action. The Dominicans marshalled to the support of
their claims various historical and antiquarian authorities, and the
Cubans and the Spanish government secured at least an equal array in
support of their claim that the remains of Columbus had been transferred
to Havana. A strongly convincing report to the latter effect was made to
the Spanish government by Senor Colmeiro, of the Spanish Royal Academy
of History, and his judgment was generally accepted throughout Cuba and
Spain. It was pointed out that the inscriptions contained various
anachronisms indicating that they must have been written at a much later
date than that of the death and interment of Columbus.

Havana therefore continued confidently to pride itself upon being the
repository of the dust of the Great Admiral, and his tomb in the ancient
cathedral was thus recognized and revered by countless visitors. But at
last, in 1899, after the independence of Cuba from Spain had been
accomplished, a request was made by the Spanish Government for the
transfer of the casket and its precious contents back to Spain, where
historically they belonged. It was indeed pointed out that the transfer
to Havana in 1796 had been intended to be only temporary, pending a
fitting opportunity for a further removal to Spain. This request was
granted, and the dust of the Discoverer was finally reinterred in the
cathedral of Seville.

[Illustration: THE HAVANA CATHEDRAL

Originally the church of the Jesuits, this imposing edifice was built in
1656, though not completed until 1724, and took the place of the first
cathedral in 1762. Within a tomb within its walls the remains of
Columbus rested from 1796, when they were taken thither from Santo
Domingo, to 1899, when they were conveyed to Spain.]

CHAPTER IV

Between these first merely tentative and inconclusive visits of Columbus
to Cuba, in which so much was imagined and so little learned or done,
and the actual occupation and settlement of the island, which were
reserved for a few years later, it will be profitable to pause for a
brief space, to review what science has revealed to us of not merely the
pre-Columbian but indeed what we may term the archaic history of this
chief member of the Antillean group. It is a history written in the
rocks and soils, in the mountains and plains and rivers; in brief, the
natural history of the island.

This was something at which Columbus could merely have guessed, if
indeed he had t