NOTES ON NEW GRANADA.

BY AN ENGLISH RESIDENT.

THE limited knowledge possessed in this country of many parts of Spanish America, which the Spaniards so jealously closed against Europeans, during their long and torpid dominion of three centuries, has often been a subject of surprise and regret. Of the state of New Granada, especially, which recently formed the principal section of the Republic of Colombia, but little information exists in England, and public attention has naturally been turned to it of late, owing to the growing interest of one of its provinces, Panama, on whose site is preparing one part of the realization of that magnificent scheme, which has so long been a cherished object of navigation and commerce, and which Philip the Second, in all his pride of power and extent of dominion, feared to undertake: the junction of the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans.

It has therefore been considered, that some notice of that country, by an Englishman who long resided there, could not at this moment fail to be acceptable.

The general route for travellers into the Republic of New Granada, is the passage up the river Magdalena; through the ports of Santa Martha or Carthagena, principally the latter, for the only other route, that by Maracaibo, presents so many obstacles to the traveller, from the almost impassable state of the road, and an ill-supplied country, as to render the journey almost impracticable. The winds and sea are usually high, in running from Jamaica along the coast of Santa Martha, which consists of well-wooded mountains of moderate height.

The city of Carthagena is seen to great advantage from the sea; its massy fortifications, white houses, and numerous churches and steeples, contrasting strikingly with the verdure and foliage around, in the midst of which, the Popa, a precipitous and richly-wooded hill, five hundred feet high, is conspicuous behind the city to the east; a convent, now in ruins, formerly flourished there, as one of the richest in the country, receiving the vows and offerings of endangered mariners. The entrance by the Boca Grande, about three-quarters of a mile wide, still remains, thoroughly closed to large vessels, after more than a century since its stoppage.

One source of interest is almost entirely wanting in the New World: that which arises from historical recollection or associations.

Yet Carthagena, to an English mind at least, presents features of historical interest. He feels a respect for a fortified city, which resisted a force of twenty-five English sail of the line, accompanied by a large body of troops. The failure of the expedition was, indeed, mainly to be attributed to the discord unhappily existing between the two commanders by sea and land, yet the fortress must have been formidable, which could withstand such an attack. Carthagena was considered by the Spaniards as the bulwark of New Granada. In its fortifications enormous sums were expended, which absorbed for some years nearly the whole revenues of the Colony, and so large was the annual expenditure

required for their maintenance, and that of the garrisons, that an annual subsidy of 200,000 dollars (or 40,000l.) was furnished for that purpose from the treasury of the Havannah. The operation alone of closing Boca Grande, is officially reported to have cost about 300,000, and was complained of by the Viceroy Mendinueta, who governed between 1797 and 1803, as a constant drain on the revenue. The Viceroy Guirior also complained that the treasury was ruined by the expence of its fortifications and Guarda-costas, and one of his successors, Ezpeleta, says, that from 1779 to 1791, 454,000 dollars were paid for ordnance stores, exclusive of the guns, in Carthagena alone.*

A garrison of 9000 men is required to man the whole of the ramparts, the circumference of which may be estimated at two miles; but such a force has not been assembled in the city since its abandonment by the Spaniards, nor a quarter of it, since the siege by Murillo in 1815. Its cisterns to supply water during a siege are immense and enduring works; but neglect and ruin have now entirely prostrated the strength of Carthagena: its walls are considerably dilapidated in many places, though part of the funds derived from the English loans was employed to repair them. All its iron guns are so corroded with rust as to be entirely unserviceable, many of them are dismounted, and the only ones remaining fit for use are several fine French cannou, of bronze, and a few mortars of the same. The fort of San Felipe, between the city and the Popa, which Smollett described as so formidable under the name of San Lazaro, is also greatly dilapidated; there are very few guns mounted on it, in the Popa scarcely any, and those in unsafe condition. The Report of the Minister of War to the Congress of New Granada in 1837, represented the arsenal of Carthagena to be in so bad a state as to be utterly useless, there not being means in it of repairing the two gunboats stationed there. The approach by sea was, he said, in an equally bad state; the canal of Boca Chica was rapidly filling with sand, and the bar at the entrance was at times dangerous. The Report added that all the efforts of the government to remedy the increasing obstruction were useless, in consequence of the difficulties thrown in its way by the inferior officials, and that the port would soon become inaccessible unless Art should assist Nature in re-opening the entrance of Boca Grande. In a Bogotà gazette of that year, was an official enumeration of small sums expended by the executive to repair parts of the fortifications which were stated to be "totally ruined," and in the following year 60,000 dollars, were expended in patching them up. This neglect of the fortifications of Carthagena was not always the consequence of distress or neglect alone, but resulted partly from the jealousy of the other provinces, whose inhabitants, after the departure of the Spaniards, complaining that all the revenue of the Republic was expended there, refused to vote the necessary sums for repairs, and even expressed a desire to destroy the fortifications as burthensome and useless. An additional cause of weakness to Carthagena has arisen since the time of the Spaniards. Previously to that period, the garrison, however pressed by sea, was supplied regularly by land; whereas, in the attacks on the city during the civil war, the assailants have generally become masters of the approaches by land, and, by the help of a

The reports of these Viceroys form part of a series, from 1760 to 1803, in the possession of the writer. Each viceroy was required to furnish a statistical report to his successor on the mines, finance, and commerce of the Colony.

small vessel or two, to blockade the entry by sea, have speedily starved it into surrender. The only close and protracted siege, since the Revolution, was that sustained by the patriots against Murillo in 1815, when the besieged were deprived of all external resources, even of the precarious one of fish from the bay. To such extremity were they reduced, that a cat sold for eight dollars, a dog for sixteen or twenty, and even rats were eaten; 300 individuals died of hunger in the streets in one day, and 6000, a third of the population, perished during the siege, which lasted 108 days.

This distress was occasioned by the zealous adherence to Murillo of the inhabitants of all the villages round Carthagena, who were ruined by civil dissensions, and longed for tranquillity. The endurance of the besieged was encouraged by the natural dread entertained of Murillo, which induced all within-including a vast proportion of useless mouths, who should have been expelled before the hour of danger to prefer the chance of death by war or starvation to the certainty of it at his hands. The event proved them right in their calculation, for it is stated that the Spanish commander spared neither sex nor age, nor even the sick. After the capture of the city

he butchered the lazarenos (lepers) whom he found in it; and a Colombian officer blew out his brains rather than surrender and fall into his hands. He wrote to one of his subordinate officers in Antioquia, instructing him not to keep prisoners but to shoot them, as they embarrassed the movements of the army; even a previous promise of safety afforded no security, as the Spanish officers proclaimed everywhere that no faith was to be kept with rebels. This cruelty was general and systematic among the Spaniards, including even some of those who had entered the Colombian service and left it to rejoin their countrymen. One Spanish medical officer employed in the Colombian army, and married to a native, destroyed himself in a fit of remorse, confessing that he had poisoned 400 Colombian sick soldiers in the hospital. The royal army by such proceedings encouraged their enemies to resist, and were not long in discovering the impolicy of their cruelty.*

The city of Carthagena is hardly less dilapidated and untenanted than its fortifications. In the time of the Spaniards it contained with its suburbs, 25,000 inhabitants; its population has been officially stated at 12,000 in 1824; it had about the same number in 1830, and about 11,000 in 1838,-less than it held two centuries ago, for Robertson states its population was 25,000, so far back as 1612. It has declined ever since the galeons ceased to frequent it in 1748, and foreign war and civil disturbances have completed its ruin. Its convents, built and maintained by the Spaniards, and now abolished by the congress, were seven in number: San Diego, which in 1838 was the prison; San Agustin, then made a college, but its church was too ruinous for use; San Domingo; San Francisco; San Juan de Dios; that of the Jesuits; and that of La Merced, converted into barracks; there was also the convent of Santa Teresa for nuns. All these had their churches, besides which there were those of La Trinidad and San Toribio, and a large and splendid cathedral. There are twenty-two churches in all; the architecture of the larger of these is principally remarkable for spaciousness, and the great height of their roofs. The cathedral contains a very rich pulpit, faced with white marble, and * RESTREPO, "Historia de Colombia."

adorned with bas reliefs, beautifully executed, which was said to be brought from Italy. There existed also under the Spaniards a very spacious and handsome college, since become a private house. There were, in 1838, two convents for sale in the city, but no purchasers were forthcoming. The houses of the city are almost all of brick, and those of the better classes are large and handsome, with thick walls which exclude the heat of the sun; awnings and lattices are used, for there is hardly a glass window in the city. In many of the better houses the windows of the ground-floor, towards the street, retain the strong iron gratings affixed by the Spaniards from motives of jealousy or defence: the floors are generally of fine smooth brick, some of marble. Almost all the houses have wooden balconies proportioned to their size, in which, or at the doors, the inhabitants sit in the evening, smoking cigars and chatting. A strong double outer door leads into a vestibule, called by the Arabic name saguan, whence a slight door in the middle of a wooden partition leads into a patio, or paved court-yard, round which are rooms that serve for magazines or offices, and in its centre is sometimes a tank, and more rarely a well. On the first floor, is a gallery all round the interior of the house, looking down on the patio; the side of this gallery, joining the front side of the house, is wider than the other three, and forms an open room, in which the family generally take their meals. The rooms are large, and have doors leading from one to the other, all round the house. On the roofs are terraces, which are resorted to in the mornings and evenings. The houses greatly resemble those of Syria and the warmest parts of the Levant; the first settlers who emigrated from the south of Spain having naturally followed the Moorish fashions prevailing there. The larger houses of all the cities throughout New Granada are built on the same pattern; except that, in the colder countries of the interior, the well or cistern stands in a second court behind, the first and principal one being filled with flower-beds. All means are adopted of admitting air; the upper rooms have no other ceiling than the shelving roof, which, being whitewashed, looks neat and cool, and excludes the swarms of rats, bats, and vermin which find a dwelling in the space between the ceiling and the roof. Most of the better houses are provided with baths, as no one dares bathe in the sea for fear of sharks. The furniture is scanty and simple, consisting generally of a few wooden tables and chairs, a mat, bed, two or three brass candlesticks, and a large jar, called a tinaja, for holding water, which is commonly placed in a thorough draught. The inferior houses are small, close, dirty, and full of smoke. Most of the streets are narrow, and darkened by the projection of the balconies, but a few are of a good width, straight, and regular; that of San Agustin, one of the widest, is twenty-four feet wide; the larger ones have a good stone or brick trottoir on each side, but no centre paving (that laid down by the Spaniards having been worn out by the traffic, and never repaired), so that it is filled alternately with dust and mud; a large proportion of the pavement consists of organic remains, principally madripore and conglomerate.

The busiest part of Carthagena is the Gate of Ximini (Gethsemane), opening to the east, outside of which is an extensive unpaved square, wherein is a large church, and streets, and buildings beyond it, forming the suburbs of Chambacú and Ximini, the former of which is sometimes unhealthy, owing to the presence of a large stagnant pool at its

extremity. This square, facing the sea, is a pleasant promenade at sunset for pedestrians; in it is held the market early on Sunday mornings. This market appears less considerable than would be looked for in a large city, and consists almost exclusively of tropical vegetables. Among the fruits are some very good figs; occasionally is seen a turtle, which, however, the native cookery renders little palatable. The better classes eat a fair proportion of animal food, chiefly pork, which is very good; poultry, fish and game, among which latter the tasteless red-legged partridge, which is very tame, and in many of the villages round Carthagena runs in and out of the houses like our barndoor fowls. One evening, on returning from his ride, the writer met some men driving two oxen to be slaughtered, and a foreign resident who was of the party said, that it was usual to beat the poor animals with thick sticks in the night to make the flesh tender, and to kill them at daylight. The great staple of food is the plantain, which, says Padra Gumillo in his work of "El Orinoco Ilustrado," serves for bread, meat, vinegar, sweetmeat and drink to the Indians, who make a strong beverage from its juice, mixed with warm water; it seemed to be esteemed by them as the palm-tree was by the Arabs, who boasted, as Gibbon records, that it could be applied to three hundred and sixty-five different uses; and the same Spanish author describes the palm tree as affording multifarious benefits to the Indians.

The market was crowded with black women-who show here the same passion for gaudy colours as in the West Indies-and naked children; for very few, even of the higher classes, put any clothing on their young children, and among the lower orders it is not uncommon to see boys of twelve or thirteen years old walking about quite naked. The women carried their children, as is usual in the East Indies, and in most hot countries, straddling across their hips.

Out of the Ximini gate lies the road that passes the Popa, over a small plain, about two miles long, which is the only ground near the city level and smooth enough for carriages; this is therefore the drive of the beau monde, who may be seen here every dry evening, enjoying the air in carriages, gigs, and volantes-two-wheeled Spanish carriages, old caléches with tops, like the hackney-carriages in Madrid, so faithfully represented in the old French edition of "Gil Blas," by the carriage conveying him and Scipio to their country-house at Lirias;-the driver is mounted on the horse. The carts used here are strong and clumsy, and drawn by oxen fastened to them by a heavy wooden yoke. On each side of the drive are country houses with small gardens in front, and cottages; some of the former are very gaudily painted with lively colours. Above these, to the left, or north, rises the fort of San Felipe.

The Popa, which is little more than a mile from the city, can only be visited on horse or on foot, as the plain is not passable for carriages the whole way, though there was, twenty years ago, a good carriage-road to ascend the hill itself. Large remains existed in 1830 of the ruined convent, and some neat detached cottages, built for the residence of a few families during the hot season; but a few years after, the road had dwindled into a narrow path choked with brushwood, a part of the convent had fallen, and its only inhabitant was a man stationed to announce to the city, by signals from a fly-post, the appearance of a ship in sight; not a wall was standing of the cottages, and the very slabs of the floors had been taken away.