itself in subjection, including all the debts, honest
and otherwise, incurred in the process. Besides
this, about $6,000,000 of revenue per year used to
be paid to the home government. While the taxes
would have been extremely heavy if the proceeds
had gone wholly to meet legitimate expenditures,
the corrupt exactions of collectors and the peculations
of public officers notoriously added greatly to
the burden. The people, most of whom were deprived
of all political power, were forced to support
a horde of Spanish office-holders and to enrich some
of them, under a system which tended to crush the
life out of productive industry and seriously hampered
trade with the rest of the world.
C H A P T E R X IV
PROVINCES, CITIES, AND TOWNS OF CUBA
n p H E six provinces, or political divisions, of Cuba
X are transverse sections of the long island, four
of which are regarded as western and two eastern.
Statistics of the island are uncertain, as no accurate
surveys have been made, and the latest census,
which was taken in 1887, is not altogether trustworthy.
The figures here given of the area and
population of the several provinces and the population
of cities and towns are taken from the most
authoritative sources. The name by which each
province is designated is the same as that of its
chief town. T ha t at the western end of the island
is Pinar del Rio, area 5950 square miles, population
182,204. I t contains most of the V ue lta A b a jo section,
which is famous for its fine tobacco. T h e
next, as we proceed eastward, is Havana, whose area
is only 3420 square miles, but which has a population
of 435,896, nearly half of which is contained in
the capital city. It includes the Isle of Pines, which
remained uninhabited until 1828, when a military
station was established there. In recent years it
has become a health resort for consumptives.
151