e group of islands
known as the West Indies; a changed form of the old name, West Indias,
given by Christopher Columbus, who thought that by sailing westward he
had reached islands off the shore of India. If you look on a map of
the Western Hemisphere, you will find the West Indies between the
Caribbean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean.

Most of these islands are high and rocky, seeming like a chain of
mountains in the ocean, with their tops above the waves. They are in
the tropical regions, and the climate is very hot in the lowlands and
on the coasts, but is delightful in the high parts all the year round.
There are only two seasons--wet and dry. The rainy season begins in
the spring or early summer, and lasts about six months.

What grows in these islands? Delicious fruits: mangoes, oranges,
cocoanuts, limes, pineapples, and bananas; many other valuable crops:
coffee, tobacco, maize, rice, sugar-cane, and cotton; immense forests
of mahogany and other valuable trees. This beautiful vegetation makes
these lands fair to look upon. Then, too, there are many birds with
gorgeous plumage. The islands have gold, silver, copper, and iron
mines; there are quarries of marble; and some kinds of precious stones
are found.

But this region is not a paradise. Snakes and other horrid things
crawl among the beautiful trees and foliage, and poisonous insects
swarm in every place. Earthquake shocks are often felt, and fearful
hurricanes sweep over the islands nearly every year, doing much
damage.

A gentle race of Indians dwelt in these islands at the time of their
discovery, but the Spanish settlers treated the natives so cruelly
that after a few years they had ceased to exist. Many of the Indians
were sent to Spain and other countries and sold as slaves; the rest
were made to work in the mines, and as the Indians had never been used
to such work, they died from the hard labor. In later times some of
the islands were bought from Spain, others were captured, others were
gained by treaty, by the nations to whom they now belong.

At the beginning of the war between the United States and Spain, in
1898, Cuba, as I have already said, belonged to Spain. Spain owned
another large island, Puerto Rico, which we call Porto Rico, a name
meaning "rich port." But I need not say anything more about Porto Rico
at present.

[Illustration: King Alfonso.]

Cuba is the largest and most valuable of the West India Islands. It
was discovered by Columbu