Santo Domingo: A Country with a Future Part 14

On the Ozama River opposite the capital is _Villa Duarte_, formerly called _Pajarito_. On an adjoining estate is the ruined chapel of Rosario, believed to date from the first city of Santo Domingo and which may have been the church where Bobadilla proclaimed his authority over Columbus. Not far from the town is an interesting cave with three crystal pools called Tres Ojos.

_San Cristobal_, about 16 miles to the west of the capital, had only a chapel and two or three huts in 1820, but attained more importance when slaves freed by the Haitians on the surrounding sugar estates settled there.

_Bani_ is a pretty little town founded in 1764 and situated about 39 miles west of Santo Domingo, between the foothills and the sea. Its chief pride is that it was the birthplace of Maximo Gomez, the famous warrior for Cuban independence. Gomez became a major in the Spanish army, fought against his countrymen during the War of the Restoration and abandoned Santo Domingo with the Spaniards, but this record has been forgiven by the Dominicans in view of his later services in behalf of Cuba libre.

_Bayaguana_ and _Monte Plata_, about 30 and 28 miles northeast of Santo Domingo, respectively, were both founded in 1606 for the settlement of residents of coast towns destroyed in order to stop smuggling, the former receiving the inhabitants of Bayaja and Yaguana, the latter those of Monte Cristi and Puerto Plata. The church of Bayaguana is visited by many pilgrims who come to adore an image of Christ to which miracles are attributed.

Other villages of the province are: _San Lorenzo de los Minas_, 3 miles northeast of Santo Domingo, first settled in 1719 by negroes of the Minas tribe, refugees from French Santo Domingo; _San Antonio de Guerra_, situated in the plains 19 miles northeast of the capital; _Boya_, 32 miles northeast of the capital, founded in 1533 by Enriquillo, the last Indian chief and by the last survivors of the Indians of the island: it contains an old church of composite aboriginal Gothic architecture, in which the remains of Enriquillo and of his wife Dona Mencia are believed to rest; _Mella_, 7 miles, and _La Victoria_, 12 miles north of the capital; _Yamasa_, 30 miles northwest of Santo Domingo; and _Sabana Grande_, or _Palenque_, 22 miles west of the city.

PROVINCE OF SAN PEDRO DE MACORiS

_San Pedro de Macoris_, about 45 miles east of Santo Domingo City, is one of the most modern and flouris.h.i.+ng cities of the Republic. In 1885 it was merely a small fis.h.i.+ng village, about that time sugar plantations began to be established in the surrounding plains and the town commenced to grow. To-day there are pretty houses, the streets are clean and in good repair, the plaza has a handsome park and the whole city wears a prosperous look. There are busy scenes on the modern docks and in the harbor. Around Macoris, as in other parts of the Republic, there are large numbers of beautiful graceful cocoanut palms and royal palms.

The Province of Macoris is small and contains but one other town worthy of mention, namely, _San Jose de los Llanos_, about 15 miles northeast of Macoris, founded in the plains in the eighteenth century.

PROVINCE OF SEIBO

_Santa Cruz del Seibo_, 74 miles northeast of Santo Domingo, was originally founded by Juan de Esquivel in 1502, but being destroyed by an earthquake in 1751, was moved to its present location, to the north of its old site. It lies in the center of a region devoted to cacao planting and stockraising. The town has a pretty church, and is celebrated in Dominican history as having instigated the reconquest for Spain in 1808 and as having been the home and bulwark of General Pedro Santana, who was idolized by the Seibanos.

_Salvaleon de Higuey_, the easternmost city of the Republic, situated 31 miles southeast of Seibo, was also founded by Juan de Esquivel in the days of Ovando. Its church contains a picture of Our Lady of Altagracia, to which miracles are ascribed and which attracts pilgrims from all parts of Santo Domingo and Haiti.

Other towns are _Hato Mayor_, 18 miles west of Seibo; _Ramon Santana_, formerly called _Guaza_, 19 miles south-west of Seibo; _La Romana_, on the coast 25 miles south of Seibo, with rapidly expanding sugar estates; and _El Jovero_, a hamlet on the coast near the eastern end of Samana Bay.

PROVINCE OF SAMANa

_Santa Barbara de Samana_, 78 miles northeast of the capital of the Republic, is built on a cove on the north side of Samana Bay. The protected character of the inlet made it a favorite resort for pirates in the seventeenth century, and beginning with 1673, French buccaneers made several attempts to settle here but were driven out by the Spanish authorities. The town was definitely settled in 1756 by families from the Canary Islands. In the town and neighborhood live many English-speaking negroes, descendants of those who were brought from the United States by the Haitian President Boyer about 1825.

A larger town is _Sanchez_ at the western end of Samana Bay, twenty-five miles from the town of Samana. In 1886 there was here a tiny hamlet, known as _Las Canitas_, but on becoming the terminus of the railroad from La Vega, the name of Sanchez, a hero of Dominican independence, was given it, and the town rapidly grew in size. Its dwellings are scattered over two ridges of land divided by a deep valley. On one of the ridges the houses are pretty one-story buildings with gardens in front. The beautiful grounds surrounding the house of the general manager of the Samana-Santiago Railroad are situated on a height overlooking the sparkling expanse of Samana Bay and give a suggestion of the possibilities of landscape gardening in Santo Domingo. Colored families from St. Thomas and the British West Indies and descendants of American negroes make up a considerable proportion of the population, so that more English is heard here than Spanish.

On the south side of Samana Bay is the small village of _Sabana de la Mar_, commonly known as _Sabana la Mar_, founded by Canary Islanders in 1756. There are many stories of pirates' buried gold in this region.

PROVINCE OF PACIFICADOR

_San Francisco de Macoris_, the capital of the province, is about 85 miles northwest of Santo Domingo City and occupies the site of a fort established by Ovando in 1504 and known as the fort of La Magdalena.

It was founded in 1774 around a chapel dedicated to St. Ann which stood on a ranch called San Francisco. Lying in a fertile district formerly devoted to tobacco and now one of the chief cacao regions of the island, it is a town of considerable business. It is also called _Macoris del Norte_, to distinguish it from San Pedro de Macoris, which is called Macoris del Este.

_Villa Rivas_, on the Samana-Santiago Railroad, 19 miles from Samana bay, was formerly called Almacen, or Storehouse, because here was situated, before the railroad was built, a warehouse for the storage of merchandise imported and exported by way of Samana and the Yuna river.

The other towns, all of recent foundation, are _Matanzas_, a fis.h.i.+ng village on the edge of a cacao district on the northeast coast, and three villages named after heroes of the War of Restoration: _Cabrera_ on the coast at Tres Amarras point; _Castillo_, 8 miles west of Rivas; and _Pimentel_, formerly called _Barbero_, a station on the Samana-Santiago Railroad and the center of an important cacao zone.

PROVINCE OF LA VEGA

_Concepcion de la Vega_, capital of the province and one of the most important cities of the Royal Plain, is 90 miles from Santo Domingo City. The old town of Concepcion de la Vega was founded by Columbus in 1495 at the foot of the eminence known as Santo Cerro and at the place of residence of the Indian chief Guarionex. It quickly attained such importance that in 1508 it was declared a city and endowed with a coat of arms, and in the same year a bishopric was erected there, which was, however, in 1527 merged with the bishopric of Santo Domingo. An earthquake overthrew its fine buildings in 1564 and the city was thereupon relocated at a distance of three miles on the bank of the Camu. The site of the old city is now private property and is overgrown with tropical vegetation. Moss-grown foundation walls protrude from the ground; a ma.s.s of brickwork some twenty feet high and having the form of a blockhouse chimney remains of the old church; and part of the circular tower erected at the corner of the fort of Columbus, well provided with loop-holes for muskets, still remains standing. In desultory excavations made at different times small objects such as ancient spurs, stirrups and coins have been found.

The new city led a languis.h.i.+ng existence until it became the interior terminus of the Samana-Santiago Railroad which gave it a great impetus. It is regularly laid out, the streets are fairly wide and a majority of the houses are built of brick. The city has a pretty plaza laid out as a garden, a new market building, a theater, and like every other town of importance in Santo Domingo, a club. At the entrance to the town is a bronze statue of Gregorio Rivas, a progressive merchant and philanthropist of this region, who died twenty years ago.

The feature of the city which attracts the traveler's attention unfavorably is the neglect of the city streets. During the dry season the lack of pavements does not matter but when the rains come the rich loam turns to a deep black mud. Along most streets there are narrow sidewalks, but where there are none, or where it is necessary to cross to the other side, the mode of progress is by hop, skip and jump from one dry place to another--the religion of the virtuous pedestrian being put to a severe test when after a strenuous jump he lands in a muddy place up to his shoe tops. At some crossings thoughtful storekeepers lay a plank of salvation for the pa.s.ser-by. The city is a great center for cacao, tobacco and coffee, and several sawmills are kept busy cutting up pine logs from the surrounding hills.

_Cotui_, about 31 miles southeast of La Vega, was founded by order of Ovando in 1505, being called _Las Minas_ in the early days because of the mines of gold, copper and other metals in the neighborhood.

_Bonao_, about 26 miles south of La Vega, was founded by order of Columbus in 1496 to protect the mines in the nearby mountains and was the scene of Roldan's revolt against Columbus. Both of these towns almost disappeared when the colony declined and are now humble villages.

Other villages are _Jarabacoa_, 18 miles southwest of La Vega; _Constanza_, 30 miles southwest of La Vega and rarely visited by strangers because of its isolation among the mountains, near the beautiful valley of Constanza; _Cevicos_, also hidden in the mountains, 12 miles southeast of Cotui; and _Santo Cerro_, 3 miles north of La Vega, on a hill which commands a magnificent view of the Royal Plain.

PROVINCE OF ESPAILLAT

_Moca_, also called _Espaillat_, 100 miles northwest of Santo Domingo City, is a thriving city. It was the scene of the "Moca ma.s.sacre" in 1805, when the Haitian general Christophe, having guaranteed the safety of the inhabitants, induced them to return from their hiding places in the mountains and a.s.semble in the church to the number of five hundred in order to hold a ma.s.s of thanksgiving, whereupon they were ma.s.sacred by the Haitian soldiers. In more recent history it has been taken and retaken many times during revolutions and in 1899 was the scene of the killing of President Heureaux. Its houses are mostly one story in height and many are built of brick, while picturesque huts of the poor surround the town. Gutters have been constructed in the princ.i.p.al streets, but the possibilities of paving have by no means been exhausted. The town sustains two churches, one on the outskirts, and another with a peculiar square tower, on the plaza. The inhabitants take pride in their pretty flower-grown plaza and in the elaborate portal of their cemetery.

The other town of the province is _Salcedo_, formerly called _Juana Nunez_, 7 miles east of Moca in a rich cacao district.

PROVINCE OF SANTIAGO

_Santiago de los Caballeros_, Santiago of the Gentlemen, 115 miles northwest of Santo Domingo, was founded as a military station on a bluff of the Yaque River about 1497 by order of Bartholomew Columbus, and settled in 1504 by thirty knights, from which circ.u.mstance it derives its name. It received many settlers from the old town of Isabela, was given a coat of arms in 1508, reached a flouris.h.i.+ng state, and was destroyed in 1564 by the same earthquake which overthrew La Vega. Its inhabitants then removed to the present site, about six miles east of the location of the old city, the ruins of which are still to be seen. The city was burned three times by the French buccaneers during their struggles with the Spanish colonial authorities and later by the Haitian general Christophe on the occasion of the retreat of the emperor Dessalines in 1805. It had again attained importance when it was destroyed by an earthquake in 1842. Once more it was reduced to ashes in 1863 at the outbreak of the War of the Restoration. To-day Santiago is one of the richest and most flouris.h.i.+ng cities of the island and has aspirations to become the capital of the Republic, so that an intense rivalry exists with Santo Domingo. The streets are regular and clean and a general repair has been commenced. There are important business houses and well-stocked bazaars and the market place is one of the busiest in the country.

The plaza in the center of the city has a handsome garden established by popular subscription, and gay with flowers and palms. Two churches are on the plaza, the larger of which has a beautiful altar. The remains of President Heureaux are buried here, his resting place being marked by a marble slab with the Dominican coat of arms. The government palace fronting on the plaza is a substantial affair with walls dating from Haitian times, and the city hall, also fronting on the plaza, is a fine structure. In the cemetery there is a street of beautiful mausoleums, the architecture of several being Egyptian in style and others bearing medallions or rec.u.mbent figures of the deceased. The volunteer fire corps of Santiago has a special lot and a pretty monument. _San Jose de las Matas_, 24 miles southwest of Santiago, is situated on a high plain in the midst of the mountains and is surrounded by great pine forests. Its salubrious climate and picturesque environments make it a favorite summer resort for wealthy families of Santiago, Puerto Plata and Moca, and a health resort for persons afflicted with stomach or lung trouble. Nearby are hot and cold sulphur springs, the beautiful Inoa waterfall, the picturesque confluence of the Amina and Inoa rivers and the high Rubio Peak, which commands one of the finest panoramas in the island.

Other towns are _Valverde_, formerly _Mao_, 30 miles northwest of Santiago; _Janico_, 14 miles southwest of Santiago, _Esperanza_, 27 miles northwest of Santiago; and _Canton Pena_, also called _Tamboril_, 7 miles east of Santiago and having such close social relations with that city as to be regarded as a suburb of the same.

PROVINCE OF PUERTO PLATA

_Puerto Plata_, 150 miles northwest of Santo Domingo, is the most important port of the north of the Republic. Columbus is said to have made the plans for the streets of the town; as early as 1499 there were settlers here; and in 1502 the city was formally founded by order of Ovando. It enjoyed prosperity during the first years of the colony, but in 1543 was attacked by pirates and thereafter rapidly went to decay. The stringent laws which restricted the commerce of the island to certain ports of the mother country encouraged contraband trade and the place became the headquarters for smugglers. The government endeavored to stop smuggling in 1606 by the brilliant expedient of destroying the town and moving all the inhabitants to Monte Plata, far in the interior of Santo Domingo province. In 1750 Puerto Plata was populated anew and shared with Monte Cristi the advantage of the law permitting free trade for ten years. It rapidly grew in population until it became the most important commercial point of the Republic, and the port of the entire Cibao region, part of which now finds an outlet at Sanchez. It was in a flouris.h.i.+ng state and had fine houses when it was totally destroyed by fire in 1863, during the War of Restoration, whether by the Spaniards or the Dominicans remains in doubt. Prosperity again followed, many foreigners were attracted by its commercial possibilities and to-day it is again one of the most thriving towns of Santo Domingo.

The first thing to attract the traveler's notice is the excellent condition of the city streets. Though the macadamized streets and the sidewalks are narrow, they are clean, well kept and well lighted at night. In streets, schools and public squares the city is in advance of most of the other cities of the Republic. This is attributed to a great extent to the presence of many cultured foreigners as well as to the progressive natives. The inhabitants of Puerto Plata boast that what Puerto Plata does the rest of the Republic does. They point as an example to their plaza. Formerly the plaza of Dominican cities was a bare, shadeless tract of ground in the center of the city. Puerto Plata was the first to plant trees, lay out a garden and provide its plaza with a music stand. This plaza in the center of the town is the oldest and prettiest of the city's three public squares and is now shaded by large, leafy trees and embellished with beautiful flowers and varicolored bushes. On Sunday nights on this plaza and on Thursday nights on one of the others, band concerts attract crowds of people, young and old, who promenade to the strains of the music. The belles of the city are very handsome and owing to the intermarriage of natives with foreigners from all parts of the world widely different types of beauty are to be observed at such concerts.

On one side of the princ.i.p.al plaza is the church, on another stand side by side the theater, the government building, where the provincial offices are located, and the city hall, on the first floor of which is a well-attended school. The three princ.i.p.al clubs of the city are also located in commodious quarters fronting on this plaza.

One of these clubs counts among its members most of the merchants and staid and elderly people, another is the club of the young men and a third is the ladies' club. The ladies' club is open only in the afternoon and evening, but in the clubs frequented by gentlemen games of billiards may be seen going on at almost any hour of the day.

The buildings of the city are all of modern date. Only a few foundation walls near the ocean sh.o.r.e, and the old fort, remain from former days. The old fort is situated on the point of land partly enclosing Puerto Plata harbor and is surrounded on three sides by buildings of the present fort. It is a large round whitewashed structure having the appearance of a huge cheesebox; its walls are of enormous thickness and it is now used as a jail. In former days the inhabitants had much difficulty in obtaining drinking water, but Puerto Plata was the first city to be provided with a general system of water works, having been followed only recently by Santiago. The water is brought from a stream a little over a mile away. The ride there is a beautiful one but it goes to prove that the movement for good thoroughfares has not yet extended to the roads. From all parts of Puerto Plata Mt. Isabel de Torres is seen towering behind the city.

The view obtained from the slopes of the mountain, over miles of sh.o.r.eline and a broad expanse of ocean, is of indescribable grandeur.

The traveler who visits Puerto Plata carries away with him pleasant memories of the clean city, its comfortable clubs, its hospitable citizens and its beautiful surroundings.

Other towns of the province are _Altamira_, 18 miles southwest of Puerto Plata, astride a hill rising in the middle of a valley of the coast range of mountains; _Blanco_, on the coast 20 miles northwest of Puerto Plata and 10 miles east of the site of Isabela, the first city in the new world; and _Bajabonico_, 10 miles southwest of Puerto Plata, a village called into being by the building of the Central Dominican Railroad.