246                         SANTO DOMINGO.
prolific manner sugar for the Spaniards—the cane being
noted as producing for six consecutive years full crops
without care or renewal. In fact, to-day cane is shown in
bearing said to be seventy years old.
But sugar alone is not the only excellent product, for
every fruit and vegetable is remarkably perfect in this
region, the orange especially being noted for its flavour.
The present town is situated on the road from San Juan
and Neyba to St Domingo, and is some two leagues dis-
tant from the Bay of Ocoa, one of the most famous ports
on the south coast, and in which Columbus took shelter
from the great storm.
The old town, where Hernan Cortes was town-clerk
before he started out on his adventurous career, was de-
stroyed by an earthquake in 1751. This terrible event led
the sea up to the very town, when it was abandoned.
Like all other Dominican towns, it is now a straggling
collection of one-storied houses, built of palm-leaves, straw,
and poles, gathered round a wide open space honoured
with the name of " plaza ; " and aside from the fact that it
has been the home of the Baez family, who own large pro-
perties in the vicinity, there is nothing to attract the
traveller at present.
With railroads, and capital, and immigration, this would
probably prove a district agriculturally of the first import-
ance. In this case the Bay of Ocoa, with its port of Calderas,
being splendidly adapted for a great marine rendezvous,
would prove a formidable rival to St Domingo city.
All this district to the west of Azua has suffered much
from the various revolutions and incursions which seem to
have selected this province for their inception ; but now,
happily for the rest of the island, these little " unpleasant-
nesses" are pretty much confined to one locality. To
thoroughly understand the cause of these, we shall have to
study a little of the history of St Domingo since it became
a republic.