Since 1872 Matanzas has had an aqueduct from the Bello spring, 7 miles distant.  The supply is alleged to be both abundant and excellent.  But of the 4,710 houses in the city 840 stand on the hills outside the zone supplied by the waterworks, while of the remaining 3,870 houses within this zone only about 2,000 get their water from the waterworks company.  Hence more than half of the houses of Matanzas (2,710) do for the most part get their supply in kegs by purchase in the streets.  There are a few public fountains, as also some dangerous wells.  The streets are 30 feet wide, with 24 feet wagon way.  Few of them are paved, some are very poor roads, but, for the most part, these roads are in good condition.  In the Matanzas district some of the streets are of solid stone, and natural foundation rock of the place, for the superficial soil is so thin that the foundation rocks often crop out.  Of this very porous rock most of the houses are built.  The houses have wider fronts, larger air spaces in rear, are not so crowded, and are better ventilated than the houses of Havana.  As is usual in Cuba, the ground floors are generally on a level with the sidewalk, and some are even below the level of the streets.  A heavy rain floods many of the streets of Matanzas, the water running back into and beneath the houses.  The porous limestone of which the houses are built greatly favors absorption.

The population of Matanzas and suburbs was about 50,000 at the beginning of the war.

Porto Rico is not quite as large as Connecticut, but larger than the States of Delaware and Rhode Island.  The climate of the island is delightful, and its soil exceedingly rich.  In natural resources it is of surpassing opulence.  The length of the island is about one hundred miles, and its breadth thirty-five, the general figure of it being like the head of a sperm whale.  The range of mountains is from east to west, and nearly central.  The prevalent winds are from the northwest, and the rainfall is much heavier on the northern shores and mountain slopes than on the southern.  The height of the ridge is on the average close to 1,500 feet, one bold peak, the Anvil being 3,600 feet high.  The rainy north and the droughty south, with the lift of the land from the low shores to the central slopes and rugged elevations, under the tropical sun, with the influence of the great oceans east, south and north, and the multitude of western and southern islands, give unusual and charming variety in temperature.  Porto Rico is, by the American people, even more than the Spaniards, associated with Cuba.  But it is less than a tenth of Cuban proportions.  Porto Rico has 3,600 square miles to Cuba’s 42,000, but a much greater proportion of Porto Rico than of Cuba is cultivated.  Less than one-sixteenth of the area of Cuba has been improved, and while her population is but 1,600,000, according to the latest census, and is not so much now, Porto Rico, with less than a tenth of the land of Cuba, has