. The storied West Indies . ordilleras de Cibao. This fertile and extensiveplain, beautiful beyond compare, covered with tropi-cal forests and traversed by rivers, was first seen byColumbus in 1494, and called by him the Vega Real,or Royal Plain. Viewing it from the Holy Hill, withits visible charms, which so moved Columbus that hedeclared it to surpass all other spots he had everseen, my heart swelled with emotions of gratitudeto the Great Creator, who has breathed into all naturethe divine element of beauty. Yet I could not but besaddened when I recalled the terrible tragedies thathad been e
. The storied West Indies . ordilleras de Cibao. This fertile and extensiveplain, beautiful beyond compare, covered with tropi-cal forests and traversed by rivers, was first seen byColumbus in 1494, and called by him the Vega Real,or Royal Plain. Viewing it from the Holy Hill, withits visible charms, which so moved Columbus that hedeclared it to surpass all other spots he had everseen, my heart swelled with emotions of gratitudeto the Great Creator, who has breathed into all naturethe divine element of beauty. Yet I could not but besaddened when I recalled the terrible tragedies thathad been enacted here: the murdering of individ-uals, the massacring of multitudes, and the acts thatled to the final extinction of those innocent aborigineswho once made their homes beneath the royal palms,and lived here happily until the Spaniard came. Although it is thought that the great battle of the 83 84: THE STORIED WEST INDIES Yega took place near the present town of San-tiago de los Caballeros, yet it is averred that Colum-. The church of Santo Cerro. bus himself watched and guided its progress fromthe crest of this same Santo Cerro; and a very agedtree, pointed out as that beneath which he stood, iscalled to-day the nispero de Colon, or the medlartree of Columbus. A church of quaint constructioncrowns the hill, along its narrow ridge is a doubleline of palm-thatched huts, between which runs astreet, and in this miserable hamlet reside a few col-ored people, who depend upon the church for a living;for the Cerro is a sacred spot, and the inhabitants ofthe Yega all come here once a year at least, and thoseresident near the hill every Saturday, to pay theirdevotions and perform their vows. The great battle of the Yega, by which the Indi-ans were for a time subdued, took place in the springof 1495, and soon after Columbus began the construe- THE LAST CACIQUES 85 tion of a series of forts reaching from the city of Isa-bella to the heart of the Koyal Plain. The most im-portant of the
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Keywords: ., bookauthoroberfrederickafrederi, bookcentury1900, bookdecade1900
