OF SANTO DOMINGO. 77 



West of San Cristobal the long spurs of the liigher mountains run down so as to 

 cut the plains bordering the coast into a series of bays. Immediately adjoining the 

 river, there is a range of hills reaching almost to the beach ; while the most direct 

 road westward from the town is over a high ridge. The coast here has a strong trend 

 to the southwest, and the hills run nearly parallel with it, leaving a comparatively 

 narrow strip of level land on the margin. Most of this land, especially near the hills 

 is a very rich black mould, unsurpassed for the cultivation of sugar-cane. Further 

 west, after passing the N^izao River, the soil becomes gravelly and the climate drier, 

 and near Bani our old friends the cactus begin to re-appear, becoming more abundant 

 the nearer we approach Azua. Many pretty spots occur along the coast, such as 

 Savana Grande, Palenque, and ^N^izao, each with its little settlement, and each is the 

 centre of a small sugar-growing region, which judged by its cfipabilities should at 

 least rival the most productive regions in the West Indies. Since the abolition of 

 slavery in Santo Domingo the country has been in an almost constant state of anarchy. 

 The repeated revolutions, each one destroying all the improvements made during the 

 preceding interval of peace, have completely ruined the people, depriving them of all 

 hopes of benefit from their labor. Three-quarters of a century of such experience 

 has almost eradicated all ideas of industry ; and the poor wretches dare not begin any 

 work on a large scale, for want of guarantee that they will be the better for their 

 trouble. The last four years of uninterrupted peace have been an epoch almost un- 

 precedented in duration, and the government certainly seems to be gaining strength, 

 slowly, but surely. 



With this return of peace, there is a marked change coming over the industi'ies of 

 the country. Clearings are being made, more and more numerous every season ; fields 

 of cane and tobacco are being planted, and the increase in the production of these two 

 crops is already very perceptible. This change is especially marked in the region in 

 question, and new fields are rapidly being cleared, and cane planted in almost every 

 available spot. With continued peace, it is not rash to predict that in a few years 

 this will be the greatest gugar district on the Island. 



About Bani the country is nearly level, the soil gravelly, and the vegetation simi- 

 lar to that in the Santiago Valley, l^ear the town there is a very peculiar little hill, 

 extending about a mile out into the plain, called Loma del Pueblo, and directly west 

 of this, about eight miles distant, is another, longer and liigher, called las Tablas. 

 The intervening plain, as well as that part to the south is almost perfectly level, and 

 clad in a good growth of grass among the trees. It supports large numbers of horses 

 and cattle, and about Savana Buey are not a few sheep. The latter do not seem to 



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



