San Pedro de Macoris is the principal port for the exportation of sugar. Its harbor is commodious, but access thereto is rendered difficult by a bar traversed only by a narrow and tortuous channel. Extensive harbor improvements were here undertaken under a concession which caused considerable litigation and discussion until it was redeemed by the government by means of the 1907 bond issue.
In the forty miles intervening between San Pedro de Macoris and Santo Domingo City, about the only place of interest is the Bay of Andres, midway between the two cities, which is the home of innumerable wild ducks. The City of Santo Domingo is situated on the west bank of the Ozama River, the mouth of which constitutes the city's harbor. Since the town was founded four centuries ago the width of the river here seems to have diminished by fully one-fourth owing to accretion along the shores. A bar across the entrance renders access impracticable for vessels drawing more than fifteen feet of water. This bar has given considerable trouble, for at times it has grown in such manner as to leave a depth of but five feet. It is now kept open by means of jetties and dredging. Within the bar the river is perfectly smooth and vessels can without trouble draw up to the dock, but the roadstead outside is generally very rough and the embarking and disembarking of passengers is attended with experiences more exciting than pleasant. At this place more than one passenger has had an involuntary bath and many a piece of luggage lies at the bottom of the sea. On two occasions on which I disembarked here in stormy weather it seemed an even wager that the boat would be swamped before reaching the river mouth.
The wall of coral rock girding the coast continues as far as Point Palenque, when it is succeeded by sandy beach. This inhospitable shore has been the witness of stirring episodes, for it was near Fort San Geronimo where the American troops came ashore in 1916; at the mouth of the Jaina that Drake disembarked in 1586 to accomplish his bold reduction of Santo Domingo City; at the cove of Najayo where Penn and Venables landed in 1655 in their unsuccessful descent upon the colony; and near Port Palenque where a British force under Carmichael landed in 1809 to assist the Dominicans in retaking Santo Domingo City from the French. Off Point Palenque, too, in 1806 a British squadron under Vice-Admiral Duckworth defeated a French squadron commanded by Rear-Admiral Lessiegues, forcing two French ships-of-the-line ashore and capturing several other vessels. The ports are all shallow and unsheltered, but are occasionally visited by coasting sloops in quest of timber and other products of the country.