Then he pointed out the similarity of position of Nicaragua, where he hoped to construct a canal, and argued that it similarly might obtain a like status in the Western World. It needs little suggestion to point out that Cuba fulfils those conditions in a supreme degree. It was not vainly that Spaniards centuries ago called Havana the Key of the Gulf, of the Caribbean, of the Indies, of the Western World. The position of Cuba is unique and incomparable, with relation to the United States, Mexico, Central America and South America, and the two enclosed seas which form the Mediterranean of the American Continents. Of old the treasure fleets of Spain passed by her coasts, and visited her harbors. To-day she is similarly visited by the fleets which ply between North America and South America, and between the Atlantic and the Pacific oceans. Reckoned by routes of traffic on the charted seas, she is the commercial centre of the world. [Illustration: ACADEMY OF SCIENCES, HAVANA] It is not with ambition for conquest or for political ascendancy that Cuba exults in that proud position, but merely that she may in the words of her President "show herself worthy of the favors which God has lavished upon her," and make herself a joy unto herself and a convenience and a benefaction to the peaceful world. It is into such an estate that she has now found the sure way to enter, and is indeed confidently and triumphantly entering, through achievements which, though embraced in only half a dozen years, are worthy of a generation of progress and are auspicious of immeasurable generations of progress yet to come; achievements toward which her present Chief of State has greatly and indispensably contributed. The story of Cuba is from Velasquez to Menocal. That is the story which we have tried to tell. But that is by no means the whole history of Cuba. Even of that portion of it we have been able here to give only an outline of the essential facts. But surely the span of four hundred and seven years must not be reckoned as a finality. It is only the beginning of the annals of a land and a people whose place among the nations of the world in honorable perpetuity is now assured as far as it can be assured by human purpose and achievement. These pages are, then, in fact, merely the prologue to records of progress and attainment which shall honor the name of Cuba and adorn the story of the world, "far on, in summers that we shall not see." From Velasquez to Menocal. The span is tremendous, in character as well as in lapse of time. It is a span from the fanatical and ruthless conqueror seeking only his own and his country's advantage, selfish and sordid, to the broad-minded and altruistic statesman and philanthropist, seeking the advantage and the advancement of his fellow men. It is a span, in brief, from the Sixteenth Century age of force to the Twentieth Century age of law.