352                         SANTO DOMINGO.
healthy, and the former, when there is no grass, eat the
espargato.
Eefreshed with our rest, including a siesta in the
hammock, we left late in the afternoon the house of Garcia,
where we had been so hospitably treated, and started on
our journey for Monte Cristo, some twelve miles off, in a
country of the same character we were now in.
As the sun was just preparing to set into the horizon,
we mounted the ridge that separated us from the sea, and
then bursting on our view was a superb scene indeed.
From the high point on which we stood the road descended
into an extensive plain, broken a little to the left by a low
hill, beyond whose crest could just be seen the roofs of the
houses in the village of Monte Cristo, the land stretching
down to a sandy, level coast ; to the right, the plain, through
which a small stream of brackish water ran, extended to a
bold, high hill, known by its various names, La Grange
(the Barn, given it by Columbus), and the " Morro," and
which, making into the sea in front of the town, formed,
with another strip of abrupt land, the promontory, inside
of which was the spacious bay of Monte Cristo, in which
now rested only a few fishing boats, where, in times gone
by, rode merchant vessels from other climes.
Descending the hill by a winding road we entered the
little village, that is all that remains of the once populous,
large, and important town of Monte Cristo, now simply the
depot for receiving mahogany and other woods from the
neighbouring country, to be shipped in small schooners to
Puerto Plata, whence it goes to the European markets.
Here we were hospitably housed in the warehouse of a
German merchant, there being no hotels of any kind.
We had hardly reached Monte Cristo when we found the
Nantasket coming into the harbour with Commissioner
White on board, and after remaining only long enough to
get some fresh provisions, and take the Doctor on board,
she steamed out of the harbour en route for home via Hayti.