14 



DISCOVERIES OF CORDOVA AND GRIJALVA. 



Cuba was the second island discovered, in the West Indies ; 

 but it was not until 1511, that Diego, son of the gallant admiral, 

 who had hitherto maintained the seat of government in Hispaniola, 

 resolved to occupy the adjacent isle of Fernandina, — as it was 

 then called, — amid whose virgin mountains and forests he hoped 

 to find new mines to repair the loss of those which were rapidly 

 failing in Hispaniola. 1 



For the conquest of this imagined El Dorado, he prepared a 

 small armament, under the command of Diego Velasquez, an 

 ambitious and covetous leader, who, together with his lieutenant, 

 Narvaez, soon established the Spanish authority in the island, of 

 which he was appointed Governor. 



Columbus, after coasting the shores of Cuba for a great distance, 

 had always believed that it constituted a portion of the continent, 

 but it was soon discovered that the illustrious admiral had been in 

 error, and that Cuba, extensive as it appeared to be, was, in fact, 

 only an island. 



In February, 1517, a Spanish hidalgo, Hernandez de Cordova, 

 set sail, with three vessels, towards the adjacent Bahamas in search 

 of slaves. He was driven by a succession of severe storms on 

 coasts which had hitherto been unknown to the Spanish adventurers, 

 and finally landed on that part of the continent which forms the 

 north-eastern end of the peninsula of Yucatan, and is known as 

 Cape Catoche. Here he first discovered the evidence of a more 

 liberal civilization than had been hitherto known among his 

 adventurous countrymen in the New World. Large and solid 

 buildings, formed of stone ; — cultivated fields ; — delicate fabrics 

 of cotton and precious metals, — indicated the presence of a race 

 that had long emerged from the semi-barbarism of the Indian Isles. 

 The bold but accidental explorer continued his voyage along the 

 coast of the peninsula until he reached the site of Campeche ; and 

 then, after an absence of seven months and severe losses among 

 his men, returned to Cuba, with but half the number of his reckless 

 companions. He brought back with him, however, numerous 

 evidences of the wealth and progress of the people he had 

 fortuitously discovered on the American main ; but he soon died, 

 and left to others the task of completing the enterprise he had so 

 auspiciously begun. The fruits of his discoveries remained to be 

 gathered by Velasquez, who at once equipped four vessels and 



1 In 1525, the gold washings of Hispaniola were already exhausted ; and sugar and 

 hides are alone mentioned as exports. Petri Mart : Ep. 806, Kal. Mart. 1525. 



