With the World's Great Travellers, Volume 1

hat will give the Pearl of the Antilles its rightful setting among the other gems of God's earth.

[Illustration: MORRO CASTLE, HAVANA]

Porto Rico, the "rich port," so named by Columbus, came gladly under the American flag. Its population of about 900,000 has had a sorry time for three hundred years. They have been steeped in spiritless poverty from first to last, so used to the oppressor's yoke that ambition seems to have been crushed. Yet their island is an earthly paradise, save for its rain-storms and occasional droughts. It is rich in undeveloped mineral deposits and splendid forests. Nature has helped to discourage native effort by providing the means of sustenance over-lavishly, in one sense. The people scattered through the interior find everything ready grown to hand. The bulk of the population throng the shore areas and are as listlessly happy with the minimum of life's necessaries as are the animals.

Spain has left its mark upon the island, a mark representing a civilization not