Cuba was discovered by Columbus during his first voyage in the year 1492, on Sunday the 28th of October. The natives of San Salvador, the first land he made, called it by its present name, Cuba; Columbus, however, named it after the king or queen of Spain; but it retained this title only for a short time, the native name soon taking precedency of the other. Columbus appears to have made his research in this island, from the reports of the Indians of San Salvador; when he arrived with his ships at the estuary of a large river, the inhabitants imagining some terrible event was about to befall them, fled to the interior; he, however, sent some of his people after them; they fell down astonished at the feet of these men, whom they imagined to be gods, and gave them different articles the produce of the country, amongst which were golden ornaments, made, as they said, in the mountains; and the Europeans imagined they had found the mines of gold and silver they were taught to imagine existed in this quarter of the world. Columbus visited the greater part of the north coast of the island, in search of the precious metals, but the Spanish adventurers were disappointed in their hopes, gold being found only in very small quantities. They in some measure consoled themselves by the reflection, that the continent, as they imagined Cuba to be, might contain these valuable articles in some other part, and by the certainty, that the part they were now in, was fertile, beautiful and rich in the vegetable productions of nature. The Spaniards imagined that Cuba was a part of an immense continent, till the year 1508, when an officer of the name of Obando, circumnavigated it, and by this means ascertained that it was the largest of the islands hitherto discovered in those seas. The brother of Columbus, in the year 1511, in his capacity of admiral, and governor of Hispaniola, sent Don Jago Velasques with a force of 300 men, to conquer and colonize Cuba, which having performed, Velasquez was appointed governor of the island; his principal town he founded on the southern coast, and called it St. Jago; this situation he chose on account of the largeness and fineness of the harbour; he then built the city of the Havannah, at first of wooden houses, and afterwards with stone. The climate of Cuba is better than that of any other island in the West Indian seas, excepting Puerto Rico; it is mild and temperate, and they have no winter; the summer heat is moderated by the rains and sea-breezes; the periodical rains lasting during the months of July and August.