rendered the inhabitants more in- different to the means of travel on land. Many of the ports ;are regularly visited by American, French, and Spanish lines of steamers. Cuba is rather thinly populated considering its great fertility. In 1894 the estimated population was 1,723,000. During the troublous times of the insur- rection with its fatal accompaniments of disease and famine there was a marked decrease. THE PEOPLEjAND THE COUNTRY. Of the Cuban whites, perhaps one-fifth are Spanish. In 1841 it is said that fifty-eight per cent, of the pop- ulation was black, while in 1887 the percentage was but thirty. There are also about thirty thousand coolies who have been gradually imported, principally from China. The population of Cuba was greatly changed at the time of the insurrection. The rural population of the four western provinces was largely obliterated, and the Bishop of Havana is authority for the statement that more than four hundred thou- sand people were buried in consecrated cemeteries. Seventy-five years ago, Humboldt placed Havana with Rio Janiero as one of the five great tropical 19 cities of the world. Havana is 22 degrees north, Rio 22 degrees south of the equator. When Humboldt wrote Havana had a population of one hundred thou- sand, while that of Rio was one hundred and thirty- five thousand. At present the population of Rio is about six hundred thousand, while that of Havana is but two hundred thousand. The uncertain govern- mental conditions in Cuba have doubtless been a large reason for the retarded growth of Havana. San Cristobal de la Habana, to give the full Spanish name to this picturesque old city, is beautifully situ- ated on one of the finest harbors of the world. Its entrance is guarded by several forts, famous for their antiquity. The building material of Havana is a loose- textured conglomerate of sea-shell, of a glaring white color. This is covered with stucco and often brilliant- ly colored. The parks and promenades of the city are many and beautiful. The Prado is a magnificent avenue of unusual width ; the fashionable Parque Central, witn its wealth of trees and fiowers, forms an enlargement of this avenue, and is one of the attrac- tive features of the city. Fronting on it are the best hotels and theatres, while around it extend open-air cafes, brilliantly lighted at night, and as gay as those of Paris. Havana is said to possess 17,259 houses. Of these 15,494 are but one story high, 1,552 are two story buildings, 186 are three stories, while but 27 reach the limit of four stories. The small houses contain no storerooms, pantries or closets, which necessitates the purchase of supplies from day to day. One-fifth of the population of Havana lives within the area once surrounded by the now demolished walls. Some of the old streets are so narrow that signs are placed on their corners signifying “up” or 20 “down,” to indicate that drivers must pass in one di- rection only. Rents all over the city are very high, and Havana is a very expensive place in which to live. The second city and seaport of central Cuba is Matanzas, about sixty miles east of Havana ; its pop- ulation is about fifty thousand. Santiago, in the eastern province, is the center of the mineral region of Cuba. It is one of the most im- portant places on the island from a strategic and po- litical point of view. Its population is about sixty thousand. MISSION STATIONS. Although Cuba does not belong to us in any political sense, its proximity made it seem wise that our mis- sioh work there should be under the management of the Board of Home Missions, just as the remoteness of the Philippines had made it more convenient that its mission work should be conducted by the Board of Foreign Missions. The progress of Protestant missions has been marked; the minds and hearts of the people turn eagerly toward the simple gospel. Especially in the smaller cities is it true that they welcome the Protest- ant missions, and that every place opened for services is filled with worshippers. The writer of a book en- titled “To-morrow in Cuba,” in speaking of the re- ligious situation there, says : “To the mass of the Cuban people, the Church as it remained to them was hateful. It was identified with all that was bad in the buried Spanish domination. If not hostile they were indifferent .... The extent to which the Cuban people have fallen away from the Church is recog- nized by American Catholics. Whether it is a per- manent alienation- must be determined by events 21 The intellectual life of the island has been variously described a 3 agnostic, infidel, and free thinking. A majority of the men call themselves free-thinkers to describe their mental attitude rather toward the Catholic Church than to religion.” To meet these conditions our Protestant missionaries must show great tact and wisdom. One of the most delicate questions since the war has been that of the ceme- teries. Popular resentment was strong against the Church for its monopoly of the burial of the dead, and the utterance of a young Cuban, “Protestantism can- not be bad because they baptize you free, and they bury you free,” gives insight into the feelings of the Cubans as to the externals, at least, of our faith. Havana was chosen as our first mission field, and in October, 1901, our first missionary began work. In January, 1902, the first Presbyterian church was or- ganized, with fifty members. After worshipping for some years in a rented building, a plot of ground, centrally located, has been purchased, and good build- ings are in process of erection. These will provide a church, accommodations for a school, and a manse for the missionary. In countries like Cuba and Porto Rico, where the government has always supported the Church, the people are to a certain extent unfavorably impressed by a religion which is unable to put up a fine church building. They argue that if the people of that re- ligion do not care enough for it to build a suitable church, the religion cannot be worth much. Our missionary in Havana and his assistants preach in four other stations in the city besides the out-station Marinao. The Woman’s Board conducts a school in Havana with two teachers. It also sup- 32 ports a Bible reader, who visits in the homes of the pupils and of the church attendants. Guines was the second station occupied by our church, in January, 1902. It is about thirty-five miles southeast of Havana; the Journey by rail requires two hours, and the fare is more* than a dollar and a half. It is a city of about nine thousand people, and is situated in a beautiful and fertile plain. The church here is a prosperous one. The elders are all Cubans who have been brought into the Protestant faith since our work was founded there. Our school is a flourish- ing one with three teachers. Gamarra and San Nicolas are the out-stations: at the latter place we have also a school under the care of three teachers, two American and one native. Tiiese places are reached by horseback from Guines, for in Cuba, as in Porto Rico, most of the mission- aries’ Journeys are made in that manner. A few miles beyond San Nicolas we have two or- ganized churches, at Nueva Paz and Las Vegas. The missionary and his wife live in the former place. We have there also a school. Sancti Spibitus is a long railway ride of two hun- dred miles east from Havana. It is situated about twenty-four miles from the coast, and in the province of Santa Clara ; a rich agricultural district. It has a population of about twelve thousand people. It boasts the oldest Roman Catholic church on the is- land, dating back to 1604. In May, 1902, our mission work began there, and for several years it has been held in a building which was formerly a Jesuit col- lege. This building has recently been sold, and as there is none other which is suitable for the church and school, the Boards are compelled to build one. Our missionary there serves also four out-stations. 23 The school is one of the largest we have in Cuba, and is conducted by two American and two native teach- ers, Coming back to Havana, we proceed westward on the line of the railway and find the station of Candelaria. In addition To an organized church there we have one at Guira and one at Bejucal, be- sides stations at San Cristobal, Artemisa and Alqui- zar. Two missionaries supply this group of stations. Work has also been begun at Bahia Honda, a fertile sugar region on the coast west of Havana. Having thus gone over the work which our own Boards are doing, we will look briefly at the work of the other denominations. The Congregationalists have seven stations, three American missionaries, three native helpers, six or- ganized churches and seven hundred church members. The Southern Methodists have twenty-four men and women, flfteen native helpers, twenty-seven organized churches, one thousand nine hundred and twenty- eight church members. They have also three schools with an approximate attendance of seven hundred. The Baptists have forty-eight stations, nine mis- sionaries, including some ladies ; ten native helpers, fourteen organized churches, eleven hundred mem- bers, one school and fifty pupils. The Episcopal Church has eighteen stations, six missionaries, fourteen native helpers, four organized churches, four hundred and flfty members, besides flve schools with four hundred pupils. The work in both Cuba and Porto Rico has Just begun. The islands wait. There is great need for men and means. There is no work which brings such large returns as the work for the saving of men — physically, mentally and spiritually. There is no way in which money goes so far as when spent in the uplifting of human souls. No. 352.— 1st Ed.— 4, 1906. Price five cents per copy, $4.50 per 100. THE WILUETT PRESS, N. Y.