The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1893-10-26
SANTO DOMINGO.
How the Ancient City of Columbus OBJ
taIned It's Name.

tained Its Name.
Santo Domingo is the oldest city
built by EUROPEANS now standing in
the western hemisphere. 1t was found
ed by the brother of Columbus, and is
said by some to have been named after
their father, Domenico, and by others
to have received its name because it
was on Sunday that the ship sent from
the north arrived there-Santa Domin-
go meaning holy Sunday" Curiously
enough, its founding was the result OF
a quarrel.
On the northern shore of Hispaniola,
as the island of Santo Domingo was
then calldd, was Isabella, the first
Spanish colony in the New World.
There, one day, young Spaniard
named Miguel Diaz, one of the follow
ers of Columbus, stabbed a companion
in fight: and, afraid of the anger of
Columbus, he fled into the mountains
and went toward the south. After
wandering for some days he came to a
river, and following it to where it
emptied into the sea, found tribe of
Indians called the Ozamas. They had
heard of the wonderful white men who
had landed on their island, and they
received him with awe, but with kind
ness and hospitality, and took him be-
fore their queen, Zameaca, who was
famous for her beauty and gentleness.
He had not lived long with them when
Zameaca lost her heart to the fair-faced
Spaniard and they were married. For
a.. To-,
tired of the simple life; and his wife,
to please him told him of gold to be
found in the river Jayna, and guided
him to It, Diaz then went back in haste
to Isabella, knowing that the news OF
the discovery would secure his pardon
as it did lie guided his avaricious
companions to the golden stream, and
afterward to the mouth of the Ozama
river. There Columbus chose the place
for the town. 1t was be gun in 1896,
| and it was called Santo Domingo.
The Spaniards ill-treated and made
slaves of the simple Indians, and Zame-
aca, seeing the evils she had brought
| upon her people, fled to the mountains
| and was never heard of afterward.
| The new city grew and prospered until
| the year 1902, when it was entirely de-
stroyed by frightful hurricane, and
was rebuilt on the other bank of the
river There it stands to-day, not
much changed from the Santo Do
mingo of four centuries ago.
| 1t is very curious to go from one OF
our cities, with its new, bright, tall
buildings and its broad streets alive
with the hum and hustle of business,
to this sleepy old Spanish town, where
| ton account of the earthquakes the
houses are rarely more than one story
| high, and are painted various colors-
| blue, green, brown or red; where the
narrow streets have sidewalks only
three feet wide, and where nobody is
ever in a hurry; and to remember as
| one walks over the town, that those
streets were once trodden by Pizarro,
who gathered there the first money
| that ena bled him to start on the eXpe-
dition that conquered Peru; by Cortez,
the conqueror of Mexico; by Ponce de
Leon, who discovered Florida; by Bal
boa, the first European who saw the
Pacific ocean; by Ojeda, who discov-
cred Venezuela; and by Columbus him-
self, and his brothers and his son, and
the companions of his voyages. St
| Nicholas