Page:From Yauco to Las Marias.djvu/163

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YAUCO TO LAS MARIAS
87

bodies in the same hole, the last one in being perhaps no more than six inches from the light of day. And, as if this state of affairs were not already sufficiently horrible, we found that the congestion was sometimes still further relieved by a wholesale emptying of graves, the bones thus removed being thrown into some adjacent corner above ground, where they lay undisturbed in the hot sunshine and smelt to heaven. This ghastly practice was summarily stopped.

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If you will take a map of Puerto Rico and cut off the western section by drawing a line from Guanica through Lares to Camuy, you will see at once the extent of the territory brought under American control by General Schwan. The principal towns of this section, in addition to those already described, are Aguadilla, Maricao, Añasco, Cabo Rojo, Lares, and Las Marias; but none of these places are important enough to call for detailed notice, with the possible exception of the first-named. This city, Aguadilla, while it has a population of only