names of
islands or countries. His great object was to arrive at some opulent and
civilized country of the East, with which he might establish commercial
relations, and whence he might carry home a quantity of oriental
merchandise as a rich trophy of his discovery. The season was advancing;
the cool nights gave hints of approaching winter; he resolved, therefore,
not to proceed farther to the north, nor to linger about uncivilized places
which, at present, he had not the means of colonizing, but to return to the
east-south-east, in quest of Babeque, which he trusted might prove some
rich and civilized island on the coast of Asia." And so he sailed away for
Hispaniola (Santo Domingo) which appears to have become, a little later,
his favorite West Indian resort.

[Illustration: THE MORRO _Havana_]

He began his eastward journey on November 12th. As he did not reach Cape
Maisi, the eastern point of the island, until December 5th, he must have
made frequent stops to examine the shore. Referring to one of the ports
that he entered he wrote to the Spanish Sovereigns thus: "The amenity of
this river, and the clearness of the water, through which the sand at the
bottom may be seen; the multitude of palm trees of various forms, the
highest and most beautiful that I have met with, and an infinity of other
great and green trees; the birds in rich plumage and the verdure of the
fields, render this country of such marvellous beauty that it surpasses all
others in charms and graces, as the day doth the night in lustre. For which
reason I often say to my people that, much as I endeavor to give a complete
account of it to your majesties, my tongue cannot express the whole truth,
nor my pen describe it; and I have been so overwhelmed at the sight of so
much beauty that I have not known how to relate it."

Columbus made no settlement in Cuba; his part extends only to the
discovery. On his second expedition, in the spring of 1494, he visited and
explored the south coast as far west as the Isle of Pines, to which he gave
the name _La Evangelista_. He touched the south coast again on his fourth
voyage, in 1503. On his way eastward from his voyage of discovery on the
coast of Central America, he missed his direct course to Hispaniola, and
came upon the Cuban shore near Cape Cruz. He was detained there for some
days by heavy weather and adverse winds, and sailed thence to his unhappy
experience in Jamaica. The work of colonizing remained fo