HAVANA (Sp. LA HABANA, la ha-ba'ni), Cuba, its capital and the commercial centre of the West Indies. It occupies nine square miles on the west side of the Bay of Havana on the north coast, one of the noblest harbors in the world, with deep water up to the quays; entered by a narrow channel three-eighths of a mile long, protected by Punta Castle on the west and Morro Castle and La Cabana on the east. It is in two sharply distinct sections. The old city, the commercial quarter,•was built on the small western peninsula dividing the sea from the harbor, a low plain cut by a small stream on the west, strengthened by a city wall only torn down a generation ago. It is largely, and was entirely till the American occupation, a maze of narrow, crooked lanes traversed by one or two broader streets; the chief of which are the Calle O'Reilly, the main business street, running from the governor's palace to the city wall, and the Calle Obispo (Bishop street). The new city is on a ring of hills 150 feet' high south and west of the old, with the castle of El Principe on the crest, and has a wealth of broad and finely shaded macadamized streets, drives, promenades, parks, plazas, flower-gar dens, fountains, statues, etc., which make it one of the handsomest cities in the world. There is no "'West End° in Havana, the houses of the wealthy being scattered through every part, usually of classic pattern, with an inner court yard or patio surrounded by marble or stucco columns, containing a garden of tropical vege tation and a central fountain. The handsomest residence street, next to the new suburb Vedado. is the Cerro, a long thoroughfare running up a hill at the farther end, and bordered by immense old villas in the midst of splendid gardens. The finest drives and promenades are the Malecon, a new thoroughfare along the water-front from Prado to the Vedado, the Prado, a boulevard with a double row of shade-trees in the middle, running from Puma Castle outside the'old wall, and ending in the largest park in the city, Colon Park or Campo Marte, and the Calle de la Reina (Queen street) starting west from this park and continued as the Paseo de Tacon to the citadel of El Principe. The Alameda de Paula along the bay is also a favorite promenade.
Among buildings, the most interesting are the palace of the old captains-general, facing the Plaza de Armas near the harbor front, the cathedral, built 1764, and supposed to contain the ashes of Columbus in an urn till it was removed to Spain in 1898 (but the San Domin gans claim they have his authentic bones), and the Tac6n Theatre, perhaps the largest in the world. There are several other theatres and
opera-houses, and many clubs, etc. The chief educational institutions are the University of Havana, founded 1670 by the Dominicans; the Jesuit boys' college de Belen, with a museum, observatory, a library rich in old Cuban history, etc.; College of American Augustinian Fathers, founded 1901. Famous among benevolent in stitutions are the Casa de Beneficencia, founded by Las Casas for infants. There are three gen eral hospitals, a great lazaretto for lepers and an insane hospital in the city and vicinity. Over 100 newspapers, etc., are published in the city.
The water supply of the city was installed by a Cuban engineer, Albear, some 40 years ago, and is considered a remarkable specimen of good workmanship. It comes from the Vento by an aqueduct 12 miles long, known as the Canal of Albear. In all other respects the Americans at the conquest found an undescrib able state of filth and disease. The city was the prey of yellow fever; the sewers had seldom been cleaned since they were laid down, and some of them were choked with generations of rottenness; the buildings were pest-holes; and in that dungeon of horrors, the military hospital, 70 per cent of the inmates died. The United States forces in their short stay transformed this reeking home of pestilence into one of the healthiest cities in America. In systematic order streets were cleaned, repaved, widened; squads of cleaners were sent from house to house, emptying the Augean stables under them, whitewashing and disinfecting them, and where they were shanties that were nests of infection, tearing them down; the hospital was cleaned, disinfected and covered deep with whitewash, and turned into a schoolhouse. New business streets were made by widening old lanes; parks were cleared up, and a fine sea-wall along the ocean to the north was built. The average deaths from yellow fever 1887-98 were 440; in 1896 they were 1,262; in 1901, for the first time in its history, only three or four. A Cuban physician of Irish descent, Dr. Carlos Finlay, now chief sanitary officer of Havana, was the originator of the mosquito theory of the yellow fever. General Wood and the American army surgeons, however, deserve much credit for making the theory of practical use.