THE ISLAND OF SANTO DOMINGO 231 



turesque aspect, and natural fertility. It is so continental 

 in its topographic aspect that away from the coast one 

 finds it difficult to believe that he is upon an island. 



Santo Domingo presents many phases of interest to the 

 student. Besides the fact that it is the only island of the 

 American Mediterranean which did not depend politically 

 upon some European power, it is interesting for its histori- 

 cal associations. Since the date of its discovery until within 

 the past decade, nearly every year of its history has been 

 marked by some tumultuous event or political revolution. 

 Nowhere on the face of the earth, especially within the past 

 century, has there been presented such a rapid panorama 

 of governmental changes. The French and Spanish sup- 

 planted each other, only to be driven from the island by 

 the blacks and mulattos; since then many independent 

 governments, accompanied by revolutions of remarkable 

 interest, have been successively set up amid constant strife 

 and turmoil. Yet, on the whole, there has been a progres- 

 sive evolution to a goal, at last in sight, of stability and 

 progress. It was the first land colonized in the New "World 

 by Europeans, the starting-point of that civilization which 

 spread in the western hemisphere, and is now spreading 

 in the distant Indies of which Columbus thought this very 

 island a portion. It is the locality where African slavery 

 was first introduced into America, and where, strangely 

 enough, emancipation was first proclaimed. Over it has 

 been wielded the power of many European nations, the 

 blood of the children has been lavishly poured upon its soil, 

 and yet to-day "it rests upon the bosom of those tropic 

 seas, as beautiful, majestic, and fruitful in all its natural 

 gifts as when Columbus first discovered it, waiting only the 

 assistance of law and sound government to take its proper 

 place in civilization." 



It has been said that its exposed geographic position dur- 

 ing the formative days of American history has been in 

 part responsible for the present conditions, brought upon 

 it by its being successively the battle-ground of the Span- 



