Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1890-03-01

alOIlerS faces, anu our Inquiries lOOhcu
ghostly and unreal, as might procession
of disembodied spooks on some uncanny
expedition. Nor did the doctors muttered
recitation elevate our spirits:
"somewhere in desolate, wind swept space,
In Twilight land in No Mans land
Two shivering shapes meet face to face,
And bid each other stand.
And who are your asks one agape,
Shuddering in the gloa ring light,
4 know not, said the second shape,
I only died last night
But when the stars were lost in the sea
of crimson and gold that presages the ris-
| ing of the tropic sun, Dame Nature sud-
denly shook off her eomatose condition,
the flowers lifted their dewy heads, birds
began to twitter, smoke to curl from house,
tops, and the hum of human activity was
heard. Presently the road became alive
with Indians trudging to market under
heavy loads, bare-footed women in short
calico skirts and wide straw hats, sitting
astride of mules, each beast generally car
rying two persons; and donkeys and black
and white bullocks, so heavily laden as TO
be literally
COVERED FROM STEM TO STERN
With piles of chincona bark, bags of gold
| or silver ore from the mines, or loads of
merchandise of various sorts. The princi-
pal towns of Colombia, scattered along the
fertile valleys lying between the spurs OF
| the Andes, are distant from the Magda-
lena from go to 100 miles; and to them all
goods must be forwarded over the rugged
mountain pathways. Merchandise is dis
tributed into bales of 125 pounds each,
allowing two bales or $50 pounds to DON
key-load. Parcels exceeding this weight
must be opened and repaeked, or they will
not be carried at all. The majority of in
terror cdrgadores are women and their
charge for each load is from "a to 80 reales
| Ia Colombian real being about 10 cents in
| American money! or between So and 81
Their system of transit applies only to ar
ticles Of comparatively light weight, max.
ing it utterly impossible TO forward across
the country to those places where they are
most needed such heavy objects as .agri-
cultural implements, mining machinery,
fire engines, wagons, or indeed anything
else weighing more than half ton.
Yet we are told that in Bogota every
well-to-do family has its piano, which had
to be brought piecemeal over the Sierras
at the cost of thousand dollars per piano
for its transportation alone They have
street-cars, too, in Colombo's capital
which were also toted in sections over the
mountains, as were the rails and ties, or
the backs of mules and human beasts o.
burden.
Soon the road grew rough and stony
like the bed of a rocky river, winding
over hills which in some places ascend
almost perpendicularly and in others ofiel
so narrow pathway that our little beasts
ambling one behind another, can hardly
find footing.
HEAVEN BLESS THE DONKEY
Say I Whatever his faults, he is sure
footed and faithful, and has borne many &
traveller in safety over perilous path;
where morse would refuse to go.
About P. NJ. we reached Consuelo, anC
stopped at narrow-thatched posadd, Oh
| inn, for breakfast, which, though very
poor, was acceptable, you may be sure, a;
we had eaten nothing since the hasty
desajuno Of bread and coffee before day
light.
Two hours siesta, and a good rubbing
down with alcohol and hot water, the bes
remedy, by the way, for the lameness o
Joint and soreness of muscle that afflict
the amateur equestrienne, and by O'Clock
everybody cheerfully responded to the cal
/ of shoots and saddles" not wishing to re
main over night in desolate Consuelo
However, there is not much choice in pos
adas on the road to Bogota, one bein!
about as bad as another.
AS we assembled, ever higher and higher
| al o,,I ooola, ~ A0l
feet above Honda the temperature was de
Gghtful. Winding around the steep side
of the sierras, we caught glimpses of
most wonderful panorama in the Magda
lena valley, which, far below, looked lik,
a gigantic chess-board, squared off BY
hedge-rows inclosing cultivated fields, thu
pale yellowish- green of sugar-cane patche
interspersed with the dark, glossy foliag
of cofee-groves, and palm-thatched hut
for pawns, all environed by distant hight
whose tops we're lost in the clouds. Lon.
before we reached
GUADUAs
The moon was up, though the miles ar,
not many between these wayside hiding
places, because the duliest donkey in tht
cavalcade had learned that we were no
Mazzepas, and therefore he need not hurry
himself. Down into green valley, ovel
an antique bridge built three centuries age
and now crumblipg to its fall, past pretty
white casa in the midst If coffee grove
and at last the posddd was reached where
smoking dinner awaited and the nigh
was TO be passed. Guaduas is said to b.
one of the most comfortable places on the
road, though its high-priced posada woulc
bear no comparison to the poorest hotel il
the United States. F. and enjoyed the
luxury of a clean and airy room, anc
though its floor was paved with damp
bricks, the walls covered with old news
papers, the window entirely without glas'
and the door-fastening apole set up against
it. we slept the sleep of the Just, each il
her little white-canopied cot In these
Southern countries the beds are all "sin
gle" two persons never sleeping together
though several of the narrow cots may b.
put into the same apartment.
Thanks to another thorough rubbing
with hot alcohol, we were in tolerablt
order to start next morning by the frs
peep of dawn, while the early mists mer
cifully obscured from view the heights W,
were yet to climb Always upward anC
upward, like that foolish youth who Dor,
a banner with the strange device Excel
sior p and came to grief, as he richly de
served till before midday We had as
cended something over 5000 feet. Tht
highest point hereabouts is known as
ALTO DEL HAIzAL,
Marked by little white house set against
a gigantic heap of red-gray sandstone
The view from this place was even NOR,
glorious than that of the day before, over
looking a wider prospect, being 50 much
higher, including circle of mountain
SUBMITS, whose rosy peaks, one behind
the other, peered out of an ocean of cloud
Descending thence to Las 1ihayes was ths
most difficult task we have yet encountered
over road strewn with loose powders, SC
steep and slippery that we momentarily
. ! - h. ,,,roI.a1 <r-ar baols -