This book is the history of Cuba from its discovery by Columbus in 1492, through the year 1586, when Sir Francis Drake, in sailing along the north shore of the island, after his successful raid on other Spanish settlements of the West Indies, closed the first era of the colony’s history. Although such a history as this is seldom written from original sources, Miss Wright found it necessary to do so in this case. Through her long residence in Cuba and Spain and the opening up last year of the Archive of the Indies at Seville she had extraordinary facilities for discovering and employing in her narrative hitherto unused and unknown documents and manuscripts. Her work is almost the first serious one from a historical point of view to deal with this period.
THE MACMILLAN COMPANY
Publishers 64-66 Fifth Avenue New York
| Typographical errors corrected by the etext transcriber: |
|---|
| nobles duirng the regency=> nobles durng the regency {pg 121} |
| Explorers wear required by law=> Explorers were required by law {pg 348} |
| checking inititative and making=> checking initiative and making {pg 418} |
| Frenchman Chappe d’Auteroche=> Frenchman Chappe d’Autereche {pg 476} |
| Jahresberichte der geschichtswissenschaft=> Jahresberichte der Geschichtswissenschaft {pg 528} |
FOOTNOTES:
[1] The Historia, in four volumes, was first published in the years 1900 to 1911, at Barcelona. It has now reached its third edition,—1913 to 1914. An excellent bibliography eighty-eight pages in length with well over a thousand items is to be found in the fourth volume.
[2] The founding of Spanish California (The Macmillan Company. New York. 1916), chap. IX.
[3] The first and most important social question in the history of the Spanish people, says Altamira, is that of modifying the physical conditions of the peninsula, as the basis of their national development. They have been able to count on the fertility of some regions, the abundant waters of others at some seasons of the year (most of which is lost in the sea, without being utilized), the wealth of subterranean waters in many localities, and the mineral wealth which lends itself also to industrial development. In other words, the problem is that of correcting the unequal distribution of Spain’s resources, rather than of a lack of them.
[4] So called from the localities in Germany where bones of men of this type were discovered.
[5] The inhabitants of the Canary Islands, a Spanish group off the northwest coast of Africa, are of this race. They preserved their racial characteristics with great purity until the fifteenth century, since which time more and more intermixture has taken place.
[6] As an illustration of the close relationship between Spain and northern Africa it may be mentioned that the diocese of Spain under Diocletian included the province of Mauretania, or northern Africa. A seventh province was formed of the Balearic Islands.