The daily morning journal and courier., 1902-12-20
IN COLOMBIA.
UTIES OF TRATELTNG
 THERE.

What May Re Experienced on the
 Road to santa Fo De BOgOta-Hard
 Trials, Many TrtbuGatlons.
 Especial Correspondence of the Journal
 and Courier).
 Bogota, Colombia, Nov. 27, 1902.
 As before mentioned, the distance from Honda, at the head of Magdalena river navigation, to ColOmbia's capital, is between seventy and eighty miles, as the crow flies; but the journey leads over the main cordillera of the Andes and is really much farther, up and down the steep trails. A narrow gauge railway goes part of the way, and an old fashioned springless coach the whole distance. Our party decided (whether wisely or not remains to be seen), to make the entire journey Tn the saddle, for the sake of being com paritiyely independent, as well as to better enjoy the magnificent moun- tain scenery. Our ladies have learned from long experience in these wild iati- tudes to go always provided with rid ing habits of dust -colored alpacca, buck-skin gloves reaching nearly to the elbows bicycle boots facing half way to the knee, and wide -brimmed hats of Panama grass, tied tightly under the chin, la ''poke,' with thin but strong guaze veils, crossed at the back and made Fbecoming" by a big bow in front. Right here let me whisper se- cret ito ladies only" When making saddle Journeys in those out-of-the- way mountain regions, it is well to be guided in the matter of dress by the customs of the natives, who, travelling always in this fashion, may be relied upon to have learned the best way. A South American equestrienne never burdens herself with too much riding skirt, but makes it of lightweight material, scant as possible, and only about four inches longer than an or dinary walking dress. Underneath the skirt is pair of very wide, full Turk ish trousers, of the same material as the habit gathered close around the shoe-tops. Then, however winds may blow when horse and rider are in full sail over breezy heights, trousers and all pass for riding skirts and none can tell where one begins and the other ends; and no catastrophe, even to the turning of the rider up side down, re- ssYeals an inch of hose or a glimpse of those under garments uncomfortable to ears polite.
 Gathering out of still sleeping Honda about three o'clock one balmy morning, we took the old Camino Real, (Kings highway, which winds for miles under 8 complete arch of pawpaws, mangoes and figtrees. The interlacing branches obscured the sky and rendered darker that silent hour between night and dawn--that mystic hour in which all the forces of life and nature are at their lowest ebb, in which it is said more souls so out of the body into the great unknown than at any other time. Not even dog was stirring to bark us out of town and our horses huddled closer together with an instinctive need of companionship. In the uncertain light we could not discern one an- others faces and our figures looked ghostly and unreal, as might process sion of disembodied spooks on some uncanny expedition. But presently the stars were lost in the sea of crimson and gold that presages the rising of the tropic sun and Dame Nature shook off her comatose condition; the flowers lifted their dewy heads, birds began to tWitter, smoke to turn from house. tops and the hum of human activity was heard. Suddenly the road became alive with Indians, trudging to market under heavy loads; bare-footed women, in wide straw hats, and short calico skirts, sitting astride of mules, each beast generally carrying two persons; and donkeys, and black and white bull locks, heavily laden with piles of chincona bark, bundles of dye-wood, sacks of gold or silver ore from the mines, or merchandise of various sorts. The principal towns of Colom- bia, scattered along the fertile valleys lying between the spurs of the Andes, are from sixty to one hundred miles distant from the Magdalena river, and to them all goods must be forwarded over the rugged mountain trails Mer- chandise is distributed into bales of 125 pounds each, allowing two bales, or 250 pounds, to donkey-load. Parcels ex- ceeding this weight must be opened and repacked, or they will not be carried at all. The majority of cargadores, or carriers, are women, and their charge for each load, whether a distance of ten miles or a hundred, is from twenty four to thirty reales-a Colombian real being about ten cents American money Their system of transit applies only to articles of comparatively lightweight making it utterly impossible to forward across country, to those places where they are most needed, such heavy ob- jects as mining machinery, agricultural impliments, fire engines, wagons, or anything else weighing over half a ton. Yet we are told that in Bigota every well-to-do family has it's piano, which was brought piece-meal over the Sierras, at the cost of a thousand dol lars per piano, for transportation alone! They have street cars too, in Colombia's capital, which were also toted in sections over the mountains as were the rails and ties all on the backs of mules or human beasts of burden.
 After time we left the royal road of course escorted by a guide-and took to the shorter Indian trail rough steep and stony, winding over hills which in some places ascend almost perpendicularly, and offer so narrow a pathway that ponies, ,ambling one be- l,,,,d tta ctbar oaY, barJlx, R,5 foot