PORTO RICO.

THE ISLAND AND ITS HISTORY.

Climate The Prevalent Diseases of the Island - Flora and Fauna Minerals - History - Ponce de Leon Founds the First Settlement Attacks by Foreign Fleets - The Stagnant Condition of the Island Sources of Internal Revenue - Difficulties of Administration - Cubans and Porto Ricans Compared - The Government of the Island Under Spain Ecclesiastical, Naval and Commercial Tribunals — Porto Rico as a Province of Spain - Municipal Government The Judiciary.

The island of Porto Rico is the easternmost and the smallest of the Great Antilles. In shape it is a rough parallelogram, with its longest sides extending a little over one hundred miles east and west and in breadth somewhat more than one-third of that distance. Its area, of about three thousand and five hundred square miles, is only one-twelfth of the size of Cuba.

Porto Rico lacks the rugged mountainous character of the other members of the group. A range of hills traverses the island from east to west running almost through the middle, but its highest peak, El Yunque, is considerably short of four thousand feet in altitude. This range rolls seaward in heavy un

dulations, which gradually straighten out to broad level playas along the coast. Most of the interior of the island is consequently hilly, but with easy gradients.

From the central watershed hundreds of streams flow to the northward and southward. The former have the longer courses and the gentler slopes, the differing character of the latter being due to the steeper descent of the mountains upon that side. Of the twelve hundred rivers of Porto Rico none is navigable for any considerable distance from its mouth, but as sources of irrigation they have played an important part in the prosperity of the island. The principal are the Rios Loiza, Morovis, Arecibo, Bayamon, and Blanco, all on the northern side of the divide.

The coast-line is simple, generally low, with few headlands, and deficient of good harbors. The port of San Juan offers the best natural accommodation in the island; apart from it, Ponce and Guanica are the only harbors available to ships of ordinary draft, but the dependent island of Vieques has exceptionally good facilities in this respect. Unlike that of Cuba, the coast of Porto Rico is not beset with reefs and islets.

Porto Rico presents a lovely picture of soft, varied scenery, in which the predominating features are verdant hills and fertile plains, intersected by gently flowing streams. The aspect is inviting, with a

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promising luxuriance of vegetation. Here and there are small tracts of virgin forest containing trees of commercial value, but for the most part the forested areas are confined to the higher slopes of the mountains, and the prevailing character of the country is open. Most of the island is held in farms, more than one-fifth of it being under cultivation.

CLIMATE.

Those who are entitled to judge from experience, say that the climate of Porto Rico, although always warm, is more agreeable than that of either of the other islands of the Great Antilles. It is a perpetual summer, tempered by the southwest trade-winds which sweep over the island with unfailing regularity. It is but little subject to the unwelcome land breezes of the tropics. Uniformity of temperature is one of the most striking features of the climate. The maximum temperature on record is 99° and the minimum 57° Fahrenheit. The annual registration at San Juan for a number of years shows a range from 78° to 82°. Except for variations due to altitude, the temperature is uniform throughout the island. The coolest months are December, January

and February.

Slight seismic disturbances are sometimes felt, but there is no record of a destructive earthquake. Porto Rico is, however, subject to hurricanes which are

occasionally extremely damaging to standing crops. On the eighth day of August, 1899, the most violent cyclone it had experienced since 1837, swept the island from east-southeast to west-southwest, and laid level everything in its path. The loss wrought by this storm was computed at several millions, one sugar planter alone having estimated the damage to his property at one hundred and twenty-five thousand dollars.*

The rainfall is very irregularly distributed. The annual precipitation in San Juan is about sixty inches, which increases towards the east, until it reaches one hundred inches in the northeast corner of the island, where the most extensive forest area is found. A similar maximum is also attained upon the elevations of the midlands, but the southern slopes are deficient in both rainfall and atmospheric moisture and in some districts irrigation is necessary to the production of crops. The most rainy months are from April to November inclusive, the heaviest fall being at the end of the season. The rain during this period generally comes in heavy

There is reason to believe that the planters greatly exaggerated their losses, including in their computations altogether fanciful market prices. The Porto Ricans had previously enjoyed some experience of the almost prodigal generosity of the American Government, and doubtless hoped to benefit by it; as, indeed, they did, in the form of compensation for the ravages of the typhoon.

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downpours between noon and evening and is followed by a glorious sunset and a clear, cool, night.

Judged by figures, there is no great difference between the climate of Porto Rico and that of the other islands of the group, but Porto Rico appears to enjoy some peculiar quality of salubrity which gives it an advantage over Cuba and Haiti even in the matter of the diseases particularly prevalent in the West Indies. Yellow fever seldom appears and has never become rooted, although Porto Rico has not been guarded by the precautions exercised in Jamaica. Smallpox was endemic in the island until 1899, when compulsory vaccination was put into force. Dysentery and enteric fever, induced by the excessive humidity, are the most prevalent complaints amongst the whites. The negroes are prone to contract catarrhal and bronchial troubles. The average reported death-rate for eleven years ending with 1898 was slightly more than thirty per thousand, but the census officials incline to the opinion that the actual mortality is higher than these figures indicate.

FLORA AND FAUNA.

Porto Rico was cleared at an early date and for long past a dense population has been supported by the tillage of the soil, a large proportion of which is under cultivation; hence very little indigenous vegetation remains.