and fields of tobacco, country villages and peasant homes, fruits and vegetables, ceiba trees, royal palms, cocoanut palms, and mango trees.  There is no other trip, as easily made, where so much can be seen.  But there are other excursions in the vicinity, for many reasons best made by carriage or by private hired automobile.  Within fifteen miles or so of the city, are places like Calvario, Bejucal, and Managua, all reached by good highways through interesting and typical country, and all well illustrating the real life of the real Cubans.  It was in the vicinity of those places that Maximo Gomez operated in 1895 and 1896, terrorizing Havana by menacing it from the south and the east while Maceo threatened it from the west.  Another short and pleasant trip can be made around the head of the harbor to Guanabacoa, and thence to Cojimar.  Another interesting and easily reached point is Guines, a good example of places of its size and class.

Of Cuba’s larger cities, there are a score that would demand attention in a guide-book.  Just as there is a certain similarity in most American cities, in that they are collections of business and residence buildings of generally similar architecture, so is there a certain sameness in most of Cuba’s cities.  To see two or three of them is to get a general idea of all, although each has its particular features, some particular building, or some special charm of surroundings.  The most difficult of access are Baracoa, the oldest city of the island, and Trinidad, founded only a few years later.  Glancing at some of these places, in their order from west to east, the first is Pinar del Rio, a comparatively modern city, dating really from the second half of the 18th Century.  It owes its past and its present importance to its location as a centre of the tobacco region of the Vuelta Abajo.  From comfortable headquarters here, excursions can be made, by rail or road, through what is perhaps the most attractive, and not the least interesting section of the island.  To the north are the Organ Mountains and the picturesque town of Vinales, one of the most charming spots, in point of scenery, in Cuba.  To the west, by rail, is Guane, the oldest settlement in western Cuba, and all around are beautiful hills and cultivated valleys.  Eastward from Havana, the first city of importance is Matanzas.  Here is much to interest and much to charm, the city itself, its harbor, its two rivers, the famous valley of the Yumuri, and the caves of Bellamar.  The city, founded in 1693, lies along the shore of the bay and rises to the higher ground of the hills behind it.  It lies about sixty miles from Havana, and is easily reached by rail or by automobile.  The next city in order, also on the north coast, is Cardenas, a modern place, settled in 1828, and owing its importance to its convenience as a shipping port for the numerous sugar estates in its vicinity, an importance now somewhat modified by the facilities for rail shipment to other harbors.  Seventy-five