r others. Columbus
died in the belief that he had discovered a part of the continent of Asia.
That Cuba was only an island was determined by Sebastian de Ocampo who
sailed around it in 1508. Baron Humboldt, who visited Cuba in 1801 and
again in 1825, and wrote learnedly about it, states that "the first
settlement of the whites occurred in 1511, when Velasquez, under orders
from Don Diego Columbus, landed at Puerto de las Palmas, near Cape Maisi,
and subjugated the Cacique Hatuey who had fled from Haiti to the eastern
end of Cuba, where he became the chief of a confederation of several
smaller native princes." This was, in fact, a military expedition composed
of three hundred soldiers, with four vessels.

Hatuey deserves attention. His name is not infrequently seen in Cuba today,
but it is probable that few visitors know whether it refers to a man, a
bird, or a vegetable. He was the first Cuban hero of whom we have record,
although the entire reliability of the record is somewhat doubtful. The
notable historian of this period is Bartolome Las Casas, Bishop of Chiapa.
He appears to have been a man of great worth, a very tender heart, and an
imagination fully as vivid as that of Columbus. His sympathies were aroused
by the tales of the exceeding brutality of many of the early Spanish
voyagers in their relations with the natives. He went out to see for
himself, and wrote voluminously of his experiences. He also wrote with
exceeding frankness, and often with great indignation. He writes about
Hatuey. The inference is that this Cacique, or chieftain, fled from Haiti
to escape Spanish brutality, and even in fear of his life. There are other
translations of Las Casas, but for this purpose choice has been made of one
published in London about the year 1699. It is given thus:

"There happened divers things in this island (Cuba) that deserve to be
remarked. A rich and potent Cacique named Hatuey was retired into the Isle
of Cuba to avoid that Slavery and Death with which the Spaniards menaced
him; and being informed that his persecutors were upon the point of landing
in this Island, he assembled all his Subjects and Domestics together, and
made a Speech unto them after this manner. "You know, (said he) the Report
is spread abroad that the Spaniards are ready to invade this Island, and
you are not ignorant of the ill usage our Friends and Countrymen have met
with at their hands, and the cruelties they have committed at Haiti (so
Hi