Nuevitas, Cuba 20

Gen. Paul Van der Voort 26

An Involuntary Bath 42

Port La Gloria 46

Author on Road to La Gloria 48

Col. Thomas H. Maginniss 52

"The Hotel" 64

The Spring 68

Robert C. Beausejour 82

La Gloria, Cuba, Looking North 88

First House in La Gloria 97

Frank J. O'Reilly 110

First Women Colonists of La Gloria. 122

Dr. William P. Peirce 126

Gen. Van der Voort's Cuban House 134

La Gloria, Cuba, Looking South 150

Group of Colonists 158

The Survey Corps 168

Interior Gen. Van der Voort's House 182

Agramonte Plaza, Puerto Principe, Cuba 200

Dr. Peirce's Pineapple Patch 208

Scene on Laguna Grande 214

[Illustration: MAP OF CUBA., PROVINCES.

1 PINAR DEL RIO
2 HAVANA
3 MATANZAS
4 SANTA CLARA
5 PUERTO PRINCIPE
6 SANTIAGO DE CUBA

PIONEERING IN CUBA.

CHAPTER I.

ARRIVAL OF THE COLONISTS IN NUEVITAS HARBOR.

Just after noon on January 4, 1900, the ancient city of Nuevitas, Cuba,
lazily basking in the midday sunshine, witnessed a sight which had not
been paralleled in the four hundred years of its existence. A steamer
was dropping anchor in the placid water of the harbor a mile off shore,
and her decks were thronged with a crowd of more than two hundred eager
and active Americans. They wore no uniforms, nor did they carry either
guns or swords; and yet they had come on an errand of conquest. They had
fared forth from their native land to attack the formidable forests and
to subdue the untamed soil of the province of Puerto Principe--a task
which required scarcely less courage and resolution than a feat of arms
might have demanded in that locality two years before. Well aware that
there was a hard fight before them, they were yet sanguine of success
and eager to begin active operations. It was the vanguard of the first
American colony planted in Cuba.

The vessel that