keep the remainder. The old records show that the royalty was several millions per annum for two hundred years or more, a fact which indicates how enormous the profit must have been; for the miners and officials were no more honest in those days than now, and it is not to be supposed that the entire share to which his Majesty was entitled always reached him.

The fortifications of Carthagena surpass in extent and solidity those of any other city in the New World. The massive walls appear impregnable, and the ancient subterranean passages leading out to the foot of the adjacent mountains are still visible. The entrance to the magnificent harbor is studded with old forts, which though not used for more than half a century, seem almost as good as new. Formerly the city was connected by a ship-channel with the river Magdalena, at a point many leagues above the delta, and was,

the saints, battle fields and famous generals; but the houses are not numbered, and it is difficult for a stranger to find one that he happens to want to visit. The police do duty only at night. During the day the citizens take care of themselves. Four policemen are stationed at the four corners of a plaza. Every fifteen minutes a bell rings, which causes the guardians of the city to blow their whistles and change posts. By this system, it is impossible for them to sleep on their beats. They are armed with lassos, and by the dexterous use of this formidable weapon they pinion the prowling thief when he is trying to escape. They also have a short bayonet as an additional weapon. Petty thefts are the chief crimes. The natives are not quarrelsome nor dishonest. They will steal a little thing; but as messengers you can trust them with thousands of dollars. When they work, they go at it in earnest, but they are not fond of exertion. It is a curious sight to see

cargadors with their loads. They generally go in pairs, one behind the other, bearing a stretcher. The natives of the lower class are fond of drinking and gambling. They have a beverage called chica, which has a vile smell. It does not intoxicate as quickly as whiskey, but stupefies.

Society is very exclusive, and strangers call first. If the visit is returned, the doors of society are opened. The predominating language is Spanish, but all the upper classes speak French. They get everything from France, too, in the way of dress and luxuries. It is absolutely necessary to speak Spanish to do business. The city is a combination of paradoxes of great wealth, of great poverty; and there is a curious mixture of customs that often puzzles the stranger. The foremost men in the mercantile, political, and literary circles are from the old Castilian families, but, by intermarriage, mixed blood runs in their veins.

The ruling class are the politicians, but these are more under the control of the military than is generally the case elsewhere. Out of the thirty-three presidents that have ruled the republic seventeen have been generals in the army. Among the leading minds are highly educated men who converse and write fluently in several languages, who can demonstrate most difficult problems in astronomy or mathematics, can dictate a learned philosophical discourse, or dispute with any of the scholars or statesmen of the world.

Their constitution, laws, and government are modeled after those of the United States; their financial policies after England; their fashions, manners, and customs after the French; their literature, verbosity, and suavity after the Spaniards.

The decline of Carthagena seems to have commenced with the present century, and to have steadily continued until within the past fifteen years, when the commerce of the country began to revive. In the meantime, the ship-canal, connecting the port with the great fluvial highway of the interior, having fallen into disuse, became filled up and overgrown with tropical jungle; so that the few foreign trading-vessels visiting the coast sought harbor farther up, at a place

called Barranquilla, near the mouth of the Magdalena. Barranquilla has rapidly become the chief city of commercial importance within the United States of Colombia, and is the residence of many of the principal merchants of the republic. It is a growing place, which had only a few houses twenty years ago, but now has a population of nearly twenty-five thousand. Situated so near the outlet of the Magdalena River, it seems destined to increase in size and commerce, and to become to Colombia what New York is to the United States the great emporium of the republic. Aspinwall and Panama, free ports, are more stages on a highway of nations than a part of this country. Also Barranquilla has many things in its favor. The custom-house is there, and all the river steamers and sailing-vessels on the Magdalena, conveying from the vast backlying interior to the coast the multitudinous products of the country, start from and return to this place.

But Barranquilla has its drawbacks. As soon as it secured a little commerce, a large bar began to form at the mouth of the river, and this has grown until it has become a sand-spit which prevents the entrance of steamers. Then a new town, called Sabanilla, was started on the spit; this is connected with Barranquilla by a railway fourteen miles long, owned and operated by a German company. But the harbor of Sabanilla, though now the principal one of the republic, is neither convenient nor safe. It is shallow, full of shifting sand-bars, and exposed to furious wind-storms.

So with the opening of the ancient shipchannel, between Carthagena and Calamar, or the construction of a railway between the first-named point and Barranquilla (both of which enterprises are agitated), Carthagena may regain her ancient prestige and become the chief port of the republic.

Barranquilla is the most modern town in Colombia except Aspinwall, which it resembles somewhat. It has some fine houses and a large foreign colony, many of its merchants being Germans, who live in good style and enjoy many comforts at an enormous cost; for flour is twenty-five dollars a barrel, meat twentyfive cents a pound, beer twenty-five cents

a glass, and everything else in proportion. There is nothing in plenty but fruits and flies. The town is the capital of the State of Sabanilla, and has a considerable military garrison, which is important in keeping down insurrections. During the revolution of 1885, Barranquilla was the headquarters of the rebel army, and commanding the only outlet from the interior, it is naturally a place of consequence, from a military as well as from a commercial point of view.

Sabanilla is a most desolate place, nothing but sand, filth, and poverty; and were it not for the sea-breeze that constantly sweeps across the barren peninsula upon which it stands, the inhabitants could not survive. No one lives there except a colony of cargadors, boatmen, and roustabouts, who swarm, like so many animals in filthy huts built of palmleaves, and a few saloon-keepers, who give them wine in exchange for the money they earn. The men and women are almost naked, and the children entirely so. Perhaps one reason for the nastiness of the place is because there is no fresh water; but the inhabitants ought not to be excused on this account, as the beach furnishes as fine bathing as can be found in the world, and is at their very doors. All the fresh water used has to be brought in canoes from a point eight miles up the river, and is sold by the dipperful; but only a moderate quantity is necessary for consumption. Most of the inhabitants are Canary Islanders,

who monopolize the boating business along the coast; but sprinkled among them are many Italians, and nearly every nation on earth is represented, even China. The only laundry is run by a Chinaman, and another of that nationality is cook at a house that is used as a substitute for a hotel. The boatmen are drunken, quarrelsome, desperate wretches; murder is frequent among them, and gambling the chief amuse

ment.

The great valley of the Magdalena, extending from the Caribbean coast to the equatorial line, is one of inexhaustible resources. Its width varies from one hundred to one hundred and fifty miles before gradually sloping to a point in the northern borders of the equator. At the mouth of the river Cauca that valley branches off into another of less general width but of greater elevation; this consequently possesses a more equable and temperate climate. The river Cauca is it self navigable by a light-draught steamer as far as Cali, a point less than eighty miles from the port of Buenaventura on the Pacific coast. The lower valley of the Magdalena is one vast alluvial plain, a large portion of which is subject to periodical overflow. In fact, during the rainy season the greater part of it is usually under water. This, however, might be prevented, and the fertile lands reclaimed by a system of dikes far less expensive than those of the lower Mississippi. But in a country where popula

season the banks are full, and the current so strong that the little steamers cannot make much progress; but if the moon is bright enough to show the course, they are kept in motion night and day. In the dry season the river is shallow, and the boats have to tie up at dark, and remain so till daylight. Then, on nearly every voyage they run aground, and often stick for a day or two, sometimes a week, before they can be floated.

The boats are similar to those used upon the Ohio and other rivers, with a paddle-wheel behind, and draw only a foot or two of water even when heavily laden. There are two steamboat companies, both with United States capital. During the revolution all the boats were seized by the insurgents. Their

miles are a vast plain, which is under water about two months in the year, during the floods of the rainy season, but at other times is covered with cattle, which are driven into the mountains before the floods come.

The banks along the river were formerly occupied by profitable plantations, which were worked by negro slaves, as neither the Spaniards nor the native Indians could endure the climate and the mosquitoes. But when the emancipation of the slaves took place, in 1824, the plantations were abandoned, and have since been so overgrown with tropical vegetation that no traces of their former cultivation exist. The negroes, who have descended from the former slaves, have relapsed into a condition of semi-barbar

ism, and while they still occupy the old estancias, lead a lazy, shiftless, degraded life, subsisting upon fish and the fruits which grow everywhere in wonderful profusion. Nature provides for them, and no amount of wages can tempt them to work. There have sprung up along the river a few small villages, which are trading stations, and furnish some freight for the steamers in the shape of fruit, poultry, eggs, cocoa-nuts, and similar articles, raised and marketed by the women of the country.

The river itself is a great natural curiosity. It flows almost directly northward, and drains an enormous area of mountains that are constantly covered with snow. The current is as swift as that of the Mississippi, which it resembles, and the water, always muddy, is so full of sediment that one can hear it striking the sides of the boat. This water will not mix at once with the sea, and for miles in the ocean it can be distinguished. In some places the river is seven or eight miles wide; at others, where it has cut its way through the rolling earth, scarcely more than a hundred yards.

The mosquitoes are prodigious in size, and at some seasons of the year, when

the winds are strong and blow them from the jungles, it is almost impossible to endure them. The officers and deck-hands of the boat all wear thick veils over their faces, and heavy buck-skin gloves, awake or asleep; and passengers, unless similarly protected, are subject to the most intense torment. Often the swarms are so thick that they obscure the sky, and the sound of humming is so loud that it resembles the murmur of an approaching storm.

Some ludicrous stories are told about adventures with the mosquitoes. I have been solemnly assured that very often when they have attacked a boat and driven its captain and crew below, they have broken the windows of the cabin by plunging in swarms against them, and have attempted to burst in the doors. Although this may be something of an exaggeration, it is nevertheless true that frequently horses and cattle, after the most frightful sufferings, have died from mosquito-bites on board the vessels. Not long ago a herd of valuable cattle were being taken from the United States to a ranch up the Magdalena River, and became so desperate under the attacks of the mosquitoes that they broke from