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SANTO DOMINGO.
has a strange appearance, with its red-coloured roofs and
age-stained walls, those of the old Franciscan monastery,
covered with vines and moss, being prominent in the fore-
ground, just behind the bastioned angles of the northern
walls.
Taking a bridle-path, we rode almost around the city,
parallel with the walls, which are, in fact, as old as they
look, having been erected as far back as 1506 by Nicholas
Ovando, of whom such great deeds are told in the ancient
Spanish chronicles. These walls are about eight feet
thick and ten feet high, the revetment being of hewn
stone, and the scarp cut in the solid rock.    There is no
Old Franciscan Monastery.
glacis, while the bastions are very small, except those at
the four angles, which are larger; the one at the south-west
angle, known as La Forsza, built by Ovando, being in good
preservation, though now beside it is the city shambles.
Above the city, on the hill, stands the old town of San
Carlos, as old as St Domingo itself, being perhaps better
known to the readers of Irving as Ileignes. The ground,
however, is the only antique portion of the place ; for the