PUERTO PRINCIPE, or now more correctly Ciudad del Principe, a city at the head of the central department of the island of Cuba. When first founded in the beginning of the 16th century by Velazquez, it was, as its more familiar name implies, on the sea-coast; but it has been more than once shifted southward and inland, and is now nearly as far from the north as from the south side of the island. Though for some time after the surrender of San Domingo to France in 1800 Principe was the seat of the central government and supreme courts of the Spanish West Indies, it is no longer a place of much importance. The population is estimated at 31,000. Since 1840 the city has been connected by a railway with its port, which is sometimes called by its own name and sometimes by that of a smaller town on the bay about 11 miles from its entrance, San Fernando de Nuevitas. The harbour or bay is large, completely sheltered, and capable of admitting vessels of the largest draught; but it is entered by a narrow crooked passage 6 miles long, which, though there are no hidden dangers, makes the assistance of a pilot desirable.