378 



humboldt's cuba. 



tance. Subsequently, in February, 1519, Cortes 

 gathered his fleet near Cape San Antonio, probably 

 at the place which still bears the name of Bay of 

 Cortes, west of Batabano, and opposite the Isle of 

 Pines. From that place, where he could more 

 easily free himself from the trammels which the 

 governor, Yelasquez, was preparing to throw around 

 him, he sailed, almost clandestinely, for the shores 

 of Mexico. Strange vicissitudes of human affairs ! 

 A handful of men, landing from the extreme west 

 of Cuba upon the coast of Yucatan, tore down the 

 empire of Montezuma ; and in our time, three centu- 

 ries later, this same Yucatan, which is part of the con- 

 federation of independent Mexican States, has almost 

 menaced a conquest of the western shores of Cuba. 1 



Carenas, in the ancient Indian province of Habana (Herrera, Dec. 

 1, pp. 276-277), and another, the greatest, at the city of San Cristo- 

 bal de Cuba. In 1519 the two settlements were united, and the port 

 of Carenas took the name of San Cristobal de la Habana. " Cortes," 

 says Herrera (Dec. 11, pp. 80 and 95), "went to the village of San 

 Cristobal, which, at that time, was on the south coast, and afterwards 

 went to Havana." — H. 



1 Humboldt, probably, alludes here to the secret society of " The 

 Black Eagle," which had its principal centre in Mexico, but 

 extended its ramifications throughout Cuba, its object being to 

 achieve the independence of that island. It was discovered and 

 suppressed about the time of his writing, 1825, when its plans had 

 very nearly reached maturity, and many eminent Cubans were 

 forced to flee their country. 



