It seems that the
first records were destroyed by Drake in 1583, and almost all the
later ones succumbed to the negligence of man and the voracity of the
tropical insects. When the government of Cuba in 1906 honored the
request of the government of the Dominican Republic for the return of
such of the records of the audiencia of Santo Domingo as were still
extant, it could find in its national archives and turn over but a
score of bundles of documents, mostly records of suits regarding land
boundaries in the eighteenth century, of little historic value. These
and several small mahogany bookcases still preserved in the present
audiencia of Havana, are the only tangible remains of this
noted court.
When Santo Domingo again came under Spanish rule in 1809, the colony
was included in the territorial jurisdiction of the audiencia of
Caracas. Upon the beginning of Haitian rule in 1822, when most of the
distinguished citizens, including judges and lawyers, left the
country, they took with them the ancient legal system. The Haitians
imposed their laws, namely, the Code Napoleon and other French codes.
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