CHAPTEK XXIV 



THE 11E1M lW.lc OF SAN* DOMINGO 



Political and social conditions of the island as a whole The republic of 

 San Domingo. Interesting early history. The presenl government 

 and administration. Commerce and agriculture. Mineral resources. 

 Population. Prt'doininanee of mulattos. Old San Domingo city. 

 Early American landmarks. Other points of interest 



THE political and social conditions of Santo Domingo 

 are no less interesting than its natural features. 

 Nowhere else can be seen such peculiar conditions, show- 

 ing as they do, at the eastern end of the island the 

 decline and degeneration of a people once the mosl 

 opulent, and at the other extremity the successive steps in 

 the ascent of a transplanted inferior race from savagery 

 through barbarism to a degree of civilization. These 

 two republics are respectively San Domingo and Haiti 

 the first a mulatto government, the second one of the 

 negro. While the domain of San Domingo nominally in- 

 cludes two thirds of the whole, the island is really divisible 

 into three distinct parts. The eastern third contains 

 nearly all the San Domingoan population. The middle 

 third, known as the Despoblado (" Depopulated "), is an 

 uninhabited neutral ground, made barren no1 only by 

 nature, which oiled it with inaccessible mountains, but 

 by the warfare between the two races. It is a wild region 

 covered with forests of tropica] trees, with a few valleys 

 where the soil is rich and the grass is especially luxuriant 

 and supports many wild cattle. The western third is 

 the land of the Haitians. Between the two governments 



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