f all those countries, and obtain over them immense preponderance; for
in politics, as in strategy, a central position always commands the
circumference."

Then he pointed out the similarity of position of Nicaragua, where he
hoped to construct a canal, and argued that it similarly might obtain a
like status in the Western World. It needs little suggestion to point
out that Cuba fulfils those conditions in a supreme degree. It was not
vainly that Spaniards centuries ago called Havana the Key of the Gulf,
of the Caribbean, of the Indies, of the Western World. The position of
Cuba is unique and incomparable, with relation to the United States,
Mexico, Central America and South America, and the two enclosed seas
which form the Mediterranean of the American Continents. Of old the
treasure fleets of Spain passed by her coasts, and visited her harbors.
To-day she is similarly visited by the fleets which ply between North
America and South America, and between the Atlantic and the Pacific
oceans. Reckoned by routes of traffic on the charted seas, she is the
commercial centre of the world.

[Illustration: ACADEMY OF SCIENCES, HAVANA]

It is not with ambition for conquest or for political ascendancy that
Cuba exults in that proud position, but merely that she may in the
words of her President "show herself worthy of the favors which God has
lavished upon her," and make herself a joy unto herself and a
convenience and a benefaction to the peaceful world. It is into such an
estate that she has now found the sure way to enter, and is indeed
confidently and triumphantly entering, through achievements which,
though embraced in only half a dozen years, are worthy of a generation
of progress and are auspicious of immeasurable generations of progress
yet to come; achievements toward which her present Chief of State has
greatly and indispensably contributed.

The story of Cuba is from Velasquez to Menocal. That is the story which
we have tried to tell. But that is by no means the whole history of
Cuba. Even of that portion of it we have been able here to give only an
outline of the essential facts. But surely the span of four hundred and
seven years must not be reckoned as a finality. It is only the beginning
of the annals of a land and a people whose place among the nations of
the world in honorable perpetuity is now assured as far as it can be
assured by human purpose and achievement.

These pages are, then, in fact, merely the pr