Santo Domingo: A Country with a Future - Otto Schoenrich

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subjected him to humiliation by arbitrarily liberating a mutineer imprisoned by the admiral. Disappointed and sad, the great navigator left the shores of the island he loved and returned to Spain where his death occurred two years later. The golden age of the colony was now at hand. Ovando built up the city of Santo Domingo, constructed forts and other defences, and laid the foundations of most of its public buildings. Fine private residences and great churches and convents were erected. Sugar-cane was introduced in 1506 and gave rich returns, the production of the gold mines continued to increase, and cattle raising brought large profits. The Indians were dying out under the rigorous treatment, and others were imported from the surrounding islands under the pretense of converting them to Christianity; and when these also succumbed, the importation of negroes from Africa was commenced. About 1508 the island began to be called Santo Domingo, but for almost three centuries royal decrees continued to refer to it as Espanola. So flourishing was its state at this time that thirteen of its towns were granted coats of arms and three were declared cities. The colony was and for many years continued to be a starting point for voyages of discovery and conquest in the islands and along the shores of the Caribbean Sea.

      After the death of Christopher Columbus his son Diego made fruitless efforts to recover the honors of which his father had been despoiled, but it was not until he married Maria de Toledo, the beautiful niece of the Duke of Alba, that he met with partial success, probably more because of the influence of his wife's family than because of the justice of his claims. In 1509 he was appointed governor of Santo Domingo to succeed Ovando and arrived in the colony with his wife, his uncles, and a brilliant suite.

      Diego Columbus inaugurated his administration with a splendor till then unknown in the new world, establishing a kind of vice-regal court. He built the castle of which the ruins are still to be seen near the San Diego gate in the city of Santo Domingo, and which in its glory must have been an imposing structure. Unfortunately many persons transferred to the son the hatred they had borne the father and he found his plans balked. Intending to carry into effect the royal dispositions relative to the release of the Indians from slavery he incurred the hostility of the planters and when he desisted owing to their opposition, he was attacked by the friars. Complaints poured in upon King Ferdinand; the accusation most calculated to arouse the suspicious monarch's fears was that the second admiral, as Diego Columbus was called, harbored the intention of proclaiming himself sovereign of Santo Domingo. Ferdinand accordingly instituted the audiencia or high court of justice of Santo Domingo, which was invested with a comprehensive jurisdiction, being authorized to hear appeals even from decisions of the governor, whose powers were thus materially curtailed.

      This circumstance, as well as a new distribution of the Indians, made over the head of the governor, induced Diego Columbus to return to Spain in 1515 in order to defend his interests. During the term of the two governors who succeeded him, various dispositions were made for the protection of the natives whose numbers were rapidly diminishing notwithstanding importations from the other islands and from South America. The only result of these orders was a change of masters; for when Diego Columbus returned as governor in 1520, he found the Indians exploited by the priests and officers of the crown to whom they had been intrusted ostensibly for religious instruction, while the mine-owners and planters now employed negro slaves.

      Almost simultaneously with the return of the second admiral began the insurrection of a young Indian cacique known as Enrique. This noble Indian, a relative of Anacaona, had been converted to Christianity and educated by the Spaniards, but was nevertheless enslaved in one of the "repartimientos," or distributions. His wife having been gravely offended by the Spaniard to whom they were assigned, he retired to the almost inaccessible mountains in the center of the island, and many of the remaining natives fled to join him. Efforts to dislodge him were in vain and negotiations only elicited from him the promise to act on the defensive alone, which was equivalent to an indefinite truce. The number of negro slaves had in the meantime increased, and the treatment given them was as harsh as that which had been accorded the aborigines. As a result an insurrection, the first negro uprising in the new world, began near Santo Domingo City on December 27, 1522. Several Spaniards were murdered, but the troops overpowered the mutineers and a number were hung.

      Diego Columbus continued in his efforts to promote the welfare of the colony, but became involved in a quarrel with the royal audiencia and found himself obliged in March, 1524, to return to Spain where he died two years later. The new governor, Bishop Sebastian Ramirez de Fuenleal, was appointed president of the royal court, and the offices of governor and president of the court were thenceforth consolidated. Both he and his successor used their best efforts to promote immigration into the colony which was beginning to suffer on account of the draughts of men that left for the mainland. An army was dispatched against the insurgent chief Enrique who still menaced the tranquillity of the colonists from his mountain fastnesses. When it was found impossible to reach him, peaceful methods were employed. Negotiations were opened, and a treaty of peace signed in 1533, on an island in the beautiful lake still known as Lake Enriquillo. By this treaty the Indians, now reduced to not more than 4000 in number, were freed from slavery and assigned lands in Boya, in the mountains to the northeast of Santo Domingo City. From this time forward there is no further mention of the Indians in the island's history; they disappeared completely by dying out and by assimilation.

       Table of Contents

      HISTORICAL SKETCH.—COLONIAL VICISSITUDES.—1533 TO 1801

      Decline of the colony.—English attacks on Santo Domingo City.—Settlement of Tortuga by freebooters.—French settlements in western Santo Domingo.—Border wars.—Cession of western coast to France.—Return of prosperity.—Effect of French revolution.—Negro uprising in French Santo Domingo.—Rise of Toussaint l'Ouverture. —Cession of Spanish Santo Domingo to France.—Evacuation by Spain.

      Within forty years after its discovery Santo Domingo had passed the zenith of its glory. The vast and wealthy countries discovered and conquered on the mainland of America absorbed the attention of colonists and of the government, and Santo Domingo quickly sank to a position of economic and political insignificance. So little importance was given the island by chroniclers during the ensuing two hundred and fifty years and so few are the records remaining, that not even the names of all the governors and the periods of their rule can be accurately determined. The colony barely existed, the monotony of its life was interrupted only by occasional attacks or menaces of attacks by pirates or other foes.

      Every effort was made to prevent decay. Decrees were issued forbidding emigration or the recruiting of troops for expeditions of discovery, but they were evaded. Thus Louis Columbus, the grandson of the Discoverer and one of the most influential men of the colony, fitted out an expedition against Veragua. African slaves continued to be imported to take the place of the exterminated Indians, but as their importation was expensive the mines were abandoned and the number of sugar estates declined. For the greater part of the period from 1533 to 1556 the government was in the hands of an energetic man, Licentiate Alonso de Fuenmayor, Bishop of Santo Domingo and La Vega, and later first Archbishop of Santo Domingo. He pushed to a conclusion the work on the cathedral and other religious edifices then building, repaired the edifices belonging to the state and constructed the walls and bastions which still surround the city. He was able to ward off the attacks of corsairs, who multiplied in West Indian waters to such an extent that in 1561 the Spanish Government forbade vessels to travel to and from the new world except under convoy.

      In 1564 the cities of Santiago de los Caballeros and Concepcion de la Vega were completely destroyed by an earthquake and the few remaining inhabitants reestablished the towns at short distances from the original sites. The entire intercourse of the colony with Spain was reduced to two or three caravels a year and the revenues sank so low that the salaries of state officials were paid and continued to be paid for over two hundred years, from the treasury of Mexico.

      The year 1586 was marked by the capture of Santo Domingo City by the noted English navigator, Sir Francis Drake, during the celebrated cruise on which he took the strongest towns on the Spanish main. On the morning

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