OF SANTO DOMINGO. 



Gl 



Santo SeiTO, or Holy Hill, is one of the most prominent points in this spur, and is 

 donbly interesting from its having once been the scene of a battle between Columbns 

 and the natives, when, as tradition declares, the Virgin Mary personally descended, 

 and, perching on an arm of a cross, turned back the arrows of the heathens against 

 themselves. The cross has disappeared, but the hole in which it was planted still 

 exists ; and, if further proof of the miracle is required, it can be found in a painting 

 in the chapel erected over the spot, showing the manner in which the thing was 

 done. The hole is not likely to grow smaller, since the earth from it has miraculous 

 healing properties, and is sought for eagerly by pilgrims, who make long journeys 

 for the privilege of stepping into the hole, and taking therefrom a spoonful of dirt — 

 at twenty-five cents a head. But to the less reverent or less credulous traveller, this 

 lovely spot has a greater charm. But a couple of hundred feet above the valley, it 

 is so far out from either range of mountains, that it commands a view of both for a 

 hundred miles of their length, and one glance takes in the entire Vega Real, only 

 cut off by the dim distance, towards Samana. 



East of Vega the spurs that are sent out into the valley by the southern 

 mountains are without any remarkable peculiarities. They are low and incon- 

 spicuous in their similarity one to another. A few little valleys run up into the hills, 

 among which may be mentioned those along the Yuna and Jima Rivers, the Maimon 

 River, at Hatillo, or about Cotui, Cevico, and the valley of Payabo Creek. But these 

 are all alike — a meadow of from one to a couple of hundred acres, bordered by forest, 

 and nestling among trees. On the lower Yuna, below the mouth of the Camu, the 

 low spurs reach almost down to the river, and many of them are similar to the 

 peculiarly-shaped hills of San Lorenzo Bay. I^orth of the Yuna, near the hills in 

 the vicinity of and east of Macoris the plains are rolling and gravelly. A little 

 further down towards the river the soil is more clayey, and in the river bottom it is 

 a rich black loam, supporting a dense forest growth. At Almacen, where the river 

 bluifs give an opportunity of examining it, the loam is at least ten or twelve feet 

 thick, and the river level did not give the means of ascertaining how much deeper it 

 reaches. West of Macoris the loam widens out at the expense of the gravel, and 

 nearly the entire distance from Macoris to Moca is over a black mud, bad enough to 

 travel over when dry, but almost impassable in wet weathei". The same description 

 may be applied to the roads from Macoris to la Vega, from Vega to Moca, or, in 

 great part, that from Moca to Santiago. 



The road from Vega to Santiago runs also for a couple of miles on the same 

 black, sticky soil, then crosses some rolling, gravelly hills, then, making three passes 



A. p. S. VOL. XV. p. 



