Excerpt from Puerto Rico in Pictures and Poetry: An Anthology of Beauty on America's Paradise of the Atlantic
Now and then, one has the privilege of spending a winter in a spot so entrancingly beautiful, that not to share its heritage of beauty with someone else seems sacrilegious. Such a spot is the island of Puerto Rico, in which the compiler of this anthology was privileged to spend the winter of 1939-40.
Puerto Rico, sometimes called the Paradise of the Atlantic, was discovered by Columbus on November 19, 1493, on his second voyage to the then New World. His little fleet came to safe anchorage off the shore where Aguadilla now stands, and he and his small band of pioneers took possession of this island in the name of the Crown Prince of Spain. Thus this little island, that may someday come to be known as the forty-ninth state, is the only soil under the American flag on which Columbus actually set foot.
With Christopher Columbus on that memorable day was Ponce de Leon, whose quest for the foun tain of eternal youth led to his later explorations on the mainland in what is now known as Florida. However, Ponce de Leon was the colonizer of Puerto Rico and its first governor, and his remains lie buried today in the Cathedral of San Juan.
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