rop--mainly pineapples, oranges, and grapefruit--is shipped
to the United States. New York, Philadelphia, and the Gulf ports are the
destination of the greater part of it.

Cuba, the largest island, is one of the most productive regions of the
world. The famous "Havana" tobacco grows mainly in the western part,
although practically all Cuban tobacco is classed under this name.
According to popular opinion it is pre-eminently the best in flavor,
and the price is not affected by that of other tobaccos.[58] About
two-thirds of the raw leaf and cigars are purchased by the tobacco
manufacturers of the United States. _Havana_, _Santiago_, and
_Cienfuegos_ are the shipping-ports; most of the export is landed at New
York, Key West, and Tampa.

From 1900 to 1903 the small fraction of the sugar industry that survived
the war and the insurrection was crippled by the high tariff on sugar
imported into the United States. The latter, which was designed to
protect the home sugar industry, was so high that the Cubans could not
afford to make sugar at the ruling prices in New York. Hides, honey, and
Spanish cedar for cigar-boxes are also important exports.

The United States is the chief customer of Cuba, and in turn supplies
the Cubans with flour, textile goods, hardware, and coal-oil. Smoked
meat from Latin America and preserved fish from Canada and Newfoundland
are the remaining imports. There are no manufactures of importance. The
railways are mainly for the purpose of handling the sugar-crop.

_Havana_, the capital and financial centre, is connected with New York,
New Orleans, and Key West by steamship lines. _Santiago_, _Matanzas_,
and _Cienfuegos_ are ports having a considerable trade.

The British possessions in the West Indies are commercially the most
important of the European possessions. The Bahamas are low-lying coral
islands, producing but little except sponges, fruit, and sisal-hemp.
_Nassau_, the only town of importance, is a winter resort. Fruit, sugar,
rum, coffee, and ginger are exported from _Kingston_, the port of
Jamaica. _St. Lucia_ has probably the strongest fortress in the
Caribbean Sea.

Barbados produces more sugar than any other British possession in the
West Indies. The raw sugar, muscovado, is shipped to the United States.
Bermuda, an outlying island, furnishes the Atlantic states with onions,
Easter lilies, and early potatoes. From Trinidad is obtained the
asphaltum, or natural tar, that is used for