Personal Narrative Of Travels To The Equinoctial Regions Of America During The Years 1799-1804 - Volume 3 - By Alexander Von Humboldt And Aime Bonpland.
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Columbus Gave Them The Name They Bear, In
1494, When, On His Second Voyage, He Struggled During Fifty-Eight Days
With The Winds And Currents Between The Island Of Pinos And The
Eastern Cape Of Cuba.
He describes the islands of this archipelago as
verdant, full of trees and pleasant* (verdes, llenos de arboledas, y
graciosos).
(* There exists great geographical confusion, even at the
Havannah, in reference to the ancient denominations of the Jardines
del Rey and Jardines de la Reyna. In the description of the island of
Cuba, given in the Mercurio Americano, and in the Historia Natural de
la Isla de Cuba, published at the Havannah by Don Antonio Lopez Gomez,
the two groups are placed on the southern coast of the island. Lopez
says that the Jardines del Rey extend from the Laguna de Cortez to
Bahia de Xagua; but it is historically certain that the governor Diego
Velasquez gave his name to the western part of the chain of rocks of
the Old Channel, between Cayo Frances and Le Monillo, on the northern
coast of the island of Cuba. The Jardines de la Reyna, situated
between Cabo Cruz and the port of the Trinity, are in no manner
connected with the Jardines and Jardinillos of the Isla de Pinos.
Between the two groups of the chain of rocks are the flats (placeres)
of La Paz and Xagua.)
A part of these so-styled gardens is indeed beautiful; the voyager
sees the scene change every moment, and the verdure of some of the
islands appears the more lovely from its contrast with chains of
rocks, displaying only white and barren sands.
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