It is 107 miles in length and 37 miles across.

It has a good telegraph line and a railroad only partially completed.
The population, which is not made up of so many Negroes and mulattoes as that of the neighboring islands, is about 900,000.

Almost all of the inhabitants are Roman Catholics.
It is a mountainous island, and contains forty seven navigable streams.
The roads are merely paths beaten down by cattle.
Exports in 1887 were valued at $10,181,291; imports, $10,198,006.
Gold, copper, salt, coal and iron abound.
The poorer classes live almost entirely on a variety of highland rice, which is easily cultivated, as it requires no flooding.
One of the principal industries is grazing.

St.Thomas is the market for fresh meat.
Corn, tobacco, sugar, coffee, cotton and potatoes constitute the principal crops.
There are no snakes, no beasts of prey, no noxious birds nor insects in the island.
The trees and grass are always green.
Rats are the great foe of the crops.
The natives often live to be one hundred years old.
The most beautiful flower on the island is the ortegon, which has purple blossoms a yard long.
Hurricanes are frequent on the north coast and very destructive.
Mosquitoes art the pest of the island.
Spanish is the language spoken, and education is but little esteemed.
Every man, no matter how poor, owns a horse and three or four gamecocks.
The small planter is called "Xivaro." He is the proud possessor of a sweet-heart, a gamecock, a horse, a hammock, a guitar and a large supply of tobacco.

He is quick tempered but not revengeful, and he is proverbially lazy.
Hospitality is the rule of the island.