t
will be judicious, therefore, to assume that it was there that the
Admiral first reached the shore of Cuba. A glance at the map shows this
to be the region which was nearest and which he was likeliest to reach
first, coming from either Long Island or Crooked Island, eastward of the
Mucaras, on a south-southwest course, which, we are told, is what he
steered. The port of Naranjo answers to his description in depth and
breadth more nearly than any other on that part of the coast. It is the
estuary of a considerable river, as was Columbus's San Salvador, though
how large the river really was he does not appear to have undertaken to
ascertain, though he did ascend the stream some little distance on his
first day's visit. Finally, it is to be observed that Naranjo is girt
about by hills, precisely as was his San Salvador, and on the crest of
one of them there is a huge rock, jutting up like "another little hill"
and roughly resembling in shape a mosque, because of which the hill is
called "Loma del Temple." This, then, and not Nuevitas, Nipe, nor
Baracoa, I believe to have been the scene of Columbus's discovery of
Cuba.

[Illustration: QUEEN ISABELLA]

We have seen that Columbus at first unhesitatingly believed it to be
Cipango which he had reached. Despite that fact, and also despite the
fact that the natives called it Cuba, he insisted upon renaming it. In
accordance with his previous practice in nomenclature, it must have a
very noble and distinguished name. His first landfall he had named for
the Holy Saviour Himself; the second for the Holy Virgin; the third for
the King, and the fourth for the Queen of Leon and Castile. The next
name in order, in dignity and distinction, was that of the heir to the
dual throne, wherefore he named the land Juana. Most writers, including
Irving, have made the curious but facile mistake of saying that this
name was given "in honor of Prince Juan, the son of Ferdinand and
Isabella." It was, in fact, in honor of Princess Juana, the daughter of
those sovereigns. She was that unhappy princess who because of her
insanity was called "La Loca," and who by her marriage with Philip of
Burgundy and of Hapsburg brought a new dynasty to the Spanish throne and
greatly involved the monarchy in the politics and wars of Central
Europe. Juana was mentally incompetent to succeed to the throne of
Castile which she inherited upon the death of her mother, wherefore she
was compelled to relinquish it to th