is, in the main, a commercial town and the natural
seat of a great trade, hitherto repressed by a narrow
policy. I t is the centre of the great tobacco
industry, and is the chief port of entry of the island.
There are three good harbours on the north coast
of Pinar del Rio west of Havana. These are Mariel,
Cabañas, and Bahia Honda, but they are comparativ
ely little used, and the most flourishing towns
of this province are inland— Pinar del Rio in the
centre of the tobacco district, with a population of
20,000, and Guanajay, which is surrounded by coffee
plantations. A t San Diego in the Organos Hills
are mineral springs much resorted to in summer.
Guanabacoa, a city of 30,000 inhabitants, is on a
commanding height just south-east of Havana. And
in the interior of the same province, farther to the
southeast and connected with the great seaport by
rail, is Guiñes, the chief agricultural centre of this
section. On the southern coast, as a stepping-place
to the Isle of Pines, is the little port of Batabano.
Regia, a suburban place across the bay from Havana,
has a famous bull-ring.
T h e second city in Cuba, and next to Havana in
importance as a seaport, is Matanzas, fifty-four miles
east of the capital by waggon road and seventy-four
miles by rail. I t was founded in 1693 by immigrants
from the Canary Islands on a magnificent bay between
the rivers San Juan and Yumuri, across both
of which it has grown in later times, the section to
the north of the Yumuri being called Versalles and
that to the south of the San Juan, Pueblo Nuevo.
T h e whole city has now nearly 90,000 inhabitants.