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by British vessels which occasionally attempted to establish blockades. On February 6, 1806, a British squadron of eight vessels under Sir John Duckworth badly defeated a French squadron, also of eight vessels, in a hotly contested fight off Point Palenque to the southwest of Santo Domingo City.

      Although Ferrand was personally liked, discontent began to brew in the country. The inhabitants were loyal to Spain and chafed under foreign rule; many believed there was danger of Haitian invasion so long as the French remained; certain tax exactions stirred up animosity; and the stories of Spain's resistance to Napoleon's aggressions inflamed the spirits of the leading men. Conspiracies ensued, fomented principally by a Cotui planter named Juan Sanchez Ramirez, who had emigrated in 1803, but returned after four years of exile, and the Spanish flag was formally raised in Seibo in October, 1808. Ferrand immediately set out to quell the uprising and on November 7, 1808, met Sanchez Ramirez at Palo Hincado, about two miles west of Seibo. He was vigorously attacked by the revolutionists, his native troops deserted, and his other troops were cut to pieces. Seeing that all was lost and that all his work was ruined, Ferrand blew out his brains with a pistol.

      The revolutionists received assistance from the governor-general of Porto Rico and from their former enemy Christophe, who had made himself king of northern Haiti; a British squadron took Samana, the only post held by the French outside of Santo Domingo City, and raised the Spanish flag; and Sanchez Ramirez laid siege to the capital, where the French general Barquier had assumed command, while British vessels blockaded it by sea. The siege lasted almost nine months, during which the besieged suffered greatly from want of provisions, being reduced to eating dogs and cats, and the surrounding country was devastated by sorties and foraging parties. The severest fighting took place about San Geronimo castle, on the shore three miles west of the city, which was taken and retaken. In the sixth and seventh months of the siege the city was repeatedly bombarded from land and sea, but without result. At length Sanchez applied to the governor of Jamaica and a British force under Sir Hugh Lyle Carmichael was sent to his assistance. It landed at Palenque and took up a position in San Carlos. A general assault had been determined upon, when the brave little defender of the city, realizing the hopelessness of further resistance, agreed to capitulate to the English. On July 9, 1809, the French flag was lowered and the country again became a dependency of Spain, and in 1814 Spain's dominion was confirmed by the treaty of Paris.

      Spain had been busy fighting the French within her own borders, and when normal conditions were restored had her hands full in keeping order and in trying to bring her revolting colonies of America back to obedience. She had little time for affairs in Santo Domingo, and did nothing to ameliorate conditions. The colony was left to vegetate in absolute poverty. This second Spanish era came to be known as the period of "Espana boba," "stupid Spain," as the home government remained so indifferent to the colony's affairs. The only redeeming feature was the return of a number of exiled families. Sanchez Ramirez, who had been proclaimed governor-general, was confirmed in the office and held the same until his death in 1811, being succeeded by Spanish military officers.

      In the first years of the new Spanish colony there was an undefined attempt at uprising on the part of a few white hotheads, and an attempt to incite the slaves against their masters on the part of a few black ones, but in both cases the ringleaders were captured and put to death. The great struggle for independence in South America gradually influenced the minds of the inhabitants of Santo Domingo; Bolivar's brief visit to Haiti also had its effect, and secret separatist societies began to be founded. In the beginning of 1821 a conspiracy was discovered and numerous arrests made. Plotting continued nevertheless, stimulated by a prominent lawyer, José Nuñez de Caceres, who dreamed of making the country a state of Bolivar's Colombian Republic. On the night of November 30, 1821, the conspiracy culminated in an uprising in the capital; most of the troops had been won over to the cause of independence and offered no resistance; the rest were taken by surprise; and the revolutionists without difficulty made themselves masters of the gateway "Puerta del Conde" and of the other gates and forts. The Spanish governor was placed under arrest and put aboard a vessel sailing for Europe, and the Colombian flag was raised. Public proclamation was made of the independent and sovereign State of Spanish Haiti, affiliated with the Republic of Colombia, and José Nuñez de Caceres assumed the office of political governor and president of the State, while the provincial assembly became a provisional junta of government.

      The State of Spanish Haiti lasted barely nine weeks. An emissary sent to Colombia for assistance in maintaining independence was unsuccessful. Another emissary sent to President Boyer of Haiti, for the negotiation of a treaty, brought back the answer that "the whole island should constitute a single republic under the flag of Haiti." For several years Boyer, a dark mulatto, who had united Haiti under his rule, had been endeavoring to influence the colored people on the Spanish side of the border, to such an extent that the activities of his agents repeatedly provoked protests from the Spanish governors, and he now recognized that his opportunity had come. Invading the country in the north and south his forces captured the most important points. He met with no resistance, due to the fact that the temporary government was entirely unprepared, that the population feared a repetition of the horrors of 1805, and that many were in sympathy with him while others were indifferent. On February 9, 1822, Nuñez de Caceres was obliged to deliver the keys of Santo Domingo City to the invader and the whole island came under the dominion of Haiti.

      The twenty-two years of Haitian rule marked a period of social and economic retrogression for the old Spanish portion of the island. Most of the whites, especially the more prominent families, the principal representatives of the community's wealth and culture, definitely abandoned the country, some immediately upon the advent of the Haitians, others in 1824, when a hopeless conspiracy in favor of a restoration of Spanish rule was quenched in blood, and others in 1830, when a quixotic demand of the Spanish king for a return of his domain was refused by Boyer. The Haitians, anxious to eliminate the whites, encouraged such emigration and confiscated the property left by the emigrants. The policy of the Haitian government was to build up a strong African state in the whole island, and in pursuance of this policy it emancipated all slaves, colonized Haitian negroes on the Samana peninsula and in other parts of the Spanish-speaking territory and brought in colored people from the United States. Some of these remained in Puerto Plata, others in Santo Domingo City, but the larger number settled on the Samana peninsula, where their descendants still form the bulk of the population. Every effort was made to Haitianize the country by extending the Haitian laws, and imposing Haitian governors. Representation was also accorded in the Haitian congress. In 1825 the French government recognized the independence of the French part of the island in consideration of the payment of an indemnity, toward which the Haitians forced the Spanish part to contribute.

      The wanton acts of the Haitian authorities, their hostility to whites and lighter colored mulattoes, their opposition to the Spanish language and customs, and their neglect of the country's development, caused much discontent, and the idea of separating from Haiti began to be entertained. An enthusiastic young man, Juan Pablo Duarte, who had been educated in Europe, in 1838 founded a secret revolutionary society, called "La Trinitaria," to work for the country's independence. In May, 1842, an earthquake destroyed Santiago and La Vega, as well as Cape Haitien and other towns in the western part of the island, and with lesser earthquakes which followed caused a panic throughout the country, which in turn made conditions more favorable for a change of government.

      In the meantime opposition to Boyer had spread in Haiti also, and in 1843 gave rise to a revolution, as a result of which Boyer was driven from the country and Charles Hérard installed as dictator-president. Duarte redoubled his activities for independence, struggling against the opinion of many who thought such an aspiration hopeless, but his plans were discovered and he and others obliged to flee. His work had been well done, however; his ideas continued to spread, and it was determined to proclaim the independence of Santo Domingo on February 27, 1844. Late that night a large group of Dominicans under Francisco del Rosario Sanchez appeared at the principal gateway of Santo Domingo City, "Puerta del Conde," and received the surrender of the guard, and on the following morning the Dominican flag, as designed by Duarte, was waving over the gate.

      Dessalines, the emperor of Haiti, had adopted red and blue, two of the colors of the French Republic's flag, for the flag of Haiti, leaving out white, because to this hated color he attributed all

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