ba. The two names are inseparable. The record
of each is in a peculiar sense identified with that of the other. Far
more than any other land the Queen of the Antilles is associated with
that Columbian enterprise from which the modern and practical history of
the Western Hemisphere is dated. In Cuba the annals of America begin.

This island was not, it is true, the first land discovered by Columbus
after leaving Spain. It was at least the fifth visited and named by him,
and it was perhaps the tenth or twelfth which he saw and at which he
touched in passing. But in at least three major respects it had the
unquestionable primacy among all the discoveries of his first, second
and third voyages, while in his own estimation it was not surpassed in
importance by the main land of the continent which he finally reached in
his fourth and last expedition. It was the first land visited or seen by
him of the identity of which there has never been the slightest
question. It was the first considerable land discovered by him, the
first which was worth while sailing across the ocean to discover, and it
was by far the most important of all found by him in his first three
adventures. It was, also, the first and indeed the only land which
caused him to believe that the theory of his undertaking had been
vindicated and that the supreme object of his quest had been attained.
Let us, in order to appreciate the transcendent significance of his
discovery of Cuba, briefly consider these three circumstances.

We must remember with respect to the first that the identity of
Columbus's first landing place has been much disputed, and indeed has
never been determined to universal satisfaction: We know that it was an
island of small or moderate size. Columbus himself called it in one
place "small" and in another "fairly large." It was level, low-lying,
well watered, with a large central lagoon, which may or may not have
been a permanent feature, seeing that his visit was in the rainy season,
when any depression in the land was likely to be flooded. It was
certainly one of the Bahama archipelago. But that extensive group
comprises 36 islands, 687 cays, and 2,414 rocks. Which of all these was
it upon which the Admiral landed, which was called by the natives
Guanahani, and which, with his characteristic religious fervor, Columbus
immediately renamed San Salvador, the Island of the Holy Saviour?

The distinction has been claimed, by authorities worthy of