PONCE  , a seaport and the second largest

city of Porto Rico, the seat of government of the Department of Ponce, on the south coast, about 50 M . (84 M. by the military road) S.W. of San Juan . Pop . (1899), 27,952, of whom 2554 were negroes and 9942 of mixed races; (1910), 35,027 . It is served by the American Railroad of Porto Rico, by a railway to Guayama (1910), and by steamboats from numerous ports; an old military road connects it with San Juan . Ponce consists of two parts: Ponce, or the city proper, and Ponce Playa, or the seaport; they are separated by the Portuguese River and are connected by an electric street railway . Ponce Playa is on a spacious bay and is accessible to vessels drawing 25 ft. of water; Ponce is 2 in. inland at the interior margin of a beautiful plain, with hills in the rear rising to a height of loon to 2000 ft . The city is supplied with water by an aqueduct about 2 M. long . There are two attractive public squares in the heart of the city: Plaza Principal and Plaza de las Delicias . Among prominent public buildings are the city hall, the custom-house, the Pearl theatre, several churches—Roman Catholic (including a finely decorated cathedral) and Protestant; St Luke's hospital and insane asylum, an asylumfor the blind, a ladies' asylum, a home for the indigent and aged, and a military barracks . At the Quintana Baths near the city are thermal springs with medicinal properties . The surrounding country is devoted chiefly to the cultivation of sugar cane, tobacco, oranges and cacao, and to the grazing of cattle .

Among the manufactures are sugar,

molasses, rum, and ice, and prepared coffee for the market . Ponce, named in honour of Ponce de Leon, was founded in 1752 upon the site of a settlement which had been established in the preceding century, was incorporated as a town in 1848, and was made a city in 1878 .