Annexion Of Puerter Rico

The island of Puerto Rico, over which the flag of the United States was raised in token of formal possession on October 18, 1898, is the most eastern of the Greater Antilles in the West Indies. It is separated on the east from the Danish islands of St. Thomas by a distance of about fifty miles, and from Haiti on the west by the Mona passage, seventy miles wide. The island is 108 miles from the east to the west, and from 37 to 43 miles across from north to south, the area being about 3,600 square miles. The population in 1887 was 798,656, of whom 474,933 were whites, 246,647 mulattoes and 76,905 negroes. An enumeration taken by the United States Government in 1900 showed a population of 953,243. Puerto Rico is unusually fertile, and its dominant industries are agriculture and lumbering. In elevated regions the vegetation of the temperate zone is not unknown. There are more than 500 varieties of trees found in the forests, and the plains are full of palm, orange and other trees. The principal crops are sugar, coffee, tobacco, cotton, and maize, but bananas, rice, pineapples, and many other fruits are important products. The largest article of export from Puerto Rico is coffee, which is over 63 per cent. of the whole. The next largest is sugar, 28 per cent. The other exports in order of amount are tobacco, honey, molasses, cattle, timber, and hides. The principal minerals found in Puerto Rico are gold, carbonates and sulphides of copper and magnetic oxide of iron in large quantities. Lignite is found at Utuado and Moca, and also yellow amber. A large variety of marble, limestone, and other building stones are found on the island, but these resources are very undeveloped. There are salt works at Guanica and Salinac on the south coast, and at Cape Bojo on the west, and these constitute the principal mineral industry in Puerto Rico. There are 137 miles of railway, with 170 miles under construction, and 470 miles of telegraph lines. These connect the capital with the principal