260 CUBA AND POBTO 1UCO 



San Domingo city (population twenty-five thousand) is 

 in an angle Inclosed by the sea on the south side and the 

 month of the river Ozama on the west. It is perhaps the 



most perfect specimen of the sixteenth-century Spanish 

 city in America. It is completely surrounded by a medie- 

 val wall, forty-five hundred yards in circumference. As 

 one looks from the sea upon the ancient walls and bas- 

 tions and the Old-World buildings, every feature recalls 

 the events of the first century of Spanish-American pros- 

 perity. The houses on straight and. narrow streets are 

 built of masomy, with gaily colored walls, immense doors, 

 and large windows like those of Havana and San Juan ; 

 but once within the city its inhabitants remove the spell, 

 for its lower population consists of dirty negroes, and filth 

 everywhere abounds. The suburbs are composed of unat- 

 tractive frame and mud huts thatched with palm or straw. 

 The walls of the older houses are constructed of stone 

 and mamposteria (a calcareous concrete). As the traveler 

 through the deserted and decayed streets of San Domingo 

 looks at the immense structures, the solid walls and ruins 

 of former greatness, he finds himself wondering what has 

 become of those incentives to enterprise which were the 

 origin of such a city. 



The old churches and ruins are interesting, but other- 

 wise there are few attractive buildings. The government 

 palace, while grandiose in effect, owing to its balconied 

 piazzas supported on solid pillars, is neither handsome nor 

 striking. The old cathedral is the most interesting build- 

 ing in the city ; in fact, it is one of the great monuments 

 of the western hemisphere. This Gothic edifice, which 

 faces the public square, is built of solid stone, and has a 

 nave and two wings, being constructed after the model of 

 a church in Rome. It was begun in 1512 and finished in 

 1540. The weather-stained walls of the exterior show 

 marks of its great antiquity, while the interior, with its 

 pillars, arches, crypts, and innumerable altars, confirms the 

 accounts of those writers who have given such glowing 



