The impoverishment of the country by periodic revolutions has had its effect on the municipalities and prevented their proper development. In no city are all municipal needs and services properly attended to, and in most towns they are all badly neglected. Sanitary inspection is nowhere given due attention; sewers are practically unknown; but two cities, Puerto Plata and Santiago, have a general system of waterworks, the others being dependent on water drawn from cisterns or wells, or carried from rivers or springs; in all but five or six little attention is paid to the condition of the streets. Only Santiago, Puerto Plata and Santo Domingo have electric light, but that of Santo Domingo is very deficient. Little by little conditions are improving and especially the larger municipalities are endeavoring to improve their streets and provide a water supply. To the smallness of the urban centers their lack of municipal conveniences is partly to be attributed. The Dominican towns are all built on the same general plan as other Spanish cities, being constructed around a central plaza on which the church and government building are located. The principal cities are the capitals of the twelve provinces, and the city of Sanchez. A brief description of these cities follows, with a reference to the other more important towns and villages of each province. PROVINCE OF SANTO DOMINGO _Santo Domingo de Guzman_, the capital of the Republic and of the province of the same name, is the oldest city founded by Europeans in the new world, the first city, Isabela, having disappeared a few years after settlement. It was founded by Bartholomew Columbus in 1496 on the east bank of the Ozama River as the capital of the colony, but the small houses constituting the town having been destroyed by a hurricane in 1502 it was transferred to the west bank of the river by order of Governor Ovando. It grew rapidly in population and wealth until it merited the eulogies of Oviedo who wrote to Charles V in 1525 that he did not hesitate to assure that there was not in Spain a city he would prefer whether on account of advantageous and agreeable location, beauty and arrangement of squares and streets or charms of the surrounding country, adding that "their Highnesses oftentimes lodged in palaces which have neither the conveniences, the ample size nor the wealth of some of those in Santo Domingo." By the middle of the sixteenth century the city had passed the zenith of its glory, and its capture by Drake in 1586 and the destruction of the houses about the main plaza was a severe blow. The decline continued rapidly, although in 1655 the city was still strong enough to repel an invasion by Admiral William Penn. In 1684 and 1691 it was visited by destructive earthquakes and in 1700 it was full of ruins among which grew great trees. The lowest ebb was reached about 1737 when the population had fallen to 500 "and," writes Father Valverde, "more than