The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1890-02-23

was the headquarters of the Instruction
a-y army. Though just now all is quiet
throughout the country, the s'powerS that
pc" Know well that eternal vigilance is
the price OF peace, and that the spirit of
revolution, horn in the blood and bred in
5one OIL these inconstant people, is not
dead, but slcepeth.
Unlike most South American ports, Bar
ranqullla hassan excellent wharf. Several
steamship companies are running vessels
on tne Magdalena, two of them, believe,
operated by United States capital The
principal line, however, is German, with
mali dozen or more small steamers, vary
ing from fifty tons 10 two hundred tons.
Durlng the last political upheaval all the
river boats were seized by the insurgents,
and those not tied up or destroyed were
metamorphosed into
EFFECTIVE MEN-oF-wAR
by simply covering their sides with CORFU
gated iron, mounting small cannons upon
the decks and filling the cabins with sharp
shooters
The great river itself is natural curios-
lty, traversing the whole country from
south TO north, draining an enormous area
OF mountains covered with perpetual snow
and forming the sole outlet for seven Col
ombian states. Its water is as muddy as
the Missouri and as swift as the Missis-
Slppl, which it greatly resembles So
strong Is its yellow tide and so full of sedi-
ment that it will not mix readily with the
salt water of the sea, but can be distinctly
traced Tor many miles. In some places it
is scarcely hundred feet WIDE in others
eight or ten miles. It's channel. having
never been well cleared, is full of snags
sand-bars and floating logs, making the
plots position by no means a sinecure
Inc boats are mostly built like those in
use on the ONO river, with a paddle wheel
IN Inc rear, and draw only d 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 sea
son 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
1 day. Atother times they can run only by
daylight, and must ''tieup' every night.
lhey generally run aground a few times
during every trip, and then it requires
from two days to a week before they can
be pulled off and set in motion again, thus
rendering the date of ones arrival at the
journeys end one of the most uncertain
things IN this uncertain world
Ii you wish To murder your worst enemy
by the most dlabolical form of torture that
the imagination cah conceive, Just per-
suade MN TO take a trip Up the MagdaGna
river at the height of the mosquito season
without netting. veil. or protection! Inc
locality is Infested with
THE BIGGEST THAT EVER BUZZED,
and passengers must not fail to provide
themselves with everything ;ittainabie in
the way of offence and defence against
them. All the officers aud deck hands
wear thick wells over tneir faces. tied close
around the neck, and long buck-skIn gloves
both night ana day and yet, somehow. the
enemy seems to come off moro or less VIC
torious. IL is the fashion hereabouts to tell
mosquito stories of astonishing proper
tlonS-much as the people around Puget
Sound brag of their mammoth clans and
the Calfornlans of their fruits, but as
sure 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 obscure the sky, and
the sound of their hummng is ike the
noise OF 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, herd OF valuable cattle which were
being imported from the United States to
rancho up the river, becoming perfectly
frantic after week of untold agony, broke
from their fasteulngs, 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
on the first deck. Above these is saloon
with the cabins On either side: and still
above that story is the captains cabin, sur
mounted by steepie like pilot-house.
Directly in the front of the saloon are the
tall, black chimneys, taller even than the
Watch-tower; and in front of them is the
flag staff, from which float 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 NAV be
stirring.
THE GREAT VALLEY
of the Magdalena, extending from the Car
ribean coast TO the equator, varies in width
from 100 to $50 miles, narrowing to a point
as 1t nears the confines of Ecuador 1t
embraces region Of inexhausuble re-
sources, much Of 1t overgrown with prime
val forests, among whose gigantic growths
may be found d great diversity of building
timber, besides the choicest cabinet and
dye woods, and d tropical profusion of gum
producing and medicinal plants.
Going up from Barranquilla. for the first
200 miles one sees little at this time of the
year, but continuous swamp on either side.
Ihe river Itself, directly at the mouth is
fully a mile and half wide and its lower
valley is one vast alluvial plain, which.
like the Nile region, is subject to periodi-
cal overftows. For 800 miles the most
magnificent grazing lands stretch away on
either side, which arc covered with cattle
during most of the year, until just before
the floods that follow the rainy season.
when they are driven up into the noun.
tains. Wherever the land has been cult
waited it shows surprising fertility, and the
overflow might easily be controlled and
tcrned into blessing by system of dikcs
similar to those in use on the lower Missis-
slrpi- Those incened TO emigrate need not
wrestle for standing room at Ollolomoma
among the multitudes OF crazy suuatters
when here are vast tracts of the richest
land IN tue world, TO DC had for the ask
ing
Years ago there were profitable planta-
lions. worked by negroes, al up and down
tue middle valley; but after the emanci-
patton Of slavery, which took place. be-
llcre, in 1888, the estates rapidly went to
ruin and were finally abandoned by their
owners 1t seems that the Spaniards and
the Indians can not endure card labor IN
this climate, and neither love nor lucre
could induce the cX-slavcs TO do n stroke
of it. To-day the once rich plantations
show no traces of former cultivation.
being completely ovcrgrown with the riot
Gus vegetation of the tropics; whlIc the
negroes themselves Lave rclapscd into a
state of semi oarbarsm. ltls the same old
story disasirousy true Of every part vi the
world where
THE BANANA AND TIE BLACK MAN
flourish spontaneously side by side. Since
Nr,sc
and he has nu ambition tn gratlfv. wtv
should nc not emulate the scrlpturai exam
pie OF the hlics, which toll not. neither do
they spin. The negroes OF this section are