ON THE NORTH SHORE. 
ItH 
waters, and alligators. The game includes Guinea fowl, wild pigeons, 
quail and parrots (good eating when young, non-negctiable when old). 
Deer breed the year around; captive fawns are common; the deer is an 
introduced species. The only indigenous quadruped is the agouti, or 
hutia, a curious creature which looks like a cross between a rat and a 
woodchuck, lives on the bark of trees and is so tame and stupid that 
it may be stoned or killed with a club. The flesh is much esteemed by 
those who like it; hutias and boniatos (wild sweet potatoes) frequently 
constituted the whole of the insurgents’ commissary. 
Baracoa is the extreme eastern port of the island. It is related in the 
“Journal of Columbus During His First Voyage,” that after he had ex¬ 
plored the north coast of Cuba (to which he gave the name Johana), 
“attracted on the one hand by the longings and delight he felt to gaze 
upon the beauty and freshness of those lands, and on the other by a desire 
to complete the work he had undertaken,” he directed his caravels to a 
remarkable harbor which he discovered here and to which he gave the 
name of Puerto Santo, and which was afterward called Puerto de Baracoa. 
On Nov. 27, 1492, his ships dropped anchor in the harbor, and a glowing 
account is given of the prospect which was here presented to him. 
“It was so that, if the Admiral had praised the other havens, he must praise this 
still more for its lands, climate, and people. He tells marvels of the beauty of 
the country and of the trees, there being palms and pine trees; and also of the 
great valley, which is not flat, but diversified by hill and dale, the most lovely scene 
in the world. Many streams flow from it, which fall from the mountains. 
“As soon as the ship was at anchor the Admiral jumped into the boat, to get 
soundings in the port, which is the shape of a hammer. When he was facing the 
entrance he found the mouth of a river on the south side of sufficient width for a 
galley to enter it, but so concealed that it is not visible until close to. Entering 
it for the length of the boat, there was a depth of from five to eight fathoms. In 
passing up it the freshness and beauty of the trees, the clearness of the water, and 
the birds, made it all so delightful that he wished never to leave them. He said 
to the men who were with him that to give a true relation to the Sovereigns of the 
things they had seen, a thousand tongues would not suffice, nor his hand to write 
it, for that it was like a scene of enchantment. He desired that many other prudent 
and credible witnesses might see it, and he was sure that they would be as unable 
to exaggerate the scene as he was. 
“He ascended the river for some distance, examined some branches of it, and, 
returning to the mouth, he found some pleasant groves of trees, like a delightful 
orchard. Here he came upon a canoe, dug out of one tree, as big as a galley of 
twelve benches, fastened under a boat-house made of wood, and thatched with 
palm leaves, so that it could be neither injured by sun nor by the water. He says 
that here would be the proper site for a town and fort, by reason of the good 
port, good water, good land, and abundance of fuel.”— Journal of Columbus 
During His First Voyage. 
Nineteen years later, when Diego de Velazquez was commissioned by 
Diego Columbus, son of the Discoverer and Governor of the Indies, to 
establish settlements in Cuba and subjugate the island, he came to Baracoa, 
and here in 1511 was founded the first town on the island, and here began 
