GEOGRAPHICAL DESCRIPTION OF THE PROVINCE.

The province of Santa Clara is bounded on the north by the old canal of Bahama, on the east by the province of Puerto Principe, on the south by the Sea of the Antilles, and on the west by the province of Matanzas.

Its principal cities are Santa Clara, the capital, situated in the interior of the province, with 14,683 inhabitants, and 66,273 in the judicial district; Cienfuegos, with 30,041, and 108,767 in the entire judicial district; Sagua, with 13,183, and 58,749 in the entire judicial district; San Juan de los Remedios, with 6,634, and 72,599 in the entire judicial district; Trinidad, with 11,721, and 24,342 in the entire judicial district; and Sancti Spiritus, with 12,666, and 25,700 in the entire judicial district, making a total in the province of 356,430 inhabitants.

The province of Santa Clara, one of the largest in the island, and the most populated after that of Habana, offered many difficulties for the enumeration, as the intricate hills of Trinidad are situated there, most noteworthy being the Pico del Potrerillo, La Cabeza del Muerto, La Siguanea, Pico Blanco, and Cucurucho. There are also situated there the sierras of Sancti Spiritus, from which the sierras of La Gloria and Banao branch off; the hills of Santa Clara, where we find the craggy sierras of Oscambray, containing rich mines of copper and asphalt, and the hill of Manicaragua; the hills of San Juan de los Remedios, from which the sierras of Bumburanao rise, containing rich deposits of kaolin, etc.; and in the judicial district of Sagua la Grande, the Sierra Morena, which occupies almost the entire north coast from the Palma River to the barrio of Sitiecito, belonging to the municipal district of Sagua.

On the other hand, on the north coast from the Palma River to the mouth of the Sagua la Grande River, and from this point to very near San Juan de los Remedios, there are a large number of caballerias of marshy land which are crossed with great difficulty during the rainy season.

And on the southern coast we find the famous swamp of Zapata, very extensive and dangerous, extending from the Bay of La Broa to Caimanera, about 39 leagues long and from 4 to 6 leagues wide, in some points 9 leagues wide. Situated in this swamp and between it and the southern coast there are several large plantations which it was necessary to visit.

It is only possible to enter the swamp by the southern coast by two or three very shallow ports, the principal one being that of the estate of Santa Teresa, called to-day La Maquina.

By the northern coast it may be said that there exists only one entrance to the swamp in the province of Santa Clara. It is called Callejon de los Guiros. But in order to reach this pass there are only four practicable roads.

1. That of San Pedro, a difficult road on account of the flow from the swamp, the bad stone bottom, and pits, very dangerous both for men and horses, some of them being from 4 to 6 yards deep. The length of this road is 5 leagues, 24 of them water. 2. The entrance called De los Ratones, from the plantation Pamplona to that of San Blas, 2 leagues are under water; but during the month of November it was not possible for any enumerator to cross it on account of its bad condition, the pits and holes being filled with water.

3. The entrance of Buenavista, from the plantation of Orbea to that of San Blas, 3 leagues are under water and 2 leagues impassable on account of the stones and numerous pits. It is only possible to go around them, and that only in time of very dry weather.

4. The entrance through Cayo Navarro to Cayo Grande and Cocodrilo; in a space of 2 leagues it is only possible to go through it on foot or in canoes.

The pass of Los Guiros has 11⁄2 leagues under water filled with rocks and pits, but during the month of November last, by reason of the abundant rains of October, this

entrance, which is doubtless the best one, had 8 leagues of water, from the plantation of Nicolas to that of San Blas.

In order to cross the swamp from the north coast to the south coast there is another entrance called Nicolas and Cocodrilo, which is 1 league under water and 4 leagues of stones, declivities, and coral.

In order to go through these entrances on horseback it is necessary to wrap the horses from their heads to their knees with pieces of hard leather, in order to prevent them injuring themselves against the points of the coral, called "dog's teeth," and so that they may endure the journey, which, by reason of the nature of the ground, is necessarily slow and arduous, as well as very unpleasant on account of the numerous mosquitoes in the swamp.

The distances to be covered in order to visit the swamp are from the plantation of Nicolas to that of Maniadero, 30 leagues from the north; but from the south coast there are 40 leagues, the trip being rendered more difficult on account of the numerous lakes, ponds, and pits which it is necessary to cross.

FOOD FOR PEOPLE AND HORSES.

For the men it is necessary to carry the provisions along, because the natives (who are the only ones who can live there) live exclusively on crocodile tails (?), mud turtles, agouti (Indian rats), and honey.

To feed the horses, it is necessary to cut leaves from the trees until the plantation of Jegui is reached, where there is some vegetation; but from there to the Maquina, near the entrance of Santa Teresa, by the plantation of Santo Tomas, in a space of 7 leagues to San Lazaro, nothing is found but hills and seashore, and it is necessary to cut leaves from the trees to feed animals.

The principal rivers which cross the province of Santa Clara are, in the northern portion, the Sagua la Grande, navigable for a distance of 27 kilometers; the Sagua la Chica, and the Jatibonico del Norte, and, in the southern portion, the Jatibonico del Sur, the Zaza, Hagabama, Arimao, Caunao, Salado, and Damiji, the latter navigable for a distance of 27 kilometers (the last four rivers emptying into the beautiful port of Cienfuegos), and the Hanabana, which rises in the lakes of Mordazo and empties in the lake of Tesoro, and, finally, the river Hatiguanico, which, rising in the lake of Tesoro, crosses the Zapata swamp and empties in the bay of La Broa.

The principal ports of the province are, on the north coast, Isabela de Sagua and Caibarien, and, on the south coast, Tunas de Zaza, Casilda, and the famous port of Jagua, or Cienfuegos, one of the largest in the world.

THE ENUMERATION.

On the 16th of October, without any portfolios in which to keep their schedules, the enumerators of the town districts set out upon their work.

The 19th, 20th, 21st, 22d, 23rd, 24th of the same month, as they received their portfolios, the enumerators of the rural districts began their work.

DIFFICULTIES OF THE ENUMERATION.

By reason of the opposition of a small portion of the press, the enumeration began with the suspicion and mistrust of many inhabitants, some of whom saw in the census a certain political end and others a determined basis on which to base new taxation.

But we are happy to say here that this mistrust and passive resistance disappeared very soon, by virtue of the persuasive propaganda of the enumerators themselves, who informed the public of the regulations and the penalties which would be incurred by the enumerators who consented to concealments, and especially con

vincing them of the importance for the future good organization of the country of a correct census of population and exact statistics as to the state of the public wealth and public instruction of the country. And the enthusiasm or the fear was so great that more than 200 individuals appeared to be recorded of their own will who had been absent from their homes for some reason or other on the day of the enumeration. Soon after the beginning of the census there occurred a rain and wind storm, which lasted thirteen days in some localities, embarrassing the journey of the rural enumer ators, the rivers swelling and the ground being soaked to such an extent that several enumerators, for this reason, which they duly entered in their daily reports of their work, recorded a small number of persons and agricultural schedules; and as a general rule it may be said that if the enumerators of the rural districts fulfilled their duty to the satisfaction of the supervisor, it is surely due to the knowledge each one had of the ground to which he was assigned; because the war which depopulated the country of men and animals, the fires which ruined all crops, fences, and roads, and the abundant vegetation of the Torrid Zone, obliterated the limits which separated the wards from each other; and, nevertheless, there were only two cases where an enumerator of the district of Quemado de Güines made a mistake in the district, having entered an abandoned estate as belonging to said district, when the fact was that a part thereof—18 caballerias-belongs to the municipal district of Rancho Veloz. The other case was that of an enumerator of Vueltas who entered two estates of the municipal district of Remedios.

THE ENUMERATOR OF THE EASTERN PART OF THE ZAPATA SWAMP.1

Up to the 9th of November, by reason of the heavy rains of the latter part of October, it was impossible to find a man who for $10 per day would enumerate the few inhabitants who live in the swamp of Zapata. Finally Mr. Pedro Nunez promised to go over the swamp and turn in his work on the 30th of November, which he religiously fulfilled.

WOMEN EMPLOYED IN THE CENSUS.

Fifty-eight women were employed as enumerators of the census, and all have fulfilled their duty very conscientiously and with great cleanliness and exactness, the following deserving special mention: Misses Manuela Chavez y Clotilde Silva, of Santa Clara; Flora Ramos y Juana Monzon y Aguirre, of Cienfuegos; Teresa Mestre and Elvira Cabana, of Trinidad; Luisa Herrada, of Remedios; Maria Weis and Francisca del Valle Gonzalez, of Sancti Spiritus.

We also had Mrs. Agueda Valdes Aday, widow of Leza, as an enumerator of the second rural district of San Juan de los Yeras, who presented 14 schedules of popu lation and 130 of agriculture, rendering a perfectly exact, minute, and clean work. This lady went out to enumerate her district on horseback, accompanied by her 10-year-old son.

ENUMERATORS EMPLOYED.

The enumerators employed in the census of the province of Santa Clara are distributed by judicial districts in the following manner:

'The western part was enumerated by Sixto Agramonte.

Judicial district of Sancti Spiritus.........

Total.