. The Cuba review. 16 THE CUBA REVIEW THE NORTH EAST COAST OF CUBA The writer of this article spent six weeks, in March and April, on a horse-back trip between Santiago and a point due south of Baracoa. From the Yateras River, which is about 10 miles east of the United States naval station, on the Bay of Guantananio, to Cape Maisi, the "contrabando de los negros" was a common subject of comment. Everybody talked of the number of negroes who were being smuggled into Cuba. Fires far up on the mountain sides appeared nightly at different points, sometimes small, at others flaring into s

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. The Cuba review. 16 THE CUBA REVIEW THE NORTH EAST COAST OF CUBA The writer of this article spent six weeks, in March and April, on a horse-back trip between Santiago and a point due south of Baracoa. From the Yateras River, which is about 10 miles east of the United States naval station, on the Bay of Guantananio, to Cape Maisi, the "contrabando de los negros" was a common subject of comment. Everybody talked of the number of negroes who were being smuggled into Cuba. Fires far up on the mountain sides appeared nightly at different points, sometimes small, at others flaring into sudden intensity. Inquiry at the time as to the cause of these fires elicited the information that it was some negroes making charcoal. The fallacy of this was explained by calling attention to the improbability of any one making charcoal so far away from the coast, when it could be burnt much nearer and be more convenient for loading in schooners for shipping to market. The second explanation was that it was probably some negro burning off a piece of new ground. The frequency of these fires along the coast at that time is now easily explained as having been signals for the small schooners which remained in the offing until nightfall, awaiting an opportunity to approach the coast and unload their contraband cargoes. This coast is for the most part a rocky cliff, from 50 to 60 feet high, which, coming down to the shore's edge from a coast line of rocky hills, forms a comparatively narrow shelf, then drops sheer to the water. Many are the places where good pilots can land men against the very faces of these cliffs on the narrow strip of beach, which, hidden from above, form thresholds of large caves. At other places the shelf descends almost to the level of the Caribbean; and' again there are small stretches of rock lined beaches in the bights of the coast line where good anchorage is to be found. In some few places small inlets give still greater protection. The entire immediate