The end came. It was on January 1, 1899. Four hundred and six years, two months and three days before, the first Spaniard had landed upon Cuban soil and had planted there the quartered flag of Leon and Castile in token of sovereignty. Now, after all that lapse of time, largely, it must be confessed, ill spent and ill-improved, the Spanish flag was finally to be lowered and withdrawn, in token of the passing away of Spanish sovereignty forever from the soil of Cuba. [Illustration: PART OF OLD CITY WALL OF HAVANA, STILL STANDING] The ceremonies were brief and simple; far more brief and simple, we may well believe, than were those with which the imaginative and exuberant Admiral proclaimed possession of the island centuries before. The official representatives of Spain and the United States met at noon in the Hall of State in the Governor's Palace, the scene of so many proud and imperious events in Spanish colonial history. On the one side the chief was General Jiminez Castellanos, the last successor of Velasquez. On the other, Major-General John R. Brooke. The one was the last of a long, long line of Spanish Governors-General; the other was the first of a brief succession of American Military Governors who were soon to give way to an unending line of native Cuban Republican Presidents and Congresses. With a sad heart, with tear-suffused eyes, and with a hand that trembled to hold a pen far more than ever it had to wield a sword, General Jiminez Castellanos signed the document which abdicated and relinquished Spanish sovereignty in that Pearl of the Antilles which was nevermore to be known as the "Ever Faithful Isle." The crimson and gold barred banner of Spain descended. The Stars and Stripes rose in its place. The deed was done. The final settlement was made with Spain. For three hundred and eighty-seven years Spain had been the sovereign of Cuba, exercising her power through one hundred and thirty-six administrations, of which the first was one of the longest and the last was one of the shortest. It will be worth our while to recall the roll, which bears some of the noblest and some of the vilest names in Spanish history: _No._ _Date_ 1 1512 Diego Velasquez, Lieutenant-Governor 2 1524 Manuel de Rojas, Lieutenant-Governor, provisional 3 1525 Juan de Altamirano, Lieutenant-Governor 4 1526 Gonzalo de Guzman, Lieutenant-General 5 1532 Manuel de Rojas, Lieutenant-Governor, provisional 6 1535 Gonzalo de Guzman, Lieutenant-Governor 7 1538 Hernando de Soto, Governor-General 8 1544 Juan de Avila, Governor-General 9 1546 Antonio Chavez, Governor-General 10 1550 Gonzalo Perez de Angulo, Governor-General 11 1556 Diego de Mazariegos, Governor-General 12 1565 Francisco Garcia Osorio, Governor-General