encies
and other weaknesses would find the air salubrious and a residence in
this part of the island beneficial.

The temperature at this time was delightful, a close approach to
perfection, the thermometer ranging from 70 deg. to 84 deg. at noon, and rarely
falling below 60 deg. at any time of day. It still rained frequently, an
unusual and remarkable prolongation of the rainy season, which
ordinarily ends in November, but the water fell in brief showers and
left the rest of the day bright and clear. Indeed, it was not until
February that the rain ceased altogether and the dry season fairly
began. The Cubans declared that they had never known the wet season to
continue so late.

The long continued rains were held responsible, perhaps justly so, for
many of the inconveniences and drawbacks which the colonists
encountered. The company stoutly declared that to these unusual
meteorological conditions was due the failure to build the road to the
port which had been promised, and that the absence of the road prevented
the transportation of the lumber for the construction of the hotel.
This latter assertion was true beyond all question. The "hotel" was a
subject of much comment and immoderate mirth. It existed on paper in
spacious and imposing elegance; it was a splendid structure of the
imagination. But let it not be thought for one moment that the hotel was
wholly a myth. Not so; the situation would not have been half so funny
if it had been. There stood the foundation for the immense building
squarely across Central avenue, about a quarter of a mile back from the
front line of the town. A large space had been cleared in the forest,
and the centre of this opening was the hotel site. The foundation
consisted of large logs of hard wood, sawed about four feet long and
stood upright. They were set in cement on stone that was sunk slightly
below the surface of the ground. How many of these logs there were I
cannot say, but there was a small army of them, aligned across Central
avenue and extending far to either side. Under the dim light of the
stars they looked like a regiment of dwarfs advancing to attack the
camp. Workmen were putting the finishing touches on this foundation when
we arrived, but the work was soon discontinued altogether, leaving the
wooden army to serve as an outpost of slowly advancing civilization. Of
course, we always directed new arrivals to the "hotel" as soon as they
came in over the "road" from the po