Bartolomé Colon and of the intrepid soldier Alonso
de Ojeda are said to repose. T o the convent church
of Santo Domingo still cling fragments of the walls
of the first university founded in the New World,
where the gentle Las Casas began his ministrations
before going to Cuba.
T h e cathedral was many years in building and was
finally completed in x 540. Already the remains of
Diego Colon had been placed in a vault beneath one
of its chapels, and on petition of survivors of the
family those of the discoverer himself were brought
thither and deposited near them. A re they still
there ? When the colony was ceded to France in
1795, Spain was permitted to remove these precious
relics to Havana, which she was supposed to have
done with great solemnity and much ceremony; but
it is now pretty well demonstrated that the wrong
casket was removed and that the bones of Christopher
Columbus still repose in the city of his brother
and his son, which succeeded the Navidad and
Isabella of his own founding.
Extending about the city of Santo Domingo is a
district of small towns and plantations connected with
it in recent times by railroad. T h e Seybo province
to the east is mostly a region of forests and broad
savannas. T h e eastern slope of the great and fertile
plain that so captivated the eye of Columbus contains
some quietly flourishing towns and many sugar and
coffee plantations, but near the mouth of the Yuna
River there is a long marsh called the gran estero.
T he old port of Las Flechas near the end of the island
has been abandoned for that of Samana, within the
sheltered bay, which is connected by railroad with
L a V eg a and Santiago. It is intended to extend
the line through the Yaqui valley to Monte Cristi.
T he pearl fisheries on the south side of Samana Bay,
near San Lorenzo, where there are some fine stalactite
caves, have been abandoned. There is stock-
raising as well as the cultivation of sugar, coffee,
and tobacco in the long stretches of the V e g a Real,
and some mining still in the neighbourhood of
Monte Cristi. Puerto Plata, the only seaport of
consequence on the north coast, took the place of the
ill-fated Isabella of Columbus. Its harbour is not
deep but is locally serviceable, and there has been
a project of a railroad across the island from Santo
Domingo to Puerto Plata, taking in Santiago and
intersecting the line from Samana.
T h e French took possession of the old Spanish
colony of Espafiola after the treaty of Basle in 1795,
and maintained a garrison there through the troubles
of those and subsequent times; but in 1809 it was
driven out by the English who restored the sovereignty
of Spain. This continued until 1821, when
Santo Domingo gained her independence only to be
coerced by General Boyer into the union with Haiti
in 1822. This lasted until 1844, when the new Dominican
Republic was established under a separate
constitution, and General Pedro Santana was chosen
as the first president for a term of four years. His
successor, Jimenez, conspired with Soulouque to
bring back the old state of things, and was resisted
and defeated by Santana, who regained power as a
temporary dictator, though Buenaventura Baez was