this royal plain turns the watershed eastward into
the Yuna, which makes its way to the Bay of Sa-
mana. From the southern slope of Cibao the Neyba,
or Yaqui Chico, flows to Neyba Bay, and from the
same central mountain mass the Artibonite, largest
stream in all the island, makes its way westward
into the Gulf of Gonaive. These rivers have many
affluents draining the valleys and plains, but they
are navigable to no great distance. Yforth mentioning
also is the Rio Ozama, whose golden sands led
to the founding of the city of Santo Domingo at its
mouth. It has a tributary called the Brujuelas, or
“ Witch,” which is one of the few streams in the
island that slink underground; but just here is a
stretch of limestone full of holes. The whole coast
region east of Santo Domingo City is low and flat.
In the south-west, north of the Sierra Baburuco
and the Sierra de la Selle, and between them and the
opposing ridge on the north, is a level depression
reaching almost from Neyba Bay to the Bay of Port-
au-Prince, containing two lakes, about two hundred
feet above the sea-level. The larger, which the
aborigines called Xaragua and the Spaniards Enri-
quillo, or Little Henry, from the native chief whose
last refuge was an islet in the lake, is called Etang
Salé by the French negroes of the region, because
its water is saline. It is even inhabited by marine
animals, as sharks and porpoises, and was once connected
with the sea. It is very deep, and has an
area of one hundred and seventy-six square miles,
but in times of flood it is united with the other lake,
a smaller body of water, the Laguna de Fundo, or
the Etang Saumache (“ Brackish Pond ”,). Together
they have a length of sixty miles and a breadth of
nine or ten miles. Farther south in the same depression,
but at a higher level, is a fresh-water lake,
the Icotea de Limon, which receives the torrents of
the Baburuco Mountains and is thought to send the
surplus water to Lake Enriquillo through underground
channels. To the east of this long depression
and near the delta of the Neyba River is Lake
Rincon.
In this island was the Bohio, or land of gold, to
which Columbus was lured on as he came down
through the Bahamas and left the coast of Cuba behind
him after a vain search for the Grand Khan of
Cipango; and for a time it proved to be a land
of gold, much of the precious metal being sent to
Spain, until the mines failed for lack of labour, and
adventurous spirits wandered off to Mexico and the
South American coast. What mineral wealth is still
concealed in the mountains is practically unknown,
for there has been no systematic effort to find out
for several generations. There have been no real
explorations or surveys, and no application of
modern methods, and the means of communication
in the interior are little better than they were in the
days of the first discoverers. There has been so
much political disturbance and so little progress for
two centuries that Haiti is still an undeveloped
land.
We know that there is not only gold, but silver,
copper, iron, platinum, mercury, and other valuable
minerals and useful and precious stones; but to