Havana, the capital, was built by Velazquez, while he was governor of Cuba. Havana is a good fish-market; for it is as open to the ocean as Nahant, or the beach at Newport; its streets running to the blue sea, outside the harbor, so that a man may almost throw his line from the curb-stone into the Gulf Stream.
Cuba occupies 41,634 square miles, the Isle of Pines, 1,180, and the other islands and keys, its total area is 44,164 square miles. Shaped like the are of a circle, with its convex side to the north, it extends from 74° to 85° west longitude and from 19° 40″ to 23° 33″ north latitude. It is about 100 miles from Florida, being separated from it by the strait of the same name.
About 50 miles to the east is Haiti; about 85 miles to the south is Jamaica; and about 130 miles to the west is the Yucatan peninsula. Its length is about 730 miles (1,594 kilometers); its breadth differs, ranging from 160 miles (200 kilometers), in Oriente province, to 22 miles (40 kilometers), in Habana province.
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