OF SAXTO DOMmCO. 



71 



tract of land, admirably adapted for cuUiTation of coftee or sugar-cane. There are no 

 streams on it, however, and the occupants would be obliged to depend on wells foi* 

 their supplies of water. 



Rincon Bay is a good-sized harbor, well protected by Cape Cabron. It is bordered 

 by a nearly continuous sand-beach, on which grows a forest of thousands of cocoanut- 

 trees. The whole north coast is nearly without occupants. Port J ackson has a shed or 

 two, and the same may be said of Limon and Rincon ; a few scattered sheds, occujDied 

 b}^ occasional pig-hunters, being the only signs of humanity. A couple of families live 

 at the month of the San Juan, and the next settlement is at Puerto Frances, where 

 there are two or three houses. Here there is a little nook, in which small vessels can 

 find a partial shelter. Just south of it, the coast is as wild and forbidding as it can 

 possibly be. The limestone is worn into sharp points, blufts, coves, and islets, over 

 which the sui'f beats with great violence. 



In strong contrast with the wild nature of the scenery on the northern and eastern 

 coasts is the quiet of the shore of Samana Bay. Every little piece of beach is 

 crowded with graceful cocoa-palms. The hills are wooded down to the water's edge, 

 excejot where a rocky bluff is too steep to support trees, and then bushes and trailing 

 vines take their place. The roar of the ocean gives place to a gentle ripple, and 

 every new picture seems to struggle to excel its predecessor in beauty. The south 

 coast is a succession of hilly headlands and little bays. Almost every indentation has 

 its level tract, and even far up on the hill sides are seen the garden patches and the 

 thatched cabins of the inhabitants. Many of them are American negroes, who 

 emigrated to Santo Domingo a generation or more ago. Most of the original 

 emigrants have died, or remain as very old people. Their children and grand-children 

 remain, a separate people, who rarely intermarry with the natives ; usually speak 

 English among themselves, and retain a sort of Protestant form of worship ; much 

 more intolerant of the religion of their Roman Catholic neighbors than these same 

 neighbors are of them. They are quiet' industrious, thrifty, and always well spoken 

 of as good citizens ; but they all look forward longingly to the time when annexation 

 to the United States shall give them a permanent guarantee of peace. The region 

 principally inhabited by these people is just around the port of Santa Barbai'a de 

 Samana, from la Flecha to a point half a dozen miles west of the town. 



The little bay of Santa Barbara, which often assumes the name of the larger bay, 

 is a little land-locked harbor, entirely shut in from all winds, partly by the hills with 

 which it is surrounded, and partly by a group of small islands lying in front of it. 

 It is hardly equalled, certainly not excelled, in security or accessibility, by any port 



