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 /. 
 
 A RAMBLE 
 
 IN 
 
 NEV\^ GRANADA. 
 
 The Magdalena River. — The Mountains. — Table Lands.— ! 
 
 Llanos.— Carnivero us Animals and Reptiles and other | 
 
 Enemies of Human Life. — Modes of Travel. I 
 
 . - i 
 
 BOGOTA AS A WINTER SANITARIUM. | 
 
 Observations upon the General Attitude of the Spanish ; 
 Races towards the Modern Tendencies to Civflization, '' 
 
 j 
 
 PlY f 
 
 ERASTUS WILSON, M. D. 
 
 NEW YORK: 
 
 G. W. CARLETON & CO , PUBLISHERS. 
 
 LONDON: S. LOW & CO. 
 
 MDCCCLXXVm. 
 
A RAMBLE 
 
 IN 
 
 NE^A/ GRANADA. 
 
 The Magdalena River. — The Mountains. — Tabl?; Lands. — 
 
 Llanos. — Carniverous Animals and Reptiles and other 
 
 Enemies of Human Life. — Modes of Travel. 
 
 BOGOTA AS A WLVTER SANITARIUM. 
 
 Observations upon the General Attitude of the Spanish 
 • Races towards the Modern Tendencies to Civilization, 
 
 MEDICUS. 
 
 NEW YORK, 1878. 
 
NEW YORK TO HAYTI 
 
 AND THE 
 
 SPANISH MAIN. 
 
 We sailed from New York the 27th pf October, 
 1877, shivering under our light overcoats, that cold, 
 disagreeable morning, on the steamer Etna^ a very 
 seaworthy freight steamer, but with poor passen- 
 ger accommodations. 
 
 Slowly we steamed down the bay, as if our 
 craft shared with us our reluctant parting, though 
 Boreas was thus early hovering over our northern 
 home with his icy breath, and Jupiter Pluvius 
 seemed in league with him to make us less regret- 
 ful of our winter' s absence. 
 
 It was past meridian before we were fairly out- 
 side the Hook and had turned our prow towards 
 the sunny south. Twelve years residence in the 
 metropolis of the Greater Antilles had already 
 made us familiar with the attractions and some of 
 the repulsions of the inter- tropics for a winter res- 
 idence, and more willing to shrink from the winter 
 of the north temperate zone, though its advanta- 
 ges in many ways are clearly obvious to all, except 
 intellectual blindness. 
 
 After passing Hateras, our overcoats became su- 
 perfluous, and in twenty-four hours more, insu- 
 
portable ; tlie weather was admirable, and no inci- 
 dent worth relating occurred in our transit till we- 
 reached Gfonaives, in the Republic of Hayti, on 
 Friday evening, the 2nd of ISTovember. At this 
 port we remained, discharging and taking in cargo,, 
 until Monday noon following, broiling under a. 
 most relentless inter-tropical sun, whose heat was- 
 almost insufferable. 
 
 Sunday was the anniversary of the patron saint 
 of Gonaives, and a Haytian war steamer arrived 
 on Saturday afternoon with President Canals on 
 board to give the eclat of his presence to the feast. 
 Tlie ship bringing the President and suite, in- 
 cluding the high officials of the Avmy and Navy,. 
 came to anchor near our ship, and after the cere- 
 monies of debarkation, the chief engineer, Mr. 
 Buslmell from Connecticut, U. S. A., came ort 
 board of our vessel and invited our captain and 
 ourselves to go on shore, where we were introduced 
 to the Presidential party and invited to the Ball ta 
 be given in its honor that evening. * 
 
 The night, however, came on dark and gusty, 
 and landing consequently dangerous, so we deemed 
 it more prudent not to avail ourselves of the po- 
 lite attention, though an official boat came off for 
 us about 11 o'clock, p. m. 
 
 During our stay on shore we witnessed the mili- 
 tary parade, composed of a battalion of infantry 
 whose dress was rather multiform than uniform, 
 as also the armament ; and the marching was by' 
 no means equal to the best European standards. 
 
Indeed the wliole affair seemed a laughable bur- 
 lesqae. Here are, surely, worn by the officers, 
 military suits more ancient than the wearers, some 
 •of them, no doubt, antedating Toussaint T Over- 
 ture, being vestiges of the French domination. It 
 is a curious spectacle, to be long remembered. 
 The ebony privates straggling along in the most 
 unsoldierly indolence, in step as discordant as the 
 notes of the nondescript musical instruments which 
 cannot be said to mark the time, the officers now 
 -and anon berating this want of harmon}^, to be 
 scolded in turn, in presence of his men, by a high- 
 er officer, for excess of zeal ; both clearly actuated 
 by personal vanity seeking opportunity for exhibi- 
 tion of authority to admiring friends. To heighten 
 the ludicrous effect, we were told by a foreign res- 
 ident that during the Franco-German war an edi- 
 torial article upon it in the leading newspaper of 
 the capital, closed with the following apostrophy : 
 *' Courage, brave France, Hayti is looking on.'' 
 
 A shark's leap after indigestible food. 
 
 As the German steamer lying near us drew up 
 its anchor somewhat quickly with its steam wind- 
 lass, and when it was about fifteen feet above the 
 water a monstrous shark that had no doubt dis- 
 covered from a distance the moving object in the 
 water and pursued it, leapt after it perpendicular- 
 ly more than its full length, some twelve to four- 
 teen feet, into the air. 
 
On Monday, Nov. 5th, we sailed from Gonaives 
 and arrived at Port au Prince the same evening. 
 We remained at Port au Prince nntil Friday, 
 Nov. 9th, as all cargo has to be got out of and into 
 the ship by means of lighters or launches ; a long 
 and tedious mode of handling cargo. 
 
 POET AU PEINCE, 
 
 The capital, is situated at the head of Gonaives 
 Bay, on the west coast of Hayti, about sixty mile& 
 due south from the town of Gonaives. It is locat- 
 ed at the foot of the mountains that rise in close- 
 proximity to the bay, and contains about 20,000 
 inhabitants. Among these is a sprinkling of whites,, 
 the foreign element, engaged in trade ; but these- 
 are under legal disabilities intended to prevent 
 their becoming a permanent element of the popu- 
 lation. The town is composed mostly of wooden, 
 tumble-down looking houses, the streets unpaved,. 
 with surface sewage, and is in consequence, to- 
 gether with its climate, very unhealthy. Even the 
 waters of the anchorage are offensive to the olfac- 
 tories of strangers unaccustomed to their peculiar 
 odors. This anchorage is so shut in by the moun- 
 tains on the east and south that the breezes do not 
 reach it, and the torrid sun is here so ardent that 
 during the day we are sweltering under the can- 
 vas awning on deck, and at night are dreaming of 
 ''shapes hot from Tartarus," which cannot be far 
 away. 
 
The day after our arrival an old sea captain 
 (Ellis) familiar with these regions, now an agent 
 of the Underwriters, and a passenger on our ship, 
 borrowed the captain' s gig and invited ns and a 
 fellow passenger to a sail about the bay in the 
 hope of finding some sport at duck shooting, and 
 perhaps some cool breezes farther out at the lob- 
 ster islands. Delighted with the thought of such 
 a possibility and armed with our sun umbrellas 
 and two Kemington sporting rifles, we set out on 
 our cruise. Passing outside the anchorage north 
 coastwise we are soon in clear water and gazing 
 in admiration at the huge masses and varied forms 
 of the coral reefs that spread themselves in threat- 
 ening proximity beneath our keel, sometimes rising 
 to give us a bump that seems to say : "Don't you 
 see by the surface indications that you can't come 
 here ? If you are not careful we will stick one of 
 our sharp points through your bottom ! " Having 
 an old salt at our helm we got no dangerous blows 
 however, and although the coral bottom is always 
 in sight and appeared to be near the surface we 
 find by occasional measurement, with the oar, that 
 it is generally a considerable distance beneath us. 
 
 Although we find the sea breezes very scarce, we, 
 after a couple of hours sail, discover indications of 
 ducks and get our rifles ready. Yes ! there goes 
 one up ! steady the helm, there are more of them 
 far in towards shore. Now keep to windward an d 
 run down on them quickly, we will get within 
 rifle range as they will cross our bows in their rise. 
 
AH is now bustle and anticipation among us three 
 on our little craft. Yes, there are seven or eight 
 of them, and from our present position they are 
 ranged so as to present a group to us. ' ' Steady 
 now," says the captain, ''be ready, we are near- 
 ing them rapidly and they will soon get up. JN'ow 
 we are in range, take the large rifle and give them 
 a shot before they rise," says the captain. Sure 
 enough, they are now huddled together prepara- 
 tory to their rise. ' ' Take care, not a moment to 
 lose ; you will have a surer aim w^hile they are 
 sitting on the water." Glowing with the enjoy- 
 ment of the critical moment of a sportsman's op- 
 portunity, we raised the long range rifle to our 
 face, balancing ourselves carefully so as not to be 
 affected by the movements of the boat. With 
 careful precision we draw a fine bead upon our in- 
 tended victims and fire. Our aim was only too 
 sure and sent the necks of two decoy ducks flying 
 through the air, and a wild hubbub on shore now 
 discovers to us that our excitement had blinded 
 us to the presence of a bush- shanty on shore, in 
 blunderbus range of the group we had fired upon. 
 We atone for our humiliating blunder by purchas- 
 ing three ducks at half a dollar each, and go on 
 our way wdser in the arts of Haytian sports, while 
 the innocent pelicans had to suffer the consequen- 
 ces of our chagrin as we sped homeward towards 
 the ship. 
 
 While waiting here we were graciously received, 
 and hospitably entertained by our Minister, Mr. 
 
Basset, at his house on tlie mountain side, some 
 three hundred feet above the town. Mr. Basset 
 has resided here nine years. He is a mulatto, 45 
 years of age, of good natural abilities, gentle- 
 manly education and instincts, and, we think, 
 makes an excellent and effective diplomatic repre- 
 sentative. . His residence is delightfull}^ situated 
 with a clear view over the town and bay, surround- 
 ed by shady walks, the atmosphere redolent of 
 aromatic coffee plants, orange blossoms and ole- 
 anders, and in the absence of breezes the soft even- 
 ing zephyrs play all their witching coquetries with 
 the curly locks of his bevy of chubb}^ children as 
 they sport upon the wide porch in front. Mrs. 
 Basset, a handsome and cultivated octoroon, does 
 the honors of his house vfith charming frankness 
 and dignitjT-. 
 
 Coffee grows wild here in abundance and is the 
 €hief article of export. The oranges are not near- 
 ly so sweet and luscious as in Cuba and in our 
 Southern states. 
 
 Oar six days in Hayti tend to confirm what we 
 had before strongly suspected, viz : That civilza- 
 tion in these regions must necessarily be of foreign 
 growth and importation ; a reflected light. The 
 physical conditions here must ever prevent its 
 becoming indigenous to the soil. We discover 
 evidences that a higher degree of civilization has 
 existed here and has ebbed away, is still receding, 
 perhaps never to return. Decay is doing its work. 
 
 On the evening of the 8th, we departed south- 
 
10 mum 
 
 .fi 
 
 wards, arriving at Savanilla, New Granada, mon& 
 of the Magdalena River, on the 12th. On disem- 
 barking here we took the rail to Barranquilla,. 
 fifteen miles up the river, where the Custom House- 
 is situated, and which is the real centre of com- 
 merce and foot of navigation of the river ; the- 
 actual port, up to which all ships will go as soon 
 as the bar is well surveyed and possible obstruc- 
 tions are removed. 
 
 Barranquilla is said to contain 18,000 inhabi- 
 tants, it is situated on the 11th parallel of latitude,- 
 ]S"., on low, flat, sandy soil, which absorbs the 
 rains as soon as fallen, has unpaved streets, and 
 is composed, in most part of mud houses. These 
 houses are constructed by first setting up four 
 posts, connected at top by poles, on which a 
 thatched roof is woven. The space between the 
 posts is then interwoven with split bamboo or 
 cafiabrava, and plastered over on both sides with 
 mud. The bare earth generally serves as a floor^ 
 but in the better class of mud houses it is covered 
 with a layer of bricks or stones. An unpainted 
 wooden bench to serve the general purposes of a 
 table, and some stools or chairs with a seat and 
 back of rawhide, complete the furniture, A piece 
 of straw or basket-work matting, spread upon the 
 floor by night, forms the bed of the general run>f 
 mud houses, such as we are frequently compelled 
 to lodge in while traveling in South America, as- 
 may be seen further on in our narrative, though 
 the better class of these, here in Barranquilla, are 
 
11 
 
 furnislied with the luxury of cot- bedsteads and 
 mosquito netting. There are, however, some large 
 and comfortable private residences here, though 
 not numerous. 
 
 The white sand in the streets gives a very clean- 
 ly and healthy appearance to the town, but it re- 
 flects the torrid sunbeams, making it very hot, 
 except in the afternoon, in which part of the day 
 we have had cool breezes most of the time we 
 spent here ; intermittents, however, are endemic. 
 
 As in all Spanish towns, the churches are im- 
 mense structures, forming central figures in strik- 
 ing contrast with the general impoverished appear- 
 ance of the houses. The inhabitants are a motley 
 of colors ; white, red, and black, loell mixed ; the 
 red or copper color being perhaps the prevailing 
 element, outside the foreign population. We have 
 had to wait seven days at this port for the first 
 steamer up the river, and the town is becoming 
 monotonous, so that we are glad to be again afloat, 
 even upon 
 
 THE MUDDY MAGDALET^A RIVER. 
 
 Slowly our steamer crawls out of the narrow 
 and crooked arm of the river, or canal, on which 
 the tov 1) is built, just as Vienna is built upon an 
 arm of the Danube, (if a comparison may be allow- 
 ed between such widely different places), and 
 dropped down about two miles, into the turbid 
 and rapid main river, now swollen by rains in the 
 
12 
 
 distant Cordilleras, and turned the nose of our 
 stern-wheel, Mississippi looking boat, up stream. 
 
 Fairly launched, we now^ turn to the contempla- 
 tion of our surroundings. We have paid $60, and 
 $10 extra for a stateroom, to convey us to Honda, 
 the head of navigation, a trip of from 8 to 15 days 
 when the water is high, as it now happens to be. 
 
 We find ourselves on an English built steamer, 
 brought here in sections, with open lower deck, 
 about eighteen inches above the w^ater, on which 
 are its two tubular boilers in the centre, and its 
 two steam cylinders astern ; the balance of space 
 being occupied by huge i3iles of wood for fuel, and 
 by freight that cannot be stowed below decks. 
 
 Above, an upper deck is occupied by a long 
 saloon containing dining table for passengers, and 
 ranged on each side, is a row of rough pine boxes 
 with passage ways between and outside of them, 
 utterly without furniture, except a rusty tin wash- 
 basin and pitcher, and a piece of coarse canvas, 
 stretched upon a wooden frame across one-half 
 the space inside, to serve as a bed. One of these 
 boxes is the " Stateroom^' for which we have paid 
 ten dollars extra passage money. Across the stern 
 end of the saloon is a partition, hiding closets, with 
 a wash-room on either side ; each wash-room con- 
 taining a public towel for twenty passengers. 
 The captain, Bradford by name, an American 
 from Alabama, was formerly a captain in the U. 
 S. Navy, who went into the rebellion with his 
 state, and at its close found himself wounded and 
 
13 
 
 partially disabled, with Ills occupation gone. He 
 is now in voluntar}'^ exile, content to win liis daily 
 bread for self and family in this wilderness of 
 swamp and miasm. 
 
 He is a genial and polite gentleman, solicitous 
 of the comfort of his passengers. The character 
 of the captain, however, forms a striking contrast 
 with the comfortless condition of his boat, the 
 Confianza so called, and which, by the way it 
 steamed up the now swollen and strong current, 
 taken together with the evident indifference of its 
 English proprietors to the comfort of passengers, 
 told very clearly that strength, and endurance in 
 carrying freight was the prevailing thought that 
 presided at its construction. 
 
 Preadvised of the necessity therefor, we have 
 provided ourselves with a piece of straw matting 
 to serve us as a bed, together with sheets, blanket, 
 pillow, mosquito netting, towels, etc.; and al- 
 though we found it impossible to sleep in the little 
 wooden box called stateroom, we were furnished a 
 cot bedstead in the saloon, on whicli we arranged 
 our bed for the hours of sleep. 
 
 But we are anticip:iting. It is now but 4 o' clock, 
 p. M. ; we are but just launched upon the broad 
 river with our prow directed up stream. On our 
 right hand side we have a low swampy island, on 
 which sundry cows, up to their bellies in mud 
 and water, are leisurely browsing ; beyond them 
 the low-lying town of Barranquilla, which we 
 have just left ; in its background, a low, flat coun- 
 
14 
 
 try is skirted by mountains in tlie far distance ; 
 on our left and in front of us, is a wilderness of 
 low swamp, extending farther than tlie eye can 
 reach, and through which the muddy Magdalena 
 comes pushing its tortuous way towards its moth- 
 er waters. Abundance of floating plants that 
 grow in lagoons or still -w^aters, strew the surface 
 like the wreck of some fluvial garden that the high 
 wandering waters have gleaned in swampy wastes, 
 and are bearing back with them, to tell their won- 
 derous tales to the deep blue sea. 
 
 The torrid sun, during the day, compels us to 
 keep under the awning, and as night approaches, 
 the dark, humid atmosphere warns us not to wan- 
 der from the same protecting shelter, except at 
 our peril, for we feel the breath of chills and fever, 
 and see it staring at us from the banks. 
 
 It is nightfall ; we have already tied our boat to 
 the bank and taken in more wood for fuel, and as 
 there is a passibly clear moonlight we are again 
 under way to continue our course during the night, 
 ''for one night only," because numerous snags 
 and shoals make daylight indispensable to the 
 safe navigation of this river. 
 
 The Confianza being the champion time keeper, 
 is expected, without accident, to make the trip to 
 Honda in eight days, the usual time of other boats 
 is said to be eleven, and from that to three months, 
 according to the state of the river. 
 
 On our remonstrance against the entire absence 
 of provision for the comfortable lodgment of pas- 
 
15 
 
 sengers, we are told tliat tlie line formerly pro- 
 vided bedclothing, etc. ; but that it has been so 
 mncli the habit of people after sleeping in them to 
 carry them away, the company has ceased to re- 
 place them, thereby leaving all passengers the 
 necessity of providing their own bedding, or of 
 roughing it the best way they may be able to do. 
 
 We are informed by the officers of the boat, that ' 
 the line is making from three to four thousand 
 dollars profit upon each round trip, carrying each 
 way from one thousand to fifteen hundred Cargas 
 of freight, at 4 and 5 dollars per Carga, besides the 
 passengers at sixty dollars each, and ten dollars 
 extra for the closet (Stateroom) that only served to 
 lock up chattels in, which however, judging from 
 the company' s experience with their bed-clothing, 
 would seem to be a necessary appendage. The 
 night was sultry, and a bad cold rewarded our 
 efforts to place our cot where we might get the 
 relief of a moderate circulation of air. 
 
 The following day is interspersed with various 
 grades of shower and sunshine, and on every side 
 of us is a monotonous wilderness of swamp, 
 forest trees and impenetrable jungle, -and this 
 monotony is only relieved by the lazy flight of 
 wading birds as we pass, or the plunge of the 
 alligators as the sharp crack of the Remington on 
 board, awakes them from their slumbers to a reali- 
 zation of our, to them, dangerous proximity, also 
 an occasional woodpile upon the bank, for the use 
 of passing steamers, and sometimes a hamlet of 
 
10 
 
 mud or palm-leaf huts, whose occupants mostly 
 fish their sustenance out of the muddy waters. 
 
 Our steamer is obliged to tie up at one of these 
 woodpiles twice during the day, and usually at 
 nightfall, taking in the wood by candle-light, as 
 much as she can cany, ready for an early start in 
 the morning, as is the custom on our Mississippi, 
 . twenty to thirty cords being taken at a time. It 
 is a curious and interesting spectacle to watch 
 this operation by about twenty peons, whom the 
 boat caries for this purpose, and for getting out 
 and in the cargo. 
 
 First, rough tallow candles are lighted and stuck 
 all over the woodpile, so that every moving thing 
 may be seen ; because these piles are apt to be in- 
 fested by venemous insects and reptiles. 
 
 The wood is lifted stick by stick by one peon, 
 and loaded upon the shoulder of another, who has 
 his arm and neck protected by a coarse, thick 
 bagging, and about his wrist is secured the ends of 
 a yard of rope, which he, when loaded, throws 
 over the load and catches in his other hand to bind 
 the load in its place while he carries it on board. 
 From time to time a peon, when loaded, will sud- 
 denly dash his burden to the ground as he hears 
 or feels something moving within it, or thinks he 
 does. 
 
 Then all is bustle and excitement, a lively hand- 
 ling of clubs announces an attack upon and per- 
 haps the death of some luckless intruder. 
 
 We are interested also in observing, when we 
 
17 
 
 stop at a riverside liamlet, that the employees 
 on the boat are also merchants on their own ac- 
 count, and in watching them, as also some of the 
 passengers, as they peddle their small wares, 
 such as combs, rosemaries and high colored cot- 
 ton handkerchiefs among the dwellers in these 
 slimy solitudes. Among them the Scotch-Amer- 
 ican engineer occasionally appears with Cincin- 
 nati hams, apples and lialf barrels of flour, luxu- 
 ries rarely consumed here. 
 
 During our third day on the river, we reach 
 Mompos, a considerable town of old Spanish or- 
 igin, now containing two or three thousand in- 
 habitants, an imposing church and numerous 
 houses with tiled roofs. In its vicinity along the 
 river banks, are several pieces of cleared land with 
 cattle in considerable quantities grazing upon them . 
 We stopped to wood up and a motley crowd of 
 all ages, sexes and shades of color, gathered on 
 the bank, many offering eggs, fowls, fruits and 
 some specimens of coarse pottery for sale. At 
 this point we received several accessions to our 
 passenger list, among others a medical student 
 returning to Bogota to continue his studies a 
 fourth year. This young man is intelligent, and 
 interested us by his frankness in conversation, 
 the first native who has frankly acknowledged 
 the mixture of races here. In response to my in- 
 quiry as to what proportion of the population of 
 his town is of pure white blood, he promptly 
 answered, 'Wery small, indeed," citing himself as 
 
18 
 
 an example of a mixture of white, red and black. 
 His personal appearance left no room for doubt as 
 to the rectitude of his assurance. His frankness 
 pleased us and established at once a friendly 
 intercourse between us as fellow-travelers. Anoth- 
 er, in half-indian costume with knife and re- 
 volver in his belt, hauled his canoe alongside 
 and came on board. He owns a large cattle farm 
 one day's journey farther up the river, and is on 
 an excursion buying up calves to increase his 
 stock. He speaks a few words of broken English 
 and informs us that he was five years at school 
 in Jamaica, Long Island, some twenty years 
 ago. He entertained us with many stories of 
 wild life interspersed with those of tiger-hunt- 
 ing along this river, principally higher up, where 
 the mountains and cattle farms are in nearer prox- 
 imity and more frequent. 
 
 The next or fourth day we passed another town 
 called Bancos, of about the same description as 
 Mompos, rather romantically situated at the con- 
 fluence of several rivers and strands of rivers. 
 Two leagues above this point we pass the cattle 
 farm of our fellow traveler, on the left bank of the 
 river, and he points out to us in passing, his 
 two dogs which gaze at us as we pass at some 
 distance from the shore, and which, he assures us, 
 are masters in the art of trailing the tiger and 
 bringing him to bay while himself and comrades 
 surround him with strong spears, upon which he 
 rushes to his destruction. 
 
19 
 
 These spears have cross pieces at the distance of 
 eighteen inches from their points, in order to keep 
 the fierce brute at a safe distance after he is pen- 
 etrated by the spear. The hunters here fear to at- 
 tack the tiger with the rifle, because if not hit in a 
 vital part by the first shot they will inevitably de- 
 stroy the hunter, because his terrible charge must 
 unnerve the stoutest heart and steadiest aim, so 
 that it would be only a very lucky bullet that 
 would arrest his fearful onslaught. 
 
 The tigers have killed thirty 4hree cattle on the 
 farm of our fellow-passenger during the last two 
 years, and he and his assistants have killed twen- 
 ty-one tigers in retaliation. 
 
 Their favorite mode of attack upon grown cattle 
 is to stealthily approach and spring upon them 
 while sleeping, and bite them through the nape of 
 the neck, just as their smaller feline relatives do 
 their prey ; but they often dispatch horses and 
 mules by a single blow of their powerful claws 
 upon the head, after which they eat away 
 the breast and neck, frequently returning for a 
 second meal the following night. It seldom at- 
 tacks man, and only when with great hunger or 
 when the victim is found sleeping, then he cleaves 
 open his skull with a terrible stroke of his power- 
 ful paw. When attacked, however, he does not 
 fail to return the aggression with fearful earnest- 
 ness. 
 
 Our Captain relates one of the former cases that 
 happened to his knowledge during the last year, 
 
20 
 
 viz : It is tlie custom of wood- choppers along the 
 river when their huts are in isolated spots, to con- 
 struct a high scaffold or garret, to which they 
 ascend to sleep bj a ladder which they draw up 
 after them ; but one who had not yet finished his 
 hut, located at the confluence of a considerable 
 €reek with the Magdalena, had neglected the 
 usual precaution of building a fire and keeping it 
 burning during the night in-order to frighten away 
 the tigers that might be prowling about his camp. 
 As it was a bright moonlight night he chose in- 
 stead, to sit by his door with his rifle, on guard, 
 while his wife slept. Towards morning the wife 
 awoke and insisted on relieving her husband of 
 the watch, in order that he might get some sleep 
 and be fresher for the next day's labor. He con- 
 sented, and when he awoke in the morning the 
 wife was missing. Eagerly he sought and called 
 aloud for his missing companion, but all in vain. 
 till on nearing the creek he discovered in the sand 
 a trail as if something like a body had been drag- 
 ged along, and tiger tracks by its side, lent a 
 painful probability to his horrible suspicions. 
 
 Following the trail it soon led into the water, 
 procuring his canoe and rifle he struck the trail 
 on the opposite side of the creek, and not far 
 away, came upon the mangled, half devoured re- 
 mains of his missing wife, with skull crushed in, 
 showing that death had probably surpris'ed her so 
 instantaneously that she had no time for outcry. 
 
 Knowing the habits of the fierce brute after 
 
21 
 
 gorging himself, tlie liusband peered about in the 
 direction of the tracks, and soon discovered him 
 asleep under the edge of the jungle. Creeping to a 
 sure distance and taking careful aim he sent a 
 leaden messenger of death crashing through its 
 brain. With his own hands the woodman perform- 
 ed the mournful task of gathering the mutilated 
 remains of his loved companion into his canoe, to 
 which he also dragged the body of her slayer, and 
 commenced his solemn retreat to the nearest ham- 
 let. 
 
 A passenger told of another case he knew, of 
 recent occurrence, in which a man and his son, 
 camping for the night, had built the usual fire 
 which the tigers seldom approach, wrapped them- 
 selves in their blankets and laid themselves down 
 to sleep with their dog between them as guardian. 
 Towards morning their fire had gone out and sud- 
 denly, strange, rushing, bustling and yelping 
 noises and cries startled them from their slumbers. 
 Springing to their feet and staring wildly about 
 them nothing was to be seen, except that the dog 
 was missing and, without doubt, had paid the 
 penalty allotted to sleeping sentinels. 
 
 At low stages of the water in this river, the tiger 
 tracks are very numerous upon the sand and we 
 are told these animals are not unfrequently seen 
 swimming across the river. The alligators which 
 infest these turbid waters and which do not fail to 
 snatch the luckless homo that falls into them, res- 
 pect the presence of this august quadruped, per- 
 
22 
 
 haps on account of the terrible weapons with 
 which his powerful claws are armed. 
 
 Our Captain recently saw one of these respect- 
 able carnivora swimming the river but a short dis- 
 tance ahead of his boat, and gave him chase with 
 the intention of running him down. The brute 
 reached shoal water, however, when the boat was 
 very near to him, and looked back over his shoul- 
 der at his pursuers with an air of dignified indif- 
 ference. 
 
 A somewhat smaller animal that passes here as 
 a lion, on account of its similar color and habits, 
 also inhabits and roams through these forests and 
 jungles. Though not as numerous as the tiger, 
 they are said to be equally dangerous to men and 
 cattle. We have inspected skins of these, at least 
 five feet long without measuring the tail, and have 
 also seen skins of tigers at least seven feet long, 
 without measuring tail, which fact will furnish 
 some idea of the power of these brutes. 
 
 For- the sake of scientific truth we may as well 
 say here that these two South American carni- 
 vora are both leopards and not lions or tigers at 
 all. The smaller of the two, here called lion, is, 
 notwithstanding the fact that he is unspotted, 
 the "Leopardus Concolor" or Puma, and the 
 larger, here called tiger, is the " Leopardus Onca" 
 the largest and fiercest of the leopard species. 
 
 We passed Puerto ISTacional, the point of de- 
 parture from the river, for Ocaiia, a town of six 
 thousand inhabitants, seven leagues from the Mag- 
 
23 
 
 dalena, and on the night of the 24th of November, 
 we tied np. on the right bank at a storehouse 
 where goods are disembarked for a considerable 
 town called Yelez, six leagues back from the river. 
 We found in charge of this storehouse a wanderer 
 from the Nutmeg State. In a large bin in an out- 
 house our attention was attracted to what at first 
 sight appeared a round variety of Irish potatoe 
 with the singular circumstance of being all nearly 
 of same dimensions, about two inches in diameter. 
 On closer inspection we find them to be the fa- 
 mous Tagua nut or vegetable ivory ^ which are here 
 collected in considerable quantities and shipped 
 to Nuremburg, Bavaria, where they are elabor- 
 ated into a great variety of toys and other objects 
 of art, which are thence distributed to all parts of 
 the world that consume such articles. These nuts 
 are the kernel of the fruit of the Tagua Palm, 
 which ripen, fall to the ground and decay, or are 
 eaten by the land-crabs, leaving these kernels 
 thickly strewn over the ground. 
 
 South-east from this point Ihe region in close 
 proximity and extending back towards the bound- 
 eries of Venezuela, is occupied by the Carrari In- 
 dians, a tribe so refractory to the approaches of 
 the Spaniards, that they are still in a perfectly 
 wild state, unsophisticated by the arts of the pale 
 faces. They fly in terror from all organized at- 
 tempts to approach them, and hunt down and 
 slay without remorse the straggling white ad- 
 venturer, just as we would do to a dangerous wild 
 beast of prey. 
 
24 
 
 They have a curious custom, probably connected 
 with their religious superstitions, of stretching the 
 bodies of such victims out upon the ground, and 
 pinning tliem down with thirty-four arrows, and 
 there leave them to be devoured by the vultures, 
 which are so numerous that all except the bones 
 disappear in a very few hours. These Indians use 
 bows of great strength, bending it with the foot 
 and drawing the arrow string 'with both hands 
 they shoot the missile great distances with re- 
 markable precision. 
 
 On the 25th, although the mountains seldom 
 appear to us at our standpoint upon the steamer, 
 the country is, nevertheless, on both sides of us, 
 evidently becoming somewhat higher and more 
 varied in topography, the banks of the river oc- 
 casionally rise into peiias or cliffs, and the monkeys 
 more frequently chatter their, apparently to them, 
 intelligible jargon, as i\ej swing themselves from 
 tree to tree as we pass. 
 
 When we stop23ed to wood up, a young civil 
 engineer from Cincinnati, who came as fellow-pas- 
 senger from N'ew York, under contract to assist in 
 the construction of a narrow gauge railroad from 
 Puerto Berrio on the river, to Medellin the capi- 
 tal of the State of Antiochia, situated one hun- 
 dred miles distant from the Magdalena, and who 
 Avas armed with a new Colt's, insisted upon trying 
 his shooting possibilities upon these unoffending 
 progenitors of his race. We blush to confess it ; we 
 were weak enough to be induced, much against 
 
our will, into complicity in the murder, by accom- 
 panying this young sportsman a few steps into the 
 jungle. The trees were tall, but after two or three 
 shots, the young Buckeye succeeded in sending a 
 bullet plump through the body of an old female 
 of the large brown variety, which, after a cry of 
 pain, and hanging by the tail for several minutes, 
 fell hear"' long into the chapparal below, while two 
 or three half-grown children of the victim exhibit- 
 ed their agitation by cries and descent from limb 
 to limb half way down to where the mother fell. 
 
 Elated by his success, our nimrod proclaimed a 
 reward of ten cents to whomsoever would bring his 
 game to him from the almost impenetrable jungle, 
 which proclamation being duly interpreted by us 
 to the woodchopper' s boy, whom curiosity had 
 attracted to the place of the firing, he instantly 
 penetrated to the spot, and a continued series of 
 commingled cries of the bo^^ and the monkey 
 marked his line of retrocession till he appeared, 
 dragging the wounded quadrumana by its tail, its 
 companions all the while chattering in great agi- 
 tation in the branches overhead. The fatal bullet 
 had passed through her abdomen, and, unable to 
 stand or walk, she rolled her eyes as if imploring 
 mercy. Seeing her wounded unto death, we di- 
 rected a bullet through her brain to put an end to 
 her sufferings. On the same day we reached 
 Puerto Berrio, so called, consisting of some bluffs 
 on which several shanties of the Antiochia rail- 
 road are located. We could not help noticing 
 
20 
 
 tne expression of bewildered disappointment that 
 played over the face of our young Cincinnatian as 
 he contemplated for the first time, his new home. 
 This is his first experience abroad, and surely 
 he has commenced it at the bitter end. We left 
 him, and arrived the same evening at Nare, a 
 collection of mud huts at the confluence of the 
 Nare and Magdalena rivers, and the initial point 
 of the mule path which constitutes the present 
 highway to Medellin. 
 
 We tie up at l^are for the night, the native 
 passengers go on shore to wander through the 
 village, and we, for a time, entertain ourselves 
 with watching curiously from the upper deck, the 
 people going to and fro, each, with tallow candle 
 in hand, intently looking along the ground before 
 them. We feel a strong curiosity to know what 
 is lost, and apply to our Captain for the de- 
 sired information. He explains that nothing had 
 been lost, but that the intent seeking is to avoid 
 jinding, when too late, that they have stepped 
 upon the venemous Mapana serpent which is here 
 numerous and its bite generally fatal to the genus 
 homo, although the hogs hunt and devour them 
 with peculiar pleasure, apparently suffering no 
 inconvenience from its fangs. The larger ones 
 which grow from ten to fifteen feet, are not, how- 
 ever, recommended as healthy to small hogs, as 
 they sometimes turn the tables upon them. 
 
 IN'are is at the head of navigation for the larger 
 steamers of the three lines running on this river, 
 
27 
 
 on account of tlie fact that, between this point and 
 Honda there are several strong rapids which only 
 the smaller steamers, with comparatively greater 
 power, are able to ascend, except by putting a 
 cable ashore and hauling themselves through ; a 
 tedious operation. Ours is one of those that go up. 
 We receive on board four men and two women 
 who have come down from Medellin bound for 
 Bogota. 
 
 Antiochia is the richest State in New Granada, 
 or the ''United States of Colombia" as it is 
 modernly called. It is the State in which the 
 Ultramontane rebellion broke out against the Gov- 
 ernment last year, and which cost several bloody 
 battles to put down. The Government is said to 
 have had 40,000 men in the field during this out- 
 break, and foreigners who witnessed the battle of 
 Garrapata report that both sides fought with des- 
 peration. One of our new passengers, about fifty 
 years of age, of rough looking exterior and dog- 
 matic expression of countenance, is addressed as 
 General, and reported to be one of the most char- 
 acterized leaders of the rebellion. 
 
 Antiochia was originally populated by Israelites 
 from Spain, who, like the ancient Irish race, after 
 defending their original faith with great zeal and 
 endurance, finally turned about and became more 
 Roman than the Romans , and are to-day the most 
 stubborn defenders of the Roman Church in this 
 Spanish Republic. Their reactionary power is 
 now believed to be broken, and many of them 
 
28 
 
 have been expatriated ; but the sentinels of Father 
 Beckx are wily and patient, and they may never 
 be said to be vanquished till pnblic education is 
 beyond their reach. 
 
 The 26th, the mountains are appearing more 
 frequently and nearer to the river, which now and 
 then opposes to us a rapid current. The country 
 looks more habitable, fever and ague is not so 
 glaringly staring us in the face as we look out on 
 either side. Patches of rude cultivation are now 
 once in a while met with, in which chocolate trees 
 among others appear. These, we are told, ar6 the 
 most profitable for cultivation in this country, be- 
 cause, after planting, they produce for many years 
 without further attention than that of collecting 
 its fruit and preventing thei^ being choked by other 
 growths. The coffee tree also prospers here with 
 the same slight attention. We stop at a ham- 
 let to discharge some bags of salt, (worth as much 
 here as bags of potatoes with us), where a group 
 of idle and squalid-looking boys are gathered 
 on the bank against which our boat is tied. 
 Suddenly, a wild commotion arose among them, 
 and down they go on hands and knees appar- 
 ently engaged in a hard tussel with something 
 concealed under the tangled grass. Presently 
 they rise up, drawing out and bearing away with 
 them in triumph, a young Aligator, about a yard 
 long, which they had stumbled over with their 
 bare feet and legs, while it lay concealed, and 
 which they now hold firmly grasped by its neck, 
 legs and tail. 
 
29 
 
 Proceeding on our way, from time to time vary- 
 ing our sensations by hurling a rifle ball at the 
 huge reptiles as they lay sunning themselves upon 
 the banks, we see a large gathering of Buzzards 
 ahead of us, many sitting upon the trees, and 
 others circling in the air over them. Whoever 
 has lived in the inter-tropics knows that this means 
 something lying dead at that spot. As we pass, 
 we see floating in the water under the bank, the 
 carcass of an Aligator that, no doubt, has fallen a 
 victim to some traveling rifleman who has gone 
 before us. We mention this circumstance in or- 
 der to introduce a curious observation hitherto 
 unknown to us. 
 
 Among this crowd of vultures, are several in 
 size and form exactly like the rest, but in color, 
 some are wholly, some partially, wMte. These are 
 called here, the King Buzzards^ on account of the 
 deference shown to them by the common or black 
 Bazzards, viz. : Whenever one or more of these 
 King Bazzards alight upon a carcass, all of the 
 black Buzzards instantly leave it and patiently 
 await the good will and pleasure of the King to 
 take his departure, on which they return in crowds 
 to their feast. 
 
 We are meeting now with frequent strong cur- 
 rents, and as our woodpile on board is fast disap- 
 pearing, we are on the lookout for woodpiles on 
 shore. One after another of their usual sites is 
 reached and passed, but no gracious woodpile 
 consents to cheer us in our now fast-increasing 
 
30 
 
 anxiety. What are we to do ? When our wood 
 is enMrely consumed, we can make no more steam, 
 and can go no farther up the stream. We will be 
 compelled to tie up to the bank or drift down at 
 the mercy of the currents. If we tie up we may 
 remain many days waiting for a boat to come 
 down and sell us some wood in passing us ; we 
 may cut green fuel with which it will be difficult 
 to make steam enough to run against the swollen 
 river ; or what would be more practicable, we 
 could despatch men along the bank up stream in 
 search of a friendly woodpile to be conveyed down 
 to us on a raft to be constructed for that purpose. 
 We stand for several hours with the Captain 
 upon the upper deck, almost silently observing 
 . his increasing anxiety, as he, with glass in hand, 
 stands scanning along the banks as each successive 
 bend in the river brings new stretches into view, 
 and hear the successive reports of the engineer, 
 viz. : Wood for one hour, sir ! Wood for half an 
 hour. Wood for ten minutes more ! and when, 
 just in our greatest emergency we discover a 
 diminutive woodpile, enough for a half hours' run, 
 what a thrill of joy and relief ran through the 
 minds of all, and as we reach the spot we re- 
 ceive the w^elcome information of another and 
 more ample w^oodpile less than a half hours' run 
 higher up. Our wood has held out remarkably, 
 as if it comprehended our difficulty. We have 
 steamed nearly ten hours since wooding, and when 
 we got the welcome relief, we had consumed our 
 
31 
 
 last stick. We could not have run five minutes 
 longer. 
 
 After wooding at the two stations, we proceed, 
 and at nightfall tie up at the entrance to a gorge 
 and bend in the river, through which the water 
 is rushing with great velocity. Scarcely have we 
 secured our boat to the bank, when loud cries for 
 help come down to us from the gorge above, and 
 an overturned raft, half torn in pieces, with a man 
 clinging to it, come rapidl}^ sweeping around the 
 bend. Quick as thought (for no time is to be 
 lost) the Captain ordered a line thrown out to him 
 from our lower deck, which, luckily he catches, 
 and giving it two or three turns around some of 
 the poles of the raft, it swings in by the force of 
 the current so as to strike the side of our steamer, 
 where the deck hands are in readiness to catch 
 his extended arms and drag him on to our lower 
 deck, scarcely eighteen inches above the surface 
 of the river. 
 
 On a lightly constructed bamboo raft is a very 
 common mode of descending this river, and often, 
 cargoes of considerable value are risked upon 
 these frail structures, notwithstanding the fact 
 that, owing to its swift current the raft is over- 
 turned if it strikes any obstacle in its course, or, 
 at least, it is very liable to this accident, thereby 
 feeding its human freight to the Aligators. 
 
 In the present case, the Captain, who is a pious 
 man, is copious in the expressions of his convic- 
 tion that it was by especial Providential design 
 
32 
 
 that he was with his boat just where he was at 
 that particular moment of time, in order to save 
 tiie life of this fellow being. This did, indeed 
 seem Providential ; but on learning the history of 
 the accident more fully, it proved that the man 
 and a comrade upon the raft were safe in the mid- 
 dle of the stream until they heard or saw the 
 steamer approach, and believing it would continue 
 Its course through the gorge of the river, felt 
 themselves m danger of being carried by the swift 
 current underneath the steamer's bow or paddle- 
 wheel. They therefore pulled lustily at their oars 
 to get near the shore. Here they struck the pro- 
 jecting limbs and bushes on the surface which 
 overturned their raft, throwing them and their 
 trunk, containing their little all, into the water 
 His comrade, it was found, had clung to the bush- 
 es and dragged himself ashore, while he had 
 climbed upon the wreck and came down to us, as 
 described. This history of the event exactly re- 
 versed the Captain's theory, placing him and his 
 boat as the cause of the disaster, and we hear 
 no more of Providential design. 
 
 Baring our eighth and last day upon the river 
 we chmb a succession of rapids stronger than 
 any heretofore encountered. The Captain has 
 frequently boasted of his boat as the only one 
 that could always go up these rapids without put- 
 ting out a hawser on shore by which to haul 
 through. 
 
 The time of trial came, and he begged us to no- 
 
33 
 
 tice liow liis boat would behave when she fairly 
 struck into the strongest rapids. We stand by 
 him on the upper deck and watch her as she 
 plows her way into it until the waters pour in 
 torrents over her bows, flooding the forward deck 
 and running over her sides. Steadily she presses 
 forward under the highest pressure of steam she 
 dares to carry (100 lbs. to the square inch) her 
 progress each instant becoming less and less. 
 The Captain stands motionless, and in breathless 
 anxiety watching her movement with the attention 
 of a man who feels his reputation interested in her 
 triumph. We are three-fourths of the way through 
 the rapid, but her progress is no longer percepti- 
 ble. She is trembling in the balance, and the 
 Captain' s face betrays strong emotions, as if a se- 
 rious disaster may be hanging over his steamer 
 and all on board of her. 
 
 A feeling of strange uncertainty as to what this 
 might portend creeps over us as we take in the sit- 
 uation, and venture an exploratory, ''She is 
 motionless r^ to the silent Captain. "Oh, no! 
 she is going through ! " he so hastily replies as to 
 betray how deep is his emotion. 
 
 But alas! notwithstanding his assurance, her 
 strength is not equal to the herculean task. She 
 is already losing ground, and it is clearly evident 
 to all on board that she is being borne back by the 
 current in the direction of dangerous rocks. It is 
 a thrilling moment, and we struggle with our 
 fears in order to collect all our wits to be ready 
 
34 
 
 for any emergency'. At this critical moment the 
 pilot strikes the signal to shut oif the steam, so as 
 to let her drift with sufficient velocity to gain 
 steerage way ; when, lo ! she shoots down stream 
 like an arrow, clearing the rocks in handsome 
 style and bringing up by letting on the steam when 
 some distance below. 
 
 The success of this movement has a magical 
 eifect in relieving the painful anxiety of the passen- 
 gers to whom it is a new experience, showing 
 them that the situation was not as critical as it 
 seemed. The captain is, however, very much 
 chagrined at the temporary defeat of his favorite 
 steamer, and evidently feels it severely. 
 
 The pilot again signals the engineer to go for- 
 ward, and we again near the rapid for the second 
 round, in what has now all the appearances of an 
 unequal combat. 
 
 The current looks to be, however, less strong 
 nearer to the left bank, than where we had met 
 with defeat, and the pilot brings the steamer up 
 cautiously, keeping farther towards that side. He 
 signals the engineer to put on all the steam it 
 wU be safe to carry, and again dashes into the 
 angry flood. This time the struggle is by no 
 means so exciting, the element of danger that 
 seemed to menace us before with destruction, has 
 disapeaared in the demonstrated ability of the 
 craft to retreat to a place of safety in case it is van- 
 quished. We nevertheless watch its progress 
 with much interest, as we are all desirous of fin- 
 ishing our trip to Honda on this day. 
 
35 
 
 Alas !. the second and third time we are driven 
 back, and all, except tlie captain and pilot, are 
 thinking of the recourse of running out a line on 
 shore for the purpose of hauling the boat up, the 
 recourse of other boats. On the fourth trial the 
 pilot goes carefully upwards, very near to the 
 bank, with sounding poles constantly going to 
 avoid getting aground. Slowly the Covfianza 
 creeps along, feeling her way till she is fairly 
 into the rapid, then turning her nose a little off 
 from shore, she shoots diagonally across and is 
 through the rapid just as she nears the opposite 
 bank. A rousing cheer arose, letting off the pent 
 up anxiety of the passengers, and an air of tri- 
 umph illumined the countenance of the captain as 
 he took his hat off to the pilot who had found a 
 soft place in that powerful torrent. 
 
 The mountains are now near to us, and we are 
 able to see that they are of sand- stone formation 
 mostly covered with alluvium and well wooded up 
 to their very tops. Only in some rare spots do 
 they present bare sides, and these are perpendicu- 
 lar. Some of them stand isolated , with well round- 
 ed summits covered by a rich growth of forest 
 trees and inter-tropical vegetation, then dropping 
 in perpendicular walls on every side for apparent- 
 ly two to five hundred feet, thus giving them a 
 castellated form, and at the foot of these perpen- 
 dicular walls is spread out a well- wooded slope 
 all around, then to fall again in bare perpendicu- 
 lar precipices. On the face of these precipitous 
 
36 
 
 walls the strata are clearly visible in perfectly hori- 
 zontal layers, showing they have sntfered no dis- 
 turbance since their deposit. Of the mode of for- 
 mation of these isolated mountains we will have 
 something to say farther on. They present an 
 nnique and striking appearance. 
 
 HONDA AND THE MAGDALENA VALLEY. 
 
 AYe reached Honda on the evening of the 27thj 
 just eight days from Barranqnilla, a remarkably 
 quick passage, and but three days behind the 
 Murillo which left Barranqnilla ten days ahead 
 of us, although we made scarcely more than twent j 
 miles on the last day up the rapids. 
 
 Honda is a town of old Spanish oidgin now con- 
 taining about three thousand inhabitants, among 
 v/hich is a German and North American element 
 engaged in buying and shipping down the river, 
 Quinia, Hides, Coffee, Chocolate, and other prod- 
 ucts of the country, to be reshi]3ped out of the 
 country at Barranqnilla. The town is nestled in a 
 narrow mountain gorge at the confluence of the 
 Guali with the Magdalena, in ^mq degrees North 
 latitude ; and many leagues up the valley of the 
 Guali are extended curiously constructed table 
 lands or llanos. On our return from the capitol 
 we will explore these llanos and give some ac- 
 count of their geological characters. At present 
 we are to take mules from this point for Bogota ; 
 but we now have the necessary data to enable us 
 
37 
 
 to group into one view this vast valley of the Mag- 
 dalena from here to the sea, which we have just 
 traversed. In its broad expanse extending from 
 the Cordilleras of the Pacific States of Panama and 
 the Cauca, east to the mountain boundary of 
 Venezuela, and from the coast in eleven degrees 
 north, up to Nare on the fifth parallel, it is a vast, 
 swampy plain, but little above the sea level ; and 
 at a time not very remote, geologically speaking, 
 all within these limits has been an estuary of the 
 Carribean sea. 
 
 The great heat of these regions evaporates and 
 takes up into the atmosphere an abundance of 
 water which the winds waft up the mountain sides, 
 till the lower temperature of these upper regions 
 condenses these vapors into clouds, which rising 
 still higher, are, by the lowering temperature of 
 saoceeding elevations, and by the changed electri- 
 cal conditions of the atmosphere, precipitated in 
 torrents of water down the mountains' sides, wear- 
 ing them away and ploughing them into furrows 
 and gullies, and carrying down with them vast 
 quantities of detritus, which the Magdalena, gath- 
 ering up with its tributary waters from all the in- 
 tricate masses and jumble of mountains up to and 
 beyond the equator, has, during many centuries, 
 been depositing as sediment until it has completely 
 filled up this estuary with them ; an operation 
 which is still progressing with astonishing rapidity 
 in the anchorage at the present mouth of the 
 ' ' Muddy Magdalena. ' ' The captain of the steam- 
 
38 «■ 
 
 ship Etna assures us that within two or three years, 
 during which he has been casting his anchor here, 
 the bottom has risen several feet ; and that the 
 water will at the present rate, soon become so shal- 
 low as to compell him to anchor further out or 
 keep in the channel of the river which is clearly 
 marked, by its turbid current, far out to sea. 
 
 This great plain of the Magdalena valley, as it 
 gradually arose above the surface of this arm of the 
 sea, was taken possession of by vegetable growths. 
 Moisture and heat, the two chief instruments of 
 vegetation ; the one the veliicle, the other the motor 
 2Jowei\ both here so abundant, have spread over it 
 a most luxuriant growth of forest trees and under- 
 growth, and matted them together with creeping 
 and climbing plants, into one impenetrable mass of 
 jungle ; a chosen home of the Orocodilia^ which 
 find in its solitudes and lagoons the conditions fa- 
 vorable to their propagation. During the rainy 
 seasons of the year a considerable portion of this 
 extensive region is overflowed ; consequently, in 
 the succeeding dry seasons, is reeking in deadly 
 miasms, quickly fatal to all except the strongest 
 of those straggling natives, born and reared under 
 their toxic influences. These are mostly dwellers 
 along the river banks, attracted, no doubt, by an 
 €asy subsistence upon the fish which abound in its 
 waters. These also furnish the principal food of 
 the huge saurian reptiles of which we have spoken, 
 and many stories are told illustrative of their sa- 
 gacity in their modes of entrapping their prey. 
 
39 
 
 We ourselves saw them ranged across the moutlis 
 of tributaries and in the eddies at the ends of sand- 
 banks, with the huge upper jaw, or its nose, pro- 
 jecting above the water in quiet poise until some 
 hapless *'Bagare" (a large fish, 4 to 6 feet long) 
 attempts to cross above the submerged lower max- 
 ilary, when, with a sudden gulp the victim is rais- 
 ed above the surface, a mangled and convulsive 
 mass, and then disappears forever. These dan- 
 gerous reptiles are also said to hide themselves just 
 deep enough beneath the surface of the turbid 
 water so as not to be seen, opposite the cattle farms, 
 and lay in wait for the calves as they come down 
 to drink, or for the children who come to fill their 
 gourds for domestic uses ; when with a stunning 
 blow of their tail, or a sudden rush, they snatch 
 and drag their terrified victims down to their slimy 
 dens. A hut was pointed out to us in passing, 
 where two children have been thus snatched away 
 within a few months. 
 
 Two varieties of these reptiles inhabit this river. 
 The true crocodile, with pointed snout, growing 
 from fifteen to twenty-five feet long ; and the alli- 
 gator, with snout shaped like that of the pike, 
 being usually from ten to fifteen feet in length. 
 
 It is a curious fact that on the mountain sides 
 all around this vast home of pestilential fever, the 
 Cincona, or Chincona tree grows wild and ever 
 flourishing, elaborating in its bark that precious 
 alkaloid which is their specific antidote ; that price- 
 less boon to humanity which is the chief article of 
 
40 
 
 export from tliis country. The Bane and Anti- 
 dote staring at eacli other in close proximity. 
 
 The Magdalena in its entire course through this 
 sedimentary plain is divided into strands by a 
 nearly constant succession of islands, varying in 
 size from a quarter of a mile to twenty-five miles 
 in length, and from a few hundred feet to ten miles 
 wide. The formation of these islands is illustrated 
 with singular clearness to modern observation by 
 an island that was pointed out to us in passing it, 
 as marking the site of the wreck of one of the 
 first steamers placed upon this river, some twenty- 
 five to thirty years ago. The steamer struck a snag 
 and sunk in the middle of the river, thus consti- 
 tuting a nucleus for the accumulation of the detri- 
 tus brought down by the current, and this accu- 
 mulation soon rose above the surface, and has in- 
 creased in size, until it is now a half-mile long 
 and a quarter wide, and as densely wooded as are 
 the opposite shores, wliich have been excavated 
 by the currents to accomodate the growth of the 
 island. 
 
 Very interesting illustrations of the process by 
 which rivers tend to become tortuous more and 
 more, especially in their course through sediment- 
 ary plains, are here to be observed. Water ob- 
 viously flows in the direction of the least resist- 
 ance, and in any deflection from a right or 
 straight line, its current is precipitated against the 
 concave bank, with greater force than elsewhere, 
 consequently causing more attrition and wearing 
 
41 
 
 away at that point. The concavity is thus con- 
 stantly becoming excavated or deepened, while a 
 corresponding lilling up by sedimentary deposits 
 is going on opposite to it on the other bank, the 
 convexity keeping pace with the concavity. The 
 increasing concavity deflects more and more the 
 course of the current in a direction diagonally 
 across the stream towards the opposite bank below, 
 and against which it is projected, greater attri- 
 tion and excavation at that point being the result, 
 constituting another bend. This must be the chief 
 factor in the meanderings of rivers through sedi- 
 mentary plains or extinct estuaries like the one 
 under consideration ; bending and doubling upon 
 themselves until sometimes the concavities are ex- 
 cavated entirely through, joining the river at 
 another point of the wandering stream, then by 
 forming what is called on our Mississippi, a 
 ''cut off," also to be seen on the Connecticut at 
 the foot of Mount Holyoke. One example of this 
 shortens the Magdalena by several leagues. The 
 currents, after making these amputations, throw 
 sedimentary deposits into the mouths of these 
 cut offs in passing them, thus building up sand 
 bars and forming them into "bayous" very nu- 
 merous on our lower Mississippi. In this wearing 
 away of the banks large trees are undermined, 
 and fall into the river, are carried down b}^ the 
 current until they get aground and become fasten- 
 ed by the sand which is soon heaped by currents 
 around the part in contact with the bottom (usual- 
 
43 
 
 \y the roots), and their trunks pointing down 
 stream under the water become dangerous snags 
 for a time until their locations become well known 
 to navigators, and eventually many of them be- 
 come nuclei around which islands are formed. 
 
 HOI^DA TO BOGOTA. 
 
 We were kindly entertained in Honda by our 
 fellow countryman, Mr. Henry Hallam, from 
 Stonington, Connecticut, and his amiable family, 
 and on the day following our arrival we took 
 mules and commenced our four days journey to 
 the capital city. Two native medical students 
 were to be our traveling companions, and between 
 us three we required seven animals, viz : three for 
 saddles and four for our joint equipage, at ten 
 dollars for each beast. The proprietor of the 
 mules assures us that tliey are all of very superior 
 quality, and judging from the general run of 
 pack mules loading with imported goods for 
 Bogota, we are inclined to believe his assertion. 
 
 From Honda, scarce 600 feet above the level of 
 the sea, to the highest pass in the mountains, from 
 which we are to descend upon the table land of 
 Bogota, it is but thirteen leagues, in which dis- 
 tance we have to reach an elevation of nine thou- 
 sand feet above the sea level by a rugged mule 
 path, said to be the best public road in the coun- 
 try, and over which all merchandise for the cap- 
 ital is transported by pack mules. From the 
 
43 
 
 above mentioned elevation a good carriage road 
 descends to the plain, some five Imndred feet low- 
 er, and across it to Bogota about eight leagues 
 beyond. 
 
 As in all Spanish countries, preparations move 
 slowly and it was nearly three o' clock before our 
 train could be got into marching order and in move- 
 ment forward. The path at first wound its rug- 
 ged way over the flanks of the mountains that 
 rise from the very banks of the river, one league 
 after we started out from the "Bodegas de Bogo- 
 ta" about two miles below Honda upon the op- 
 posite or eastern bank. 
 
 The uninitiated mule rider, yet unacquainted 
 with the sure-footedness of this useful beast, is 
 soon and with frequency, startled as he finds his 
 animal scrambling up a steep precipice and then 
 on the brink of another to be descended only by 
 help of the mule tracks worn into the smooth 
 sandstone surface of the precipitous declivity. 
 Carefully the patient beast works its way down- 
 ward, with the skill of a mountain goat, and it is 
 positively marvelous how the pack mules can 
 make these ascents and descents with their heavy 
 burthens without frequently tumbling with them 
 to sure destruction. One"carga" or mule load 
 is considered to be two hundred and fifty pounds, 
 but they are often over burthened. We have seen 
 them stagger under their heavy loads even on 
 level ground and become so exhausted as to be 
 compelled to drop with them upon the earth in 
 
44 
 
 order to recuperate their exhausted strength, but 
 their instincts of self-preservation always prevent 
 their giving up at these dangerous places. 
 
 We proceed until darkness makes it necessary 
 for us to seek the first available shelter ; a mud 
 house where some fifty mules have been relieved 
 of their packs and are being turned into an en- 
 closed bushy pasturage by the wayside. Our 
 equipage, wrappped as is the custom here, in 
 coarse tarred cloth to protect it from heavy showers 
 liable to be met with on the route, is discharged 
 from our pack animals and deposited as closely 
 as possible under the projecting eaves of the 
 thatched roof, our saddles gathered inside the hut 
 to which we three are welcomed as the sole oc- 
 cupants for the night, of its only apartment, if we 
 except one four by six feet partitioned ofi* for the 
 vending of ' ' Guarapo ' ' (fermented molasses and 
 water) to the muleteers, served out to them at a 
 quartillo (Sj cents) per gourd, through a square 
 pTiole in the outer wall. Nearly all the huts by the 
 wayside have this hole in the wall, or Gruaraparia, 
 as they call their stand, and this is apparently, 
 with most of the huts scattered along the high- 
 jway, their ''raison d'etre." Some ten or twelve 
 'muleteers (arrieros) build little fires and cook and 
 partake of their humble repast in the open space 
 in front, after which they smoke the narcotic weed 
 and dispose themselves upon their packs or upon 
 the bare ground as best they can ; but all of 
 them exposed to the open air, which is damp 
 
45 
 
 and chill with the condensing mists of this iieated 
 clime. Hardy as the brutes they drive, they seem 
 to suffer nothing from this reckless exposure. 
 
 Our single arriero took our seven beasts to the 
 pasture, and we went in to survey our quarters 
 and inquire what kind of fare it might be possible 
 to procure for supper. 
 
 Four bare mud walls, innocent of whitewash, 
 about ten feet square with open doorway at front 
 and back, (without doors) and a third doorway 
 leading into the Guaraparia above described ; a 
 bare mud floor of well trodden native earth, a 
 rough wooden bench to serve as table, two broken 
 stools and a perch about two feet long across two 
 of the corners two feet from the floor, on each of 
 which a rooster is tied, describes our new 
 quarters. The roosters are a welcome sight to 
 famishing travelers, as it suggests eggs and per- 
 haps chickens ; but this proves a vexing illusion. 
 A bowl of poor soup, a piece of tough, sun dried 
 beef, from which it has been made, some fried 
 plantains and a bottle of beer is our only con- 
 solation in these dreary surroundings, and a sharp 
 appetite makes the best of it. 
 
 When our meal is finished and debris cleared 
 away we immediately spread our straw mat upon 
 the table, which although shorter than we, is less 
 dangerous than sleeping upon the damp earth, 
 especially as we are suifering from a bronchial 
 aff'ection acquired our first night on the river. 
 Our companions have just spread their mats npon 
 
46 
 
 the eartli, as if quite used to such accommodation, 
 when our muleteer appears and reports with agita- 
 tion that one of our saddle mules has escaped from 
 him and taken the back track for his home. This 
 is unwelcome news, as over so dangerous a road, 
 night pursuit is out of the question ; but we being 
 but four hours upon our route we hear it without 
 consternation, the proprietor hangs mats to close 
 the doorways, and we dispose ourselves for the 
 night. In doing so we suggest to the landlord 
 that if we could move the table into the corner 
 the wall would prevent our pillow from escaping 
 from us during sleep : but the fowl and its roost, 
 as well as a pile of rubbish under the table, pre- 
 vent the suggested improvement, besides mine 
 host ventures the thought that perhaps contact 
 with the wall might expose us to be stung by a 
 strolling scorpion or centipede, which kind sug- 
 gestion is efficacious in making us content with 
 the table just as it stands. Buttoning our travel- 
 ing coat and drawing firmly on a silk cap, we roll 
 ourselves in our blanket, draw in our feet which 
 project beyond the table, and actually sleep, 
 awaking several times to rest our aking bones by 
 turning upon the other side. 
 
 Next morning we are able to procure an excel- 
 lent cup of chocolate and then ascertain that the 
 escaped mule is one ridden by one of our com- 
 panions, and it was agreed that he should mount 
 our beast, it being the first caught, and return for 
 the fugitive, while we two await his coming back 
 to us. 
 
47 
 
 After Ms departure we went to the enclosure or 
 bushy pasture to witness the finding and capture 
 of the pack mules, and see them led out one by 
 one past the landlord, who collects ten cents for 
 each animal as he passes out, this being the price 
 of their entertainment. This dime per diem is all 
 these poor brutes cost their owners for their keep- 
 ing. They bear their clumsy burthens from early 
 morn till nightfall without further nourishment. 
 As they file out one by one we notice three- 
 fourths of them, at least, have large raw sores 
 which the rude pack-saddles have made upon 
 their backs. We could not help thinking what 
 must be the sufferings of these dumb servants as 
 they stagger through their long day' s march in 
 this mutilated condition ; but alas ! our sympa- 
 thies can take no practicable shape and are there- 
 fore of no avail to them, except to those that 
 were carrying the equipage of our own party. One 
 of our beasts had fallen several times, the day pre- 
 vious, under his heavy load and got bad usage 
 from our muleteer whom we discover is scarcely 
 superior in intelligence to the other brutes. We, 
 therefore, now add an extra beast to our pack- 
 train, in order to make the load of each lighter, 
 also an extra muleteer of somewhat more intel- 
 ligence than the first. The hire of the mule is 
 ten dollars for the trip, and that of the muleteer 
 seventy-five cents per diem, he furnishing his own 
 entertainment. 
 
 Our pack-train, reorganized as above, starts 
 
48 
 
 ■I 
 
 onward about eiglit o'clock, a. m., and we and 
 our remaining companion set ourselves upon the 
 liard wood bench in front of the cabin or stroll 
 about the premises to kill time while awaiting the 
 return of our friend. Soon we discover that if ids 
 are satisfied to be left behind by our train, our 
 companion's saddle mule is not, and he manifests 
 his discontent by desperate efforts to break away 
 from the wonderfully strong thong of raw hide 
 with which he is fastened by loops about his neck 
 and nose. So violent and continued are his 
 struggles that we greatly fear he will either dis- 
 locate his neck or break away and escape, there- 
 by causing us still farther and vexatious delays. 
 Consequently we persuade our chum, though 
 with some difiiculty, as he is already demoralized 
 by the fierce brute, to mount him and follow in the 
 wake of our pack-train, leaving ourselves to wait 
 alone, the return of our absent fellow-traveler. 
 It is almost midday when he at last arrives, and 
 we immediately proceed on our way. 
 
 We have now left the river and are soon climb- 
 ing the mountains. Across rivulet and up rugged 
 ascents, our path at first winds its serpentine 
 course ; then in sharp zigzags up steep acclivities 
 we climb, till we find our saddles working their 
 way gradually backwards and threatening to slip 
 off with us over the sloping haunches. A halt is 
 made to readjust matters upon a surer basis by 
 tight buckling of the girths, and securing our sad- 
 dles by means of a breastplate of rope, after which 
 
49 
 
 we continue our march. Anon halting to enjoy 
 brief glimpses of the expanding views that are 
 occasionally opening behind us, we stride upwards 
 and upwards in our precipitous path, now through 
 deep gullies which the rains have washed out, 
 now over broken pavements of rough stones placed 
 there to prevent such gullies ; onward we climb in 
 admiration of the wonderful endurance of our 
 beasts, who appear little jaded by this heavy 
 work. Sometimes our path is obstructed by de - 
 scending mule trains, loaded with bales of Quinia 
 bark bound for Honda ; but with few interruptions 
 our progress upwards is continuous. Sometimes 
 a dense bank of heavy mists or fog gathers round, 
 warning us to don our rubber coats, and anon it 
 comes down upon us in copious showers of rain. 
 In vain we inquire at every wayside hut if the in- 
 mates could prepare us something with which to 
 break our fasts, until at last, about 4 o'clock p. m., 
 in the midst of a drenching rain, we reach a Posada 
 that bears the promising title of "El Consuelo," 
 where we rest for an hour and are able to procure 
 a rude breakfast. 
 
 The shower has ceased, and a momentary break 
 in the cloud below us reveals to our gaze a long 
 stretch of the valley of the upper Magdalena, 
 through which the river winds like a huge ser- 
 pent, stretching itself out to many leagues away, 
 now the clouds closing in, it vanishes like a dis- 
 solving view. We resume our saddles and climb 
 onward. The mountain side up which our path 
 
50 
 
 leads us, represents an angle of about forty-five 
 degrees to the horizontal, and the slippery path, in 
 its sharp zigzags, about twenty -five. This, in these 
 steep places, is roughly paved to prevent washing 
 away ; but our beasts prefer to scramble up in the 
 muddy gutter on the inner side of the path. The 
 atmosphere is heavy, and the yelling cry of the 
 muleteers comes down to us, at regular intervals, 
 from above. We are traveling in the clouds, and 
 they wrap themselves around us and shut out 
 from our sight all that wonderful panorama, ex- 
 tending itself in grander and more varied pro- 
 portion, behind and below us. 
 
 About 6 o'clock we are above the clouds and 
 looking forward, down into a vast, cloudless valley, 
 apparently shut in by mountains on every side 
 like a huge basin ; though a small river coiling 
 through it explains at once why it is not a 
 mountain lake. The mountain sides all around 
 it are deeply furrowed into innumerable valleys, 
 and these give signs of husbandry in the shape of 
 scattering cattle farms and some fields of corn ; 
 and in the bottom of the basin the village of 
 Guaduas spreads its tiled roofs under our gratified 
 eyes, although it is still two leagues distant, and, 
 in the now jaded condition of our beasts, will cost 
 us two more tedious hours to reach, down steep 
 declivities and devious pathways. 
 
 It is quite dark as we enter the outskirts of the 
 town, and there comes to us, from among the scat- 
 tering lamplights by the wayside, a hail, in which 
 
51 
 
 we recognize the familiar voice of our companion 
 who had preceded us, mounted upon the fractious 
 mule. This enterprising beast having gone 
 thus far, has utterly refused to proceed farther, 
 and not even the most violent forms of coercion 
 jet invented for such cases, have availed to induce 
 him to reconsider this determination. Our friend 
 had succumbed to the situation, removed his sad- 
 dle and sat demurely waiting for us to arrive, and, 
 if possible, help him out of his humiliating diffi- 
 culty. The Posada, or Public House, where we 
 may obtain lodgings, is still a half-mile distant, 
 so we order the culprit to be brought up and re- 
 saddled, in the expectation chat the companion- 
 ship of his comrades might soften his stubborn- 
 ness and induce him into sufficient amiability to 
 accompany us into the town. We are not disap- 
 pointed in this reasonable expectation, and we 
 reach our lodgings without further obstacle. 
 
 We find Guaduas to be quite an important town 
 for this country, with several paved streets, and 
 said to contain from four to five thousand inhabi- 
 tants, a public square or market place, etc. ; but 
 is very hot, owing to its situation in the bottom of 
 a basin. We find a fair supper and good lodgings 
 at the "Fonda," soon forgeting all the fatigues of 
 the day in sound and peaceful slumber. 
 
 We have not yet overtaken our pack train, 
 though it cannot now be far in advance of us. 
 After taking our customary morning coffee we re- 
 sume our march up the mountains, overtaking our 
 
52 
 
 train about nine o'clock, at a tienda, where on 
 enquiry, we ascertained tliey would be able to pre- 
 pare for us a rude breakfast ; but being assured 
 by our arrieros that we might do better farther up, 
 we imprudently credit the information and go for- 
 ward with our train. Up and upwards we wend 
 our toilsome journey, hours come and go while we 
 anxiously enquire at every wayside shanty for the 
 coveted breakfast, but all in vain. Not an egg, 
 nor a chicken, nor a piece of bread arid cheese is 
 to be had for whatever reward may be offered. 
 Moodily we brood over the thought of the unreli- 
 ability of our informants as we toil silently up- 
 wards. A new gleam of hope now and again dawns 
 upon us, as we, from time to time, meet a down 
 coming mule train. 
 
 These arrieros can perhaps tell us how far it is 
 to the next Posada ? ''Very near! About a half 
 hour, ' ' is the stereotyped reply ; but our confidence 
 in these people becomes less and less as the hours 
 come and go, while we still struggle onward with 
 hope deferred. Two o'clock comes and we again, 
 as yesterday, look down into a valley before us, 
 which we have to pass through, and the town of 
 Yillete is lying cozily at its bottom, though a long 
 descent is intervening between us and the town. 
 It cannot be reached before three and a half o' clock, 
 and we are famishing for want of food. We de- 
 scend but a short distance when three or four 
 bright-faced children, all nearly of the same size, 
 attract our attention to a small hut near the path, 
 
53 
 
 beside wMcli a thatched roof poised upon four 
 posts, indicated the hopeful spirit of its occupants, 
 aspiring to move into more ample quarters in the 
 near future. As we ride up to the cabin an intelli- 
 gent looking boy, about twelve years of age, re- 
 turns our salutations, and the mother, whose face 
 we have seen reflected in those of the children, 
 stands in the background and kindly consents to 
 prepare something upon which we can breakfast. 
 
 She has three eggs, she says, and she can fry us 
 some plantains, and warm up a piece of cold meat 
 and some potatoes ; but we will be obliged to eat 
 them with our fingers, out of one wooden plate, 
 because the soldiers had stopped there, in passing 
 from the capital, during the late rebellion, and 
 carried away all her small store of dishes, after 
 mating the food she hospitably prepared for them. 
 
 The hearty good will of this woman pleases us, 
 and we gratefully assure her that her humble meal 
 will be wholly acceptable to our famishing stom- 
 achs, and set ourselves down to converse with her 
 children while she prepares our breakfast. Seven 
 children, of which the twelve year old boy is the 
 eldest, is her whole fortune. She and her children 
 are squatted here upon the mountain side raising 
 a few vegetables and chickens, while her husband 
 earns a few shillings on the road as a muleteer. 
 '*You must have met him upon the road," she 
 says, and tries to make us remember him by her 
 description. She seems pleased to see us enjoy 
 our repast, and when we ask the price of our break- 
 
54 
 
 fast for three, slie modestly replies, ' ' tres reales ' ' 
 (three dimes). This price is too ridiculous for 
 such a breakfast, so we give her ten, for which 
 she exhibits marked gratitude and desires us to 
 drink some beer at her expense, which we however 
 decline. At 4 o'clock we arrive in Yillete, a 
 village of perhaps 2,000 inhabitants, and propose 
 to our comrades to stop here for the night, in order 
 not to expose ourselves to the risk of bad lodgings 
 further on. They have been over this road before 
 and assure us that in order to reach comfortably 
 the point where the stage is to meet us to-morrow,, 
 we ought to proceed two hours farther to-day, and 
 they think comfortable lodgings can be found at a 
 point which they name. This plan adopted, our 
 march is resumed. Our beasts are already jaded 
 and we consequently make but slow progress as 
 we toil forward for two weary hours, only to find, 
 on reaching the appointed bivouac, that no enter- 
 tainment is to be had, on account of the recent 
 death of the head of the family. 
 
 Completely jaded and worn out as are ourselves 
 and our pack animals, no resource is left us but to 
 drag ourselves onward, until by sheer good luck 
 we may find a friendly shelter. Seven o' clock has^ 
 gone by, we can scarcely sustain ourselves in the 
 saddle, and our pack mules are now staggering 
 from sheer exhaustion. No human habitation is 
 near us, and a long and precipitous stretch of 
 mountain pathway, in sharp zigzags, lies directly 
 before us. We council together and promise the 
 
00 
 
 muleteers, who, as well as the mules, are begging 
 a respite, that the first hut we reach shall be our 
 lodging place, so we now all gather up our waver- 
 ing resolations for one final effort. All the way, 
 as these poor mules stagger up this toilsome ascent, 
 it seems to our guilty conscience that the}^ are 
 upbraiding us as a heartless task-master ; but no 
 pasturage is to be had in these woody mountain 
 sides until we reach a cleared space usually sur- 
 rounding human residences, and the beasts must 
 be famishing and weak with hunger, we there- 
 fore ''must be cruel only to be kind " enough to 
 urge them forward to where they may find food. 
 This we finally reach about 8 o'clock, and find 
 shelter for ourselves of the same description as 
 that in which we passed our first night out from 
 Honda, and, except that the fieas were more nu- 
 merous if possible, and that a hard-looking cus- 
 tomer slept under our table, we passed the night 
 in precisely the same manner. 
 
 We are now more than seven thousand feet 
 above the sea level, and the chill atmosphere warns 
 us to exchange our linen under-wear for woolen. 
 Thus prepared we take our morning chocolate and 
 commence our last day' s march up the mountains. 
 Our saddle mules, as well as the others, have now, 
 either become quite worn out, or accustomed to 
 unskillful riders (though our comrades, born in the 
 saddle, are scarcely more fortunate than ourselves), 
 and it has become a matter of tiresome labor to in- 
 duce them to keep pace with the pack-train, urged 
 
56 
 
 forward by maleteers skilled in the arts of spurring 
 them to their utmost endurance. Our sj^mpathies 
 for them, so livelj at first, are fast on the wane, 
 now that we are compelled to the exhausting labor 
 of spurring them at almost every step in order to 
 induce them to keep up with the pack mules that 
 have to carry far greater burthens. Only yester- 
 day we still pitied the hard lot of our dumb ser- 
 vants, born to spend comfortless lives in scrambling 
 over these horrible roads. But has mine not rest- 
 ed through the night 1 and has he not had his daily 
 dime' s worth of bushy pasturage 1 So unreasonable 
 a brute surely deserves no further sympathy ! Such 
 depraved indifference to our climbing proclivities, 
 which are blandly indicated to him in such patient 
 good humor every two or three seconds of time, 
 through the medium of two cruel spurs, should 
 certainly merit our strongest indignation. 
 
 The equinimity of the beast, however, far exceeds 
 our own, and compels us to seek consolation in 
 breathing, not loud but deep, anathemas upon the 
 wretch who has deceived us with these worthless 
 animals. At the same time we summon all our in- 
 genuity to hit upon ways and means of relief from 
 this painful mode of progression. After mature 
 reflection we adopt the expedient of placing our 
 mules under the urging arts of the muleteers as if 
 they belonged to the pack-train, while we repre- 
 sent the humble roll of equipage. This improve- 
 ment proves to be a success, and having our steady 
 and continued advance thus secured we betake 
 
 ^ 
 
 s 
 
57 
 
 ourselves to noticing the geological characteristics 
 of the country we are passing through. 
 
 The rocks hitherto have been chiefly sandstone 
 formations, with occasional cropping out of schis- 
 tose slates, all well covered with earth and abun- 
 dant vegetation except where the path cuts through 
 their corners and high points. As we approach 
 the summit, the conglomerate frequently shows it- 
 self, and having at last reached what appears to 
 be the culmination, a huge pile of this pudding 
 stone forms the crowning eminence, the same as 
 in the Rigi-Kulm. 
 
 A short and gradual descent soon shows us to 
 be between two ridges, with one before us some- 
 what higher than the one already passed over, 
 the intervening depression being about one league 
 in width and thickly covered over with al- 
 luvial deposits and vegetable mould, much of it 
 cleared lands, furnishing rich pasturage for cattle, 
 and thickly strewn with well rounded boulders, 
 varying from one to two hundred tons weight, all 
 resting in purely alluvial matrices. What an ab- 
 sorbing tale of past geologic ages do we here con- 
 template ? The well rounded forms of these huge 
 masses speak of severe and long continued attri- 
 tion; their alluvial matrices entirely disconnecting 
 them from the bed rock, together with its great 
 difference in character, show them to be strangers 
 here ; their location exclusively or nearly so, be- 
 tween these culminating ridges, of which the in- 
 ner is highest, points to the conclusion that these 
 
 ( 
 
58 
 
 ridges, even after tlieir upheaval, have been cover- 
 ed by the sea and these boulders brought hither 
 by glaziers which after passing the outer have 
 grounded upon the inner ridge, and here melted 
 away, leaving these interesting messengers to tell 
 us this curious history. 
 
 Between these ridges we breakfast, about eleven 
 A. M., at a wayside posada, called iigualarga, and 
 get the first sight of wheels we have had since leav- 
 ing Barranquilla. The slope up the inner ridge 
 from this point is sufficiently gradual for the pur- 
 poses of a good wagon road which has been cou: 
 structed, and the cargas of merchandise for Bo- 
 gota, leave the packmules at this point and are 
 hence transported on wheels over a zigzag road. 
 The climate is bracing, though the absence of 
 our accustomed amount of atmospheric pressure 
 is sensibly felt, the cheering, gurgling ripple of the 
 mountain rivulets, as their cool, sparkling waters, 
 clear as crystal, rush by us, produce in us very 
 pleasing sensations. We have, for the nonce, for- 
 gotten all our cares in the absorbing sensations 
 produced by our surroundings and are in the best 
 of humors. 
 
 ISTotwithstanding we have a good road for the 
 rest of our journey, the stage will not meet us 
 until we pass over the ridge and a league beyond^ 
 down into the edge of the great plain or table land, 
 so again in the saddle, the clouds gather and ac- 
 company us with a drizzling rain, which, owing to 
 the altitude, is cold and dampening to our spirits. 
 
59 
 
 At twelve M. we are on tlie Calm, nine thousand 
 feet above the sea, looking down upon the village 
 of Facatativa, the stage station, a league distant, 
 and of some four to live hundred feet less altitude. 
 
 TABLE LAND OF BOGOTA. 
 
 Strange as it may seem this culminating point 
 is covered with a perfectly black vegetable mould 
 more than two yards in thickness, with a sub- 
 strata many yards in depth of clay beds. As 
 we descend, the soil furnishes us with a black 
 muddy road, but this strata, which at some remote 
 age had been deposited in some swampy depres- 
 sion as peat-muck, becomes gradually thinner till 
 it disappears a short distance after debouching 
 upon the plain. We notice that the waters of 
 this inner watershed, as they gather into rivulets 
 and rush down by the wayside, have become col- 
 ored by percolation through this soil and are in 
 strong contrast with the pure crystaline brooks of 
 the other side. 
 
 Entering Facatativa through a muddy lane, 
 with mud houses ranged on either side, we soon 
 find ourselves on the public square at a Fonda or 
 Posada with an imposing two story front, and 
 riding through the "Porte Cocher," are inside a 
 deep courtyard with some twenty rooms ranged on 
 both sides of it, dedicated to the lodgement of 
 guests. The stage for Bogota will not depart till 
 next day at 12 m., and these appear to us comfor- 
 table lodgings for the meantime. 
 
60 
 
 Our exposure upon tlie mountains lias aggrava- 
 ted the bronchitis contracted by sleeping in a 
 draught of air on that sweltering night of our de- 
 parture from Barranquilla, and now threatened 
 with an attack of chills we immediately ask to 
 have our apartments assigned to us, and after 
 partaking of tea and toast, prepared to our order, 
 we call for extra blankets and retire to bed. 
 
 Under these combined influences the chill is 
 checked and though our head is big with fre- 
 quent coughing, we are beginning to feel more 
 comfortable, when suddenly a startling suspicion, 
 that gradually develops into a horrible reality, 
 comes upon us. 
 
 We have been placed in a room that contains, 
 hidden in secret recesses, a terrible enemy. In al- 
 most breathless anxiety we hold a hurried council 
 with ourselves, as this fearful discovery begins to 
 take on the form of certainty. We realize how 
 powerless we are against so formidable an attack. 
 The situation is each instant more thrilling as the 
 inevitable crisis rapidly closes in upon us. We 
 must somehow escape from this horrible place or 
 abide the result of this diabolic encounter. The 
 climax arrives, and with a yell of despair we 
 spring from our couch and flee in terror towards 
 the closed door. Our comrades, still up in adjoin- 
 ing appartments, come rushing in response to our 
 cry of anguish, and eagerly burst open the now un- 
 locked door. What is it ? they both demand in 
 the same breath. A million fleas I we gasp, 
 
61 
 
 through teeth now chattering again with the re- 
 turning ague. Like the man who, to escape the 
 onset of a furious bull, jumped into a large hol- 
 low stump of a tree, only to find he had got into 
 a swarm of bees, that made its home there, so we 
 had got relief from shaking our teeth out with 
 chills by aid of a close room and heavy blankets, 
 only to find ourselves beset by more excruciating- 
 torture. What is to be done ! We must die with 
 chills and fever or be devoured alive by these cruel 
 demons. A council of war is held at which it 
 Is decided that we shall have more chances for 
 life with the fleas. Horrible alternative ! but we 
 are reluctantly forced to submit to the ordeal. 
 The sufferings of this dreadful night must be 
 left to the imaginations of our readers. No wink 
 of sleep consented to close our agonizing lids till 
 the ''wee small hours ay ant the twa," when at last 
 a deep slumber crept over our now exhausted 
 body which lasted far beyond the grey dawn. 
 When we awoke we sprang instinctively from that 
 horrible couch and no possible reward would in- 
 duce us to pass another night in those lodgings. 
 
 At midday we take seats in a dilapidated bus 
 to finish our journey to Bogota at the foot of the 
 mountains, seven leagues away across the table 
 land, nearly due east from this point. The 
 bus is adorned on its inside panels with flow- 
 ers, houses, birds, etc. , painted in glaring col- 
 ors. One peacock is perched upon a two-story 
 house, its gorgeous tail trailing in the street below 
 and its head reaching an equal distance above. 
 
62 
 
 The road is tolerably good only it is now mud- 
 dy in places at wliicli the horses are unable to 
 drag us, twelve passengers, through, so we now 
 and again are obliged to alight and pick our way 
 through the mud. The plain through the entire 
 course of this road has a heavy cold soil, caused 
 by a substrata of clay, which holds the water in 
 it and ruins it for agricultural purposes, so it is 
 mostly dedicated to grazing. We are told that in 
 some parts potatoes are grown, and on the flanks 
 of some of the mountains wheat is successfully 
 cultivated. Few trees exist here and the eye 
 easily embraces the extent of this plain at a single 
 glance, an irregular oval about twenty by thirty 
 miles in its two diameters. 
 
 At ^ve o' clock p. m. on the fourth of December, 
 we have arrived at the Plaza de San Yictorino, on 
 the outskirts of Bogota, and find that no carriages 
 are ever permitted to enter the city. So procuring 
 a peon to shoulder our valise we start in pursuit 
 of our lodgings, recommended by our fellow coun- 
 tryman in Honda. Our other equipage has been 
 entrusted in Facatativa to an ox team to arrive 
 next morning. 
 
 We have occupied four days in a journey of 
 sixty-three miles, but we afterwards find we have 
 beaten by ten days the telegram that we sent from 
 Honda to Bogota, to announce our prospective ar- 
 rival. 
 
 The great changes in climate and water have 
 worked their usual effects upon our digestive ap- 
 
63 
 
 paratus and our head is big and feverish from 
 now almost incessant coughing, also suffering from 
 a marked chill, we can scarcely drag ourselves 
 to our lodgings, and on our arrival we instantly 
 demand to be shown to our apartments and fur- 
 nished with hot tea and extra blankets. 
 
 Our first week in Bogota has passed in almost 
 constant suffering, most of the time in bed. Our 
 hostess, a very short and stout, giggling, fussy, 
 boisterous woman of fifty-five, never tires of tell- 
 ing us how much all her boarders become attached 
 to her house, and the sharp unmusical voices of 
 herself and maiden daughter ring harshly and fre- 
 quently through our aching heads and unstrung 
 nervous system, as the two ladies petulantly scold 
 their illgoverned servants. 
 
 Our apartments open upon a wooden balcony 
 leading from the parlor to the dining room and 
 kitchen, aiid when the man-servant, a stout half- 
 breed Indian, responds to the frequent calls of our 
 hostess, he always runs along this balcony with a 
 flatfooted splatter with hopskip variations, execu- 
 ted in a style well calculated to "bring down the 
 balcony," if not the "Aoz^5e," and greatly disturbs 
 us in our sick and ner\^ous condition. 
 
 SANTA FE DE BOGOTA 
 
 as it was originally called, has dropped its Santa 
 Fe and is now plain Bogota. The thermometer 
 ranges between 60 and 65 of Fahrenheit's scale, 
 
64 
 
 and we are assured by the physicians that it does 
 not vary much beyond these limits during the en- 
 tire year, if we except the months of June, July 
 and August, when the cold winds blow from the 
 mountains. The physicians and people boast that 
 consumption (Phthisis Pulmonalis) is unknown 
 here. We soon discover that although the diur- 
 nal changes of temperature are very slight, yet 
 there are marked changes in the humidity of the 
 atmosphere, and that our bronchitis sympathizes 
 considerably with these changes. 
 
 The houses in Bogota are without chimneys, so 
 there is no way of warming the apartments, 
 which are consequently, at this altitude colder and 
 more cheerless than out of doors. The streets, 
 when the sun shines, being warm and comfortable 
 without overcoat, which we are obliged to put on 
 immediately on entering the house. 
 
 Whenever we neglect to do this, we are very soon 
 reminded of it by a feeling of chillyness rapidly 
 creeping over us. As might be expected under 
 these circumstances, the streets in sunny hours are 
 swarming with people like bees come out to sun 
 themselves. 
 
 Since we have been able to do so, we have daily 
 taken long walks through all the streets of the city, 
 around its outskirts and up the sides of the moun- 
 tain range on the flanks of which it is built. 
 
 Directly behind or over the city, on the summits 
 of two of the highest peaks, between which a 
 mountain stream rushes down and traverses the 
 
65 
 
 town, two churches stand out against the sky 
 more than tw^o thousand feet above us. Part way 
 up the sides of these mountains are numerous 
 points from which fine views of the city, spread 
 out over the comparatively even slope of the foot- 
 hills, may be enjoyed. 
 
 From these standpoints, looking west over the 
 city and north and south, the whole table-land is 
 before and beneath us in one extended view, 
 bounded on all sides by mountain ranges, its long- 
 est diameter being from north to south, and w^e 
 are standing upon its eastern edge, opposite to the 
 junction of its southern and middle thirds. 
 
 The foothills around this great plain are, as far 
 as we are able to observe, and by information from 
 other sources, formed of clay or are covered by 
 thick beds of it to a considerable altitude, this fur- 
 nishing material for abundance of sun-dried bricks, 
 the chief building element of Bogota, and also 
 on its southeastern outskirts a porcelain factory is 
 working this material into a fair ordinary quality of 
 these products for home consumption. Before 
 upheaval, clay seems to have covered the surface ; 
 after upheaval this has been washed down from the 
 higher altitudes and accumulated in these foothills 
 or Hanks of the mountains, and also spread by the 
 waters over the bottom of the lake, formed by these 
 surrounding mountain chains, and leveling it up 
 as we see it before us in the plain. As vegetation 
 spread over the mountains, their rapid disente- 
 gration by the rains was arrested thereby and 
 
6G 
 
 the wash carried down an increasing proportion of 
 decaying vegetable matter, which spreading itself 
 over the bottom of the lake, now constitutes the 
 soil that covers the surface. 
 
 That such washing down and accumulations of 
 claj has formed these foothills is also made plaus- 
 ible by the assurance of an American resident, 
 that he, in attempting to bore a well to supply him- 
 self with pure water, passed through many 3^ards 
 of clay, then a strata of vegetable soil and was 
 then baffled by striking into a wooden substance 
 below as of hard stumps. 
 
 These waters accumulated until at last finding a 
 weak point in their mountain barriers at their 
 southern extremity, where is now the the falls of 
 Tequendama, they escaped into the tributaries of 
 the Magdalena, leaving these table lands high and 
 comparatively dry as we now find them. Their 
 surface is too level for perfect drainage, and its 
 clay bottom holds the water in the upper soil, pre- 
 venting its being absorbed into the lower strata. 
 Consequently these lands can never be favorable 
 to the labors of the agriculturist. A very large 
 proportion of the supplies of this market is 
 brought in by the Indians who attend on market 
 days (Thursdays and Fridays), and who come long 
 distances from their little crevices among the moun- 
 tains, each bringing a few reals worth of truck 
 which they have gathered in order to purchase 
 with its proceeds their humble supplies. 
 
 It is a curious spectacle to witness the accumu- 
 
67 
 
 lation of these people on market days. Among 
 other truck which they have brought in during 
 this month of December, are most delicious wild 
 strawberries, which we have enjoyed on every 
 market day since our arrival, and are assured they 
 are furnished in abundance every market day in 
 the year. 
 
 Flowers are also here in eternal bloom. We 
 have rarely seen such large, fine roses, both white 
 and red, their corollas, when in full bloom, being 
 four inches in diameter by actual measurement. 
 
 Having now given our readers some idea of its 
 physical surroundings, we will endeavor to fill 
 out these with a brief description of the town. 
 
 Bogota contains about 50,000 inhabitants, has 
 very narrow streets, running east and west up and 
 down the mountain at an angle of about fifteen 
 degrees to the horizontal, and north and south, 
 along the mountain' s flank, each having a single 
 gutter in the middle, with the waters from the 
 mountain rivulets constantly running through 
 them. At night they are dimly lighted with oil 
 lamps. 
 
 The houses, mostly constructed of sun-dried 
 bricks, a fair proportion of them of two stories, are 
 roofed with baked clay tiles in the usual Spanish 
 intertropical style of architecture. Its principal 
 public square is the "Plaza de Bolivar," in its 
 centre a bronze statute of the Liberator on a mar- 
 ble pedestal, enclosed by iron railing, this pedes- 
 tal bearing on its front the words "Simon Bolivar 
 
68 
 
 Libertadorde Colombia, Peru, Bolivia," and each 
 block of limestone composing the other three sides 
 of the pedestal, has the name of some one of his 
 principal battles cnt into it, forty-one in all. Rep- 
 resented in military uniform and cloak, with 
 scroll of parchment in his left hand, uncovered 
 head and drawn sword, he stands poised upon his 
 right foot in the attitude of vigilance. 
 
 On the upper or eastern side of this Plaza stands 
 the Cathedral, an edifice chiefly noticeable for its 
 imposing size, massive light colored sandstone 
 front, and also for its robust interior columns with 
 their gilded and burnished capitals. 
 
 Another church immediately adjoins it on the 
 right as we face it, and some shops occupy the 
 balance of that side of the square, a wide stone 
 platform extending its entire length, furnishes to 
 the people a favorite rendezvous and promenade 
 for the early part of the pleasant evenings. The 
 entire south side of this plaza is occupied by the 
 half constructed National Palace, which when 
 completed is to front on four streets, and will be a 
 handsome structure with doric columns in front 
 centre. The west and north sides are occupied by 
 shops with residences over them. 
 
 Bogota has a well ventilated civic hospital of two 
 hundred beds, a Military Hospital of one hun- 
 dred, and an Insane Asylum, a new edifice for 
 which is in course of construction. It formerly 
 contained many and very wealthy monasteries ; 
 but the edifices were confiscated in 1862 and are 
 
69 
 
 now occupied as hospitals, colleges, schools and 
 public offices. That of Santo Domingo now oc- 
 cupied by the various offices of the National Gov- 
 ernment ; that of San Juan de Dios, by Civic 
 Hospital and Medical College ; that of San Fran- 
 cisco, by the offices of the State of Cundinamarca ; 
 El Carmen, as a Military Hospital; San Augustine, 
 now occupied as Military Barracks ; San Diego, 
 as a Poorhouse ; La Candelaria, by School of En- 
 gineers ; Santa Ines, by School of Trades and 
 Arts, and that of Santa Clara, now occupied by 
 the Normal School for the education of teachers 
 for the public schools, are, nearly all of them, 
 enormous and costly edifices, regal and palatial 
 in their interior apartments, court yards, marble 
 fountains and flower gardens, although, present- 
 ing an exterior plain even to dreariness. Except 
 the first named of these edifices, which has been 
 repaired by the Grovernment, most of them are 
 showing abundant signs of advancing age. 
 
 These are monuments of the pioneers whose 
 wonderful energy and enterprise wins their 
 highest appreciation from those, who have tra- 
 versed these rugged mountains to this almost in- 
 accessible region. 
 
 This appreciation is not augmented by these 
 massive vestiges, which only indicate that they 
 brought with them the device of that period, that 
 of piling up human labor into vast edifices in the 
 interest of an institution, in order to increase its in- 
 fluence with the masses of the population, by creat- 
 
70 
 
 ing in their minds the impression of massive , 
 grandeur and power, thus awing them into a | 
 sense of their own individual insignificance and 
 dependance upon the invisible grandeur of which 
 these were supposed to be emblematic. 
 
 In countries, where education of the masses is 
 very limited, words are powerless to convey to 
 their comprehension the advantage of moral faith- 
 fulness to God and to their fellowmen, and to im- 
 press them with a sense of moral responsibility ; 
 but visible forms of mysterious grandeur produce 
 in them profound sensations, which, if turned to 
 loyal account, justify the employment of this 
 stage trick for beneficent purposes. This is why 
 the Roman creed has been and always will be more 
 acceptable among the aboriginal tribes and the 
 uneducated masses than one adapted to those 
 classes of more intellectual habits of mind. But 
 alas ! they have but too generally been degraded 
 by their employment, as the selfish devices of the 
 showman for unholy purposes, those of domina- 
 tion and material profit, and when urged in the 
 interests of these under the guise of pure motives, 
 as a reason against the educational development 
 of the race they become justly odious to every 
 honorable mind. 
 
 SOCIETY IN BOGOTA. 
 
 Owing to the brevity of our visit, we are unable 
 to say much of society here. We have got the im- 
 pression, that there is in the capital a large pro- 
 
71 
 
 portion of white blood, some of it unmixed with 
 that of the native and African races. The climate 
 also, on account of the altitude, gives much fairer 
 complexions, than those of lower altitudes. 
 
 On account of the isolated position of this capi- 
 tal it is not strange there should be some local 
 customs, that attract the curiosity of strangers. 
 One is that of dressing their boys of ten and 
 twelve years of age in stove pipe hats and frock- 
 coats, giving them all the general appearance of a 
 pigmy race, until the eye takes in the childish 
 faces, then the effect is at first ludicrous, until one 
 is habituated to it. Also boy police officers of 
 twelve and fourteen years of age, sauntering their 
 allotted rounds in soldier uniform, and " Celador," 
 (which in Cuba means police captain) lettered on 
 the fronts of their caps. We are told that all 
 become liable to military duty here at twelve 
 years of age. There are also many local customs, 
 words and modes of parlance, not interesting, 
 however, to English readers. 
 
 The fair sex also appear more in the streets, 
 have a more elastic step, more graceful carriage 
 of the body than their sisters of lower altitudes, 
 and, were it not for the ugly black shawl, which 
 they invariably draw closely over the head and 
 shoulders, when in the street, and generally in the 
 churches, leaving only the face peering out, they 
 might be said to present many charming speci- 
 mens of their sex, though there are many among 
 them, whose flesh tints, the practiced eye of the 
 
72 
 
 profession would not set down to robust health, 
 and this leads us to speak of 
 
 because as such it has been frequently recom- 
 mended on account of its remarkably equible 
 temperature and bracing atmosphere. 
 
 One of the first observations we make on our ar- 
 rival, is that the odor of the closets permeate 
 nearly all parts of the house where we have taken 
 our lodgings. As we become dissatisfied and 
 seek others, we discover that nearly every house 
 we enter is in the same condition in varying 
 degrees of offensiveness, though the occupants, 
 from force of habit, seem quite unconcious of it 
 when it is mentioned to them, or aifect to be so. 
 On becom-ing better acquainted with the peculiari- 
 ties of J:he city, we find this condition to be gener- 
 al. Investigation discovers that there is here, no 
 subsoil drainage, the conduits from the closets 
 running superficially under the flagging stones and 
 leading into the surface gutters in the middle of 
 the streets. But with such slight declivity these 
 conduits do not readily free themselves, anc^. their 
 contents gradually soak into and permeate the 
 soil until it becomes so impregnated with these ex- 
 creta as to taint the air with their effluvia, and is 
 even sometimes perceptible to the olfactories in 
 the glass of water offered for drink. This is ex- 
 plained by the fact that the water supply is con- 
 veyed to the hydrants through unglazed clay pipes 
 laid in the surface soil and joined by mortar. 
 
73 
 
 All who know something of the laws of hydraul- 
 ics know that a current through such pipes will 
 inevitably suck through their pores the juices of 
 the surrounding soil and thus take in the impreg- 
 nation above referred to. But many houses in the 
 less public streets have no closets on the premises, 
 their inhabitants defiling the street gutters, and so 
 poisoning the atmosphere with vile efluvia as to 
 render it irrespirable except to those whom long 
 practice has habituated to these noxious influences. 
 
 Thus this city, surrounded by physical condi- 
 tions favorable for making it one of the healthiest 
 on the planet ; situated over a clay sub-strata of 
 easy excavation for the construction of sewers, 
 and connecting the closets with them by imperme- 
 able walls of masonry ; with abundance of water 
 from the mountain streams to flow through them 
 in an average declivity, of fifteen degrees thus 
 giving a rapid current capable of carrying the sew- 
 age down into the plain far away from the city, 
 where it would become a source of revenue as an 
 appropriate fertilizer of that cold soil ; it does not, 
 nevertheless, in its present state, offer the condi- 
 tions of salubrity suited to the requirements of 
 health-seekers. Reliable sanitary and mortuary 
 statistics have not been accumulated here, but our 
 conversations with medical men of large experi- 
 ence, and queries of the Sisters of Charity in charge 
 of the hospital nursing, confirms our well ground- 
 ed suspicions that Typhoid fever and Dysentery 
 are endemic and frequently epidemic here, being 
 
74 
 
 by far the most numerous and fatal diseases ; the 
 death rate of Bogota, we judge, must be very high. 
 Pneumonia is said to be frequent in June, July, 
 and August, and Bronchitis is by no means such 
 a stranger as the reported absence of Phthisis 
 would lead us to expect. Hepatic affections, for- 
 merly unknown here, are now of frequent occur- 
 rence. No physcian' s certificate of the causes of 
 death is required for interment, and one of the 
 three cemeteries is uninclosed, the other two are 
 enclosed by walls of masonry, and during the last 
 two years have kept registers of inhumation s, 
 upon which might be based a rough guess as to the 
 death rate, but these registers, being incomplete^ 
 cannot be relied on, and we have, therefore, not 
 consulted them. 
 
 We have been now one month in Bogota and 
 our t)ronchial affection becoming gradually more 
 aggravated, we resolve, in consequence, to retrace 
 our steps down the mountains to a warmer climate 
 at Honda, and explore the curious table-lands to 
 which we before referred. 
 
 On Saturday morning, January 4th, 1878, we 
 take our departure, sleeping the same night at 
 Agualarga. There is quite a party on the road 
 and we are offered a cot in a room with a man, 
 his wife and daughter. Regarding the family pre- 
 cinct as to a certain extent sacred we decline, and 
 are furnished with a pillow on the sofa in the fam- 
 ily-room of the proprietor. Here our Smith & 
 Wesson, a handsome weapon, is spirited away 
 
75 
 
 from under our pillow by disloyal hands. (All 
 carry revolver in belt liere, and many, a hunting 
 knife.) The ladies whose apartments we had de- 
 clined are fellow-travelers the rest of the trip, and 
 sympathize in our loss, saying it was a castigo for 
 being too modest, as, had we slept in their apart- 
 ments, it would not have happened. Daring the 
 rest of the trip our party, which has accumulated 
 to ten or twelve ladies and gentlemen, encamp on 
 cots when we can^ on the floor when we can not^ 
 in the same apartment. We will dismiss the des- 
 cription of this return trip to Honda after mention- 
 ing one of the most striking peculiarities seen upon 
 the road and which we failed to mention in the 
 narrative of our trip upwards. 
 
 We said that all merchandize from Honda to 
 Bogota is transported on pack mules. This rule 
 has its exception. It will be readily perceived 
 that such bulky merchandize as pianos (especially 
 square ones), etc., would be impossible of trans- 
 portation upon mule back. These are carried up 
 the mountains by men, and women too, who dedi- 
 cate themselves to this hard service for seventy- 
 live cents per day, finding their own subsistence. 
 Eight of these under a square piano will often oc- 
 cupy two weeks in the journey, each carrying in 
 the hand a crotched stick, on which to rest the 
 burthen after every short stretch of the journey is 
 accomplished. Bulky merchandize within the 
 strength of one to carry, man or woman, as there 
 seems no noticeable difference of potency, is secur- 
 
76 
 
 ed by a strong band over the forehead, and then 
 bending forward so that the body represents about 
 one-sixth of a circle, it is curious to watch these 
 people as they slowly stagger up the mountain, 
 every few minutes backing up against a rock or 
 bank to lean their heavy burthens upon it. And 
 let it not be supposed that it is only the lowest 
 specimens of humanity that we here find dedicated 
 to this toilsome life. Several we noticed among 
 these female peons who, though hardy and strong, 
 were by no means destitute of physical beauty, 
 and were quite sensible of an}^ complimentary 
 notice that was taken of them. 
 
 The second day down necessitates a change of 
 underwear from woolen to merino, and on the 
 third, to linen. Arriving in Honda we are politely 
 taken possession of by our countryman, Mr. Hal- 
 lam, and notwithstanding our modest protestations 
 of unwillingness to impose ourselves for a whole 
 month upon him, having his house filled with a 
 large family of his own, both he and Mrs. Hallam 
 insist apon our acceptance of their hospitality. 
 The extent of our good fortune in this arrangement 
 cannot be properly estimated by those unacquaint- 
 ed with the character of the Fondas in small towns 
 of Spanish America ; but we, more experienced, 
 held it and still hold it in the most grateful appre- 
 ciation. Mr. Hallam, a prosperous merchant and 
 banker, under 40 years of age, and of very cheer- 
 ful disposition, resides in his own spacious and 
 airy house, well adapted to this heated climate, is 
 
77 
 
 well supplied with horses and mules, (horses trav- 
 el best on the table-lands), is surrounded by a 
 charming family, and to add to our happiness, the 
 bronchical affection that so persecuted us in Bo- 
 gota has disappeared with magical suddenness on 
 our descent to these lower altitud es. Here, around 
 Mr. Hallam, is also a small colony of Americans, 
 consisting among others of Capt. Chapman, wife 
 and three daughters, young ladies, and Mr. and 
 Mrs. Whitney and children. But this is a digres- 
 sion and we have promised to give some account 
 of the geological character of the llanos and of the 
 probable mode of formation of the curious castel- 
 lated mountains. 
 
 These llanos, varying in width from one to three 
 miles, extend from Honda, at first in a S. S. W. 
 direction, but in a general southern course very 
 many leagues away. The Magdalena reaching 
 Honda in a short stretch of N. N. W. course, here 
 deflects suddenly to due N., and the Guali, run- 
 ning N. N. E. along the foot of the mountains at 
 the western edge of the llanos, falls into the Mag- 
 dalena at this point, the two rivers forming the 
 letter Y, both the llanos and the mountains be- 
 tween the arms narrowing down till they terminate 
 in the point. Honda is situated at the confluence of 
 these two rivers, about two-thirds of the town be- 
 ing in the crotch of the Y, the other third across 
 the Guali, the two parts being connected by two 
 bridges, one of wood, now in a dilapidated condi- 
 tion, the other of iron, brought from England and 
 
78 
 
 set up here upon the ruins of one of three arches 
 of solid masonry, of old Spanish construction, 
 shattered by an earthquake about fifty years ago 
 and finally undermined and thrown down by the 
 strong currents in times of raging floods. One of 
 the butments of the present bridge is based upon 
 the prostrate form of one of the central piers of 
 the old bridge, which lies entire^ not a stone be- 
 ing started from its place by the severe usage it has 
 gone through, and we are told that an attempt was 
 made to get stone for the modern butments out of 
 these fallen piers but was abandoned, because the 
 mortar or cement with which they have been con- 
 structed, proved to be stronger than the stone 
 itself. This iron bridge spans the Guali just 
 above its confluence, at an altitude of about 
 twenty feet above the present stage of the water 
 and on a level with the pavement. The floods 
 rise at some seasons from twelve to fifteen feet, but 
 never sufiiciently to overflow the narrow streets of 
 the town. Here are the ruins of two large convents, 
 a remaining fragriient of one serving as a Hospital, 
 and within the roofless and crumbling walls of the 
 other is the Theatre of the town, where the audi- 
 ence furnish their own seats, or stand during the 
 occasional performance of some traveling players 
 or amateur companies. There are also two church- 
 es in good state of preservation and appear to be 
 fully as well attended as in other Spanish coun- 
 tries. The town is mostly composed of m ud houses 
 with thatched roofs, though in the principal street 
 the majority have tiled roofing. 
 
79 
 
 The Magdalena, at Honda, has on both sides a 
 narrow strip of plain, perhaps an eighth of a mile 
 wide, which terminate on the eastern side at the 
 l)end, and on the western at the Guali. From this 
 plain and from the connecting llanos of the Guali, 
 sandstone mountains rise precipitously from fifteen 
 hundred to two thousand feet, those on the east- 
 ern side terminating in peaks with higher ones 
 beyond, the strata having a dip of about twen- 
 ty degrees towards the east, and those on the 
 western side terminating in a vast table land over- 
 looking the llanos, and extending many leagues 
 l^ack to the foothills of the western Cordilleras. 
 On this table land we stand upon the same level 
 or altitude as the tops of those curious, isolated, 
 <;astellated mountains with their perfectly horizon- 
 tal sandstone strata, many of which mountains are 
 scattered in the llanos below, and the first sight of 
 them from this position clearly suggests their mode 
 of formation. These high plains, formed by the 
 detritus washed down from the Cordilleras, have 
 in some preadamic age extended across and filled 
 the whole valley, and we are standing on the bed 
 of the broad river that fiowed over and formed 
 them. As the floods decreased, they were confin- 
 ed to narrower limits, their currents corroding the 
 plain away down to the level of the llanos below 
 us, except at those points where, by greater struc- 
 tural resistance, pieces of it have remained in the 
 forms of these curious mountains. 
 
 The soil on these upper plains is better than on 
 
80 
 
 tlie lower ones, and much of tliem is unwooded^ 
 and occupied for cattle raising. 
 
 The soil on the lower plains is sandy, though in 
 some parts fairly covered with vegetable mould,, 
 and all, or nearly all, covered by wild grass, inter- 
 spersed with occasional clumps of trees. 
 
 In the Cordilleras, a few leagues to the south- 
 west, is a famous mining district of the old 
 Spaniards, where two hydraulic mines are ac- 
 tually being worked by English companies, of 
 which Mr. Hallam is the banker, and to which he- 
 kindly invites us to make an excursion with him. 
 After a few hours of hard riding up the llanos^ 
 we plunge into the foothills across the Guali and 
 begin climbing into higher altitudes. We soon 
 iind that the geological formations are entirely 
 different in character. Granite, greenstone and. 
 slate are now the prevailing rocks, and the soil, 
 of course, of corresponding properties. Here, all 
 is well wooded, and enormous forest trees, straight 
 as arrows, shoot upwards without a limb to great 
 heights. They have grown so close together that 
 the sunbeams have not been able to get at their 
 trunks in order to draw out from them these 
 lateral appendages, and so, these vivifying forces 
 being received exclusively upon their tops, it has 
 led all their developing energies upwards. 
 
 Now and again one appears in our path quite 
 dead ; its life crushed out of it in the embrace of 
 those huge vegetable serpents that here abound 
 and prey upon its fellow fauna ; but the vulgar 
 
81 
 
 tangle that usually prevails in this humid and heat- 
 ed climate seems here to be almost entirely smoth- 
 ered out by the larger growth. 
 
 Here it is not climbing by sharp zigzags up pre- 
 cipitous ascents as on the trip to Bogota, but up 
 gradual and winding paths under stately timber, 
 with no rocky cliffs in sight. The rise is rapid 
 however, and as we reach successive openings in 
 the forests where some portion of the llanos below 
 comes into view, the eye reaches far away across 
 the valley to the mountain ranges of the other side, 
 and now the higher table land and the castellated 
 mountains both appear as slight elevations in its 
 bottom, confirming the theory of their formation 
 before put forward. 
 
 Arrived at the mines, only two hours apart, we 
 are hospitably received by the English employees, 
 most of whom have been mining in California, and 
 who have here introduced the California "Moni- 
 tor," bringing the water therefor ^ve or six miles 
 by canals. One of the mines, the "Malibar,"' 
 works two of these monitors, but neither of these 
 are paying dividends to their stockholders. They 
 are clearing out the sluices and melting down the 
 proceeds for the month, at the time of our visit ; 
 but we also have the opportunity of witnessing 
 the corroding effect of those powerful streams or 
 jets of water directed against the high bank of 
 gravel from a distance of two hundred feet. Be- 
 tween the nozzle and the bank, the water describes 
 an arc of one- eighth of a circle, and securing a 
 
82 
 
 position opposite to its middle, we, while tlie 
 stream continues, witness and enjoy a perpetual 
 rainbow. 
 
 The night before our visit to the "^Malpaso" 
 mine, a tiger had destroyed a valuable hoise be- 
 longing to one of the employees, and but a few 
 steps from the house ; in fact, right among the 
 scattered huts in which the peons live. So au- 
 dacious a tiger deserves to be hunted down and 
 chastized, but in these dense woods without skill- 
 ful dogs it would be very much like hunting for 
 a needle in a haystack. 
 
 We spent eight days very agreeably in these 
 forest mountains, where the thermometer stands 
 ten to twelve degrees lower than in Honda, being 
 the guest, during two days, of a Welsh gentleman, 
 Mr. Cooke, and sister, he being in charge of the 
 once famous "Bocaneme" mine, now held by 
 an English Company, though not being worked. 
 
 This whole district seems to have been upturned 
 by the old Spanish gold seekers. These moun- 
 tain paths often run through windings and turn- 
 ings long distances upon sharp ridges not more 
 than two yards wide, on both sides of which are 
 almost perpendicular declivities into hollows from 
 two to five hundred feet deep, their bottoms and 
 sides densely occupied by tall forest trees, which 
 suggest to the mind of the observer, that these 
 paths have been here before the hollows, and that 
 these last have been excavated by the gold seekers 
 till they impinged upon the pathway, which 
 
83 
 
 they have respected and left for the convenience 
 ■of travel and communication. 
 
 We repeatedly suggest this theory of these cu- 
 rious ridges to the natives and the miners, and 
 though they all admit its plausibility, we are not 
 :able to extract from them any opinion of their own 
 by any ruse or direct means we are able to devise, 
 they evidently regarding this subject as a matter 
 of no interest. 'No level foot of land is to be seen 
 in all this region ; but a rich soil covers every 
 inch, and whenever we reach a point at which the 
 eye can roam over a large space, it surveys an end- 
 less sea of rich foliage of dark green, interspersed 
 with bronze of varying shades of metallic lustre. 
 
 From time to time large butterflies of the most 
 gorgeous hues flit by us through the trees to re- 
 mind us that the tropical sunlight has not con- 
 fined its charming elaborations to the Flora alone. 
 "Man seems the only growth that dwindles here.'.' 
 Were it not so, this region would soon be filled 
 with prosperous coffee plantations, to which it ap- 
 pears to us admirably adapted. 
 
 HOiq-DA TO THE COAST. 
 
 On our return to Honda, we prepare for depart- 
 ure down the river, having received letters from 
 Ouba requiring our presence in Havana to assist 
 in the liquidation of our interests in that capital. 
 Just here, we find opposed to us one of the prin- 
 cipal discouragements of enterprise, after the cli- 
 
84 
 
 mate, wMch oppress this country, viz. : The diffi- 
 culty of river navigation. The navigation of the 
 Magdalena is practicable only about four months 
 out ot the twelve, — the months of high water. 
 No steamer has arrived at, or gone down from, 
 Honda for nearly two months, and unless by acci- 
 dental rise of the waters, there may not be a 
 steamer down for two months more. During- 
 these intervals in the steam navigation, a canoe 
 or dugout, leaves for the coast every ten days, 
 carrying the mail, but notwithstanding the as- 
 sistance of the current, it is a trip of fifteen to 
 eighteen days through that immense fever swamp, 
 cramped into the narrow bottom of a dugout ca- 
 noe, ready to upset on the slightest provocation, 
 to say nothing of having the brains broiled out by 
 the torrid sun, or to be eaten by tigers or alliga- 
 tors if attempting to rest the tired body by spread- 
 ing the blankets for a night upon the bank. 
 
 While in this dilemma a small new steamer, 
 drawing but two feet of water, arrived up the river 
 to within two leagues of Honda, and dispatched 
 its cargo on pack mules and received its return car- 
 go by the same process. But the upper part of 
 the river has many round stones scattered along 
 its bottom, that have been brought down by the 
 strong currents in the months of flood waters, and 
 the little adventurer got several severe thumps up- 
 on these stones in coming up. This is a London 
 made boat of thin steel plates brought in sections 
 and put together at Barranquilla, so it was not 
 
85 
 
 wrecked by these thumps, though rivets have been 
 started in one place, and the captain will not risk 
 going down with the same depth of water, because 
 if he gets one going dovin it will be more damaging 
 owing to the swift current of this part of the river, 
 as also it will be more difficult to back out of a 
 tight place against the current. We are however 
 near the Candelaria time, and all agree that there 
 generally is, from some cause or other, a rise of 
 two to six feet in the river at that time, and it is 
 agreed that in case of a rise, which the captain 
 deems sufficient, he is to give us six hours notice 
 before sailing. 
 
 There are some ten or twelve passengers in town 
 awaiting such notice, and the river is being watch- 
 ed anxiously from hour to hour, for signs of in- 
 creasing waters. The Candelaria arrives and we 
 are beginning to believe that all signs fail in a dry 
 time when, lo ! there is a stir in town. 
 
 Somebody has seen a floating stick come down 
 the river. Everybody is inspecting the water to 
 see if it looks turbid above the Guali, (as the wash 
 from the mines always keeps the waters of the 
 Guali turbid). Yes, at nightfall, the waters above 
 the confluence of the Guali are beginning to be 
 discolored, even more than ordinarily, with sedi- 
 ment. This is a sure sign there have been rains 
 above, and next morning, surely enough, the riv- 
 er has risen one foot and is still rising. 
 
 At twelve m., the rise has reached nearly two 
 feet, and notice is received from the captain that 
 
86 
 
 if the water continues to rise till four o' clock p. m. , 
 lie will depart at that hour. 
 
 Over so broken a path with equipage it is a two 
 hours ride to reach the boat, so all is bustle among 
 those who expect to be passengers, getting ready. 
 The consignee has to send down two beeves for 
 fresh meat on the trip down, and assures us pass- 
 engers that if we arrive on board at five, it will be 
 all right, as the boat will wait for us. 
 
 The passengers get together in a cavalcade 
 about three o' clock and start for the boat, our 
 friend Mr. Hallam and the consignee of the boat 
 accompanying us to see us oif. Urging our beasts, 
 about half-past four we get sight of the boat under 
 way steaming away from us. 
 
 It being a matter of some importance to us that 
 we should reach the coast in time to embark in the 
 Prench mail steamer of the 22 ad of February, for 
 Santiago de Cuba, we had been congratulating 
 ourselves upon our good luck in this rise in the 
 river, and now the reaction from buoyant expecta- 
 tion to bitter disappointment is very trying to our 
 temper, and we halt in silent reverie in our efibrts 
 to choke down verbal expressions of our feeling. 
 There are several persons approaching us from the 
 direction of the steamer, which prove to be per- 
 sons from the town who have sent cargo aboard, 
 and bring to us a message from the captain that he 
 will run four hours, down to Conejos, below which 
 point is deeper water, and that he was obliged to 
 leave us, because if he waited longer he would not 
 
87 
 
 be able to reach that point before dark, and would 
 thus have been compelled to remain over night 
 here, perhaps to find in the morning that the rise 
 had gone by, delaying his trip indefinitely. All 
 v^ho wished, he said, could take canoes and reach 
 him at Conejos before morning. 
 
 Sadly we retrace our steps, but resolve to 
 make the attempt to reach the steamer by canoe. 
 At Carricoli, one league below Honda, we find a 
 boatman, but seeing our necessity he will not go 
 for less than eighteen dollars, it requiring three 
 men and all of the next day to get back up stream. 
 
 We take in one passenger beside ourselves, and 
 just as we are taking leave of our friends an Ital- 
 ian priest who has been to Bogota, as is ru- 
 mored as a messenger from the Pope to the Bish- 
 op, comes forward and begs we will also admit 
 him into our canoe as he is ill and it is important 
 he should reach the boat. 
 
 A NIGHT ON THE MAGDALENA IN A DUGOUT. 
 
 With three passengers in all and our equipage, 
 our dug out is so filled that we are obliged to cramp 
 our limbs under us in order to find room to sit in 
 the bottom of the canoe, and the oarsmen will not 
 consent to our sitting on our trunks from fear of 
 our upsetting the craft. 
 
 It is quite dark as in this uncomfortable position 
 we push off from the bank into the current and 
 paddle away down stream. Tliere is no moon and 
 
our friends upon the bank soon disappear from 
 our sight in the dark folds of night. 
 
 Their hearty good bye and warm parting grasp 
 lingers in our mind and deepens the paiting gloom. 
 Downward we speed with the current in moody 
 silence, holding converse with our memories of 
 the friends we have left behind. The stars twinkle 
 in the firmament above us and meet our gaze in 
 seeming sympathy, for they too are silent. 
 
 The priest at last, as if the silence was getting 
 painfuJ, makes an effort to draw us from our 
 dreamy quietude into some conversation of a gen- 
 eral character, about the novelty of our situation 
 and our prospects of reaching the steamer before 
 morning, both of us with some nervousness, lest if 
 morning should overtake us before our arrival at 
 Conejos, we might find her again departed, and 
 we a long day's journey from our lodgings 
 at Honda. The climate did not agree with him 
 at Bogota and he has been sick with intermittent 
 fever at Honda while waiting for a steamer. He 
 related to us that the physician whom he had sum- 
 moned to attend him, prescribed for him on his 
 first visit, five drops of Holy Water with five drops 
 of Sacramental Wine, and on remonstrating with 
 him that he was sought for the aid of his medi- 
 cal science and not for that of his spiritual faith, 
 the doctor chided him for trying to usurp in 
 the case an intelligence superior to his physi- 
 cian's and took his leave. The priest not having so 
 much faith in the virtues of Holy Water as the 
 
89 
 
 medicine man, asked for his bill for this visit and 
 was charged ten dollars therefor. The hours te- 
 diously move by and it is impossible to remain 
 in so cramped a position of body so many hours, 
 so we occasionally stretch ourselves upon the top 
 of our equipage, to the great consternation of the 
 canotiers, who repeatedly remonstrate with us 
 Now and again, the hooting of a startled owl or 
 the roar of a wild beast rings out upon the still 
 night air, or the splash of some enterprising fish, 
 as it jumps in pursuit of its frightened prey breaks 
 the monotony as we paddle on. 
 
 Towards morning, as we swing round a bend 
 of the river, two glaring lamplights announce 
 to us that we are approaching the coveted steam- 
 er, and we are soon taken on board. The captain 
 is copious in his expressions of regret at having 
 put us to so much trouble, and we are forced to 
 admit that he was not without excuse. 
 
 Our satisfaction with having our arrival at the 
 coast in time for the French steamer as good as 
 assured, makes us feel comfortable and well satis- 
 lied with everybody. 
 
 We get through the next day prosperously, 
 though the constant changes in the channels of 
 this river keep the pilot anxiously watching to see 
 where are the most rapid currents in order to fol- 
 low in them so as not to get upon the subaqueous 
 sandbanks. The second day we are not so for- 
 tunate. Eleven o'clock, a. m., finds us in con- 
 sternation, stuck fast upon a bank less than two 
 
90 
 
 feet under tlie surface and a rapid current busily 
 pushing us farther into it. We now find we are 
 loaded down to nearly three feet draught of water, 
 and are more than a foot deep in the sand. Our 
 stern wheel in vain is whirled around with the 
 greatest force we can muster, in the attempts to 
 back out of this difficulty, but we remain motion- 
 less and the sand will accumulate around us in a 
 few hours to an extent that will make it difficult 
 to extricate ourselves, we are in a position where 
 no breeze reaches us and old sol seems to pro- 
 pose to himself to try to the utmost the powers of 
 human endurance under his most ardent and con- 
 suming heat. We launch our only dugout canoe 
 and two strong men with poles to push it up against 
 the current carry a hawser to several snags up 
 stream, but one after another of them prove to be 
 not sufficiently fast to the bottom to resist the force 
 of our steam windlass in its efforts to draw us out 
 of the sand. A huge prop is next projected from 
 our forward deck over the side into the bottom, 
 and our steam windlass brought to bear upon it to 
 push our nose around. This succeeds to get our 
 prow directed across the stream and our boat 
 broadside on the sandbank. Our dugout is now 
 sent upstream with the anchor, having a strong 
 hawser attached, to plant it a good distance above. 
 Three strong men with poles propel this nutshell 
 as it topples along, threatening at every instant 
 to get up a revolution of its own. 
 
 Only long practice with such crafts enables 
 
91 
 
 these men to get some distance up stieam before 
 this threatening is put into practice, and then the 
 wink of an eye is all the time required to complete 
 this revolution, leaving the canoe right side up 
 again, but nearly filled with water and the men 
 and anchor are in the river. The water where they 
 have fallen in is only four feet deep, but the}^ are 
 violently agitated, throw themselves into the 
 canoe which, half filled with water, sinks under 
 their weight; when seizing it and their poles they 
 commence a most demoralized retreat towards 
 the steamer, dragging it after them. 
 
 Tlieir consternation is not relieved until they are 
 safely on board, when they explain that they saw 
 a crocodile on the bank opposite to them, plunge 
 into the water the moment the dugout upset, and 
 as these are fast swimmers they feared to be over- 
 taken before reaching the steamer. They have, 
 however accomplished their mission though they 
 have not carried the anchor as far as was intended, 
 but it takes a strong hold in the bottom and we 
 now begin to tug away at that hawser with our 
 steam wrench or windlass at the same time push- 
 ing against the bottom with our prop and pulley 
 thus forcing our prow farther round with this push 
 and pull. 
 
 Patiently we toiled till as night approaches, we 
 have our prow pointed upstream and held from 
 settling down stream farther into the sand by a 
 stout hawser secured to the anchor. We also put 
 out our prop to assist holding us and lay quietly 
 
92 
 
 througli the night waiting to try our luck at get- 
 ting off in the morning. Tlie trial comes, putting 
 on a full head of steam, at the same time tugging 
 upon the hawser with the donkey engine we begin 
 to perceive we are moving and are soon climb- 
 ing towards our anchor at a fair rate of speed. 
 Oar anchor reached, we lift it without stopping 
 our impetus and continue up a short distance and 
 tie to the river bank at a favorable place, while 
 our pilot goes down in the canoe to sound for the 
 deeper channel. This found, he returns to the 
 steamer and at the same hour that we grounded 
 on the day previous, we move forward down the 
 river with grateful hearts, feeling we have escap- 
 ed a terrible captivity upon the sands of this wil- 
 derness of river and swamp. We had one steer 
 on board which was slaughtered yesterday and 
 its meat is cut up into thin strips and hung on 
 poles about the deck to dry in the sun, as is the 
 custom here, and from this drying process it is 
 already, in the second day after killing, becoming 
 so tough as to require considerable skill in cook- 
 ing to give it the semblance and toothsome quali- 
 ties of fresh meat. As we proceed downward, at 
 many of the hamlets along the banks chickens are 
 offered us at two and three reals apiece, and at 
 these prices the captain is taking in abundance of 
 them for our needs. On the whole we have a very 
 comfortable journey to the coast, where we arrive 
 in good time and embark on the French steamer 
 Martinique, for Santiago de Cuba, on the 22nd of 
 February, as we designed. 
 
93 
 
 A hurried narrative of some of the incidents of 
 our ramble in New Granada or U. S. of Colombia is 
 now before our readers; but there may be those 
 among them who expect us to say something more 
 of these people, their moral and intellectual con- 
 dition and prospects, touching upon the import 
 of the change in their public opinion which has 
 permitted the confiscation of church property, etc. 
 Such confiscations do not in our estimation imply 
 so much change in public sentiment as it at first 
 thought seems. It rather implies that there are 
 some phases of the dogmas and practices of the 
 Latin Church which, unsustained by politico- 
 military power, are unable to maintain themselves 
 on their own merits, in public opinion. While 
 this country was a province of Spain, these dog- 
 mas and practices were employed, as in all her 
 d-ominions, as political instruments in the govern- 
 ment of the people; the controllers of the bayo- 
 nets and those of the awful sanctions of the 
 •church, sharing the honors and emoluments of 
 their joint government. ''Faithful subjects, not 
 intelligent citizens!" was their mutual motto. 
 Bat when one of these confederates retired with 
 the bayonets from the country, it was found that 
 the one remaining had no terrors at its disposal, 
 of sufficient influence to compel the acquiescence 
 of the people in face of a strong undercurrent of 
 common sense which was found to have survived, 
 as inherent in nature, through all those long years 
 •of this powerful and interested tutelage. Thus 
 
94 
 
 public sentiment, able without danger to give ex- 
 pression to its real convictions, soon began to as- 
 sert itself, and these dogmas and practices fell into 
 disrepute by sheer weight of their own in vero si- 
 militude. They were essentially and designedly 
 more political than religious; a part of a political 
 system now fallen to decay. Without its neces- 
 sary military confederate this regimen cannot sus- 
 tain itself by the force of moral suasion alone. 
 
 There is inherent in the human mind a natural 
 desire to imbibe knowledge from those pure un- 
 sophisticated fountains of God's truths, his own 
 works, observed through the most careful and 
 systematic methods which the accumulated ex- 
 perience and intelligence of mankind has yet de- 
 vised, and the incubus of coersive protection being 
 thrown off, this inherent desire is sure to crop out. 
 That still small voice, the reflection of a ray of di- 
 vine intelligence, however small it may be, cannot 
 be extinguished by either terrorism, cruelty or 
 tutelage, however long continued. Cast down and 
 defaced indeed it may be, but not obliterated^ it 
 will reappear like the vernal revivals after a long 
 winter of oppressing congelation. 
 
 So it is beginning to show itself with this peo- 
 ple and is taking shape in organizations for public 
 instruction, an account of which we will let the 
 Director of Public Instruction of the State of Cun- 
 dinamarca, (the State in which the National Cap- 
 ital is situated) describe in a few brief sentences, 
 which we translate from his Fifth Annual Report 
 to the State Legislature for 1875. 
 
95 
 
 As preliminary information, we will say that on 
 the 30th of May, 1868, the National Congress de- 
 clared a national inherence in public instruction, 
 in order to secure the following among other ob- 
 jects, viz : 
 
 1st. For the support of a National University, 
 created by a law passed on the 22nd of Septem- 
 ber, in the year 1867. 
 
 2nd. For the support of two Normal Schools in 
 each State Capital, for the formation of male and 
 female teachers. 
 
 3rd . For the establishment, in connection with 
 each of these Normal Schools, of a Primary Pub- 
 lic School to serve the States as models for the 
 creation of the State Schools in order to secure 
 uniform systems. 
 
 4th. For the establishment of rural schools of 
 agriculture and cattle raising. 
 
 5th. For the formation, publication and diffu- 
 sion of text books, etc. 
 
 Public instruction was organized in the Capital 
 State in 1870, and obligatory attendance of chil- 
 dren between certain ages was made a fundamen- 
 tal law of the State and as such incorporated in 
 its constitution. 
 
 We now give the promised extract, viz : 
 
 '' Gentlemen Deputies to the Legislative Assem- 
 bly of the Sovereign State of Candinamarca : 
 
 ^ ' In the present Annual Report, which is the 
 Fifth that I have had the honor to submit to the 
 Honorable Legislative Assembly, I shall limit my- 
 
96 
 
 self to laying before you, with as much precision 
 as I am able to do, the results obtained by Public 
 Instruction, and without reference to what might be 
 termed doctrinal points; nor shall I enter into other 
 abstract considerations, since, by good fortune, in 
 this country and in these times, it is already unne- 
 €essary to make further efforts in order that the ad- 
 vantages of popular primary education, the funda- 
 mental basis of a republic, shall be duly appre- 
 €iated. Nor is there necessity for demonstratiug 
 that this is the true source from which flows all 
 positive progress in the straight and sure road to 
 social improvement. These are already dog- 
 mas in all minds ; dogmas which not even the 
 sectaries of ignorance who have so long sustained 
 that anti- civilizing struggle that is to-day in com- 
 plete discredit, will often contradict. When they 
 do so, instead of gaining proselytes to their cause, 
 they only widen the void between them and sen- 
 sate public opinion. 
 
 "Administrative branches that, like public in- 
 struction, exact of its officers and of the citizens, 
 the regular execution of determinate acts ordinari- 
 ly gratuitous, are the most difficult to establish, be- 
 cause their punctual fulfillment requires the for- 
 mation of habits only to be acquired by the per- 
 sistent action of the law through long periods of 
 tim3. These habits, which long education has 
 raised up in other nations, to a level from 
 which we are very distant, have not yet been able 
 to acclimate themselves among our people in 
 
97 
 
 whom the colonial seed has become profoundly 
 rooted. 
 
 ''But in view of results already obtained we 
 ought not to despair of finally arriving at the de- 
 sired progressive perfectionment, if we devote our 
 energies to the work undertaken, with faWh^ ab- 
 negation and constancy, ^^ 
 
 REMAKKS. 
 
 Such a lucid statement of the necessities and 
 difficulties of public instruction could not be put 
 into fewer words, and it shows the men now en- 
 deavoring to direct the developement and desti- 
 nies of this people to be fully imbued with the 
 true catholic spirit of the age, and do therefore 
 merit the best sympathies of all who take a proper 
 interest in the universal movements of civilization 
 and feel their share of moral responsibility there- 
 for. 
 
 In unfavorable contrast with these enlightened 
 sentiments are the doctrines inculcated also by 
 some of the reformed religious sects of our own 
 and other countries. We were strongly reminded 
 of this fact during attendance in Bogota on serv- 
 ices in the Protestant Chapel, established by an 
 American Board of Foreign Missions. About 
 fifty persons were present, and the sermon, in 
 somewhat broken, though quite intelligible Span- 
 ish, was devoted to the sublime doctrine of Jesus 
 as the great physician to the soul ; but inculcated 
 the doctrine of a sudden change of heart and 
 
98 
 
 without which, the utter inefficacj of secular edu- 
 cation, for the development of morality and hap- 
 piness. Without such change of heart secular 
 public instruction, it argued, operates against 
 morality, tending to produce smart rogues to prey 
 upon society. 
 
 Thus we have some of the reformed sects, 
 teaching the doctrine that humanity' s only chance 
 for happiness lies in that emotional religion, 
 known to modern pathologists as a nervous dis- 
 ease^ or at least as dependant upon nervous debili- 
 ty, an atonic condition of the nervous system, viz. : 
 Ecstacy^ and ignoring in toto the oft demonstrated 
 fact that individual and social morality is de- 
 pendent entirely upon the growth of enlightenment 
 in individuals and in society, as to the mutual 
 interdependance of their own interests and those 
 of society. 
 
 ^o emotional ideas of morality, nor those held 
 only as a matter of opinion, ever exercises any 
 permanent shaping control over the actions of 
 men or women. It is only when they have passed 
 through the stage of intellectual inquiry and exam- 
 ination into one of settled and abiding intellec- 
 tual conviction, that they are efficacious and reli- 
 able for moral control. 
 
 The change of heart that promotes happiness in 
 men and in society, is of slow growth, keeping 
 pace with other developments; not the sudden 
 emotional changes that the Wesleyans, among 
 others, have proclaimed as the " good tidings of 
 great joy." 
 
99 
 
 This sudden emotional cliange of heart, spring- 
 ing upon and subduing the deep rooted habits of 
 a lifetime, is so contrary to the teachings of ex- 
 perience that it strikes the logical mind as some- 
 thing incredible, and when, moreover, we con- 
 sider the very small proportion of such conver- 
 sions that really influence the subsequent char- 
 acter, does it not justify us in asking a dispas- 
 sionate reconsideration of the whole subject by 
 all truly religious minds. 
 
 Feeling that we had a right to understand the 
 position of the protestant mission, on the question 
 of public instruction, we called upon the pastor, 
 and during our interview submitted to him the 
 following interogatories, viz. : 
 
 Q. Does the protestant mission under your 
 charge lend its active influence in support of 
 Public Instruction as now organized here, and if 
 not, why not ? 
 
 A. Oh yes, it has my approval, and I am aid- 
 ing it as far as I am able. 
 
 Q. Bid we rightly understand you to inculcate 
 in your sermon that secular general education is 
 not favorable to the interests of society, its tend- 
 encies being to create smart rogues to prey 
 upon it ? 
 
 A. In the absence of religious instruction ! 
 My doctrine is that the two must be combined in 
 order to be favorable to society. 
 
 Q. Mr. Weaver ! We are informed that the line 
 between the conservative and the progressive por- 
 
100 
 
 tion of this population is sharply defined upon 
 this question of public instruction, general and 
 obligatory,, on which side of this line does the 
 protestant mission take its stand ? 
 
 A. On the progressive side ; but our posi- 
 tion is somewhat peculiar here. We have to be 
 prudent. 
 
 We became satisfied that the general feeling of 
 the missionary is upon the right side on this ques- 
 tion of schools or no schools, but we have no 
 doubt that the organization he represents would, 
 if they had the power, force religious books inta 
 the secular schools, and it was this spirit of his 
 sect that was reflected in his reference to secular 
 education. So the case really amounts to this, 
 viz. : Though this protestant sect would be more 
 liberal than the older church, in the amount of 
 secular education, she is willing to allow, perhaps 
 would consent to unlimited quantity, the state 
 footing the bill therefore, she too would enforce 
 religious teacliing into the state schools, if she 
 had the means in her power for such coercion, 
 notwithstanding the perfect liberty allowed by 
 the state to religious schools. So much for the 
 present attitude of parties : What about their 
 actual state of civilization % To state this intellig- 
 ibly, we must first adopt some standard by which 
 to measure it. 
 
 What, then, constitutes civilization % Of what es- 
 sential, necessary and constant characteristic ele- 
 ments does it consist % Is it man' s increasing power 
 
101 
 
 over the forces of nature ? This is indefinite ! Is it 
 tlie progressive refinements and cunning in tlio 
 trades, the arts, or of the industries collectively '? 
 These are all at a low standard here ! Is it con- 
 stituted, as defined by Guizot, by the increasing 
 production of the material elements of human 
 welfare on the one hand, and a more equible dis- 
 tribution of these elements in society on the other ? 
 Such civilization is not here ! 
 
 But civilization consists of all of these and 
 more ! It is the progressive evolution and organi- 
 zation of society in the direction that most secures 
 and facilitates the highest development of all the 
 faculties and capacities of the greatest number of 
 its individual units, and unites them by the bond 
 of gravitating sympathies towards that consolidat- 
 ing ojienes^ of humanity, predicated by Him, 
 who taught us to pray to Our Father who art in 
 Heaven; the sublime doctrine of the inspired 
 teacher ; the keynote and quintessence of His 
 divine revelation to the race, which has been so 
 frittered away and covered up by speculative 
 theology with unworthy substitutes and irrelevant 
 side issues. Nor is there any communistic ideas 
 or insiduous attack upon the family relations, 
 hidden in this claim for society. 
 
 As individuals find higher enjoyments in group- 
 ings into families, so families by the same neces- 
 rsities of their sympathies find in society a wider 
 ^exercise of them, and in this, new contributions to 
 their happiness. Are not these mutual sympa- 
 
103 
 
 tliies the origin of our ideas of Equity, Justice,. 
 Truthfulness and Honor ; to do unto others as we 
 Avould be done by ; mutual confidence and de- 
 pendence. 
 
 Are not these the qualities we mean when we- 
 speak of the christian virtues ? The trite maxim 
 ' ' Union is Strength ' ' is nowhere truer in its appli- 
 cation then to humanity ; union of interests as- 
 sures the union of sympathies and greatest power 
 of civilization, as the individual drops of water 
 combine to make up the powerful torrent. Just 
 as the individual nerve cell in its multiple com- 
 binations and differentiations of functions through 
 regular gradations from its isolated existence in 
 the lowest forms of animal life, up to its highest 
 degree of combination and differentiation of func- 
 tions in man multiplies its power in proportion to 
 these progressive degrees of combination, so too 
 the progressive social combinations of individual 
 man increases his power in proportion as society 
 approaches in organization, in blending of indi- 
 viduals and differentiation of functions, the high 
 type above indicated. 
 
 For example : The individual in his primi- 
 tive, isolated condition, is his own carpenter, 
 shoemaker, mason, toolmaker, physician, etc. ; 
 but as he aggregates into society with his fellows, 
 each will limit himself to one of these functions, 
 and, as he progresses in social combinations, these 
 in turn are divided into specialties, each acquir- 
 ing by these successive limitations and differentia- 
 
103 
 
 tions of function progressive refinements of skill, 
 together with cheapening of production, thus 
 superior productions and cheapness becoming by 
 habit, necessities to his wellbeing, and, while it is 
 found that the power for quantity, quality, and 
 cheapness is greatly increased by these social 
 combinations, the individual is blended into soci- 
 ety and becomes dependent upon it in exact ratio 
 to its progressive evolution. That the natural 
 development of society, impelled by the inherent 
 necessities of mankind has brought us at last to 
 the recognition of this verity, in spite of the ob- 
 stacles that meddlesome absolutism has strewn in 
 its path, proves to us how great was the genius, 
 or, if you please, how real was the inspiration of 
 Him, who proclaimed this truth nearly nineteen 
 centuries ago. And in order to realize this more 
 fully, we may consider that the whole traditions 
 of His race were in the direction of the opposite 
 doctrine. For centuries it had been taught that 
 God had made a covenant with Moses, their great 
 lawgiver, constituting it the only inheritor of His 
 kingdom on earth. The belief that they were the 
 chosen people of God was imbibed with their 
 mother's milk, and thus sunk into their minds 
 among their most fixed and enduring impressions. 
 It had become a sacred prejudice of the blood. 
 
 True, they had suffered some rude disenchant- 
 ments. The waves of Assyrian and Egyptian 
 armies had repeatedly sw^ept over the land of Juda 
 and Benjamin, bearing away vast numbers of 
 
104 
 
 them into the most humiliating bondage, also 
 Nebuchadnezzar had twice destroyed their sacred 
 city, the last time razing its walls and carrying 
 its population captives to Babylon, where they 
 were employed in abject slavery upon those gi- 
 gantic public works which gained for that city the 
 titles of "Glory of the Kingdoms," and "Won- 
 der of the World," the vestiges of which have 
 never yet ceased to command wonderment and 
 admiration. The lamentations of their prophets 
 show how rudely these events had tried their 
 faith ; but the rebuilding of the Temple demon- 
 strates that it still survived. Then came the Ro- 
 man conquest, the arms of Titus again destroyed 
 their sacred stronghold, reducing them all to Ro- 
 man vassalage. 
 
 The conquering power of Rome had made the 
 tour of the Mediterranean, and it was ever its 
 policy to raze and destroy the conquered cities, 
 publicly insult their gods, and carry away and 
 colonize the people as agricultural slaves in en- 
 tirely new localities in different parts of the em- 
 pire, in order to break down their spirit, and ex- 
 tinguish all hopes of recovering their lost status 
 and estates. Thus nearly all of the Roman pro- 
 vinces were peopled by a conquered and vassal 
 population, whose gods, which they had sup- 
 posed capable of rending the heavens, and striking 
 dead with a thunderbolt the intruder in their 
 Sacred Temples, had been carried jeeringly to 
 Rome, and twelve of them were afterwards set up 
 
105 
 
 in the Rotunda, at the entrance of Agrippa's 
 Baths. (This Rotunda is still in existence, known 
 from that circumstance, as the Pantheon, and is 
 the best preserved specimen of ancient Roman 
 architecture, now in the Eternal City). 
 
 Thus the world had suffered a fearful humilia- 
 tion, and nearly all, except the Roman nobles, 
 were partakers of the common lot. Fallen, many 
 of them from a high estate to abject slavery, 
 humanity had suffered a terrible leveling down- 
 ward, and it felt itself indeed one in privation and 
 suffering ; one in silent and almost hopeless 
 yearnings for relief; and this state of circum- 
 stances was sure to soon make it one in consoling 
 •sympathy. Another circumstance, already referred 
 to above, also contributed to make the similarity of 
 •conditions still greater. Their faith in their pagan 
 :gods had been utterly destroyed, and it is not in 
 -the nature of hnmanity to be witnont an object of 
 reverence and worship. These enslaved masses 
 of humanity felt this oneness of condition, suffer- 
 ings, yearings and sympathies ; but no one had as 
 yet interpreted its pregnant meaning to mankind. 
 
 The Galilean peasant, rising at once above all 
 the traditions and prejudices of his race, touched 
 the keynote of human nature, and it thrilled every 
 human heart that heard it. A luminous ray had 
 J&ashed in upon his mind like a gleam of sunshini^ 
 from a brighter world, illuminating it wdth a sub- 
 lime conception, which He proclaimed with en- 
 thusiasm to those about Him. But the means of 
 
106 
 
 diffusing this revelation were very imperfect. 
 There were no electric telegraphs, no free printing 
 presses in those days. He conld only go about 
 in public places, verbally teaching His great 
 dogma, and attracting disciples to His side. A 
 doctrine at once so radically revolutionary against 
 the established faith was sure to meet the prompt 
 persecution of its doctors, and they desired to 
 punish with death the heretic and traitor to the 
 faith of his ancestors. He was duly denounced 
 before the Sanhedrim, but Judea being a vassal 
 province, the Sanhedrim could not impose and 
 execute the death penalty, except after approval 
 of the Roman governor, and they well knew, Pi- 
 late would not voluntarily authorize execution for 
 heresy to a faith he himself never shared. The 
 subterfuge of the Jewish doctors, that of accusing 
 Him of treason to the Roman State, and the 
 story of Pilate's cowardice in delivering up for 
 crucifixion one whom he knew to be innocent 
 of the charge are familiar to all, and we need 
 not here repeat them. We only mention the trial 
 and execution, to show, how new and revolu- 
 tionary was Christ's teaching, exciting the relent- 
 less fanaticism and persecution of the blind reli- 
 gious zealots ; and to point out that the same 
 fanatical and treacherous spirit that murdered its 
 founder in Judea, professed to adopt Christianity 
 in Rome, when they found it spreading by the 
 force of its inherent merits, and then, retaining 
 only its name, treacherously dressed it in pagan 
 
107 
 
 robes and mitres, put the pagan crozler and censor 
 in its hands, put into its moutli dogmas it never 
 taught, and entirely contrary to its spirit, has 
 handed this spurious imitation, down to our 
 time insolently proclaimiug it to be what it is noi^ 
 thereby deceiving and misleading thousands upon 
 thousands of honest, pure and religiously disposed 
 minds. 
 
 A wily politician, Constantine, conceived the 
 idea of turning to his selfish ends, in his struggle 
 for power, the christian party which was fast 
 growing in influence, and to give plausibility^ to 
 his pretended sudden conversion he proclaimed 
 that a flaming cross had appeared to him in the 
 sky bearing the words "In hoc signo vinces." 
 This ruse succeeded, and when firmly seated in 
 power, vast hords of the pagan population fol- 
 lowed his hypocritical example from the same 
 motives, the loaves and fishes, and then the same 
 thing happened, as when England accepted a 
 Scotch king, James I, she did not become Scotch, 
 on the contrary, the greater population absorbed 
 the lesser, and she remained characteristically 
 England, the absorbed portion adopting her lan- 
 guage and manners. 
 
 So with Christianity. This fatal gift, an Em- 
 peror, may in one sense be said to have produced 
 its dissolution, and certainly the diversion of its 
 name to cover the dumb shows, the robes and oth- 
 er visible symbols of paganism. But its spirit 
 has survived that treachery in its secure refuge 
 
108 
 
 tlie innermost recesses of the human heart. The 
 everliving, the undying, the deathless principle, 
 " this will resist the empire of decay till time is 
 o'er and worlds have passed awaj. Cold in the 
 dust the perished form may lie, but that which 
 warmed it once will never die." 
 
 In its general and largest sense as applied to 
 the race, intellectual growth and that of moral vir- 
 tue are one and inseparable. 
 
 By the phrase "intellectual growth" we de- 
 signate growth in conscious knowledge of, and 
 consequent harmony loith the natural relations 
 and duties of mankind in the universe, of which 
 it is a part. That such knowledge is cumulative, 
 and that such sequence of ineludible perfection- 
 ment, or proportionate increase in the aggregate 
 amount of moral virtue in the practices of society 
 are demonstrable facts, and that these spring 
 from inherent qualities, and not from conven- 
 tional proclamations of supernatural enlighten- 
 ment, we are solemnly convinced by many years 
 of earnest thought, careful observation and more 
 or less diligent and critical examination of the 
 historic record, with an honest desire to arrive at 
 truthful facts, so far as our imperfect abilities 
 have permitted to us. And here let us answer 
 once for all that oft repeated question, ' ' What is 
 truth % ' ' Truth is the providential purposes of the 
 universe and the omniscient, omnipotent and in- 
 eludable laws by which these are gradually ac- 
 complished in spite of all shortsighted and med- 
 dlesome opposition. 
 
109 
 
 To facilitate a clear understanding of the posi- 
 tion here taken, let us also define the sense in whicli 
 we employ the phrase "moral virtue." We are 
 quite aware of its etymological significance, mop, 
 moris, moralis, denoting custom, or conventional 
 usage; but we must bear in mind the fact that 
 during the course of succeeding years and genera- 
 tions the sense of many words change through 
 imperceptible gradations of meaning, so that our 
 lexicons only profess to give, not absolute defini- 
 tions, but the usage of the best authorities of the 
 period, in which they nre successively published. 
 Keeping pace with growing intelligence, words, in 
 the course of common usage, gradually develops 
 and acquire in presence of the growing necessities 
 of language a far deeper and truer meaning than 
 is attached to them in their undeveloped infancy ; 
 meanings, often difficult, clearly and fully to set 
 forth in any scientific definition of them in the lexi- 
 <jon, but which are nevertheless fully conceived 
 and appreciated, when the words are pronounced. 
 So the term morality has become to have a more 
 pregnant meaning than that of conventional usage. 
 A conception far more solemn and forceful upon 
 the conscience is conveyed, when the word morality 
 is pronounced. Its juonounciation awakens a con- 
 ception of the law of right and wrong, no longer as 
 according to what is for the nonce fashionable, but 
 as according to the natural interrelations inherent in 
 all being; unchangeable laws written by omnicience 
 upon the tablets of eternity. It is our knowledge 
 
110 
 
 of these laws wliich changes^ in accordance with 
 our progressive enlightenment, as to our relations 
 and duties in this universe, and also the cumula- 
 tive perception, in the aggregate consciousness qf 
 humanity, that conformity to these duties brings 
 proportionate happiness. 
 
 Notwithstanding what canting pesimists may 
 aver to the contrary, we think it is fast becoming 
 clear to all willing to accept truth for its sake 
 alone, that there is in the public conscience and 
 practices a growing conformity to the moral law, 
 a constantly increasing average amount of moral- 
 ity in society, keeping pace with increasing en- 
 lightenment, and is dependent thereon. It is not 
 asserted that modern society has yet reached a 
 high degree of moral excellence. It is only claimed 
 that in the aggregate they have reached a compara- 
 tively higher degree than that of passed genera- 
 tions, and that the persistent disparagements of it 
 by the generation that has passed the meridian of 
 its existence, does not prove that morality is in 
 decadence but only that accumulated experiences 
 has not borne out their youthful estimates of its 
 prevailing amount and influence in society. Nor 
 is it claimed that in any one division of society, 
 be it political, social, religious or otherwise, this 
 progress has been uninterrupted. 
 
 Conceding the utmost good faith in the pursuit 
 of truth to all those divisions, it is yet very 
 evident that the sharpest and most cultivated 
 human intellect is but partial and cannot grasp 
 
Ill 
 
 the infinite truth. One of its most common errors 
 is that of jumping to the conclusion that it has 
 discovered the wliole trutli, embodying it into a 
 formal creed and misleading the masses into a 
 blind faith in that error, enthusing them fanati- 
 cally in a positive, irreformable conviction that 
 persistently excludes all farther illumination. 
 There may indeed be positive truth in their creeds, 
 but the error consists in believing it to embody 
 the lohole or absolute truth, and that it cannot be 
 contradicted by other truths fully as succeptible 
 of demonstration. All partial truths may he dia- 
 metrically contradicted hy facts equally true. 
 
 Let us give an illustration : Take the course of 
 the Mississippi river as the truth to be ascertain- 
 ed, supposing it to be at a time, when it was still 
 unknown. Employ for the purpose one hundred 
 of your most cultivated civil engineers, if you 
 please, and limit the observation of each to a 
 seperate half-mile section of its tortuous career. 
 No one will doubt the competency of such repre- 
 sentative men to determine with positive truth the 
 general course of the section subject to the observ- 
 ation of each of them. But what a variety of con- 
 tradictions and confusion results from the com- 
 parison of these sections one with the other. 
 The flow of some sections of the river would be 
 given as south, some north, some east, some west, 
 with variations towards every intermediate point 
 of the compass, yet all be positively true within 
 the limits of each one's section of observation. 
 
in 
 
 Now let each of these engineers jump to the con- 
 viction that, if his was true, it could not be con- 
 tradicted by any other truth, and therefore 
 might be taken as a sure indication of the whole, 
 or absolute truth, and let him be firm and conscien- 
 tious in his belief and dedicate his life to the prop- 
 agation of his creed as the only true one, and con- 
 sequently all others must be errors, thus erecting 
 his into an irreformable faith, and we have a true 
 picture of what is constantly taking place among 
 
 us. 
 Though under the influence of the most honest 
 
 intentions, society divides into many sections, 
 
 busily diseminating creeds more or less true, but 
 
 also more or less vicious or immoral in proportion 
 
 to the constructive errors, they convey ; and these 
 
 are persisted in just in the proportion, as their 
 
 devotees are profoundly sincere in their conviction 
 
 of having arrived at absolute truth. 
 
 It is the increasing or cumulative knowledge, 
 disseminated through educational institutions, 
 which is gradually melting away this hard crust 
 of bigotry that has been stifling the natural growth 
 of moral virtue since the race began, and has great- 
 ly retarded its providential development. 
 
 But let us speak of this bigotry with becoming hu- 
 mility. It is a spirit of conservatism which seems 
 to be inherent in the species, and this fact has 
 been admitted by many as proof of its being a true 
 inspiration from the Creator, therefore a revelation 
 of truth for our guidance. If it is looked at more 
 
113 
 
 critically we believe it will appear more as our 
 balance wheel to regulate the steady, onward march 
 of our development,-— an inertia, a weight which re- 
 quires a strong pressure to move onward, and only 
 after the accumulation of constant and prepondera- 
 ting facts that force us forward in the direction of 
 the greatest pressure, thus securing us against a 
 fluctuating unsteadiness in rushing after inevitable 
 tendencies before the aggregate mass of humanity 
 is ripe to receive them. 
 
 While these one-sided creeds satisfy the con- 
 sciences of the masses, the experiences of the race, 
 accumulated in this nniversal Kindergarten, have 
 so improved our methods of observation, record, 
 collation and generalization of facts that are uniform 
 and constant in nature, that broader and truer con- 
 ceptions are successfully opening to us and forc- 
 ing themselves into recognition, and through the 
 consequent growth of philosophical criticism, or 
 intellectual power, it is discovered that all these 
 partial truths are suplemental to each other, be- 
 cause when collated in their due relations all these 
 seeming contradictions are harmonized into a larg- 
 er, more general and significant truth, just as the 
 hundred half-mile sections of the Mississippi when 
 collated in their due relations to each other, make 
 together not only no contradiction but a sum and 
 aggregate of truth of far greater significance than 
 any one of its parts. 
 
 In this view, the unity of man predicated by 
 the inspired teacher seems to us to take on a high- 
 
114 
 
 er, a far more inspiring significance and value 
 than any invented by speculative theology. We 
 offer this suggestion with all due meekness as a 
 sincere expression of our humble intelligence, and 
 in no sense as a slur upon any class of men. Tlie 
 subject has too deep an interest to humanity to be 
 profaned by unworthy passions. If we remember 
 how largely the judgment of each individual is 
 formed by his antecedent experiences according to 
 the light these have given, then consider how very 
 small a part this must be of the aggregate experi- 
 ences of mankind, however cultivated the person; 
 how small a part of the aggregate knowledge of 
 the race can with our present appliances be brought 
 within individual cognizance, and (if it could be so 
 concentrated,) how small a part of infinite truth 
 such a concentration at the present epoch would 
 embrace, then the more we ponder these facts, 
 the more our confidence is shaken, in any indi- 
 vidual or society as being able to expound absolute 
 truth, and the more are we disposed to keep our 
 minds free from prejudice of dogmatic creeds, and 
 open to the reception of growing enlightment con- 
 stantly seeking admittance through the organs 
 with which we are providentially endowed for the 
 purposes of such development. 
 
 Entering through these channels there is more 
 or less of true illumination in every individual 
 mind within the narrow limits of its experience, 
 but this is economized into the general progress 
 principally through, and in proportion as the pro- 
 
115 
 
 gressive unification of the race develops improved 
 methods of gathering np these scattered rush- 
 lights, preserving and concentrating them into the 
 cumulative blaze of civilization in which narrow 
 creeds are destined to be swallowed up and digest- 
 ed. Let us hope the time is not distant when the 
 silly pretenders to the possession of absolute truth 
 which they are providentially authorized to peddle 
 out for filthy lucre and to force its acceptance by 
 the arm of civil power, will become silent for 
 shame and remorse for the sins unwittingly com- 
 mitted. 
 
 It is from human experience then, and successive- 
 ly improved methods of propagating and diffusing 
 a knowledge of them to increasing numbers of the 
 race, that we may alone expect increase of chris- 
 tian virtues in the practices of human society, and 
 this in accelerating ratio according to the number 
 and intelligence of observers. A thoughtful ex- 
 amination of the past history of the race demon- 
 strates how futile have been all hopes of attaining 
 these by any other means, and it is a most cheer- 
 ing thought to lovers of truth that so many influ- 
 ential minds have now reached to a full realization 
 of this fact. 
 
 Successively improved sj^stems of gathering ag- 
 gregates, and calculating averages, and the re- 
 sults obtained by mathematical manipulation of 
 these aggregates, are bringing larger and larger 
 sums of intelligent observation within the reach 
 of individual cognition, thus not only enlarging 
 
116 
 
 individual powers of appreciation which are in 
 some degree transmitted by heritage, thus tending, 
 ceteris paribus^ to improve the natural capacities 
 of the race ; but are also gradually enlarging the 
 common fund of ascertained facts which point us 
 with increasing significance to that irresistible uni- 
 fication of human intelligence and interests and 
 sympathies, that progressive drawing together of 
 humanity towards that typical oneness predicated 
 by the sublime teacher, a unity involved in the 
 providential nature of our being and destined to 
 be gradually evolved through coming time towards 
 a grand and sublime realization. 
 
 This is the new religion, or rather the purified 
 religion which is destined to swallow up all others, 
 and realize to fuller fructification all the truly 
 christian virtues. We use the adverb to distinguish 
 from dogmas which have been foisted upon the 
 christian doctrine and are noxious thereto. So 
 individuals and collectivities, social, political or 
 religious, smaller or larger as they may be, are 
 all devoting themselves in different ways to suple- 
 mentary parts of one grand work, and their seem- 
 ing discords are but harmony not understood, 
 their partial evils, universal good. 
 
 It would be an easy task to skim through the 
 historical record with the reader and trace out 
 abundant proofs of how even the most selfish or 
 egotistical passions have ever operated towards 
 this unification of mankind, material, intellectual, 
 and spiritual, even the mythological satanic ma- 
 
117 
 
 jesty with develisli intent, industriously though 
 unwittingly engaged in the same benificent Avork. 
 Indeed if we admit him to be a real existence he 
 was undoubtedly created for that providential pur- 
 pose. 
 
 It would be easy to show how the conflict of 
 human passions was one of the legitimate progen- 
 itors of the golden age of Greek intellectual devel- 
 opment, a vast acquisition to humanity ; how the 
 selflsh ambitions of Alexander again opened a new 
 world for human instruction, gave humanity that 
 brilliant and copious fountain of intellectual wealth 
 and culture at Alexandria ; excited its cupidity 
 by new and till then unheard of commercial ele- 
 ments which ever after have been among the 
 most powerful incentives to the drawing of man- 
 kind nearer together in a constantly increasing 
 ratio. 
 
 Passing through millions of similar examples 
 we might cite one of the modern ones of pregnant 
 significance, viz. : The ebb and flow of emigration 
 and immigration. What else but selfish motives 
 cause these movements^ And yet how fruitful to 
 the unifying process. 
 
 If there is any obstacle that more than another 
 has thwarted this benificent unification, it has been 
 inter-national and intersectarian prejudices. The 
 enlightened policy of our own country has, to 
 use a homely simile, converted it into a vast 
 punch bowl into which it has invited all the in- 
 dustrial elements of human society, of whatever 
 
118 
 
 nationality, to How at will and lose itself and its 
 prejudices in this general and inextricable mixture 
 of interests and sympathies. The resultant socie- 
 ty even in these first generations has acquired a 
 fiavor far more healthful, generous and agreeable 
 to its fundamental instincts than the narrow mind- 
 ed bickerings of inter-national jealousies. Under 
 these benign influences even the most ancient and 
 indurated sticklers for race distinctions, the Jews., 
 have melted in their first American generation in- 
 to open organization upon the broad fundamental 
 basis, ofiicially proclaimed by them, of the 
 universal brotherhood of all races in a common 
 humanity, carefully excluding from the laws and 
 regulations of their new society all that could pos- 
 sibly be objected to as dogmatic, or sectarian. 
 
 Thus, while these commercial and social Mend- 
 ings are gradually gaining cumulative strength 
 and forcing inter-national relations more and 
 more under the dominion of intelligible rules of 
 universal equity, so under the same influences, 
 the significance of inter-national or political 
 lines is perceptibly fading out, many of the 
 minor ones disappearing, as recently in Italy and 
 Germany, the dominion of the civil law thereby 
 extending its boundaries over territories where 
 heretofore grim visaged war held frequent bloody 
 carnivals of brute force. Ours is not the wild 
 dream of Alexander, Csesar, Hildebrand, Innocent, 
 and Napoleon, that of uniting humanity by the 
 violent coercion of organized brute force under 
 
119 
 
 the guidance of one human will. Such unity is 
 in no sense desirable ; but unity under the guid- 
 ance of the fundamental necessities of our nature, 
 keeping step in its development with our capaci- 
 ties, as both are being worked out practically un- 
 der providential design, and bound fast in fate. 
 This perfectionment then does not tend towards 
 the political disintegrations which the democracy 
 seem to be striving for, nor the absolutism of 
 monarchical domination, but towards the wider 
 and wider subjection of all to more and more in- 
 telligent and adaptable civil laws, though these 
 may be reached only through the discipJine of our 
 virtues in the severe school of adversity. 
 
 Thus it is seen that it is 'practice not preacMng 
 which has given us these results, this practice is 
 ever induced by selfish motives, and the perma- 
 nence of these results is secured by the dawning 
 discovery that the interests of individuals and of 
 society are mutual and interchangeable. 
 
 Example, not precept, has been the potent influ- 
 ence in the christian dispensation of Unity, Fra- 
 ternity under a common Fatherhood, Docility, 
 Humanity, Loving Kindness, and Mutual Sympa- 
 thy. There is no room in such a religion for 
 the setting up of inter-national or inter-sectarian 
 boundaries, distinctions, jealousies, enmities and 
 antagonisms. He is blind who does not see that 
 these are inconsistent with Christianity and have 
 been the chief obstacles to its diffusion. We fear 
 that its beautiful theories have been too often and 
 
120 
 
 persistently used as a cloak or mask for uncliristian 
 practices. 
 
 It may be asserted that in such a mixture as ours, 
 of nationalities into one political society, the vices 
 as well as the virtues will be blended, and among 
 them those which American society originally 
 fled the old world to escape, Jesuitical influ- 
 ences which in their origin, scope, tendencies 
 and persistent intentions, are professedly and rad- 
 ically antagonistic to all freedom of the political 
 state to protect its citizens in the enjoyment of 
 such natural blending anci evolution as above in- 
 dicated. 
 
 It is indeed true that the same uncompromising 
 spirit of sectarianism which has ever preached 
 the opposite doctrine of antagonism, the Church 
 Militant, has also flowed into our society, and is 
 busily sowing its seeds of discord by every means 
 that the most wily, diligent, and intriguing of all 
 human organizations can suggest ; but we feel sure 
 that although these may indeed retard the general 
 advance, the inherent qualities and necessities of 
 humanity must inevitabl}^ overcome all obstacles, 
 and the spirit of investigation and general culture 
 is already far too strong to be dominated and 
 controlled by the adverse spirit. The advantages 
 of general education have become far too widely 
 recognized by public opinion to permit of its ever 
 again being smothered out of a community where 
 a majority of the population dictate the policy of 
 the State. 
 
1^1 
 
 Oil the other hand tlie corporate community 
 "vvhich guarantees equal protection to aZZ religions, 
 €an neither adopt nor favor any one of them, or 
 any of their doctrines, in its schools where at- 
 tendance is compulsatory on the children of all 
 denominations. 
 
 Nor has the purely political state any right to 
 give moneys to any denominational school, what- 
 sover, because that vrould be favoring it, and in 
 violation of the obviously just rule above laid 
 down. The state which is the political represen- 
 tative of the whole community, and organized to 
 make and administer laws appropriate to sucli 
 equal protection, is deeply interested in the diffu- 
 sion of general intelligence in an economical 
 among other points of view. Not only is the 
 individual much less liable to become an elee- 
 mosynary charge upon the state, but is also more 
 capable of developing the elements of welfare in 
 the community, and to secure these advantages to 
 society, is a legitimate object of its political 
 organization. 
 
 For this object alone the state establishes its 
 own schools, and attendance in them properly 
 should be compulsatory and binding upon aU^ a rea- 
 sonable portion of the time during suitable school 
 age. It lays no claim to giving complete education. 
 It teaches at its own expense what its interests re- 
 quire, without interfering with the rights of others, 
 leaving full liberty to parents and guardians, to 
 supplement at their own expense its teaching with 
 
122 
 
 any other, whether secular or reh'gious, which 
 they in their unlimited discretion may deem ne- 
 cessary and proper to complete it. 
 
 The state raises its money by general taxation 
 for the common purposes of the community, and 
 it cannot give a dollar to any school not common 
 to the whole community, without doing gross in- 
 justice to its trust, any more than it can enforce 
 in its school the teaching of a religion not com- 
 mon to all, or the reading of a religious book, not 
 a common textbook to all, or that might be ob- 
 jected to on the ground of its being of an edition not 
 recognized as a textbook by all denominations. 
 
 While there exists in the community a class of 
 persons who lay claim to being the heaven -ap- 
 pointed possessors and representatives of absolute 
 truth, it is not surprising they should clammer 
 for the obligatory teaching of their dogmas in the 
 public schools ; for that is a logical sequence from 
 the illogical premiss that the finite mind has 
 grasped the infinite truth. 
 
 As we have in our community a variety of such 
 claimants, all hoping for the propagation of their 
 tenets by political intrigue and private finesse, 
 some urging that under our political system the 
 majority-rule may enforce any and every policy, 
 we would most respectfully urge them to reflect 
 that the only way to steer clear of political chaos, 
 is to strictly adhere to the farseeing policy of the 
 founders of our constitutional laws. 
 
 These guarantee to all citizens some rights that 
 
123 
 
 are inalienable ; that are inviolable by majority 
 rale. Among these is the right to the full enjoy- 
 ment of religious tenets, whatsoever these may be, 
 and all who would interfere with this sacred right 
 by the majority rule, are urging doctrines directly 
 subversive of both the spirit and letter of our 
 system, and dangerous to the general welfare of 
 the community. These are errors of judgement 
 from limited intellectual vision. Omnicient power 
 has foreseen these weaknesses and perversities 
 of imperfect humanity, and has bound its gra- 
 dual perfectionment fast in fate, whatever may 
 take place in our time and country, for, as we 
 have seen, he has made these very perversions 
 and imperfections, such as enmity and jealousy, 
 incentives to unification, though clashing in sheer 
 wilfullness of wickedness, and passion. But in 
 this explosion of passion, the moral atmosphere is 
 thereafter more healthful, as is the physical atmos- 
 phere after two dense clouds charged, one with po- 
 sitive, the other with negative electricity, explode 
 in the terrific thunderstorm . The contact has dis- 
 covered to each points of sympathy; each has some- 
 thing to excite the others cupidity ; a desire for ex- 
 change succeeds the enmity, and in this is the 
 birth of commerce. Commerce necesitates roads, 
 bridges, etc., to facilitate transportation and com- 
 munication ; improved methods of locomotion 
 follow ; the arts of production of the elements of 
 trade are progressively developed ; the sciences 
 germinate and lend their powerful stimulation and 
 
124 
 
 assistance ; the evolution of social organisms goes- 
 on, and thus every thing tends irresistibly to- 
 bring mankind into more and more intimate rela- 
 tions and exchanges. This constantly increasing 
 intercourse is weaving the material interests of all 
 more and more into an inextricable webb, and the 
 threads of human sympathy are so utterly inse- 
 parable from those of their material interests that 
 their constantly increasing confluence is inemtahle. 
 
 Thus the progressive prevalence of the senti- 
 ments of humanity and the other christian virtues, 
 characterizing modern civilization, spring spon- 
 taneously from the conquests of advancing intelli- 
 gence through its social combinations, and the 
 selfish and material interests of the individual 
 units of society are and always have been the 
 chief excitants to these beneficent evolutions. 
 
 Therefore morality has increased and is becom- 
 ing habitual, because it is, in the growth of gen^ 
 eral enlightenment, demonstrating itself to be in- 
 separable from the prosperity of individual inter 
 ests, thereby justifying Dr. Franklin's foresight, 
 when he declared that, if rogues only knew the^ 
 advantages to be derived from honesty, all the 
 rogues would be honest with roguish intent. 
 
 Thus we have the teaching of the accumulated 
 experience of nearly two thousand years farther 
 on in the progress of humanity, coming out at the- 
 same point as the Galilean peasant, and proving^ 
 the grand truth, which he proclaimed to be verily 
 one of God's sublime truths. And farther, that 
 
125 
 
 liumanity, in spite of its imperfections and per- 
 versions, has inherent in its constitution the inevi- 
 table necessity of working out by its intellectual 
 growth the demonstration to itself of this truth. 
 And this intellectual growth is the moving power 
 of its civilization. 
 
 CONCLUSIONS. 
 
 With this conception of cimUzaUon, and we 
 believe, our general definition of it will be gen- 
 erally acceptable, we may apply this measure 
 to any and all countries or sections of the 
 world to see wherein they have developed toAvards 
 this standard, and wherein they are still defi(;ient. 
 
 Man in his primitive state is a hunter, seeking 
 his livelihood by the chase. As his game becomes 
 scarce, he betakes himself to the raising of food 
 animals, gaining his subsistence by tending his 
 flocks, which roam about in search of theirs. His 
 life is nomadic. As population increases, the 
 allotment to each of a given district is necessi- 
 tated, and when these allotments are insufficient 
 for the support of the increasing population, then 
 agriculture is forced upon him to increase the 
 amount of food for animals, and also, in the differ- 
 enciation of crops, a larger proportion of vegetable 
 food is added to his own diet. Whether he origi- 
 nally has willed it or not, these growing neces- 
 sities crowd him into more intimate society with 
 
126 
 
 Ms fellows, and the evolution of social combina- 
 tions goes forward towards the progressive blend- 
 ing of humanity into one common body with 
 identical interests. 
 
 Whether these unifying tendencies will or will 
 not be fully ultimated in the unforeseen future, 
 no human authority can decide ; but what is al- 
 ready accomplished, w^e are bound by every 
 right and duty to recognize. " The past at least 
 is secure." 
 
 That the progressive unification of humanity,, 
 commercially, morally, socially and politically is^ 
 drawing it together in accelerating ratio, towards- 
 that significant oneness, foreshadowed by the 
 Avonderfully inspired prophet of Nazareth, is now 
 become a living fact of such magnitude, as to be 
 impossible of further hiding or denial to those 
 who have any know^ledge of human antecedents. 
 
 That many obstructions of this beneficent deve- 
 lopment have been made with honest belief, that 
 these were in the service of right and duty, we are 
 quite willing to believe, and that by force of tradition 
 and long habit of a positive irreformable faith, per- 
 sistence in these errors may be consistent with up- 
 right intentions, we can also believe, because 
 minds are thus closed against accumulating light ; 
 but the widespread disidence from them, cropping 
 out everywhere, even in places where they had be- 
 come most strongly rooted, show to modern 
 minds how deeply and broadly the growing en- 
 lightenment has penetrated the aglomerating mass. 
 
127 
 
 Thus every sane mind to-day plainly sees, and 
 many are bold enough to acknowledge openly, 
 that there are general causes inherent in human- 
 ity, acting upon its aggregated masses and its 
 individual units, silently and irresistibly carrying 
 it forward to changed conditions of amelioration 
 in the direction we have above indicated. 
 
 And when we consider the fact that human ex- 
 perience is necessarily cumulative, and thus suc- 
 cessive steps forward in refinements, and amelio- 
 ration in the arts, trades, sciences, modes of com- 
 munication, and in fact in all the collective ele- 
 ments of civilization, and that these successive 
 modifications grow up naturally in presence of 
 the realized facts, and their relations to the neces- 
 sities of the race, we may comprehend how ir- 
 resistibly the sum of civilization increases to- 
 wards the fulfillment of the moral law, made 
 inherent in mankind by omnicient wisdom. 
 
 Nor is it relevant in this view to discuss. 
 methods of original creation ; whether in six days, 
 by supernatural means, or by the persistent action 
 of fixed laws through long ages of time, upon the 
 mutual elements of all matter ; whether Genesis 
 was completed according to the biblical record, or 
 is still going forward. But whether the govern- 
 ment of the world is by successive providential or 
 supernatural interferences, or by fixed and in- 
 cludible law, is a question already too well settled 
 to require further discussion. Wunderglaube is 
 to-day almost universally associated in sensate 
 
128 
 
 public opinion with gross credulity and impos- 
 ture. We may fairly suppose an autlior of 
 the laws, natural and moral, which govern the 
 universe, and speak of this Author as the Omni- 
 cient Creator. At least this, in our present stage 
 of development, will facilitate our cumulative in- 
 tellectual progress till a more advanced stage is 
 reached, and is therefore expedient. 
 
 Now, at what stage of this progressive civiliza- 
 tion is the country we have j ust visited ? 
 
 Evidently the stage of cattle raising with divi- 
 sion of lands, we find little beyond^ that stage, 
 here. Agriculture, even in the rare places where 
 it exists at all, is in its most primitive stages of 
 rude development, unworthy the name of culture; 
 the same may truly be said of the trades and arts. 
 
 We saw no road worthy of the name, except 
 that from Agualarga to Bogota, and one from Bo- 
 gota to Quipaquira a few miles in extent, and no 
 bridges except at Bogota and Honda. The schools 
 have not yet had time for much beneficial effect, 
 and the masses of the people are in squalid mis- 
 ery and ignorance, notwithstanding the bounteous 
 natural productions of mother earth. True, the 
 few schools of the Capital have been doing a good 
 work in raising up a small class, many of which 
 have completed their education abroad, and these 
 are the men who are striving to lead the nation 
 forward. 
 
 European and American commerce has its agents 
 stationed at Barranquilla, Honda, Carthagena and 
 
129 
 
 Panama to gather up natural productions, and 
 have established lines of communications to its 
 coasts and on the river to facilitate transportation; 
 but commercial enterprise is mostly confined to 
 strangers. Occasional evidences are met with, of 
 the country's having enjoyed a greater degree of 
 prosperity under the old Spanish domination ; 
 but it is claimed to have been the product of forc- 
 ed labor of the native Indian tribes which were 
 then numerous and are well known to have been 
 much more docile than the savage North Am- 
 erican tribes. But their numbers have greatly 
 dwindled under Spanish sophistication and mix- 
 ture. 
 
 It may be urged, as it is frequently urged by 
 Spaniards themselves, that the peculiarities of 
 their race are not favorable to the progress among 
 them of the liberalizing and leveling arts of civiliza- 
 tion ; in other words, that the tendencies of their 
 race are to mount a proud aristocracy to dominate 
 by brute force the lower classes which they pur- 
 posely depress in order to live upon their produc- 
 tions. The frequent complaint of the Spaniard is 
 that the tendencies to education will eventually 
 leave Society without servants. But those of our 
 readers who are aware of just what race signifies 
 in actual fact, will readily discover that though 
 the influence of climate has had something to do 
 with these aforesaid peculiarities, they are never- 
 theless here, very largely the product of the ''co 
 lonial seed ;" the results of long domination of 
 
130 
 
 mistaken political and religious systems obstruct- 
 ing and tampering with the natural course of hu- 
 man development in their efforts to guide it ; or 
 in other Avords, in their efforts to ' ' teach Eternal 
 Wisdom how to rule." 
 
 This is to be said in kindness rather than in re- 
 proach, for these are the misfortunes rather than 
 the faults of a people, and reproach is not calcula- 
 ted to encourage them to overcome their aberra- 
 tions from the true course. The present leaders 
 of this people are fully committed to a course of 
 reform in both of these particulars. Those from 
 whose systems they have separated may point 
 the finger of scorn at the sorry figure they cut in 
 their new role, but this is egotism. 
 
 For those who love and cultivate truth because 
 of their confidence in the omniscience and un- 
 swerving beneficence of its Great Author will re- 
 joice that they are shaping themselves rightly for 
 a new departure, and will wish them Godspeed ! 
 
 Nor can it be expected of them in one nor per- 
 haps in ten generations to reach the same level of 
 development as that of the most advanced ranks 
 of civilization, because the capacity for apprecia- 
 tion of its varied lights and shades is of slow growth 
 through innumerable, almost imperceptible grada- 
 tions in a continuous course of evolution through 
 many generations, in the same manner as the most 
 cultived human eye has been evolved or developed 
 up to its high powers of appreciation of delicate 
 shades of color, form, symetry and expression. 
 
i:31 
 
 That these improved capacities are, through the 
 laws of heredity, transmitted in various degrees 
 from sire to son, is proved by common experi- 
 ence, and thus become characteristic of each race 
 according to its antecedents. 
 
 The strong conservative antecedents of the 
 Spanish race have retarded or held back the na- 
 tural evolution of civilization among them in every 
 direction except that of outward forms of social 
 intercourse in which they excell ; the spirit of 
 their institutions compelling cultivation of the art 
 to '* crook the pregnant hinges of the knee that 
 thrift may follow fawning." 
 
 He who seeks justice must know '' Tiow to ask 
 for it," says one of their axioms, which means he 
 must not demand it, for its rights are secondary 
 to forms of authority. 
 
 We have resided many years with this race in 
 one of its chief cities and have to some extent to 
 both this and the Anglo-Saxon race been in the 
 position of teacher to pupil, and according to our 
 experience the ready appreciation of principles 
 and the practical tact of the Anglo-Saxon is sel- 
 dom met with among the Spanish races. This 
 shortcoming also in the productions of their arts 
 and trades is strikingly apparent to the common 
 perceptions, and it is the object of frequent remark 
 among strangers, that this race with the exception 
 of the Catalans, who as a class, are more develop- 
 ed, seems as insensible to the nicer perceptions 
 and refinements of the mechanic arts as the blind 
 
132 
 
 fishes of the mammoth cave to light, and for the 
 same reason, viz : Their capacities have not yet 
 reached the stage of evolution required for these 
 perceptions. 
 
 " Den Geist bekummert um den Norden, 
 Das Herz dem Sudan zugesehnt." 
 
 With grateful acknowledgment of the many 
 kind attentions bestowed upon us during oiir 
 visit we now bring our trip to a close. If it has 
 afforded any degree of entertainment or informa- 
 tion to our readers, our object has been attained. 
 

 
 
 
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