Geography of Hayti. 
35 
facilities. It is true that the service of these boats is much 
neglected by the sailors appointed to them, and that a great 
and often insurmountable difficulty prevails almost always in 
these lakes; this is the violence with which the East and West 
winds blow between the mountains that surround the lakes. 
This difficulty might be removed by the establishment of 
steamboats, which would possess the twofold advantage of 
facilitating intercourse and of helping in the conveyance 
of cattle from Neybe and Azua to the plain of the Cul-dc- 
Sac. But these ameliorations can only be the work of time ; 
they will no doubt come with the increase of the population, 
which serves in all countries to develop industry. 
BATS. N 
The largest and the most beautiful bay of Hayti is that 
of Samana. It is situated between capes Samana and 
Raphael. Christopher Columbus called it Bate des Fleches, (bay 
of arrows,) because he found on its shores large numbers of 
Indians armed with arrows. The distance between its two 
extreme capes is 17 miles. It has an average breadth of 12 
miles, and is about 50 miles in depth. The most powerful 
squadrons could find in it a sure asylum; but the channel by 
which it is entered is difficult and narrow. A vessel must 
pass under the cannon of the fort Cacao, built since 1822. 
The extent of this magnificent bay, its position on the windward 
side of the Island, together with the immense quantity of wood 
found -in the peninsula, fit for naval purposes, and the mines 
of iron and copper concealed within its bosom, — all these 
advantages tend to make the point the most important of all in a 
maritime point of view. Whale-fishery might here be carried on. 
The other bays, whose importance and extent differ more or 
less, are those of Mole St. Nicolas, Ocoa, Iliguey, Neybe f 
i Tacmel, Bainet, Flamands, Mede, St. Louis, Caimites, 
Baradercs, Miragodne, Petit-Goave, Port-au-Prince, St. 
Marc,Gonatves, Henne, Acul duNord, Caracol, Fort Liberte, 
Mancenille, Monte Christi, and the Bale Ecossaise. 
