Near Balandra point is the tiny settlement of Las Flechas, located upon the scene of the first encounter marked by bloodshed between the Spaniards and Indians. A number of Columbus' men having landed here in January, 1493. were attacked by Indians and in the ensuing engagement an Indian was wounded. The occurrence induced Columbus to name the Bay Golfo de las Flechas, Gulf of the Arrows. At the end of the main channel of entrance to the Bay the north shore is indented by the large and commodious basin of Clara, and about two miles further to the west is the harbor of the old city of Santa Barbara de Samana, a tranquil sheet of water, separated from the Bay proper by several small islands, but which can be entered only by vessels drawing less than twenty feet. Beyond Samana the coast becomes a little less steep and the verdure-covered mountains recede sufficiently to give room to narrow coast plains, thickly grown with cocoa-nut palms. Along the beach are landscapes of idyllic beauty. Deep water extends up to the shore and there are half a dozen points which excel for landing places. Some twenty miles from Samana the last offshoots from the mountains encompass the town of Sanchez. Beyond in a large semi-circle, the end of the Bay is skirted by the great swamp which comprises the Gran Estero and the delta of the Yuna River. The town of Sanchez, the terminus of the railroad from La Vega, is an important outlet for the products of the Royal Plain, but though one of the principal ports of the Republic its situation on Samana Bay is unfavorable. Located where the Samana mountains slope into the Gran Estero, the site is ill adapted for the expansion of the settlement; the vicinity of the great marsh is not inviting, though the prevailing eastern breezes serve to drive back its noxious emanations; and the harbor, even now so shallow that vessels are obliged to anchor a mile from shore, is gradually silting up with sediment from the Yuna River. The story goes that the selection of this unpropitious spot for the terminus of the railroad was due to the passion of a moment. A tract of land at Point Santa Capuza, five miles down the bay, where a level coast plain and deep water up to the very shore invited the establishment of a port, had previously been chosen. The railroad had been extended to this spot and the foundations of the shops were being laid when the principal owner of the road, who was directing the construction work, learned that several of his engineers had acquired a controlling interest in a portion of the site of the projected town. The choleric Scotchman immediately removed his headquarters to Las Canitas, where Sanchez is now located, and though a vast amount of digging and filling was necessary the shops were erected here and the road to Santa Capuza was abandoned. The railroad has since purchased, for a song, almost all the land which caused the trouble, but as it has only recently expended L10,000 in the extension of its wharf at