To reach Ponce, the next city we wish to visit, we must use carriages as
well as railways. It is on the southern side of the island.

Ponce is the largest city in Puerto Rico, having a population of over
thirty-seven thousand people. The main part is built on a plain about
three miles from the seashore.

A fine road connects it with Playa, the port, where are found a good
harbor, large wharves and the more important government offices.

Ponce has wide, clean streets, handsome buildings, and attractive homes.
Many quaint and picturesque old buildings line its avenues; but in the
newer parts of the town and in the suburbs the buildings are modern.

It has a military hospital and barracks, two other hospitals, a home for
the old and poor, gas works, and an ice machine. There are also
establishments for hulling coffee, drying coffee, distilling rum,
manufacturing carriages, and grinding sugar. (See illustrations on pages
54 and 69).

The large central plaza has pretty gardens and a cathedral.

There are three manufactories of chocolate for the use of the people in
the surrounding country. Sugar, coffee, oranges, pineapples and
cocoanuts are brought here to be shipped to the United States and other
countries.

Near the city are white-gypsum quarries; also medicinal baths, to which
many invalids and travelers go.