Cuba, Old and New | Page 2

all is the same. He wrote: "When I arrived at Juana (Cuba), I

sailed along the coast to the west, discovering so great an extent of land
that I could not imagine it to be an island, but the continent of Cathay. I
did not, however, discover upon the coast any large cities, all we saw
being a few villages and farms, with the inhabitants of which we could
not obtain any communication, they flying at our approach. I continued
my course, still expecting to meet with some town or city, but after
having gone a great distance and not meeting with any, and finding
myself proceeding toward the north, which I was desirous, to avoid on
account of the cold, and, moreover, meeting with a contrary wind, I
determined to return to the south, and therefore put about and sailed
back to a harbor which I had before observed." That the actual landing
was at or near the present port of Nuevitas seems to be generally
accepted.
Columbus appears to have been greatly impressed by the beauty of the
island. In his Life of Columbus, Washington Irving says: "From his
continual remarks on the beauty of scenery, and from his evident
delight in rural sounds and objects, he appears to have been extremely
open to those happy influences, exercised over some spirits, by the
graces and wonders of nature. He gives utterance to these feelings with
characteristic enthusiasm, and at the same time with the artlessness and
simplicity of diction of a child. When speaking of some lovely scene
among the groves, or along the flowery shores of these favored islands,
he says, "One could live there forever." Cuba broke upon him like an
elysium. "It is the most beautiful island," he says, "that ever eyes
beheld, full of excellent ports and profound rivers." A little discount
must be made on such a statement. Granting all that is to be said of
Cuba's scenic charms, some allowance is to be made for two influences.
One is Don Cristobal's exuberance, and the other is the fact that when
one has been knocking about, as he had been, for nearly three months
on the open sea and among low-lying and sandy islands and keys, any
land, verdure clad and hilly, is a picture of Paradise. Many people need
only two or three days at sea to reach a similar conclusion. In his letter
to Luis de Santangel, Columbus says: "All these countries are of
surpassing excellence, and in particular Juana (Cuba,), which contains
abundance of fine harbors, excelling any in Christendom, as also many
large and beautiful rivers. The land is high, and exhibits chains of tall

mountains which seem to reach to the skies and surpass beyond
comparison the isle of Cetrefrey (Sicily). These display themselves in
all manner of beautiful shapes. They are accessible in every part, and
covered with a vast variety of lofty trees which it appears to me never
lose their foliage. Some were covered with blossoms, some with fruit,
and others in different stages according to their nature. There are palm
trees of six or eight sorts. Beautiful forests of pines are likewise found,
and fields of vast extent. Here are also honey and fruits of thousand
sorts, and birds of every variety."
Having landed at this indefinitely located point, Columbus, believing
that he had reached the region he was seeking, despatched messengers
to the interior to open communication with some high official of
Cathay, in which country he supposed himself to be, the idea of
Cipango apparently having been abandoned. "Many at the present day,"
says Washington Irving, "will smile at this embassy to a naked savage
chieftain in the interior of Cuba, in mistake for an Asiatic monarch; but
such was the singular nature of this voyage, a continual series of golden
dreams, and all interpreted by the deluding volume of Marco Polo." But
the messengers went on their journey, and proceeded inland some thirty
or forty miles. There they came upon a village of about fifty huts and a
population of about a thousand. They were able to communicate only
by signs, and it is quite certain that the replies of the natives were as
little understood by the messengers as the questions were by the natives.
The messengers sought something about which the natives knew little
or nothing. The communications were interpreted through the medium
of imagination and desire. Nothing accomplished, the commission
returned and made its disappointing report. Washington Irving thus
describes the further proceedings: "The report of the envoys put an end
to the many splendid fancies of Columbus, about the barbaric prince
and his capital. He was cruising, however, in a region of enchantment,
in which pleasing chimeras started up at every step, exercising by turns
a power over his