PUERTO PRINCIPE (officially, CAMAGUEY)  , a

city and the capital of the province of Camaguey in east-central Cuba, about 528 M . E.S.E. of Havana . Pop . (1899), 25,102; (1907), 29,616 . In addition to the axis-railway of the island, which connects it with Havana and Santiago, the city has connexion by a branch line with Nuevitas . Puerto Principe lies on a broad plain about equally distant from the north and south coasts of the island, and between two small rivers, the Tfnima and Hatibonica . In appearance it is one of the most ancient of Cuban towns . Many of the churches, convents and other ecclesiastical establishments were built in the second half of the 18th century, some in the first half; and some parts of the original cathedral of 1617 have probably survived later alterations and additions . Some of the bridges, too, built in the 18th century, are picturesque . The city hall was begun in 1733 . There is a provincial institute for secondary education . The city is the seat of a court of appeal .

Puerto Principe is connected by railway, 47 M.

long, with its port, Nuevitas (pop. in 1907, 4386), which is on the north side of the island and has a spacious land-locked bay of good depth, approached through a break in the off-lying coral keys and a narrow canyon entrance . About 5o M. south of Puerto Principe is Santa Cruz del Sur (pop. in 1907, 1640) on the south coast . Cabinet woods, fruit, tobacco, sugar, wax, honey and cattle products are the leading exports . In 1514 Diego Velasquez founded, on Nuevitas Bay (then known as the Puerto del Principe), a settlement that was moved in 1515 or 1516 to the site of the present city of Puerto Principe (or Santa Maria del Puerto del Principe) . From very early times the surrounding plains were given over to horse and cattle-raising . As early as the beginning of the 17th century Havana depended on this supply to furnish the fleets of royal ships which monopolized trade between Spain and America . From very early times, too, a prosperous clan-destine trade was maintained with Providence, the Bahamas, and especially with Curacoa and Jamaica (after its capture by the English in 1655) . After the capital, Puerto Principe was the richest prize of the island when it was captured and plundered in 1668 by a force of Frenchmen and Englishmen under Henry Morgan, the buccaneer . In the 18th century land grants and illicit trade led to serious disturbances . In 1775 Nuevitas was resettled, and in 178o was made a legal (habilitado) port . After the cession of Santo Domingo to France in ',Soo, the Real Audiencia, the supreme court of the Spanish West Indies, was removed to Puerto Principe . A superior audiencia was created for Havana in 1838, but the older court continued to exist throughout the Spanish period .

Puerto Principe boasts of being the most

Creole of Cuban cities . It was prominent in the war of 1868—78 and in the disaffection preceding and following it .