CHAPTER VII. 



CUBA. 



UBA, largest of the Antilles, occupies a central geographical position 

 between the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea. It was the 

 first extensive stretch of land discovered by Columbus in the New 

 World, although with strange obstinacy he persisted in regarding 

 it as a peninsula of the Old World, like the mysterious Zimpango 

 of the far East. His account is too vague to determine the spot where he first 

 landed, more especially as the island of Guinahani, whence he reached Cuba, 

 remains itself still unidentified. 



According to Las Casus and Herrera it was at Baracoa, near the eastern 

 extremity of the island, that he first beheld " the fairest lands that the sun shines 

 on and that the eye has ever seen." Navarrete thinks that Nipe was the first 

 Cuban port entered by the caravels of Columbus, while Washington Irving 

 removes the spot farther west to the port of Nuevitas. But in any case, in 1492, 

 that is, during his first voyage, the navigator coasted a great part of the north-east 

 side, and in 1494, during his second voyage, he traced the southern shores, with all 

 their bays and inlets, as far as the present Cortes Bay, not far from the western 

 extremity of the island. It was here, within 60 miles of the terminal headland, 

 that he assembled his crews to appeal to their testimony that Cuba was no island, 

 but really a part of the mainland. Nevertheless he must have had his doubts, for 

 he had even recourse to threats, and any expression of oj^inion contrary to his own 

 might, in fact, at that time have cost the sceptic the loss of ears or tongue. 



Thus Cuba continued, by decree of the admiral, to be an Asiatic peninsula 

 down to the year 1508, when Ocampo, coasting the north side, reached Cape San 

 Antonio, and passed round the island through the Yucatan channel. Three years 

 later, the Spaniards took possession of Cuba, where they founded their first settle- 

 ment, Baracoa. 



The contour-line of the seaboard has been gradually traced by careful maritime 

 surveys, while the development of the interior, the construction of roads and rail- 

 ways, have supplied materials for a tolerably correct map of the island. But no 

 beginning has yet been made with the geodetic measurements needed for the con- 

 struction of a topographic chart on a level with those of West Europe. 



The various names given to the island during the first years of the discovery 

 — Juana, Fernandina, Santiago, Ave Mar.a, Alfa y Omega — have ail been for- 



