The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1890-02-23
SOUTHERN SCENES.
BaraDGailia, the Most Modern
Town IN Colombia.
A'rRIP UP THE RIVER NAGDALENA
Rec nsns:a ari the Blacl, Mana Happy
6s:-1ckY NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS. Among
TIE Sabanilians.

BsaRAEqUrI.A, COLOMBIA, Jan. /, $780,
tSp2ciai correspondence of THE herald. I
Though distant from New York scarcely
two thousand miles, this northernmost
republic Of the Southern Continent is less
known 10 the world than the heart of
Africa; and its 300-year- old capital is al
most as difficult Of access. Until recently
there has been no communication between
toe 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
established 4 line of steamers between
New York and the mouth of the Magda-
lena river (the great fiuvial highway to
Colombia's interior), by which two trips
per month are made; but the vessels go
hrst to several West India ports, consum-
ing fifteen days in the voyage to Colombia
Three times a month the Pacific Mail
steamers leave New York for Aspinwall:
and at the latter place one may always find
steamer under almost any flag but the
stars and stripes, which will stop at the
caribbean ports on its way to Europe
But when you have reached this point,
the journey TO Coiombia's capital has
hardly begun. Before you is short rail
road ride TO Barranquilla, and then $50
miles by boat up the river to Honda, near
the head of navigation Occupying from
ten to thirty days, according to the time of
year,; and from Honda to Bogota, the
capital city, though only a distance of
seventy miles. is the worst part of the trip.
requiring at least
FOUR DAYS ON MULE BACK,
over sky piercing sierras
Though with such stretch of sea coast.
Colombia possesses no harbor worthy The
name-these of Aspinwall and Panama
being the best. Besides the last named
insecure and rocky port, there is but one
other on the Pacific side-that of Buena-
ventura. which has lately been brought
INTO some degree of prominence. On the
Atlantic coaster, more correctly speak
ing, on that of the caribbean sea the 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
prlmeval forests crowd close upon them.
Sanbaniila itself is the most desolate
and dirty of fishing villages, of no conse-
luence whatever, except for its bay,
which, though totally inaccessible to large
vessels, has been made to answer the pur-
poses of seaport, by company of enter
prslng Germans. In 1871, some Bremen
gentlemen put lighters and steam tugs on
Sabanilla 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 Barranquilla, sixteen
miles inland The consequence is that the
latter hitherto insignificant village of
hardly twenty houses has suddenly bios
somed out into the most important CITY in
the republic, commercially speaking, with
q population of $4,000, and still growing
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 Bar
-ranquilla pronounced Bahr ran-kiel-ya4-
and through it must go ali merchandise
and passengers bound for ''up the river,n
or coming down from Colombia's interior
INTO the outer world. Also, every small
steamer and sailing vessel, which CONVEYS
the multltudinous products of the vast
back-lylng country to the coast, via the
Magdalena, must start from and return to
this place and wait for official permission
before Its cargo can be discharged
To return to
SABANIALLA
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 convent
ent 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 no
BODY lives there but a miserable colony of
cargadores, or boatmen, and a few even
more degraded saloon keepers, who absorb
all the money the wretches earn in ex
change for the vileSt of native intoxicanfs
All up and down the coast of South Amer
lea, the cargadores are necessary evils-as
there are few places where vessels can an
proach the shore and these of Colombia
are mostly Canary Islanders, with a liberal
sprlnkling of low-class Italians, and few
Cinnamon. Their palm matched huts are
filthy beyond description, 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 a point about eight miles up
the river. Yet the water business is not
brisk, though retailed by the dipperful, for
very small quantity serves for the
meagre cooking of the Sabanillans; while
cheap liquor dear at any price, is the uni
versal beverage. Even less is used Tor
, lavatory purposes, fresh or salt, though
the wide ocean, rolling up to their doors.
furnish 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
Celestial who runs the only laundry in the
place, looks like sad case of slow starya-
lion.
Woe unto the luckless traveller who is
compelled to stay over night in Sabanilla's
alleged hotel! If his vessels arrive TOO late
In the Gay for train to Barranquilla he
VIII DO well to remain on board until the
morrow; or if her commander cannot be
induced to risk "norther'' among the
sand bars, he would better walk the six
teen miles that intervene between the
coast and civilization. In this desperate
community of roustabouts fighting is the
CHEF amusements; and murder and rob
berry are of common occurrence But
even were the Sabanillans angels in dis
gulse, The place would be intolerable on
account of excessive heat and swarmipp
iicas. We're it not for the ocean breezes
thai constantly sweep across the desolate
Sane spit, blowing up the sand in binding
clouds. nc human being could abide there
On. AT every step in its pavementless
streets you sink ankle deep into the burn
ing sand, every intinitesimal grain of
which is loaded with flea, whose sting is
like the puncture of a red hot needle
About the only Industrious citizens
have found so far in South America
are 1.-The wicked fieas.n In five minutes,
lime they viii completely blacken your
hose and cover your garments inside and
ont; nor cease from troubling you until
YOU arc tattooed from head 10 foot like a
South Sea Islander.
BARRaNQUILLA