Part 14 (1/2)
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.