The
rain was circumscribed by the limits of the bank of which we could
distinguish the form from afar by the mass of vapour with which it was
covered.
On the 9th of December, as we advanced towards the Cayman Islands,*
the north-east wind again blew with violence. (* Christopher Columbus
in 1503 named the Cayman Islands Penascales de las Tortugas on account
of the sea-tortoises which he saw swimming in those latitudes.) I
nevertheless obtained some altitudes of the sun at the moment when we
believed ourselves, though twelve miles distant, in the meridian of
the centre of the Great Cayman, which is covered with cocoa-trees.
The weather continued bad and the sea extremely rough. The wind at
length fell as we neared Cape St. Antonio. I found the northern
extremity of the cape 87 degrees 17 minutes 22 seconds, or 2 degrees
34 minutes 14 seconds eastward of the Morro of the Havannah: this is
the longitude now marked on the best charts. We were at the distance
of three miles from land but we were made aware of the proximity of
the island of Cuba by a delicious aromatic odour. The sailors affirm
that this odour is not perceived when they approach from Cape Catoche
on the barren coast of Mexico. As the weather grew clearer the
thermometer rose gradually in the shade to 27 degrees: we advanced
rapidly northward, carried on by a current from south-south-east, the
temperature of which rose at the surface of the water to 26.7 degrees;
while out of the current it was 24.6 degrees. We anchored in the port
of the Havannah on the 19th December after a passage of twenty-five
days in continuous bad weather.
CHAPTER 3.29.
POLITICAL ESSAY ON THE ISLAND OF CUBA.
THE HAVANNAH.
HILLS OF GUANAVACOA, CONSIDERED IN THEIR GEOLOGICAL RELATIONS.
VALLEY OF LOS GUINES, BATABANO, AND PORT OF TRINIDAD.
THE KING AND QUEEN'S GARDENS.
Cuba owes its political importance to a variety of circumstances,
among which may be enumerated the extent of its surface, the fertility
of its soil, its naval establishments, and the nature of its
population, of which three-fifths are free men. All these advantages
are heightened by the admirable position of the Havannah. The northern
part of the Caribbean Sea, known by the name of the Gulf of Mexico,
forms a circular basin more than two hundred and fifty leagues in
diameter: it is a Mediterranean with two outlets. The island of Cuba,
or rather its coast between Cape St. Antonio and the town of Matanzas,
situated at the opening of the old channel, closes the Gulf of Mexico
on the south-east, leaving the ocean current known by the name of the
Gulf Stream, no other outlet on the south than a strait between Cape
St. Antonio and Cape Catoche; and no other on the north than the
channel of Bahama, between Bahia-Honda and the shoals of Florida.
