SANCTI SPIRITUS  , an old Cuban

city in Santa Clara province, situated on a sandy plain in an angle of the Yayabo river, which winds through the city . Pop . (1907) 17,440 . It is connected by railway with Zaza del Medio, on the main railway line of the island, and with its port, Tunas de Zaza, 30 M . (by rail) to the S . The hill called Pan de Azucar (Sugar-loaf) is S.W. of the city . One church is said to be as old as the city, and others date from 1699, 1716, 1717, &c . The surrounding country is devoted principally to grazing . Sancti Spiritus was one of the seven cities founded by Diego Valasquez . Its settlement was ordered in 1514 and accomplished in 1516, and it is the fifth town of the island in age . The present city is about two leagues from the original site (Pueblo Viejo) . In 1518, as a result of the war of the Comunidades of Castille, a mimic war broke out in Sancti Spiritus among its two score villagers .

The

place was sacked by French and English corsairs in 1719 . Illicit trade with Jamaica was the basis of local prosperity in the 18th century .