Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1890-02-22

l ~ muooy a. the Missouri and as swift rs the
mississippi, which il greatly resembles. So
strong is its yellow tide and no full of sedimeut
tnst ~ VIII not mix readily with the salt water
| OF the sea, but can be distinctly traced for
many miles. In some places il is scarcely a
nohareo feet WIDE, IN others eight or ten miles.
| Is full OF snags, sand bars and floating logs
making the pilots position by no means a sine
cure.
| THE BOATS
are mostly built like those in use ON the Ohio
river, with paddle wheel in the rear. and
| draw only foot or two of water even when
laden to their utmost capacity. as otherwise
they could never get over the sand bars. During
the rainy season the swollen current is so swift
and strong that progress is necessarily very
| SLOW, but when the moon is bright the boats
are kept in motion both night and day- Az
| other times they can run only by daylight and
must" tie up every night They generally run
| aground a few times during every trip and tben
| 1t requires from two days TO a week before tney
can be pulled off and set in motion again. thus
rendering the date of ones arrival at the Jour
ney's end one of the most uncertain things in
this uncertain world.
II you wish to murder your worst enemy by
the most diabolical form of torture that the
| imagination can conceive just persuade him TO
make q trip up the Magdalena river at the
heishs OF the mnsquito season sans netting,
veil or other protection! The locality is in
| tested with
THE BIGGEST THAT BuzzEp
and passengers must not fail TO provide them
selves with everything attainable in the way Of
| offense and defense against them. All the
| officers and deck hands wear thick wells over
their faces, tied close around the neck. and long
buekskin gloves. both night and day, and yet,
somehow, the enemy seems to come of more
or less victorious. 1t is the fashion hereabouts
10 tell musqulto stories of astonishing propor-
tions-much as the people around Puget sound
brag OF their mammoth clans and the Cali
fornians OF their fruits, but | can assure YOU
that the tallest tale can hardly exceed the
reality. Always bad enough, at certain seasons
when winds blow strong from the jungles, the
mosquitoes come in clouds that literally OBJ
scure the sky and the sound of their humming
Is Ike the noise OF a saw mill. Neither man
nor beast can Withstand their attacks unpro-
tected, and 1t is an actual fact that cattle and
horses are frequently tormented to death by
| them. L am told that not long ago a herd of
valuable cattle which were being imported
from the United States to a rancho I'D the
river, becoming perfectly frantic after a week
OF untold agony, broke from their fastenings,
dashed overheard and were all drowned.
The long-nosed, fiat-bottomed little steamer
upon which We are passengers has her engine
and all the cargo above water. OH the first deck
Above these lis the saloon, with the cabins on
either side, and still above that story is the
captains cabin, surmounted by a steepleiike
pilot house. Directly in front OF the saloon
are the tall black chimneys, taller even than
the watch tower, and in front of them is tue
flag staff from which floats the Colombian colors
All around the upper deck are rows of benches
and away up here Is the best place to find what
little air may be stirring.
THE GREAT VALLEY
OF the Magdalena, extending from the Ca
ribbean coast to the equator, varies in width
from 100 to $50 miles, narrowing. to a point as
il nears he confines Of Enna,lor a,Dl-ooo,
region of ineXhaustible resources much of ii
overgrown with primeval forests, among whose
gigantic growths may be found great diversity
OF building timber, besides the choicest cabinet
and dye woods and tropical profusion Of
gum-producing and medicinal plants.
Going up from Barranquilla for the first 900
miles one sees little at this time of year but
continuous swamp on either side The river
Itself, directly at the month, is fully a mile
and a half wide and its lower valley is one vast
alluvlal plain, which, like the Nile region. is
subject to periodical overflow. For 800 miles
the most magnificent grazing lands stretch
away on either side. which are covered with
cattle during most of the year, until Just be-
fore the floods that follow the rainy season.
when they are driven up into the mountains
Wherever the land has been cultivated IL shows
surprising fertility and the overflow might
easily be controlled and turned into a blessing
by system of dikes similar to those in use on
the lower Mississippi. Those inclined to emf
Oklahoma among a multitude of crazy SQUAT
tiers, when here are vast tracts Of the richest
land In the world to be had for the asking.
PLANTATIONS AND THEIR WORKERS.
Years ago there were profitable plantations.
worked by negroes, all up and down the middle
valley; but after the emancipation of slavery,
which took place, believe, in 1858. the estates
rapidly went to ruin and were finally aban-
doned by their owners. 1t seems that the
I'd mi tha Ind
labor in this climate and neither love nor lucre
could induce the ex-saves to do a stroke of it
Today the once rich plantations show no traces
OF former cultivation, being completely over
grown with the riotous vegetation OF the
tropics. while the negroes themselves have re-
lapsed into a state of semi-barbarsm. 1t is the
same old story, disastrously true, of every part
of the world where
THE BANANA AND TIE BLACK MAN
flourish spontaneously side by side Since
nature has provided SO generously for him and
he has no ambition TO crafty why should he
not emulate the scriptaral example of the
lilies, which toll not, neither do they spin? The
negroes OF this section are becoming consider
ably mixed with Indian, Latin and even Anglo
Saxon blood, SO that blue eyes. fair skins and
even red wool is not uncommon among them.
They lead most happy go-lucky existence.
subsisting upon the fruits that grow wild in
wonderful profusion and such accommodating
suspended from the branch of a tree at whose
other end lies sleepy negro, fat on his face
in the sun.
During the long, slow days Of voyaging ND
the Magdaiena passengers may possess their
souls IN patience as best they can with nothing
to do but fight mosquitoes and keep as cool
as circumstances will permit. The male
passengers vary the mouotony somewhat by
pistol and rifle practice. using the ailigators
that IN some places literally line the banks for
targets. The alligator is by no means a frisky
creature, as those who are acquainted with his
habits may know, but is not to be trusted even
in his hours of apparent oblivion. With their
noses to the river, their small eyes closed and
great jaws half open, they seem to be sound
asleep until the boat is close upon them when
in the twinkling of an eve the jaws shut with
the snap OF mammoth rat trap aud they
plunge into the water in slow pursuit The
boat is always followed by school of them.
probably in the hope OF a meal, each seeming
to say in the language of the nursery tale mon
ster:
Fee, Fl. 70, fumi
i smell the blood of an Fnglishman.
And, dead or alive. l will have some"
What rare field is this for the alligator
hunter! Considering the value Of the skins aai
the enormous demand for them in the man
ufacture of shoes, satchels, &C., the wonder
grows why some thrifty Yankee has not be-
thought himself that fortunes lie in the ex-
haustIess crop.