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

II
BARRANQuILLA, CoLoMBIA, January 1.
- LTHOUGH distant from New York
| H scarcely 1000 miles this northern
j/7 most republic Of the southern CONT
nsnt is less known to the world than
| >Sthe heart Of Africa, and its three
hundred-year-old capital is almost as difficult
Of access. Until recently there has been no
communication between the ports Of the United
States and those of Colombia, its nearest
neighbor, and to this day there is NO direct
| way of reaching them.
| Some four years ago an English company es-
| tablished q line of steamers between New
York and the mouth Of the Magdalena river
(the great iuvial highway to Colombias in
terior), by which two trips per month are
made, but the vessels go first to several West
India ports, consuming fifteen days in the voy-
age to Colombia. Three times q month the
| Pacific mail steamers leave New York for As
pinwall, and at the latter place one may always
ind steamer under almost any flag but the
stars and stripes, which will stop at the Carib-
bean ports on its way to Europe.
But when you have reached this point the
journey to Colombia's capital has hardly be-
gun. Before you is a short railroad ride to
Barranquilia, and then $50 miles by boat up
the river to Honda, near the head of naviga-
ton Occupying from ten to thirty days, accord
ing to the time Of year,; and from Honda to
Bogota the capital city, though only distsnce
OF seventy miles, is the worst part of the trip,
requiring at least four days on mule back over
| sky piercing sierras.
FEW HARBoRs.
Though with such stretch Of seacoast Co.
lombia possesses no harbor worthy the name
those OF Aspinwall aud Panama being the best
Besides the last-named insecure and rocky port
there is but one other on the Pacific side-that
OF Buenaventura, which has lately been brought
into some degree of prominence. On the At
lantlc coaster, more correctly speaking, on
that OF the Caribbean seattle only available
shipping place for Colombian commerce is
Sabanilla, both Aspinwall and Panama being
merely ports of transit trade, with so little of
local industry that primeval forests crowd close
upon them.
Sabanilla itself is the most desolate and dirty
OF fishing villages, of no consequence whatever
except for its bay. which, though totally mac
cesslble to large vessels, has been made 10 an
swer the purposes of a seaport By a company
OF enterprising Germans. In 1871 some Bremen
gentlemen put lighters and steam tugs on
Sabanllla bay for the benefit of larger vessels
that could not come into it and laid line of
railroad from the coast to the old Spanish town
OF Barranquila, sixteen miles inland The
consequence is that the latter hitherto insig-
nifcant village Of hardly twenty houses has
suddenly blossomed out into the most import
ant city in the republic, commercially speak
ing, with population of 25, 900, and still grow
ing-far eclipSing the old cities of Carthagena
and Santa Marta lying on either side of it,
both of which figured so conspicuously in the
Spanish colonial history of earlier days.
The custom house is now located in Barranaullla
pronounced Bahr-ran- kiel-ya), and through il
must go all merchandise and passengers bound
for up the river" or coming down from CO.
lomblas interiors into the outer world, Also
every small steamer and sailing vessel which
conveys the multudinous products of the vast
back-lylng country to the coast via the Magda-
lena must start from and return to this place
and wait for official permission before its cargo
can be discharged.
sABANILLA.
To return to Sabaniila. The village is not
situated on the main land, but on a long and
narrow sand spit that has formed itself at the
mouth of the river. Its bay is neither safe nor
convenient for any sort Of vessels, being full of
shifting sand bars and exposed to the fury of
tropical storms. Not green thing grows
within sight of Sabanilla, and nobody lives
there but miserable colony of cargadores or
boatmen and a few even more degraded saloon
Keepers, who absorb all the money the wretches
earn in exchange for the vilest of native intoxi-
cants. All up and down the coasts of South
America the cargadores are necessary evils
as there are few places where vessels can APP
proach the shore-and these of Colombia are
mostly Canary Islanders. with liberal sprink-
ling of low-class Italians aud a few Cinnamon
Their paim-thatched huts are filthy beyond de-
scription. but not more so than the occupants
men and women more than half unclothed and
their numerous offspring entirely so.
There is not drop of fresh water in the
place, all that is used being brought in canoes
from point about eight miles up the river
Yet the water business is not BRISK though re-
tailed by the dpperful, for very small guam
nillans, while cheap liquor dear at any price,
is the universal beverage. Even less is used
for lavatory purposes, fresh or salt, though the
wide ocean, rolling up to their doors, furnishes
as fine bathing facilities as can be found in any
quarter OF the globe. Indeed, the people seem
to entertain
HYDRoPHoBIC TERROR
OF water in any form, and the pig-tailed Celes-
tial who runs the only laundry in the place
looks like sad case of slow starvation.
Woe unto the ldckless traveller who is COM
PEELED to stay over night i'll Sabanilla's alleged
hotel! Ii his vessel arrives too late in the day
for a train to Barranquilla he will do well to
remain on board until the morrow, or if her
commander cannot be induced to risk a
''norther" among the sand bars he would bet
ter walk the sixteen miles that intervene be-
tween the coast and civilization. In this dcs-
perate community OF roustabouts fighting is
the chief amusement and murder and robbery
are of common occurrence. But even were the
Sabanillans angels in disguise the place would
be intolerable on account of excessive heat and
swarming feas. Were it not for the ocean
breezes that constantly sweep across the DESC
late sand spit, blowing up the sand in binding
clouds, no human being could abide thereon.
At every step in its pavementless streets you
sink ankle deep into the burning sand. every in
finitesimal grain of which is loaded with a flea
whose sting is like the puncture of a red-hot
needle About the only industrious citizens 1
have found SO far in South America are 1.-The
wicked fieas." In five minutes time they will
completely blacken your hose and cover your
garments inside and out, nor cease from
troubling until you are tattooed from head to
foot like a South Sea Islander.
BARRANQuILLA
is by all odds the most modern town in Colom-
bia-unless it may be Aspinwall-having many
handsome houses and q considerable foreign
colony. Some Of the principal merchants of
the republic live here, most of them Germans.
who maintain considerable style and entertain
with generous hospitality, although living is
uncommonly high. Commanding as it does
the only outlet from the interior this New York