The International
VOL. VIII
JANUARY 1900
No. 1
SANTO DOMINGO—A TROPICAL EDEN
BY LULU DEVNELL WILLS
WHY Santo Domingo and why not Santo Domingo? The former question has been asked for many years by tourists and sightseers, the latter as persistently asked by the commercial interests of America since President Grant’s advocacy of the annexation of the island in 1871.
As the picturesque spots of the Old World have been immortalized in song, surely the most ancient portion of the New World should not fail to move the hearts of all true poets. Santo Domingo, the oldest existing settlement made by white men in the Western Hemisphere, is a veritable Garden of Eden, and yet, compared with Cuba, Jamaica, Bermuda, how few there are to sing its praises! The most fertile of all the islands of the West Indies, with more virgin soil in proportion to its entire acreage than any other, divided into majestic mountains where the best of coffee can be grown, beautiful valleys where tropical fruits ripen, and savannas on the level surface of which immense herds of cattle can be grazed, this country certainly has great commercial possibilities.
The island of Santo or San Domingo is long and narrow. Its northern coast is extremely bold, being formed of magnificent cliffs and mountains rising almost perpendicularly from the water, while the southern coast is flat and protected by a volcanic and coral formation peculiarly porous, through which the rushing waves force themselves, producing the appearance of thousands of fountains scattered along the shore. On the eastern coast the grand Bay of Samana extends inland for a distance of thirty-four miles, with an average width of ten miles; it is perfectly land-locked, making one of the finest harbors in the world.
The country is very mountainous, the ranges extending east and west, so that travelling across the island is very difficult. There are three large rivers, the Yuna on the eastern side emptying into Samana Bay, the Ozama on the southern side emptying into the Caribbean Sea, and the Yarqui on the northern side emptying into the Atlantic Ocean.
To the tourist, who is often seen here in his yacht, the island offers as yet too few conveniences to induce him to make any prolonged stay. Notwithstanding the fact that Nature has made it one of the most seductive health resorts in the world, today there are few hotels worthy the name in Santo Domingo. Its roads are exceedingly
Copyrighted, 1899, by A. T H. Brower. All rights reserved.
