The Hemisphere: PEARL OF THE ANTILLES

THE first tourist to the balmy island of Cuba, went ashore Oct. 28, 1492, sword in one hand, cross in the other, saying: "The most beautiful land human eyes have ever beheld." The gentle Siboney Indians left their hammocks and met Christopher Columbus, crying: "Peace, we are friends." A quarter of a century after Columbus' first voyage to the New World, Cuba's gold and precious woods adorned Madrid, and many Indians had died of overwork and by their own hands. Blackbirders slid into Havana harbor with Negro slaves, and on their wretched backs rose...

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