the people govern themselves, she would help them to become a free and
independent nation. When Spain received this message, she regarded it
as a declaration of war, and both sides prepared for the conflict.

But before telling you about the war, shall I tell you something about
the island and the group to which it belongs?

[Illustration: Map of the West Indies.]

The island is called Cuba. It belongs to a large 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