The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1902-12-15

How TO EIteTminate an Enemy
Honda, aud the MarvelOusiy Rreh
State of TOIina-some Railroads
Needed.
Especial Correspondence Of the Jour
nal and Courier)
Honda, Colombia, Nov >, 1902.
Should you desire to eXterminate an
enemy, by the most excruciating tor
ture that the imagination can conceive,
just lure him to the Magdalena cOun-
try and induce him to make a trip up
the great river sans netting, veil,
gloves or other protection. The local
ity is infested with the biggest mos
quitOes that ever buZZed, and passen-
gers on the river boats must come well
provided with everything 2ttainable in
the way of offence and defence against
them. During the height of the mos
quito season, all the officers and deck
hands wear thick wells over their faces,
tied close around the neck, and long
busk-skin gauntlest, both night and
day; every door and window is screen
ed with wire netting with infinitessimal
mesh; the fumes of pennyroyal, men
thol, and every known preventive, bur-
i den the air-and yet, somehow, the en-
envy seems to come off more or less vic
torious. 1t is the fashion hereabouts to
tell mosquito stories of astonishing
proportons-much as CalifornianS
boast of the size of their fruits, and the
people around Puget Sound brag of
Their mammoth clans; but l assure you
that the tallest tale can hardly exceed
the reality. Always bad enough the
. year around, at certain seasons when
winds blow strong from the jungles,
the mosquitoes come in clouds that lit
orally obscure the sky and the sound
of their humming is as the noise of
saW-mil. Neither man nor beast can
withstand their attacks unprotected,
and it is a fact that cattle and horses
are frequently tOrmented to death by
them. I am told that, not long ago, a
herd of valuable cattle which were be-
ing imported from the United States to
an up-river ranch, became perfectly
frantic after a week of agony, broke
from their fastenings and dashed over
board into the Everywhere every one
became food for alligators, or was
drowned.
steamers are all pretty much alike
the engine and cargo above water, on
the first deck; on the second deck is
the saloon, with cabins on either side;
and still above that story is the cap
tain's cabin, surmounted by steeple-
like pilot house. Directly in front of
the saloon are the tall, back chimneys,
taller even than the watch-toWer; and
in front of them is the Flagstaff, from
which floats the Colombia flag. All
around the upper deck are rows of
benches; and her is the best place to
find what little air may be stirring.
4 Life on board a Magdalena steamer is
by no means exciting. Every morning
at precisely six o'clock the steward
thrusts under your mosquito net a tiny
tray, on which is a cup of strong,
black Colombian coffee and a small
crusty loaf of bread. OF course there is
no butter, but if you have previously
feed the steward, there may, be some
times an orange or even boiled egg.
Better eat it all, whether hungry or
not, because not another mouthful will
you get until amuerzo (breakfast),
which occurs between twelve and two
O'Clock. Breakfast in this locality is
much like a northern midday dinner
(barring an excess of grease and gar
lic), served in at least half a dozen
courses, beginning with soup and end
ing with "dulcies" and coffee. Dinner
comes at six p m. and is the counter
part of breakfast, with the addition of
wine and dessert.
No matter how the days may drag,
one makes a mistake who does not arise
with the lark and the gator for by far
the pleasantest time is the early morn
ing, when the mosquitoes almost cease
from troubling" 1t is beyond the pow
er of pen or tongue to describe the
beauty of sunrise and sunset in this
tropical latitude. The skies are mar
velous in their Kaleidoscope tints of
crimson and gold, orange, rose pink,
pale blue, ea-green-bending on either
side to snow-topped mountains whose
stately slopes are also clad in wonder
flu tints of rose, amethyst, purple and
gray. There are many small islands in
the river, all green as emeralds, fieck-
ed and 'checkered with sunshine among
the trees. On their shores, tall gray
and white storks stand silent and mo-
tionless, in the traditional one-leg at
titude, as if posing for their pictures.
There are big blue-gray herons, too,
and sometimes white ones; and clum-
sy pelicans which, by the way, in
yariably fly from south to north in the
morning, never by any chance or cir
cumstance turning toward another
point of the compass. And then about
5 p. m. home they go again, every
mothers bird of them, flying in
straight line from north to south, one
behind another.
Occasionally you pass a canoe, hol
lowed out of the trunk of a single tree,
manned with copper-hued, shock-head-
ed Indians, dressed in the summary
costume of small white apron tied
around the waist. In some places are
miles of banana groves, now mostly
stripped Of leaves by the locusts that
have been doing great damage through
out the country. Sometimes the land
scape is varied by groups of tall trees
overgrown with blossoming creapers;
and again there are stretches of spon-
taneous orchard, in which the paw-paw
fourishes, the tamarind, the papaya,
the mango, whose lucious fruit per-
fumes the air, and the Holy Tree"
growing to "a tremendous height and |
having a single cluster of flowers away
Mt he in hnI Two inn a1,oh