Columbus had given the land which he discovered
on the 28th of October, 1492, the n a m e Juana but
when Ferdinand died it was c a l l e d Fernandma.
When the English deprived Jamaica of the appellation
of the patron saint of Spain the memory of the
king was displaced by that of the^ sal ,
island was called Santiago for a time. Then the
name was left to the flourishing town on the south
coast, and the island as a whole was named successively
A v e Maria and A lfa y Omega; but m the: end
the old native name for the central section go e
better of all Spanish designations,
to less than half its legitimate length. T ha t na
was Cubanacan, and the flippant French buccanee”
began to call the whole place Coube; and the
Spaniards finally accepted Cuba.
Hernando de Soto was the first governor by royal
appointment, and in 1538, before he started on *
explorations of the Gulf coast, he began the fortifi
cations of Havana in consequence of the attack o
French privateers which had just occurred. T he
peril from French, English, and Dutch marauders
of the sea long continued, and
strengthened from time to time. T he Castillo del
Morro and the Castillo de la Punta on opposite
“ d e , of the entrance to the Bay of Havana were
constructed before 1600, but were enlarged after-
W T he colony did not advance much until the latter
oart of the eighteenth century. . Previous to 1580,
the scattered inhabitants were chiefly engaged in
raising cattle. Then tobacco and sugar began to