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1911

YALE UNIVERSITY LIBRAflY,
MEW HAVEN, CONN,

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Americans and Natives at the Well

I would then venture to predict that the beauteous
and salubrious Isle of Pines would very shortly acquire
the renown she merits, heretofore withheld on account
of her position, retired among marine keys, unknown,
it may be said, to individuals capable of appreciating
her advantages ; while the absurd idea of vulgar per
sons would be exploded, and the Isle would no longer
be reputed a mere haunt of wreckers, pirates and mal
efactors, a hateful mansion of ferocious crocodiles and
intolerable insects, and in fine, a place of transporta
tion for the punishment of convicts. — Dr. Jose de la
Luz Hernandez, Memoir on the Salubrity of the Isle
of Pines, 1857.

Copyright, 1910,
By Wark and Wright

V-g I HIS book was written in 1 908 as a report by the undersigned in capa-
^*f city as Special Agent of the Department of Agriculture (Havana),
under the Provisional Administration of Cuba. The manuscript was deliv
ered to the Secretary of that Department, Dr. Francisco I. de Vildosola,
and by him approved ; it was submitted in due course to Provisional Gov
ernor Charles E. Magoon, and by him approved for publication, contract
for which work was then let by competent authority. There occurred a
delay in delivery of the printed work which occasioned the cancelling of
the contract with the printer on the very last day of the existence of the
Provisional Administration. Its successor does not find it compatible with
policies at present cherished in Cuba to issue any descriptive literature of a
nature nor in a language likely to attract to any section of its jurisdiction,
least of all, to the Isle of Pines, more American, or other English-speaking,
settlers. Therefore private enterprise has supplied the encouragement and the
cash, in exchange for advertising, needed for the publication of this volume.
Because two years had elapsed since it was written the manuscript as
originally prepared for the government had to be revised in accordance
with the Isle's extraordinary growth in that period. To make sure that in
the process of this revision no error was committed, the complete manuscript
of the book was submitted to the Central Committee of the Isle's various
business organizations, on which committee serve representatives from every
section. Before it went to the printer, finally, it was made to conform to
their view as expressed by the majority. There is, then, in this book noth
ing which the most representative body of citizens resident on the Isle of
Pines considers either exaggerated or belittling, or anything else than fair
and accurate. The illustrations are made from actual photographs taken on the Isle
of Pines, and they are correctly labelled.
We think this volume needs no further commendation to all readers
desirous of knowing the Isle of Pines as it really is.
THE AUTHOR.
Havana, August, 1910.

[p~f TABLE OF C0NTENTS2r~jjJ

Geography and Geology
Flora and Fauna
History of the Isle
The Towns
The Americanization >
Isle
The Isle as It Is
Citrus Fruit Culture
Variety of Products
Provisions Dwellings Implements and Animals
Labor Transportation
The Neighbors and the Home
Salubrity of the Climate
BibliographyAdvertisements Index

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ISLE OF
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ISLE OF PINES

" When the Admiral (Christopher Columbus) was setting out on his second
voyage (1493), with seventeen ships, the King and the Queen (of Spain) charged
him particularly that as soon as he possibly could he should continue his dis
coveries, especially of Cuba, which at that time was supposed to be the continent ;
he was ordered to discover as much more mainland and as many islands as he
could, in order to forestall the King of Portugal . . . . '
"Coasting along the (south) coast (of Cuba), he met with continuous and
heavy rain storms, with thunder and lightning. At the same time he came on
many shoals and was in continual fear of going aground ....
"Finally he determined to return to Hayti .... To provide himself with
water and what he might of food, he put in (June, 1494) at an island some
thirty leagues in circumference, which he had named the Evangelist ....
"This Isle of the Evangelist was the same, I think, which we called, later,
and still call, the Isle of Pines." — Fray Bartolome de las Casas, Historia de las
Indias, I., xcv., xcvi.

The Isle of Pines is situated between longitude S2° 24' and 83° 14' west, and
latitude 21° 28' 15", 21° 58' north. It is some fifty miles directly south of Cuba at
that island's narrowest part. The surrounding waters are the Caribbean Sea,
pleasant as an inland lake, and still variegated in color as they were in that June
of long ago when the First Admiral's inexperienced sailors grew alarmed to see
an ocean now green, now white, and again dark as though ink had been spilled
into it. (1)
An elevation of less than 50 feet would establish land connection between Cuba
and the Isle of Pines, and doubtless this was the condition prevailing ages ago,
(1) Las Casas, Historia de las Indias, I., xcvi.

ISLE OF PINES

but, far back in eras only geologists know by name, the smaller Isle "cut loose,"
— in other words, "there appears to have been no connection between the forces
which produced the metamorphism in the older rocks in the two islands, for the
structural axes in the Isle of Pines are almost exactly at right angles to those in
Pinar del Rio, the nearest part of Cuba." (1)
The area of the Isle of Pines is estimated at 900,000 acres. (2)
Two indentations, slightly nearer its southern than its northern coast, the
one on the east being Boca de Cienaga (Swamp's Mouth) and the one on the west
Ensenada de Siguanea (Siguanea Bay) are united by a broad swamp (Cienaga de
Lanier) fourteen miles long and from one to three miles wide. This marsh divides
the Isle into two. Only a very narrow strip of coral rock, submerged ten months
in the year, joins the component sections. (3)
The southern portion, containing some 300,000 acres of the Isle's entire area
(4), is locally designated as "The South Coast." It is a wilderness. There nature
set the stage for dramas of piracy and smuggling. Legend has it that the South
Coast is the shore of the real "Treasure Island."
The South Coast
Approached from the seaward, or south, this coast is a ledge of rock running
parallel with a sandy beach which varies from no width to a mile or more. In some
parts the ledge is missing for a considerable distance ; but the general character of
the coast is a combination of cliff and sand. Channels lead through the ledge here
and there, into small bays or coves. Some of them are protected from the full force
of the sea by coral reefs awash, past which, in best of weather, only experienced
pilots who know those rocks and shoals dare bring the light draught schooners enter
ing to load hard wood, particularly tobacco poles. These find ready sale in neighbor
ing ports of Cuba proper, especially those of Pinar del Rio province. (5)
A dim trail, parallel to the coast line, leads through the jungle there. It is
impassable for animals and difficult for man. In the interior, where great mahogany
and cedar trees grow in scant, rich soil among jagged rocks, the timber-cutters have
made a few short, fairly good roads, from camp to camp and thence to ports.
The people, — some eighty families, — who live in the weather-grey huts clus
tered into the few towns (so-called) on the seaward shore of the South Coast are,
for the most part, caimaneros, — mulatto and black natives of British islets some
hundred and fifty miles still further south. They speak English. There is one
settlement almost entirely Cuban.
Two-thirds of the South Coast is owned by Americans; the local representa
tive of their interests is a Dane. There are Americans in charge of the timber-cut
ters' camp.
The timber on this South Coast — hard woods of highly prized varieties —
would be of great value could some practical, cheap method be carried out to cut
and forward it to market. (6) The Isle Proper
The topography of the northern half of the Isle of Pines, — 600,000 acres con
stituting the Isle proper, — is simple. It consists essentially of a plain, now almost
perfectly level, now rolling in undulations that rarely reach thirty feet above the
general elevation of 75 to 125 feet above tide. Along the seashore is a costal fringe
of beach sand and mangrove (7) swamps, varying in width from a few feet to five
miles, and, in elevation, from tide level to ten or fifteen feet above. This fringe is
(1) C. Willard Hayes, T. Wayland Vaughan, and Arthur C. Spencer, Geologists, Report on a
Geological Reconnoissance of Cuba Made under the Direction of General Leonard Wood, Military Gov
ernor, 1901.
(2) G. R. Fortescue, Special Agent Armed Forces, General Report on the Isle of Pines February
1908. (Manuscript). ' ''
(3) Ibid.
(4) Ibid.
(5) G. R. Fortescue, S. A. A. F., Report on the Characteristics and Depths of Sieuanea Rav T=l»
of Pines. 1908. B r>ay> isie
(6) Those who have examined it are of the opinion that the broken rock of the South Coast contains
phosphates valuable as fertilizer.
(7) Mangrove makes the best of charcoal and charcoal burners from Cuba frequent the western
coast of the Isle especially.

ISLE OF PINES

practically continuous about the
Isle, in its northern part, save
where two headlands, — Punta de
Colombo and Punta de la Bibi-
jagua, — project into the sea. (1)
The streams, few of which
deserve the name of rivers, flow
in broad, shallow depressions with
very gentle slopes. Their chan
nels are sharp cut, from 5 to 15
feet in depth. These channels fill
when the streams are in flood;
during the " dry season" (Novem
ber to May approximately) the
flow dwindles. Some of the
smaller streams go dry.
Few, if any, of the streams
have flood plains. They usually
reach tide level some distance
from the coast, and toward the
mouth they are deep. Naviga
tion is usually impeded, however,
by a bar formed of sediment
deposited where their waters meet
the in-beating sea.
Mountains
Rising abruptly from the
general plain of the country are a
few isolated ridges — mountains,
by courtesy. The most import
ant of these are the Sierra de las
Casas and the Sierra de Caballos,
between which the capital town
of Nueva Gerona is sheltered ; Sierra de la Daguilla, in the south-east, and Sierra
de la Canada, in the west. These ridges are entirely due to differential erosion,
being composed of more resisting rocks than those which underlie the surrounding
plains. Their contours vary; some are smooth, while others (those composed of
marble) are rugged, with precipitous slopes. (2)
The height of the Casas mountain, west of Nueva Gerona, is estimated at
945 feet; the height of Caballos, to the east, at 981 (3).
These two ridges (and possibly others in the Isle not yet so carefully examined)
are composed of crystalline marble; they constitute the most important mineral
resource of the Isle.
There are in Caballos beds of fine white statuary marble, and others of inferior
grades, still commercially valuable for interior finishing and outdoor work. The
colors vary from the pure white to dark grey, and in some cases there is a strongly
marked banding. Both the coarse and fine-grained stone appear to be remarkably
free from cracks and flaws ; slabs of any desired dimension could doubtless be ob
tained. There are beds from five to twenty feet in thickness, so that the size of
the blook to be quarried would be limited only by the purpose for which it was
wanted. The conditions for quarrying are exceptionally favorable. No stripping
or other dead work would be required, and the stone could be utilized from the
surface of the quarry. Channelling machinery could be used and the rock worked
in horizontal courses, if desired. (4) Nothing, however, is at present being done.
(1) C. Willard Hayes, T. Wayland Vaughan and Arthur C. Spencer, Geologists, Report on a Geologi
cal Reconnoissance of Cuba Made under the Direction of General Leonard Wood, Military Governor
1901, p. 112.
(2) Ibid., p. 113
(3) G. R. Fortescue, S. A. A. F., Report on the Characteristics and Depths of Siguanea Bay, Isle
of Pines (manuscript) 1908.
(4) C. Willard Hayes, T. Wayland Vaughan and Arthur C. Spencer, Geologists, Report on a
Geological Reconnoissance of Cuba Made under the Direction of General Leonard Wood, Military Gov
ernor, 1901.

A Typical Isle River. (Cayo Bonito)

10

ISLE OF PINES

Among the Casas Mountains
Marble Quarries
In 1834 the French chemist and geologist, M. Chueaux, exploring the West
Indies in search of gold, was attracted to the Isle of Pines by reports that bucca
neers had mines of the desirable metal here. He discovered the composition of
Mount Caballos, and appreciated its value. The ridge is honeycombed with curious
caverns, only partially explored; it is covered with tropical vegetation in interesting
variety, except where, near its western summit, there is a sheer cliff about a hundred
feet in height. As it stood it looked to M. Chueaux better than any pirates' mint.
He abandoned forthwith his search for gold in any other form.

Ruins of the Old Quarry

ISLE OF PINES

11

Near Nueva Gerona
He secured from the Spanish government the privilege of establishing and
operating a quarry ; he obtained a grant of land controlling the Brazo Fuerte stream,
less than a mile in length, which gushes from the Mount itself and runs swiftly to
join the Casas River.
He began work; ox-carts hauled his rough-hewn blocks to waiting schooners.
In leisure moments M. Chueaux planted flowers around his residence at Brazo
Fuerte, and while botanizing he came upon what he took to be a vein of gold-bear
ing quartz. He went to Havana to denounce his claim and died there of yellow
fever. Captain-General O'Donnell's Company
His quarries, his machinery and his tropical garden stood neglected until five
years later, in 1844, Captain-General O'Donnell, governor of Cuba, bought the
place. He formed a company to exploit the property. A great mill was erected
at the quarries; it was equipped with American machinery. Elaborate quarters
were provided for the superintendent — an incompetent man at a high salary ; for
the guards ; and for the prisoners from the Gerona penal settlement, who were to
do the work at a wage of ten cents per diem, payable to their keeper.
A lime kiln was provided to burn the refuse and extensive docks were built in
Colombo Bay.
The first block of marble Captain-General O'Donnell's company cut was wrought
into a baptismal font and presented to the parish church at Nueva Gerona.
Just as business began to move pleasantly the captain-general's opponents in
Spain got that government to impose a tax on sea sand, used in cutting ; and the
company collapsed in 1849.
Some years later Major Sardi, a noted Spanish engineer, acquired Mount Cab
allos, Brazo Fuerte and Colombo Bay. He did not continue work in the marble
quarry; its machinery was left to rust and ruin under the rank over-growth of
tropical vegetation.

12

ISLE OF PINES

Brazo Fuerte
Instead, he made bricks and tiles. The terraces in the vicinity of Nueva Ger
ona, at an altitude of fifty feet above the tide, are covered with red and grey sandy
clay, from which, with proper manipulation, a fairly good quality of brick might
still be had. (1) Sarda's tiles floored Morro Castle and were found acceptable for
use in the public market building of Havana. (2)
"Hard times," however, becoming harder and harder as Cuba wore to its out
come her long-drawn fight with Spain, completely paralyzed the Brazo Fuerte
brick and tile yard, and also the tannery located there.
Present Owner is an American
In 1901 the marble mountain, its wrecked machinery, the tile moulds and the
tanning vats, all passed from Major Sardd's widow and children to the possession
of Mr. T. J. Keenan, of Pittsburg, Pa., who has erected at Brazo Fuerte one of the
handsomest winter homes on the Isle of Pines; he has replaced M. Chueaux's
tropical garden with a citrus fruit orchard. (3)
The marble beds of Mount Casas, across the Casas Valley from Caballos, have
not been more than sampled.
No report is at hand regarding the composition of the Daguilla Mountains in
the south-east, or the Canada Mountains (approximate height 1507 ft.) in the west.
Other Mineral Resources
In the Sierra de la Siguanea, where Lanier Swamp meets Siguanea Bay, in the
south-west, siliceous schist containing very pure brown hematite is found. Masses
of this ore are scattered over the surface in considerable abundance, but no veins
of workable size were observed, the largest being only a few inches thick. What
material has weathered to the surface is too siliceous to be used. Nevertheless,
while no deposits of iron ore commercially available have been located, so far as
yet known, indications are favorable for the existence of such deposits, especially
in the west.
In some places, as at Santa Fe, and in the Valley of the Mai Pais River, there
are deposits of manganese ore which may, some day, prove valuable. The mineral
presents considerable variety, and thorough prospecting is necessary to determine
its quantity and quality.
(1) Ibid. p. 117.
(2) Dr. Luz Hernandez (Memoir on the Salubrity of the Climate, 1856) remarks that Dr. Jose
Maria Isla established in Nueva Gerona a brick-yard and tile works for government service, which,
although not properly managed, produced, nevertheless, excellent building materials. "The govern
ment thought proper to abandon this establishment," he adds, "for what reasons I know not.
"Since that time two other tile-yards have been established, the owners of which, without sufficient
capital to furnish them properly, could never produce materials of as good quality and as abundantly
as would have suited their interest; but on inspection of the good quality of the roofing and flooring
tiles and bricks of the Isle of Pines, it will be found that they can compete with any other materials of
this description." (3) The history of the Mount Caballos quarries, etc., as here given is from an article contributed
to the Cuba Bulletin and Review, November, 1907, by Miss Sophie G. Keenan. It is interesting to note
that Jose Marti, Father of Cuban Liberty, was once among the political prisoners used on the Sarda place.

ISLE OF PINES

Road Materials in Abundance
Meanwhile, between the mountains lie the plains, minerally valuable in road
material: namely, mal pais gravel, which covers by far the larger part of the
Isle's flat northern surface, in iron-stained pebbles of varying size; Santa Fe schist,
rare save along the water courses, and the dark-grained Daguilla schist, found on
the flanks of the mountains of that name. This diorite is admirably adapted for
macadam. Wherever mal pais gravel forms the surface excellent roads are made
by simply clearing a way, ditching and crowning the surface.
Wherever beaches occur about the northern portion of the Isle, they are of
sharp, white quartz sand. This is an excellent sand for building purposes and for
making artificial stone. It is also adapted for marble cutting, as Captain-General
O'Donnell's opponents reminded the Spanish government.
It is possible that shortly in the shape of "return cargoes" these building mate
rials, so abundant in the Isle of Pines, taken along with the hard woods of the
South Coast, may assist the settlers on the Isle to solve one phase of their serious
problem of transportation — that of reducing shipping expenses. (1)

(1) C. Willard Hayes, T. Wayland Vaughan and Arthur C. Spencer, Geologists, Report on a
Geological Reconnoissance of Cuba Made under the Direction of General Leonard Wood, Military Gov
ernor, 1901.
See also Geografia de la Isla de Pinos, etc., by Lanier.
"Besides the advantages offered by the lands to the industrious agriculturist, they hold out equal
inducements to the active manufacturer," declares Dr. Luz Hernandez, in his Memoir on the Salubrity
of the Isle, written in 1856. He calls attention to what he believed to be "carboniferous lands, consti
tuting the plains and even the savannahs (which) abound in yellow and red ochres, and a blue pigment,
which latter is found even in the beds of the brooks.
"Besides the preceding, that might so advantageously occupy industry, there are other articles
that would afford better returns; for instance, potter's clay of excellent quality, and even porcelain
earth may hereafter be discovered."

'Excellent roads are made by simply clearing,

ditching and crowning the surface"

14

ISLE OF PINES

Pines of the Isle

II.

FLORA AND FAUNA

Verdes cotorras, matizados loros
El aire rasgan con chirridos secos,
Y los valles salvages y sonoros
Asperos tornan los errantes ecos.
Guacamayos azules, purpurinos,
Cual nube carmesi los aires hienden,
Y del sol los reflejos vespertinos
Como un volcan el firmamento encienden.
— En la Isla de Pinos
Fernando Velarde (1)
From the pine trees, — characteristic of the temperate zone,- — here found side
by side with the commoner trees of the tropics, the Isle of Pines received its name.
According to. the quality of the soil which supports them, these conifers vary in
size from merest saplings to trees of girth sufficient to make them worth a sawmill's
while. (2)
(1) While the author was at work in the National Library of Cuba, at Havana, in search of data
concerning the Isle of Pines, Director Figarola-Caneda called attention to a poem entitled "In the Isle
of Pines," published in a book of selected poems (Poetas Espanoles y Americanos) printed in Caracas,
1876, and dedicated to the memory of the Spanish poet, Fernando Velarde.
The poem "In the Isle of Pines," is by Velarde himself. It would seem to refer to the Isle of Pines
under present discussion, though there is of course more than one island of that same name.
(2) "The flora of the island combines many of the varieties of Florida with the large hard-wood
trees of Central America and Mexico, and singularly the pine, a characteristic of the temperate zone,
which grows over the greater part of the island.... The tall pines furnish, for exportation, railway ties!
telegraph poles, poles for the roofs of native Cuban huts... One of the principal sources of wealth is
lumber..." Extract from "The Isle of Pines" prepared in the Division of Insular Affairs, War Depart
ment, 1902, and reprinted as Senate Document 311, 59th Congress, 1st Session.

ISLE OF PINES 15

In fertile places, — along lowlands watered by creeks, at the foot of mountain
ridges, — -the royal palm stands (1), in clusters and in rows, adding to the landscape
the beauty of its proud white trunk and its crest of emerald plumes. In the shadow
of the monarch, and of the neighboring pines, grow palmettos, dwarf palms, bottle
palms, manaca palms and still other members of the family, differing, yet all alike
in peculiarity. Native Fruit Trees
There are native fruit trees along the streams, especially mangos, hung thick
with fruit; there are caimitos, aguacates, sapotes, wild orange trees, — though their
presence together in any number indicates, usually, the site of some homestead
of former times, of which, perhaps, no other trace remains.
Wild bamboo fringes the water courses.
Picturesque aeroid plants drape the sturdier trees, in damp places.
There are shrubs everywhere, the scrawniest of which bloom, in white and in
yellow especially, thereby redeeming a certain gauntness evident in them, as in all
the flora of the Isle of Pines. (2)
In the arroyos in the north part of the island are found choice hard woods,
verv suitable for the manufacture of the finest furniture.

(1) "In the forests of this promising little isle of the Antilles are found extensive groves of the
Oreodox regio (royal palm) and twenty-six other varieties of the same numerous family; the mahogany,
lignum- vitae, coco wood, from which reed instruments are made; cedrela odorata, used in the manufacture
of cigar boxes and the lining of cabinet woods and producing an aromatic oil distilled from its wood ; and
fustic or logwood, a dye stuff the product of cholophora, known as yellow or Cuba wood or old fustic." Ibid.
(2) "Most of the trees of this Isle are of less girth than those of Cuba because of the rocky soil; but
their wood is harder and solider." — Agrarian League's Agricultural Review, Year XX., Nos. 1 to 3, p.
338; also contains a lengthy list of Isle of Pines trees.
The Field Columbian Publication No. 48, Chicago, 1900 is Planim Insula Ananasensis, a cata
logue of plants collected by Don Jos6 Blain, on the northern portion of the Isle of Pines, and
sent by him to Sr. Sauvalle, who communicated them to Mr. Charles Wright, from the remains of whose
herbarium they were obtained.
This collection proves to be a particularly interesting one, not only on account of the few common
forms of the island included in its 185 numbers, but also because of the scarcity of plants from that region
in herbaria. Many of the sheets bear determinative remarks by either Sauvalle or Wright, and a few the insular
vulgar name, and month of flowering; but on none of them, is the year of collection, which must, how
ever, have been some time in the middle 60's. (Edited by Dr. Chas. Frederick Millspaugh.)
The following statement concerning the flora of the Isle of Pines was especially prepared for this
publication by the bureau of Insular Affairs, War Department, Washington, D. C. : —
Notwithstanding the Isle of Pines is a portion of Cuba, it differs by marked physical features.
The same may be said with respect to flora.
Although the area involved is limited, plant life is represented by 185 varieties under 56 orders,
as follows: —
Dilleniaceez, a large forest tree with white showy flowers in India and Burmah, but very much
reduced in size on this island.
Pinacea, the Pinus Cubensis, being the only representative of the pine family, but abundant.
Cyperaceas, cypress grass (garlingale) , 3 varieties.
Palmacem, palm family, 2 varieties.
Restionacem, only representative Paepalanthus.
Liliacem, lily, represented by the Smilax Havanensis.
Hcemadoracea, blood root. While the xiphidium in Cuba grows in shady situations in glens
and never in the open savannahs, in the Isle of Pines it thrives on the open plains far from shade.
Anaryllidacem, amaryllis or "Belladonna Lily," 3 varieties.
Dioscoreacem, a fine variety of yam, grows luxuriantly.
Iradacem, Iris, familiarly known as the Fleur de Lis "Blue Flag," etc.
Zingiberacea, ginger; the commercial variety Zingiber, introduced from Asia, and corresponds to
the celebrated root from Jamaica.
Orchidacece, orchids. Two of the ornamental varieties are indigenous. The vanilla species are
known as Bejuco Caballero.
PiperacecE, pepper. A tall shrub, four varieties. The Coccoloba Retusa is known locally as
manati.
Amaranthacea , amaranthus. Two varieties, one of them known as Perigil de Costa.
Nyctaginacecp, mirabilis, bearing rose-colored flowers.
Menispermacem, moon seed, vine, one variety.
Lauracea, bay laurel. A shrubby tree. The local variety, Nectandra Patens, known
Bebeeru, Santa Fe, Moniato.
Cappandacem, caper. Shrubby, with showy flowers.
Rosacea, rose. The Hertella or Tete de Jagna, other varieties, Icaco Peludo, Icaco de Aura,
best varieties.
LeguminosacecB, food plants, 13 varieties, kidney bean, lucerne, also some possessing medicinal
properties.
OxalidacecB, oxalis. Wood sorrel.
Erythroxylacem. coca. Shrub and tree, Orabillo.
Zygophyllacece, bean caper. Flower buds used as capers.
Burseracece, bursera, copal. Shrubby tree.
Malpighiacem, burbadses cherry. Five varieties, some edible fruit. Malpigoia, also called
Palo Bronco de Penarer, another Byrsonium Paralejo Blanco del Pinar.

16

ISLE OF PINES

An American Home and its Flower Garden
Mr. Clark's Residence at Columbia

American settlers find
that flowers highly prized
in the United States grow
common about their Isle
homes. Jasmine and
honeysuckle weight the air
with perfume. The gaudy
hibiscus blooms everywhere
in shades of red and ma
genta. Roses do well
enough with a little care.
A luxuriant creeper popu
larly known as "Keenan's
blue vine" shades porches
(1). Five choice varieties of
orchids bloom during the
months of June, July and
August. Mammals
As to the fauna, Poey
convinced himself that the
Isle of Pines is part of one
zoological region with Cuba proper and the Bahamas (2) .
The largest land mammal indigenous to the Isle is the hutia, a rodent, about
the size of a rabbit ; it is easilv killed, or as easily tamed. The hutia is peculiar to the
West Indies. The aboriginal natives domesticated and ate it freely; it is still
considered edible, and has a flavor resembling raccoon (3).
Polygalacece, milkwort.
Euphorbiacece, flowering spurge herb and shrub, 11 varieties. Several other names.
HippocrateacecE, hippocrates. A medicinal herb, another variety shrubby, with leaves
whitish beneath.
Staphyleacecs, bladder nut, shrub, one variety known as Rangel.
Tiliacece, linden or lime tree. Belotia variety.
Malvacem, mallow. Three varieties. A muscilagenous herb. One variety called Majaguello de
Corte.
Sterculiacem, chica tree with fibrous bark.
Theacem, tea, an evergreen shrub. HEemocharis. Almendro.
Guttiferacece, yields a resinous sap. Some produce edible fruits, the mangosteen, and mammee
apple.
Flacourtiacees \ an introduced variety, thorny shrub or tree bearing edible fruit. Resembles
madagascar plum.
Thymeliacem, leatherwood, in the United States.
Lythraritz, loosestrife tree or shrub.
Combatacem, butter tree. Small, sometimes shrubby climber. Jucaro Prieto, Patoban.
Myrtacem, myrtle. Shrub, 3 varieties.
Melastomacea. Twelve varieties of trees and shrub? one known as Cordovancillo, another
Cordovan.
Araliacets, aralia. Perennial aromatic herb.
Ebenacece. Valuable timber tree, two varieties embracing ebony, marblewood. One variety
called ebano carbonero; another zapote negro, the most valuable.
Loganiacea, same as yellow jasmine in the United States. One variety has medicinal qual
ities. The spigelia is the pinkroot sometimes called worm grass.
Apocynace(E, dogbone, a perennial poison, Illaba de los Pinares, one variety called Clavelitas de
Sabana, another Curamaguey Prieto.
Asclepiadacece, silkweed, sometimes milkweed, a perennial herb.
Convolvulacece, bindweed, 4 varieties, a climbing vine. The ipomea called Flor de Boniaio.
BoraginacecB, borage. Heliotropium, beautiful flowering plant, very showy,
VerbenacecB, verbena, 3 varieties, Petitia and Roble Guayo.
Labiatcece, mint, fragrant, also lavendar Aromata, a febrifuge.
Solanace<E, potato. Also Physalis, Huevo Gallo of medicinal value.
Schropulariacecs , Figwort, perennial.
Bignoniacece, Bignonia, woody climber, Roble del Pinar, Caisaito Puritido de las Pocas.
Gesmeriacece. Two varieties of herbs or shrubs, Some fruit is edible.
Acanthacecs, acanthus, one variety.
Rubiacecs, madder plant, 10 varieties, perennial with thickroot. Also known, Vigueta Blanca,
Quina, Pitan, an ante febrile, Cephalanthus, Aroma de Laguna.
Cucurbiatacecs, cucumber, 5 varieties. Herbaceous vine. Fleviella, Flor Macho.
(1) Thumbergia grandiflora; a native of the East Indies.
(2) Felipe Poey, Obras Literarias, p. 244, Viaje a Santa Fe (1862). Poey ranks as Cuba's great
est natural scientist.
(3) The hutia is frequently mentioned in all the early histories of Cuba; it is still quite common in
the island. It is possible that there was, originally, a larger mammal to be found; whether it was of the
dog or the bear family is a disputed question, and meanwhile it has entirely disappeared.

ISLE OF PINES 17

Native bats are abundant, but are of two orders only. There is one species of
vampire, peculiar to the Isle (1). Birds
The native land bird varieties are computed at 203, of which about 115 are
resident and 88 migratory between North and South America, according to the
seasons; they make the Isle a stopping place in passage. Among the common birds
are cranes, thrushes, humming-birds, cookoos, owls, little birds of the brilliant family
of tanagridaa or tanagers, and trogonida? or trogons, fond of forests. The white-
breasted trogon, the only species of this genus, is a visitor from Cuba. The green
pigeon, once known, is no longer seen. The picarian tody, nearest allied to the king
fisher, and bee-eaters and motmots, are to be found.
In June and July the woods are full of parrots, red and green in plumage.
They are caught young and exported ; they can be trained to talk though they are
not the most loquacious variety. No English sparrows have yet appeared.
Reptiles
The reptiles, — the same as those of Cuba (2), — are fewer in representation
of animal distribution than any other branch. Of the fierce and venomous orders
found in Florida, on the north, or along the Spanish Main and in Brazil, on the
south, — there are none. The Maja
The most formidable to contemplate is the maja, — a constrictor. He delights
to rob hen-houses ; having eaten his fill he curls up under the nearest heap of brush
wood where, when found, he is easily killed before he awakens to his danger. His
skin, cured, looks like the souvenir of a much more heroic encounter (3).
There are crocodiles in the rivers ; they afford good hunting.
There are lizards, but they are few, though the latitude favors them (4) .
There are iguanas, one variety of which attains a length of almost a yard (5) .
Among the amphibia, varieties of tropical tree frogs peculiar to the Antilles
are found. Only Annoyances
There are spiders and scorpions; their bite is little more painful than a bee-
sting and is attended with no more serious consequences.
There are ants in multitudes. The bibijagua will trouble the citrus fruit grower,
while the smaller varieties pester his wife, as flies do in the north, until she learns
to rout them from her larder. There are cockroaches to be overcome.
Most annoying of all, there are jejenes (6) which are sandflies. They feast on
newcomers. There are also fleas, and there are mosquitoes. These insects are
(1) Statement prepared for this publication by the Bureau of Insular Affairs, War Department,
Washington. (2) Poey, Felipe, Obras literarias, Viaje a Santa Fe, p. 248: "The reptiles in the Isle are the same
as those in Cuba, at least all I found are : the coluber cursor, the anolis sagrce and that other which Sr.
D. Ramon de la Sagra in his book calls, mistakenly perhaps, the anolis carolinensis .... Also the
gordio acuatico at Santa Fe . . . ."
(3) The non-combative nature of the maja, so ridiculously at variance with his dreadful aspect,
has made his name a by- word; it is applied as a term of contempt to blustering swaggerers who talk
largely of fire and sword, but are nevertheless conspicuously absent from the actual scene of all conflict.
Dr. Luz Hernandez used to recommend to one of his patients (maybe more than one) "a diet of white
meats, particularly that of the maja." Memoir on the Salubrity of the Isle of Pines (1857), p. 22.
(4) "There are some persons so prejudiced against this Isle," wrote Dr. Luz Hernandez in the
Memoir mentioned, "that they believe a residence here highly inconvenient and disagreeable, asserting
it to be the dwelling place of ferocious crocodiles and intolerable insects. So ridiculous an idea would
not deserve my attention, but that some individuals, maliciously or through abject ignorance, have
actually spread exaggerated reports of the crocodiles, as well as of the sandflies and mosquitoes of the
Isle of Pines.
"It is certainly true that in the swamp and rivers there are crocodiles, but they never leave their
dens to attack travellers nor to invade villages; and it is also true that I never was able to obtain a sight
of one, although I endeavoured to do so, on the banks of rivers and in other places of resort of these
reptiles. "And respecting the troublesome insects, I have very seldom been as much inconvenienced by
them here, as I am constantly in many houses I am acquainted with in Havana. Excepting m the
woods, on the banks of the rivers, or on the seashore, it may be truthfully asserted that in no part of
the Island of Cuba are there fewer mosquitoes than in the Isle of Pines .... Sandflies .... the
inhabitants call 'the pest;'. . . . although they are occasionally troublesome (they) are never so to the ex
tent they are on the shores and in the woods of Cuba, and even in some of her towns."
(5) Poey, Felipe ; Obras Literarias ; Viaje a Santa Fe.
(6) Pronounced hay-hanie, (See preceding note 2.)

18

ISLE OF PINES

troublesome in the rainy season in windless places, but at no time or place are they
insufferable. In the dry winter season they are entirely absent.
Of fishes, the fresh waters of the Isle present few varieties, none of commercial
importance. The land shells are numerous in designs and varieties but generally without
value for ornament or utility.
Butterflies are of little scientific interest in the Isle. There are thirteen va
rieties of dragonflies, some of beautiful metallic lustre.
Conspicuous in their Absence
As a whole, the fauna of the Isle of Pines is small, but particularly interesting
for the lack of orders characteristic of the continents to north and south, notably
monkeys, edentata (like ant eaters) and the carnivora. Especially notable is the
happy absence of really noxious creatures: for which the settler is truly grateful.

At the Ford

ISLE OF PINES

19

Bibij'agua Beach and Headland
in.
HISTORY OF THE ISLE

Tu no tienes recuerdos colosales,
Tu no tienes magnificas historias,
Todas tus galas son providenciales,
Providenciales son todas tus glorias.
Todo es en ti resplandeciente y bello,
No tienes nada que en verdad no asombre,
Pero no tienes el gigante sello
Que en otros climas ha estampado el hombre.
En tus fragrantes, torridas alfombras,
Ni siglos, ni hombres han dejado rastro . .
Pero el dngel audaz de la esperanza
Cifie tu frente de coronas verdes,
Y ves tu porvenir en lontananza
Y en su grandiosa inmensidad te pierdes.
— In the Isle of Pines,
Fernando Velarde.
Christopher Columbus discovered the Isle of Pines in June, 1494; in search
of provisions and water he visited a harbor which it is presumed was that one inter-
island craft still find in the Casas River (1).
In the year 1511 Diego Columbus, Admiral of the Indies and Governor of
Santo Domingo, sent Captain Diego Velazquez with an armed force to subdue and
colonize Cuba and its adjacent isles. Cuba was made a Lieutenant- Go vernancy and
Diego Velazquez its first Lieutenant-Governor, with plenary powers over the Island
and its dependencies, which included the Isle of Pines and a large number of
adjacent keys (2).
Velazquez was succeeded in turn by five others Lieutenant-Governors, until
1524, when Cuba was raised to the rank of a Governancy and Hernando de Soto
came as its first Governor, with the usual plenary powers of such an official.
(1) Or perhaps the Discoverer landed on the beach beneath the headland called, nowadays, Columpo
or Columpio. This name suggested to the author that possibly it was, originally, Colombo, a form of
Columbus's name (Las -Casas, I., ii.), which might have been bestowed upon his landing place by the
Admiral himself or his men. We later observed that Colombo is the version on United States Govern
ment maps.
In this connection, Miss Sophie G. Keenan writes: "About the name Colombo: on the old charts it
isgiven asColumboorColumpo, as in thedeed. One old native gave me as his opinion' that it was not
derived from Columbus, but from the verb columpiar, to swing; or the noun columpio, a swing, on
account of the swaying waves. I have seen it once or twice spelled El Columpio, but believe Columbo
is correct." (2) Senate Document No. 311.

20

ISLE OF PINES

On the Casas River near Nueva Gerona

Cuba, having obtained commercial and geographical importance, was, in 1581,
raised to the rank of a Captain-Generalcy, independent of Santo Domingo, and its
territorial jurisdiction remained the same that it was originally; it still embraced
the Isle of Pines. Don Gabriel de Lujan was made the first Captain-General of
Cuba, with the usual very ample powers.
The First Settlers
About this time some white settlers from Cuba established themselves in the
Isle of Pines and frequent excursions were made to and from the main island.
These settlers built their huts near the water front and subsisted by fishing and
hunting (1).
Some years later, in 1596, Drake, while on one of his marauding expeditions,
descended on the Isle, massacred its inhabitants, with the exception of a few who
escaped to Cuba, and destroyed the settlement. The survivors told their story
to D. Juan Maldonado Malnueva, Captain-General of Cuba, who, incensed at this
(1) There was an Indian population on the Isle of Pines originally. They were the same naked,
credulous, helpless people the Conquerors exterminated from Cuba. Esquemeling states that they were
united in one tribe, at peace among themselves, but at war with any and all tribes of Cuba. What
became of them does not appear. Indications are that as Spanish settlement encroached from the north
and east they retreated to the south and west, where they have left no reminder of their existence save
a name, Los Indios (the Indians), used to designate a tract of land and certain keys outside
Siguanea Bay.
It appears that its aboriginal inhabitants divided Cuba into thirteen demarcations; the Isle of Pines
was Carmaraco (Senate Doc. No. 311).
In 1792 Franco heard that certain relics of the aborigines were to be found in a cave in Casas Moun-
tain^five years later Tirry investigated and himself found traces of human habitants there.
"At Brazo Fuerte there is a cacimba, a curious old Indian well, in the form of a great jar, five or
six feet deep, plastered inside with native clay and hardened by lighting a fire inside it. Close at hand
is a raised circle where once stood the hut of the chief. As these wells usually occupy high ground
where no water could reach them except such rain as fell directly into the mouth, are too small to supply
the needs of a village and are besides dug near permanent natural springs, as is that at Brazo Fuerte
it is supposed that their use was altogether ceremonial and religious. The shape of the well recalls the
jar held by the clay images of the rain god of the Aztecs, which the Zunis make to this day "—Miss
Keenan. Mr. idward Kummel states that similar "wells" at Ocean Beach are said to have been used
by the Indians as storage tanks for pitch they sold the Spanish.

ISLE OF PINES

21

The Treasure Chest on the Beach

invasion of his domains by English, prepared an expedition to punish the invaders ;
but meanwhile Drake abandoned the Isle.
For some time thereafter no further attempt at colonization was made.
Though fishermen from Cuba visited the Isle now and then, it was better known
for many a long year to pirates of the Spanish Main than it was to any representa
tive of Their Most Catholic Majesties, in whose name the First Admiral took pos
session of it. A Pirate Rendezvous
The worst of the cosmopolitan pack that harried the seas in those days, —
Morgan the Englishman, Peg-Leg Jols, honored in the naval annals of the Dutch,
followed by all the heterogeneous crew that emulated their supremacy in robbery,
rapine and murder, — made the Isle of Pines a rendezvous. They alone knew the
shoals and deeps of those treacherous waters. In the inlets and up the rivers they
anchored, awaiting opportune time to sally forth on the plate fleets of Spain as
these came forward from Cartagena and from Mexico. Lacking treasure ships,
they fell upon the few merchantmen that ventured to ply between coast ports. Or
again, in the Isle of Pines they assembled forces, laid in wood, and organized to
raid the thriftiest settlements in the Indies, — Santiago, Puerto Principe, Sancti
Spiritus, Vera Cruz, Cartagena and Panama, — even to threaten Havana itself.
From the Spanish galleons, under armed escort though they were, these marauders
took silver and gold in coins and bars ; from the wretched residents in colonial towns
they took cash and jewelry and whatever else pleased their robber fancy.
The booty was sometimes brought to the Isle for division. Undoubtedly, too,
it was sometimes buried here for safe-keeping; but if it has not been all dug up
again long since, it is not because romantic and credulous persons have not hunted
diligently for secreted fortunes (1). Early Owners
In 1630 the Isle of Pines was presented by royal grant to Captain D. Hernando

(1) In the early spring of 1908 an old chest which was, in appearance, all that a treasure chest
ought to be, was found on the sands of Bibijagua Beach. The rumor is that an American found it full
of treasure. The chest is preserved at Brazo Fuerte.

22

ISLE OF PINES

\&Mi$iL ;LiJ^.*£?>£ri

Colombo Bay
Pedroso, from whom by inheritance it passed on, becoming in 1706 the property
of two brothers, D. Nicolas and D. Francisco Duarte (1).
When D. Francisco died, 1727, D. Nicolas purchased his share in the Isle, from
the widow (2), and thus it came once more into the possession of a single proprietor.
In 1728 this sole owner commissioned the French expert, M. Gelabert, who had
already established one (for D. Francisco) on the South Coast, to build up two
more big cattle ranches in the south-east of the northern section : they were the
haciendas San Juan and Santa Fe (3). At the same time D. Nicolas ordered
D. Franciso Abella to organize five other plantations in the north and north-east.
In short, the Isle was divided by its owner into seven great estates ; the South Coast
and whatever other land was not specifically included in their boundaries was held
pro indiviso. In 1760, D. Nicolas Duarte having died, these seven properties were
distributed, one to each of his seven sons.
First Governors Named
In 1763 (4), one of these inheritors, D. Francisco Javier Duarte, was named
first capitan a guerra of the Isle of Pines ; he received his appointment from the
(1) The author's first authority for many statements which follow, concerning the history of the
Isle, was a newspaper article (La Lucha, May 19, 1897) which appeared during a controversy regarding
title to certain lands at Nueva Gerona. It would seem to have been written by some lawyer who had
been investigating land transfers in the Isle.
As study progressed, most of the facts therein given were verified by other authors; and finally there
- came to hand a battered old pamphlet, with cover, title page and last leaves gone, so that date and author
ship cannot be discovered (from this copy, at least) , containing a good, consecutive account of the history
of the Isle to about 1857. Whoever the author may have been he was unquestionably an accurate writer
and well informed.
(2) It seems that D. Francisco owned the South Coast, which D. Nicolas thus added to his holding
consisting of the northern section of the Isle, '
(3) These names, and others which belonged to the early ranches (Calabaza, El Hospital Las
Piedras, Santa Rosalia, Santa Barbara de las Nuevas, La Canada) still appear on the modem map to
designate districts, and, sometimes, the land companies that are now reselling tracts more or less cor
responding in boundaries to those first ranches.
(4) Senate Doc. No. 311 gives the date of Duarte's appointment as 1765, saying: "Early that year
Count Ricla, Captain-General of Cuba, in the exercise of his administrative authority declared the Isle
a partido, district, — one of the political divisions of Cuba, and stationed an officer ' capitan pedaneo

ISLE OF PINES

23

¦¦' \»~

Where Columbus Probably Landed
Count de Ricla, then Captain-General of Cuba. Later he resigned and was succeeded
by his son, D. Domingo Duarte. In 1765 he too withdrew and D. Andres Acosta
y Duarte (1) was named captain in his stead (2).
It appears that these early governors labored in vain through some years to
secure from the State authority to bring over immigrants, and, from the Church,
to obtain a parish church for the Isle. The secular authorities in Havana evidently-
concluded that the less there was in the Isle the less inviting it would be to enemies
from whom they did not protect it; and the spiritual authorities at Quivican,
within whose jurisdiction it was, declined to do anything for the stray sheep there,
nominally of their fold still, until the year 1750, after which date a priest visited
the island once a year, up to 1788-89, when the first church in the Isle was built,
on the Almacigos plantation, where the estate Messrs. Taylor and Lane have just
acquired from Capt. Smith is today. This location was selected, according to
church records at Nueva Gerona, because of the excellent spring there and the fer
tile soil; and also because it was about the centre of the Isle. Here, later, there
was a hospital.

to preserve public order .... The Isle had become noted for its fishery when .... (this) first govern
mental disposition relating .... (to it) was made."
"Toward the end of the 16th century the governors at Havana and Santiago, to better guard out
lying districts, on the coasts and inland, divided their jurisdictions into certain demarcations and in
each selected a resident owning property to fill the post of judge over their respective vicinities. These
demarcations were called parttdos, and capitanes a guerra those who exercised the functions indicated."
— Pezuela, Historia de la Isln de Cuba. III., p. 47.
(1) Earlyin 1773 the Marquis de la Torre, Captain-General of Cuba, by decree ordered the district of
the Isle of Pines to contribute annually with a certain number of cattle for the public supply of Havana.
This, by the way, was the first taxation exacted from the little Isle.
(2) "As, however, both interested themselves in the improvement of their Island, D. Francisco
solicited the permission to import colonists; and his son begged the Bishop to appoint a parish priest to
attend to the spiritual wants of the inhabitants, who being, few, the petition of D. Domingo was not
granted; and his father was denied the permission for colonization which he had solicited. Notwith
standing all this, those gentlemen, through their influence and relations, succeeded in bringing over sev
eral families, in spite of the fear which was inspired to them by the pirates who frequently plundered
and robbed those poof defenseless inhabitants. However, such was the grief which they felt at the
refusal of the Government, that D. Domingo resigned his command in 1765, and D. Andres Acosta suc
ceeded him with the title of Captain," — Unidentified Pamphlet.

24 ISLE OF PINES

Franco's Report
In 1792 the English captured a ship en route from Cartagena to Batabano,
aboard which was one D. Dionisio Franco, former secretary of the viceroy of Lima;
they set him ashore on the Isle of Pines on March 6th, and there he sojourned until
April 15 of that same year. He employed the time in studying the country, on
which he prepared an interesting report (1).
Franco listed the mountains and streams and ports ; hills and rivers bore then
the names by which they are known today. What traffic there was, made use of
the Santa Fe and the Casas River, as it does at preseni. The careless raising of
cattle and hogs was the sole legitimate occupation of the few residents (2) .
These residents numbered, according to his count (3) , just 86 persons, of whom
55 were men, 16 women, and 15 children; 66 of the total were white, 14 were black,
and 6 were mulattoes ; 72 were free and 14 were slaves. They were scattered among
the twenty ranches then in existence, twelve of which belonged to the Duarte fam
ily, six to the Zelaver family and two to the Zayas family.
"Thieves by Land and by Sea"
They lived at their leisure (4). Their cattle and hogs had the run of the Isle.
The boundaries of the various estates were merely nominal. The live stock was
rounded up only when need of real money compelled owners to the exertion of
exportation. There was little profit in beef, either dried or on the hoof (5) . Mean
while, it was pleasant to sit in the shade of the trees that grew, and produced fruit,
without making any demand on a gentleman's attention ; and it was but hospitable
to share that shade with whatever visitor appeared.
The visitors appeared unexpectedly, and went as they came. They happened
in from Jamaica and Grand Cayman ; they crossed from Cuba. They did not always
advertise the reasons that had accelerated their departure from their previous place
of abode. The Isle of Pines was headquarters of outlawry, the refuge of "thieves
by land and by sea." Between these transients and the resident pinero who, in
his isolation, accepted the pleasure of their company, the authorities in Havana
were unable to make distinction. Therefore they classed all alike in their bad
opinion; and to this day, against all reason, the idea persists that the people of the
Isle of Pines are necessarily (by nature or by acclimation) a lawless and turbulent
lot.

(1) Conocimienlos que adquirio en la isla de Pinos D. Dionisio Franco, secretario que fue del vi-rey
de Lima, en su mansion en ella desde 6 de marzo hasla 15 de abril de 1792, con el motivo de haver le apresado
los ingleses la embarcacion en que se conducia de Cartajena a Batabano y echadolo en dicha Isla. Pub
lished in Vol. 32 of the Memorias de la Real Sociedad Economica de la Habana, 1847, p. 205 et'seq. A
footnote states that the'document was furnished by D. Jose Maria de la Torre, who habfit from D. juan
Bautista Sagarra of Santiago de Cuba. It does not appear to whom the report was made; the tone of,
the text would indicate that Franco wrote for his pleasure.
The document is, apparently, little known. Poey does not seem to have used it in the preparation
of his extensive report in 1850. Therefore it seems to have passed unobserved that Tirry stole it complete
and word for word, appropriating it, without any credit whatsoever to the author, in his own report made
five years later. '
(2) Franco formed a poor opinion of the people. "All that they have planted in the Isle has done
well; the few products their indolence has permitted are exquisite in quality .... The ground is covered
with grass and aromatic plants, nearly all good for grazing of cattle (horned cattle and hogs, which are
all they raise at present)." He praised the milk and meat; Tirry echoed his opinion with a little added
emphasis. Franco found the population subsisting almost entirely on meat; "it takes the place even of
bread, and whereas they might live well on grains, tubers and vegetables which that soil will produce in
repayment of very little exertion on their part, — whereas they might busy themselves in raising poultry
or, with even less labor, in hunting and fishing, thus getting their sustenance without expending their
capital,— they nevertheless prefer to exist miserably on salt meat; even fresh meat is to be had only
'killing days. Milk, another of their foods, is not always to be had, nor in equal abundance everywhere
Tirry, in 1797, found that they had begun, slowly, to cultivate small areas, "from which they get some
bananas, yucas and squashes; but even this is not common "
(3) See p. 25.
(4) In connection with charges of shiftlessness preferred against the pineros earlv and late fh»
Census of 1899 (p. 416 Sp. ed) offers the following interesting classification of population- '
Agriculturists, fishers, and miners  403
Commerce and transportation  140
Manufactures and industries  84
Professions  9-
Domestic and personal science  647
1283
Without any lucrative employment  1916
(5) See p. 26.

ISLE OF PINES

25

A Vanishing Population
In the years between 1775 and 1780 (1) the population of the Isle reached a
total of 200; of these some 75 were honestly employed, and the rest were fugitives,
vagabonds and smugglers — men who had committed offenses more or less serious
against the laws, especially of Cuba, and who fled to the Isle where, safe from jus
tice, they tramped from ranch to ranch, fished sometimes or shipped on the first
smugglers' craft they found busied between the Isle and Jamaica. Later, perhaps,
when they had money and thought their misdemeanors forgotten, they returned
whence they had come.
When Ex. Sr. D. Luis de las Casas took over the government of Cuba he author
ized D. Andres Acosta, then governor of the Isle, to round up the vagabonds and

(1) Descripcion de la Isla de Pinos por el Capitan de Fragata de la Real Armada, Don Juan Tirry
y Laco (1797), later brigadier and Marquis de la Canada Tirry; published in Memorias de la Real Sociedad
Patrwtica de la Habana, Vol. 13 (1837-8). This report is in reality a reprint of Franco's, with lengthy
and valuable additions of Tirry's own.
The following is a tabulation of what information the author has at hand concerning population
on the Isle of Pines;

1792 (1)

1797 (2)

1826 (4)
170

1831 (6)

1850 (7)

1887 (10)

1899 (10)

1907 (8)

Whites 

66

54

285 45

579 124 84 3
48
152

2678 (12)

89.7%

29
142
20
8 (3)
12 (5)
(13)
10.3%
55 1615
4 22
1782 (14)
1417
56%
Children 
. . . 44%
Free 
72 14
60 16
170 23
360 67
Slave 
86
76
193
213 171 43
371
619 (9)
1834 (11)
1050
315
TOTAL 
86
76
193
427
990
2040
3199 (15)
3276 (16)
(1) From Franco's Report. — In 1774 the Marquis de la Torre, Governor- General of Cuba, had the
first census of Cuba taken; it showed 78 inhabitants on the inculta Isle of Pines, according to Pezuela,
Historia de la Isla de Cuba, III.
(2) From Tirry's report.
(3) Tirry records four black men and four black women; he seems to have omitted the mulattoes,
There is another discrepancy in his accounting by sexes.
(4) Labadia's account.
(5) The discrepancy is in Labadia's table.
(6) Lanier's account.
(7) Poey's account, based on the census of 1845.
(8) Census 1907-8.
(9) In 1875 the population of Nueva Gerona was given as 1,200 by Manuel Negro Fernandez,
Estudio sobre las Aguas de Isla de Pinos.
(10) See published Census of Cuba of 1899, (Wash. 1900, Spanish edition), p. 189 et seq.
(11) All the island outside Santa Fe and Caleta Grande.
I 2480 native born, 198 foreign born, almost all Spaniards.
) 16.3% of the total population was listed as "colored" in 1899.
) 55.7% males; 44.3% females.
) Density of population on basis of area of 840 square miles, 3.8%.
(l6) 22.9% "white foreigners," largely Americans, though some are Spaniards.
26

ISLE OF PINES

The following is a statement of what information concerning the cattle industry in the Isle o
Pines is to be found in the several reports mentioned :

1792 (1)

1797 (2)

1826 (3)

1850 (4)

1908 (5)

88205440 116

6631
3365 111

54106050

72135472 232

4018

1263
TOTAL 
Average :
Per estate: (6)
14,376 441 272 98
55
11,107 276 184 79
54
11,460
12,917
5,281
Per sq. league;
Cattle 
(1) Franco's report.
(2) Tirry's report.
(3) Labadia's report.
(4) Poey's account.
(5) Official Live Stock Register to June 30, 1908. Under "horses" are classed 150 mules and 7 asses.
(6) Concerning number of estates and owners, see the following incomplete table:
1792 (1)
1797 (2)
1826 (3)
Duarte family:
12
68
5770
2490 6
12
2250
2050 2 6
800900
14
59
42302257 89
1801 554 28
600
554
Live stock:
Selaver family:
Live stock:
Cattle 
Zayas family:
Live stock:
(1) Franco's account,
(2) Tirry's account.
(3) By the time Labadia arrived in the Isle of Pines, in 1826, the Duarte family had fallen from
pre-eminent place in the country. D. Andres Acosta held the biggest of the old Duarte estates; the
Zelaber and Zayas families had sold out to him for 834,000, payable in installments. "But the prin
cipal cause of the ruin evident," says the French physician, "is that for six years now all the pirates
have robbed and raided thejsle at theii pleasure." Heigives the following statement of the cattle
industry:
Haciendas (1)
"Daughters"
Owner
Cattle
Hogs
San Pedro
La Jagua
San Juan
Santa Fe
Santa Rosalia
Las Nuevas
La Sierra de Casas
Los Judios
CunaguaLa Canada
Hospital
CanalSeybaSan Carlos
San Francisco
CalabazaAlmacigosPiedrasLa Merced
Concepcion Sta. Teresa
Rosario
Aficionados San Jose
La Caridad
Dona Isabel de Urra
Dona Nemesia Arnovin
D. Andres Acosta
D. Andres Acosta
Heirs of the Duartes
D. Andres Acosta
D. Andres Acosta
D. Andres Acosta
970720
400 750890
580780
320
1200 850
520380970700
850580
This statement, says Dr. Labadia, compared with that made by D. Andres Acosta twelve vea
ago, when he was captain (governor) , shows that the industry has fallen off considerably "
(1) The Spanish nomenclature used to designate the several varieties of country estates that
language recognizes is somewhat confusing to a foragner. Hacienda is the general term for a holding
ISLE OF PINES 27

fugitives at large in his jurisdiction (1) . Accordingly a few idlers were sent back to
Havana, where, presumably, they fared ill; for suddenly there was a grand exodus
and the population dwindled to 76 persons, — land owners, overseers, their families,
some slaves and one or two convalescents who were there for their health.
These were the 76 inhabitants whom Captain Tirry classified: 36 white men
and IS white women, four black men and four black women; 60 of whom were free
and 16 slaves.
These 76 (ten less in legitimate population than Franco found five years before)
still lived along on jerked beef, taking but slowly to even the little cultivation^
the soil necessary to supply their own simplest needs in vegetables and fruit.
Tirry's Mission
Captain Tirry visited the Isle of Pines in 1797 on royal order issued from the
Escorial on September 17, 1796, his mission (2) being to discover whether or not
in its current, restricted meaning it is a plantation where sugar cane is grown. The author has"^pre-
f erred the word ranch, in its western American sense: a cattle ranch. The Isle of Pines ranches prob
ably were, technically, hatos, though they were not surveyed in circles with average diameters of eigh
teen miles, as were the hatos of Cuba proper. The actual land of these hatos was not surveyed in Cuba —
and probably not in the Isle of Pines. No man could prove a bona fide title to any particular area. Yet
each proprietor had his settlement — where his house and the quarters of his slaves stood; that'was
respected as his, but beyond it the boundaries of his territory were indefinite. If a new man, then,
bought in on a cattle range (or came in under some agreement with the owner) he perhaps acquired
an existing settlement, or he retired to some chosen site to build his own. Such a new "possession,"
as it was called, was a "daughter" of the original estate. If the proprietors, purchasers or heirs to a
"daughter" prospered, they frequently established still another settlement in another ' location, and
this settlement was a "grand-daughter" of the original holding. "Daughters" and "grand-daughters"
were established with the consent of the town council, if they lay within any attentive municipality,
Titles to these sub-divisions were part and parcel of the title to the original range. Yet so vaguely
were the original ranches bounded, that frequently "daughters" and "grand-daughters" supposed to
belong to one ranch were found on investigation to overlap or lie wholly within territory belonging to
another. Such a miscalculation invalidated a lot of titles, sometimes to the astonishment of persons
who supposed their families had owned the land concerned for a generation or two.
In this connection it is but fair to state that most land companies have made sure of their titles,
and they are able to make legal transfers. The clearing of title to large areas is one of two great serr
vices they have rendered. In purchasing of private parties (even those who act, as most do, in perfect
good faith) it is well for the buyer to investigate the matter of real ownership.
In 1850, according to Poey, there were eight haciendas in the Isle of Pines, and twenty-two ha
ciendas hijas (daughters).
It does not appear from the reports the author has used in outlining this early history of the Isle
of Pines, that the cattle industry was ever very remunerative.
Franco (1792) states that three- and four-year-olds were worth on the Isle, $10 and $12; six-year^
olds, §13 or $15. Freight to Batabano or Ayanigua was $2 a head in time of peace and $3 in time of
war. It cost 4 reales (50 cents) per head to get the cattle from Batabano to Havana. They sold
in Havana about as follows: three- and four-year-olds, $13.50 to $15.50; six-year-olds, $16 or $17.
From which it appears that the margin of profit was small. Franco estimates that some 500 head a
year were exported in 1792 from the Isle to Cuba.
He adds that shipping jerked beef, hides and grease was likewise a losing business.
There was money, however, in raising oxen as draught animals; he states that those bred in the Isle
were well made, though not fat, and they were prized for their hard hoofs. They were worth on the Isle
from $35 to $40 a head, and in Cuba from $50 to $60.
Hogs, according to Franco, over two years old were worth $4 each in lots of one and two hun
dred; $5 in smaller lots. Freight per head to Cuba in time of peace, 4^ reales; 6 reales in time of war.
They sold in Batabano at $6 or $10. To raise them cost little then (and it costs no more now) for they
thrived in the wildwood, feeding especially on the berry that falls from the royal palm. They were
herded, when wanted for market, by dogs, just as they are now, by native owners.
Tirry, who investigated these same matters five years later, gives about the same prices. If anything,
selling prices' had gone up slightly. So also had freight rates, for it was war time.
There was a slight tax payable to the royal treasury, which Tirry recommended be waived ; it was half
a real on every arroba of jerked beef, and ten reales on every animal shipped on the hoof.
Later reports contain no further information concerning profit or loss in the business, save that
Poey mentions 130 arrobas of jerked beef exported to Cuba in 1849.
As to tannery: the paralejo shrub grows in profusion on the Isle; it is used to cure leather. Tirry
complained in 1799 that: "there used to be a tannery here, run at very little expense, because paralejo
bark is plentiful and there is water in abundance; but a cyclone blew the tannery down and the owner
has not the energy to rebuild it." Major Sardd had a tannery, as previously mentioned, at Brazo Fuerte.
But, on the whole, so little profit was found in the business that hides were made into packing bags
rather than sold on their own value.
(1) "There were also many adventurers, who out of fear for the punishment which they justly
deserved, escaped from here (Cuba) and went to take refuge there, where they lived at the expense of
the inhabitants, who, some out of compassion, and others for unknown motives, gave them shelter;
but Mr. Acosta, convinced of the harm done by these bad guests, asked and obtained authorization to
expel them. It is thus that this nomadic population is not counted in the number of inhabitants." —
Unidentified pamphlet.
(2) Tirry was a member of a commission which sailed from La Corufia on December 3, 1796, arriv
ing at Santiago de Cuba on February 3, 1797; he congratulated himself that the voyage was short and
that he escaped all dangers entailed in the passage, "war having been just declared and the frigate
being slow and almost defenseless." ,

28 ISLE OF PINES

the pine trees there could be used for masts and whether pitch and resin might be
had to supply the arsenals of Spain. He reported adversely on both points ( 1) .
Tirry travelled around the Isle in a canoe, dropping anchor at night. He
examined the shores, rivers and inlets (2) . The South Coast interested him espe
cially; yet he did not investigate it thoroughly. He saw where the English had
removed great trees of valuable hard woods. He marvelled (3) that the scant soil
could support such luxuriant plant life. He found a single inhabitant there (4).
Returning to the northern half of the Isle he spent twenty-eight days in visiting
its twenty-four estates. Tirry's Conclusions
He sums up his conclusions as follows; "The country is worthy development;
it is suitable to agriculture, but needs population, the attention of the Church and
the help of the State for its defense. It could be put in a position to defend itself
with little expense, were the State to^aid, cooperating for its advancement. The
cattle industry could shortly be made four times what it is. If assistance is not forth
coming, however, island, inhabitants and herds are doomed to decadence and to a
state of misery and desolation even worse than that which at present exists.
Tortoise fishing, tobacco culture and exportation of hard woods are three lines of
industry I believe could be made profitable ; they would increase .... It would
indeed be a pity to leave desolate an Isle that has rivers to water its fields, so suit
able for cultivation; that has coasts rich for fishery; that with so little assistance
could be made so highly profitable . . (5)."
Yet years went by and conditions in the Isle were improved very little, if at all.
The English reaped more advantage from its existence than did the Spanish.
Mahogany and cedar trees continued to disappear from the South Coast — stumps
were the only record of their going. Small schooners, fitted with everything neces
sary for tortoise and turtle fishing, came up from Grand Cayman, or crossed from
Jamaica, to spread nets all along the Isle shore, — east, south and west, from Punta
del Este to Indian Keys. These poaching mulattoes and blacks (fishermen by their
own profession, pirates and wreckers by the accusation of their victims) knew those
coasts far better than the Spaniards themselves (6) . They knew where to look for
their game, how to catch it and how to (7) dispose of it to the best advantage.
(1) Tirry 'ooked into the cost of gathering pitch and manufacturing and exporting it; he found the
cost, especially of transportation, to be prohibitive.
(2) Tirry was accompanied by two guides. He was also accompanied, though he does not mention
that fact, by a copy of Franco's previous report which he used in toto in making his own, adding to it
however, much valuable information.
(3) As Messrs. Hayes, Vaughan and Spencer, American geologists, who went over the same ground
in 1901, did in their turn.
(4) "An European," at Punta del Este.
So interested did Captain Tirry become in the South Coast and the swamp that divides it from the
north, that he desired to explore it, and found five brave men willing to undertake such an expedition:
three of them were to keep off the crocodiles, while the other two led the way.
The author being informed that the South Coast was still a very wild and woolly section, determined
to see it in May, 1908. The trip across Siguanea Bay to a point on the projecting arm opposite Caleta
Grande, was made from Los Indios in a launch which approached as close in to the shore as possible
A man waded ashore and brought out a row boat in which the party was conveyed from the launch to
land. All then walked across country to Caleta Grande, and from there almost to Punta de Cocodrilos
thence back to the waiting launch again. It was a day's pleasant trip. No crocodiles were sighted
The whole outing was very tame. In the party were three women and a baby.
(5) "For . . . in general . ..." he adds, "the soil of the Isle is easy to cultivate, though there are
areas in the plains which are in truth quite useless .... The flanks of the mountains and the river
banks present the very best of soil. Here, on estates commonly called vegas, they raise all kinds of
provisions, cane, coffee and especially tobacco.
"Experience certainly shows that tobacco grown in the Isle along the rivers is of excellent quality
equal to that of Vuelta Abajo, so celebrated for its fragrance and the aromatic flavor it retains after
manufacture. "The two haciendas of Jagua and the four 'possessions' of Las Nuevas contain exceedingly good land
In some sections there is a high grade black soil; mothers there are areas of mulata soil of as good qual
ity, and all alike mutely complain of the neglect of owners: they await cultivation in order to produce
 Some of these people who have been compelled to plant a little tobacco, praise its quality "
firry suggested that the king might find profit in experimenting with tobacco himself in the Isle
of Pines; incidentally, his patronage would tend to an increase in the population and awaken an interest
&^S&£TOcr^^^£& at the time he sent °ut the «»^£ffi2
or JL^£^%£^££tig^j i^M^"*™ mak6S theb6St PUOt'
u i7'j j"^7 tells how four or.fiv? tlmes a year the Spaniards got together borrowed three or four
hundred dollars and went tortoise fishing. . Yet little enough was the profU they reaped I one expensra
and interest and loan were paid He mentions that on one occasion four got J2000 f6r the?r work thS
together In I year."^ ^ EngUSh' *" ^ "* fift6en dayS Catch more than a^the Spaniards*

ISLE OF PINES

29

Another View of the Casas River
Also they knew how to turn any leisure they might have to good advantage ; their
craft carried small cannon, and while they waited for their nets to fill they held up
coasting vessels, helped themselves to wreckage of any ships they might be fortunate
enough to find in distress, and when they ran short of provisions they put into the
nearest Isle port and took their fill from neighboring ranches (1).
Odoardo's Report
In 1826 the government made official investigation into reasons why Cuba,
and especially the Isle of Pines, "its accessory," were not settling up with whites
as rapidly as events transpiring in Hayti made appear desirable (2). Sr. D. Jose
Hipolito Odoardo Grand-Pre reported on the matter, after investigation; and he
(1) In October, 1797, according to Captain Tirry, a tortoise fishing schooner, armed with a single
gun, and manned by 25 mulattoes and blacks (with 45 live turtles aboard and tortoise shells), captured
two boats laden with tobacco, out of Bayamo; they put into the Casas River, went to the ranch nearby
and took what fresh meat they wanted; they also captured what craft they found in that harbor; they
wilfully shot cattle along their route to and from the ranch house.
In 1826 this sort of thing was still going on. The people of the Isle were unarmed and Havana
had no firearms to spare them when they appealed there for help.
(2) Dictamen que evacuo en 23 de Noviembre de 1826 el Sr. D. Jose Hipolito Odoardo Grand-Pre
por encargo del Escmo. Sr. Capitan- General D. Francisco Dionisio Vives, sobre fomentar la poblacion
blanca de la Isla de Cuba, y especialmente la de Pinos su accesoria. Vol. 39, Memorias de la Sociedad
Economica de la Habana (1849-50), p. 93 et seq.
Odoardo lists the obstacles to population as follows: lack of free hands; no sure titles to private
holdings; insecurity of persons and property. "I'll have a lawsuit on you," was, he says, the favorite
menace; execution of the threat meant ruin. He declares there were too many professional men.

30 ISLE OF PINES

gives the misconduct of these English marauders as the prime reason for the Isle s
delay in development. Agriculture could not be expected to thrive in a district
whose boundaries were no obstacle to pirate raids; the interior settlements tnem-
selves were not safe. ""'' ' T .
Odoardo mentions still other difficulties : land titles.were not clear Legal trans
fers could hardly be made. Persons who were "land poor" had difficulty in getting
rid of any part of their unwieldy holdings ; at the same time, other persons who might
have developed small holdings, could get possession of none. This worked against
improvement. ,
He charges the people with laziness and disinclination to push forward.
His Recommendations
In conclusion, Odoardo recommended that land titles be straightened out,
surveys made (1), and a garrison established; that as many prisoners as could be
safely managed be sent across to clear land, open roads and cultivate the soil ; he
urged that all facilities be offered immigrant families,— such as cheap land and
exemption from taxation (2) .
His recommendations were followed, to considerable extent.
Almost immediately (1826) Lt.-Col. Clemente Delgado y Espafia was sent
over, with title of commander-in-chief of the Isle and director (or je/e) of the
Colony Queen Amalia (3). . ,
He travelled around and over the Isle he had come to govern (4) ; he was
accompanied by the French physician, Dr. D. Jose Labadia (5). They journeyed
in two canoes, circumnavigating the Isle in eleven days.
In the party were an adjutant, a corporal, and six men, in addition to Col.
Delgado and Dr. Labadia.
(1) The accurate survey of tracts is the second of the two great services rendered the Isle by the
present land companies. ^ ., ,
(2) Odoardo calls attention to the fact that a cood garrison at Nueva Gerona would command
the southern coast of Cuba, "from the Laguna de Cortes," he puts it, "to the Ensenada de Cochmos
An unpublished report made in 1908 suggests that the American government might wisely malce
the Isle of Pines a military reservation, for reasons based on this same fact.
(3) Named "Colony Queen Amalia," for the Spanish queen.
(4) Delgado made reports, of which the author has seen merely extracts from which a reader
gathers that the colonel formed early a very poor opinion of the people of the Isle- accustomed to go
their own ways at their own pace, he says, they resented his gentle administration of justice and com
plained before they were injured thereby. . .
(5) Dr. Labadia made a report to Captain-General Francisco Dionisio Vives — Descnpcion I opo-
grajica de la Isla de Pinos. . . .
Delgado and Labadia were the first to make anything approaching a thorough examination of the
South Coast.
They found the swamp (Cienaga de Lanier), which divides the Isle into two parts, to be much
smaller than had been supposed; Labadia intimates that exaggeration of its extent had been intentional.
They went inland from Carapachivas (sic). They found that the rocky formation called seboruco
gave place shortly to excellent soil, supporting an astonishing wealth of vegetable life. "According
to Jose Martinez," Labadia declares, "overseer of the ranch which D. Agustin Garcia has recently
established at Piedras, all the land of the interior is excellent; there the best of tobacco grows without
cultivation (Your Excellency may judge by the sample I sent) , and they plant it merely for their own
pleasure. I verified the truth of this statement when after coasting along the swamp I arrived at those
locations (sitios) ; never did nature make more luxuriant display of herself  The difficulty with
which one arrives in the interior can be the. only origin of the prevailing mistaken opinion of the nature
of the place."
Labadia described the mountain slopes and river banks of the Isle as fertile, but condemned the
level plains between as sandy, arid, covered with slim pines and poor shrubs. He could see no good
in them; even the cattle, he complained, found little pasturage and were lean therefore. He, too, asserts
that the residents were lazy.
"Yet what a pity," he adds, "it is to see these handsome fields given over merely to a languishing
cattle industry, when Nature has bestowed on the Isle every advantage in way of fertility; watered as
it is by twelve principal rivers and 37 tributary creeks, it awaits only man's hand to bring forth its riches.
These lands ask at least that the resident cultivate them enough to produce his own provisions."
Labadia declared that the Isle might be made to produce three times the rice that Cuba could
consume. "Since the soil," he said, "is of superior quality, though arid, the miserablest settler with
very little work can irrigate his lands and thus make sure of the fruits of his labor." He remarks that
fig trees yield good fruit, as he and Lt.-Col. Delgado had the pleasure of learning by experience on one
of D. Andres Acosta's estates; he deduces that viticulture might prosper. "I believe that an infinite
number of products of Europe not common to Cuba might be cultivated to great advantage in the
[sle of Pines." In his day there were farms among the San Juan, Montelargo and San Pedro hills which
contributed to supply the Isle with provisions.
Labadia called attention to the Isle's possibilities in exportation of hard woods, agriculture, —
especially cacao, — tannery, and marble: he sent samples of the beds in Casas and Caballos. Further,
he recommended granite from Columbo (sic) for the paving of Havana; he suspected that there was
iron in the west.
He complained against absentee landlords; and he repeated with emphasis charges of idleness
against the residents.

ISLE OF PINES 31

Founding of Nueva Gerona
Next year, having visited Havana meanwhile and there made all necessary
arrangements, they returned to the Isle and established, on land D. Andres Acosta
donated for the purpose, the town which has since become Nueva Gerona, so named
because at the original Gerona General Vives, Captain-General of Cuba, had won
laurels (1).
Acting on a special commission given him in 1831 (2) Lt. D. Alejo Helvecio
Lanier, public surveyor, made an examination of the Isle of Pines and prepared

(1) '*. . . . In 1S09. . . . Mr. Acosta, who was then the owner of the farm of Santa Fe, allowed some
houses to be built, granting for that object as many as twelve lots, on the spot known today by the
name of Bosque de Mangos, which trees are planted in the yards of the houses built by the inhabitants,
who contributed as many as five or six lots.
"And being desirous to favor the development of the growing village in spite of the constant struggle
with the pirates and malefactors, a few years later he had a church built in which his son D. Ignacio
officiated, whilst even before that time he confessed and exhorted the neighbors  " — Unidentified
Pamphlet. Elsewhere the dat of the establishment of the parish church at Santa Fe is given as 1810.
"This (Santa Fe) was the only village that existed in 1826, and was situated near the center of
the plantation, distant less than one mile from the thermal spring where the sick people went to cure
themselves and where is now situated the bath called Santa Rita, which is about two leagues to the
south of the landing place of the river of Santa Fe (Jucaro) . . . ." Ibid.
The town has since moved down from the Mango Grove (its original site) to the springs by the
little river.
"In May of that year (1826) D. Clemente Delgado y Espaiia arrived there, accompanied by an adju
tant, a corporal and six soldiers with a doctor (Dr. Labadia). He was commissioned to establish in
the Island the Colony Reina Amalia; and after having seen and examined the spot, the Government
not owning lands there, Mr. Delgado succeeded in getting from D. Andres Acosta, owner of the farm
named Sierra de Casas, the offer of 112 caballerias (caballeria, 33>£ acres) of ground on the west bank
of the river called today Nueva Gerona, fit for cultivation and at a short distance from the sea, to be
distributed among families of farmers.
"The new commander accepted in the name of the Government, as was his duty, came back here,
and having come to an agreement with the Captain -General and the Superintendent in a verbal inter
view, he returned to the Island a few months afterwards, carrying with him twelve soldiers, one artiller
ist and a corporal, fourteen chain-gang prisoners, one small cannon, some ammunition and armament,
instruments and tools to fell trees, prepare ground for sowing, building and provisions to subsist, as there
had not been found on the Island roots nor seeds to sow or plant sweet potatoes, plantains, vegetables
and grain.
"Consequently, with this force and these tools, did he begin in 1827 to fell trees, in order to lay
out the village of Nueva Gerona, whose first buildings were four large halls of mixed soil and palmleaf ,
the first being appropriated to the Commander and his officers, who were the adjutant and the doctor;
in the second the troops were lodged; the third was designed as a prison for the chain-gang, and the
fourth served as a general store, the different ones being christened by their inhabitants with the pom
pous names of Vatican and Quirinal, whose humble architecture contrasted much with the monumental
buildings which were the pride of proud Rome!" — Unidentified Pamphlet.
This pamphlet then goes on to give reasons for the founding on the site chosen, of this new capital
of Nueva Gerona. The access by river was considered easy; and, moreover, Sierra de Casas was a pirate
haunt, and Delgado proposed to oust the pirates; "it would not have been easy to watch the same from
the old village (of Santa Fe)."
Despite Delgado's activity, and the development of his town, "some fear still existed on account
of the pertinacity of the privateers, who had once made a prisoner of the Commandant himself."
In Delgado's second party, which began the actual work of building Nueva Gerona, the chain-
gang prisoners were the first of the "enforced exiles" sent, from that time on until Spanish control
ended, to the Isle to serve sentence.
In May, 1896, Jose Oliva, in a report to the Spanish government on conditions in the Isle at
that troubled time (revolution in Cuba being in full swing) defines these "enforced exiles" as follows:
"Under this heading are included all such persons who, through their political ideas, criminal
record, bad habits or vagrancy, may be considered as a menace to the public peace, and are deported
or exiled to this island, being dependent upon and under the immediate jurisdiction of the authorities
and subject to the orders issued by the head of the Government. They fix their residence at Nueva
Gerona, and those who have an income or the means of obtaining employment are permitted to seek
work and allowed to spend the nights in the town or neighboring farms with the understanding that
they be present at roll-call three times daily. The other prisoners are maintained by the Government
and have the choice of accepting the rations that are prepared in the premises or the equivalent thereof
in cash. These prisoners are allowed the freedom of the town during the day, but must be in their quar
ters at night; the only obligation they are under being to report at roll-call thrice daily, as in the case
of the others mentioned above. At the end of the past month there were on the Island 350 of these
exiles, of which 211 received rations, the remaining 139 keeping themselves."
Oliva adds that the average monthly expense incurred by the government per exile was S4.97.
(2) Geografiade lalslade Pinos, o notas hidrograficas , topograficas, etc., que accompanaron a la carta
de dicha isla, dedicada al Escmo. Sr. Capitan- General D. Francisco Dionisio Vives, por el teniente de
caballeria agrimensor publico, D. Alejo Helvecio Lanier (1831). — Memorias de la Real Sociedad Patri-
otica de la Habana (1836) Vol. 10, p. 99 et seq.
Lanier also made a list of the flora of the Isle of Pines which is printed in Vol. 10 (1836) of the
Memorias de la Sociedad Patriotica de la Habana, p. 201 et seq.
Lanier was evidently a man who knew what science is; his report is concise: in fact, the author
regrets that he attended so strictly to his business, for outside some figures on population the document
contains little extraneous information.

32 ISLE OF PINES

Ruins of the Sugar Mill at Bibijagua
a map (1) of the same, which he dedicated to Captain-General D. Francisco Dionisio
Vives. He accompanied it with valuable notes on the hydography and topography
of the region.
There is little in any of these latter reports to indicate that the situation of
the Isle had altered materially in the half century that elapsed between Franco's
enforced visit, and that paid the district in 1849 by Andres Poey (2) .
The American Invasion
It was not until 1898 that the change began which since that date has trans
figured the country. Then commenced the American invasion, which still con
tinues ; it has brought in men, women and children of other race than ever was there
before, — a hard-headed, strmg-handed, dominant and domineering people who
refer to all things not American in a tone which tells the truth: they have made
the "native" an alien in his own land.

(1) Speaking of Lanier's map, Poey remarks that the Isle of Pines appears on Juan de la Cosa's
map of the Indies dated 1500 ; D Diego Ribero, cosmographer to Carlos V., made in 1529 a map, showing
the Isle of Pines, which was published in 1795; Juan Martinez de Messina's map, dated 1582, shows the
Isle entitled Illas Pinos.
(2) Breve Ojeada historica, hidrografica y topografica de la Isla de Pinos, Anales de la Real Junta
de Fomento y Sociedad Economica de la Habana (1850) Vol. II., Enero a Junto.
Poey saw the marble quarries at Caballos Mountain working; but he foresaw the failure of that
business, for the cost of extraction and shipment was such that the marbles laid down in Havana could
not compete in selling price with others imported from Italy.
He calculated the population of the Isle at about a thousand, including soldiers of the garrison,
prisoners in the jail, the few persons condemned to banishment to the Isle, and other persons deported
for trivial offenses, of whom two or three arrived by each weekly boat. They were vagrants from Ha
vana, condemned to four months' sojourn on the Isle. They were not confined to any place or section
but were given the run of the island Some liked it so well they hastened to get into trouble enough
on return to Havana to secure their reshipment to Nueva Gerona.
"It is quite common " Poey complains, "to hear owners and renters of land in the Isle of Pines
declare that the soil is and and unproductive, useful only as grazing land for cattle. From the number
who are of this opinion we must except the few planters of intelligence who have seen labor exerted
on the land repaid m products.
. _ "The idea that the land is arid, entertained by the people here, prevents the growing of more pro
visions than are needed to keep owners and renters (partidanos) Biowmg ui more pro
f„ Jl}Z -'S Tte llue t]?at jthe sandy plains °f the northern part need the assistance of the plow in order
to yield; unless these lands are cultivated they will grow nothing." On the other hand Poey goes on
a? a?tonget0a retafr fromTt "^ 0" *" *" Sl°PeS '5 S° li6h the £armer need n°' "»rt ^sel"
"These lands are very fertile and in return for little effort on the part of man would abundantly
reproduce what seeds the laborious farmer confided to them would aDunaantly
Q=l J'SV16 'mcu,nd?{ Santa Rita belonging to D Andres Pefia, and Bibijagua, belonging to D Aleio
Salas, I have smoked tobacco ra.sed there m small plots; and undoubtedly its fragraSfe fnd I aromatic

ISLE OF PINES

33

"The Yanqui" in Possession — Mr. W. C. Schultz's Home at Santa Fe

The "Yanqui" has taken possession. The great estates that belonged to the
Zelabers, the Zayas, the Duartes, and the Acostas, he has divided into ten-, twenty-
and forty-acre groves, the property now of Smith, Jones and Johnson. He has
permitted the cattle industry to accomplish the finish towards which it languished
for more than a hundred years. He has bought up the marble mountains and but
awaits an opportune moment to export them. He "calculates" to revive the tobacco
industry, and will some day accomplish his laudable intent.
But meanwhile, he has turned his energy, and sometimes more of his cash than
he can afford, to a venture all his own : citrus fruit culture. He has jewelled the Isle
with the emerald green of his young groves. He has established himself in the two
towns he found on arrival, and he has set up others of his own.
He is building anew, and in his own way, on the debris of the past order of
things. The sugar estate which existed in the Bibijagua district is gone; its wide
fields are grass-covered, and the walls of its factory buildings are crumbling to the
ground. Its present American owners will sell you town lots in the immediate
vicinity.

flavor, very well preserved after manufacture, might, with only a little more cultivation, compete with
the best of the Lena vegas of the partido about Consolacion (in Pinar del Rio province).
"According to statistics for 1845 twenty-seven and a half caballerias (a caballeria is 33^ acres)
of land were under cultivation in the Isle, and they produced for export 4610 hands of tobacco, 223
fanegas of corn, 1349 arrobas of rice, as well as bananas, garbanzos, sweet potatoes, yuca. names, and
fruits; oranges, water melons, 'melons of Castile,' mangos, etc., etc."
This list of exports merits special attention: some little tobacco is still exported, but the
amount is inconsiderable; and the Isle imports corn in large quantities. Rice is still grown, by indus
trious "natives" for their own use; they have hardly reached the 1845 figure of almost two tons for
export! The vegetables and fruits mentioned are still grown, but not in quantity enough to supply
even home demand.
"Agriculture," writes Dr. Luz Hernandez of the Isle in 1856, "may be considered unknown there,
and even the possibility of the establishment of it is generally denied. For my part  I can bring
facts to prove that even in the lands of common quality, I have grown tuberculate vegetables, plantains,
rice, Indian corn, sugar cane, coffee, tobacco, pine-apples, melons and even good garden-stuff, nothing
inferior to the productions of the most celebrated lands of Cuba. The chocolate-nut (cacao) and all
other fruit trees I have planted have grown vigorously and thriftily. . . . Among others, tobacco, par
ticularly starch, rice, coffee and even the sugar-cane would not fail to yield satisfactorily to those per
sons who with the necessary intelligence and capital undertake their cultivation."

34

ISLE OF PINES

The plantation house at Las Nuevas, once the center of a small principality,
is a scattered ruin now, haunted, they say, by the ghost of a suicide. The Amer
icans who live there lose no sleep on that account (1).
And like the country places which were its pride, the old era has vanished.
In place of the almost feudal conditions which prevailed, from the day when Cap
tain Pedroso received the Isle entire as a kingly gift from his monarch, through
the supremacy of the Duartes, down to D. Andres Acosta's succession, a new regime
has developed (accompanied by orange groves, frame houses and motor cars) : it
is democratic, energetic, individual, and ail-American.
(1) Many indeed are the interesting stories, — legends already, despite the recent dates that must
be assigned the occurrences which gave them rise,- — told concerning the old homesteads of the Isle.
The owner's residence at Santa Helena ("Pearcy's Place" now) must have been magnificent; its
ruin indicates as much. There was the master's home, on a hill, commanding a beautiful vista; there
were the slave quarters, so extensive they lend evidence to the truth of rumors that this was a depot
and training ground for negroes brought in during years between the nominal and the actual suppression
of the slave trade, when the traffic continued in the face of declaration by international law that it was
piracy. It is supposed that the old Brazo Fuerte estate was another such depot. Miss Keenan keeps as
curios certain old staples and leg irons found in the walls of buildings there, and in the ruins of the
brick kiln; they may have decorated only "enforced exiles," however, not blacks, stolen from Africa.
It is said that the negroes illicitly brought into the Isle were trained, and so prepared for market,
by free Florida whites, of "The Colony."
The Colony was founded in 1826, for about that time "some families of colored people  immi
grated from Florida, .... to whom some ground was made a present of, besides a small pension to
each of the heads of families who went to establish themselves on the spot designated today by the
name of Colonos.
"Those, although with very small resources, have cultivated the soil. Some work as carpenters and
masons, the women are laundresses, and it is pleasing to see that they generally speak English, French
and Spanish, know how to read and write, and it may be said that they are indebted for all this to the
care of their parents, who are the only teachers who instruct them, whilst all with very few exceptions
are of an exemplary conduct. Would to God that there were colonies of white people as well or
ganized and sustained."— Unidentified Pamphlet.
This colony still exists, at no great distance from Nueva Gerona, within a stockade of its own, amid
a pleasant grove of trees. An old negro presides over the settlement, with the title, some say, of king.
The younger generation have forgotten all but Spanish, though some of the oldest people still speak
English. The author deeply regrets that lack of time, and pertinence to the real subject of this volume, has
prevented a thorough examination into this and other interesting matters,— -including the story of the
planter's daughter who committed suicide when her parents forbade her to love the overseer, said to
have been an American; she shot herself in their presence and the family forthwith abandoned house,
estate and all, so the tale runs. Then, too, there is the story of the bridegroom, killed in wars, whose
ghost haunts the Ceiba Hills, where he is said to have buried money, — and doubtless inquiry could
discover some apparition of Andres Acosta, murdered at Cayo Bonito, by two slaves, one his body
servant; surely the spirit of the man Don Andres himself killed in his day must haunt the stream down
which the body floated. Whose death, furthermore, does the cross by the big fallen palm tree out
Columbia way commemorate ?

1 Native "

ISLE OF PINES

35

Nueva Gerona

IV.

THE TOWNS
1 Nueva Gerona is, in appearance, a typical Cuban country town. From the
custom house on the dock in the Casas River, where the steamer plying between
Cuba and the Isle, miscellaneous schooners, and river launches tie, a broad avenue
leads to the two main thoroughfares which cross it at right angles. Along these
streets stand bright colored houses, red-roofed, with porticoes under which pedes
trians pass, as on a sidewalk, for such in fact their pavements are. The windows
are barred as though each house were a prison ; women and children idle at these
gratings and little naked babies play in and out of the open doors. Beyond, in
sunny courts, are plants in tubs painted red or green. On the outskirts of the town,
on one hand, is the cuartel (barracks), a squat building with rounded corners,
which was built for the first garrison and houses now a detachment of rural guards.
As far in the other direction is the plaza, a desolate square, on which face the church,
erected in 1845, and the new municipal offices. Nueva Gerona is the capital of
the municipal district into which the Isle is constituted; the mayor resides here.
He is Sr. D. Benito Ortiz, a Spaniard, for whom "natives" and Americans alike
have thorough respect, reinforced by personal liking. He was only recently re
elected to his post by the acclamation of all political parties and foreigners (his
fellow-countrymen and American settlers), who, though without the suffrage, are
not without potent influence.

The Barracks

36

ISLE

OF

PINES

S^ISSCK^ :>**e#f
Fetter's at Nueva Gerona
Along the streets which lie between the barracks and the park there are flour
ishing places of business, the liveliest of which are American concerns. There
is a bank (1) and there are two weekly newspapers (2) printed in English with
(1) The Isle of Pines Bank: Thomas J. Keenan, president; Wm. Mason, vice-president; Claude
V. Alnutt, cashier; L. A. Witter, assistant cashier. The directors are these gentlemen, with the excep
tion of the last named, and the addition of J. M. W. Durant, J. A. Hill, Horace P. Hayes and Mayor
Benito Ortiz. There is a savings department which pays three per cent, interest on deposits. (See p. 118)
(2) The Isle of Pines News, F. J. Reed, editor and publisher, is a lively and good-looking sheet.
The Santa Fe News, The Columbia News, The McKinley News, are, in reality, part and parcel with it.
Fuls and Tracy Furniture Factory
ISLE OF PINES

37

The Star Store
pages in Spanish. There are general stores (1) and some which tend to specialize
(2). There is a well stocked caf6 (3). Unfortunately, there is no good hotel (4)
but comfortable enough rooms may be rented (5) and members and their friends
can secure palatable meals at The American Club. Its rooms, pleasantly furnished
and provided with a piano, books, newspapers, etc., are the rendezvous of settlers
who come into town on "mail days," on horseback, in buggies, in wagons, carryalls
and automobiles (6) to meet the boat from Cuba, to get their letters, to exchange
(1) A. Koritzky has the largest general store on the Isle. He sells about everything for which
there is any demand: implements of all sorts, paints, oils, building materials, hardware, furniture,
gasoline, dry goods, etc. The store is at present being remodelled and reorganized. It will eventually
occupy the best part of a block, and each department will then be a store in itself. See p. 123
(2) S. M. Hoover & Co. operate The Star Shoe Store, the specialty of which is Star Brand Shoes,
They handle also ladies' and gentlemen's furnishings, souvenirs, confectionery, bathing suits, etc. See
p. 114. Charles Fetter has here at Nueva Gerona an excellent grocery and general store which supplies
all this end of the island with provisions, hardware and miscellaneous merchandise. See p. 114.
There is, also at Nueva Gerona a completely equipped furniture factory (Fuls & Tracy) where
mahogany, majagua, and other native hardwoods are made into the handsome gsolid furniture, pre
ferred in Isle homes. See p. 122.
(3) Old Virginia Caf6, Richard T. Durham, proprietor. It was established in the fall of 1909 and
does a general wholesale and retail business in wines, liquors, whiskeys and cigars. There is a ladies'
parlor where ice cream and soft drinks are served.
(4) Good hotel accommodations can, however, be obtained just outside Nueva Gerona, notably
at Hotel Costa, a handsome new two-story building situated some five or six miles north of the town.
Conveyances to and from the hotel are available. The hotel has fourteen sleeping rooms and is fitted
with running water throughout. The parlors are very pretty indeed. The dining room is pleasant,
and the meals good. There is a bar. Rates, $3 a day. Mr. A. M. Brown, proprietor. Visitors who
desire to be comfortable while seeing the northern portion of the Isle are advised to make Hotel Costa
their headquarters. See p. 123.
Excellent accommodations may also be had at Villa Constance, on Cleveland Road, Captain
McLane, proprietor.
(5) Inquire for Beaudry's and The American Hotel, which, at present writing, is not serving meals.
(6) Travel through the interior of the Isle of Pines is easy and pleasant. Concerning government
roads especially, see p. 86 et seq.
There is automobile bus service between Nueva Gerona and Santa Fe, and between Santa Fe and

:;,x

ISLE OF PINES

greetings with one another
and to buy in the shops
what they may need. They
bring with them into Nueva
Gerona on those days when
the boat arrives and departs
an atmosphere which makes
the little city seem very
American indeed.
Santa Fe
Although Nueva Gerona
is now the largest and the
busiest town in the Isle,
Santa Fe is considerably the
oldest and, or so it seems to
the writer, it is the pleasant-
est, as a place of residence,
for it lies along a bend in
the Santa Fe River where
green trees and undergrowth
mark a bend in the water
Old Virginia Cafe course (1).
The very commencement of Santa Fe was settlement around the centre ranch
house of Hacienda Santa Fe, at a point where great mango trees mark now the
location known as Asiento Viejo. Later the town, consisting of a. dozen or so
palm-board shacks, thatched with leaves, occupied the rising ground where Bosque
de Mangos is today, — a little woods of mango trees originally planted in the yards
of those early residents. This, undoubtedly, was the Santa Fe (2) pirates molested.
Jucaro, fare $1 per passenger per trip, or $1.50 round trip. An automobile makes the run between
Nueva Gerona and Los Indios, fare, $1.50 each way. There is an automobile service between Santa
Fe and San Pedro and La Siguanea. Even where the roads are not macadamized the cars find no
serious difficulty in passing. Automobiles may be hired for special trips at about $15 per diem. Team
and_carriage, $5 upward, according to trip, per day.
Travellers anticipating hardships, will, if they are at all accustomed to conditions outside a Pull
man car, have difficulty in encountering any which deserve the name no matter what their route or
destination in the Isle. As a unique outing, full of new experiences, yet not too fatiguing, a trip over
the Isle of Pines, particularly in the winter season, is to be heartily recommended.
(1) "In these places," writes Dr. Luz Hernandez, "which are still (1856) the centre of a farm for
breeding cattle, it is true there are no spots decorated by art, nor promenades adorned by the hand
of man. But in compensation, these forest-clad districts afford good walking grounds, beautiful pine
woods, an enchanting sky and very agreeable prospects. In all directions are seen crystalline brooks
of cool and delicious water; meadows enamelled with the loveliest of flowers that seem to carpet the
ground, planted with gigantic pine trees, whose thread-like foliage, agitated by the soft breeze, utters
a grateful murmur that pervades the soul with sweet melancholy, almost ecstasy. And if the sight is
extended far, it invariably rests on the steep summit of some hill, or the peak of some one of the mul
titude of mountains which occur in almost the entire extent of the Isle, separated from each other by
pleasant valleys, studded with pine trees and covered with plants of humbler growth, as various in
their descriptions as beauteous in their aspect."
When the scientist Felipe Poey gazed on this same landscape it affected him so exactly as it did Dr.
Luz Hernandez, that his description formed in identical words without any quotation marks around them'
(2) See p. 31, note 1. The establishment of Nueva Gerona almost depopulated Santa Fe Iii
1849 there was a good sized factory, or distillery, here: La Ilusion, belonging to D Manuel Calvo who
made varnish, turpentine, etc., from the sap of 320,000 pine trees he had tapped for rosin
"The Isle of Pines," according to Dr. Luz Hernandez, in his Memoir on the Salubrity of the Cli
mate, "owes much to Sr. D. Manuel Calvo, who was the first to establish a weekly steamer the Cubano
which made its first appearance at Nueva Gerona on September 15, 1850 " Sr D Pedro Ordonez'
proprietor of Hotel Ceballos, at Santa Fe, informs the writer that Don Juan Costa' y Busquet later had
the Nuevo Cubano, successor, evidently, to the Cubano, made in the United States especially for the
run between the Isle and Cuba; he sold it to the Empresa de Olano y Cia which in turn sold it to the
Empresa de Fomento y Navegacion del Sur, of which Dn. Manuel Calvo y Aguirre was head and ;^
1877 Don Manuel sold it to SresDn Angel G de Ceballos, Juan Francisco PlIs^cU Jose FemTndez
Sedano and Francisco Guerra. In 1S77 Dn. Angel G. de Ceballos became sole proprietor In "l902-4
the vessel was retired on order from government authorities, though it was still Dn Pedro adds Tri
sound condition. ' ' u:>l lu
, "The establishment of steamer connection with Cuba is not," Dr. Luz Hernandez remarks "the
only benefit Sr. Calvo has conferred on the Isle and on the public in general- the merit nf tio t„„*;A„
of the village of Santa Fe belongs to. him, as well as the convenienceSand privacy Offered by the Tern"
plado bath, with its corresponding divisions for respective sexes
"There are at present," wrote Dr. Luz Hernandez in 1856, "both in Nueva Gerona and in Santa Fe
a sufficient number of houses to accommodate twenty-five to thirty families, besides the hotels and
boarding houses, which can conveniently lodge as many more individuals There !t, ™™„; it ¦, I-
for the market, which is held in the streets and in the shops, where many artides of W„™ h£Mlr>S
chased at a small advance on their current prices in Havana. The meats are eeneral v %Z ** " ??*'
the bread superior, the vegetables most excellent, and the poultry ™erv fine fhe« .t l°iB: °od f^W.
game and fish; the milk is incomparably better than in Havana; ana'greelTor^alad's are'no? waning0"

ISLE OF PINES

39

Santa Fe Plaza, — Hermann's shop at left, — Wall & Wagstaff's store at right

Probably it was after some raid that the town moved, coming down to the river
there to settle on its south side in the vicinity of a big ceiba tree, standing yet. At
present its houses, built of brick, stone and mortar since about 1860-65 (1), cover
both banks of the stream, which is bridged over the mineral springs.
The rectangular plaza, shaded by magnificent (2) laurels, is on the north side.
Facing this square is the old Spanish hostelry, Hotel Ceballos (3), and important
places of other business (4) . On the south side is the remodelled Catholic church
building (5), the Protestant churches (6), and the scattered frame and cement
residences of Americans. Other Towns
Nueva Gerona and Santa Fe were already in existence when the first American
settlers arrived in the Isle of Pines. They were not, however, by any means as
active and important as they have become since Americans took possession of
them along with the rest of the Isle, in distant quarters of which they have founded
still other settlements, — Columbia and Los Indios, which have achieved the ap
pearance of villages; Key- View-by- the-Sea; San Pedro and La Siguanea, youngest
of all and wonderfully vigorous; Penrose and Calabaza, platted, but not farther
advanced as yet. Each of these settlements is the centre of a district of it:- own
and each represents not only what it is in itself but the further investment embodied
in acre upon acre of outlying citrus fruit groves. All, towns- that-are and towns-
to-be, are interconnected by government macadamized highways and the private
roads which supplement these, laid like a net over the country. They are the seine
in which the Isle has been dragged from the back-waters of neglect into the swift
current of notable progress.

(1) Dr. Luz Hernandez appears to have been the original Isle of Pines enthusiast. He owned
Cayo Bonito, having purchased that beautiful estate from the Acostas about 1852-3. He did not,
apparently, reside there, but in the building on the south side of the river where the Santa Fe Clubjis
now. In 1857 he published his Memoir on the Salubrity of the Isle of Pines, which was in the nature
of an advertisement of the Isle as a health resort. It was part of a general "boom" on at the time.
At this period the first substantial buildings appeared, the block of which The Santa Fe Hotel is part,
being about the first of these, it seems. Hotel Ceballos was erected in 1862. The brick walls were
put up in 1876-7. Prior to this era of improvement all the houses of the Isle were guano; some had
tiled floors, but it is a mistake to imagine that there were, prior to a very recent date, any handsome
substantial country places. Even the house at Santa Helena (Pearcy's place), now such a picturesque
ruin, is undoubtedly quite a little less than fifty years old.
(2) Laurels were planted all around the plaza in 1854-6 by Don Angel Ceballos. Before houses
he owned they were let to stand and grow; elsewhere, the people pulled them up on the plea that they
obstructed the view. Hence the irregularity in the handsome line of trees. Some were blown down
in the great storm of 1875, but righted by the steamer's sailors and their tackle. One or two were
destroyed in the cyclone of 1906. \
(3) This is a good, old-fashioned Spanish hotel. The host is most obliging and the meals and
service of the house are deserving of the appreciation they receive, especially from the Havanese who,
when they come to the Santa Rita Springs to take their waters, sojourn at Hotel Ceballos.
(4) Wall & Wagstaff's general store faces this square. This firm does a big business, supplying
settlers all through the south half of the Isle especially. See p. 123.
Hermann's general repair shops are here. See p. 123.
Back of the repair shops, on cool high ground, and facing a shady group of mango trees, is the
Hermann House, newly fitted up, where board and rooms are to be had.
(5) Built by Gilbert S. Joyce, contractor. See p. 122.
(6) See p. 96 et seq.

40

ISLE OF PINES

Evidence of American Occupation. (An Isle Grove)

THE AMERICANIZATION OF THE ISLE
"No, I don't believe in conquest,"
says the Yank ....
So he bought up forty acres,
Set it out to red tomaters,
And now he owns the country.
Who? The Yank!
— From Ballad of the Americano.
In 1898 the signing of the Treaty of Paris put an end to the Spanish-American
War. Immediately, certain alert Americans, presuming that the Isle of Pines had
become American territory by virtue of Article II. in that treaty, ceding to the
United States "Porto Rico and all other islands now under Spanish sovereignty
in the West Indies," began an American occupation of the Isle. They bought
great tracts of land from Cuban and Spanish owners, which areas they at once laid
out in smaller parcels and resold to settlers whom they assured that it was Ameri
can soil. Yet in 1902, when the American Military Government of Cuba withdrew
leaving the first Republic of Cuba constituted, the Isle of Pines found itself still
administered as a part of Havana province, just as it had always been (1).
Protests were made to Washington.
(1) Senate Doc. No. 311 contains interesting data arranged to show that the Isle of Pines has
always been an integral part of Cuba, the summary reading as follows : —
1. That the Isle of Pines was considered by the Indians themselves as a part of Cuba; and that it
has been a part of the political entity of Cuba since 1511, when Diego Velazquez was appointed Lieu
tenant-Governor of Cuba "and its dependent isles and keys," and by the Cuban revolutionists in their
constitutions of 1895 and 1897, to the present day — nearly 400 years.
2. That it has been a part of the Province of Habana during every one of its political- administra
tive changes, beginning with 1511, when the whole Island of Cuba was but one province; in 1607, when

ISLE OF PINES 41

On one occasion Havana was startled to learn that the Isle of Pines had seceded,
organized a territorial government of its own, on an original interpretation of the
usual American plan, and was demanding entrance into the American Union.
Despite some irritation, both in the United States and Cuba, aroused by this pictur
esque procedure, no final recognition of the Isle as American territory was obtained;
on the contrary, Secretary Root called attention to the fact that it has always been
an integral part of Cuba, adding that in his judgment the United States has no
substantial claim to it.
But, the Piatt Amendment provides (1901) that title to the Isle shall be left to
future adjustment by treaty between the United States and Cuba. Two treaties
relinquishing it to Cuba having failed of ratification, the door is still open to that
"future adjustment." In the interim, the Isle remains de facto Cuban, pending
definite action by the political departments of the two governments concerned.
Meanwhile, American residents there have made the Isle of Pines an American
community in all save political status.

the said Province of Habana was denominated "Western Department;" in 1827, when the Island of
Cuba was divided into three departments: Eastern, Central and Western, Habana being denominated
by the latter name; in 1850, when the Island of Cuba was again reduced to two Departments, Eastern
and Western, Habana being again denominated by the latter name; in 1879, when the Island was divided
into the six provinces (as they exist today), and Havana Province resumed is present name, as it stands
today. 3. That its local government has always been subject to the jurisdiction of Habana, viz.; 1765,
when it was decreed a partido (district) of Habana; in 1828, when it became Colonia Reina Amalia by
Royal Decree; and in 1880, when it became an ayuniamiento (municipality), as it has continued to the
-present day.
4. That since 1855 it has been in judicial administration in the judicial district of Bejucal in the
Province of Havana, and has continued so to the present time.
5. That in maritime, ecclesiastical, fiscal and military administration it has from the earliest date
belonged to Habana or one of its sub-divisions.
6. That since 1773 it has paid taxes to Habana in one form or another.
7. That since 1765 it has been the object of governmental dispositions, decrees, etc., of the Captain-
General of Cuba.
8. That every census of Cuba, beginning with the first dated 1774, has included the Isle of Pines.
9. In every election held in Cuba the Isle of Pines has participated as a part of the Province of
Habana. 10. For over four hundred years of Spanish domination every Captain-General of Cuba exercised
his authority over it as within the territorial, administrative and political entity called Cuba.
Those who claim that the Isle of Pines is American territory, now, are perfectly willing to concede
that it was Cuban, as above outlined in Senate Document 311, from Indian times clear down to 1898, —
but they contend that on April 11, 1899, it fully ceased to be so, all previous history to the contrary
notwithstanding. On that date the Treaty of Paris was ratified. Article II. of that law reads: "Spain cedes to the
United States the Island of Porto Rico and other islands now under Spanish sovereignty in the West
Indies . . . . "
The argument is that the Isle of Pines is the "other islands" mentioned.
In the famous case of Pearcy vs. Stranahan plaintiff brought his action in the Circuit Court of
the United States for the Southern District of New York against the then collector of the port of New
York to recover the value of certain cigars seized by him which had been brought to that port from the
Isle of Pines, where they had been produced and manufactured. This seizure was made under the Ding-
ley Act, providing for the imposition of duties "on articles imported from foreign countries," the plain
tiff asserting that the Isle of Pines was " in the possession of and part of the United States and hence
domestic territory , " the Supreme Court of the United States (October term, 1906) called attention to
clause VI. of the so-called Piatt Amendment, March 2, 1901, which reads: —
"VI. That the Isle of Pines shall be omitted from the proposed constitutional boundaries of Cuba,
the title thereto being left to future adjustment by treaty."
On July 2, 1903, a treaty with Cuba was signed, relinquishing any claim by the United States to
the Isle of Pines under the above-mentioned Treaty of Paris; but this failed of ratification.
On March 2, 1904, another treaty was signed, also relinquishing all claim to title under the Treaty
of Paris. This, too, has so far failed to obtain the necessary ratification of the United States Senate.
Meanwhile, in 1905, the secretary of state declared that in his judgment the United States has no
substantial claim to the Isle of Pines, and in the Pearcy vs. Stranahan decision the Supreme Court, dis
regarding "some letters of an Assistant Secretary of War" of tenor not in accord with Mr. Root, as
"not seriously affecting the conclusion that the Executive has consistently acted on the determination
that the United States had no substantial claim to the Isle of Pines under the treaty," remarks that
"Congress has taken no action to the contrary of Cuba's title as superior to ours," finally conceding:
"That the action of both the political departments has not been sufficiently definite to furnish a
conclusive interpretation of the treaty of peace as an original question, and as yet no agreement has
been reached under the Piatt amendment.
"The Isle of Pines continues at least de facto under the jurisdiction of the Republic of Cuba, and
that settles the question before us; because as the United States have never taken possession of the
Isle of Pines as having been ceded by the Treaty of Peace, and as it has been and is being governed
by the Republic of Cuba, it has remained 'foreign country' within the meaning of the Dingley act ....
There has been no change of nationality for revenue purposes; but on the contrary the Cuban govern
ment has been recognized as rightfully exercising sovereignty over the Isle of Pines as a de facto govern
ment until otherwise provided . . . ."

42

ISLE OF PINES

Witters
Americans are in the majority of the population; American money is not only
the official but the actual currency of trade; the prevailing architecture outside
the towns is American ; American ministers preach from Protestant pulpits ; Ameri
can teachers preside over schools where American children congregate, and these
schools are conducted in English, as Americans use that language. American
spring wagons and automobiles have replaced the clumsy ox-cart and the pictur
esque coach, and they travel over the best of roads — wide, smooth highways,
which facilitate shipments of fruits from orchards and gardens owned by Americans,
producing for American markets.
It is literally true that Americans own the Isle of Pines. Not two per cent.
of its area is the property of persons of other nationality.
An Anomalous Situation
It is remarkable that so little friction should exist between American settlers
in a community as thoroughly American as the Isle of Pines, and the local officials
who represent political administration of it by another nationality.
Some bad feeling has existed in the past. Certain Cuban authorities installed
at the time of the inauguration of the Republic, in 1902, lacked tact and the ability
to handle the difficult situation created at that juncture by the bitter humor of the
American settlers, for the first time compelled to recognize that they were deceived
in believing the Isle to be recognized American territory. Those officials were soon
replaced. The most violent of the agitators among the settlers — the sort who ad
vocated battle, murder and sudden death unless immediate'recognition as American
territory was forth-coming — were also retired. There followed an era of good-
feeling. It must be recalled that the American settlers on the Isle of Pines form,
seen from Cuba proper, a community of foreigners; they insist, vigorously, upon
remaining so. They have taken possession of a large and valuable territory, which
before their advent paid unquestioned allegiance to Cuba. They even venture to
dispute that allegiance. It is not difficult to imagine how unpleasant, toward any

Hart's Place

ISLE OF PINES

43

Building the Government Roads

similar foreign community within American jurisdiction, the attitude of American
officials would be. Cuba, however, has never appealed to violence, oppression or
even discrimination. Pacifying Effects of Appropriations
During the Palma administration the Isle of Pines was neglected. Its experi
ence was not unique: other municipalities made identical complaint. When
Provisional Governor Magoon put into effect his policy of spending public funds
for the public welfare, instead of hoarding them as treasury surplus, the Isle came
in for much-needed appropriations.
Storehouses have been erected at Jucaro and Nueva Gerona at a cost of
88,007.94. The jail, schoolhouse and barracks at Nueva Gerona, construction
and repairs, cost $16,721.61. A donation of $25,153 was made to the Isle of Pines
municipal council for the equipment of an emergency hospital; for an autopsy
house and its equipment ; for sanitary services ; for the repair of streets and drain
age in Nueva Gerona, a town hall there and a slaughter house at Santa Fe. $176,-
525.65 was made available for roads (1) .
These effective evidences of consideration on the part of the Cuban national
government did much to reconcile Americans in the Isle of Pines to administration
by Cuban authorities. Whereas, formerly, American feeling (and that of many
a native pinero, too, for that matter) had been antagonistic to Havana, because
of Havana's neglect of the Isle's interests, the current began to flow in quite the
opposite direction, and so it continued until, very lately, the suppression of govern
ment schools conducted in English disturbed its placid course. Inasmuch as
there are at several points American children enough to justify the expenditure
necessary to maintain schools for their benefit, and inasmuch as government schools
conducted in English, as Americans use that language, from American text-books,
by American teachers have in past years been provided by the province of Havana,
the Isle does not approve the present administration's abolition of these. It is,
however, part and parcel of that Administration's unique policy of retrenchment:
the Cuban government is, frankly, "broke," and, as usual, the Department of
Education is the first affected. Americans, unaccustomed to see a government
remain lavish in non-essentials while economizing in schools, criticize the present
regime severely and are demanding a reconsideration of the matter. Meanwhile,
the settlers of the Isle are paying teachers by subscription and the children are
taught regardless of stringency in the Cuban Treasury.
The Land Companies
Principal among the forces which have made the Isle of Pines American are
the land companies, American corporations which bought, each on its own account,
large tracts of land from Spanish and Cuban owners, cleared their titles, surveyed
the areas concerned, laid the property out in parcels of convenient size, and have
resold or are reselling to individual settlers or other companies.
(1) See p. 86 et seq.

44 ISLE OF PINES

In the beginning the Isle went through all the tragic stages of the regulation
land boom. Its possibilities were dimly comprehended; its drawbacks had not
yet been learned. The agents who described it to excited customers in the United
States did not themselves know how accurate or inaccurate their statements were.
The settlers who arrived in response to their urging found out.
The first estate so placed upon the market was Santa Rosalia, in the northeast
corner of the country (1). The Americans who set out the first citrus fruit or
chards there had everything to learn concerning the country and also concerning
orange trees. The first groves they planted, — setting the trees too deep to begin
with, — have disappeared; others which replaced them are coming into bearing
now. The oldest of these have already shipped fruit. Gone, too, from beside the
government road between Nueva Gerona and Santa Fe, which traverses the Santa
Rosalia estate near its western boundary for some four miles, is the wreck of the
town of Santa Rosalia Heights. Its deserted store building, its unused packing
house, and the frame of a residence never completed, stood, until recently, weather-
gray and sagging, salutary reminders that the "golden apples of the Hesperides"
are not always easy picking, even in the Isle of Pines. Along this same road are
some of the handsomest and most successful groves in the Isle. Comparison be
tween them and deserted clearings, from which every vestige of cultivation has
disappeared, along with hopeful little homes which were once within these enclos
ures, indicates how important in undertakings of this sort is the personal equation,
and how unwise it is for even the most energetic man to attempt a citrus fruit grove
without sufficient funds in hand to support himself and it, up to the time of its
profitable bearing. "Safe and Sane"
Meanwhile, the Isle has progressed. Those companies whose sole object was
to sell land have been succeeded by others (or they have changed management
and policy) who are less desirous to dispose of land than they are to place it in the
hands of persons with the energy and the means to develop it successfully. They
have observed that every settler's success increase's the value of what land remains
to them in his vicinity ; every failure works to the contrary. Therefore they go so
far, in some instances, as to inquire into the amount of money over and above the
purchase price of his land a customer has available to carry him through, and if
they consider this insufficient, or discover that the purchaser is of a disposition
likely to fail in his undertaking, they dissuade him from his purpose to settle in the
Isle. The result is evident in the substantial development of the last few years
and in the quality of the people arriving. The New Era
At the same time communities which began as an expression of various land
companies' private interests have grown beyond these, acquiring an identity which
is their own, above and apart from that of the corporation which fostered them in
the commencement, and whereas it was until very recently easiest to study the
Isle by taking up one after another the affairs of the land companies busied there,
one now finds that in the four quarters of the country the residents are organized
among themselves, socially and commercially (2) as such, without any reference
to persons from whom they bought the land they own. In brief, the Isle of Pines
is settling down to a normal existence. It h'as been, heretofore "a land company
proposition." It is so no longer. These companies have served their purpose
and some of them have served it well; not a few, having done so have retired'
Others survive,— as rational and well regulated real estate agencies doing their
business as it is done in any other American community of orchardists.
(1) C. M Johnson was the prime mover in the organization of many of the land companies which
have handled Isle of Pines property. Mr. Johnson first landed on the Isle on March "l 8 ' 1898 h? Jas" in
search of timber and therefore visited the South Coast. It was he who got trie first option tetarfoS
by Americans; the agreement was made out on half a sheet of note paper and covered 17 MO acres rf
the estate now known as the Santa Rosalia tract. Mr. Johnson soon had 26 Americans ^interested-
first payments were made m March, 1901. The following is a list of land compares "which forthwith'
organized ,n the order rf their formation: 2d, Almacigos; 3d, La Ceiba; 4th Santa Fe 5th pfM
6th Calabaza; 7th, Canada; 8th Los Indios; 9th, San Juan; 10th, El Hospital 11th. Las TTiinas 12th
Hatillos- 13th, 0,o de Agua; 14th, El Mamey; 15th, Paso Luis. These companie had^ariZ? nffiri.i
titles, but the above are the tracts they handled. wmpames naa various official
(2) See Chap. xiv.

ISLE OF PINES

45

*&*£;?'• 'S.

jlN.k*"*-****'

>$<-

At Columbia — The Calzada under Mt. San Juan

VI.

THE ISLE AS IT IS

.... Me inspiran las llanuras bellas,
Engalanadas de verdor eterno,
Do nunca helada estampd sus huellas,
Cefiido de tinieblas del invierno.
— In the Isle of Pines, Fernando Velarde.

The Isle of Pines constitutes, as previously stated, one municipal district, the
head (cabecera) of which is the town of Nueva Gerona (1). Omitting the South
Coast as a region quite apart in physical characteristics and population, it is hard
to divide the remaining, northern, portion into more than arbitrary quarters accord
ing to the compass, from an imaginary centre lying somewhere within the San
Francisco Estate.

(1) Since this district is, for all purposes of administration, an integral part of Havana Province
and, therefore, of the Republic of Cuba, its inhabitants, native and foreign alike, are liable to national,
provincial and municipal taxation. Payment does not purchase for unnaturalized foreigners any repre
sentation in political affairs. Nevertheless, the triple burden rests fairly easy. In matter of real
estate, following a usage general in Cuba, an official appraisement is made once in five years, by the
municipality, which is concerned to know, not the value of the property itself, but rather the income
derived from it, on which a tax amounting to four per cent, on rural real estate and eight per cent, on
urban, is levied. No account is taken of improvements which may be made thereafter, increasing the
value, until the next regular appraisement comes round, with the fifth year. The municipality
also levies a tax on all places of business, on conveyances, on riding horses, on public entertainments,
etc. Thirty per cent, of the municipality's receipts are turned over to the province, which has no direct
dealings with citizens. In exchange for taxes paid, the Isle receives the usual services rendered by

46

ISLE OF PINES

¦

Panorama of Santa Ana
To visit the northeast quarter of the Isle it is easiest to go ashore at Columbia
Landing and drive three miles or so west by very little north over excellent govern
ment road leading from the dock on the Jucaro River, there, to the edge of Columbia
townsite, thence continuing due north through it, toward Bibijagua, and finally
west and northwest again, to Nueva Gerona. Out of the townsite there is a cross
country cut-off to Nueva Gerona, shorter than the main road, which it presently
rejoins, following a more picturesque route than the official way, through ragged
hills between the trees and hanging shrubs on which limestone and marble cliffs,
honeycombed with caves, show checkered black and white.
Columbia, lying at the foot of its little monumental hill (Mount San Juan), is
the oldest all-American town on the Isle of Pines. It was founded in 1902 by the
Isle of Pines Land and Development Company (1) which has since divided its
holdings among its stockholders (who pay their taxes in community and are as
sessed five cents an acre each for roads, other public improvements, and the school
fund) and retired from all save the nominal existence necessary under the require
ments of its charter.

governments: sanitation is looked after (fortunately the climate is such that little is needed of the
department); there are municipal and provincial police; and, to reinforce them, rural guards (a
national force). There are free schools managed by the Province of Havana. There is a custom house,
fitting monument to the national government. It is from the custom houses of the country that the
national government of Cuba receives its principal, not to say its sole support. Hardly aware why or
when he pays it, or to whom, it is to the national government, collecting through its custom house,
that the American settler along with the native on the Isle of Pines, hands over his heaviest contribu
tion. So instinct is quite in the right, then, when it leads him to look to the central, national govern
ment for major favors, — donations to cover threatened deficits, money for roads, etc., — in short a gen
eral paternal supervision of local government affairs. It is the thoroughness with which custom house
officials, empowered by virtue of the high tariff enforced, collect their dues, that makes mere existence
on the Isle of Pines (in all Cuba!) as expensive as real living ought to be. There is but the one custom
house on the Isle of Pines. It is situated at Nueva Gerona and through it all direct importations from
abroad must pass prior to distribution among their destinations. A^l direct importation is from the
United States. Among heaviest items are hay, oats, canned vegetables, corn, canned fruits, soap and
condensed milk. Fertilizer, which otherwise might constitute the leading article, comes via Havana
and is therefore not noted in Gerona customs records. "Used household goods" being duty free are not
listed at all. There are no export duties.
(1) G. W. Durham, president; Frank M. Nelson, vice-president; L. C. Giltner, secretary (address,
Columbia, Isle of Pines. W.I.); E. W. Clark, treasurer.

ISLE OF PINES

47

Showing General Development

Its affairs being in the hands of actual settlers there, aided by absentee owners,
Columbia has persisted against the odds this settlement has encountered from its
commencement, because it was the first attempt of Americans to establish them
selves in a new country in a business (citrus fruit culture) to most of them as new
as the land in which they set their trees too deep, for example, at the very outset.
Most of their first groves have disappeared, but others which have replaced them
are shipping fruit now.
There is a new hotel in the town (1), general store (2), post office, and school.
Church services are held regularly (3) .
There is most notable among residents in Columbia district » strong bond of
neighborliness which unites them one and all in defensive alliance against all diffi
culties the community, or any individual member of it, may encounter, nor do they
hesitate to take the aggressive when to do so appears desirable (4) .
From the point where the government road between Columbia and Nueva
Gerona turns a right angle west toward the latter town, a sixty-foot private road
continues due north, to Key-View-by-the-Sea, as the town the Columpo Bay Land

(1) Hotel Columbia, a three-story building, with gas plant, refrigerator, hot and cold water.
The building is well furnished throughout. "From the broad verandas of Hotel Columbia may be seen
miles of the surrounding country with its interesting chains of wooded hills and heavy forests of pine,
and at almost every hour of the day the white sails of the Cuban fishing boats off shore are visible from
the upper galleries. The glory of a tropical moon rising out of the placid waters of the Caribbean but
a few miles to the eastward is a scene for which words can afford no adequate description." — Isle of
Pines Appeal.
(2) A modern, up-to-date store, conducted under the firm name of Clark & Giltner, two of the
leading spirits in the life of the colony." The post office is in this store; it has international money
order privileges.
(3) There is a Ladies' Aid Society, Mrs. Albert R. Archibald, president; and the Cemetery Asso
ciation, Mrs. Ira Brown, president, which is in charge of the American cemetery, fenced it, laid it out
properly, and put up the gate. For mention of the Columbia Commercial Club and the Social Club,
see p. 95 et seq.
(4) As stated, the land company which launched Columbia has retired from business; the colony
is now in the hands of its settlers, and to obtain further particulars, maps of the tract, prices of lands
which individuals have for sale within it, etc., inquiries must be addressed to the business men of the
community, — for instance, to Clark & Giltner, to Ewing & Bashor, or to Ira A. Brown, all resident at
Columbia, Isle of Pines, West Indies.

48

ISLE OF PINES

Around Laguna Blanca

Company (1) has platted along Bibijagua Point is called. This road leads across
what used to be the canefields of the old Bibijagua estate toward the only two
abrupt headlands distinguishing all that coast, — Colombo (2) and Bibijagua Points.
Immediately west of Colombo Point is Colombo Bay, a beautiful sheet of
water, brilliantly blue and sparkling on a sunny day when just breeze enough stirs
to dimple its surface from shore to shore. It appears to be fairly encircled by the
marble hills of Caballos, of which the headland itself seems a fragment. Between
Colombo and Bibijagua Points a pleasant beach lies in a curve: it is clear white
sand, every separate grain of which is a sharp-edged quartz crystal. Beyond In
dian Point, — a bushy bulk, — the coast dips in again to form the picturesque and
sheltered cove of Bibijagua Beach, favorite resort of picnic and bathing parties.
It looks still much as it must have looked to Columbus' admiring companions
who were, undoubtedly, the first white men to venture into its seclusion. Guarded
by Bibijagua Point on the east and, lesser in importance, Indian Head, on the west,
protected at the rear by green heights, it is open on the north to the cool breezes
which blow across the parti-colored waters of the Gulf of Batabano, over a chain
of mangrove keys scattered at no great distance out, like a handful of emeralds
prodigally thrown to sea by a giant hand. It has witnessed, first, great deeds of
history, in which scenes Columbus was chief actor; then, less laudable feats of
piracy, — bloody dramas, sometimes, through which Drake and Morgan and Peg-
Leg Jols strode arrogantly; next, quieter scenes of agricultural development,
during which period the marble quarries of Caballos, the tanneries at Brazo Fuerte,
and the sugar estate (3) at Bibijagua itself, were all in profitable operation; and
now, finally, the last act: these headlands and pleasant beaches, the sugar lands
(1) A. C. Robertson, Sr., president; X. O. Werder, vice-president; H. H. Robertson managing
director, 354 Frick Avenue, Pittsburg, Pa. See p. 122.
(2) This is undoubtedly the correct spelling, Columpo being a corruption.
(3) This mill was excellently equipped in its day, with machinery of French make and latest type
When the war of 1868-78, in Cuba, demoralized business conditions, it was simply abandoned by its
owners who had never managed it with economy. The last zafra was made in 1878 — three hundred
hogsheads (a measure common then) of dry sugar, as Sr. Blanco, of La Ceiba, who was mayor domo
there, distinctly recalls. Alejo Salas, the owner, raised bananas, vegetables and tobacco as well as
cane. This was not the only sugar mill (but it was the best one) on the island, then; there were eight
other trapiches and the making of molasses and crude sugar was perhaps the principal agricultural
enterprise in the community.

ISLE OF PINES

49

J. A. Miller's Hon

around the hills, the poetic ruins of the old mill, — all the vicinity, with its records,
its legends, its possibilities, — is covered with the blue-print map of Americans
selling winter homes and small tracts, adjoining the townsite of Key- View, for
citrus fruit orchards. Around the giant laurels which, gnarled and mighty, mark
the entrance to the deserted sugar factory, they have laid out an experimental
garden which is intended to supply all customers with seedlings of tropical fruits,
flowers and shrubs (winter aguacates and freestone mangos) for commercial and
decorative purposes. Beside Colombo Headland, where the Discoverer himself
may have stood to look across the fair country he had found, they are repairing
docks from which the sugar mill shipped, in its time ; they will rebuild its brick
warehouse, and where sunken piles mark the place throw out a 300-foot pier into
fifteen or sixteen feet of safe and sheltered water.
Just east of Bibijagua Point the company has erected a twenty-eight room
hotel, and from this as a centre it is intended to build up a colony of persons who
will make this their winter home. The attractions offered are the climate, the
beauty of the natural surroundings, fishing, bathing and boating in waters tranquil,
delightful in temperature and in aspect. Nothing, it would seem, could better
illustrate the history of the Isle itself than changes here, at Bibijagua, from 1494
to 1910. North and west of Nueva Gerona is the Palm Grove district where are situated
a good many well-kept American groves and truck-gardens. Along its water
courses, taking short routes northward to the coast, there is attractive vegetation,
and in the leaf mould along their banks good vegetables are produced (1).
The Casas Mountains, west of Nueva Gerona, are directly south of the Palm
Grove district; south of them, and a little west, is (2) Santa Ana (the property of
J . A . Miller) and Cuchilla Alta estates (this latter the property of Miller and Rohrer (3) ,
represented by J. A. Miller, of Nueva Gerona, who is selling in parcels of convenient
size) . Mr. Miller's original holding was seven hundred acres ; he has since acquired
(1) Lands here have not been in the hands of any developing company but were purchased by
the Americans who now own the region entire, direct from native proprietors.
(2) The name Asiento Viejo by which this vicinity is known in Spanish would indicate that Santa
Ana was in the beginning the very centre of some one of the large estates into which the Isle was origi
nally divided, for the primitive centres of such estates were called asientos viejos as against centres
of subsequent divisions of the first big grant.
(3) See p. 115.

50

ISLE OF PINES

The Palm Grove District

adjacent land to a total of eight thousand acres, which have been surveyed and
properly laid off. Mr. Miller, who resides on the Santa Ana tract, and, because it is
his home, has more than an agent's interest in the community, requires each pur
chaser to develop at least five acres of land. The first planting at Santa Ana was
done in 1907. Now, from Mr. Miller's home, one looks out over as pleasing and
prosperous a panorama as is to be found anywhere. Between his house and the
southwestern outposts of Casas Mountains is Laguna Blanca (White Lake) and on
slopes which rise from it in gentle undulations, there are straight and stately rows
of citrus trees (1). There are now five hundred acres set to trees and vegetables
and twenty-five American families resident on this tract.
South of Santa Ana are the six hundred acres of Charco Frio estate, the prop
erty of Dr. Hansel of Ottumwa, Iowa, on which Mr. Abbey is, undoubtedly, the
best known settler: he has grown some famous strawberries there.
Along the good road which leads from Nueva Gerona, skirting Casas Moun
tains, to these tracts, there are attractive lands facing along the Casas River 
Mr. Allnutt's, where he has built a most comfortable cement block residence; the
Rogers' place; Snyder's; Tolksdorf's; and the Binckley ranch. These are bounded
on the east by the stream, flowing smooth as a mirror's surface between steep banks,
hung with trees and shrubs (palms and flowering plants) so perfectly reflected in
the water of a calm morning it is difficult to tell where reality ends and its counter
part commences. From the dwelling house on each of these little estates a path
leads to the river and there, in boat houses more or less improvised, are anchored
the launches, row boats and canoes in which owners travel to and from town On
the right-hand side of the river lies Brazo Fuerte, showing red and white among
r„/1LT,he.I'\is Pr°£ably no mor? encouraging prospect in the Isle than this one from the veranda
of Mr. Miller s home, but to appreciate one must see it rather than read of it, or at eastTnspec t a pho
tograph of it (inadequate as even that is), as presented in panorama on pp. 46-49. See also P 79

ISLE OF PINES

51

San Joaquin, — C. V. Allnutt's Residence

the green of surrounding gardens and groves. The smoke from its ice-plant's
chimney lends an aspect of activity to a scene of quiet otherwise undisturbed (1).
Out of Nueva Gerona two roads lead into the northwest quarter of the Isle.
One is the government macadamized highway, preferred by automobilists ; the
second road, rougher than the calzada (2) but a good road nevertheless, has a more
pronounced southwesterly trend and is, therefore, the shortest way from Nueva
Gerona to the settlements of the Los Indios district, on Siguanea Bay. Travelling
by either road one passes en route Hotel Costa, A. M. Brown, proprietor, a com
fortable two-story square building, to enter which surprises the visitor. It is
planned and furnished inside with excellent taste; comfort and appearance both
have been considered. In dining hall, parlors, bath, bedrooms, nothing is lacking
(3) ; Hotel Costa is headquarters for tourists and investors inspecting all the north
half of the Isle of Pines.
All through this northwest quarter there is much intelligent development
being carried forward by private individuals, whose groves one sees, for instance,
(1) Brazo Fuerte was probably never before as flourishing as it is now, but possibly when the tile
and brick yards and the tannery were in operation Major Sarda, coming down from his residence (more
or less of a ruin now, nestled in Casas hills, on the right of the road as one drives out to Santa Ana),
overlooked from the river bank opposite it a picture of at least approximately as great activity. See pp.
11-12. (2) The Spanish for highway, — a word visitors soon learn.
(3) The author has not seen as pleasant a hotel as this one anywhere in the island of Cuba.

Hotel Costa

52

ISLE OF PINES

along Cleveland Road, and at Santa Teresa; there Young Brothers have brought
to bearing one of the best orchards on the Isle where they have as pleasant and com
fortable a home as one could desire to see.
The region is rather heavily wooded with pines which increase in girth and
height as one proceeds (in carriage or automobile) over the really good private
roads which here supplement the government's improvements. By the time one
penetrates La Esperanza tract the timber has become imposing (1) , The road into
Los Indios is, at the last, a narrow aisle between mighty pine trees.
The Canada Land and Fruit Company (2) holds titles to the Los Indios and
the Canada tracts, which, together, contain twenty-three thousand acres of land.
The Canada tract is situated east of the Los Indios plantation, at the foot of the
Canada mountains. Its northern boundary is the Los Indios River which is the
southern boundary of the Los Indios tract, near the mouth of which (the stream
empties into Siguanea Bay) is the town of the same name.
This town is accessible by
sea as well as by land. The
company's launch Canada
makes the trip twice weekly
between Nueva Gerona and
Los Indios, in some five hours'
time. The course lies in
pleasant waters by the
northern and western shores
of the Isle. The Caribbean
is ordinarily very blue and
placid; cool breezes blow, and
the changing shore-line is never
without interest, attention
centering now in the moun
tains, — Caballos, Canada,
Daguilla, Casas, — always in
sight yet altered in aspect
each moment as the observer
changes point of view; and
now, closer at hand, in islets
and promontories and indenta
tions in the coast which are
the mouths of rivers meeting
the sea. There is a road from
Los Indios by way of La
Cunagua and La Ceiba to
Santa Fe, but the route most
travelled nowadays (the com
pany maintains regular auto
mobile and carriage service)
crosses the northwest quarter of the Isle, to Nueva Gerona. There are nineteen
miles (in addition to this road) of cut roads through the tracts, to aid their develop
ment (3) .
The residents at the Los Indios settlement are western people, acquainted, at

Bananas at Los Indios

* til trWI?JeiD)?la?'r a detour> on the Esperanza tract, to the old homestead there, now the prop
erty ot Mr. H. M. Bmckley A native family occupies an exceptionally thrifty group of huts in the
shade ot a grove of native fruit trees of many varieties, among them giant mangos and the peculiar-
,Z ed/°?f aPpie,tree- H°P are penned under the mangos which were, at the time of this visit, bent
under fruit that drops to the fattening swme below as it ripens. In the tangle about the house there
W 1 k°a 16S' bananas' Plantains, in the profusion that bespeaks rich soil, and the same confusion
one finds usual on native places in eastern Cuba, for instance.
capita? stock0!™^^,^ llU\\ ,Cor-pany ¦ S iS^orf^ated, undf ,r the la™s of the state of Wisconsin :
capital stock 5,500 000, offices at 117 Wisconsin St., Milwaukee, Wis.; president Charles S Brown-
bookPoTth1TlslLYpfT;eLOrh?ard; secretar£i.E; G- AJj". to whom application should be made tethe
DooK: on the isle ot Fines the company publishes. See also pp. 91 and 117.
(3) These roads, cut by survey straight through timbered areas, connect the scattered m-oves
tl^^in^lV^t^ltt^ ^^ °th6r' Wlth th6 "» and With & ^ Tnert

ISLE OF PINES

53

The Hammond Home at San Pedro

least by heredity, with frontier conditions which they are overcoming at Los Indios.
Their houses are erected and into their homes the thriftiest of them have brought
culture along with comfort (1).
All soils are represented at Los Indios; there is a large white sand surface
from six to twelve inches deep, underlaid by a yellow sand stratum of about the
same depth, below which is a yellow or chocolate clay loam. In the dryest seasons
the Isle has yet experienced this soil has retained moisture and the trees planted
in it have not drooped. The Canada Mountains seem to have constituted them
selves special sentinels over these western lands, for they hold up rain clouds drifting
in from sea, and it is a fact, admitted, that even during unusual dry seasons when
other sections of the Isle have wanted water, the western plantations had pre
cipitation. There is a general store at Los Indios, a post office and a school conducted by
an American teacher in English for the children of the settlement, which fifteen
pupils (average) attend. Church services are held twice a month and Sunday
school services each Sabbath. There is a hotel from which the visitor takes his
departure with sincere regret (2) .
From Los Indios a trail, which in the Isle of Pines means a road, rough but
quite passable for a buggy drawn by a willing mule, leads across a tract of land
known as San Pedro Heights (3), where settlers are cultivating small estates,
towards the townsites of La Siguanea and San Pedro in the consolidated San Pedro
tract. The San Pedro estate consisted originally of twenty thousand acres purchased
by The Whitney Land Company (4), organized in 1906, and five thousand acres
purchased by the Columbus Isle of Pines Company (5) in December, 1908. The
first development in this section was started by the latter company, which, imme
diately after having taken possession, commenced improvements on a large scale.
A little later, owing to the rapid growth of their colony, it became necessary to
have more land, and negotiations were completed in the spring of 1910 whereby
all the land of The Whitney Land Company, including seven thousand eight hun
dred acres which had been recently sold to The Andorra Realty Company (6),
came under the control of Hammond, Hammond & Baker, the active spirits of
the Columbus Isle of Pines Company, and the combined properties are now being
exploited by this firm as one proposition.
(1) The home of the Doud family at Los Indios is a model Isle home, both in its plan, construction
and especially in its management, as housewives will discover to whom Mrs. Doud opens her cooling
closet and preserve and store room.
(2) Canada Inn, at Los Indios, L. H. Joy, proprietor. Not as pretentious and therefore more
homelike than others on the Isle, this little hotel at Los Indios provides its patrons with airy, well
furnished rooms, and quite the best meals found, this trip, on the author's journey over the island.
(3) This tract comprises about 4,800 acres and is the property of Hammond, Hammond & Baker
and Harper & Bunn, and will later be added to the San Pedro tract.
(4) The Whitney Land Company, — William Warner Harper, president; William F. Dedaker%
vice-president; Thomas Tansey, treasurer; offices, 1212 Steven Girard Bldg., Philadelphia, Pa.
(5) The Columbus Isle of Pines Company, — Frank N. Hammond, president; Charles A. McAllister,
vice-president; John L. Baker, secretary; Fred M. Hammond, treasurer; offices, 16 E. Broad St.,
Columbus, Ohio. See pp. 110-111.
(6) The Andorra Realty Company, — William Warner Harper, president; William F. Dedaker,
vice-president; Henry C. Bunn, secretary and treasurer; offices, Chestnut Hill, Philadelphia, Pa. See
p. 118.

54

ISLE OF PINES

Of the
original tractof five
thousand acres,which
was call-
e d the
" Ohio
Tract" (owing to
the fact
thatmostof the
purchasers are
Ohio peo
ple), very
little re
mains un
sold. Cit
rus fruit
groves are in
evidence
'Jltrf' fm°ret^ four hundred acres having already been planted.^InThe
townsite of San Pedro (1), located on the bank of the San Pedro River, forty or
fifty people make their homes and enjoy the social conditions which a hard- workme
pleasure-loving community of Americans always affords.
(1) Townsite eighty acres, in lots 73 x 150. The streets are from 60 to 80 feet wide.

Casa Hernandez
Road Making— on the San Pedro Tract

ISLE OF PINES 55

There is a hotel at San Pedro, Casa Hernandez (1), named for the occupant of
the old San Pedro homestead, on the site of which the new building stands. A
general store does a thriving business, and the enterprising young American who
runs it has recently been made postmaster and will distribute the mail for both
San Pedro and La Siguanea. A schoolhouse, thoroughly up-to-date and in keeping
with other improvements made on this tract, has just been completed and will be
maintained by the settlers of San Pedro as an exclusively American school. Church
services which have heretofore been held in the hotel will be held in the new school
building, until a suitable structure can be erected for that purpose.
San Pedro is the youngest settlement on the Isle of Pines and the liveliest.
It is in the hands of active managers who are observant men, and, therefore, its
people are profiting by the past experiences of all the Isle. They know what to-
plant, when to plant it, how to care for it, and, by the time the fruit is ready to
ship, they will be in a position to market their crops to greater advantage than has
been possible heretofore to any colony.
La Siguanea, which the Andorra Realty Company propose to make the most
beautiful city in the south, comprises about seventeen hundred acres of land (2),
beginning at the coast of Siguanea Bay, on which it fronts, for about four miles, to
the west, and extending northwest to the Itabo River. The town has been laid
out by Olmstead Brothers, those celebrated landscape artists of Boston who have
achieved the beauty of many public parks throughout the United States, including
Central Park, New York (3). They have planned La Siguanea ideally yet with
sensible reference to the natural advantages of its situation. It is proposed to
make La Siguanea the great winter resort of the Isle of Pines and to accomplish
that purpose no expense will be spared (4) .
A little north of the centre of the townsite there is a series of hills, from the
summit of which one overlooks a very wide expanse of pineclad country. Across
the bay, on the one hand, one distinguishes the South Coast, while, on the other,
the eye travels landward across all the Isle, picking out here and there, as land
marks, the mountains of other ranges. Upon one of these hills, high, dry and
breezy, a permanent hotel will be erected, along with cottages for the further con
venience of visitors who will make their winter residence here. Meanwhile, an
exceedingly pleasant temporary hotel, Andorra Inn, stands on the north edge of
the townsite (5) and here at present writing travellers through the district are made
comfortable indeed.
Purchasers of land within the townsite must conform in their improvements
of it to the general plan of La Siguanea' s upbuilding. Around the town large and
small parcels are for sale for the planting of groves or whatever other use the pur
chaser may desire to make of them.
Straight roads have been made over the entire San Pedro tract and already
a good road, suitable for automobiles, crosses it, connecting La Siguanea and the
beach on the west with San Pedro, and extending thence north and east to La Ceiba
and Santa Fe (6).
The road out of San Pedro, as at present travelled by automobiles and wagons
to and from the east and north of the Isle, crosses the northern portion of Las Tunas
plantation, an estate comprising nine thousand acres, the property of William R.
Hill & Co. (7) . As the traveller sees, in journeying along, Las Tunas is well tim
bered, well watered and well drained. It is bounded on the south by Cienaga de

(1) Built by Gilbert S. Joyce, contractor, who also built the Hammond residence here.
(2) There are nearly 3,000 lots in the townsite. Wide streets and boulevards have been cut and
are being improved. The Prado, 200 feet wide, extends from the foot of the mountains to the sea and
has a solid foundation of rock covered with gravel.
(3) Olmstead Brothers laid out the grounds of the Seattle (Wash.) exposition; they assisted in
the work of laying out those of the World's Fair at St. Louis. J. Frederick Dawson, a member of the
firm, who has been conspicuous in much of its best work, personally superintended the laying out of
La Siguanea. "The work of nature was so complete that Mr. Dawson and his fellow engineers labored
to great advantage and the result is most pleasing." — The Appeal.
(4) Bathing, yachting, fishing, hunting, mountain-climbing, all in a climate not surpassed, are
listed as the attractions which will bring pleasure seekers to the new resort.
(5) Andorra Inn is well-built, well-furnished and well-managed. It is unusual in a new community
to find conditions as pleasant as those which await visitors to La Siguanea even now, young as the
settlement is.
(6) Over ten miles of road has been completed and is ready for use in this tract, some of it as well
built as the government calzadas. Through the Ohio tract the road is lined on both sides in stretches
over a mile in length, by well-cared-for citrus fruit groves.
(7) Offices at Zulueta 9, Havana. See. p. 120.

56

ISLE OF PINES

Brotherhood's

Lanier, an arm of Siguanea Bay, which will afford communication by water be
tween Las Tunas, when such shall be desired, and the transportation facilities of
that deep water harbor.
By a pass between very pleasant hills (along the road mango trees indicate
that formerly there was a native homestead on the slope) the road enters La Cuna
gua tract, — hilly, covered with pines of size, and some hard wood, — the source of
very many streams which flow from here in every direction ( 1) .
This road, approaching Santa Fe, traverses the Ceiba district and from among
its hills descends into the town. It passes through the Brotherhood plantation,
close by Mason's and in front of Jacques'. Christy's Vista Hermosa estate is on
the right hand, on the far side of hills; neither does one see Tucker's or Jones', off
the main road, on the left. These are the best known groves in the Isle of Pines.
They have passed the experimental stage and are in remunerative bearing. Mason's
is the pride of even more than its neighborhood ; groves, plantation house, packing
sheds and out buildings, it constitutes a. complete gentleman planter's estate.
Tucker's (2) is the excellent result of six years' hard work; its two thousand trees
range in age from one to seven years. Shipments are being made.
The Brotherhood estate, the property of Mr. A. Brotherhood, of East Aurora,
New York, comprises one thousand five hundred eighty-five acres of land, forty-
eight acres of which are set to citrus fruit (3) , two-thirds grapefruit ; among the
oranges are two hundred fifty kings, which are bearing fruit that attracts attention
in the market. The first planting was made in 1903 and the first fruit shipped
(1) Where Stark's sawmill is now situated seems to be the very watershed of all the island; the
name La Cunagua is said to be derived from the Spanish words meaning "cradle of waters."
(2) Mrs. M. W. Preston, Auburndale, Mass., proprietor; Mr. Fred Tucker, resident manager, who
has made the place.
(3) Little fertilizer has been used on this grove; more is now being applied. There is a creek
across the grove which makes irrigation feasible, if desired.

ISLE OF PINES

57

Park and the Catholic Church at Santa Fe

in 1907. There are also on the estate plantings of bananas, which fruit sells in
bunches to good advantage, and plantains, in local demand. There is a pine
apple patch, from which fruits are sold to the immediate market. There are
thirty-two varieties of native fruits, wild and cultivated. There are, on the place,
seven tenants who raise tobacco in the hills, of a celebrated quality (1). Mr.
Lind, the manager, has made hay from grass permitted to grow among the citrus
fruit trees. Brotherhood's is, in brief, a well-planned, self-sufficient, sub-tropical
citrus fruit plantation (2) .
There are in the immediate vicinity of Santa Fe (3) many beautiful estates
on which in comfortable homes amid groves (some very young, others in bearing)
industrious owners have pleasant residence. Alongside the macadamized high
way (4) leading northwest out of the town to Nueva Gerona, are Kellogg's (plan
tation house and packing shed on the left), Trautman's, and other orchards too
numerous to mention, the property of residents and absentee owners.
On the left of this high road, within sight of Santa Fe, — in fact, just across
the meadow where the giant laurel (5) stands, — is Cayo Bonito, the handsomest
old homestead upon the Isle. One approaches by way of the only avenue of ma
ture royal palms on the Isle of Pines : there is now but a native shack on the site
of the former residence of the Acostas, which, in time, a much handsomer house will
again occupy (6) . Around about it, on high land which slopes down to a little river,
there is a grove of native trees, among which the presence of many fruit trees
(indigenous and exotic) indicates that this, once, was the orchard of a country
(I) In 1905 the owner grew tobacco on two acres which sold in Havana at $45 per bale; the crop
was about twenty tercios (bales).
(2) There are forty-seven million feet of lumber on the place.
(3) Centre of the Santa Fe estate, originally comprising 35,000 acres, most of which has been sold;
some tracts remain for sale in the hands of the Santa Fe Land Company, 611 Monadnock Bldg., Chicago,
(4) Calzada lots, on this road, for sale by The Isle of Pines United Land Companies, 611 Monad
nock Bldg Chicago, 111. (see p. 114); by W. C. Schultz, Santa Fe, Isle of Pines, and others.
(5) This laurel is the giant of the West Indies; it casts a shadow 115 feet across.
(6) Cayo Bonito seems to the author one of the very choicest homesites still for sale in the Isle of
Pines. It covers 333 acres, much of which has been cleared, revealing rich soil. The estate is the
property of W C. Schultz, Santa Fe, Isle of Pines. Andres Acosta had a better home among its fruit
trees than the bohio there now occupied by the caretaker, and doubtless many a fine company of the
Isle's aristocracy a generation or so ago made holidays in the shade of his prolific mangos ate his
sweet oranges, his caimitos, and admired other fruits he had imported, — for instance, bread fruit, ot
which -one tree is left in the half-wild grove now. Tobacco was grown to considerable amount on this
estate during the War of 1895, and probably much earlier. Clearings still show where the Vegas were.

58

ISLE OF PINES

seat pretentious beyond its neighbors
(1). Here, indeed, was the home of
that Don Andres Acosta who, owning
almost the whole Isle in his day, pre
ferred Cayo Bonito above all. He
appreciated its very delightful situation :
who drives through is not likely to
forget the cool green shade of water
palms and stout trees above the creek's
course, nor the little stream itself,
crystal clear over a bottom of variegated
sand and pebbles.
Cayo Bonito adjoins the Almacigos
tract (2) of fourteen thousand acres.
This tract was first placed on the market
by The Almacigos Springs Company (the
second to organize to handle Isle of Pines
lands, that retailing the Santa Rosalia
estate being the very first) . This com
pany sold shares as well as land which, in
a reorganization, their holders exchanged
for land (3), among those so doing
was Mr. Forrest Nelson, of W. F. Nelson
& Co., who meanwhile, has organized
the Florentine Fruit Company which owns eighty-five acres of good land close by
Cayo Bonito, west of the Santa Fe-Nueva Gerona calzada, with which it is
(1) There are forty-six different varieties of fruit trees in this grove, among them seven kinds of
oranges; grapefruit; two kinds of lemons ; two kinds of aguacates; three of sapotes; canitel; four varie
ties of mangos; two of mameyes; chirimoya; mamon, mamoncillo; guanabana; two varieties of cai-
mito; tamarind; date; anon; three varieties of plums ; breadfruit; four varieties of guayaba; pomarosa;
maranon; coffee; guayabita del pinar ; iagua, gro sella. There are also certain varieties of palms found
here that exist nowhere else on the Isle.
(2) The Almacigos tract is the northern portion of the original Santa Fe range, the government
highway having_ been agreed upon as a dividing line when it was decided to place it upon the market
separately. It is high land; there is a mountain within its boundaries, now the property of Mr. Archi
bald Fries. The Casas, Santa Fe and Mal Pais Rivers rise within its territory. One hears iittle of
the Almacigos tract as such for there is no one strong company interested in "booming" it, but the
investor who wants his money's worth will do well to inquire into its possibilities. It was very early
recognized to be "of great fertility." See p. 23.
(3) Mr. Nelson (see p. 119) has some of this land on sale now, as has Mr. W. C. Schultz, similarly
interested.

Cayo Bonito

ISLE OF PIXES

59

La Jia

connected by a short good road. Thirty-five acres of these are planted to grapefruit,
the first trees of the present grove being set out in January, 1906. The grove has
been extended year by year. It is just coming into bearing, in view of which fact
a packing house has been erected and every necessary preparation made for busi
ness about to begin. This grove, as one sees it from the plantation house from
which it drops away on a well-drained slope, is most promising in every respect.
Sight of it interests the visitor in the whole Almacigos tract over which are scattered
many flourishing estates, — such, for instance, as Mr. A. W. Corbin's forty-two-
acre tract (twenty-two set to trees) which faces Via del Monte (as the road leading
up from the main calzada is called) almost opposite Finca Florentino. Some
distance further out, but accessible by good road, is "Captain Smith's place," the
property now of Messrs. Taylor and Lane, behind whose modern frame house
mango trees, planted along in 1788-9 (when the first church was established beside
their spring) (1), drop so much fruit it becomes a question how to dispose of it
in such quantity (2).
Within the confines of the Almacigos estate, on its southern boundary, is the
typical native farm, La Jia (3) . Here, at the foot of picturesque hills, is a cluster
of native huts. In patches in the dooryards, and behind the settlement, on the
fertile hill slopes, in the confusion the native farmer permits, there are cocoanut
trees just coming into bearing, oranges, guavas, pineapples, bananas, mangos,
many other indigenous fruit trees, and all the root crops the local market
demands. There are herds of cattle in the woodlands outside the fifty cleared
acres, and hogs in the wallows along the creek. Beside the gate the jasmines have
grown to trees. From the tops of the hills behind the house a magnificent view
of all the Isle is to be had. Ships passing on the sea without are distinguishable

(1) The same spring which named the original selling company The Almacigos Springs Land Com
pany. See p. 23.
(2) For further information concerning the Almacigos tract address Mr. W. F. Nelson, Santa Fe,
Isle of Pines, Mr. W. C. Schultz, Santa Fe, Isle of Pines, and The Isle of Pines United Land Companies,
owners of 1,200 acres here, formerly the property of R. Irwin Wall, 611 Monadnock Bldg., Chicago, 111.
(3) The present residents are squatters who now pay rent to the owner, Mr. W. C. Schultz, Santa
Pe, Isle of Pines.

60

ISLE OF PINES

General Panorama of Finca Florentino

and on a clear day the naked eye discerns the distant mountains of Cuba. No
-more beautiful building sites can be imagined than the slopes of these hills afford.
North of Almacigos is Santa Rosalia, the first estate offered for sale to Ameri
cans, and the San Francisco tract, which touches Almacigos all along the west.
West of San Francisco is La Cisterna and west of that, El Hatillo (1).
Eastward, across the road from Almacigos lands, are those of the portion of
the Santa Fe plantation which has retained that name. Directly north of the town,
midway between the highway that leads to Nueva Gerona and that which (running
northeast out of Santa Fe) connects with the port of Jucaro, is an interesting
irregular tract, bounded on the east by the Santa Fe River, known as Ojo de Agua.
Here is the property (two hundred fifty acres) of the Island Land Company,
a group of friends (2), with no stock on the market, whose sole intention is to grow
good grapefruit and market it to a profit. They bought their land in April, 1905,
and began work in August of that year. Their first thousand trees (six hundred
.grapefruit and four hundred oranges) were in by the next March, and after that
the grove was gradually extended until now it covers one hundred acres (six thou
sand grapefruit trees and one thousand oranges). This company shipped six
hundred and fifty boxes of grapefruit in its fourth year (from trees only three and
one-half years old) and has continued to ship ever since, in increasing quantities (3) .
Last season the very complete packing house recently erected and fully equipped
(1) The Isle of Pines United Land Companies, 611 Monadnock Bldg., Chicago, 111
(2) A. G. Briggs, president; W. J. Jameson, vice-president; P. J. Hevene'r, secretary R L
Slimmer, treasurer; H. A. Briggs, general manager, Santa Fe, Isle of Pines. These gentlemen are
from St. Paul, Minn., and so satisfied have they been with the arrangement under which this grove is
-developing there has been but one change since the commencement, — one man sold his stock to another
rfriend of all concerned. None of the company had had previous agricultural experience
(3) See pp. 70-72.

I SLE OF PINES

Thirty-five Acre Citrus Fruit Grove
on this estate handled its own fruit and that of neighbors (1), to a total of three
thousand 4roxes (2) . ^ ¦,_..,
On the whole, this hundred acre grove of the Island Land Company is better
worth visiting, at the present moment, than any other one place on the Isle of
Pines It represents the endeavor of a party of intelligent men (none of means
either small or large, but only average) who set about developing an orchard, not
as an exhibit, but as a legitimate money-making proposition. They had every
thing to learn as they went along,— and were fortunate m possessing a manager
who does not need to be shown twice. They have had the money and the patience
to dig out bibijaguas and kill off scale with whale oil soap and a scrubbing brush,
to hoe their trees, and fertilize and otherwise bring them up properly. They con
fess they permitted some to bear too heavily too young, and will not repeat the
error. They have grown peppers and eggplant and potatoes sold the truck to
New Orleans, and although they received a return of $1.00 a box for it, decided
that the labor entailed was worth more than this, and so abandoned vegetable
growing They have grown corn, on two acres, to feed their mules but found they
missed too many crops, and prefer, now, to buy corn. They are giving entire
attention to their one main business, and are therefore succeeding at it. (3)
(21 Iffis^a^king house is equipped with California machinery recommended by a special agent
of th?UritedPltatesEdeTrtmenqt of agriculture who had studied Packmg-hous^ problems. 1 1 will
Kr;&«^
it would be desirable, occasionally, to bring on ton. A^so f^J ?|"t' uj some "marmalade last
s^soTa^fi^^^^ ^ istt £ oyf I quality (owing to unskilled
workmen) to warrant shipment to any distance.

62

ISLE OF PINES

Within the Almacigos Tract

Encouraged, unquestionably, by their success, a number of other companies
and individual settlers are bringing along groves in their immediate vicinity. As
is true of Almacigos tract, here, in a district one hears little of, there is genuine
¦stable progress to see which impresses the visitor more favorably, when later he
comes to ponder it, than many a more showy demonstration of the Isle's possi
bilities as exploited in other quarters.
Eastward, from the Santa Fe River, and the Jucaro which it joins, to the sea-
coast only a little north of the mouth of the Guayaba, are Santa Fe lands. All
along the calzada between Santa Fe town and its port, Jucaro, there are groves,
of individuals and of companies, some well cared for, and others not so ; some
entirely abandoned, for lack of funds or courage in their owners, present or distant.
Leaving the town of Santa Fe in southeasterly direction a good road (1) passes
close by the magnificent grove of old mango trees said to mark the site of the old
Santa Fe plantation's original centre, making its way east of Cayman Hill (2), into
even pleasanter country beyond. Here, to the northward, is the San Juan Land
Company's townsite of Penrose (no development has yet been done), and here,
too, attracting attention by reason of its difference from all surrounding vegetation
is a thick little wood of trees of very many different kinds. This is the site of the
old San Juan homestead (3) . Somewhere about, hidden under the maranon trees
doubtless, there is an old well, but all other trace of the original habitation here is
gone.

(1) Roads all through this district are exceptionally good, the nature of the land rendering their
¦making easy, and the keeping them in repair a light task.
(2) The property of W. C. Schultz, who appreciated its value as a pleasant building site.
(3) This homestead, too, like Cayo Bonito and La Jia, is the property of Mr. W. C. Schultz, the
pioneer resident real estate man of the Isle of Pines. He has made his home in Santa Fe for the last

ISLE OF PINES

63

*9 '. .^SSifcfeSd .;
Property of F. M. Nelson & Company

Immediately to the south are the San Juan hills, on slopes of which there are
native houses, where tobacco, indigenous vegetables, plantains, etc., are grown.
South of these is the seven hundred sixty-four acre plantation of Celeste Es
peranza (1). This tract is rolling; running streams traverse it, and in the vegeta
tion upon it one notices "star palms" (2). It is covered with a thick and tangled
growth of wild vegetation, among its trees being many that fruit. Almost touching
Celeste Esperanza on its western boundary is the Santa Isabel tract (five hundred
twenty-six acres) of particularly valuable land, admirably situated beside a small
limestone mountain which not only embellishes the view but indicates that here
the soil is rich because of the presence of this formation (3).
All through this country east and south of Santa Fe there are citrus fruit
groves. The glossy green of their foliage, tipped with the lighter shaded leaves
of their young growth, surprises the traveller at every turn the road makes in the
piney woods which, fragrant and soughing, are nature's planting here.

nine years. During that period Mr. Schultz has teen interested in the launching of a number of com
panies, in some of which he still holds shares; his holdings in still others he has "cashed in," taking
their value in actual land, and, meanwhile, he has ouietly acquired parcels here and there, independ
ently, especially homesteads. Whether natives pick fertile spots for their homesteads or whether
their long cultivation and fertilization of the localities they do select makes them fertile as a consequence
is a problem not decided, but the fact remains that the old homesteads of the Isle are its most desirable
spots and these Mr. Schultz has gathered unto himself like a wise collector, and now holds them for
resale, at not more, however, than their proper valuation.
(1) Meaning "Heavenly Hope." Esperanza is a woman's name and celeste a complimentary
adjective best translated perhaps "divine," as, for instance, "the Divine Sarah."
(2) Said to indicate fertility. t„j
(3) Celeste Esperanza and La Isabel are the property of W. C. Schultz and John 1. Anderson.

ISLE OF PINES

65

VII.
CITRUS FRUIT CULTURE
"I could stand your talk," said his
wife to John,
'XSince I see that I must) all day,
,'!2ut when in your sleep you keep right on
^ From ten p.m. till five in the dawn,
'It'sa little too much, I say.
"?or *ts J°PPa' early and late,
^And Parson Brown and Boone,
"And Thripp and Mape and 'expense per
crate, ' —
"So I'm off for the States, at noon.
|Tm off for the States at noon, John,
"Where they talk of things, — sometimes, —
"Besides yield per tree, and quality
"In oranges, lemons and limes."
From The Sole Topic.
American settlers on the Isle of Pines have devoted themselves to citrus fruit
culture, to the very detrimental neglect of everything else. Their groves lie on
the steep slopes of the Ceiba hills ; they dot the level country around Nueva Gerona,
and at Columbia and Santa Fe; they are green on the white sand at Los Indios,
and in the newly turned soil of the San Pedro tract. In their enthusiasm over
orange, pomelo, lime, and lemon, the Americans have sometimes failed to pro
vide themselves with food, or their draft animals with feed. Only recently have
the land companies begun to practise the wisdom of urging their customers to
make themselves comfortable first, in a house, not a tent; with a garden about
it sufficient for their own supply; and with a pasture lot in the neighborhood,
planted, in part, to forage. This done, it is time enough then to spend energy and
cash on a citrus fruit grove it takes years, and considerable capital, to bring to
profitable bearing. Because he failed to take these precautions to save expense,
which is heavy enough at its lightest, and because he set out more land than he
could carry through the time necessary to bring the trees to maturity, many a man
who expected to find an easy fortune in the Isle of Pines dropped here, instead,
what little money he had, only to find himself obliged finally to abandon his holding
and the country. Soil
There are many varieties of soil in the Isle. Residents in each district insist
that the particular variety there is the best. It would take several kinds of an
expert to decide among their divergent views. Meanwhile, there are good groves
everywhere : no one quarter has a monopoly of them. Soil at the base of the hills
is usually of superior quality, due, probably, to deposits brought down the slopes
by rains. Usually wherever one finds "natives" living, or indications, generally
in the shape of old mango trees in groves, that they have resided there, the soil is
good, though whether it is so because "natives" know how to select fertile spots, or
merely became so by reason of their cultivation of it, is a question hard to decide.
There is good tobacco land in the Isle, though here, as elsewhere, it takes an expert
to decide which it is. Along the banks of the streams there is a vegetable mould
good for truck-gardening. All the land used for citrus fruit culture must be fer
tilized. Preparation for Planting
There is also infinite variety in the methods, followed in the Isle, of preparing
for the setting out of citrus fruit trees. The virgin land must be cleared, — trees,
larger shrubs, etc., felled, undergrowth macheted out, and the tract burned over.
Usually the stumps are burned out, but some owners have neglected to do this
work thoroughly (to the utmost scandalization of their more industrious neighbors),
preferring to let them rot out, as, in time, they will. Sometimes the land is ploughed

ISLE OF PINES

A Humble Beginning — Mrs. Wallace's

and let to sun, — months in some cases. Sometimes it is limed, to improve it;
some growers consider this necessary while others do not (1) . Again, some do not,
for reasons of their own, plough their land at all, but stake off, dig holes in the soil
as clearing leaves it, plump in their trees, and cultivate only, with a hoe, around the
boles of the trees, until such time as stumps and roots have rotted and going be
comes easy for a plough, if, finally, they deem ploughing between rows advisable.
Planted tracks must be fenced. Question of Stock — Native or Hot?
The question of what stock to plant (also age of root, distance between trees
and"rows, time to plant, depth, etc.) is another topic for argument throughout
the^Isle. In its northern part most of the groves were supplied from Florida.
In the central section patronage goes to local nurseries, of which there are a number.
Growers declare that native stock, especially grapefruit, is far the best. Some
growers keep up their own nurseries with a view to economical extension.
Varieties
The groves of the Isle contain trees of many very different varieties. For
instance, Messrs. Young at Santa Teresa have set out the following:
550 Villa Franca lemons.
150 Tahiti limes.
1050 Walters grapefruit.
400 Native grapefruit.
335 Thompson improved navel oranges.
555 Tardiff.
150 Parson Brown.
800 Pineapple.
82 Surprise Navel.
(1) Mr. H. M. Binckley recommends that a great deal of lime be used. It can be had from Casas
and Caballos Mountains and from the San Juan hills, by burning the rock obtainable there. Mr. Binckley
believes that it should be scattered thick on the uplands. He also recommends the use of large quan
tities of the fossiliferous limestone to be found on the South Coast; this needs no burning. There is a
stratum beneath the surface, on the South Coast, which is already disintegrated into powder containing
lime-and phosphates. Applied to the soil lime sweetens it, releases the plant food in it, and makes far
less fertilizer necessary than would be otherwise. It imparts to the gravel certain valuable missing
ingredients. It changes the very color with the character of the soil with which it mixes

ISLE OF PINES

67

A Typical Grove View — Van Meter's
Messrs. Young believe that, with this assortment, they have the market
pretty well covered, both as to demand and season.
This is, probably, a typical grove, among the older plantings. Experience in
marketing, however, has of late years created a marked bias in favor of grapefruit.
Almost no plantings of oranges, of any variety, are being made at the present time;
some good-sized orange trees are being rebudded to grapefruil (1).
Care of a Grove
Once the tree is set and growing, its further bringing up is occasion for still
further divergence in system. Some growers have adopted extreme clean cultiva
tion in the dry season especially (declaring that a dust mulch keeps the soil from
cracking if it has any tendency so to do), even in the wet season tolerating only
vegetation enough to prevent washing in the rains. Others content themselves
with hoeing around the trees in circles of varying diameters : it sometimes becomes
necessary for them to mow between rows. Strange to say, just as there are good
groves in every sort of soil, so there are good groves which have been evolved by
every sort of system or lack of system possible. Nothing short of persistent total
neglect seems really to kill an orchard on the Isle of Pines.
Fertilization
Fertilization, as above stated, is found necessary, no matter in what part of
the Isle the grove is located. How much fertilizer is used depends, it would appear,
on what the owner can afford. Prices on fertilizer vary with its quality and kind
from $43 and S50 to S80 and $90 a ton.
One good grove (2) received the following assignment per tree of fertilizer at
$44 a ton:
K lb. to 1 lb. on planting.
1 lb. twice a year during the first year
2 lbs. " " " " " second"
41bs. " " " " " third "
8 lbs. " " " " " fourth"

(1) See p 70 Exhibit B, for obvious reasons why. The rebudding mentioned is being done, for
instance by Mr. Doud, of Los Indios. Other growers (Frank Wilcox), on the contrary^ consider
that the time will come when the orange, because of its being in the minority will be worth as much
or more than the grapefruit, or will, because of its notable excellence (Mr. Lind, with reference to
the king orange) become a profitable favorite.
(2) Mason Brothers' grove at La Ceiba.

68 ISLE OF PINES

Section of Mason's Grove
Owners who cannot afford to foot a bill such as this casts up, get along with
much less fertilizer (1).
Similarly, it is a mooted question which fertilizer gives best results. Several
brands are on the market. Messrs. Young of Santa Teresa estate mix their own.
These gentlemen, and others throughout the Isle, have found it desirable to plant
cow-peas, velvet beans and beggar weed between rows of their trees, turning the
vines under later ; it is a cheap way to get nitrogen into the soil.
Irrigation
Citrus fruit growers did not consider irrigation at all necessary so long as they
were growing merely trees, but, since orchards have come to bearing, experience
has taught them that because of irregularity in time and area of precipitation in
these latitudes, an irrigation plant may become, like fire insurance, desirable to
possess in emergencies. There will undoubtedly continue to be very many seasons
in which irrigation will not be wanted. There will also continue to arrive other
seasons when it will be desirable, to hasten bloom, and even vitally necessary, to
prevent young fruit from falling. The Bibijagua Ant
The owner of a citrus fruit grove, no matter where situated, must be on con
stant guard against insect enemies of his trees. The most vicious of these, in the
Isle of Pines, is the bibijagua ant (2) . In buying land, an investor needs to see to
it that he is not investing in too many bibijagua hills at the same time, despite the
fact that their presence is said to indicate that the land is good. They can be
eradicated, and once thoroughly driven out they do not return. To keep the land
clear of them is not over difficult in a settled district where other planters are
assisting in the good work. A single grower in a sparsely planted region has a
harder time of it.
Some plantations have had scale.
On the whole, however, it must be said that the Isle is as free of pests as any
orange-growing section anywhere, and reasonable care will save trees from any
serious inconvenience. Establishing a Grove
The average size of groves, in the Isle, is probably ten acres. Most owners
find it to their advantage to attend personally to their estates, and a grove of more
than ten acres requires more help than many care to hire. Several land companies
and certain individuals undertake the management of groves for absentee owners.
The ideal arrangement is a partnership, one partner to reside on the Isle and
furnish personal supervision, the other to remain outside to supply the cash needed
for development.

(1) Messrs. Muncheow and Hernandez are manufacturing fertilizer at Santa Fe which thev are
enabled to sell lower than prices on the imported.
(2) Messrs. Roberts and Corbin (Santa Fe, Isle of Pines) have on the market a treatment guar
anteed to exterminate the worst of nests entire.

ISLE OF PINES

69

Brown's at Santa Fe
The following is a rough estimate of the cost of establishing a grove, the owner,
(1) being absent, having confided the work of doing it to a land company: —
10 acres of land at say $35 an acre  $350.00
Clearing: The cost of this work depends on the character of the land,
and will vary anywhere from $5 to $50 an acre, th e average being say
$27 an acre  270.00
Fencing, $5.00 per acre  50.00
Cost of trees and setting them out  500.00
Care of grove for 3 years (2), fertilizer, labor, etc., at $40 an acre per. . . .
annum  1200.00

$2370.00
Money Needed to $2500.00
If a man lives on his estate and does a man's share of his own work, his expenses
are, of course, considerably reduced from the above estimate, in certain directions.
This reduction is, however, counterbalanced by outlay necessary for his own living
while at work, and to provide him with a house, agricultural implements, draught
animals and their maintenance (3) .
A conservative estimate is that it requires $5,000 at least and five or six years
time to bring a ten-acre orange grove to the point of profitable production (4) .
Crop Yield
Although, because the groves are still young, are in the hands of men very
few of the best of whom have become expert even yet, and are developing under
(1) Cost to an absentee owner as estimated by Mr. B. E. Collins:
Care of grove for 5 years, fertilizer, care, labor, etc., per acre;
, First year  $40.
Second "  45.
Third "  50.
Fourth "  60.
Fifth "  65.
(2) Three years will not bring a grove to profitable shipping point; it is safer to prepare to wait
twice as long for profits.
(3) See p. 83 et seq. , . . _ , .
(4) Cut-and-dried Estimate of expenses of this sort are notoriously unreliable. Therefore the
author has deemed it wiser to give cost of houses, implements, draught animals, groceries, etc., etc.
inldetail, leavingji prospective settler the responsibility,^ figuring out what his expenses on the Isle
Residents'when'asked whatTthe mere living expenses of a family of four on the Isle are at present,
hazarded guesses as follows: „„ „n . . .
1st guess, from Nueva Gerona  *3.00 (per person) per week
2d guess, same district  ««*? ".JrT annu£
3d guess from Santa Fe  •  •  $35 to $40 a month

70

ISLE OF PINES

methods far from perfected, it is not possible to give any authentic figures on the
yield of Isle groves, per acre. It bids fair, however, to be entirely satisfactory in
quantity. In quality it is, especially as far as the grapefruit is concerned, unequalled.
The oranges of the Isle are, in some instances, open to criticism, not on account
of their flavor, but on account of their appearance, flaws in which can, with care,
be remedied. The lemons of the Isle are magnificent; if they have any defect it
is that they are above standard size, — they will have to create a standard of their
own. The limes of the district grow big and cure yellow ; there are none better.
Gross Receipts
As to profits, Isle growers have at least shipped enough fruit already to know
what gross returns they may expect upon it. The following reports on shipments
actually made are selected at random from commission men's accounts of sales.
A

Mills Brothers
12-14 State St., Chicago

Shipment of
201 crates of grapefruit

Mason Brothers, La Ceiba
November 22, 1909

13 crates at $3.00 

$39 00

13 " " 2.75 

35.75

160 " " 2.50 

400.00

15 shrinkage
201Receipts from sales 

. . . . $474.75

Duties on 201 crates at
.648 each  $130.25
Custom house entry 
Freight, .665 per crate. . . .
Cartage 
Commission 

1.40

133.67

5.58

33.23

Expenses  $304.13

.  SI 70 62

Average price brought per crate 
Average expense, Isle through sale, per crate 
Average gross return per crate 
$2.36 plus
1.52 plus
848
B
Peycke Brothers Shipment of 4 boxes of lemons
Commission Co., 85 boxes of oranges
Kansas City, Mo. 157 boxes of grapefruit
Combined shipment by
several growers
December 27, 1910
30 boxes grapefruit at i
70 "
1 "
16 "
4 "
33 " oranges "
51 "
30 grapefruit one in lot .
53.25. 3.00. 2.90.
2.75.2.50.
2.00. 1.75.
$97.50
210.00 2.90
44.00 10.00
66.00 89.25 77.77
Freight, Isle to Kansas
City (1) 
Cartage 
Expense 
Repacking 
Commission 
$386.26 5.00
3.005.00
59.73
Receipts from sales  $597.42
4 grapefruit to a friend
2 grapefruit lost in repacking
4 lemons lost in repacking
1 orange, id.
Expense  $458.99
246
Gross returns to shippers  $138.43
Average price obtained per crate of
Grapefruit  $2.32
Oranges  1.84
Lemons  0.00
(1) Duty, etc., bulked together as "freight.'
Average expense per crate  $1.86
Average return, per crate of
Grapefruit  +.46
Oranges  — '.02
Lemons  — \ SG
ISLE OF PINES 71

Peycke Brothers Shipment of Laurence & Briggs
Commission Co., Kansas City, Mo. 32 crates of grapefruit January 9, 1910
15 crates at $3.50  $52.50 Freight, Isle through sale in
14 " " 3.00  42.00 Kansas City (1)  $54.40
3 lost in repacking Cartage  .75
— Repacking  .90
32  Commission  9.45
Receipts from sales  $94.50 
Expenses  $65.50
Gross returns to shipper  $20.00
Average prices obtained per crate  $2.95
Average expense, Isle through sale  2.04
Average gross return per crate  0.91

Peycke Brothers Shipment of 298 crates of grapefruit, H. A.
Commission Co., Kansas City, Mo. and 4 crates of lemons January 15, 1910

65 crates at $3.25 Freight, Isle to Kansas City . . $460.82
1 " " 3.10 Cartage  7.20
94 " " 3.00 Repacking  6.00
1 38 " " 2.75 Commission  87.58
298 _
4 lost, refilling ,,,, ,.
Receipts from sales  $875.85 Expenses  $561.60
Gross returns to shipper  $314.25
Average price brought per crate  $2-90
Average expense per crate  |-°°
Average gross return per crate  ¦ ¦  J--u*
Including two boxes of lemons ; the other two boxes of lemons appear to have been
lost in refilling.  ___

^^^Z^^^r naSJreff&r*.  Febrgryjg
«^S^|-S  ^TTeS ^t^nsa^tt0^."16 S124.10
 Cartage  I-80
_9 lost in repacking SSn.V./: ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! _^
72
R^sfc^^
Gross returns to shipper 

$69.22

 $3 04
Average price obtained per crate  2'0g
Average expense per crate  0'g6
Average gross return per crate  .

(1) See note 1, p. 70.

72

ISLE OF PINES

MillSjBrothers12-14 State St., Chicago

Shipment of
167 crates of grapefruit

Christy Bros., Vista Hermosa Grove
March 7, 1910

1 crate at
3 '
20 '
10 '
15 '
115 '
3 shrinkage

$5.00. 4.50.3.75.3.50.
3.25.3.00.

$5.00

13.50

75.00

35.00

48.75

345.00

Duties  $101.43
Custom house entry  .85
Freight and advance charges. 133.77
Cartage  4.92
Commission  36.56

167Receipts from sales  $522.25 Expenses 

 $277.53

 $244.72

Average price obtained per crate 
Average expense, Isle through sale, per crate 
Average gross return per crate 
$3.12 1.66
 1.46
G
Gibson Fruit Co. Shipment of
131 South Water St., Chicago 20 crates of grapefruit
H. A. Briggs
March 29, 1910
1 crate at
10 " "
2 " "
1 " "
1 " "
4 halves at
1 half at
$4.50. 4.00. 3.75.
3.65.2.50.
2.00.
1.85.
2% shrinkage
20
Credit allowed 1 crate
$4.50
40.00 7.50
3.65 2.50
8.00 1.85
$61.00
Freight, etc., Isle of Pines to
Chicago, at $1.51 per crate $30.20
Cartage in Chicago at 3 cents
a crate  .60
Commission, 10 per cent  6.70
Receipts from sales.
.00
Expenses (1).
$37.50
Gross returns to shipper  $29.50
Average price obtained per crate 
Average expense, Isle through sale, per crate.
Average gross return per crate 
$3.35
1.87 yi
1.47K
H
Gibson Fruit Co.
131 South Water St., Chicago
Shipment of
34 crates of grapefruit
H. A. Briggs
March 29, 1910
2 crates at $4.50.
6 " "
4.00
1 " "
3.90
3 " "
3 75
2 " "
3.65
3 halves
2.00
$9.00
64.00 3.90
11.25 7.30 6.00
Freight, etc., Isle of Pines to
Chicago, at $1.51 per crate $51.34
Cartage in Chicago at 3 cents
a crate  .99
Commission, 10 per cent  10.14
7 crates shrinkage
34 Receipts from sales  $101.45 Expenses  $62.47
Gross returns to shipper  «3g gg
Average price obtained per crate  $2 98
Average expense, Isle through sale, per crate  ', 1 'g3
Average gross return per crate  ' ' 1' 141
(1) See note 1, p. 70.
ISLE OF PINES

73

General Averages
The papers covering the eight shipments, figures of which are presented above
were selected, as stated, at random, not because they show extraordinary results'
but precisely because they do not. Grapefruit from the Isle of Pines sells fre'
quently for very much higher prices (1). From such papers as these one may
safely draw a few general conclusions. 3
First : these eight happened to cover shipments to western markets A verv
large part of the Isle's fruit shipments go into the east, via New York but citrus
fruit like pineapples clearing from Havana lately shows an inclination to seek a
market west of the Mississippi.
Second: the fruit covered by these documents is almost all grapefruit Prac
tically all consignments the Isle sends forward are, as one may deduce, of grapefruit
On consulting Exhibit B above, those interested may gather fairly clear reasons
why: returns on oranges and lemons shipped have not been found satisfactory.
Third: there are details in these papers indicative of a few of the sorrows of a
citrus fruit grower not generally explained to him beforehand, — note variance in
expenses he must pay, exact amount of which he cannot foretell; note loss in
"shrinkage" or "repacking" or "refilling," as it is variously called, for which
he pays. But, in recompense, note that once it gets to market there is a fairly steady
demand for his grapefruit at prices ranging from a minimum of $2.50 upward past
$3.00, $3.50, $4.00, $4.50 per box and onward, to maximum return higher than
that, not recorded here ( 1) . Additional Expenses
From gross receipts from sales the grower must, of course, pay the cost of
picking, cleaning, sorting, packing; of crate, paper, nails, nailing, stencilling, and
hauling entailed, over and above the first cost of production.
These expenses are very difficult to estimate "per crate," but inasmuch as the
largest packing house in operation on the Isle will clean, sort, pack, nail up, and
stencil fruit, preparatory to shipment, at a charge of fifty cents a box, including
all materials necessary, it is logical to suppose the work of getting citrus fruit from
the tree on the road to the steamer that carries it from the Isle, including cost of
crate, paper, nails, etc., is at most not more than half a dollar a box (2).
Net Returns
Now, the foregoing eight exhibits cover total shipment of 1,094 crates of citrus
fruit (85 boxes oranges, 8 of lemons, and the remainder grapefruit), showing a.
total gross return to growers of $984.72, or an average gross return of 90 cents a
box. Supposing additional expenses just mentioned (from tree to ship) amount
to 50 cents, the conclusion is that the average net return to the grower is 40 cents
a. crate. Inasmuch as gross returns as shown in the eight exhibits listed are only
average, and 50 cents per box is probably high for the total of expense between
tree and ship, one may safely raise this estimated net return to say 50 cents a box.
Profits
Although there seem to be no figures yet available to show precisely what it
costs per box to produce citrus fruit in the Isle of Pines, or to show, further, what
yield may be expected per tree, indications are that there is fair profit in the busi
ness (figuring even on the basis of a net return of 50 cents a box). When one
considers that, as years pass, the cost of a grove runs along at considerably less than
the sum involved per annum in bringing it to bearing ; that as shipments increase in
size and frequency expenses entailed in transportation, etc., decrease; that with age
of trees the quality of fruit improves and prices do the same, the obvious conclu
sion is that inasmuch as Isle growers (under present primitive conditions, on the
first fruit of young trees) are netting at the very least 50 cents a box, their future
as citrus fruit producers is bright.
(1) "One lot of a hundred crates was sold in Chicago for $4.50 per crate; another lot for $4. ; and
another for $3.75."— E. W. Kellogg.
(2) We have not forgotten to take into consideration the fact that the packing house undoubtedly
profits somewhat in packing its neighbors' fruit at 50 cents a box, but we have estimated that this profit
will be found, probably, to just about offset expense of hauling, from tree to packing house, from pack
ing house to 'port, which we have not otherwise included.

74

ISLE OF PINES

Miller's Pines

VIII.

VARIETY OF PRODUCTS

Maravillosas, fertiles campinas,
Selvas fragrantes, deliciosas granjas,
Siempre abundantes en doradas pifias,
Siempre bordadas de floridas franjas 
— In the Isle of Pines^ Fernando Velarde.

Booklets issued by land companies present long lists of fruits, vegetables,
nuts, etc., etc., edible, ornamental and medicinal, which can be grown on the Isle
of Pines. Their information in this regard is far from complete; everything they
mention, and then some, can be grown.
Dr. F. R. Ramsdell, of Columbia, has an experiment garden which puts the
most fertile prospectus ever issued on the Isle to shame (1). Dr. Ramsdell has
(1) The following is an incomplete list of the trees, shrubs, etc., etc., which Dr. Ramsdell has proved
will grow on the Isle of Pines : —
Trees, timber and ornamental, imported: Marule (South Africa); mahogany (Africa); eucalyptus
globulus; eucalyptus diversifolia; eucalyptus lemon-scented; glyricidia maculata jacaranda (California
and Australia) ; tulipan; royal ponciana, three varieties, red, yellow, and white; calophyllum iniphylum;
centrolopium robustum; hymenea stigonosa; luehea speciosa; bauhinia forticata; afzelia rhombodea;
eucalyptus viminalis; eucalyptus citriodora; dioscerea; garcinia morella; garcinia spicata; garcinia
mangostana; garcinia cochin-chinensis; fojuki (Japan).
Fruits: Feijoa sillowian (Argentina); Tamarinds from Manila and India; Jak fruit, Havana;
St. John's bread; Rhapidophora merilla, a rare aeroid from Manila, the first of its kind ever sent to the
"Western hemisphere; pomelo, — from Philippines, Jamaica, Bahama, Florida; tangelo, across between
tangerine and pomelo, distributed for the first time in March, 1906; Guavas from Brazil, Costa Rico,
Florida (20 and more varieties); loquats, two kinds, from Japan; Kumquat, from Cuba; peaches,
four varieties from Texas; pears, two varieties; plums, 6 varieties, from Japan; guanabana; Spanish
lime; native lime; spineless lime; apples, Helm, Early Harvest, Red June, Early Ripe, 4th of July,
Bismarck, etc.; pineapples, seven varieties; otaheite apple, from Otaheite Islands; mamey apple, or
Santo Domingo apricot; star apple, or caimito; mamey Colorado; chrysobolanthus Icaco, — red, white

ISLE OF PINES 75

been interested to demonstrate, merely, the wide possibilities of the Isle's soil and
climate. He has met with much encouragement and assistance from the Washing
ton Department of Agriculture, which has furnished rare seeds and slips.
To say that a tree, shrub or plant grows, is not by any means to add that it
reaches perfect development, that it attains commercial value and that there is
a market for it and its product.
Dates, figs, cacao and rubber are not at present bringing in a fortune to the
owners of the few trees to be found on the Isle of Pines.
Cocoanuts
The cocoanut palm grows on the Isle. It is used by Americans for decorative
rather than commercial purposes. Alternated with hibiscus it makes a very hand
some border for drives and boundaries along public highways. It grows, too, by
salt water on shores where other vegetation languishes. As a business proposi
tion, however, the raising of cocoanuts for market is a very precarious under
taking. Plantains and Bananas
Plantains and bananas grow well in the Isle. Hardly a native hut is without
its patch, and most American settlers have trees enough set out to supply at least
their own demand for the fruit. The plants develop and bear with very little
attention, though care will increase the size of the bunch' and the quality of the
fruit. From each plant new shoots spring up of their own accord, which may be
set elsewhere; and thus a banana patch extends itself, being practically self-
perpetuating. There is, naturally, something of a local market for the fruit,
especially for certain popular varieties. To make any vast amount of money,
however, the outside market must be sought, and the search must be carried on,
on a larger scale than any individual settler on the Isle of Pines will be apt to under
take. Sea Island Cotton
Sea Island or any other kind of cotton is a very fine thing to let alone, in the
Isle of Pines and Cuba generally. The cotton plant grows and produces well, but
the boll weevil has, so far, invariably gotten the best of it. Experiments are being
made in hopes to discover a "weevil-proof" variety, but they have not yet succeeded.
Grapes and Olives
Grapes will grow on the Isle of Pines and elsewhere in Cuba. The bibijagua
ant is their enemy. Viticulture has never been satisfactorily investigated, and
the truth is nobody knows, by experience, what can or cannot be done in this
direction (1).
Californians believe olive groves would thrive on the hillsides.
Coffee
Coffee trees grow well and produce berries of good quality. The growing of
coffee has not been undertaken to any considerable extent in the Isle of Pines,
though there are flourishing trees, and Mason Brothers at La Ceiba, in 1907-8 got
two hundred pounds of coffee from the seventy-five trees on their estate (2) .

and black- Monstera deliciosa; Surinam cherries; amatungula (canssia grandiflora, South Africa);
antidesmia bunis (Philippines) ; harpehillum caffrum (South Africa) ;canca papaye (native and Porto
RicanV carica quercifolia (Buenos Ayres) ; fiaeagnus angustifoha (Tiflis, Caucasus, Russia) ; murraya
exotica small red berries; pomegranates, two kinds; white sapote (Mexico) ; persimmon (Japan).
Medicinal and others: Strychnia; licorice; papaw (several kinds) ; ginger (Jamaica) ; boca de
leon- camphor; cinnamon; allspice; blackberry; raspberry; dewberry; strawberry; sunn hemp
(Phi ippines) ; amroma augusta; sanseviera (African bowstring plant) ; roselle fibre; vanilla; grapes,—
scuppernong flowers, black Spanish, Herbemont, mission, malaga, Carman and others.
N uta Sterculia foetida (pobug nut of the Philippines); jatropha curcas (physic nut of France);
walnuts from England and from Japan; chestnuts, from Japan and Spam; four varieties of commercial
rimondsnSive ornamental almond; pecans budded, money maker and Stuart ; enterolomium cyclo-
caTpum (Mexico)! betel palm, edible nuts from Porto Rico; crozo palm, Porto Rico; cocoanut from
Jamaica- cola from which an ingredient of Coco-Cola is obtained
jam|ca co^airom nfarseilles, white ischia. green ischia and pmgode mel, from California;
brown turkey? bmnswick, celestial, hirtudu Japan, lemon magnola. of Texas; sacred fig of India;
bamboo two native varieties and a bamboo from India which bears edible nuts.
nereSS ^ -- ^ ^^

76 ISLE OF PINES

Coffee culture requires more labor than does citrus fruit culture, for instance;
moreover, it demands a knowledge of the tree, the berry and curing processes which
Americans are not as quick to assume they know.
There can be no doubt, however, that much of the land on the Isle of Pines is
adapted to coffee. Tobacco
There is good tobacco land on the Isle of Pines (1). Henry Clay and Bock &
Company planted tobacco there under the administration of M. D. Cusi in the
years 1896-7-8, when revolution disturbed the peace in far Pinar del Rio (Vuelta
Abajo). In 1896 the crop was 3000 bales; in 1897, 4000; in 1898, 5000 of tobacco
which that Company pronounces to have been "tobacco of second or third order,
more or less like Cuban tobacco from around Vinales." It is quite likely that many
a consumer of "real Havana" smoked it, in 1907-8-9, without discovering that it
was not "genuine Vuelta Abajo," the stock of which, .in the world's market, so
tremendously exceeds the production of that famous small area in western Cuba.
Men who have experimented with tobacco on the Isle of Pines declare that experts
to whom they have submitted the leaf as Vuelta Abajo grown have not been able
to detect the fiction. When it was presented to them under its own name, how
ever, they were quick to pronounce it "tobacco of second or third order." Tobacco
can certainly be produced, in good quality, on the Isle of Pines (2). To grow
tobacco, however, requires cash. They estimate, in Pinar del Rio, that it would
take $10,000 to establish and run for a year and a half (the time which must elapse
before any return comes in) a vega of five acres, with irrigation and shade and all
the other conveniences necessary to produce a fine grade of tobacco. The grower
might get half the ten thousand back from his first crop ; then, again, he might not.
A Trick Worth Learning
Tobacco culture is a science, or an art, which Cubans possess. The only Amer
icans who have made a success at it have studied "native" methods minutely and
followed them closely, for years; only with years of experience have they acquired
courage to make departures by way of improvements in minor details. Yet,
difficult as it is, the trick of raising tobacco is not the final trick that must be
turned: once a man has produced good tobacco, outside the limited boundaries
of Vuelta Abajo, he must convince buyers that it came from there and nowhere
else, or else sell it at a price that is cheap in comparison with Vuelta Abajo figures.
And buyers are not readily deceived. Nevertheless, tobacco growing is held to be
profitable, as well as difficult. Like most other business in these latitudes, its
culture on a large scale succeeds, — disproportionately, — better than on a small
scale. Corn and Rice
As might be anticipated, in view of its climate and geographical location,
cereals, which reach their perfection in temperate zones, are less thrifty on the
Isle of Pines.
Sweet corn has not proved successful. Maize (Cuban corn) is substituted,
and is acceptable ; maize is a good fodder and can be easily grown.
HI FtOT very fav°rable opinions, formed early, see p. 28, note 5; p. 32, note 2, etc., etc
¦/-I- (?> }lm PfSuf <ied, wrote Dr. Luz Hernandez in his Memoir (1856) on the Salubrity of the
Climate of the Isle of Pines that the ignorance of our laborers of the production or the capacity to
produce of the neighboring Isle, joined to other causes easy to perceive, and even more so to remove
and no other reason, can induce a veguero or farmer to pay in Vuelta Abajo one or two hundred dollars
or upwards per year for the rent of a caballeria of land, where he cfa plant nothing else than the very
precarious crop of tobacco when in the Isle of Pines he would at least have equally good opportunity
as elsewhere to produce this leaf, besides growing vegetables and corn, with better conditions for
breeding domestic animals and an incomparably better market for his produce." To this at that
time could be added low rents or entire lack of them, for land. The bestlands then rented for $5 00
a caballeria (33M acres) while those on the savannahs hired for half that per annum
Thevegueros (tobacco growers) are not aware that the savannahs of the Isle afford tobacco of as
good quality as the margins of the rivers San Juan y Martinez, Rio Feo, Rio Hondo, in the Vuelta Abaj?
while the former lands by the side of the lusty and aromatic growth of that leaf, produce rice plantains
^SS5Ve;Tf0Vtantdl,0ffthe b0?' ex.f '^P* Quality." To prove his assertions, Dr Luz Hemanaez refers
Kay^p'ec? ft* Sbacc^wTon Me'M? ^Stc^enfflTvor^aftn? %£$£&£

ISLE OF PINES

77

Upland rice will grow; at present, however, none is produced save for the
growers' own consumption (1). An investigation into its possibles Is a com
mercial crop ought to be instituted. Rice is a cereal that is never absent from the
table of the Cuban workman. It is one of his few staple articles of food In spite
rt rlZl™5* aU th6 nCe con,sumed » Sported; what is not imported is the lit e
the Cuban guapro grows in his own door-yard.
Vegetables
The experience of those who have tried many varieties of vegetables demon
strates that Mr Frank Steinhart was quite right wLn, as consul-general J be report
ed concerning the Isle of Pines that: "The soil is so fertile and the climate such
that all the vegetables of the tropics and nearly all the vegetables of the temperate
zone can be grown (2) . Rhubarb, asparagus (3) and a few other negligible excep
tions are mentioned by the most successful truck-gardeners
As to the productivity of the soil there can be no complaint. Along the streams
especially is a leaf mould admirably adapted to truck-gardening. Moreover alone
the streams where this soil is, irrigation, which is imperatively necessary to such
gardening, is practicable. The temperature of the Isle is exactly what it should be
to produce early vegetables. Difficulties Encountered
The problem of transportation in its aspect of repeated handling, and time
required to get his perishable goods to the only outside market he looks to is a.
very serious one as the Isle of Pines truck-gardener comes "up against it " More
than one man who has hopefully shipped fine lots of vegetables has received in
return nothing more than a letter saying that they arrived late, in bad condition,
and were, therefore, unmarketable; on the other hand, especially lately, several
truck-gardeners have received returns that indicate that when, in the future,
irrigation is general and means of transportation improved, the growing of winter
vegetables in the Isle for the northern market will become safe and steadily as
remunerative as it is now only when the gardener is lucky.
The Cuban Market
It would seem there ought to be an excellent market in Havana for Isle of
Pines vegetables. Growers in the Isle (and elsewhere, — in Cuba) declare that they
cannot, or do not, get at it. The Spanish, and Cuban, cuisine does not rely on
fresh vegetables to such extent as the American, but there are in Havana large
colonies of Americans, British and other foreign residents, who, demanding vege
tables for their tables, find the supply both scarce and high-priced Whoever
finally captures their steady trade will find truck-gardening profitable (4) .
The Home Market
Meanwhile, Isle gardeners are making money at home, selling to local hotels
and to those among their neighbors who have no gardens of their own .

(1) In 1845 it was one of the Isle's principal exports. See p. 33, footnote. It is still produced in
good quality and small quantity.
(2) Daily Consular and Trade Report No. 2371, "The Isle of Pines," by American Consul-General
Frank E. Steinhart, Sept. 27, 1905.
(3) Asparagus grows well enough for home use, but not for shipment.
(4) The writer is certainly of the opinion that a little canvassing in Havana would find ready sale
for all the garden truck one or two men working on the biggest scale yet attempted in the Isle of Pines
could manage to produce. There is an opportunity open for some active man who is not afraid to
drive a well-stocked wagon from door to door to solicit trade of American residents. If the Isle of Pines
were actually producing garden truck on a tremendous scale so small an opening might be despised;
under present conditions it is well worth the consideration of those gardeners whose peppers and toma
toes lie sometimes, as the author saw them in May, 1908, drying on the ground. At that time the Amer
ican hotel within a couple of miles of the field where they lay was serving canned vegetables without
relief. The proprietor declared he found it cheaper than to attempt to buy of local growers. See p. 80.
Others who have studied the problem the Havana market presents to Isle of Pines growers of fruits
and vegetables suggest that a stall in some one of the big public markets, or in some other equally
accessible place, be established, where the Isle's produce may be handled both wholesale and retail,
and be kept ready on hand to meet trade which a canvass of the city, private residences andjiotels,
would beat up.

78

ISLE OF PINES

Four Weeks' Old Potatoes — (at Mason's)

variety,

in the

Potatoes
As a (producer of
"easy money" the potato
merits the special atten
tion of settlers on the
Isle of Pines; it is be
ginning to receive it.
Potatoes are good ship
pers, suffering little
enough from repeated
handling. They find the
market in the Isle itself
or, at furthest, in Cuba,
where the Isle of Pines
tuber has an advantage
in matter of freight as
well as season over the
heavy importations from
the United Sates and
Canada which the Cuban
market consumes.
Mr. A. W. Gardener
had, — to illustrate, — an
acre and a half of
potatoes last season,
middle of December:

Bliss Triumph. He planted these
he considers earlier planting advisable for it would make it possible to secure two
crops. He dug his potatoes from the middle of February until the middle of April.
The yield was ninety bushels sold at $1.80 a bushel; total receipts, then, $162.
Expenses, according to Mr. Gardener's record, were as follows: fertilizer, $35.;
four sacks of seed, at $5 each, $20; labor in preparing the ground, $7.50; planting,
by hand, $5.50; digging, etc., $9; total, $77. Profits, on an acre and a half, $85.
Mr. Gardener did not find irrigation necessary (1)
His neighbor, Mr. Saul, got thirty barrels of potatoes from four barrels of seed.
He peddled the potatoes over the Isle and estimated that he cleared $142. Other
residents in the vicinity have done well with the same crop.
Mr. Saul also grew last season tomatoes that sold at 25 and 30 cents a basket,
or $2 a bushel; peppers, carrots, radishes, cabbage (sold at 10 and 15 cents a head),
eggplant. 1 ma beans, string beans, cucumbers, pawpaws, bananas, watermelons,
muL-Lrr..i;n. , etc., all which truck brought good profits (2) .

Wax and Honey
There is some ready money, too, for those who understand the bee business,
in bees on the Isle of Pines; for the bees do well and do not require feeding. They
find their living among the wild flowers and the groves in bloom.
Those persons who have failed in the bee business in the Isle of Pines admit
that it was owing to their lack of skill in managing the bees, to rough handling
in transportation, to loss from hiving, and to the fact that the bees were shipped,
in some instances, out of season. The wax moth ruined some hives; but the loss
on this, or similar accounts, is negligible.

Poultry, Eggs and Pigs
Poultry does well on the Isle of Pines, if the range allowed is wide. Persons
who have more eggs on hand than they can use sell to others who have too few,
at the rate of 40 cents to 50 cents a dozen, and, sometimes, 5 cents an egg.
(1) Mr. Gardener has twelve acres of grapefruit trees set out, and an aguacate grove of seventy
good trees.
(2) Mr. Saul is a good man for the prospective settler with small means to meet. He has accom
plished much with little save his own industry and ability to assist him. He estimates the cost of a
grove, including cost of land at $35 an acre, clearing, fencing, buying trees, care and fertilizer, for three
years, at $703 for ten acres. He finds the living expenses of a family of six people and two draught
animals to vary between $30 and $40 a month.

ISLE OF PINES 79

These prices prevail in Havana.
Cuba imports immense quantities of eggs from the United States. It is not on
record that the consumers are any too well pleased with them, either. It would
seem that a practical man might connect a good poultry yard on the Isle of Pines
with the Havana demand for fresh eggs. There are hotels which cannot afford to
make any mistakes with their patrons; there are private individuals who prefer
an "egg of the country" to the Chicago product, every time.
Mr. H. S. Jones calls attention to the fact that the raising of pigs is a much
neglected possibility in quick money-making. If a tract is supplied with running
water, pastures of a few acres each in extent should be planted to yuca, malangas,
boniatas, peanuts, artichokes, etc., and the pigs turned from one pasture to another
to feed on the maturing crops. Palm nuts will supply much feed. The local market
is at present not supplied, and the Havana market could not be overstocked at
twenty cents a pound. Pineapples
It is not possible to produce anywhere better pineapples than grow on the
Isle of Pines (1). This crop merits the special attention of settlers, because it has
possibilities in it and because it is quick to yield returns (2) . What can be done
with pines in the Isle has been remarkably demonstrated by J. A. Miller at Santa
Ana. Mr. Miller has planted there five thousand pines in one patch, about an acre
in area This patch has had assiduous care and fertilizer at the rate of about a
pound to a plant per annum, which entailed an expenditure of about five cents a
pine on that score. In two years (3) Mr. Miller's receipts from this acre of his
amounted to $1,958, of which $536.62 were from sales of the fruit and the rest
from sales of sucker slips at seven cents each. There were at the time this total
was cast up still more slips to be sold.
In considering these returns, however, it is necessary to recall that Mr. Miller
did not merely plant pines and await results. He planted only the best pines
(smooth Cayenne) and these he cultivated expertly to improve them even further.
His fruits have been extraordinarily large, twelve to fourteen pounds being only
average. Further, having fruit for sale Mr. Miller made his market, selling first
to the steamer plying between the Isle and Havana, to which he delivered pines at
twenty-five cents each; on the steamer these, because of their extraordinarily
handsome appearance, sold readily to passengers for thirty-five cents and more.
They attracted the attention of pursers on steamers plying along the south coast
of Cuba who became customers (4). Meanwhile, Mr. Miller's real specialty was
selling pines f.o.b. Nueva Gerona on
special orders. His fruit finally ap
peared before those fruiters in large
northern cities who handle only
extra fine qualities and exceptional
varieties. In short, Miller's pines have
just set foot on the highway to
complete success.
It is usually very truthfully said
that there is no money in pineapples
(5), but Miller's pines have demon
strated that for the intelligent grower
of an exceptionally fine pineapple
who has, furthermore, the business
ability to get the pines, once he has
grown them, properly placed on the
market, there is money in pineap
ples on the Isle of Pines. Miller's Pines

(1) It is sometimes wrongly supposed that the Isle takes its name from its pineapples.
(2) The plant matures and bears in eighteen months.
(3) Not two crops, however; really one crop of fruit and one of slips.
(4) Each fruit carried a tag showing its place of origin which was, incidentally, as fine an adver
tisement as Santa Ana and the Isle of Pines could have.
(5) Not, at least, for the grower.

80 ISLE OF PINES

IX.
PROVISIONS
Old Man Cole was a hungry soul,
And lazy too, you bet!
He rocked on his back piazza there,
And et, — and et, — and et.
But one bright day in the month of May,
A seed fell out o' his hand, t
Which a pumpkin grew, — come a-twimn round,
Till it like to tied 01' Cole to the ground;
And he says, as he looks at the prodigee,
"That's the funniest sight that ever I, see!
I thought them things come canned!
— From The Complacency of Cole.
Groceries come high in the Isle of Pines; the purchaser should divide his com
plaint between the custom house, which levies duties thereon, and the transporta
tion companies which "get theirs" in freight. By the time costs of importation
are paid, the retailer must sell high if he is to make any profit whatsoever.
Each settlement in the Isle of Pines has its own grocery store, which is, usually,
a general store as well. In the older towns more than one establishment bids for
trade. Prices on staple articles are fairly uniform throughout the Isle, figures
increase with distance from the port of landing, but the variation is not more than
a quarter of a cent a pound. Detailed List of Prices (1)
The following table may be accepted as an average statement for the Isle :
Flour  4 cents to 5 % cents a pound.
Sugar  4K cents to 7 cents a pound, according to quality.
Coffee  27 cents to 35 cents green a pound ; 40 cents roasted.
Navy beans  7 cents a pound.
Butter beans  12 cents a pound.
Rice  5 cents to 9 cents a pound, according to quality.
Condensed milk  10 cents to 12 cents a can.
Lard  16 cents to 19 cents in bulk; 90 cents for 5 lb. bucket;
$1.75 for 101b. bucket.
Canned fruits  20 cents to 30 cents, 3 lb. cans, according to quality.
Canned meats  7 cents to 35 cents a can, according to size and quality.
Bacon  27 cents to 32 cents a pound.
Hams  28 cents to 30 cents a pound.
All prices in American money. Fresh Meat
Fresh meat is to be had in all the towns, if not all the time, at least on "killing
days." "Native" butchers do not understand the system of "cuts" preferred by
Americans; the meat as they hand it out is sometimes accurately described as
"hunks," yet it is appetizing, as a variation especially from "tins." Sometimes,
too, neighbors share a veal (be it said sub rosa), particularly when stringent laws
forbidding cattle to range have been persistently disregarded in their part of the
country. It is convenient to keep hogs; their feed costs little, — almost nothing
if they can be let loose among royal palm trees, on berries of which they prosper.
Chickens, too, furnish good food to the table of the family wise enough, as most
are, to keep a flock of poultry.
(1) In view of these prevailing prices the casual observer cannot fail to comment with astonish
ment upon the impractical spirit of some settlers in the Isle of Pines, who, with every natural condition
inviting them to raise vegetables still import them, canned, at very heavy expense, for their own con
sumption; who, needing ready money, fail to see in vegetable gardens at least a means of saving if not
of actual gain. The writer was interested to observe how every "special agent" who has reported on
the Isle of Pines, — Tirry, Lanier, Labadia, etc., right down to G. R. Fortescue, S.A.A.F., — from 1797
to 1907-8, — has agreed with all the rest in marvelling as did Franco, the first of them, that the people ,
of the Isle of Pines, having a suitable soil in their dooryards, have invariably failed to get their own
living from it. Fortunately, as the Isle advances this particular condition is changing, with all others,
for the better and the author noticed most especially how much more garden truck, fodder, pasture,
etc., is in evidence now than was to be seen a year or two years ago. T[.2 Isle bids fair to break her
record as it appears through all the past centuries, — to become, that is, practically self-supporting —
to feed herself in 1 rge part.

ISLE OF PINES

X.
DWELLINGS
[HE American settlers on the Isle have erected for themselves
dwellings of native pine, building them, usually, in bungalow
style, the Keenan home at Brazo Fuerte is an exception brick
stone and cement having been employed freely; walls of some
buildings standing from a former occupation were used, in part
ihere are two concrete residences at Santa Fe. In the towns
generally, Cubans and Spaniards have preferred the more lasting
materials to wood, which, however, is decidedly cheaper.
Portable Sawmills
, . , . .Pme lumber for all purposes is supplied by portable sawmills
which are in operation in the Isle to the number of eight. One is at McKinley on
the INuevas River; another on the road to the Pearcy estate further up that same
stream ; one on the La Cunagua tract ; one near Santa Fe ; one on. the road between
Santa Fe and Los Indios; and three on the Piedras tract. These latter belong to
Messrs. Ortiz & Gomez, whereas the others mentioned are the enterprises of
Americans. The Ortiz & Gomez mills ship their output to Cuba, mostly to the
western province of Pinar del Rio. The others sell to the local demand.
Prices on Lumber
The following is a list of prices as obtained at the Stark mill, which is between
Santa Fe and Los Indios. The currency quoted is American, and the figures are
on lumber laid down at the mill : —
Pine: Dimension lumber for house building . $19 to $24 per m.
Sheathing and common, % and 1 inch . 18 per m ; $22 dressed.
Flooring, 6 in  .'  30 per m.
4 ||  32 per m.
3 "  35 per m.
Siding novelty  32 per m.
Siding lap or drop  22 per m.
Veneering  7 cents a yard.
Hard woods :
Mahogany, cedar, majagua, etc., $40 to $150 per m. in the rough at the
mill.
Planing  $8 to $10 per m.
Pine and Other Hard Woods
The pine, which is hard, is from the pine trees, plentiful throughout the Isle.
Although it is difficult to handle, and shrinks, this pine lumber is generally accepted
as satisfactory. Hard woods of many exquisite kinds are to be had, especially from
the South Coast, and they are used, by some settlers who can afford the luxury,
for floors and interior finishing to which, polished and carved, tney lend themselves
beautifully. The cost of a settler's home is whatever he desires to make it.
Wo Log Cabins
Strange to say it has not occurred to even the most economical to construct
log cabins, which require no sawing and little shaping. It is said, on the Isle, that
ants would infest cabins too thickly for comfort ; why they should be any worse in
a cabin than in a frame house of the same kind of wood does not appear plain to
a casual observer (1) .
(1) The Hammond house at San Pedro can hardly be called a log cabin, constructed of barked
timbers (treated with creosote) , chinked with concrete, finished neatly and handsomely furnished with
hard woods. See p. 53.

82

ISLE OF PINES

Wide Scale of Cost
Prices of frame buildings vary from $300 for a small house, $1000 for a good
sized, commodious dwelling big enough for the average family, to any number of
thousands a man may desire to invest in concrete blocks instead of pine, in French
tile roofs instead of paper, or shingles, and in matched flooring and carved
balustrades. Concrete Floors
Concrete floors even in frame residences are found desirable; they are easy
to keep clean, exclude insects and lower the temperature of the building.
A wide veranda around a house is serviceable ; it protects from sun and from
rain. Whether ceiled or unceiled rooms are coolest is a matter of divergent opinion.

Stark's Mill, La Cunagua
Within, some of the frame houses are finished in wall board, in harmonious
colors; it makes a pleasing interior. In some sections pine veneering (a local
product), which can be mopped and oiled, is preferred. In putting it on allowance
is made for shrinkage.
Few of the frame houses are painted. They are pleasing enough without paint
while new, but wind and weather make them appear shabby soon. Moreover,
it is conceded that painting preserves the wood.
Paper Roofs — Shingles
In matter of roofing, the Americans of the Isle of Pines have preferred paper
because it is cheap. Paper roofs cannot be guaranteed for more than three years,
but will last twice as long if properly cared for. This roofing costs about $6.50 per
roll, to cover 200 square feet. American cypress shingles have also been found
satisfactory; laid four inches to the weather it takes 1600 to cover one square (100
feet). They cost approximately $8.50 per thousand and take twice as long to lay
as paper.

ISLE OF PINES 83

XI.
IMPLEMENTS AND ANIMALS
In addition to providing a house to shelter, and food to feed himself, the settler
on the Isle is at further expense to procure for himself farm implements and live
stock, and especially to keep his animals after he has them.
The following prices on saddles, harness, agricultural implements, wagons,
buggies, etc., are quoted to give prospective residents a general idea of the cost
of such goods in Cuba (1) . These figures are in American money and are subject to
20% discount ; they are on merchandise laid down in Havana. It is quite impossible
to estimate freight: —
Morgan saddle, fair leather, seat 13 in., weight 11 pounds  $10.62
Texas saddle, fair leather, covered stirrups, seat 14J^ in., weight, 22
lbs., felt lined skirts, steel fork  26.25
Ladies' side saddles  from $12.12 to 24.37
Wagon harness, single animal, 1 yi" traces, wood hames, No. 125 collar,
6" adjustable saddle, XC. trimmings  26.25
Other single harness up to  47.50
Double wagon harness, lyi" traces, 7/i" lines, No. 125 collars, wood
hames, red, XC. trimmings  38.75
Other double harness up to  78.12
Plow harness, 7 ft. traces, chains with hooks, no chain pipes or belly
bands, web back bands with trace chain hooks, No. 125 collar,
bridle, 1" lines, no hip strap, Concord wood hames, for one mule 11.56
For two  21.87
Other plow, harness, for one mule  5 1 ok
For two  I'll
No. 125 collar, fair leather, thong sewed  a-44
Syracuse plow, 11" share, weight 138 lbs., all steel except handles,
furnished with one extra cast share  ro
Cast Shares  '?-
Steel shares  £,70
Empire plow, 7" share  :  ¦ • *?• wi
11" share  ¦ • • • -8-50 to 10'22
Prices include one extra share, steel beam, mould board and share
and, in the 11" plow the $8.50 includes wooden handles; $10.22 steel
handles. Empire cultivators, five 3" points, two wing points, one 7 shovel,
with wheel  qn nn
Syracuse harrows, 8 discs 16", iyi cut, for two mules  ^u.uu
12 discs 20", 6K cuts for three mules  ¦ • ¦ ¦  ¦ ¦ ¦ d'-ou
Chatanooga plow, 24" disc, weight 600 pounds, steering lever complete
with three-horse evener  •  qi'ok,
Barrel sprayer, with two 15 leads of hose, without barrel ....  ¦ ¦ • ai.^o
Garfield knapsack sprayer, all brass, capacity 5 gal, weight, when ^ ^
filled, 50 lbs  pV K.n
Samson windmills, 8 ft. wheel, 30 ft. tower, 3 posts  qqv'ko
16 ft. wheel, 50 ft. tower, 4 posts  • ¦ • -.- • • • ¦ • ; oe" '
These prices do not include pump, cylinder, pump rod, pipe, toot
StudlbakM one-horse wagon, solid steel axles, 1 #*; ,3' 4" front wheels;
3'10" hind wheels, width of tires, 2"; thickness, %"  <°^™
Springs, per set  7[5Q
Brake  n,25
Pole complete  15 62
Duck cover, 1 1' x 14' with bows  ¦  55' 00
Another serviceable wagon 
$ E^Z^^i^^!v^S^r^ though needed by farmers, pay a 20% od
valorem import duty.

84 ISLE OF PINES

Studebaker farm wagon, solid steel axles, IK"; front wheels, 3' 8";
hind wheels, 4' 4"; width of tires 3" or 4"; thickness of tires, % ... *|46.25
or if the tires are chosen  156.25
Complete with seat, pole, whiffletree, brake.
Springs for this wagon, per set  ¦ ¦ • • • -. • ¦ • • - - - • • ¦ ¦ 18.1b
Half platform spring wagon, solid steel axles IK'; height ol front
wheels, 40"; hind wheels, 44"; width of tires, \%" , complete with
shafts or pole  7 7a'<7K
With shafts and pole  ¦  ; 1 '»-7o
Canopy top with curtains, body painted black, gear red ; Sarven patent
Buggle^TlT'.  285.25 to 131.25
Prices on Hardware, etc.
The following (2) prices (in Spanish gold, which is about 10% below Amer
ican) are on hardware, paints, etc., laid down in Havana; subject to 8% discount
and change without notice : —
Wire nails, $3.75.
Galvanized iron pipe, from yi" to 4", $5.25.
Black iron pipe, yA" to 6", $4.25.
Pick mattocks, 6 lbs., $".00.
Railroad picks, 6 lbs., $6.00.
Square shovels, English make, $4.50.
Round shovels, English make, $4.50.
Square shovels, American make, $6.00.
Round shovels, American make, $6.00.
Wooden wheelbarrows with steel wheel, $2.25.
All steel wheelbarrows, $5.40.
Galvanized iron roofing, $4.80.
Cast iron sewer pipe, $3.00.
Brass mosquito wire netting, $1.75.
Iron mosquito wire netting, .60.
Pure ablactic white lead, .11.
Standard white lead, .10.
Linseed boiled oil, .85.
Turpentine, .80.
Working "machetes," No. 23 Collins, $9.00 doz.
Axes, 3K ^s., Collins, $13.50.
Manila rope, full roll, $15.00.
Sisal rope, $12.50.
Barbed wire, 85 lb. roll, $2.65.
Strap hinges, all sizes, .10 lb.
T-hinges, all sizes, .10 lb.
Ready-mixed paints, 1 gal. (10 lbs.) $1.20.
Paint brushes flat 4" (Cuban) $7.50.
Round paint brushes, $3.25.
Animals and their Keep
A good pair of mules costs about $500, or perhaps only $450, delivered on the
Isle (3). The keep of animals is a big item of the settler's expense. Hay costs
from $40 a ton upwards. Oats sell at 2yi cts. a pound and corn at $2.25 cwt.
Grazing is not so good but what stock needs considerable feed. Maize is easy to
grow, as is millet and other forage plants and grasses; yet few indeed are the
settlers far sighted enough to save themselves money by planting, at the earliest.
possible moment, some crop that will furnish fodder for stock.
"Natives" use oxen for plowing. They are slow, and they cannot be taken.
from the field and harnessed to a wagon to trot their owner into town. But they
have one advantage which short-sightedness in settlers makes tremendous : they-
will take care of themselves if let loose. They are cheap to keep.
(1) Prices quoted by Horter & Fair, San Ignacio Street No. 14, Havana. These dealers supply
retailers in the Isle whose prices on goods mentioned would be the same as those here given plus freight,
from Havana to the Isle.
(2) Prices quoted by Lutgardo Aguilera e Hijo, Mercaderes Street 27, Havana.
(3) Breeding of mules would certainly prove profitable on the Isle, properly undertaken^

ISLE OF PINES

85

XII.

LABOR

At Work on the New Deep Water Dock into Siguanea Bay

During the long years
of expensive cultivation
which a citrus fruit grove
requires to bring it to
bearing, the settler on
the Isle of Pines may look
elsewhere for support,
with fair prospects of
success. The man who knows
a trade need not be out
of work. For instance,
carpenters' wages fluctu
ate usually between $2
a day and $4; helpers"
$1.25 to $2. Masons,
wages range from $1.50
to $3 a day; helpers', $1
to $1.50.
Unskilled day labor,
such as is used to clear
land, etc., receives from
$1.00 to $1.50, the mini
mum representing the
wage paid to "natives"
and the latter the wage
of Americans who, other
Americans insist, work
harder and accomplish
more than Cubans
will (1).
Jamaican women for
domestic service are not
hard to secure. Some
times "South Coast"
girls are induced to come
over to the northern half
of the Isle, to do house
work, for the excitement
of approaching civiliza
tion, and a substantial
wage (2) to boot. They
are particularly accept
able to American
settlers', wives, because,
as well as the Jamaicans,
they speak English.

%(1) Some owners of land work part of it by letting it out on shares to "natives," This is especially
adviSable if the crop be tobacco. It is customary to supply the workman with a house, tools, seed, etc.,
and even to advance money, receiving later in payment a percentage of profits. Dr. Kellogg of Santa
Fe is|a'strong advocate of this system even for other crops than tobacco. This is known as the parti-
dariolplzn in tobacco regions ; and as the colono system in sugar districts.
(2) About $5 a week.

86

ISLE OF PINES

Steamers Cristobal Colon and Campbell at Nueva Gerona Docks, Tulv 4, 1910
XIII.
TRANSPORTATION

We've levelled the hills, and the forest trees
That stood in our way lie prone;
And we'll deepen the seas for a thousand miles
But the fruit that we have grown $
Shall enter the marts we have labored to win,
In the heat of a tropic clime . . . /-
In spite of coral and shifting bar
We'll bring our ships where their cargoes are,
And we'll bring them there in time.
— From The Pinero's Promise.
The question of transportation,— of securing for his fruits and especially for
his vegetables, cheaper, quicker and more direct shipment to a profitable market
than they at present enjoy, is a question which the Isle of Pines settler is solving
for himself, satisfactorily. ;_ °'
Transportation over the Isle itself is easy, for there are good government and
private roads from settlement to settlement, and thence from port to port More
over the topography of the land is such that a wagon can make its way anywhere
whether a graded road exists or not. There are, of course, some districts near the
hills, where this statement would not hold good; and there are some few streams
where a ford might be troublesome to find, off hand, but the fact remains that
roads are easily made in the interior.

ISLE OF PINES

The Veguero
Moreover, the Provisional Government of Cuba (1906-9) saw to it that the
Isle of Pines received due share of its appropriations for public road-building
throughout the Republic. $29,878.03 was spent on the repair of roads already in
existence in the Isle, and $146,647.62 was expended on three new ones.
"The Cartroads of Magoon"
One of these new government highways connects Nueva Gerona and Columbia
Landing, passing through Columbia. From this good private roads lead to the
Colombo Bay and Bibijagua Districts. Another is the highway from Santa Fe to
La Ceiba, which, although little more than half as long as the Columbia Landing-
Nueva Gerona road (660 lineal meters as against 11,000) is through a rougher,
more thickly wooded country, and costs more. It is the expectation that eventually
this road will continue beyond La Ceiba toward the west coast. Private roads,
passable even for automobiles, extends from its ending at La Ceiba to San Pedro,
Siguanea, via La Cunagua and Las Tunas tracts and thence there are trails
which wagons may travel to Los Indios, which is best reached however from Nueva
Gerona via the third new cakgada (13,000 lineal metres) built northward from that
town and continued across the Esperanza tract to the west coast.
The government roads are country boulevards. They are wide avenues,
carefully graded and finished, with extensive drains and cement culverts where
needed. Few rural communities in the United States are supplied with ways for
traffic as good as these, nor as good even as are the private roads which supplement
them. Between his orchard, or garden, and port of first clearance, the Isle of
Pines fruit or vegetable grower meets with no difficulties.
Two Steamers and a Schooner
The waters of the Caribbean, surrounding the Isle of Pines, are shallow on
the north and on the east ; on the south the ocean seems bottomless, but the coast
is exceedingly inhospitable; on the west lies Siguanea Bay, large, sheltered as
much as is necessary here where seas are quiet, in the centre of which there is a
large area, irregular in shape, of deep water (deep as ordinary vessels require it)
accessible from without by way of a known channel through Indian Keys.
At present the only regularly maintained connection between the Isle of Pines
and the world at large is that afforded by light-draught (1) steamers operating
between two ports (Jucaro and Nueva Gerona) and south coast ports of Cuba,
supplemented by a monthly schooner, forerunner unquestionably of a steamer line,
between the Isle and the American city of Mobile.

(1) The Cristobal Colon draws six feet of water.

ISL.E OF PINES

Jucaro Landing

The Cristobal Colon
The steamship Cristobal Colon, a clean, comfortable vessel, operated by the
Isle of Pines Steamship Company, plies between the Isle of Pines and Batabano,
Cuba proper, clearing from Batabano on Mondays, Wednesdays and Saturdays
on arrival there of the train which- leaves the United Railways' (1) station of
Villanueva, in Havana, at 5:50 p.m. She is due to arrive in Jucaro at 5:50 a.m.
and Nueva Gerona at 8 a.m. of the following Tuesdays, Thursdays and Sundays.
She returns to Cuba from the Isle of Pines on Sundays, Tuesdays and Fridays,
clearing from Nueva Gerona at 3 p.m. and from Jucaro at 6 p.m., to connect with
the train leaving Batabano at 5:25 a.m. of the following Tuesdays and Saturdays.
Fares direct to Havana from the Isle of Pines are $7.60, first class; $4.25,
second class; meals extra. (2)
Vuelta Abajo Steamship Company
The steamer Veguero, belonging to the Vuelta Abajo Steamship Company,
clears from Batabano every Tuesday and Friday evening for the Isle of Pines and
ports in Pinar del Rio, on arrival there of the train which leaves Havana at 5.50
p.m. from Villanueva Station. It makes the return trip on Sunday from the Isle
by daylight, leaving Nueva Gerona at 8 a.m. (3).
Schooners
Schooners make the trip between the Isle of Pines and Batabano, but not
on regular schedule. There are also irregular schooners to and from Jamaica.
Direct to States
In December, 1907, the Isle Line, — Isle of Pines Transportation and Supply
Company, — having organized to furnish direct communication between the Isle
(1) See p. 112 ^
(2) See p. 116
(3) Veguero's schedule; (See p. 120)
Leaves Batabano  Tuesday  8.00
Arrives Jucaro  Wednesday  4.30
Nueva Gerona  Wednesday  7.30
Leaves Nueva Gerona  Wednesday  12.00
Arrives Coloma  Wednesday  6.00
Arrives Cortes  Wednesday  9.00
Leaves Cortes  Thursday  1.00
Arrives Coloma.  Thursday  5.00
Batabano  Friday  5.00
Leaves Batabano  Friday  8.00
Arrives Jucaro  Saturday  4.30
Nueva Gerona  Saturday  7.30
Leaves Nueva Gerona  Sunday  8.00
Arrives Batabano.  Sunday  4.30

p.m. a.m.a.m.
m.
p.m.p.m.
p.m. p.m.a.m.
p.m. a.m.a.m.
a.m.
p.m.

90

ISLE OF PINES

Means of Transportation at Los Indios
of Pines and the port of Mobile, Alabama, put into service a schooner which left
Mobile, on its first trip on March 18, 1908, and arrived at Nueva Gerona on the
31st of that same month. A schooner is now making the trip monthly, but is
operated by the Isle of Pines Steamship Co. (1)
Fortescue's Mission
In view of the desirability of shorter and more direct communication between
the United States and the Isle of Pines than either of the two routes possible to
date, the American Provisional Government of Cuba authorized (February, 1908)
Mr. G. R. Fortescue, Special Agent of the Armed Forces, to investigate the coast
of the Isle of Pines with a view to discovering, if possible, a harbor sufficient to
afford protection to vessels drawing not more than fifteen feet of water (a type of
coasting freighter and fruit steamer). Were such a harbor available it may be
assumed that as business on the Isle develops, — as the fruit orchards there come
into bearing, etc., — direct steamship communication with the world at large would
be established. Such direct communication would mean a saving to exporter and
importer; for it would enable both to avoid trans-shipment of merchandise over
Cuba, and all the expense incurred in forcing goods through the over-crowded and
very costly port of Havana. Thus would direct communication lower the cost of
living, at the same time increasing profits on all business in the Isle of Pines. To
insure these desirable results, it seems absolutely necessary to find, or make, a
better port than either Nueva Gerona or Jucaro is at present, or in some other
manner render the Isle more accessible than it is now.
His Work and Conclusions
Mr. Fortescue made soundings all along the shore of the Isle of Pines, and
presented, finally, a report (2) , in which, by way of conclusion, he says :
"After a careful consideration of the means of transportation possible, it is
concluded that the most economical and practicable method of shipping from the
Isle of Pines to the United States will be by transferring goods from some conven
ient point on shore by means of lighters to ocean-going vessels anchored about
a mile off the coast, either in the Gulf of Batabano on the north, or in Siguanea
Bay, on the west. There is seldom enough sea in either place to prevent lighterage
at all times of the year."
In the course of his report Mr. Fortescue considers Estero del Soldado, which
was supposed to be a well-protected deep water harbor, but proved, on investi
gation, to be merely a narrow, winding river about two miles long, without value
as a harbor.

( 1) This Company has through the years of its existence bent every energy to upbuilding the
Isle of Pines.
(2) G. R. Fortescue, S. A. A. F., Report on the Characteristics and Depths of Siguanea Bay Isle
of Pines. (Manuscript) 1908.
See also Lanier's report. It is of nature similar to Mr. Fortescue's.

ISLE OF PINES 91

Colombo and Bibijagua
He found considerable water of comparative depth off Puntas de Colombo and
Bibijagua, despite the fact that he seems not to have sounded in what is considered
the one sheltered, desirable harbor site, beside the headland which, protected the
old docks that existed there, to be rebuilt.
Casas, Nuevas, Majagua
Coasting vessels and fruit steamers could approach close in toward the mouth
of the Casas River, down which producers around Nueva Gerona might send their
merchandise. Mr. Fortescue did not examine the Nuevas River, at present in
accessible because of the silt deposits at its mouth. Majagua River, about a, mile
long, with less than half a foot of water over the bar at entrance, but deepening to
eight and twelve feet inside, he found to have a good sand shore, with pine growth ;
it could, if the entrance were deepened, be used by lighters, but not as a harbor.
Pine Creek
He seenjs not to have examined Pine Creek Inlet which has a shallow entrance
but is deep and wide beyond that bar. From aboard a vessel drawing nine feet
one can throw a stone in among pine timber ashore. The inlet is about a mile
and a quarter long by a half to an eighth mile wide (1) .
Los Indios River
Los Indios River, navigated by the launch Canada, drawing four feet, is
open to small boats for about four miles from its mouth. It runs between man
grove trees for about two and one-half miles, these finally giving place to pine
growth and high ground. The depth of water varies from five feet over the bar
to fifteen feet inside, in places, with an average depth of nine feet. It could be
made navigable, Mr. Fortescue states, for inter-island steamers, and would serve
excellently as a lighterage point. The settlement of Los Indios is situated, as
previously mentioned, on this stream.
Latest Developments
It is at the mouth of the Los Indios River, where this stream empties into
Siguanea Bay, that Messrs. Bascuas and Haenel are at present engaged in building
the Los Indios Dock. This dock will be one thousand eight hundred feet long,
which brings it into eighteen feet of water. From that point there is a channel
through Siguanea Bay to deep water, south and west of the Isle, from where the
way is clear to any port a ship may choose. It is anticipated that the completion of
this dock will revolutionize matters of transportation along the south coast of Cuba.
Confident Anticipations
It will enable vessels now plying between south coast ports of central and east
ern Cuba (i.e., Cienfuegos) and the United States to call there to receive shipments
of Isle fruit northward bound to market. This means the saving to the fruit
grower of exorbitant charges usual in Havana harbor; and, further, the saving
of delay there and the further avoidance of repeated handling of his goods, lhat
it means much to him is obvious. . '¦ ' ',,"
It will enable these same vessels, on the run between American ports and those
of south central and eastern Cuba, to call to leave on this dock hot "only consign
ments of merchanidse ordered by the Isle but also by adjacent sections of Pinar
del Rio Province. Men with the money to carry the project through have asserted
their intention to build a railroad line from the old river port of Dayamguas to
the American town of Herradura, on the line of The Western Railway between
Havana, Pinar del Rio City and other western points Dayamguas is but two or
three hours distant from this dock, as even such vessels as now travel those quiet
seas, reckon speed: it is possible to bring it even closer. From that point on the
Dayaniguas River, where the old Cristobal Colon used to tie up as a way-port, to
Herradura is but twelve miles over country engineers would consider easy
Herradura is on the edge of the thriftiest tobacco districts m Cuba (it is connected
wfth them by rail and road), which, because they are entirely dedicated to that
o^e crop import food stuffs of foreign origin (American m such amounts this
kemTsTh^togest among those constituting Western Railway freight Because
Havana is an over-crowded, lighter-ridden, expensive port it will be by no
Selns difficult toXert this traffic to a route which avoids Havana the moment
there are facilities for fetching it in by another way.
(1) H. M. Binckley.

92

ISLE OF PINES

Picnicking on Bibijagua Beach
XIV.

THE NEIGHBORS AND THE HOME
The "social atmosphere" of the Isle of Pines is admirable. The settlers are
men and women of the highest type of American ; they are legitimate heirs to the
spirit, courage, health and ability of those other pioneers, their forebears who
hewed the American Union out of the wilderness of North America, and wiped
even the Great American Desert off the map. Some of them are people of means,
to whom their groves are pastimes pleasant during the winter season. Others are
kept awake nights by the imperative necessity of holding both ends together Of
mere book-education, some have more than others; none, however, are ignorant
They are by no means afraid of work: the men labor in their groves, and the women
keep the homes. Sons and daughters help; decidedly, there is no deference paid
to idleness. And, as was true on the original frontier, these people (with two or
three exceptions) are American born; the naturalized citizen has not arrived in
any appreciable number.
As is invariably the case when people are busy, gossip is happily scarce and
m its absence neighborly good-feeling spreads and grows. Jealousy there is- but
it is between communities, rather than persons. Nueva Gerona desires to be the
first town on the island, and the people who reside there are confident that it is
so; other people at Santa Fe are quite confident that Santa Fe leads in every respect
while settlers at Columbia and at Los Indios, at Siguanea and at San Pedro have
their own and a different opinion, on the subject.
On one point however, everybody agrees : that the Isle of Pines is the greatest
place on earth. No view to the contrary is tolerated. So omnipresent and so pre
vailing is this general feeling of loyalty, blended with strong optimism that a

94

ISLE OF PINES

visitor must retire outside the Isle to judge it honestly ; so long as he remains among
its settlers he will find himself sharing their enthusiasm. And, since faith moves
mountains, there is no reason why it should not irrigate plains, if need be, and
bring whatever fleet of fruit schooners may be found necessary into seas where
wanted. The firm belief its settlers have in the Isle is the surest pledge of its future
prosperity. Primitive Sociability
The rivalry, before mentioned, which exists between towns (a frontier con
dition which makes for improvement and growth) does not enter into private or
social affairs. When an entertainment is given at Nueva Gerona, the other settle
ments are expected to send a representative attendance ; when Santa Fe entertains,
grief and some resentment are expressed if people from Nueva Gerona are not there.
It is not unusual for a general invitation to be sent out by public announcement :
"Everybody on the Isle," proclamation is made, "is cordially invited to be present
next Tuesday night, etg., etc."
When the writer ventured to comment on this fashion of general "bid" the
immediate reply came : "Why not ? There is nobody on the Isle we don't want."
In short, the prospective investor on the Isle of Pine may rely on finding
himself, on arrival, in the midst of as pleasant a community as he could discover
anywhere. He will be made one in a hard-working, intelligent, hospitable settle
ment : the men will give him voluble advice as to soils, insecticide and)' methods of
cultivation, while the women will teach his wife to make mango pie and sorrel
wine and guava cobbler.
He himself will have little leisure to seek for amusement ; but if he does find
time for it, there is fishing and hunting at hand.
Neither will wife and daughters be lonely: there are social clubs for their
entertainment. The American Club
All the family will be interested in the American Club, a social organization
which was formed in October, 1909; its present membership is over a hundred

ISLE OF PINES 95

men and women. It has a very' pleasant club house at Nueva Gerona, where there
are periodicals to be had, writing materials, a piano, a good floor for dancing on
occasion. There is also a good cook in charge of the restaurant where meals are
served members and their friends. The Club is in short the general rendezvous
and social centre of the island. Its rooms are always open. Its president is
Claude V. Allnutt; first vice-president, C. C. Wilcox; second vice-president, Fred N.
Hammond; secretary, J. J. Bush; treasurer, L. A. Witter.
The Hibiscus Club (1)
The first club formed on the Isle was the Hibiscus Club (ladies), which has a
literary aim. It was organized in 1905 with twelve members. The membership
now numbers about forty, mostly women resident in and near the town of Santa Fe.
The meetings are held at the homes of members at intervals of two weeks, from
November to April. This Club started a free library for Santa Fe some four years
ago, which has become a well supported and permanent institution. The Hibiscus
is also responsible for some of the most enjoyable social affairs ever given on the
island. Mrs. E. C. Lind, of La Ceiba, is president.
The Bridge Club
The Bridge Club is small. It was recently organized at Santa Fe. Meetings
are held weekly at the houses of members; prizes are given and refreshments are
served. This happy club has no officers. The Quiz
The Quiz Club, in the nature of a current events' club, has no permanent
officers. Regular meetings are held at the. homes of members, at each of which a
presiding officer and a clerk are named for the occasion. Each member present
asks a question which is answered in open discussion.
The Pioneer Club
The Pioneer Club is probably the largest woman's society on the Isle. It is
a fusion of Nueva Gerona, Columbia and other interests. Meetings are appointed
from place to place once every two weeks, and the members go to the rendezvous
to spend the day together; they take their families along generally. Mrs. E. rl.
Fries, of Nueva Gerona, is president. Columbia Social Club
The Columbia Social Club exists for the pleasure of the unmarried members
of that community and the favorite amusement at its meetings is dancing, at
the hotel where there is a good floor and a piano . The club is now about a year o d.
Its president is Miss Diana Anderson; secretary, Clarence Pope; treasurer, ivnss
Kennedy. Business Men's Association
In addition to and apart from these, the social organizations of the Isle, there
are recent business organizations (2) of importance in every community, ttie oldest
of which is the Nueva Gerona Business Men's Association
It was the first organization of its order in the Isle of Pines; it will be duly
incorporated under Cuban laws. It has for its object the upbuilding of the busi
ness interests of Nueva Gerona. Officers are: president, L- ^- W*ter^vice
president, E. A. Doyle; secretary, J. Forrest Reed; treasurer, Smith M. Hoover.
 (iT^^YoTwill observe," says Mrs. Helen Rodman Jones, to whom with Miss Jk>ph.e G. Keenan
and Mrs. C. C. Wilcox, the author is indebted for details • c«™*™"« <*»* ^^iS£ta«.
Pines 'society' has a feminine tone. In fact the men here when ^they do appearata =°«al * d from
decidedly 'dragged out . appearance-'dragged 1 out by t^rI^,t^smsef4rinndfmtcomers and unlighted
the heavy duty of greeting their hostess they flock }°fff"°X} topics of their earnest conversation
oorches Any eavesdropper who slipped up unnoticed to learn tne topics 01 tucii
would overhelr dissertations on 'orange culture,' 'fertilizer,' 'transportation, and little more.
"The women have to furnish the gayety. „_,,i._i„ /li^oTided the American Federation,
(2) These have replaced, although it has not been regul ^7 chsban to a tne ^meric bandoned
successor, in its turn, to the original American Associat on orgamzed m 19U1 ana ^.^ ^
because its officials were too prominent in ^f^mtonal movement. m recognition
Isle into two camps, "conservatives" and /adical^ The latter w«emiav Sg American
of American allegiance at any cost; the former bitterly °PP°^1( ™l ethe Conservatives' endeavors,
Federation, Mr. T. J. Keenan, first president, ^"^"S^K but as to ways and means.
hardly too successful, tc .reconcile divergent views not as to «^te object but as^ ^y ^ ^ fl
The Federation existed for the mutual good of AjnencanS resident on nts ma(Je by Amencans

It considered complaints made by Americans
[1 el UUllbCI vo.l/1 v\, mi--. •.*,&•¦'—" — "~i*7"_" "•  1-1 1 ....... i
against Cuban c

SSS^SSSS*^." -"- ^Taxation, police, etc).

96 ISLE OF PINES

Columbia Commerical Club
The Columbia Commercial Club exists "to boost Columbia." Its president
is L. C. Giltner; vice-president, Dr. F. R. Ramsdall ; secretary, A. W. Gardener;
treasurer, Rev. A. R. Archibald. Los Indios Fruit Growers
The business association at Los Indios is the Fruit Growers' : president, F. S.
Doud; vice-president, J. C. McPherson; secretary, J. R. King; treasurer, Koy
Schell. This organization is proving of very practical help to its members, the
settlers at and around Los Indios. For instance, when several wanted crates
they purchased them in one lot through the Association, at a considerable saving
to each concerned. Similarly, the Association proposes to handle all details con
nected with purchase of materials and exportation of products.
San Pedro Industrial Club
Every owner of land in the San Pedro tract is eligible to membership in the
San Pedro Industrial Club ; resident owners become active members, non-resident
owners, associate members. The officers of the club at present writing are. presi
dent, Dr. E. B. Morrison; vice-president, Wm. Hammond; secretary, Joseph
Duke; treasurer, John Valentine. Although the club is primarily a business
organization which intends when the time comes to control and regulate shipments
of fruit to the mutual benefit of members, and maintains its committees on con
servation, roads, school, etc. ; it has also its social aspect, for in the club house to
be built general entertainments will be given.
Santa Fe Commercial Club
The Santa Fe Commercial Club, the nature of which its name indicates, was
formed about a year ago, and the list of its members constitutes in effect a directory
of the men resident in and around Santa Fe. W. R. Simmons is president; B. F.
King, secretary. The Commercial Club is the most important organization mi
this quarter of the Isle and is of practical assistance to its members.
Central Committee
All the business organizations just mentioned are united through The Isle of
Pines Central Association, in the small membership of which each community is
represented by a delegate. The duties of this committee are the consideration
of all questions common to the Isle at large, except politics. The president is C. C.
Wilcox; vice-president, J. E. McConnell; secretary, W. A. Varty; treasurer,
L. A. Witter. Church Services
Church services, both Protestant and Catholic, and Sunday Schools, are held
regularly in every district of the Isle of Pines.
Protestant Episcopal
Episcopal services are held on the Isle ; there is a resident minister. A church
is being built at McKinley (1). The Methodist Church
The work of the Methodist Church was begun by Rev. E. W. Frazee, of Wis
consin, and is now continued by Rev. J. T. Redmon, who has been joined this year
by Rev. J. J. Mabry. Their purpose is to afford regular hours of worship to all
settlements on the Isle where there is a congregation large enough to constitute
even a small audience. Although these gentlemen are Methodist preachers, they
do not work along narrowly sectarian lines, but seek rather to bring all Christian
people together into one body called a Church Union, and they have met with fine
success thus far.
Rev. J. T. Redmon fills appointments as follows:
Santa Fe, second and fourth Sundays in each month, 11 a.m.
Columbia, second and fourth Sundays in each month, 3. p.m.
West McKinley, first and third Sundays, each month, 11 a.m.
McKinley, first and third Sundays, each month, 3 p.m.
(1) Contributions toward the fund are earnestly "solicited since money is needed to pay duties on
organ and carved altar table. Address, Mrs. E. E. McLane, McKinley, secretary of the Guild.

ISLE OF PINES

97

Rev. J. J. Mabry fills appointments as follows-
San Pedro, second and fourth Sundays, each month, 11am
™ -i9^' s,econd and f°urth Sundays, each mor.th, 3pm'
West McKinley, firs: and third Sundays, each month, 11 am
McKinley, first and third Sundays, ea^h month 3 pm
It is planned to begin services at La Siguanea and at Bibijagua at once
abov^terl Sbl°?2Slfre fcondu?ted at each P^ce there is a regular appointment as
above hsted, by well informed and competent men and women. The ladies are
organizing Aid Societies, where there is work demanding their united effort
There is a very handsome little Methodist church at Santa Fe. Every place
ot worship has an organ or piano and a good supply of song books so that all may
join in the singing, in addition to which there are special musical numbers as often
as possible (1). Associated Societies
There is a Ladies' Aid Society (2), and a Sunshine Circle, with a membership
ot young girls of Nueva Gerona and vicinity, which works along the lines of similar
organizations in the United States. The boys are allowed to come in for a social
hour at the close of the afternoon meetings.
, j A bpys' club on the Y.M.C.A. order has recently been organized under the
leadership of the Rev. Mabry. Catholic Services
There are Catholic church buildings at Nueva Gerona and at Santa Fe (3) ,
and there Catholic services are held every Sunday with an attendance varying
?\- Pr y t? a hundred- The church work is in charge of Fathers John Schlicht
and r-ehx Ullrich, Benedictines, who reside in the bungalow adjoining the church
building in Nueva Gerona. There have been Catholic priests sent from the United
iqmeS (EnSllsh-sPeaking) at the head of the Isle work of the Catholic Church since
Doctors and Dentists
Doctors are available in all the settlements, even though none are resident,
since, owing to good roads (and thanks to automobiles in cases of real emergency),
the regular practitioners can be had when their services are required. Dr. John
C. Hollis, graduate of American schools and recognized by Cuban law, resides at
Santa Fe, but attends patients in every part of the island. Dr J. M. Morin, M.D.,
resides at McKinley (4). The Children
Nothing could be more wholesome than the life of the children on the Isle of
Pines. There is fresh, resinous air for them, and plenty of sunshine ; when it rains
they frolic in the down-pour, knowing full well that if they are "rubbed down" and
hustled into dry clothing after drenching there's no harm done. There are swim
ming pools in the streams. There are wild birds to be caught and trained, and
fishes to be angled for. In short, on every hand there is every inducement offered
a youngster to lay in a supply of health, strength and happiness calculated to
carry him through a life-time.
There are schools in all the settlements, taught by American teachers, which
correspond in scope and method to the graded public schools of the United States.
For Home and Family
The author has in hand a letter written to a lady in the United States who,
at the time it was addressed to her, was planning to come to the Isle of Pines to
make her home here. It answers very thoroughly the natural inquiry: What to
bring for the home and for the family's wear.
"Riding suits for yourself and for your daughter, of kahki, linen (brown or
blue), or some other light-weight material. Divided skirts are preferred, here,
to the long habit, which is liable to catch on underbrush as you canter by.
(1) Those interested in the church work of the Isle are invited to address Rev. J. T. Redmon,
Santa Fe, Isle of Pines, W.I., or Rev. J. J. Mabry, McKinley, Isle of Pines, W.I.
(2) See p. 47.
(3) A Catholic church building will probably have been erected at McKinley and semi-monthly
services inaugurated there before this book is off the press.
(4) There are retired physicians among the settlers on the Isle of Pines who, in case of need, help
neighbors until practising physicians can arrive.

ISLE OF PINES

"Don't omit to pack bathing suits for everybody: we have a delightful beach
and many bathing parties.
"Plenty of summer clothing for yourself and daughter, for you will be wearing
it the year around, though it is quite necessary to have a few warm garments for
the days that have a northern chill. The evenings are most always cool. You
won't need any really elaborate toilettes here (though I must say it is always safer
to have one such, for emergencies) ; but you will want pretty, simple dresses for
the evening parties and afternoon affairs, of which we have plenty.
Inside Information
"Bring a good supply of hats, shoes, corsets, ribbons, stockings, gloves, etc.;
for while you can buy very pretty organdies, linens and light dress goods (French,
English, and Swiss manufacture) in Havana, the accessories one usually finds ready-
made are not to be had there in satisfactory quality or style, though in this respect
the shops are steadily improving. Of late I have found shoes corresponding to
fair $2.50 and $3.00 shoes at home, for $5.00 a pair, where formerly American feet
could not be fitted at any price; and stockings (good linen) at 75 cents a pair.
Cheaper grades do not last at all. Dress hats are to be had in Havana; there is at
least one excellent French millinery store, but the prices are almost prohibitive.
Plain, every-day hats absunt in Havana; if you want a bonnet without very much
of a ribbon and a feather and a bit of lace upon it I advise you to bring it with you.
' ' If you can make your own clothes you are going to find yourself blessed among
women, — freed from the worry of finding a dressmaker, and of paying her price
when you have discovered her. Patterns, lovely dress goods and fine laces (linen
and Valenciennes, cheap) may be bought in Havana shops. Local stores carry
cheap prints, some of which, however, are acceptable for every-day things.
For the Men
"For your husband and son, — duck suits, overalls, work shirts, plenty of
underclothes and shoes. Do not forget your cravenette and rubbers. It is harder
to keep men clad down here than women. Better let them have the biggest half
of the trunks, for you can replenish your own wardrobe more readily than you
can theirs. "As to the home, — if you have been keeping house and have plenty of every
thing, bring it all! Bedding, dishes, kitchen utensils, and lots of them; for things
do wear out very fast down here. I do not think you can get 'just as good' in
Havana. Frequently you cannot find what you want at all, and prices are very
much higher than they are in the States.
"You would be making a great mistake to sell or store your furniture there.
Bring your household goods with you.
Wise Words from a Woman Who Knows
"I made up my mind before coming down that if we were to make the Isle
our home we must have the home surroundings to be happy and contented. I am
not sorry that, with very few exceptions, we brought everything we had, including
cats, dog and a bird.
"If we had been buying new things I should not have brought any upholstered
furniture ; rattan and mission furniture are to be preferred.
"No carpets, but rugs, yes: the handsomest you can have.
"Beautiful dishes and cut glass, if you can afford them. You see more of
such things on the Isle now than used to be.
"Madras, muslin or cretonne curtains, — nothing heavy.
"Plenty of pretty pictures and sofa cushions, — in fact anything and every
thing to make an attractive home.
'I am sure we all enjoy nice things as much on the Isle as ever we did in the
north" (1).

(1) For this letter the author is indebted to Mrs. Gertrude E. Christy, of Vista Hermosa near
Santa Fe, Isle of Pines. '

ISLE OF PINES

The Bridge at Santa Fe
XV.
SALUBRITY OF THE CLIMATE
"The Isle of Pines, rich in medicinal waters, fertile lands, canopied with
a beautiful sky, resting on firm dry soil  " — Dr. Jose de la Luz
Hernandez, Memoir on the Salubrity of the Isle of Pines. (1857.)
There has never been any doubt in the mind of those who know the country
that the Isle of Pines enjoys a most salubrious climate. Fever, plague and the
thousand epidemics that at one time or another have taken the mainland of Cuba
to^task for wholesale neglect of sanitation, never invaded the Isle of Pines. (1)
Its elevation and declivities, and the nature itself of the soil is such, that even
(1) "The epidemic which with the name of 'dengue' (a break-bone fever) prevailed in the year
1828 throughout the West Indies and the shores of the Gulf of Mexico, was unknown there (in the Isle
of Pines) as was also the small-pox which in 1829 ravaged Cuba, although two sons of the Director (of
Reina Amalia Colony), Sr. Delgado, who had contracted the malady in Havana, were conveyed to
the Isle while . . . yet in a contagious state; the same exemption from the cholera was enjoyed. . .and
from the vomito (yellow fever)." — Sr. Afieces in a report to Captain-General Tacon, made in 1834.
"In June, 1855, four hundred men lately arrived from Spain and destined for the army in Cuba,
were sent to the Isle of Pines. At that period the black vomit was prevalent in Havana and such soldiers
as had the fortune to escape destruction by this disease were attacked by Asiatic cholera which had
likewise extensively invaded the military hospital.
"In this emergency the government, observing that the unfortunate recruits; even if they were
saved from the vomit, rarely escaped the cholera, between Scylla and Charybdis, as it were, determined
to send the recently arrived individuals to the Isle of Pines, as the last asylum for these unfortunates
who found themselves threatened by two formidable enemies against which medical skill was not
always successful.
"This measure, adopted under the pressure of circumstances, was affected without the necessary
time for preparing commodious lodgings for the troops sent, the number of whom was much greater
than could be accommodated in the barracks." Yet despite the hardship and exposure to which the
men, unacclimated as they were, were subjected, Dr. Luz Hernandez continues, in his Memoir on the
Salubrity of the Climate, only two died of cholera which developed so soon after their arrival as to make
it evident that they had become infected in Havana; and the disease did not spread.

100 ISLE OF PINES

the heaviest rains leave no death-breeding pools (1). Rivers and creeks of pure
water thread the surface of the land (2), while in every quarter are natural springs,
both hot and cold, of valuable medicinal waters (3). Over all is a clear and sunny
sky, handsomely necked with white clouds, scudding hither and yon with the
constant breeze that blows from the ocean which is around about on every side (4).
(1) Stagnant water where fever- transmit ting mosquitoes breed is one of the most prolific sources
of danger known to the sanitary, in tropical countries. ,
(2) According to the Census of 1899 (p. 524, Sp. ed.) of the 546 houses occupied on the Isle at that
time, 388 got their water from cisterns, 18 from aqueducts, 183 from rivers (7 not specified).
At present, general reliance is on dug wells, save where surface springs are utilized, the depth ot
wells varies over the Isle from a minimum of nine feet to a maximum of fifty, the average being about
twenty-five feet.
The water is soft, and pure. Newcomers sometimes notice a certain bitterness in it; residents
soon cease to observe this peculiarity. In other localities presence of various minerals lends not un-
During exceptionally dry years some of these wells have gone dry, but the Isle has never suffered
serious inconvenience. Persons may have had to carry drinking water from the nearest river ; vegetables
may have wilted and orange trees drooped, — as occurred in May, 1908, just as the first rains were
breaking up a drought unprecedented in history. — but cattle have never died for lack of water, and
families have always had plenty of water for drinking and washing purposes.
The best of the houses in the Isle are fitted with sanitary plumbing. Windmills supply the lorce
needed for shower baths, etc., or cruder means are adopted: for instance, water is sometimes raised to
tanks situated on ground higher than the house, a hand-pump being employed for the hoisting.
(3) The springs of the Isle were known to and appreciated by even the aboriginal inhabitants.
Even then those at Santa Fe were the most famous. John Esquemeling, a Dutch pirate who wrote
"Bucaniers of America," an English version of which was printed in 1684 (London), tells the following
legend of their origin: ,
"Many ages agone, they declare, before the white men came in their great ships from the other
world, the island was peopled by a powerful race of Indians. One tribe only dwelt among its hills and
valleys and therein lay the strength of the people, for, though the great island to the northward (Cuba)
boasted by far the most people, they were divided into many tribes, no one of which was as strong as
the race which dwelt on the smaller isle. Now, the tribes in those days were very fierce and constantly
at war with one another but though they that inhabited the larger island envied the great people to the
southward, they could not prevail over them because they were divided.
"The ruler of the warriors on the smaller isle was a mighty chief, whose word was their law; and
this chief had a son whom he cherished above all else. 'For,' said he, 'in time he shall rule in my stead.
"But it was the custom among the warriors of the Isle that no prince should be suffered to rule oyer
them until his courage had been tested in war. And so strong was this tribe and so great the fear with
which it inspired its enemies that throughout the youth of the prince there had been no war and he had
grown up in the midst of peace.
"Moreover, he took no pleasure in the tribal dances and mock battles of his people, but delighted
in the silence of the woods, for he was a pensive youth. And while wandering thus among the solitudes
he had acquired much wisdom, but it was the wisdom of peace. He drew his lessons from nature.
"On the sterile hill-tops, where the trees were at constant war with the elements, they brought
forth no fruit, but grew up stunted and gnarled, while in the rich soils of the valleys, where all was
peaceful and still, they thrived and bore bountifully.
"Thus he reasoned that all tribes of the surrounding Isles might prosper if they would abandon
their strife and be at peace with one another.
"But when he spoke of these things to the young men of his tribe, they turned away and smiled,
for he was not of their nature.
"And so it came about that when age had whitened the hair of their chief, the old men of his
council came to him and said: 'Lo, the days that remain to thee seem not many, and whom shall we
have to rule over us when thou art gone? For thy son, the prince, has not yet been proven.'
"And the chief fixed his eyes upon the ground, for brave though he was he feared for his son's sake.
"At length he roused himself and, meeting the gaze of the council, replied: 'It is well. My son has
not been tried. But lo, our enemies on yonder island are many. He shall go forth to battle with them. '
' 'So the chief called his warriors together and leading forth his son, placed his own spear in his hand
and hung his own shield before his heart. Then he bade him enter his war canoe that he might go
against his enemies, and counseled him to return no more until he had proven himself.
"And the prince sailed away at the head of his father's warriors to conquer the tribes on the great
island to the north.
"The days passed by and at length one evening the heralds came running down from the hill-tops
with the news that the war canoes of the tribe were returning.
"So the chief came and stood on the island strand, with the old men of his council about him, to
await the coining of his warriors. And as the canoes drew near he saw that all of them save his son's
were decked with branches of the palm tree.
"At this the chief marvelled greatly, and turning to his council besought the reason thereof. But
the old men looked gravely across the waters, for never before in all their years had they witnessed
such a home-coming of their warriors.
"At last the canoes grated upon the shore and as the warriors stepped forth the chief grew pale
for lo! his son was bound.
"For a moment the old chief stood speechless. Then lifting up his voice he thus addressed the
sub-chief of the war party: 'And you call this a victory, thus to return my son to me in bonds! Haste
thee and explain or die!'
"To which awful command the sub-chief made reply:
" 'May our great chief livelong, until the sorrow of this day be forgotten. Lo.thysonis thus returned
to thee for that he left our camp on the first day of our landing and went among our enemies to talkjof
peace. And lo ! he had succeeded but for our warriors who fell upon them while in council and put them
to the spear, all save, this, thy son, whom we could not slay because he is thine.'
"When the speaker had finished the chief fixed his eyes upon his son and in a terrible voice com
manded: 'Speak, dog! What hast thou to say ere thou perisheth?'
"And the prince, smiling, thus made answer: 'Patience, my sire. Lead me, I pray thee, into the
forest depths, and there I will tell you all.'

ISLE OF PINES

101

The mercury is not given to sudden rise or fall.
perature for a year is instructive : —

The following table of tem-

Farenheit, in the Shade (1)

1907

6 a.m.

12 m.

6 p.m

Average

April 
May 
June 
July 
August 
September.October 
November. .
December. .

January. .
February. March 

1908

68.73 74.1074.9675.2275.4174.5674.2271.8069.19 64.4165.4268.77

89.26 89.6288.2689.3890.0689.1386.1685.2681.22 79.5478.3484.22

81.1384.76 79.6384.0385.1284.1680.6776.7373.6772.3573.70 79.61

79.7082.8280.9582.9283.5382.6180.35 77.9374.6972.1072.4877.53

Average ¦

71.39

85.83

79.63

78.95

Maximum temperature, 96° high noon, on August 11th and again at noon on August 30th.
Minimum temperature recorded, 51° at six a. m., on January 26th; 52° at the same hour next day.
Average temperature for the year considered, 78.95°
The air is balsamic with the resinous fragrance of piny woods. (2)

"And the chief commanded and they led him far into the woods, to the banks of a beautiful rivulet
And here the chief bade them sever his bonds, whereat the prince stood before them and told again
the story of the wind-tossed tree on the mountain and the fruitful one in the vale,
"But when he told them how he had sought to impart a lesson therefrom to their enemies, they
mocked him, and the chief, in his anger, caught up a spear and thrust it through the heart of his son.
"And the prince sank lifeless upon the greensward while his blood flowed in a tiny crimson rill
down the bank until it mingled with the waters of the rivulet.
"And straightway the people knew that the Great Spirit was wroth with them for the evil they had
done, for a hot wind swept down upon the Isle and smote them with a deadly plague. Then while the
dire affliction was upon them their enemies from the great island in the north suddenly appeared and
would have fallen upon them had they not chanced to see the prince lying dead on the greensward.
"When the chief of the avenging tribe learned the cause of the young man's death, he paused ere
beginning his work of destruction and commanded his warriors to fashion a grave beside the rivulet,
stooped down and lifted the body in his own arms. As he did this the assembled warriors marvelled,
for out of the ground in the very spot where the prince had lain, gushed forth a beautiful spring as clear
as crystal and as warm as blood. ..... , r . „ ,
"And the invading tribe knew this to be a token of good-will. And instead of avenging themselves
on their stricken enemies brought them to the wonderful springs and laved them in its waters, where
upon they immediately became well.
"And this is the reason, declare old time natives about Santa Fe, why those waters for many years
afterwards bore the name of 'The Spring of Peace,' and why unto this day they are so revered through
out the Indies." ,...,,., ~ t. „ « ,
(4) To the author's knowledge, no consistent record of rainfall is kept. Dr. Kellogg, near banta
Fe has a rain-gauge, however, and may have fuller data on the subject than the author obtained.
(1) Compiled from observations recorded by Messrs. Young, of Santa Teresa estate, McKinley
ra° (2) Dr Luz Hernandez, physician and surgeon of the Royal House of Beneficence (Casa Real de
Beneficencia one of Havana's most famous foundling asylums, wrote, m 1856, a Memoir (published
in 1857) on the Salubrity of the Climate of the Isle of Pines. (Quotations are from an edition in English
to be found in the National Library of Havana.)
He was convinced that the air of the Isle of Pines had a deal to do with cures effected there.
"Shall the medical art," he asks (p. 11 of the Memoir mentioned) hope to explain, with plausible
reasons, the phenomena of cures effected by incult nature in this insulated and solitary spot ? I believe
this may be attempted  It may be said experience has demonstrated that potash, iron and
iodine are the most powerful agents for combating tubercu ous phthisis and all those affections
in which the lymph appears to act the principal part. Now if we allow to chemistry the honor of
effecting demonstrations, this science has proved that iodine is found not only in certain waters
mineral! and certain vegetables, but likewise in the atmospheric air, and particularly the marine
atmosphere. And although the air of the Isle of Pines has not yet been subjected to analysis, the
circumstance of its being a location surrounded on all sides by the sea, causes its atmosphere, what
ever may be the direction of the prevailing wind, to be essentially maritime, in which a skilful chemist
has exhibited the presence of potash, and of iron in its waters.
"There is besioes a very important observation which I think will be well to avail of m order to
better elucidate the fact in question. It has been observed that tuberculous Phthisis^ as ; well as certa n
other diseases which partake of its character appear most generally in calcare°u%d^t"a*s:^daa^5S
in large cities. Nowf the soil of the Isle of Pines  is not calcareous on its surface, and as besides
the Island is still as it were uninhabited, it unites, it appears, these two circumstances favorable for
preventing the development and arresting the progress of this terrible disease, and probably of its con-
86116 Yet Manuel Negro y Fernandez, writing in 1875, tended to deny that the Isle is a proper resort for
consumptives. (Estudio sobre las Aguas de Isla de Pinos; manuscript, m the possession ot Mayor
Benito Ortiz, at Nueva Gerona.)

102

ISLE OF PINES

The Isle was known as a
resort for persons in ill-health
long before 1800; by 1826 it
was famous for the curative
qualities of its waters and its
air; but the hardships of the
trip hither deterred physicians
from recommending patients
to attempt to reach so out-of-
the-way a place, except in
cases so serious that a longer
journey into a region even
more unknown seemed to be
the inevitable alternative. (1)
As early as 1827 the
Spanish government was
favorably considering advan
tages the Isle offered as an
acclimation camp and Con- The Mineral Spring at Nueva Gerona
valescent hospital, for the
Spanish army in Cuba, — an army constantly, in times of peace as in times of war,
deccimated by Yellow Jack
(2), dysentery and all the de
vastating horde of other
diseases, mentionable and
otherwise, which beset "single
men in barracks" especially in
the tropics, when discipline is
not enforced (3) .
In the year mentioned the
Commanding Colonel of the
Barcelona Regiment proposed
to send to the Isle of Pines
"such privates as suffered di
seases of the lungs, in order
to utilize for their advantage
the virtues and excellence of
that climate, considering it
(1) Although Dr. D. Jose de la
Luz Hernandez was aware of the
remarkable curative properties of the
air and waters of the Isle of Pines as
early as the year 1826, he did not
venture to send patients until 1844.
"I could never have ventured," be
says (p. 7, of his Memoir) "to advise
them to go in search of health
to a place which, according to the accounts of individuals whose life had been saved there,
was still uninhabitable ; where there were no hotels or public houses, nor provision for the most indis
pensable necessaries of life, and where the inhabitants or residents were frequently assaulted and robbed
by pirates, who took refuge in the island, which , being surrounded by quays, offered a commodious shelter
to wreckers and malefactors. On the other hand, it was necessary to suffer the inconvenience of a road
nearly forty miles in length (Havana to Batabano) and nearly impassable, the termination of which
was a marshy and desert coast, where the traveller found no shelter nor certainty of obtaining a vessel
to convey him to the island . . . . But about the commencement of the year 1844, a case .... (having
presented itself to Dr. Luz Hernandez, he did not hesitate to urge the patient to go to the Isle) .... There
was then a railroad extending to Batabano, and the government had projected founding the colony Reina
Amalia, for which purpose a garrison was placed there, with a military commandant and a board of civil
authorities; a school was established, a church and a hospital were built, the latter with an attending
physician endowed by government, and a vessel destined to make regular trips from Batabano to Nueva
Gerona, in which latter place a few shops for the sale of miscellaneous articles, a bakery and a slaughter
house, afforded some resources . . . ."
(2) Yellow fever, often referred to by Cubans as "the Great Patriot," because so inveterate and
fatal a foe to Spaniards along with all other Europeans. Modem sanitary methods have vanquished
the disease; it is no longer epidemic and what sporadic cases do appear in Cuba are under control
and threaten no danger to communities in which they appear.
(3) Some of the very soldiers sent to the Isle to recuperate committed excesses there and on their
return to Havana, according to complaint of their superior officers. Sr. Afieces mentioned this matter
in 1834 to Captain-General Tacon, remarking that their conduct, and subsequent decease "cast un
founded discredit on the beneficent and healthy climate of the Isle of Pines."

The Magnesia Spring at Santa Fe

ISLE OF PINES

103

Weyler Spring
an appropriate place for convalescents to re
cover their lost health . " "The supreme authority
of the Island of Cuba," says Dr. Ramon Pifla y
Pinuela, in his 'Treatise,' published in 1850 (1)
"approved this project and commenced to send to Sanchez s Camp
that place the individuals of the troops who, according to the judgment of the
physicians, were in a state to stand in need of this measure." (2)
Incurables Cured
Of 173 patients listed in a table by Dr. Luz Hernandez, "who were removed,"
he says (3), "from the hospital rather with an intention to console them than with
the pious hope of curing them," 138 astounded the doctors by getting well, thus
reflecting great credit upon the Isle of Pines (4) .
During these same years (1844 on) Dr. Jose de la Luz Hernandez was recom
mending the Isle to his patients and conducting experiments here from which he
formed the very favorable opinion of the Isle's climate expressed, in 1857, in his
published Memoir on its salubrity (5).
"In the Isle of Pines," he declares, "tuberculous phthisis has been observed
to disappear as if by enchantment, laryngitis, bronchitis, cephalalgy and iptenitis-
arthritis, rheums and cephalalgy; gastrology and gastroenteralgy, amenorrheas and
dismenorrheas ; uterine affections, as also venereal lues and king's evil; glandular
obstructions and osteocopes; neurotic affections, paralysis, hypochondriasis or
melancholy; and finally, cachexy, chlorosis, prostration and almost all dermal
affections, from herpes to the incipient elephantiasis of the Arabs; asthma, ephth-
almia, otitis cystitis, eclampsies and epilepsy."

(1) The author has not been able to find a copy of this report; extracts from it are frequent in all
later treatises on the subject. Dr. Pifla reported to the government on the advisability of using the
Isle as an acclimation and convalescent camp for the Spanish army in Cuba.
(2) "It had already been observed with the young custom house guards and political prisoners
newly arrived from Spain and sent to the Isle, destined to undergo hardships and loss of liberty,
with numberless bodily privations as well as moral sufferings, exposure to the weather with a complete
change of habits, that among upwards of two hundred individuals, not a single case of vomit (yellow
eV6I(3) Memoir on the Salubrity of the Climate, __p. 42. "A loss." he adds, "of only 35. when the latter
as well as those cured were considered incurable." _
(4) In the year 1838 royal order was communicated allowing thirty cents Spanish silver per diem
in addition to their pay to all soldiers who repaired to the Isle to recover their health; but in 1848
this practice was discontinued, according to Dr. Pifla, much to that gentleman's disapproval.
(5) Dr. Jose de la Luz Hernandez, "Memoir on the Salubrity of the Isle of Pines, Havana, 1857.
English translation to be found in the National Library in Havana.

104

ISLE OF PINES

Unanimous Praise
And since his time (1) to the present date all physicians who have investigated
climatic conditions, and especially the mineral springs of the Isle, have, in all
essentials, agreed in very favorable opinion regarding the island as a resort for the
ailing, the nervous and the tired. (2) They differ in that some prefer the waters
of one spring and some those of another.
The water of some of the springs seems never to have been analyzed: for
instance, that of the springs at "Captain Smith's place," recently purchased by
Messrs. Taylor and Lane, which drew to the locality the first church in the Isle
and, at some subsequent date, a hospital. The best known springs are those which
happen to have been most accessible, — at Santa Fe and at Nueva Gerona. The
most powerful waters are those of Binckley's Well No. 1 (no analysis available
(3), which are said to be equal to a draft of physic, and are shunned, therefore,
by animals. The favorite springs among Americans are, undoubtedly, those named
for General Weyler, whose waters come bubbling quietly into the small temporary
reservoir by the river bank not far distant from Santa Fe. The water is blood
warm and clear as crystal and has proved most effective in many recent cases. (4)
Analysis of Water
The following analysis of waters from some of the several mineral springs
of the isle were made by the chemists of the Cuban Government's Central Ex
periment Station at Santiago de las Vegas :

Nueva Gerona
Springs

Buena Vista
Wells

Rosario Springs

Binckley'sWell No. 2

General Wey
ler Spring

SUBSTANCE

Parts per
million

Grs. gal.

Parts per
million

Grs. per
U.S. gal.

Parts per
million

Grs. per
U.S. gal.

Parts per
million

Grs. per
U.S. gal.

Parts per
million

Grs. per
U.S. gal.

Chloride of Potassium . . .
Chloride of Soda 
Chloride of Calcium 
Chloride of Magnesium. .
Sulphate of Magnesium. .
Carbonate of Magnesium.
Carbonate of Calcium. . .
Oxides of Iron and Alumi-

85.3 6.0
43.635.2
35.9
113.6 19.6 6.2

4.98 .35
2.53
2.05
2.09
6.62 1.13 .36

3.2
10.0
18.8 2.5
2.5
27.9
44.0 3.8

.19.58
1.10 .15
.15
1.62
2.57 .22

6.2
34.0 8.56.1
20.1
157.9 12.0 4.4

.36
1.98 .50
.35
1.17
9.21 .70
.26

155.0
2117.6 90.3
400.3 72.172.1
191.8 28.4 16.8

9.04
123.48 5.26
23.35 4.20
11.18 1.68 .98

Tra
103.2 2.3
33.7
155.5 3.6
15.0

ces 5.800.13 1.96
8.05
0.160.87

Total

345.4

20.11

112.7

6.58

249.2

14.53

3072.3

179.17

313.3

16.97

"Perhaps the most noticeable feature of these waters," adds Director Crawley,
(1) In 1875 Manuel Negro y Fernandez, attached to the Military Hospital at Nueva Gerona
made a report on "Thejsle of Pines, its Waters and the Utility of Establishing a Military Colony for
Cure and Acclimation." He quoted largely from previous investigators and agreed with them in
presenting a very favorable opinion concerning the Isle's climate and mineral springs. This report
may have been printed; the author has seen it only on manuscript, owned by Mayor Benito Ortiz of
Nueva Gerona, who kindly loaned it.
(2) Some have hesitated to recommend patients to go to the Isle, believing that suitable accom
modations could not be secured; there are now, however, good hotels open, and at Santa Fe modem
bathhouse buildings have been erected.
(3) The sample sent to the Experiment Station was lost in transit.
(4) It is intended to erect a sanitarium at General Weyler spring, which, by the way, is so named
it is said, because that famous Spanish captain-general came to bathe here for rheumatism, as do now'

ISLE OF PINES 105

of the experiment Station, " is the very small percentage of salts in water of the
Buena Vista Wells, this being exceedingly small for a Cuban water; and the very
high content of chloride of sodium (salt) in Binckley's Well No. 2.

Cubans and Americans. The location is admirable for the building of a first class sanitorium, and the
waters have proven themselves of real efficiency, as the following testimonials indicate:
One of the most splendid tributes which has been paid to climatic and water influences in the Isle
of Pines, resulted from the recovery of Antonio Sanchez, a Spaniard who came helpless to Santa Fe,
four weeks ago. He pitched his camp close to the General Weyler spring, and on the first day of the
present week, after taking twenty-six baths and drinking the water was able to walk into Santa Fe, a
mile distance. When he came, he was carried by attendants, and at first was carried to the spring.
After two weeks of bathing in the waters of the Weyler spring, he was able to go to the bath without
an attendant, and he attributes his recovery from a distressing case of rheumatism to the influences of
the waters of the Weyler spring and the splendid climate of the Isle of Pines. — Isle of Pines Appeal,
January 20, 1910. The illustration on p. 103 shows the hut Sanchez built himself near the springs.
Dear Mr. Schultz: Needham, Mass., U.S.A., May 4, 1910.
Santa Fe, Isle of Pines, W.I.
Previous to my leaving Santa Fe I told you of the good that my wife and myself had received from
the use of the baths at the Weyler Spring. My wife had been a great sufferer from neuritis, which
baffled the skill of our physician, and after using every known remedy she was advised to seek a warmer
climate, and we at once decided to go to the Isle of Pines.
Previous to our arrival at Santa Fe we had not heard of the Weyler Spring and decided at once to
try it, and after taking her first bath in the waters she felt a decided benefit. The pain gradually yielded
and after one month of almost daily baths she can say she feels cured, and to this day has had no
re-occurrence of the trouble.
I frequently took the baths and felt greatly benefited, and we feel we cannot say too much in
praise of the Weyler Spring or the fine climate of the Isle of Pines, and it is our intention to return next
winter, and make it in the future our winter home.
With kindest regards, I am,
Respectfully yours,

Toledo, Ohio, May 12, 1910.
Mr. W. C. Schultz,
Isle of Pines, W.I.
My Dear Mr. Schultz: . T, , , , c. r i_ ^.-l- ¦
I have your favor of the 28th ult. asking if I thought I had received any benefit from bathing in
the Weyler Spring.' I have every reason to know that it was a great benefit to me. I was obliged to
go south on account of a general breakdown and a severe case of neuritis. I was in Flonda about six
weeks, most of the time in Miami, but did not seem to get any better, so I decided to go to the Isle of
of Pines and try the Weyler Spring of which I heard a great deal from Mr. R. W. Barton, of this city,
who had been there. I bathed in it nearly every day for a month and was greatly benefited by it,
as well as from the delightful climate of the Island. I returned home about the middle of April, a year
ago, and have been at the office all the time. I know anyone troubled with rheumatism, or as 1 was,
will find bathing in it a great benefit. With kindest regards from Mrs. Swalley and myself, I am.
Yours very truly,

Chicago, 111., June 27, 1910.
Wm. C. Schultz, Esq.,
Santa Fe, Isle of Pines.
My Dear Mr. Schultz^
went
was7eryVul™onge^ I think the benefits I received from the climate and from the Spring, while on the Isle of Pines, are
helping me to continue5 regaining strength, and I hope to be able to return to the island next winter
and remain for a longer period of time than I was able to this past winter.
With kindest regards to you all, I am as ever, ^^ ^^ ^^

/^%Lf.

106 ISLE OF PINES

" As for the General Weyler Spring, at Santa Fe, judging from the analysis, it
should be very efficient." (1). Hartford, Conn., May 10th, 1910.
Mr. Wm. C. Schultz,
Santa Fe, Isle of Pines, W.I.
Dear Mr. Schultz :
Bread may be the staff of life, but good water is the first condition of comfortable and healthy
existence. Surely no place has been better equipped by nature than the Isle of Pines. Especially
is the vicinity of Santa Fe blessed above all other places as to the quality of its waters. The wonderful
Weyler Spring will, in the near future, I believe, make the Isle of Pines the most visited spot on the
western hemisphere. I wish I were the owner of that spring; I would devote the remainder of my days
to developing it into the most powerful magnet to the afflicted that there is in the world. That can
be done. The marvellous cures continually being effected by the baths and other uses of its waters
justify confidence in claims that seem incredible. Very truly yours,

Phoenixville, Pa., May 6, 1910..
Mr. W. C. Schultz,
Santa Fe, Isle of Pines, W.I.
My Dear Mr. Schultz : „,.,,,.,_-,
During my recent visit to the Isle of Pines I had the pleasure of taking the baths m the Weyler
Spring. It is a most delightful experience. These baths are without doubt beneficial to those suffering
with rheumatism. I have not felt any since taking the baths. Anyone wishing to spend the winter
in a most delightful climate, will find all he can wish for.in the Isle of Pines.
Yours very truly,

p&u-lL.Jlufc

(1) H. McCormack, the Chicago chemist, analyzes the water of Weyler Spring as follows, stated
in "parts per million: Silicon dioxide  18.6
Ferric chloride  2.5
Aluminum chloride  10.5
Calcium chloride  130 . 6
Magnesium chloride  42 . 5
Sodium chloride  156 . 1
Potassium chloride  11.0
Calcium sulphate  35 . 7
Hydrogen sulphide  3.4
W. W. Daniels, of the University of Wisconsin, reported the following mineral composition ex
pressed in grains per U.S. standard gallon of 231 cubic inches:
Chlorine  8.1645
Sulphuric acid  1.8502
Hydrogen sulphide  0 .2392
Sodium oxide  4 . 6386
Potassium oxide  0 . 4848
Calcium oxide (lime)  4 . 5925
Magnesium oxide  0 . 7435
Aluminum oxide  0 . 1021
Iron oxide  0.3062
Insoluble (Silica)  1 . 1955
The ingredients are usually combined and reported as follows:
Potassium sulphate  0 . 8957
Sodium sulphate  1 . 9512
Sodium, hydrogen sulphide  0 . 3940
Sodium chloride  5.3070
Magnesium chloride  1 . 7658
Calcium chloride  5 . 3615
Calcium bicarbonate  5 . 4603
Aluminum chloride  0.2669
Iron bicarbonate  0.6813
Silica  1 . 1955
The water was also examined by Dr. Daniels for iodine, bromine and lithium; none of these ele
ments were present.
J. Rhodes Longley, M.D., of Fond du Lac, Wis., commenting upon this water, remarks:
"Sulphate of magnesium (Epsom salts) is about two grains in a gallon; this, then, is not a water
too active as a physic. Hydrogen sulphide, also found in a later analysis, is but three-tenths of a grain
in a gallon, — so there is but a faint odor. Calcium chloride present, is a necessary ingredient in blood.
There are no carbonates in General Weyler Spring water, which makes it an excellent water because
of low alkalinity."

ISLE OF PINES 107

BIBLIOGRAPHY
?Agrarian League: Agricultural Review, Year XX., Nos. 1 to 3. Havana.
Arrate, Jose Martin Felix : Llave del Nuevo Mundo. Written in 1761; published
in Havana in 1830.
Ballou, Maturin Murray: Due South; or Cuba, Past and Present. Boston and
New York, 1885.
Blain, Jose (by Millpaugh) : Catalogue of Plants.
?Bureau of Insular Affairs: Special statement on flora and fauna prepared for
this publication. Manuscript. Washington, 1908.
?Casas, Fray Bartolome de las: Historia de las Indias. Madrid, 1845. Also,
Tercer Memorial sobre los Indios de Cuba in Documentos ineditos sobre pose-
siones espanolas de ultramar. 2d series, t. 6, 111., Madrid, 1891.
?Census of Cuba, Spanish edition. Washington, 1900.
Columbian Museum Publication No. 48.
Concha, Jose Gutierrez de la: Memorias sobre el estado de Cuba. Madrid, 1853.
Cowley, Rafael: Los tres primeros historiadores de la Isla de Cuba. Havana,
1876-77.
Esquemeling, John: Bucaniers of America. London, 1684.
?Fortescue, G. R., Special Agent Armed Forces of Cuba: Report on the Charac
teristics and Depths of Siguanea Bay, Isle of Pines, 1908. Manuscript.
Also manuscript notes taken by Mr. Fortescue for a general report never
completed.
?Franco, D. Dionisio: Conocimientos que adquirio en la isla de Pinos D. Dionisio
Franco, secretario que fue del vi-rey de Lima, en su mansion en ella desde 6 de
marzo hasta 15 de abril de 1792 con el motivo de haber apresado los ingleses la
embarcacion en que se conducia de Cartagena a Batabano y echadolo en dicha
Isla. Memorias de la Real Sociedad Economica de la Habana, Vol. 32. 1847.
Garcia de Arboleya, Jose : Manual de la Isla de Cuba. Havana, 1859.
Griesbach: Flora of the British West Indies.
?Hayes, C. Willard: Report on a Geological Reconnoissance of Cuba, made under
the direction of General Leonard Wood, Military Governor, 1901. Washing
ton, 1901.
Hespel D'Harponville, Gustave: La Reine del Antilles. Paris, 1850.
Humboldt, Alexander: Ensayo politico sobre la Isla de Cuba. Paris, 1827.
?Imberno, Pedro Jose : Guia Geografica y Administriva de la Isla de Cuba. Havana,
1891.
?Keenan, Miss Sophie G. : A Mountain of Marble in the Isle of Pines, in Cuba Bul
letin and Review. New York, November, 1907 (Also letters to the author.)
?Labadia, Dr. D. Jose: Descripcion Topografica de la Isla de Pinos. Memorias de
la Real Sociedad Economica de la Habana. .
Laborde y Navarro, Angel: Nueva Division de la Isla de Cuba. Havana, 1829.
?La Lucha, newspaper, issue of May 19, 1897. Havana.
?Lanier, Lt. D. Alejo Helvecio : Geografica de la Isla de Pinos. Notes accompany
ing a map. Memorias de la Real Sociedad Patriotica de la Habana, Vol. 10.
1836. Also, in the same volume, a list of Isle trees.
?Luz Hernandez, Dr. Jose de la: Memoir on the Salubrity of the Isle of Pines.
Havana, 1857. Also Informe sobre las Propiedades Higienico-Medicinales
de las Aguas y Temperatura de la Isla de Pinos. Havana, 1865.
Morales y Morales, Vidal: Nociones de Historia de Cuba. Havana, 1904.
Millspaugh, Dr. Chas. Frederick: Plantae Insulae Ananasensis, a catalogue of
plants' collected on the Isle of Pines, Cuba, by Don Jose Blain. (Field Co
lumbian Publication No. 48) . Chicago, 1900.
?Negro y Fernandez, Manuel: Estudio sobre las Aguas de Isla de Pinos. Manu
script, in the possession of Mayor Benito Ortiz. , :
?Odoardo Grand-Pre, Jose Hipolito: Dictamen que eva~i-r±\ n.^~,,0 del Escmo.
Sr. Capitan General D. Francisco Dionis/'tLA-DO 30 ~ *oblacion
blanca de la Isla de Cuba y especialmenP  ,  ydemonas
de la Sociedad Economica de la Habai >

108 ISLE OF PINES

Bibliography — Continued
?Oliva, Jose : Report rendered to His Excellency the Governor and Captain General
of the Island of Cuba, showing the results of his tour of inspection throughout
the Isle of Pines, in pursuance of orders issued by the said Governor-General
dated May 12, 1896. Manuscript. In the possession of Mr. A. E. Willis,
"The Isle of Pines Appeal," Santa Fe.
?Pezuela (y Lobo), Jacobo de la: Cronica de las Antillas. Madrid, 1871; and
Diccionario geografico, estadistico, historico de la Isla de Cuba. Madrid, 1863.
Pifia y Pifiuela, Dr. Ramon: Treatise . . Havana, 1850.
?Poey, Andres: Breve Ojeada historica, hidrografica y topografica de la Isla de Pinos.
Havana 
?Poey, Felipe : Viaje a Santa Fe, published in a collection of literary works. Havana.
Robinson, Albert G.. Cuba and the Intervention. New York, 1905.
Rowan (A. S., Lt., U.S.A.) and Ramsey (M.M.) : The Island of Cuba. New
York, 1896.
Sagra, Ramon de la : Historia fisica, politico y natural de la Isla de Cuba. Paris,
1854.
?Senate Document No. 311: 59th Congress, 1st session, a reprint of The Isle of
Pines, prepared in the Division of Insular Affairs, War Department, 1902.
Washington.
Senate Document No. 205, 59th Congress, 1st session: Adjustment of Title to the
Isle of Pines.
?Spencer, Arthur C. : Report on a Geological Reconnoissance of Cuba, made under
the direction of General Leonard Wood, Military Governor, 1901. Wash
ington, 1901.
?Steinhart, Frank E.: Consul-General, Daily and Consular and Trade Report
No. 2371, The Isle of Pines. Washington, 1905.
?Tirry y Laco: Descripcion de la Isla de Pinos por el Capitan de Fragata de la Real
Armada, Don Juan Tirry y Laco. Memorias de la Real Sociedad Patriotica
de la Habana, Vol. 13. 1837-8.
?Vaughan, T. Wayland: Report on a Geological Reconnoissance of Cuba, made
under the direction of General Leonard Wood, Military Governor, 1901.
Washington, 1901.
& & &
Stars designate works consulted direct by the author of the present publication.

The author desires to thank the Department of Agriculture, the Library of the
Economic Society Friends of the Country, the National Library, the Experiment
Station at Santiago de las Vegas, and those private individuals both in the Isle of
Pines and in Havana (actual settlers, non-resident land owners, representatives
of land companies, transportation companies, business men, and students of the
history of the Isle) who have so generously and conscientiously assisted toward
attainment of the object the writer had: to make this publication complete and
impartial.

^..j, Jl.D., u.,
,l magnesium (Epsu... —
- a physic. Hydrogen sulphide, ai.
-so there is but a faint odor. Calciu
i> carbonates in General Weyler Sprir,
nity."

ISLE OF PINES

109

DOES IT PAY?

xrp piOPTQ P A V IF Y0U KN0W H0W
A 1 JL/V^/Xl/kJ Ll\ I Ask us anything about
 Oranges,Grapefruit, Lemons,
or any tropical crop. Information Free. Literature Free
German Kali Works
PO BOX 1007 HAVANA, CUBA
OFFICE EMPEDRADO 30

110

ISLE OF PINES

THREE young men, members of the firm of HAMMOND, HAMMOND and
BAKER, who have unbounded faith in the future of the Isle of Pines.
Their Colony, " San Pedro," is by far the most progressive on the Isle.
See page 53

ISLE OF PINES 111

Ttj ROB ABLY no firm operating on the Isle of Pines
rjp* has the substantial success of this little country
more at heart than Hammond, Hammond & Baker
of Columbus, Ohio, now developing what is known
as the "San Pedro Tract" along the shores of Siguanea
Bay. Attracted there in the fall of 1 908 by the reports
of its wonderful climate and fruit growing possibilities,
they had in mind at that time simply establishing a
winter home which would eventually be self-support
ing. Much impressed by the great opportunities which
were in evidence at every turn, they purchased a large
tract of land and hurried back to their home city to
tell their friends. That their proposition was received
with enthusiasm is shown by the fact that today their
colony, started almost by accident, is the finest and
most progressive on the Island.
" We are not simply land sellers, — we are making
a country," said Frank N. Hammond, when asked
the reason for their rapid success. " It takes good
people to make real values and we are getting all good
people. It won't be long until land in San Pedro
will be selling higher than anywhere on the Island
because of social conditions and substantial develop
ment." Judging by the energy and resourcefulness
displayed by these young men, it is not hard to
prophesy that all their claims will be substantiated
and that San Pedro will not only be the finest place on
the Isle of Pines, but in the whole West Indies.

112 ISLE OF PINES

Tourists, settlers and others
on their way to the ISLE OF PINES are cordially
invited to make use of the public writing room in
the City Ticket Office and Tourist Bureau of the
United Railways of Havana
atPrado6l, (Clerks' Club Building) Havana,
where tickets and steamer reservations for the Isle
of Pines service may be obtained, as well as in
formation regarding delightful excursions to all
parts of Cuba 

We are Headquarters for
KODAKS and PHOTO SUPPLIES

Developing and Printing for Amateurs
Souvenirs, Views of Cuba and Isle of Pines
Expert Optical Work . . .
Stationery:- The most complete line of
Stationery and Office Supplies in Cuba . .
L. C. SMITH & BROS. Typewriters
"Writing in Sight"
. . Office Furniture and Business Systems . .
Agency of the National Cash Register Co.
Harris Brothers Company
O'REILLY 104, HAVANA, CUBA

ISLE OF PINES 113

F

^

YOUR MONEY BACK
If My Properties Are
Not as Represented
I SELL MY OWN LAND
After years of selection I have
secured and own some of the
BEST LAND on the ISLAND
MY PRICES ARE RIGHT 
ALL TITLES GUARANTEED
Am always in the mar
ket for the purchase of
high-class properties only.

WM. C SCHULTZ
SANTA FE, ISLE OF PINES, W.I.

="="="  "=-*  ir=ii^=ir.

J

114

ISLE OF PINES

m^

"THE STAR
SHOE STORE"

S. M. Hoover & Co.

"Only

American Shoe Si
the Isle of Pines"
Gent's

ore on

5 °°

H

friK

Furnishings

3W

<*

<!

Souvenirs

<

Always Up-to-Date
THREE DOORS FROM THE BANK
NUEVA GERONA, ISLE OF PINES

THE ISLE OF PINES UNITED LAND COMPANIES
Capital Stock $250,000, Fully Paid, Issued under
authority from Executive Council of the State of
Iowa, aft?r appraisement of properties.
Robert Irwin Wall, clement J. wall,
Pres. and Treas. Sec'y and Gen. Mer.
Santa Fe, Isle of Pines, Suite 534-5 Moradnock Bldg.,
¦\V_I_ Chicago.
Owners of the following Isle of Pines, W.I.
Properties :
The El Hospital tract of land containing 8200 acres.
The El Haiillo tract of land containing 4000 acres.
The Townsite of Santa Fe containing over 1200 lots, Santa
Rita Baths and other bathing and drinking springs.
1100 acres of the San Juan tract carefully selected by
Robert Irwin Wall.
1200 a<_res of the Mmacigos tract carefully selected.
Buildings and inside Santa Fe town properties.
Calzada lots on both Calzadas, lands on the Santa Fe
Plantation and a large amount of other properties.
For prices on lands and lots, selling agency contracts
etc., address the Chicago office.

THE
Santa Fe Land Company
An Iowa Corporation
Capital Stock $150,000
CLEMENT T. WALL, Pres. & Treas.
Suite 534-5 Monadnock Bldg., Chicago
R. IRWIN WALL, Sec'y & Gen. Mgr.
Santa Pe, Isle of Pines
Owning
THE FAMOUS SANTA FE ESTATE,
Originally consisting of 35,000 acres
of land.
For booklets, plats, prices of land,
terms, etc., address the Chicago Office

ALWAYSTHE BEST

Chas. F. Fetter
Neatness, Service
and What You Want

CIT Late additions make the
jJ main store one hundred
and fifty feet from front to
rear, together with warehouses
and storerooms I feel equal to
most any demand in the mer
cantile line.
General Merchandise

Nueva Gerona Isle of Pines

ISLE OF PINES

115

J. A. MILLER

S. B. ROHRER

MILLER & ROHRER
Owners of Cuchilla Aha and Santa Ana Estates
Real . Estate
NUEVA GERONA, ISLE OF PINES, W. I.

ANT A ANA is three and one-half miles
from Nueva Gerona, the capital of the
island, and fronts on both sides of the
proposed Government road. Its lands
are particularly adapted to the culture
of citrus and other fruits and vegetables.
It is sub-divided into 20-acre tracts
and is being occupied by industrious
American families, who are successfully making it
into the most attractive and desirable colony of the
island. It is an established neighborhood, the
general improvement of which has the united sup
port of every family. Over 400 acres are set out to
Citrus Fruit and Pineapples . Cuchilla Alta j oins Santa
Ana on the west and is a part of Santa Ana settlement.
Investigation is invited before purchasing else
where. Special contracts for improvements for
non-resident owners. Large and small, improved
and unimproved tracts in other parts of the island.
CORRESPONDENCE SOLICITED

MILLER & ROHRER, Real Estate
Nueva Gerona, Isle of Pines, W.I.

116 ISLE OF PINES
Isle of Pines Steamship
Company

The steamer Cristobal Colon of this line will make
a night run between Batabano and Isle of
Pines, Monday, Wednesday and Saturday even
ing, immediately upon the arrival of the train,
leaving Villanueva Station, Havana at
5.50 p.m.
Returning from the Isle of Pines
Sunday, Tuesday and Friday evenings, to
connect with train leaving Batabano at 5.25
a.m. for Havana.

THE LACE STORE
OBISPO 97, HAVANA, CUBA
REAL SPANISH HAND-MADE LACES
MANTILLAS, HANDKERCHIEFS,
HAND-EMBROIDERED AND DRAWN-
WORK DRESSES, BEDSPREADS
CENTRE PIECES, BLOUSES 
Imported from Barcelona and the Canary Islands by
THE LACE STORE
SUAREZ Y HERMANO, Proprietors OBISPO 97
HAVANA, CUBA

Land that Produces for You
365 Days in the Year —

E offer for sale the finest, most productive lands
in the Isle of Pines. Unexcelled for growing Grape
Fruit, Pineapples, Oranges, Lemons, Limes, Tobacco
and vegetable products; all easily marketable at high
est prices. No frosts — no irrigation is necessary.
•I Our lands are situated on the southwest coast, surround
ing up-to-date American town of Los Indios, the Only port
on island located on deep water route. Steamer docks
being built. Lowest freight charges.
€]J Town has modern conveniences, including school (under
American supervision). Visitors conveyed over property in
automobile. Boats, launches, etc., for pleasure parties. Fine
fishing and hunting.
<I All land titles absolutely guaranteed. A gilt edge investment.
<J Write today for interesting free illustrated book and full particulars.
Canada Land & Fruit Company
117 Wisconsin Street
Milwaukee, Wisconsin, U. S. A.

118 ISLE OF PINES

Isle of Pines Bank
Nueva Gerona, Isle of Pines
West Indies
<!>
Thomas J. Keenan, President Claude V. Allnutt, Cashier
Wm. Mason, Vice-President L. A. Witter, Asst. Cashier

Interest Allowed
on special accounts in Savings Department at Three per cent per annum
for money remaining six months

DIRECTORS
J. A. Hill Horace P. Hayes William Mason
CV. Allnutt Benito Ortiz J. M. W. Durant T. J. Keenan

LA SIGUANEA
"FRONTING ON THE SHORES OF SIGUANEA BAY"
THE DEEP WATER HARBOR OF THE ISLE OF PINES

We are now ready to sell you a lot in the
townsite. We wish you to visit us. Our
office is at the Andorra Inn, in the townsite of

LA SIGUANEA
ISLE OF PINES - - - WEST INDIES

Executive Office
ANDORRA REALTY CO. CHESTNUT HILL, PHILADELPHIA

ISLE OF PINES

119

 Four-year-old Trees 
View of the Thirty-five Acre Grove of W. F. Nelson & Co.
Isle of Pines Real Estate

Is a Good Investment if you Buy
Right and in a Good Location
It pays to consult those who have had experi
ence and know conditions.
We have a thirty-five acre grove and have had
nine years' experience in growing citrus fruits
and vegetables on the Isle of Pines We are
in position to furnish you any and all informa
tion you may desire, and will gladly give you
the benefit of our experience.
We are owners of and agents for choice tracts
of land, from ten acres up, in all parts of the
island, and would be pleased to have you in
vestigate these properties, as we believe a
careful inspection would mean investment and
development.

W. F. NELSON & COMPANY
SANTA FE ISLE OF PINES WEST INDIES

120

ISLE OF PINES

Las Tunas Plantation
ISLE OF PINES

E are selling in large or small acre
age at very low prices. Investigate
our proposition before you purchase
elsewhere. Can use a few first-
class agents : : : :

WILLIAM R. HILL & CO.
ZULUETA 9 - - HAVANA, CUBA
Vuelta Abajo Steamship Company
SS. VEGUERO

OFFERS TO PASSENGERS AND FREIGHT
A COMBINED SERVICE
.Batabano to the Isle of Pines..
and
Ports of Vuelta Abajo
(PINAR DEL RIO)
CUBA

ISLE OF PINES

121

Drink Delicious

S. S. FRIEDLEIN
WholesaleGrocer

?r^

HABANA

CUBA

The American
Photo Company
Obispo, 70 Altos ,
Havana, Cuba
( Illustrators of this publication )
J*
We are photographers to the Isle
of Pines j*
Complete collection of Isle views —
single prints and albums — hand col
ored in nature's tints J*
We photograph real estate on or
ders. The camera tells the truth
J*
W. H. WARK
Cuban Views Portraits
THE AMERICAN PHOTO CO.

W. D. MIDDLETON

FRED C. MASON

La Ceiba Nurseries

TREESM&M
GROW

SANTA FE,
ISLE OF PINES

SEEDLESS GRAPE FRUIT AND
KING
ORANGES

122

ISLE OF PINES

FULS & TRACY
Wood Working and
Furniture Factory..
We Manufacture
Doors, Sash, Blinds, etc.

«L

Our Mission Style Furniture of
Native Hardwoods, handsome
and solid, is the favorite in the
homes of the Isle of Pines : :

Write for Prices Work Guaranteed

FULS & TRACY

Naeva Gerona

Isle of Pines

Colomina & Company
Importers and Dealers
in
Cameras Kodaks
Photographers '
Supplies
at prices prevailing in the United
States

San Rafael 32
Havana

Colomina & Company

The Manati
Company of cub<

Offers to settlers and investors
the most attractive inducements
to be obtained in the West In
dies, and the West Indies offer
at the present time the best in
the world. Our lands are the
nearest tropical soil to New
York; and Manati Bay is the
finest harbor in Cuba.
Particulars and 25-cent Pocket
Map free.
S. O. SANDERSON, Gen'l Mgr.
9 Palace Bldg,, Minneapolis, U.S.A.

HOTEL CEBALLOS
Oldest and Still the
Best at
SANTA FE, ISLE of PINES
QUIET, CLEAN COMFORTABLE
FOR BUSINESS MEN, TOURISTS, INVALIDS
PEDRO ORDONEZ,3Prop.

GILBERT S. JOYCE
General Contractor and Builder. Pile Driving, Dock and
Bridge Building, Plumbing and Gas Fitting, Plastering,
Cement Work, etc. Only the best workmen employed
Satisfaction guaranteed. Plans and specifications for mod
ern houses furnished on short notice. All kinds of build
ing material at reasonable prices. I am the only Gen
eral Contractor on the Isle of Pines who has passed the U.S.
Civil service examination and been appointed Inspector of
Public Buildings. I am the only one on the Island owning
the machinery necessary for heavy work in the general
contracting business. Call and see me or address
GILBERT S. JOYCE!
Santa Fe Isle of Pines, W.I.

A. C. Robertson, Sr. Pres.
X. O. Werder, M.D., Vice-Pres.
H. H. Robertson, Managing Director
Columpo Bay Land Company
Suite 354 Frtck Annex - Pittsburg-, Pa.
If you are desirous of spending the winter in a climate
unexcelled in the world, why not patronize the "Beautiful
Bungalow Hotel," recently built by the Columpo Bay Land
Company and located on the Vivijagua Estate — known as
the Mountain Inn, Key-View -by -the-Sea — where one may
enjoy the Sea Bathing, Boating, Fishing, Motoring, and
Mountain Climbing to be had only in this section.
Write for descriptive booklets.

ISLE OF PINES

123

A Perfect Winter Home in
the Tropics
Hotel Costa
McKinley
Isle of Pines, w*.I.
A. M. Brown, Proprietor

For the Land's Sake
HM Bradley's Fertilizers
Our Price is what We Know Suits
Our Products Raise Produce
F. C. MASO <l. General Agent

Distributing Agents:
Wall & Wagstaff, Santa Fe
B. L. Hill, Nueva Gerona-McKinley
Morrison McAllister, San Pedro
J. R. King, Los Indios

...The...
Hupmobile 4-Cylinder, 20 HP.
Car Extraordinary
For demonstration see
F. B. WILCOX, Nueva Gerona, or
B. F. KING, Santa Fe

Stoves Hardware
A. KORITZKY
The First Department Store
on the Isle of Pines
EVERYTHING FOR SALE
A. KORITZKY
Nueva Gerona - Isle of Pines
Furniture Farm Implements

WALL & WAGSTAFF

Tropical . Cook . Book
Compiled by Ladies' Social
Club of Herradura
A handsome, stiff-backed volume containing
some hundred pages of recipes for dishes read
ily made from materials available in Cuba.
These recipes have been "tried out" by the
ladies of Herradura. This is a practical aid,
not a theoretical treatise.
Necessary to the Comfort of the Newly
Arrived Homekeeper. Price, $1.00 ccy.
Order from T Zi ?®9m*W$&&
I MISS ALURA COLLINS, Secretary,
Box 23, Herradura, Cuba

Staple and Fancy Groceries,
Chicago Meats, Implements,
Fertilizers and Forage & J-
Paroid Roofing in Stock

SANTA FE . . . . ISLE OF PINES

General Agency for the MONARCH VISIBLE
TYPEWRITER — Best in the World jt <lt

bincrlxy ca co.
The Oldest Established American
Civil Engineers and Surveyors.
Nueva Gerona and Santa Fe
Isle of Pines

H. E. SWAN
American Stationer and Printer
Bookseller and Newsdealer
Headquarters for perfumes, powders, soaps ,
etc. Typewriters, all makes, to sell and to
rent. Souvenirs, foreign and domestic. Photo
graphic materials, printing and developing.
Circulating library, best and latest books.
Postcards, infinite variety. Prices reasonable.
OBISPO 50 . . . HABANA

General Repairing
and Horse-shoeing

R. HERMANN SANTA FE

124

ISLE OF PINES

INDEX
Page Page
Abbey, C D. (Charco Frio) 50 Casas, Caves of  . .20
Abella, Francisco  22 Fray Bartolome de las, . 7, 19
Acclimation and Convalescent Camp, estab- Mountain (and plantation) . 9 12, 20
lished in the Isle for Spanish Soldiers . 102 30, 31, 49, 50, 51, 66
Acosta, Andres  30, 31, 34, 57, 58 River 11, 19, 20, 24, 26, 29, 35, 50, 52, 58
Andres, y Duarte 23, 25, 26 Valley . ... 12
Family 26, 33 Cattle Industry 24. 26, 33
Aeroids  15 Cayman, Grand 24, 28
Aguilera, Lutgardo e Hijo . . 84 Hill ... 62
Agrarian League (list of Isle trees) 15 Cayo Bonito, . 9, 34, 57-9, 62
Air, Healthfulness of . . . 101 Ceballos, Hotel 38-9, 122
Almacigos Tract 23, 26, 58 Cedar .  8, 81
Alnutt, Claude V  36, 50 Ceiba, La 52, 55, 56, 65, 67, 75, 88, 121
American Hotel (Nueva Gerona) 37 Ceiling ... 82
American, Invasion of Isle 32 Celeste Esperanza,. 63
Ownership of . 42 Cemetery Association 47
Spirit in 32, 44 Census, See Population
Andorra Inn . . .55 Cereals . 76-7
Realty Co 53 Charcoal 8
Anderson, John I. 63 Charco Frio . 50
D., Miss  95 Chicago . . . . .70, 72
Aiieces, Sr., Misconduct of Invalid Soldiers 99 Children, Life of, in Isle . 97
Animals, Draught, cost of 84 Christy Brothers . . . 56, 72
Keep of  84 Gertrude E.. Mrs. . 98
Annexation, to the United States; demand Cholera, Freedom from . 99
for ... . 40, 41 Chueaux, M. . . .10, 11, 12
Reason for desire for . 70-72 Church, Buildings 23, 35, 39, 96-97
Ants . . 17, 61, 68 Services . . 96-97
Area, of Isle ... 8 Citrus fruit culture 33, 64, 65
Southern portion 8 Clark, E. W. . 16, 46
Northern portion 8 Clay, for pottery 13
Association, American 95 Clearing . . 65
Automobiles . 37, 87 Cleveland Road . . .52
Bacon, Price of 80 Clothes, What to bring . 97-98
Bamboo, Wild 15 Club, American . 37, 94
Bananas ... . .75 Clubs, Social 44, 94-95
Bank, Isle of Pines, 36, 118 Commercial . . . . 44, 95-96
Bats ... .17 Coast, South 8, 13, 22, 28, 30, 44, 55, 66
Bees, Money in . 78 Cocoanuts ... .75
Bibijagua, Ant . . . . 17, 68 Coffee, Cultivation . 75
Estate of 33, 47-9, S8 Cost of, retail . 80
Punta de . . 9, 19, 21, 91 Colombo, Bay of . . 11, 48
Sugar estate at . . 33, 48 Origin of name . . .19
Binckley, H. M. 50, 51, 66, 91, 104, 123 Punta de . .9, 19, 30, 48, 91
Birds . 17 Colonia Reina Amalia . 30, 99
Blacksmith. . . . . .39 Hotel . 49
Brazo Fuerte . . 11, 12, 20, 21, 34, 50, 81 Colonos .... .34
Brick, Materials for 12 Columbia, Landing .... . 46, 88
Old brick yards . 12 Commercial Club . 96
Bridge, Club, The 95 Social Club . . 95
Briggs, H. A. . . 60 Town of . 39, 46-47, 65
Brotherhood, A. . 56 Columbus, Christopher 7, 19
Brown, Chas. S. . 52, 69 Diego ... . . 19
Ira A.,. Mrs. 47 Isle of Pines Co. 53, 110-11
A. M. . ... 37, 51 Columpo Bay Land Co. 47-49, 122
Buccaneers .... 10, 21, 29, 31, 3S Committee, Central .  96
Bureau Insular Affairs . . 14, 15, 17 Communication, direct between Isle and
Buses, Public  . 37 United States 88-9
Business Men's Association 95 Desirability of . 86, 91
Butterflies . ... IS Concrete, In Building 82
Caballos, Mt. 9, 10 12, 30, 32, 52, 66 Floors . . 82
Cabins, Log . 81 Convict labor ... 11-12, 31
Cacao .... 30, 75 Conveyances, Taxes on. 45
Cafe, Old Virginia, . .37 To hire . 37
Caimaneros . 8, 28 Corbin, A. W. . . 59, 68
Caleta Grande . . .28 Corn, Cultivation of . 61, 76
Calzadas (highways) 43, 51, 88 Exportation of ' 33
Calabaza . . 22, 26, 39 Price of, in Isle . 84
Calvo, D. Manuel  38 Cost of Draught animals . . .84
Camaraco, Aboriginal name of Isle 20 Establishing a grove 44, 69
Canada Inn  . . 53 Feed ... . 84
Land and Fruit Company, The 22,52,117 Groceries ] 80
The (launch) . 52, 91 Hardware ' 84
Mountains . 9, 12, 52 Houses . 81
Canning .... 61 Implements ....... 83
Care, Needed by grove 67 Living . 69, 78
Carboniferous Land . 13 Snipping 70-72
Caribbean Sea ... 7, 88 Costa, D Juan. . . 38
Carpenters, Demand for 85 Hotel . , 36^ 123
K Wages of 85 Cotton, Sea Island . . . .' 75
Casa Hernandez, _E^. 55 Crates . ... 73

ISLE OF PINES

125

INDEX —

46, 35, 12,

30-31

Cristobal Colon, steamer  86, 89
Crocodiles  17
Cuchilla Alta . . . 49-50
Cultivation, Clean . . . . . 67
Customs duties . .
Custom house ... . .
Daguilla, Mt. Schist
Dates 
Delgado y Espaiia, Lt.-Col. Clemente
Dentist 
Dengue fever, Freedom from . .
De Soto, Hernando ... .
Diorite .... .
Discovery of Isle . . 7,
Doctors, In Isle . . . .
Doud, F. S  67,
Drake, Invasion of Isle by
Drought 
Duarte, Domingo . . .
Francisco 
Francisco Javier .
Nicolas  22
Duarte family (see also Acosta) . 26, 33, 34
Durham, Richard, . .  37
Duties, Customs  46, 70-72, 80
Dysentery  ... . 102
Economic Society (Sociedad Economica de
Amigos del Pais), library . . . . 31, 32
Eggs, Market for  78-79
Elevation, General, of Isle ... . . 8
Enemies, Insect  . . 68
English marauders  20, 24, 28, 30
Episcopal, Church buildings .... 96
Services  96
Esquemeling, John, Dutch pirate's apprentice 100

8046 52 13
45 999799 191319
979720
100 23
22 22

Estero del Soldado
Fares, to Isle ....
Federation, American .
Fertilization, Necessity of
Fertilizer, Amount of .
Varieties of
Fetter, Chas.
Figs ....
Finca, Florentine
Fish . .
Fleas 
Flora of the Isle ...
Florida negroes
Flour, Price of
Flowers . . .
Forage .... . . 65
Fortescue, Capt. G. R ... 8, 9
Franco, D-: Dionisio, his report 20, 24, 25, 26
Freight rates ... . .
Fries, Mrs. E. H.
Frogs 
Fruits, Canned, Imports of
Prices of
Fruit trees, Native ...
Fugitives, Harbored in Isle
Futs and Tracy, Factory 
Furnishings, Household, free of duty
What to bring .
Furniture, . . 15,
Fustic ...
Gardener, A. W  . .
Garrison, Establishment of
Present
Gelabert, M. . . .
Geography, of the Isle
Lanier's work
Geology of the Isle
Giltner, L. C. . .
Gold, In the Isle . .
GrapesGravel ....
Groceries, Price of .
Groves, Average size .
Hammond, Hammond & Baker

90
. . 89
. 9565
. 67
8, 68
36, 114
. . 75
58-9, 119 181716
3480 16
84

14,

27, 28
70-72 95 17
46
. 80
15, 58
24-25
37, 122
. 46
97-98
37, 122
. 15
783135 22
7-9 31
9-13
46, 96
10, 2175 13
80
. 68
110-111

Continued Page
Hams  ¦ 80
Handling, Repeated, detrimental to vege
tables  78, 91
Harbor, Deep water ... 49, 90
Soundings for . . 90
Hardware, Prices on . . . 84
Hard woods, Existence of . 8, 15, 28, 30
Prices on . 81
Harper, W. W. . . . 53
Hatillo El . 60
Hay, Cost of  -84
Importation of . . . .46
Hayes, C. Willard  8, 9, 13, 28
Helpers, Carpenters' and Masons', wages of . 85
Hematite  12
Henry Clay & Bock Company, Opinion of
Isle tobacco . . . 76
Hermann House . . . . 39
Hermann's Shop . . . 39, 123
Hibiscus Club, The . ... 95
Hill, Wm. R. & Co .... . • ¦ 55
Historia de las Indias, Las Casas' . 7, 19
Hogs . . 26, 78-79
Honey . . .78
Hoover & Co  37, 114
Horter & Fair, Prices on agricultural imple
ments, etc. . .  84
Hotels in the Isle 37, 49, 51, 53, 55, 122, 123
Houses, Cost of . 81
Hutia ... 16
Iguana .  ' qq
Implements, Agricultural, cost of . . ¦ 83
Indians, Aboriginal inhabitants 20
Irrigation ... 68
Iron ore ... .12
Island Land Co. . §0
Isle of Pines Bank  • 36
Land and Development Com
pany .... 40
Steamship Company . . 89, 116
United Land Company 57, 60, 114
Jamaica, Rovers from 24
Jejenes (sand flies) . ¦ • \<
Jia, La  • 59-60, 62
Jols, Peg-Leg, Dutch pirate . fl
Johnson, C. M. 44
Jones, H. S  79
Jones, Mrs. Helen Rodman . 90
Joyce, Gilbert S. . 39, 55, 122
J°y' L' H- ' fin R9 RR
Jucaro, Port . . 60, 62, 88
River . . 46. 62
Keenan, Miss Sophie G. • 12, 19
T J 12, 36, 95
Kellogg, Dr. ' . . . ¦ 56, 73
Key View-by the-Sea 39 47-49
Koritsky, A. . . . • ¦ „„ Hi Hi
Labadia, Dr. D. Jose 25, 26, 30, 31, 80
Labor, American ¦ • °°
"Native" gg
Unskilled ||
Women . °g 56
26, 56, 8852
. 2243
. 21
29, 30

La Ceiba, District
La Cunagua
La Esperanza 
La Lucha, Newspaper (article)
Land, Companies
Grant, First .
Titles to

Lane, Messrs. Taylor and
Lanier, Lt. D. Alejo
Lanier Swamp
Las Casas, Bartolome
Las Casas, Luis de
Latitude

Legend, Of Santa Fe springs
Of "Pearcy's Place"
Licenses  ¦ • .•
Lighters, Fortescue's idea co cernmg.
Lind, E. C. .
Mrs. .

23 59
13, 25, 31, 80,' 90
. 12, 56
107 25 7
100-1 3445
. 90
57, 67
. 95

126

ISLE OF PINES

66 17 7
S,S(Hi
-, 91
39, 52
~ 81SISI

Lime . .
Lizards .
Longitude . . ] '
Los Indios, District ... 20, 28' 51,
Fruit Growers Assoc.
River
Town
Lumber, HardwoodPine . .
Prices on
Lujan, Gabriel de , . . .
Luz Hernandez, Dr. Jose de la
. 12, 13, 17, 38, 39, 76, 99, 101, 102, 103
Magoon, Provisional Governor Charles E. 43, 88
Mahogany . ... 8, 37, 81
Maja .... 17
Majagua, River ... .91
Hardwood . . . 37, 81
Malnueva, D. Juan Maldonado . 20
Mal Pais, Gravel . . 13
River . 12, 58
Mammals ... 16
Manganese ore , . 12
Mangos ... 15, 31, 38, 49, 62
Mangrove marshes ... 8
Maps, Of the Isle . . 32
Marble  9-10, 30, 32, 33
Markets, American for Isle produce 42, 67, 70-72
Home market for same 77
In Cuba . 77
Marti, Jose . . . 12
Mason Brothers . j 56, 67, 70, 75
Mason, F. C. . . 121, 123
Masons, Wages  85
Massacre, Drake's, of inhabitants of Isle 20
McLane Capt. . . . 37
E. E„ Mrs. . . . 96
Meat, Fresh . 80
Melons  , . 78
Methodist, Church building 96
Services ... . 96-7
Pastor, resident . 96
Military 'possibilities . 30
Milk, Condensed, price of . . . .80
Miller, J. A.  49-50,79,115
Millspaugh, Chas. . . 15
Ministers, Protestant . . 96-7
Mobile, Schooner line to 88, 89-90
Montelargo . . . . 30
Morgan, The pirate . . 21
Mosquitoes .... 17
Mountains, Heights of ... . 9
Muncheow and Fernandez fertlizer 68
Municipal district, Isle constitutes one . . 45
Mules, Cost of . . . 84
"Native," Scope of term . 32
Fruit Trees . . . 15, 58
Negro Fernandez, Manuel 25, 101, 104
Nelson, W. F. . . 58, 59, 119
News, Isle of Pines . . 36
Nueva Gerona 35-37, 88
Nuevas, River  . . . 91
Santa Barbara de las 22, 26, 28, 34
Nurseries, La Ceiba . . 121
Ochre . . . , .... 13
Odoardo Grand-Pre, D. Jose Hipolito 29
O'Donnell, Captain-General . . 11
Ohio Tract .... . 54, 55
Ojo de Agua .... . 60
Oliva, Jose . 31
Olives  . . . 7R
Ortiz, Benito (Mayor) ... 35, 36,
Ortiz & Gomez .
Oxen ... ... 84
Packing House . 61
Expenses 73
Paint, House . . .82
Palm Grove, District . 49-50
Palms, Royal . 15, 57
Varieties . 15, 56
Paper, Roofs 82
Parrots . . . 17

INDEX — Continued

h-i.

101 81

Page

"Partido," Isle declared a

. 22
"Pearcy Place" ...
34, 39
Pearcy vs. Stranhan .
. 41
Pedroso, Captain D. Hernando
21-22, 1
Penrose, Townsite of . . .
39, 62
Pezuela, Historia, .
. 23
. 97
22
of 1
26, 30
Pifla y Pinuela, Dr. Ramon, report
03, 108
Pinar del Rio
8, 89
Pine, Trees . . .
. 14
Lumber, price of
. 81
Pineapples ...
79
Pioneer Club, The . .
95
Pirates, See buccaneers . .
Plague, Freedom from .
. 99
75
Planting, preparation for
65
Plate fleet. Attacks on .
. 21
Piatt Amendment .
. 41
Poey, Andres, report of
25,
26, 32
Felipe, "Trip to Santa Fe"
16-17
Police . ...
46, 95
Population
24,
25, 27
Porcelain Earth .
13
Potatoes, Cultivation of
78
Market for
78
.78-9
Preston, Mrs. M.W.
56
Profit on fruit 
73
Province, Havana, Isle a part of
. 40
. 45
Public buses
. 37
Public works .
43, 88
Punta de la Bibijagua
9]
19, 91
Colombo .
9,
19, 91
Crocodrilos
. 28
del Este
. 28
Quarries . . .
. 10,
30, 32
Quiz Club . .
. 95
Ramsdell, F. R.
74
Redmond, Rev.
96-7
Reptiles ......
. 17
Return on fruit .
70-73
"Revolution,"
. 41
Resin ....
20, 28
Rice, Possibilities in
76-7
Present cultivation of
77
Exports of
. 33
Ricla, Count de .
22-23
9. 30
Roads, Excellence of
39. sij-7
Road material
. 13
Root, Elihu . .
. 41
Rubber . . .
. 75
Salas, Alejo ....
32, 48
Salubrity of the climate
99, 106
Sand ...
13, 48
Flies .
. 17
Sanitation .
. 46
Santa Ana tract ....
; .' 49
50, 79
Santa Barbara de las Nuevas
22, 26
28. 34
Santa Fe (the town) . 12, 37-9, 52
55-6, 62-3! 65
Commercial Club . .
. 96
Land Company, The .
57, 114
One of the first ranches
. 22
26, 31
River ... 24, 31
38, 58
60, 62
Springs, legend . .
. 100
San Juan Hills
30. 6:1 iiii
Land Company
57, 62
. 46
One of the first ranches
22, 26
San Pedro Heights . .
. 53
Hills 
30, 55
Industrial Club
96
Tract of land 26, 39, 53,
65, 88,
110, 111
Santa Rita 
31, 32
38, 39
Rosalia Heights . . .
Plantation .
22, 26
, 44, 60
Teresa ...
52.
66. 101
Santo Domingo .
. 20
ISLE OF PINES

127

INDEX — Continued

Page
Sarda, Major 11, 12, 27, 51
Saul, Mr. . 78
Sawmills . 81
Scale .... 61, 68
Schools, Public . 43
Schooner, Service . . . . 88, 89
Schultz, W. C. 33, 57-8, 59, 62-3, 113
Scorpions . 17
Seasons  9
Secession, The original . 8
Later attempt . . 41
Selaver family . . 24, 26, 33
Selling prices on fruit . . . 70-73
Senate documents 14, 19, 20, 22, 40-1
Settlers, First . . 20
Influx of . 44
Shells , 18
Shingles  .82
Shipment, Actual cost of 70-72
Schist ... 13
Shoe Store, Star 37
Shrubs .... 15, 30
Sierra, de Caballos 9, 12
de la Canada . 9, 52
de las Casas . 9, 12, 49
de la Daguilla 9
de la Siguanea ... 54
Siguanea Bay . 8, 12, 20, 28, 51. 88, 90, 91
La 39, 53, 55, 118
Slavery . . 27 34
Smugglers 8, 25, 28
Snakes . 17
Soil . . 30, 65
Soundings . 90
South Coast, The  8, 28, 30
Domestic servants from ... 85
Spencer, Arthur C. 8, 9, 13, 28
Springs, Mineral 103-6
Spiders . 1 7
Stark's Mill  56
Steamships, Cristobal Colon S9
Veguero . 89
First service  38
Steinhart, Frank, Counsel-General, report . 77
Status of Isle . 40, 41
Stock, Imported . 66
Live 26, 84
Native . 66
Suffrage . . 35
Sugar, Estate ... 33, 48
Retail cost of .80
Surveys, Made by companies 30, 43
Swamp . ... 8, 30
Tanneries . . 27, 30
Taxation, First ... 23, 30
Present system 45-46
Temperature 101
Tent  . . 65
Titles, Reliability of . 27, 29, 30

Page

Tiles 

12

Timber 

8

Tirry y Laco, Capt. D. Juan

20, 24, 25, 26,

27, 28, 29, 80

... 76

Early opinions concerning . 28, 32-33

Tolksdorff, Emil .

. . 50

Tortoise fishing .

. 28, 29

Torre, Marquis de la

23

Towns ...

. 35-9

Transportation

13, 86-91

Treasure, Hidden

. 21

Island

8

Treaty of Paris

, . 40

Truck gardening .

77-9, 80

Tucker, Fred

... 56

Tunas, Las

.55, 88, 120

United Railways ....

89, 112

Vagabonds, Harbored in Isle

24, 25, 32

Vampire

. 17

Varieties of trees

. . 65

Variety, of products

. . 74-79

Vaughan, T. Wayland

8,9, 13, 28

Velarde, Fernando

14, 19, 45, 74

61, 77
Canned, importation of
46, 80
Veguero, Steamer
89
Vegueros, The. .
76
Velazquez, Diego
19
Veneering ...
82
Verandas, Advisable
82
Villa Constance .
37
Villanueva Station .
89
Vives, D. Francisco Dionisio .
31-2
Vuelta Abajo 
28, 76
Vuelta Abajo, Steamship Company
Wages  . .
89, 120
... 85
Wall & Wagstaff's Store
. 39, 123
Wall, R. I.
59
Wallboard .
. 82
Washington
. 40
Waters, mineral
102-6
Water supply
9, 100
Wax ...
... 78
103, 104-106
Whitney Land Company, The
53
Wilcox, Frank
67
Wilcox, C. C.
96
Mrs. C. C.
. 95
Witter, L. A. . . .
95, 96
Wood, see Hardwood .
Wreckers 
28
Yellow fever, Freedom from .
99
Yield, crop
. 69
Young Brothers
52, 67, 101
Zayas family .
24, 26, 33
Zelaber, see Selaver
Zoology
16-18
75he Isle
of Pines
News
* NEWS ^
THE SANTA FE NEWS THE COLUMBIA NEWS
THE McKINLEY NEWS
IS ALL IN
THe Isle of Pines News
FIRST PAPER PRINTED ON THE ISLE
LIVELY ACCURATE COMPLETE
F. J. REED, Editor
Nueva Gerona Isle of Pines West Indies