Hispaniola (from Spanish, La Española) is the second-largest and most populous island of the Antilles, lying between the islands of Cuba to the west, and Puerto Rico to the east. Haiti occupies the western third and the Dominican Republic the eastern two-thirds of the island. Christopher Columbus arrived in Hispaniola on December 5, 1492, and on his second voyage in 1493 founded the first Spanish colony in the New World on it.