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San Francisco de Macoris, the capital of the province, is about 85 miles northwest of Santo Domingo City and occupies the site of a fort established by Ovando in 1504 and known as the fort of La Magdalena. It was founded in 1774 around a chapel dedicated to St. Ann which stood on a ranch called San Francisco.

In 1915 the government granted several franchises for electric car lines, one for Santo Domingo City, with the right to extend as far as Bani; another for Santiago, with the right of extension to Janico; and a third for Macoris, with the right of extension to Seibo, but no work has been done on these projects.

For administrative purposes the Republic is divided into twelve provinces; Azua, Barahona, Espaillat, La Vega, Macoris, Monte Cristi, Pacificador, Puerto Plata, Samana, Santiago, Santo Domingo and Seibo. Formerly six were known as provinces and six as maritime districts, though there was in practice no distinction between them.

Before the establishment of the first of these plantations near Macoris in the early eighties, the apparatus for making sugar was as crude as that employed by the first colonists, consisting of small presses turned by oxen, and large caldrons to boil the cane.

The best of these was the "Restauracion," which went on the rocks at the entrance to Macoris harbor in one of the first conflicts between the Jimenistas and Horacistas. The story goes that the steamer was about to attack Macoris, that the pilot, in sympathy with the opposition, grounded her with a view to having her captured, but that a sudden storm drove her to complete destruction.

Attacks and sallies were frequent, every house along the walls and in the suburbs soon showed bullet marks and the town of San Carlos was again partially destroyed by fire. Finally Morales defeated the besiegers, and in March, Macoris was taken by the government forces and the backbone of the revolution was broken.

The important city of San Francisco de Macoris lay seven miles to the north of the line of the Samana-Santiago railroad and in 1892 a concession was granted to a prominent Dominican for the building of a connecting road. It was constructed with Dominican capital from La Gina to San Francisco de Macoris, and is leased to the Samana-Santiago Road and operated as a branch of this road.

San Pedro de Macoris, about 45 miles east of Santo Domingo City, is one of the most modern and flourishing cities of the Republic. In 1885 it was merely a small fishing village, about that time sugar plantations began to be established in the surrounding plains and the town commenced to grow.

There is further a fruit line between Boston and Puerto Plata and sugar steamers between New York and Macoris during the cane grinding season, but they carry no passengers. How far the interests of Spain and Santo Domingo have diverged is indicated by the fact that not one of the Spanish transatlantic liners which run to Porto Rico, Cuba, Central and South America, touches in Santo Domingo.

Harbors on north coast. Character of shore. Samana Bay. Character of east and south coast. Harbors of Macoris and Santo Domingo. Ocoa Bay. Islands. Haitian frontier.