The account which we shall have of the opulent charms and resources of Cuba may be regarded as a volume of contemporary history. It will reveal to us some of the consequences of that narrative of the past which forms the major portion of our story. But it will be more and will do more than that. It must serve as an intimation, a suggestion, almost perhaps a prophecy, of what the future of the Pearl of the Antilles will be. Grateful as is the work of recalling and rehearsing the story of the past, from the days of Columbus and Velasquez to the present, the historian finds it more pleasant and more welcome to dwell upon the present scene. If these volumes, laboriously produced and with a consciousness too often of falling short of the high merits of the theme, shall serve their intended purpose of introducing Cuba, past and present, more fully and most favorably to the knowledge of the world, I shall be more than abundantly repaid. But the supreme and most enduring satisfaction will come from some assurance that I have brought to the appreciative attention of the world not merely the Cuba of four centuries past, with all its legends of adventure and romance, and too often of cruelty and crime, and with its fluctuating though still persistent progress toward the "foremost files of time," but also and still more the Cuba of this present moment and, we may hope, of unmeasured future time. It is a Cuba that is beautiful for situation, opulent in resources, entrancing in charm, illimitable in potentialities; a land of "fair women and brave men," upon which recollection fondly dwells; a land which justifies the latest writer concerning it to repeat once more the estimate of the first who ever wrote of it--"the most beautiful that the eyes of man have ever seen." WILLIS FLETCHER JOHNSON. New York, U. S. A., June, 1919. CONTENTS PAGE CHAPTER I 1 "In Cuba the Annals of America Begin"--The First Landing Place of Columbus--Theories Concerning Various Islands--His Expectation of Reaching the Coast of Asia--Cuba Supposed to be Cathay--The Physical History of Cuba--Character of the Aboriginal Inhabitants--A Race of Amiable Savages Without Enduring Monuments. CHAPTER II 11