The Republican journal. [volume] (Belfast, Me.) 1829-current, 1902-12-11
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| ter walk the sixteen miles Chat INTEL
vene between the coast and civilization.
In this desperate community of carga-
dores, who never draw strictly sober
breath from year to year, fighting is
the chief amusement, varied by murder
and robbery. Even were the Sabanil-
lans angels in disguise, the place would
heat and swarming feas. Were it not
for the ocean breezes that constantly
sweep across the desolate sand-spit-
blowing up the sand u binding clouds,
each grain of sand laden with its small
but extremely active tlea-no human
being could abide thereon. At every
step in the unpaved streets you sink
ankle deep in the burning sand In
about one minute your hose and gar
ments are literally blackened, inside
and out, by the tiny insects, whose bite
is like the puncture of red hot needle,
and in five minutes you are tattooed
from top to toe, like a South Sea
Islander.
Barranquilla is by all odds the most
modern town of ombia-unless it
may be Aspinwall- having very hand
some houses and a considerable foreign
colony Some of the principal mer-
! chants of the republic live here, most
of them Germans, who maintain con-
/ siderable style and entertain with hos
pitality. Strange to say, living is eX-
tremely expensive here. probably be-
cause nothing in the line of edibles is
grown or raised in the vicinity. Com
handing, as it does, the only outlet from
the interior, Barranquilla poses as the
New York of the Caribbean coast, of
greatest consequence from a military
+ as well as commercial standpoint. 1t is
| the capital of the department for
merly State) of Sabanilla and the seat
of considerable garrison. Unlike most
+ South American ports, Barranquilla has
an excellent wharf, owing to the several
foreign steamship companies which run
vessels on the Magdalena-that is when
, revolutions allow. Now and then all
| the river boats are tied up by the gov
eminent, or seized by insurgents and
converted into men of war, by covering
their sides with corrugated iron, mount
| ing any old gun that can be laid hands
on and filling the cabin with sharp
| shooters.
| From Barranquilla to Colombia's
capital is a journey of only about three
hundred and fifty miles-but it fire.
quently takes month to accomplish
it. You go 2sO miles by river-boat to
| Honda, near the head of navigation,
the trip occupying from ten to thirty
| days, according to the time of year. 1t
| is about eighty miles between Honda
| and Bogata, as the crow flies, but ten
times that distance up and down the
steep trails that lead over and around
| sky piercing sierraS. During the long
slow days of voyaging up the Magda-
| lena, passengers must possess their
/ souls in patience as best they can, With
/ nothing to do but fight mosquitoes and
| keep as cool as circumstances will al
! low. Male passengers vary the mo
notony little by shooting at the ALI
gators that i'll some places literally line
the banks \ school of them is always
/ following the boat probably in hope of
d human meal. The gator is by 10
means a fnsky creature, as those who
/ are acquainted with his habits may
! know, but he is not to be trusted, even
i'll his hours of apparent oblivion. With
| his nose to the river, his small eyes
closed and great jaws half open, he
seems to be sound asleep, and looks the
most harmless Of creatures; but let
naked piccaninny come within range
or venturesome swimmers leg, and
in the tWinkling of an eye snap go the
| jaws, like mammoth rat trap, and
red stain upon the water tells the rest
of the story.
For the first two hundred miles above
Barranquilla one sees little at this time
of year but continuous swamps on either
| DUO uO lIfCl lGoCll, oIlCClly dC us
mouth, is fully mile and half wide
and its lower valley is one vast alluvial
plain, which, like the Nile region, is
subject to periodical overflow For
| three hundred miles the most magnif-
cent grazing lands stretch away to the
north and the south, covered with cattle
| most of the year-until just before the
| floods that follow the rainy season.
when they are driven up into the noun
I tains. Wherever the land has been cul-
tivated it shows surprising fertility,
and the overflow might easily be con-
trolled and turned into a blessing by
system of dykes similar to those in use
on the lower Mississippi. Years ago
there were profitable plantations work
ed by negroes all up and down the
middle valley of the Magdalena; but
after the slaves were emancipated
(Which took place in Colombia in 1855,
l believe), the estates rapidly went to
ruin and were finally abandoned by
| their owners 1t seems that Spaniards