t was built in the beautiful home of an American, near Guayabal,
just to remind him, he said, of the country whence he came.

Again, in the matter of rainfall and its bearing on the climate of a
country, Cuba is very fortunate. The rains all come in the form of
showers during the summer months, from the middle of May until the end
of October, and serve to purify and temper the heat of summer. On the
other hand, the cooler months of winter are quite dry, and absolutely
free from the chilling rains, sleets, snows, mists and dampness, that
endanger the health, if not the life, of those less fortunate people who
dwell in latitudes close to 40 degrees.

Cloudy, gloomy days are almost unknown in Cuba, and the sun can be
depended upon to shine for at least thirty days every month, and
according to the testimony of physicians nothing is better than sunshine
to eliminate the germs of contagious diseases. Hence we can truthfully
say that in the matter of climate and health, Cuba asks no favor of any
country on earth.

CHAPTER V

For a considerable time after the last visit of Columbus, Cuba was
strangely neglected by the enterprising explorers and conquistadors of
Spain. Hispaniola, since known as Hayti or Santo Domingo, became the
chief colony and centre of Spanish authority in the Antilles, and it for
many years far outranked Cuba in interest and importance. It does not
appear that for more than a dozen years after the last visit of Columbus
any attempt whatever was made to colonize or to explore the great
island, if indeed it was so much as voluntarily visited. Navigators
doubtless frequently passed near its shores, on their way to and from
Darien and the Venezuelan coast, and occasionally stress of weather on
the "stormy Caribbean" or actual shipwreck compelled some to land upon
it. Such involuntary landings were presumably made either in the
neighborhood of the Zapata Peninsula or, still more probably, not
exactly upon Cuba at all but upon the southern shore of the tributary
Isle of Pines. In consequence, the voyagers carried back to Hispaniola
or to Spain the not unnatural report that Cuba consisted of nothing but
swamps; a report which of course did not inspire others with zeal to
visit so unfavorable a place.

For a similar space of time, too, the delusion that Cuba was a part of
the continent generally prevailed. It is true that on a map of Juan de
la Cosa's, to which the date of 1500 is attributed, Cuba is