about 82° F., in summer about 88°), owing mainly to the mountains
that shut off the breezes from the E. There is superb mountain
scenery on the roads to El Caney and San Luis (pop. 1907, 3441), in
the thickly populated valley of the Cauto. In the barren mountainous
country surrounding the city are valuable mines of iron, copper
and manganese. On these the prosperity of the province largely
depends. There are also foundries, soap-works, tan-yards and cigar
factories. The city has an important trade with the interior, with
other Cuban ports, and to a less extent with New York and European
ports. Mineral ores, tobacco and cigars, coffee, cacao, sugar and rum
and cabinet-woods are the main articles of export. Copper ore was
once exported in as great quantities as 25,000 tons annually, but
the best days of the mines were in the middle of the 19th century.
The mines of Cobre, a few miles W. of Santiago, have an interesting
history. They were first worked for the government by slaves,
which were freed in 1799.
History.—Santiago is less important politically under the Republic than it was when Cuba was a Spanish dependency. The place was founded in 1514 by Diego Velazquez, and the capital of the island was removed thither from Baracoa. Its splendid bay, and easy communication with the capital of Santo Domingo, then the seat of government of the Indies, determined its original importance. From Santiago in 1518–1519 departed the historic expeditions of Juan de Grijalva, Hernan Cortés and Pámfilo de Narvaez-the last of 18 vessels and 1100 men of arms, excluding sailors. So important already was the city that its ayuntamiento had the powers of a Spanish city of the second class. In 1522 it received the arms and title of ciudad, and its church was made the cathedral of the island (Baracoa losing the honour). But before 1550 the drain of military expeditions to the continent, the quarrels of civil, military and ecclesiastical powers, and of citizens, and the emigration of colonists to the Main (not in small part due to the abolition of the encomiendas of the Indians), produced a fatal decadence. In 1589 Havana became the capital. Santiago was occupied and plundered by French corsairs in 1553, and again by a British military force from Jamaica in 1662. The capture of that island had caused an immigration of Spanish refugees to Santiago that greatly increased its importance; and the illicit trade to the same island—mainly in hides and cattle—that flourished from this time onward was a main prop of prosperity. From 1607 to 1826 the island was divided into two departments, with Santiago as the capital of the E. department—under a governor who until 1801 in political matters received orders direct from the crown. After 1826 Santiago was simply the capital of a province. In July 1741 a British squadron from Jamaica under Admiral Edward Vernon and General Thomas Wentworth landed at Guantanamo (which they named Cumberland Bay) and during four months operated unsuccessfully against Santiago. The climate made great ravages among the British, who lost perhaps 2000 out of 5000 men. The bishopric became an archbishopric in 1788, when a suffragan bishopric was established at Havana. J. B. Vaillant (governor in 1788–1796) and J. N. Quintana (governor in 1796–1799) did much to improve the city and encourage literature. After the cession of Santo Domingo to France, and after the French evacuation of that island, thousands of refugees settled in and about Santiago. They founded coffee and sugar plantations and gave a great impulse to trade. The population in 1827 was about 27,000. There were destructive earthquakes in 1675, 1679, 1766 and 1852. Dr Francesco Antommarchi (1780–1838), the physician who attended Napoleon in his last illness, died in Santiago, and a monument in the cemetery commemorates his benefactions to the poor. In the 19th century some striking historical events are associated with Santiago. One was the “Virginius” affair. The “Virginius” was a blockade-runner in the Civil War; it became a prize of the Federal government, by which it was sold in 1870 to an American, J. F. Patterson, who immediately registered it in the New York Custom House. It later appeared that Patterson was merely acting for a number of Cuban insurgents. On the 31st of October, then commanded by Joseph Fry, a former officer of the Federal and Confederate navies, and having a crew of fifty-two (chiefly Americans and Englishmen) and 103 passengers (mostly Cubans), she was captured off Morant Bay, Jamaica, by the Spanish vessel “Tornado,” and was taken to Santiago, where, after a summary court-martial, 53 of the crew and passengers, including Fry and some Americans and Englishmen, were executed on the 4th, 7th and 8th of November. Relations between Spain and the United States became strained, and war seemed imminent; but on the 8th of December the Spanish government agreed to surrender the “Virginius” on the 16th, to deliver the survivors of the crew and passengers to an American war-ship at Santiago, and to salute the American flag at Santiago on the 25th if it should not be proved before that date that the “Virginius” was not entitled to sail under American colours. The “Virginius” foundered off Cape Hatteras as she was being brought to the United States. The Attorney-General of the United States decided before the 25th that the “Virginius” was the property of General Quesada and other Cubans, and had had no right to carry the American flag. Under an agreement of the 27th of February 1875, the Spanish government paid to the United States an indemnity of $80,000 for the execution of the Americans, and an indemnity was also paid to the British government.[1] The most notable military and naval events (in Cuba) of the Spanish-American War (q.v.) of 1898 took place at and near Santiago. Monuments commemorate the actions at El Caney and San Juan Hill.
SANTIAGO DE LAS VEGAS, an 'inland city of Havana
province, Cuba, about 12 m. S. of Havana. Pop. (1907) 6462.
Tobacco is the principal industry. An agricultural experiment
station is maintained here by the Cuban government. The
town dates from 1688, when a church was built for a colony of
tobacco cultivators of the neighbourhood. In 1721 it received
the title and privileges of a villa, and in 1824 those of a ciudad.
SANTIAGO DEL ESTERO, a province of Argentina, bounded
N. by Salta and the Chaco territory, E. by the Chaco and Santa
Fé, S. by Cordoba, and W. by Catamarca, Tucuman and Salta.
Area 39,764 sq. m.; pop. (1895) 161,502; (1904, estimated)
186,205, chiefly Christianized Indians. The surface, of the
province is flat and low, chiefly open plains thinly covered with
grass. There are forests in the W. and N., extensive swamps
along the river courses and large saline areas, especially in the
S.W. The Salado (called Pasage, and Juramento in Salta)
crosses the province from N.W. to S.E. and empties into the
Paraná, and the Dulce, or Saladillo, which has its sources in the
Sierra de Aconquija, crosses the province in the same general
direction, and is lost in the great saline swamps of Porongos,
on the Cordoba frontier. The climate is extremely hot, the
maximum temperature being 111° (Mulhall), minimum 32°,
and the mean annual 71°, with an annual rainfall of 25 in.
Sugar, wheat, alfalfa, Indian corn, tobacco and hides are the
principal products, and cotton, which was grown here under
the Incas, is still produced. The province is traversed by the
Tucuman extension of the Buenos Aires and Rosario railway,
by a French line from Santa Fé to Tucuman, and by a branch of
the Central Northern (Cordoba section) railway.
The provincial capital, Santiago del Estero, is on the left bank of the Rio Dulce, 745 m. N.W. of Buenos Aires, with which it is connected by rail. Pop. (1904, estimated) 12,000, chiefly of Indian descent. The city stands on a level open plain, 520 ft. above sea-level, and in the vicinity of large swamps (esteros) bordering the Rio Dulce, from which its name is derived. There are a number of interesting old buildings in the city—a government house, several churches, a Jesuit college, a Franciscan convent and a girls’ orphanage. The city was founded in 1553 by Francisco de Aguirre and was the first capital of the province of Tucuman, the earliest settled of the La Plata provinces. In 1615 the cathedral was accidentally burnt and the bishop removed to Cordoba. The city has suffered much through inundations from the Rio Dulce, and from frequent local revolutions caused by misgovernment and the struggles of rival factions. In 1663 an inundation carried away half the capital, and the population was so reduced that in 1680 the seat of government was removed to San Miguel, now Tucuman. In 1820 Santiago del Estero became a separate province.
- ↑ See F. E. Chadwick, The Relations between the United States and Spain: Diplomacy (New York, 1909).
