Part 11 (1/2)
A potent cause of the undeveloped state of Santo Domingo's agriculture has been the absence of transportation facilities, which has likewise been a cause and an effect of the internal disturbances. There are but two public railroads in the Republic, both in the Cibao region, with an aggregate length of 144 miles. The highways are generally little more than trails, difficult and dangerous even in dry weather, and almost impa.s.sable in the rainy season. It is therefore not surprising that the northern and southern sections of the Republic should have developed almost as different countries and that large areas in the interior should be practically uninhabited.
The importance and possibilities of railroad lines have been recognized and numerous concessions for railroad construction have been sought and granted; but the concessionnaires have, as a rule, either been impecunious, entering the field only with speculative intentions, or have been frightened off by the internal disturbances, and in either case the concession has been permitted to lapse.
The oldest of the two railroads now in operation is the road known as the Samana-Santiago Railroad--something of a misnomer, as the road neither reaches Samana, on the one side, nor Santiago on the other, but extends from Sanchez, at the head of Samana Bay, to La Vega, a distance of 62 miles in the interior, with a branch to San Francisco de Macoris, 7 miles, and another branch to Salcedo, 11 miles, and Moca, 7 miles, or a total length of 87 miles. Prior to its construction, the products of the eastern portion of the Royal Plain had been floated on lighters or light draft boats down the Yuna River and across Samana Bay to Samana, where they were transs.h.i.+pped to ocean-going vessels. The value of a railroad in this region early became apparent, and a concession granted in 1881 was acquired by Alexander Baird, a wealthy Scotchman, who constructed the road. Under the concession the Dominican government granted the right to build and operate a railroad from Samana to Santiago, to construct wharves on Samana Bay and collect wharf dues, and to enjoy certain tax exemptions and other privileges.
The Gran Estero, the large swamp just west of Sanchez, proved much more difficult to cross than the engineers had calculated. It swallowed up tons of rock and thousands of pounds sterling. Further disappointment arose when public lands promised by the government failed to materialize. The enthusiasm of the promoters cooled and the construction work on the railroad ceased when La Vega was reached. To the east of Sanchez the road was continued along the Samana peninsula to Point Santa Capuza, but this position was abandoned and the terminus was established at Sanchez. The road from Sanchez to La Vega was opened to traffic in 1886.
The important city of San Francisco de Macoris lay seven miles to the north of the line of the Samana-Santiago railroad and in 1892 a concession was granted to a prominent Dominican for the building of a connecting road. It was constructed with Dominican capital from La Gina to San Francisco de Macoris, and is leased to the Samana-Santiago Road and operated as a branch of this road.
In 1907 the Samana-Santiago Railroad waived its right to the percentage of import duties collected at Sanchez, in consideration of a payment made by the government, and agreed to construct a branch line to Salcedo and later continue it to Moca. A line from Las Cabullas, on the main road, to Salcedo was promptly built and opened to traffic, but the Moca extension was delayed by civil disturbances and not completed until 1917.
The gauge of the Samana-Santiago road is 1.10 meters, about three feet six inches. It rises very gradually from sea-level at Sanchez to the alt.i.tude of La Vega and Moca, about 400 feet. The engineering problems attending its construction and preservation have been those connected with the crossing of the Gran Estero swamp, and the bridging of numerous small tributaries of the Yuna River, which from modest brooklets in the dry season swell to turbulent torrents in rainy weather. The bridge across the Camu River near La Vega has been washed away repeatedly and further trouble has been caused by the river changing its course.
The journey from Sanchez to La Vega, including the side trip to San Francisco de Macoris, consumes five and a half hours. After leaving Sanchez the end of the Samana range is soon reached and for miles the train travels across a mangrove swamp, where the bushy vegetation is exceedingly dense and the roadbed is covered with gra.s.s. Forests follow, the trees of which are enc.u.mbered with great hanging vines. As soon as a higher level is reached, clearings become frequent. At the stations along the route the entire population of the small towns seems to turn out to await the train's arrival. At two larger places, Villa Rivas and Pimentel, the train makes lengthier stops. The houses all along are similar, one story wooden buildings, generally whitewashed and roofed with tiles, corrugated zinc or palm thatch. La Gina is the beginning of the branch line which extends through monotonous woodland to San Francisco de Macoris. On the main line, after pa.s.sing La Gina, there are numerous cacao plantations, and near La Vega the muddy Cotui road emerges from the woods and follows the railroad. About eight miles from La Vega is the station of Las Cabullas, the starting point of the branch to Salcedo and Moca.
Affording, as it does, the outlet for the products of the eastern portion of the Cibao, the Samana-Santiago railroad transports the greater part of the cacao exported from the country. It has been the most important factor in the development of the Royal Plain, but owing to the country's internal troubles was run at a loss for years. It is well managed and of late years has made handsome profits.
The name of the other Dominican railroad is also misleading, it being called the Central Dominican Railway, though only extending from Puerto Plata, on the north coast, to Santiago de los Caballeros, a distance of 41 miles, with an extension to Moca, 16 miles, a total of 57 miles. Its name is due to the fact, that it was considered the first section of a road which was ultimately to connect Puerto Plata and Santo Domingo City. The need for such a road had been and is still urgently felt, and the construction of no portion was more imperative than that between Santiago and the coast. The mountain roads in this section were indescribably bad; a trip from Santiago to Puerto Plata meant at least two days of dangerous riding; and all merchandise to and from Santiago had to be transported on mule-back. President Heureaux therefore considered himself fortunate when the Dominican government was able, in 1890, in connection with a bond issue, to make contracts with the banking firm of Westendorp & Co., of Amsterdam, for the construction of the section of the railroad from Puerto Plata to Santiago. Belgian money was furnished and Belgian engineers made the plans. The road was given a gauge of only two feet six inches, and the short-sightedness is inconceivable which permitted the adoption on this road of a gauge different from that of the Samana-Santiago Railroad, when the two were expected to join in Santiago. Ultimately the gauge of the Central Dominican Railway will have to be widened, but the change will cost a considerable sum and require a complete renovation of the rolling stock. In view of the steepness of the slopes to be surmounted, the plans contemplated the construction, on several portions of the road, of a rack-line or cremaillere, a third track provided with cogs, between the other two, and the use of special mountain-climbing locomotives having a cogwheel by means of which the ascent was to be accomplished and the descent regulated. The Belgian engineers built the road from Puerto Plata as far as Bajabonico, a distance of about eleven miles.
At this stage the financial difficulties of the Dominican government induced the Belgians to sell their rights to American interests, which formed the San Domingo Improvement Company to take them over. American engineers accordingly finished the road to Santiago. The rack-rail feature being undesirable, plans were made for the construction of the road as an adhesion road. No further rack-rail was built and one of the portions constructed was converted, but two short stretches of rack-rail remained near Puerto Plata, one of one mile and another of three miles. The Central Dominican Railway Company was incorporated for the operation of the road.
During the controversy later carried on between the Dominican government and the San Domingo Improvement Company the Company contended that the road had cost in the neighborhood of $3,000,000, or about $600,000 in excess of the sums realized by the sale of the bonds a.s.signed by the government to defray the cost of construction. The dispute found its settlement in the protocol of January 31, 1903, by which the Dominican government agreed to purchase all the holdings of the Improvement Company. In the negotiations of which this convention was an incident, the value of the railroad was generally estimated at $1,500,000. Upon the delivery by the Dominican government of the cash and bonds agreed upon by the settlement of 1907 as the price of the Improvement Company's interests, the Company, in February, 1908, turned over the railroad to the government. It has since been operated by the Dominican government with satisfactory results, though it has suffered serious injury from revolutions. The insurgents destroyed bridges and the rack-rail; the latter has not been replaced, and the four and ten per cent grades are now laboriously overcome by means of Shay geared engines. Surveys show that the troublesome grades can be avoided by the construction of curves which will increase the length of the road by not more than three or four miles.
Owing to the mountainous character of the country traversed, the scenery on this road is splendid. The speed attained by the trains would not alarm a nervous wreck, for though the length of the road is about 41 miles, the ascent from Puerto Plata to Santiago takes almost six hours and the return trip from Santiago five, in which the slow engines, the steep grades, the former rack-road section and the numerous long stops have equal shares of responsibility. The roadbed is very rough and the pa.s.sengers are considerably shaken up, but the memory of what used to be helps to mitigate the discomfort. On one of my trips over the road, when a fellow-pa.s.senger made a remark about the severe jolting that almost shook us off our seats, an elderly Dominican gentleman observed: ”My friend, you evidently never took a trip from Santiago to Puerto Plata before the railroad was built.
Compared with travel then, this mode of conveyance is like being carried in angels' arms.” As on the Samana-Santiago Road, the regular trains are mixed trains, that is, a freight and pa.s.senger together, usually looking like a freight train with a small pa.s.senger car attached. Except in unusually dull periods there is one daily train each way. The city of Santiago is about 600 feet above the level of the sea; from here the course is over a rich plain among tobacco farms and meadows full of cattle, for a distance of about twelve miles, until the foothills are reached and the ascent of the coast range is begun. Higher and higher along the mountainside, through country wilder and wilder, the train winds its way to the highest point of the road, 1580 feet above sea-level and 20 miles from Santiago, where a short tunnel pierces the mountain. The mountain pa.s.s at this point is 1720 feet above sea-level and is the lowest one in twenty miles. At the station on the other side of the mountain a fifteen minute stop is made for lunch. Then begins a rapid descent along a deep valley, on the wooded slopes of which little houses peer out between the trees.
The town of Altamira, on a k.n.o.b in the middle of the valley, is pa.s.sed, and further down, near Bajabonico, a small sugar plantation.
Another ascent, on which is the old rack-road section, is now reached; a powerful mountain engine is placed before the train and slowly works its way up. From the top of the ridge the scene is magnificent. Below, in the far distance, Puerto Plata is seen, a miniature city with tiny bright-colored houses, nestling at the foot of the great verdure-covered cone, Mt. Isabel de Torres; before it lies its almost circular harbor with what look like toy s.h.i.+ps riding at anchor; the foam of the breakers on the reefs at the harbor entrance gleams in the sunlight; and beyond, in vast immensity extends the blue expanse of the ocean. On the final descent quicker time is made than anywhere else on the road.
The extension of the Central Dominican Railroad from Santiago to Moca was built and is operated by the Dominican government. In 1894 a franchise was granted the San Domingo Improvement Company for the Moca road, and grading was done for several miles outside of Santiago, but the financial troubles of the Dominican government suspended the work.
When better times came, the government in 1906 began to build the road from Santiago to Moca with current revenues, and it was opened to traffic in 1910. At Moca this road is met by the extension of the Samana-Santiago Railroad from Salcedo, so that it is possible to travel by rail through the fertile Cibao from Sanchez to Puerto Plata, though the difference in gauge requires a change of cars at Moca.
A railroad between the Cibao and Santo Domingo City has long been contemplated. Government engineers a few years ago surveyed a route from Santo Domingo City to La Gina, on the Samana-Santiago Railroad, pa.s.sing through Cotui. The route is 80 miles long, and the estimated cost is about $2,325,000. Such a through railroad would open up great tracts now isolated, afford an easy means of communication between the north and south, and be of inestimable advantage to the Republic.
It is the most urgent and important public work under consideration in the country.
Another road which has long been projected and which the Dominican government in 1906 determined to have constructed with current revenues, is one in the east, from Seibo, on the plains in the interior, to the port of La Romana in the southern coast. This region, excellently adapted for cacao raising and sugar planting, has been kept secluded by bad roads. After several thousand dollars had been spent in surveys and a little grading, the work was stopped by lack of funds and the government decided that the expense of construction and the undeveloped character of the country counselled an abandonment of the project for the moment. If the railroad is finally built, it will probably be from Seibo to San Pedro de Macoris and not to La Romana.
Even in the immediate vicinity of Santo Domingo City most roads are in such bad condition that during the rainy season villages only a few miles away cannot be reached except by floundering through the mud for many hours, and even during the dry season, with all conditions favorable, it requires two days hard riding to reach the city of Azua, 80 miles to the west. A railroad from the capital to Azua has therefore been proposed repeatedly, and in 1901 a concession was granted for the first section thereof, from Santo Domingo to San Cristobal, a distance of 16 miles, with the right of extension. The revolution of the spring of 1903 interrupted the construction of this road, but a little work was done in 1906 under a new contract, which has since been declared lapsed.
Private plantation railroads are to be found on several sugar plantations near La Romana, San Pedro de Macoris, Santo Domingo City and Azua, and on the United Fruit Company's plantation near Puerto Plata. They aggregate about 225 miles in length and are used exclusively for the purposes of the respective estates, except one which carries pa.s.sengers between the town of Azua and its port on steamer days.
In several of the larger cities carriages and light automobiles can be hired at a reasonable figure, and furnish the princ.i.p.al means of communication within the city and to other places as far as the roads will permit. Between Monte Cristi and La Vega there is a regular automobile service, as also between Santo Domingo City and nearby towns. In only one place is there a car line--in Monte Cristi, where a small car runs--if that term can be applied to its motion--between the town and the harbor, a little more than a mile away. The cars, each drawn by a meek little mule, remind one of matchboxes on wheels; they are open on all sides and contain simply two benches, back to back, which will hold a maximum of three pa.s.sengers each. In Santo Domingo City there was a horse car line for almost twenty years, running out as far as Fort San Geronimo, about three miles; but in March, 1903, while the city was under siege during a revolution, the car barns were destroyed by fire and with them the entire rolling stock, the car axles being taken for barricades. In 1915 the government granted several franchises for electric car lines, one for Santo Domingo City, with the right to extend as far as Bani; another for Santiago, with the right of extension to Janico; and a third for Macoris, with the right of extension to Seibo, but no work has been done on these projects.
On certain parts of the country roads there is communication by oxcart during the dry season, and in the arid region such communication is possible almost all the year round. On the Samana peninsula and in other mountain districts, merchandise is occasionally transported in Indian fas.h.i.+on, on two poles tied to a horse and trailing on the ground behind. In general, however, recourse must be had for transportation purposes to the faithful horse and the patient donkey.
In the northern part of the Republic the ox is often used as a beast of burden and sometimes for riding, furnis.h.i.+ng an odd spectacle. The ox is guided by a string tied to a ring in his nose, but neither the configuration of his back nor his gait are to be recommended for comfortable rides.
Most of the roads of Santo Domingo can be called roads only by courtesy. They are generally little more than trails of greater or less width. The larger receipts enjoyed by the government since the customs collections were taken over by Americans in 1905, have caused a little improvement. Thus, a first-cla.s.s macadam road has been constructed from Santo Domingo City to San Cristobal, a distance of sixteen miles; the old trail from Santo Domingo to San Pedro de Macoris has become available for automobiles; and the royal road in the Cibao from La Vega through Moca and Santiago to Monte Cristi, a distance of about 100 miles, formerly a horror, has been converted into a fair dirt road. The amount of work to be done appears all the more appalling when it is considered that in the small island of Jamaica, less than one-fourth the size of the Dominican Republic, there are 1000 miles of fine roads. The American authorities in the island are giving considerable attention to the improvement of the princ.i.p.al highways around and between the more important cities, and valuable work is being done. By an executive order of November 23, 1917, the military governor appropriated $650,000, to be expended on portions of a trunk road which is ultimately to connect Santo Domingo, La Vega, Moca, Santiago and Monte Cristi.
The majority of the roads and trails have scarcely been touched since their course was fixed, centuries ago. Occasionally the ab.u.t.ting property owners or an energetic communal chief cut away encroaching vegetation or drained an unusually bad bog or threw dirt from the sides of the road to the middle in order to raise it above water level in the wet season, but such instances of civic thoughtfulness have been only too infrequent.
During the rainy season travel becomes troublesome on all roads and impossible on many. On the unimproved highways deep, dangerous bogs form in every depression, containing either liquid mud where the horse is almost forced to swim, or soft tough clay, where the horse's feet are imprisoned and the animal in its desperate efforts to jerk itself free indulges in contortions anything but pleasant for the rider. The horses and cargo animals ever treading in each other's footsteps, cause the earth to wear away in furrows across the road, which fill with water and with mud of all colors and conditions of toughness.
With few interruptions the monotonous splash, splash, splash of horses' feet constantly accompanies the traveler. The first ten minutes of such a journey on slippery ground make the trip appear an adventure, the next ten an experience, but after that the expedition becomes exceedingly wearisome. In the dry season all moisture disappears and the ridges between the mud trenches become hard as brick. The efforts of travelers to avoid bad places by going around them has caused the roads to become very wide in places--the width varying from one to over a hundred feet. At times, in gra.s.sy or stony stretches, the road disappears entirely, and the traveler's best guide is the telegraph wire, where there is one. Again it pa.s.ses through th.o.r.n.y woods with overhanging branches which continually threaten to unhorse the rider. Thus it winds along, through forests and plains, over fallen logs and trees, beside precipices, down steep banks, across rapid streams. A trip into the interior in Santo Domingo requires a good horse, a strong const.i.tution and a large supply of patience.