The Savannah morning news., 1902-08-10
UNCLE SAM MAY GET A COALING
STATION OUT OF THIS ROW
When Certain Revolutionary Generals
diers of the Republic of Colombia Grabbed Sundry
Bags of Coffee They Paved the Way to Pos
sbIe international Developments.

AloIe OF the HSnIS are pulleu OH, ap-
| parently by mutual consent. This is
the Quartet. The walls of the tower
there have even more cannon balls
| sticking in them than has the rest of
| the town
A really pretty fight was enjoyed
! there recently. during the last attempt
I by the government forces to take the
town. A government captain got as
! far as the tower. but unhappily his
| troops had not cared TO imperil their
| health by accompanying him. So re
| had to fight for his life. which is rare
in Central American revolutions, where
the non-combatants usually are the
only ones killed as far as both sides
can arrange it.
This captain, however, was a real
fighter. He had a huge Colts navy
revolver, which is a weapon that dis
gusts Colombians, who prefer to battle
with the machete. He managed to
ensconce himself behind a wall. By
taking pains and paying strict atten-
ton to his work, he managed to shoot
or stab twelve men during his lone
stand. The reYolutionists themselves
admit it. But thirteen was his hoodoo.
AS he swung his nachete at the head
of the man with the unlucky number,
a cannon ball wandered along and took
his head off.
Savage Chtriqui.
Chiriqui has seen the bloodest scenes
in the present revolution Non-com-
batants have been slain without mercy,
in the city of David alone fifty persons
having been hacked to death because
they did not declare for either party.
The natives do not like gun plays"
at least when the other person makes
it, What they love passionately is to
dFix
machetes. Many of them can fence
wonderfully with these immensely
heavy knives. But most of theml are
stronger in the art of hacking away
at their opponents from a distance
that is judged with fine perception OF
danger, so that nothing fatal shall
occur to mar the days war. They
do not object to death particularly,
but their anxiety that it shall be con-
fined to the other fellow makes them
cautious.
The Lagoon of Chiriqui would make
an excellent coaling station. The
peninsula of Tobolo shuts it in on the
east and several beautiful islands pro-
tect it to an extent from the sea. Co
lumbus discovered the lagoon in 1902.
He found that the natives had abund-
ance of gold and ne returned to Spain
with glowing reports of the prodigious
vegetation. And he did not exaggerate.
Colombia is a country that is wonder
full in natural riches. Coffee, cacaco,
sugar, tobacco, bananas, cotton, vanil-
la, yucca, indigo, rice and scores of
other foods grow almost wild. The
forests contain nearly every valuable
wood known, and many rare and
strange and beautiful kinds that ap-
pear to promise vast commercial re-
? ~. ha hrr1 rlaf
ket.
The chains of mountains that cut the
country, from Chiriqui province south,
offer all sorts of climates and soils and
other conditions for every form of ag-
riculture from planting to raising
| cattle, according to location.
But besides being cursed with per-
petual revolution, the country is cursed
with fever in the low lands along the
coast and in the deep valleys between
the mountains. A white man must
learn to eat quinine in doses that
would be fatal in temperate zones. Liv-
ing along a greater part of the coast
is impossible for any except Indians
and certain acclimatized classes of half
breeds and negroes. The sea coast
towns are filthy and the heat is steady
and killing. In some parts of Colon
bia it rains for six months in the year.
ing vapors shroud the land day and
night. In other parts, life is delightful.
In the higher attitudes on the noun
tain Sides one can often select climate
to suit ones self, obtaining every
range from sub-tropical to frigid as he
| ascends or descends.
A Land of Romance.
Colombia is full of romance. A won
derful race once dWelled there, a race
of worshipers of the sun. They built
great cities and somewhere in the I'M
| known recesses of the land they had
| great treasure houses that no man has
| been able to find since their day.
Even in what may be called modern
| times there were such treasure houses
| that now are lost to man, but that
surely will be found some day. Some
where in South Darien, on the track
| crossed by the grim Balboa, there once
were mines known as the mines of
| Cana or Espiritu Santo, that produced
ore almost pure. Those mines We're so
| vastly rich that in the Seventeenth
| century they were called "Potosi'' and
| became a synonym for inexhaustible
| wealth as the name Ell Dorado" is
now
| When Spain held the Isthmus of
| Panama, Cana attracted all the adven-
| turouS spirits who were hungry for
gold. Then began that bloody time
of attacks and raids by the great buc-
| cancers. Again and again Panama
was besiged by them. Again and again
their cruel bands marched on the route
| over which Balboa had marched and
sacked and slew without mercy.
AT last Spain, wisely designing to
save the territory even if she had to
give up the gold. decided to close the
| mines, and, If possible. destroy all
| knowledge of where they were. So in
| 1856 the great treasure house of Cana
was worked for the last time. Then
| its entrances were blown up with gun
powder. The roads leading to it were
| destroyed. The men who knew its
| secrets We're sent to distant parts of
, the world
The tropics at once began to weave
their green mystery over the site of
the Worlds Desire. Royal palms grew
and became great. Creepers and
orchids and ferns covered ALL And
the centuries passed, the buccaneers
passed, new world grew-but no man
has seen Cana. the Place of Gold, since
then.
of the house has stated. 1 suppose the
railroad company will get the property
I DV condemn ffot1 lot ar