CARDENAS (

See also:

• SAN

San Juan de Dios de Cardenas)  , a maritime town of Cuba, in Matanzas province, about 75 M . E. of Havana, on the level and somewhat marshy shore of a spacious bay of the northern coast of the island, sheltered by a long promontory . Pop . (1907) 24,280 . It has railway communication with the trunk railway of the island, and communicates by regular steamers with all the coast towns . The city lies between the sea and hills . There are broad streets, various squares (including the Plaza de Colon, with a bronze statue of Columbus given to the city by Queen Isabel II. and erected in 1862) and substantial business buildings . Cardenas is one of the principal sugar-exporting towns of Cuba . The shallowness of the harbour necessitates lighterage and repeated loading of cargoes . The surrounding region is famed for its fertility . A large quantity of asphalt has been taken from the bed of the harbour . A flow of fresh water from the bed of the harbour is another peculiar feature; it comes presumably from the outlets of subterranean rivers .

There is a large

United States business element, which has been, indeed, prominent in the city ever since its foundation . At El Varadero, on a peninsula at the mouth of the bay, there is fine sea-bathing on a long beach, and El Varadero is a winter resort . Cardenas was founded in 1828, and in 1861 already had 12,910 inhabitants . In 185o General Narciso Lopez landed here on a filibustering expedition, and held the town for a few hours, abandoning it when he saw that the people would not rise to support him in his efforts to secure Cuban independence . On the rrth of May 1898 an American torpedo-boat and revenue cutter here attacked three Spanish gun-boats, and Ensign Worth Bagley (1874–1898) was killed—the first American naval officer to lose his life in the Spanish-American War .