APPENDIX VII.

OFFICE OF THE SUPERVISOR,

Province of Puerto Principe, December 25, 1899. SIR: The arduous, difficult, and most important work of taking the census in the province of Puerto Principe having been concluded, I take pleasure in complying with a very natural duty and with your order, forwarded to me by Mr. Victor H. Olmsted, Assistant Director of the Census of Cuba, relating in the best manner possible, and making use of all my faculties as well as devoting all my attention thereto, the important incidents and difficulties I have encountered in the task intrusted to me; a recollection, furthermore, which I shall always preserve and which all the natives of this country will be glad to know.

On the 22d of July of this year I was appointed, a high honor being conferred upon me, supervisor of the census of Cuba in the province of Puerto Principe, being given at the same time an order to report in Washington on the 10th of August of the same year, an order which I complied with, and where I joined my colleagues, the supervisors of the other provinces. I remained in Washington until the night of the 19th of August, when I left for Habana. During my stay in Washington I was fully convinced of the importance of the work which was intrusted to us, of the extensive, minute, and serious study which it was desired to make of my country for future purposes, which proved in a concrete and irrevocable manner the good intentions of the Government toward this adventurous country, on which the great North American nation placed its foot from sentiments of humanity and from incomparable and undoubted love of progress, civilization, and liberty, which is the religion of all great countries.

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I received the instructions given us with great eagerness; I devoted all my intellectual powers of retention to the study of the work intrusted to me, to an analysis of the statistics, searching for the greatest exactness, I would have to submit, and on the 26th, in possession of the true intentions of the Government, I reported to the assistant director at Habana, in order to carry out the most necessary measure for taking the census, that is, the subdivision of my province into districts of enumeration.

Mr. Olmsted, as well as all the supervisors, immediately encountered great difficulties, which, in order to surmount, required us to devote ourselves continuously and carefully to the study of the question, said difficulties consisting in the absence of official data for making said subdivision. The plans were deficient; we could not make use of anything of the censuses taken years ago by the Spanish Government, which were full of deficiencies, incomplete, and irregular, having been taken under entirely different methods than those prepared by the Government of Washington for this census, which really is the first census of Cuba. In this condition of affairs I received some, but very few, data by telegraph, and without making a final subdivision 84 enumeration districts were established, with authority to increase or reduce this subdivision according to the requirements of my province after the work was begun.

This subdivision, in my opinion, needed the supervision of an expert, because the enumerators could not enumerate their districts unless they were given such natural and exact limits as would avoid confusion and duplication in the census and other perturbations to the prejudice of the supervisor and in general to the census.

In view also of the lack of means of communication in my province, and fearing that this lack would redound to the prejudice of a good supervisorship in the taking of the census, I requested, together with the other supervisors who were situated as I was, that authority be granted to appoint an enumerator in the seat of the municipal districts, who, properly instructed by the supervisors, should instruct the enu

merators of their respective district, which enumerators should begin to draw their salary of $5 per day from the 1st of October.

On the 30th of August, and making use of the powers granted me by the Secretary of War, I appointed Mr. Marquez Sterling secretary of my office, having begun to make use of his services from said date, he having taken his oath of office in the presence of Mr. Olmsted in his provisional offices.

After the preliminary work had been done with Mr. Olmsted, and being perfectly satisfied and pleased with the intelligence and attention shown by Mr. Olmsted in attending to all the requirements of my district, I left Habana, together with my secretary, on the 11th of September, opening my offices on the 15th of the same month, although encountering the difficulty of the lack of materials which arrived here much later, and beginning without delay the preparations for taking the census.

To study the limits of my province, to telegraph Mr. Olmsted for authority to employ an expert to take charge of the division of the districts, was my first act, and upon receiving authorization, I appointed Mr. Manuel P. Cadenas, who made the plans of each municipal district divided into enumeration districts, which plans are in the possession of Mr. Olmsted. But immediately thereafter I encountered the first difficulty: The division made in Habana did not cover the requirements of my province for the taking of the census, and according to a calculation which we made, the enumerators would be obliged to go over very large tracts of ground every day without rest in the rural districts. I was obliged to create 132 enumeration districts, with which I calculated I would be able to conclude the taking of the census on November 30, as I had been ordered to do.

According to paragraph VIII of the order of the 19th of August, the enumeration districts were not to exceed 1,500 inhabitants in the town districts and 1,000 in the rural districts.

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In my province this could not be carried out. * *

As a legitimate consequence of the last revolution, a calculation with regard to the number of inhabitants in enumeration districts was impossible, because there are localities which before the war were populated and which are at the present time completely abandoned, and, on the other hand, some localities are densely populated which before the war had small settlements.

These considerations forced me to divide the province into 132 districts, it being readily observed that in the town districts I could reduce the number of enumerators which, on the other hand, I increased in greater proportion in the rural districts.

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The previous census could not be taken as a basis for a division into enumeration districts, nor to calculate the work which was given to each enumerator. Placing myself in telegraphic communication with the municipal mayors, I obtained the limits of the municipal districts, and the names of the wards which composed each district.

I afterwards noticed that in the map given me for the purpose the limits of the province were not correct, because of the limits given the province of Santiago de Cuba. * * * This was acknowledged by the Assistant Director and by Mr. Sabas Meneses, supervisor of the census of Santiago de Cuba. This point having been cleared up at my request, confusion and duplications in the census were avoided.

Upon the conclusion of these questions, and it being necessary for me to devote myself to the preparation of enumerators and to the proper distribution of the districts among them, * * * I had explanatory charts of the districts made for delivery to the respective enumerators, the work of which, in its mechanical part, was done by Messrs. Jose Garcini, Manuel Breton, Gonzalo Agosto, Eugenio Loret de Mola, Emilio Torres, Alonso Martinez, and Miguel Cabrera, who gave their services without remuneration, although later they were allowed $3 per day, which I requested of Mr. Olmsted in a spirit of justice, and which was duly authorized by you. Three copies were made of these charts, a tedious and long 24662- -41

work; one, in order to be able to give each enumerator his respective chart; another to be kept in this office, and the third to be forwarded to the Assistant Director, with the plans of each municipal district, made by the expert, Mr. Manuel Cadenas, as I stated before, and which plans show the enumeration districts at a glance. The plans as well as the charts being incorrect on account of the deficiency in the official data furnished, I required the rural enumerators to make a report of the estates they enumerated, with their respective limits, which data I have the honor of placing at your disposal, should you consider it useful or necessary, and which I do not inclose because it has not been requested of me.

I then immediately proceeded with the appointment of the instructors or monitor enumerators of the municipal districts, with the exception of that of Puerto Principe, where none was necessary, by reason of the supervisor's office being situated there Municipal district of Nuevitas, Jose Garcini.

Municipal district of Moron, Jose Masdival.

Municipal district of Ciego de Avila, Ulpiano Rodriguez.

Municipal district of Santa Cruz, J. Antonio Miranda.

Properly instructed, they left for the seats of their districts, and then I proceeded with the instruction of the enumerators of this district and with the selection of those best qualified for the discharge of the duties. In these appointments it was necessary to take into consideration that all the residents of the districts did not possess the required qualifications, and those who did possess them were not always disposed to abandon their positions or private business to fill the position of enumerator.

This difficulty being surmounted in the best manner possible, the task of instruction was arduous, tedious, and incessant. The office of the supervisor remained open until 10 or 11 o'clock at night. The secretary and myself took the enumerators by groups and gave practical instructions, submitting to the enumerators the most difficult cases and problems in the three ...les for their practice and decision.

At the same time the monitor enumerators were doing the same work by my orders in the municipal districts, and when I was convinced of the capabilities of the enumerators I appointed them and took their oaths of office-for the city of Puerto Principe, 22 enumerators (men, 19; women, 3); for the rural portion, 43 enumerators.

In order to know, examine, and select the enumerators of the other municipal districts, I left for Moron on the 9th, continuing thence to Ciego de Avila, Santa Cruz, and returning to this city on the evening of the 16th. On said trip I was obliged to go on horseback for 54 leagues on account of the lack of other means of communication. The secretary, Mr. Marquez Sterling, had remained in the meantime in charge of the office, and, according to instructions which he received, he distributed the equipments among the enumerators of the district of Puerto Principe and issued the proper orders, so that when I arrived there all the enumerators were already in their districts and had commenced their enumeration with the greatest order possible, without encountering any difficulty of any importance.

In Moron I appointed and received the oath of 22 enumerators; in Ciego de Avila, 17; in Santa Cruz, 12; in Nuevitas, 17; it was not necessary for me to go to this district to know the enumerators, the military commander of the locality receiving their oaths.

On the 16th, therefore, the secretary informed the Assistant Director that the enumeration of the entire province had begun.

Previously I had given special instructions to the enumerators which they were to observe and which consisted of the following:

"Working hours for the enumerators of the city, from 8 to 10 in the morning and from 12 to 5 in the afternoon; in the rural districts, from 6 to 10 in the morning and from 2 to 5 in the afternoon.