CAMAGUEY, Cuba, (formerly PuEaro PIUNCIPE), (I) town, capital of the province of Puerto Principe, 170 miles northwest of the city of Santiago de Cuba. It was originally founded in 1515 at Nuevitas, the site of an old Indian village, on the northern coast, but was moved to its present site in 1516. For a time after 1800 it was the seat of government for the Spanish West Indies, and until the end of Spanish rule was an important military post. It is the largest inland city of the island, and is connected with its port, Nuevitas, by railroad. It is the centre of a cattle-raising district, and exports cattle, hides, etc.; sugar also is culti vated somewhat in the vicinity and exported. The town is very mediaeval in appearance, the streets are narrow and the houses old; during the American occupation artesian wells were bored to obtain a pure water supply, the streets were repaired, a good drainage system intro duced and buildings for schools remodeled.
(2) Province, east of the centre of the island, bounded on the east by Oriente and on the west by Santa Clara; area, 11,000 square miles. The north of theprovince is mountain
ous, the most of the surface being high table land affording excellent pasturage. The chief industry is cattle raising, which, though it de teriorated during the war, is being rapidly re vived, and the number of cattle largely in creased; the finest horses on the island are also raised here. The province is also well wooded, and lumbering is an important industry; the minerals include iron, copper and asphalt, all of which are mined to some extent, asphalt being of the most commercial importance. General agriculture is carried on mostly in the vicinity of the town of Puerto Principe, and its port, Nuevitas; sugar is the most important agri cultural product. The province was a centre of the insurrectionary movement, and Cubitas in the northern part was the seat of the insur gent government in 1896-98. Camaguey is the second province of Cuba in size but is least densely populated.