Mediterranean. Perhaps there was no man in America of his day and generation more ignorant than General Grant of foreign affairs, and yet, with singular prescience even for such a man of destiny as he was, he selected Samana as a naval station at a time when the harassed Dominicans were only too anxious to obtain a respectable neighbour at any price or at no price at all. Sumner, in a vindictive spirit of outraged vanity, defeated the project, with the result that this district, though in a direct line between our Atlantic ports and Panama, and though it commands both the Mona and the more distant Windward Passage, still practically remains a wilderness.

We have acquired many harbours, strategic points, and keys as a result of the Spanish war, but certainly none of those obtained possess all the advantages of Samana. Here we have deep water and a commanding, central position. The peninsula on the north, all high land, protects this harbour or lagoon, for such it is, the whole forty miles of its length, and behind this barrier there is deep water and anchorage ample for all the warships and all the merchant vessels that float on the high seas to-day. Even at this late day, if the peninsula alone could be acquired, with command of the adjacent waters, our position in the West Indies would be immensely strengthened. Here, as nowhere else, is a spacious anchorage, and high ridges that could be fortified, and great plateaus suitable for camps and sanitaria.

After passing Balandra Head, the steamer enters a fjord with alternating cliffs and beaches, the cliffs hung with vines and the beaches overtopped with cocoa palms. The first few miles reminded me very much of the sail

ing in a very different part of the tropical world, up the Mekong River from the sea to Saigon. Then the prospect widens and we steam slowly out into the great landlocked harbour of Santa Barbara. High hills protect it on the north and it is separated from the great gulf outside by the island upon which the pirates of a former age were accustomed to careen their vessels. Another inner harbour is protected by a line of reefs, and here egress can be obtained in any weather with the largest steamers. The steep hillsides to the north are cultivated with small fruits to their summits and I can recall no place in the island that presents such an attractive picture. Under any other form of government than has obtained here until recently, or under no form of government at all, Santa Barbara would have become one of the winter cities of the world. Curiously enough, this little town and these beautiful shores were the scene, as far back as 1825, of one of the many attempts that have been made by philanthropists and benevolent societies in the United States to plant some of our surplus negro population in other parts of the world. There are still a few of the descendants of these emigrants on the shores of Samana, and they still call themselves "Marse" Tinsley's boys, after the eccentric old planter who sent their grandparents out from Mississippi years ago to this paradise. They still speak English and profess various dissenting religions. They keep out of politics as much as they can, and they have acquired small farms and some wealth; their standing in this community is altogether creditable to the AfroAmerican in the rôle of a tropical coloniser.

In conclusion, I think I may say without excess of optimism that as a result of our intervention and finan

cial assistance the situation in the Dominican Republic is immensely improved. Five years have passed and our control of the custom-houses* has not as yet provoked any of the disagreeable incidents that were not unnaturally apprehended. Every month 100,000 dollars gold goes to New York and a handsome sum is paid into the Dominican treasury. The duties, however, by which this happy state of affairs is brought about are very high. Many imports are taxed 80 and 90 and some few schedules 100 per cent., ad valorem. Duties of such a character are certainly not conducive to the development of the island and the expansion of its trade, which, after all, is what the bondholders and all other concerned have most at heart. The cost of living, especially for foreigners, is almost prohibitive, and while the volume of trade is increasing, this growth is nothing like what it would be if a more fostering fiscal policy were pursued. It cannot be denied that large numbers of the population are restive under these burdens. It should be borne in mind that the country is paying a debt which, though legally contracted, never brought any compensating advantages to the taxpayers. The sixteen millions which the Dominicans are now honestly endeavouring to pay off were used in putting down or raising revolutions, or were squandered or stolen in still more disgraceful ways. Under these circumstances it is not only my opinion, but it is the belief of all qualified observers on the island, that the time is ripe for a reduction in the monthly or annual payments on the bonds, a step which would enable the government of General Caceres to reduce the present oppressive tariff schedules and yet safeguard the interest on the bonds. The Dominican papers announce that an ar*For commercial and trade statistics see Appendix C, page 419.

rangement along these lines is now under discussion between the President of the republic and the Hon. Fenton McCreery, our very able diplomatic representative in this interesting country. If the negotiations reach a successful conclusion, if the amount of the debt payments is reduced temporarily, if only during the next two or three critical years, I believe that the security behind the bonds will be increased and the outlook for continued peaceful development of the war-ridden republic greatly improved. I commend to the most careful perusal the text of the convention between the Dominican Republic and the United States signed in February, 1907. I give this document in the Appendix in full because of the great importance attached to it by all who have seriously contemplated our West Indian problems and duties, even though Congress has preferred not to follow this precedent in dealing with the tangled financial affairs of Honduras and Nicaragua.

*

*See Appendix C, Note I, page 414.

CHAPTER VIII

VENEZUELA TO-DAY

DESPITE the fact that the bulk of Venezuelan trade is still with Europe, our relations with our neighbour just across the Caribbean have been growing closer in the last twenty years; indeed at times they have become disagreeably close.

"Little Venice," so called by the early explorers because they found the Maracaibo Indians living up their lagoons in houses built upon piles, is one of the few, if not the only, portion of the American continent. that Columbus ever saw and trod. It is a very beautiful country-coast, sierras, plains, and all. In many a point to point cruise from Para to the Orinoco, in many a zigzag journey across the pampas and through the shaded valleys of the "hot country," I have paused to ask myself whether the entrancing view that opened before me was not perhaps the same memory which warmed the conqueror's heart when he came to die, forsaken by kings, nobles, and villains in his prisonlodging at Valladolid.

Venezuela is larger than it appears on the casual maps which treat of South America and it is entitled to more consideration than it has received during the luckless years when Castro and his crew were in power. The area of this little-known country is greater than that of the British Isles, the German Empire, and *Her finances, commerce, and tariffs are described at some length in Appendix D, Note I, page 432.

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