COLOMBIA: 
 
 ITS PRESENT STATE, 
 
 IK BESPECT OP 
 
 CLIMATE, SOIL, PRODUCTIONS, POPULATION, 
 
 GOVERNMENT, COMMERCE, REVENUE, MANUFACTURES, 
 
 ARTS, LITERATURE, MANNERS, EDUCATION, 
 
 IHBUOSMENTS TO SMI^EATXOE 
 
 ITINERARIES, 
 
 PARTLY FROM SPANISH SURVEYS, PARTLY EROM 
 ACTUAL OBSERVATION. 
 
 BY 
 
 COLOxNEL FRANCIS HALL, 
 
 HYDROGRAPHER IN THE SERVICE OF COLOMBIA, 
 
 Author of "Letters from France," and of " A Tour in British North America* 
 and the United States." 
 
 Ai SMALL, E. PARKER, E. LITTELL, AND MAROT Sc WALTEJi, 
 William Brown, Printer. 
 
 1825. 
 
&.:'$ 
 
CONTENTS, 
 
 _ /f 
 
 PART I. 
 
 Geographical outline of Colombia- — Climate— 
 Soil and Productions — Population — Govern- 
 ment — Commerce and Revenue — ManufactO' 
 ries, *%rts 9 Literature and Education. 
 
 PART II. 
 
 Preliminary remarks — Natural advantages of 
 Emigration to Colombia— Disposition of the 
 Government towards Foreign Settlers — Charac- 
 ter of the Inhabitants, as it affects Foreign Set- 
 tlers— Modes of Emigration, and description 
 of Persons most proper for this purpose— Pre- 
 parations necessary — Choice of Place — Dif 
 ficulties arising from difference of Language ? 
 Customs and Religion—Diseases of the Cli- 
 mate. 
 
Digitized by the Internet Archive 
 in 2011 with funding from 
 The Library of Congress 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/colombiaitsprese01hall 
 
DEDICATION. 
 
 To Jeremy Bent ham, Esq. 
 
 my dear sir, Maracaybo, Feb. 5, 1S24. 
 
 I take the liberty of dedicating the following 
 ■ pages to you* because I am convinced there is no 
 one more aware of the evils of a crowded population, 
 and defective social institutions, or who would more 
 gladly anticipate in the New World such improved 
 forms of political existence as we must almost de- 
 spair of witnessing in the Old. 
 
 It is superfluous to insist on the paramount interest 
 of Great Britain to plant in South America a nation 
 of customers whose trade will one day, from the 
 fertility of their soil and superior value of its pro- 
 ductions, become of infinitely more importance than 
 even that of the United States. There is yet an- 
 other interesting consideration — the political wheel 
 has very nearly " come full circle" in the Antilles, 
 Spain is not the only nation whose crimes will meet 
 with retribution in the downfall of colonial estab- 
 lishments founded on anti-social principles. It is in 
 vain the Creole proprietor proudly exclaims against 
 all inteferance with his property. The time is fast 
 
6 INDICATION. 
 
 approaching when Man will cease to be the property 
 of Man, Fortunately the natural bent of circum- 
 stances offers a species of euthanasia to the West- 
 India colonies, if not too long and obstinately reject- 
 ed. The capital employed on them has long since 
 made very inadequate returns, and these returns will 
 be much smaller when the sugars, rum, and coffee 
 of South America obtain that preference in the Eu- 
 ropean markets to which their superior cheapness 
 will, of course, entitle them. South America must 
 undersell the West-India islands : let the capital 
 employed on the latter be transferred to the former, 
 and let the capitalist rather seek to share the pros- 
 perity of a new, than the ruin of an old country. I 
 speak not of a more violent catastrophe, but they 
 who dwell on the edge of a volcano should at least 
 understand the signs of an approaching eruption. 
 
 I trust it is superfluous to speculate on the plans 
 of the allied despots ; meek-hearted sovereigns — -who 
 enslave, plunder, and partition, and then modestly 
 desire the world will esteem them " all honourable 
 men ;" — aye, and righteous too, for they would cover 
 both hemispheres with scaffolds and dungeons, and 
 devoutly preach to their victims from the text of 
 social order, religion, and philanthropy. The firm 
 and prompt measures of the British Cabinet give us 
 every reason to hope the New World may at least 
 escape their ravages. The well-beloved Ferdinand 
 has already despatched a proclamation to his colonies. 
 
DEDICATION. 7 
 
 containing the usual quantity of official cant and in- 
 solence, but his " paternal yearnings'' and " energetic 
 measures" will serve here only to excite ridicule and 
 contempt, 
 
 You will be pleased to know that your ideas on 
 legislation are gaining ground in Colombia ; a law of 
 Congress of the 11th of June, 1823, orders, "That 
 all laws shall be accompanied by an exordium, con- 
 taining the fundamental reasons for their enactment." 
 I have no doubt that this idea was suggested by the 
 present of your Codification proposal to this govern- 
 ment. For its sake, rather than for yours, I could 
 have wished the obligation had been acknowledged. 
 
 With respect to the pages now offered to your 
 perusal, I have but one observation to make of a 
 personal nature, and this is, to disclaim every thing 
 like undue bias in the representation I have made of 
 the advantages of emigration to this country. It not 
 unfrequently happens that they who recommend a 
 plan have some interest in its adoption ; and their 
 statements, in such cases, as commonly take a tinge 
 from their interests. I have no connexion, directly 
 or indirectly, with any scheme of emigration, nor 
 can the adoption or rejection of my ideas on the sub- 
 ject, influence, in any manner that I am at present 
 aware of, my future welfare. Neither am I misled 
 by any advantages which have occurred to myself 
 from a change of country ; my success as a military 
 man has been too partial and too dearly purchased t# 
 
8 DEDICATION. 
 
 dazzle my imagination. Whenever I quit Colombia 
 I shall scarcely leave behind me any other trophies 
 than the sepulchres of my friends : I write that my 
 countrymen may profit, if they think fit, by what I 
 have seen and felt, and that England and Colombia 
 may hereafter add the ties of blood and relationship 
 to those of political friendship. 
 
 That you may long retain life and health for the 
 benefit of humanity in ages yet unborn, is the sin- 
 cere wish of, 
 
 Dear Sir, 
 Your faithful Friend and Servant, 
 F. HALL. 
 
A SKETCH 
 
 REPUBLIC OF COLOMBIA, 
 
 PART I. 
 
 Geographical Outline of Colombia ; Climate; 
 Soil, and Productions ; Population ; Govern- 
 ment ; Commerce and Revenue ; Manufac- 
 tures ; Jlrts ; Literature and Education. 
 
 § 1. GEOGRAPHICAL OUTLINE, CLIMATE, SOIL, 
 AND PRODUCTIONS. 
 
 The Republic of Colombia occupies an extent of 
 22° or 1,320 miles of longitude, reckoning from the 
 month of the Orinoco, to the western extremity of 
 the Isthmus of Panama ; and 18° or 1,080 miles of 
 latitude, \\h to the north, and 6'§ to the south of 
 the Equator, reckoning from Cape la Vela to the 
 southern extremity of Quito. It is bounded to the 
 north and east by the Atlantic Ocean, and by 
 Dutch and French Guyana ; to the west by the 
 
10 COLOMBIA : 
 
 Guatamalan province of Veragua and the Pacific; 
 and to the south by deserts which separate it from 
 Peru, and by Indian nations who inhabit the unex- 
 plored banks of the Oreilana, or American river, 
 which forms its natural boundary on the side of the 
 Brazils. 
 
 The Cordillera of the Andes may be called the 
 mountain spine which traverses this immense terri- 
 tory, dividing it irregularly both from east to west, 
 and from north to south ; and imprinting on its 
 soil and climate all those peculiarities and advantages 
 which so remarkably distinguish it. This stupendous 
 chain first enters the province of Loxa in Quito, 
 in 4° 30' south latitude, where its height is moderate, 
 and the ridge forms one body. At 2° 23' south, it 
 forms a group of mountains, called El Asuay, some 
 of which are near 15,000 feet in height. Here it 
 divides into two parallel ridges, forming the narrow 
 and lofty valley, in which are built the towns of Rio 
 Bamba, Hambato, Latacunga, and the city of Quito ; 
 the plain of which is elevated 9000 feet above the 
 level of the ocean. To the right of this valley, rise 
 the summits of the Copacureu (16,380 feet), Tun- 
 guragua (16,720), Cotopaxi (17,950), and Guyambu 
 (18,180); to the left, Chimboraza (20,100), Tlenisa 
 (16,302), and Petchincha (15,380); ail covered with 
 perpetual snows, from amidst which torrents of flame 
 and lava have frequently burst, and desolated the 
 surrounding country. Near Tulcan, the Cordillera, 
 
GEOGRAPHY, 1 1 
 
 after having been irregularly united by lofty groups 
 of mountains, again divides itself into two chains ; 
 which form the elevated valley of Pastes, bordered 
 by the Azufsal, Gambal, and Pasto, burning volca- 
 noes, and by Chiles, extinguished. Beyond Pastes, 
 it diverges into three ridges, the most western of 
 which follows the coast of the Pacific Ocean, and 
 terminates in the isthmus of Panama; the cemral 
 divides the valley of the Cauca from that of ihe 
 Magdalena, traverses the province of Atioquia, and 
 terminates near Mompox in the latter river. The 
 eastern chain is the most considerable and loftiest of 
 the three ; it is here the numberless streams which 
 unite to form the Meta, and Apure, and to swell the 
 majestic Orinoco, have their rise ; it forms the table 
 land, on which stands Bogota,* the capital of the 
 Republic, at an elevation of 8,100 feet ; and after 
 rising into the line of Paramos, or bleak mountains, 
 known by the names of Suma Paz, Chingota, Zora- 
 ea, and Chita, covered with snow, divides into two 
 ridges at the Paramo of Almoizadero, about 6° 50' 
 north latitude. One of these ridges continues in a 
 northerly direction through the province of Ocana, 
 divides the waters of the Magdalena from those of 
 the lake of Maraeaybo, and majestically terminates 
 in the Sierra Nevada, cr snowy mountains of Santa 
 Marta. The second branch, after forming the Pa- 
 ramo of Cacota de Velasco and elevated valley of 
 
 * Formerly known by the name of Santa Fe" de Bogota. 
 
12 COLOMBIA: 
 
 Pamplona, takes a north-easterly direction at Cucuta, 
 forming the Paramo called Mesa de Laura, and the 
 lofty valley of La Guta, the valleys of Bayladores,, 
 and Paramo of Las Porquenas, the valleys of Estan- 
 ques and Merida, where it rises to the limit of per- 
 petual snows ; the cold valley and Paramo of Mu- 
 cachies, the Paramos of Niguitao, Bocono, and Las 
 Rosas : the sides of which form the vales of Mendo- 
 sa, Truxillo, Cavache, and various others, whose 
 waters descend into the lake of Maracaybo, to which 
 this chain of mountains forms the southern and 
 eastern frontier, The Cordillera here again separates 
 into two ridges, the first follows a northerly direc- 
 tion, forms the mountains of Carora, and ramifies 
 itself into several small chains betwixt Coro and 
 Maracaybo ; the other continues to the north eastj 
 forming the mountain of El Altar, the valley of 
 Tocuyo, the heights of Barquesimeto, and those of 
 Nirgua, whence branch the smaller chains of hills 
 which surround the lake of Tacarigua, or Valencia ; 
 after passing Nirgua and San Felipe, it approaches the 
 sea coast near Puerto Cabello, and continues to skirt 
 the ocean to La Guayra, where it forms the elevated 
 ridge known by the name of the Sil la of Caracas, the 
 beautiful valley of this city, that of the river Tuy, 
 and various others ; whence it continues sometimes 
 approaching to, and sometimes receding from, the 
 coast, till it forms the coast of the Bergantine, near 
 Cumana, and finally terminates in the Gulf of Paria. 
 
GEOGRAPHY. 13 
 
 The configuration thus given to the country, na- 
 turally divides it into three zones, characterized by 
 their respective soils, climates, and productions. The 
 first of these is the tract of country included betwixt 
 the Cordillera and the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. 
 The climate here is invariably hot, almost always 
 unhealthy ; the soil luxuriantly abundant, wherever 
 it is sufficiently irrigated by rivers or periodical rains ? 
 but parched and barren where these are deficient, as 
 is sometimes the case from the peculiar situation of 
 the mountains, which render the falls of rain locally 
 precarious ; while the rivers, for want of supplies^ 
 dry up or loose themselves in sandy deserts. Thus 
 the province of Coro has been sometimes four years 
 without rain, and other parts of the coast are expos- 
 ed to similar droughts, though in a less degree. The 
 rivers which descend from the mountains, at 
 a short distance from the coast, are either in- 
 considerable in the volume of their waters, or too 
 rapid and rocky to be navigable far from their mouths. 
 The river Magdalena, however, which descends 
 longitudinally above 700 miles through the valleys 
 of the Andes, is navigable to the Port of Honda, 
 550 miles from its entrance into the Atlantic. The 
 Cauca, which descends through the province of An- 
 tioquia and the Atracto through that of Choco, are 
 considerable rivers whose banks, as well as those of 
 the Magdalena, are covered by the luxuriant forests 
 which distinguish the rivers of the plains, and indi^ 
 
14 COLOMBIA: 
 
 cate a soil of unlimited fertility ; but the climate is 
 burning, and the life of man is not only rendered 
 precarious by disease, but his daily comfort is de- 
 stroyed by swarms of insects and venomous reptiles. 
 The second, or mountainous zone, presents a very 
 different scene. At the height of 4,000 feet above 
 the level of the sea, the climate becomes mild, vege- 
 tation continues uninterrupted through the year, le- 
 guminous plants, wheat, and other productions of 
 temperate regions, are abundant, and of the best 
 quality : venomous insects and serpents are rarely 
 met with ; and the human frame acknowledges the 
 grateful salubrity of a temperature fitted alike for en- 
 joyment and labour. The climate continues mild and 
 agreeable to the height of 9,000 feet, when it be- 
 comes cold ; the sky is usually cloudy, and vegeta- 
 tion slow in growth and stunted in appearance. At 
 the height of 15,700 feet it ceases altogether : no 
 living creature passes this dreary limit, where steril 
 sands, naked rocks, fogs, and eternal snows, mark 
 the reign of uninterrupted solitude. From the level 
 of the sea to the height of 4,800 feet, the Thermo- 
 meter of Fahrenheit varies from 77° to 115°, from 
 thence to 8,000, it varies from 50° to 77°. 
 
 The third zone comprehends the immense tract of 
 level country which spreads itself southward and 
 eastward, from the base of the Andes to the neigh- 
 bourhood of the river Amazon, and the mountains 
 which border on the Orinoco. These prodigious 
 
GEOGRAPHY. X5 
 
 savannahs are watered by the numerous streams 
 which form the Meta, the Apure, and finally the 
 Orinoco ; the periodical overflowings of which con- 
 vert the whole country, during four months of the 
 year, into an immense lake or inland sea, on which 
 the villages and hatos, or cattle farms, raised upon 
 small banks and elevations, appear as so many islets. 
 When the floods retire, the whole plain is covered 
 with luxuriant pasture ; on which herds of cattle 
 . were raised, previous to the war, in numbers almost 
 defying calculation. Nor are these plains less rich 
 in agricultural advantages. The banks of the rivers 
 are covered with primeval forests of the most pre- 
 cious kinds of woods for dyes, furniture, and build- 
 ings ; and exhibit, when cleared, a soil capable of 
 rendering abundantly Sugar, Cotton, Coffee, Cocoa, 
 Indigo, Tobacco, and generally every species of tro- 
 pical produce. All the energy of nature, in the pro- 
 duction both of animal and vegetable life, is here 
 brought into action ; and wild beasts, venomous rep- 
 tiles, and tormenting insects, enter equally into. a 
 system which man vainly imagines constructed for 
 his peculiar use and convenience. The climate, 
 though hot, is neither so unhealthy nor debilitating 
 as that of the sea coast, the air being refreshed and 
 purified by the strong breezes blowing constantly 
 over this grassy ocean, which extends not less than 
 300 miles in every direction betwixt the Andes and 
 the Orinoco. 
 
16 COLOMBIA : 
 
 § 2. POPULATION. 
 
 It can scarcely be expected, that a country, 
 which for above twelve years has been the theatre of 
 a war of unexampled desolation, should possess any 
 exact census of its population : the calculation I am 
 about to offer was made previous to the year 1810; 
 since which period, above half the inhabitants of 
 Venezuela are supposed to have perished : those of 
 New Grenada may be reckoned to have remained 
 stationary, the natural increase of twelve years being 
 balanced by the drains made to supply the waste of 
 the Spanish and Republican armies. 
 
 Provinces of Venezuela. 
 
 Guyana ...... 40,000 
 
 Cumana . ■ . . . 100,000 
 
 Island of Margarita . . ~ . . 15,000 
 Caracas . . . ' . . . 460,000 
 
 Maracaybo ..... 120,000 
 
 Yarinas . .-.'-. . . . 90,000 
 
 825,000 
 
 Provinces of New Grenada. 
 
 Rio Hacha . . . . ... 20,000 
 
 Santa Marta 70,000 
 
 Cartagena . . . . 210,000 
 
POPULATION 
 
 '. 
 
 17 
 
 Panama ... . 50,000 
 
 Coro 
 
 
 
 . 40,000 
 
 Antioquia . 
 
 
 
 
 110,000 
 
 Pamplona . 
 
 
 
 
 . 90,000 
 
 Sacorro 
 
 
 
 
 130,000 
 
 Tunja 
 
 
 
 
 200,000 
 
 Cundinamarca 
 
 
 
 
 190,00Q 
 
 Mariquita 
 
 
 
 
 110,000 
 
 Popayan 
 
 
 
 
 320.000 
 
 Casanare 
 
 
 
 
 . 20,000 
 
 Quito 
 
 
 .,. 
 
 
 500,000 
 
 Cuenca 
 
 
 
 
 200,000 
 
 Guyaquil 
 
 
 
 
 . 50,000 
 
 Loxa and Jaen 
 
 
 
 
 . S0,000 
 
 Quisos and Marnes 
 
 
 
 . 40,000 
 
 
 2,430,000 
 
 This population may be divided physically into 
 Indians or aborigines of the country, European 
 Spaniards, Creoles, or descendants of Spaniards, Ne- 
 groes, and Mixed or coloured races, known by the 
 appellations of Mulatoes, Mestizos, Quarterons. &c. 
 With respect to the Indians it is to be observed, that 
 this estimate does not include the nations of indepen- 
 dent Indians, which still exist within the territory of 
 the republic, such as the Gaahiras, who inhabit the 
 country betwixt Rio Hacha and Maracaybo ? several 
 s 2 
 
IS COLOMBIA: .1 
 
 tribes on the coast of Darien, the entire population of 
 the Meta, and the numerous tribes of the Orinoco. 
 The reduced, or civilized Indians, form the most 
 numerous class throughout the country ; the Negroes 
 and their descendants are few in number throughout 
 the mountain provinces of New Grenada, they are 
 more thickly scattered on the sea coast, and in the 
 plains, and were calculated to form a third of the 
 entire population of Venezuela, previous to the re- 
 volution, a proportion which must rather have in- 
 creased since that time, in consequence of the mor- 
 tality during the war having, for various reasons, 
 fallen heaviest on the whites. 
 
 Under the Spanish government, the political dis- 
 tinctions which separated these various classes of in- 
 habitants were almost as numerous as, and infinitely 
 more odious than, their physical varieties of features 
 and complexion. By the laws of the Indies, the In- 
 dians were not only cut off from every civil employ- 
 ment or distinction, but were even denied the dignity 
 of rational beings, being held in a state of perpetual 
 pupillage, under the authority, principally, of their 
 curates, who would hardly permit them to hold any 
 intercourse with the rest of the inhabitants ; the peo- 
 ple of colour were little better treated : besides being 
 rigidly excluded from every employment of honour 
 or consideration in the state, they were subjected to 
 personal distinctions, the more painful, because they 
 could have no other object than that of gratifying the 
 
POPULATION. 19 
 
 vanity of the privileged class at the expense of their 
 unfortunate brethren. Such was the law prohibiting 
 the women of colour from wearing the manto, or 
 black-dress used at church, or from wearing any or- 
 nament of gold or silver; custom, besides, prohibited 
 them the use of the alfornbra, or carpet at their de- 
 votions, and that of an umbrella to skreen them from 
 the sun in the streets ; all these distinctions are now 
 happily abolished ; the law of the republic sees none ] 
 but citizens in every class of inhabitants, whatever 
 may be their origin or the tinge of their complexions ; \ 
 the justice of this policy has been rewarded by the 
 exertions of the people of colour, in aid of the inde- 
 pendence of the country, of which they have been 
 the firmest supporters, and Colombia reckons among 
 her best and bravest officers, men, whom Spanish 
 pride and tyranny, deemed unworthy to sit at a 
 white man's table. If any lingering prejudices still 
 remain they are happily confined to female coteries, 
 or an occasional explosion in a ball-room : even these 
 last embers of irritated and childish pride, it is the 
 interest of the republic to see extinguished. 
 
 Slavery is an acknowledged evil, which the go- 
 vernment of the republic has taken the most effica- 
 cious measures to abolish, by a law passed at Cu- 
 cuta, the 21st of July, 1821. The offspring of all 
 slaves born since this <late are free ; their services, 
 until the age of eighteen, being due to their owners 
 in lieu of their maintenance ; the exportation and 
 
20 COLOMBIA i 
 
 importation of slaves are absolutely forbidden, and a 
 fund is established in the form of a Legacy-tax, for 
 manumission without injury to the present owners. 
 Circumstances have powerfully aided the operation 
 of these measures ; the number of slaves never was 
 very great : in the province of Caracas, where they 
 were most numerous, it was estimated at 80,000, 
 but this number was probably reduced to one-third 
 during the war, when each party received them into 
 its ranks, and the disturbed state of the times every 
 where facilitated their desertion. 
 
 It cannot escape notice, that the foregoing popu- 
 lation is extremely disproportioned to the territory 
 of the republic : in the time of its greatest prosperity 
 the country was comparatively a desert, but this 
 desolation has been fearfully augmented during the 
 revolutionary war. The fertile provinces of Guyana, 
 Cumana, and Barcelona, are almost abandoned, and 
 the flourishing towns, and villages of the plains re- 
 duced to a grass-grown wretchedness, which scarcely 
 leave room to conjecture their former prosperity. 
 Could twenty millions of inhabitants be transferred 
 from Europe, they could find land to cultivate, and 
 abundance to recompence their labour. 
 
 § 3. GOVERNMENT. 
 
 The form of Government established by a nation 
 whichj like the Colombian, emerges from a state of 
 
GOVERNMENT. 21 
 
 political degradation to enter upon the untried career 
 of national existence, cannot be regarded but as an 
 experiment which time must justify or correct. The 
 vanity of legislators seeks to ascribe to their first 
 efforts in constitution-making, a durability and per- 
 fection they are not very likely to enjoy. It is not 
 easy to calculate on the political spirit of a people, as 
 yet ignorant of self-government : should its tendencies 
 be fortunately liberal and enlightened, its institutions 
 will rapidly overpass the ideas of its first law-givers: 
 should the reverse unfortunately prove the case, the 
 form of its government will speedily accommodate 
 itself to its defects, although Republican names and 
 shews should be still left to mock its slavery. 
 
 The present Constitution of Colombia was fixed 
 by Congress of Cucuta in 1821. It declares the 
 perpetual Independence of the Nation, the Sovereign- 
 ty of the People, Responsibility of Magistrates, and 
 Equality of Rights : the legislative power is lodged 
 in a Senate and a House of Representatives : the Se- 
 nate is composed of four senators for each of the de- 
 partments of the Republic (eight in number), who are 
 elected in the same manner as the House of Repre- 
 sentatives : the term of election is for eight years : 
 the peculiar functions of the Senate are those of a 
 high court of justice in cases of impeachment by the 
 House of Representatives ; its ordinary functions are 
 the same with those of the latter, except that it can- 
 not originate money bills, an exception evidently 
 
22 COLOMBIA : 
 
 grounded on the practice of the English Govern- 
 ment, without consideration of the little analogy 
 there exists betwixt an elective Senate of simple 
 citizens, and an hereditary House of Nobles. The 
 House of Representatives consists of members named 
 by each province, in the proportion of one for each 
 30,000 inhabitants : they are elected for four years ; 
 the mode of election is indirect. In every parish is 
 held what is called a Parochial Assembly, composed 
 of proprietors to the value of 100 dollars, or persons 
 exercising some independent trade ; these Parochial 
 Assemblies elect the electors at the rate of 10 for 
 each representative, so that averaging the population 
 of the Republic at 2,500,000, and supposing the 
 whole representation graduated according to the law, 
 the total number of electors will be about 700 ; the 
 majority of whom, 360, must be allowed to be a 
 very convenient number for executive management 
 The executive power is lodged in the hands of a 
 President, elected for four years. He is entrusted 
 with the general administration of the government, 
 the execution of the laws, the command of the army 
 and navy, and with the power of nominating to all 
 civil and military employments : he is bound to hear, 
 but not to follow the opinion, in cases of importance, 
 of the Council of Government, composed of the Vice 
 President, a Member of the High Court of Justice, 
 whom he chooses, and the Secretaries of State, 
 of whom there are at present four, for the Home 
 
GOVERNMENT. 23 
 
 and Foreign Departments, for Finances and for 
 War. 
 
 The General Dispositions of the Constitution^ 
 satisfactorily prove the liberal spirit which actuated 
 its framers : the freedom of the Press is recognised, 
 and has been established by a law, which leaves no- 
 thing to desire but that it may be religiously ad- 
 hered to. 
 
 All illegal arrests and imprisonments, all extraor- 
 dinary tribunals or commissions, are prohibited : the 
 houses, papers, and correspondence of individuals, are 
 declared inviolable : the mode of trial by jury is re- 
 commended ; monopolies are abolished, and every 
 species of hereditary rank or emolument forbid- 
 den. But, whatever may be its theoretical merits 
 or defects, more interesting questions arise as to the 
 jiractical advantages of this system, the manner in 
 which it is administered, the hold it has obtained on 
 the affections of the people, and its adaptation to 
 their peculiar political situation. It is not easy to 
 answer these queries completely or satisfactorily ; 
 in the first place it is an experiment, and political 
 experiments are of all others the most fallacious, es- 
 pecially when they are not strictly in harmony with 
 the natural interests of society : the idea of a coun- 
 try so extensive, so thinly inhabited, and so defec- 
 tive in its communications, united into a single re- 
 public, the capital of which is at a greater distance 
 from the exterior provinces^ taking the embarrass* 
 
24 COLOMBIA : 
 
 ments of travelling into consideration, than these 
 are from Madrid, is evidently replete with difficul- 
 ties, the first and most, obvious of which is, the want 
 of responsibility on the part of the various provincial 
 magistrates, who will always laugh to scorn either 
 complaints or impeachments, which the parties in- 
 terested must be ruined in attempting to prosecute, 
 even were justice less tardily administered than 
 is the Spanish fashion. Amid a people whose spirit 
 has been crushed by the despotism of ages, it will be 
 long ere individuals can be found, who, with no 
 other support than the laws, and the sympathy of 
 their fellow citizens, will dare to brave the indigna- 
 tion of the government, and insist upon justice as a 
 right too obvious to be denied ; such an effort would, 
 I fear, under existing circumstances, be rather 
 deemed an act of madness than of political duty, and 
 yet until such a spirit hot only exists, but becomes 
 prevalent, is not only tolerated, but cherished and 
 applauded, there can be no such thing as practical 
 liberty. The evils of the central system are consi- 
 derably augmented by the present form of provincial 
 administration. The intendants of departments, 
 governors of provinces, with all inferior magistrates 
 and corporations, are all directly or indirectly ap- 
 pointed by the executive, whereas, were their elec- 
 tion popular, the power of election or rejection, with 
 that of opinion, on the part of the people, would 
 create a local responsibility on the part of the ma- 
 
GOVERNMENT. 25 
 
 gistrates, generally sufficient to ensure the discharge 
 of their duty without having recourse to the seat of 
 government, a remedy which we may reasonably 
 prognosticate, will be always found ineffectual. In 
 spite, however, of these and other defects, inherent 
 in the present form of the constitution, such parts of 
 it as were readily intelligible had begun to take a 
 forcible hold on the minds of the people ; the form 
 of election was too much complicated, and too indi- 
 rect, to excite a powerful interest in minds which 
 required political ideas of the simplest, and if we 
 may use the expression, most tangible form, but the 
 abolition of arbitrary imprisonments, the liberty of 
 the press, the equalization of rights, were easily un- 
 derstood, and universally appreciated ; at the mo- 
 ment, however, that these good fruits were making 
 their appearance, the growth of the tree was checked, 
 and its vital spirit, for a season at least, destroyed. 
 The invasion by Morales, of the province of Mara- 
 caybo caused the suspension of the constitution in 
 the provinces adjacent to, or which might become the 
 seat of war. Insurrections in Quito produced simi- 
 lar measures in the south, and military, which is 
 always synonymous with arbitrary, government, has 
 been since almost every where established ; this evil 
 would have been trifling, in a country already accus- 
 tomed to the enjoyment of its freedom under a tried 
 constitution, but here it has unsettled men*s minds 
 as to the value and efficacy of a system, which either 
 
 G 
 
26 COLOMBIA : 
 
 fails to produce the expected advantages, or disap- 
 pears when its influence should be most triumphantly 
 exerted.* 
 
 Hunc tantum terris ostendunt. Fata neque ultra 
 Esse sinunt 
 
 It is impossible to speak favourably of the admin- 
 istration of justice in Colombia ; the civil and crimi- 
 nal codes are little more than a collection of super- 
 stitions and abuses, under the names of Laws of Cas- 
 tile, Royal Ordinances, Laws of the Indies, and 
 various other compilations of Spanish decrees, and 
 colonial regulations, from which, to the vexation of 
 the suitor, and benefit of the lawyer, contradictory 
 decisions may be extracted on every possible point 
 of litigation. This evil is felt and acknowledged by 
 the government : it has been proposed to introduce 
 the new Spanish criminal code. Trial by jury is 
 happily established in cases of libel, and the legisla- 
 ture has declared in favour of introducing it generally, 
 in all cases to which it is applicable : the great evil, 
 however, which is likely to cling long round the 
 government of the country in all its branches, finds 
 its origin in those habits of dissimulation, indolence, 
 and corruption, which mark the character of all en- 
 slaved nations. Momentary bursts of feeling, or 
 even correct ideas, and general good intentions, 
 are insufficient to unlink the dark chains of vices, 
 
 See Note A in the Appendix. 
 
COMMERCE AND REVENUE. 27 
 
 with which ages of ignorance, superstition and op- 
 pression have entwined every social institution, and 
 contracted or distorted every moral feeling. 
 
 § 4. COMERCE AND REVENUE, 
 
 It will not be supposed, that a statement of the 
 Commerce of Colombia as it existed previous to the 
 Revolution, can do more than afford an approximate 
 calculation of its present condition. Still less will 
 it enable us to judge of what it is capable of becom- 
 ing in future, The provinces of Venezuela and New 
 Grenada were always considered by the Spanish 
 Government as the least important of its South 
 American possessions. Their agriculture and com~ 
 merce were consequently abandoned to neglect, or, 
 which is still worse, surrendered to a vexatious sys- 
 tem of monopolies and revenue laws, which seemed 
 framed for no other purpose than to destroy indus- 
 try, and render unavailing the bounties which na- 
 ture had lavished on the soil. 
 
 The culture of the vine and olive were rigidly 
 forbidden : tobacco could only be raised in such quan^ 
 tities as the Government chose to purchase at a price 
 fixed by itself. The distillation of spirits was an- 
 other monopoly ; and such articles as were permitted 
 to be cultivated^ could only be exported through 
 Spanish merchants, and exchanged for such com- 
 modities, and at such a rate, as suited their profit 
 
2B COLOMBIA: 
 
 and convenience. Under these circumstances, the 
 smuggling trade was the only one that flourished 
 with advantage to the inhabitants. 
 
 The principal articles of Colombian commerce are 
 cocoa, coffee, cotton, indigo, sugar, tobacco, hides, 
 cattle, and Brazil-wood. Cocoa is cultivated on the 
 low rich soil of the sea-coast of Caracas, on the banks 
 of the river Tuy and its tributary streams, near Bar- 
 quesimeto, in the province of Maracaybo, in the 
 environs of Merida, Truxillo, and the valleys of Cu- 
 cuta, in the province of Varinas, on the banks of the 
 Bocono and Masporro rivers, near Pedraza, where 
 it grows wild, and in several parts of the provinces 
 of Cumana and Barcelona. In the province of Cara- 
 cas, the annual growth amounted in 1810 to 140,500 
 fanegas of 110 pounds each : about 100,000 were ex- 
 ported to Spain, 15,000 to Mexico, and the remainder 
 consumed in the country. The great destruction and 
 abandonment of the plantations, caused by the war, 
 must have diminished this produce, although the 
 constant and ready sale, and increasing demand of 
 the European market, cannot fail to give a powerful 
 impulse to its cultivation. Its price in the last two 
 years in the Caracas market, has varied from 20 dol- 
 lars to 25 the quintal or hundred pounds. 
 
 Coffee is cultivated generally through the valleys 
 of Caracas, and within these few years has been in- 
 troduced in almost all the temperate valleys of Vene- 
 2uela 5 where it yields abundantly. Before 1810 the 
 
COMMERCE AND REVENUE, 29 
 
 annual exportation amounted to 80,000 quintals ; but 
 the soil of Colombia is capable of supplying the 
 whole world, in the strict and literal meaning of the 
 word. Coffee fetches in Caracas from 18 dollars to 
 22 the quintal* 
 
 Cotton is grown in all parts of the country, but 
 principally, for exportation, in the valleys of Ara- 
 gua, and the province of Cartagena. Its annual 
 amount was in 1810 about 40,000 quintals : not the 
 ten thousandth part of the quantity the country is 
 capable of producing. 
 
 Indigo is cultivated principally in the valleys of 
 Aragua, and in the province of Varinas. The 
 exportation amounted formerly in some years to 
 800,000 pounds weight. 
 
 Sugar-cane is every where cultivated ; but the 
 want of art or industry to refine the sugar, as well as 
 the great consumption of the country, prevent it from 
 forming a considerable article of exportation. 
 
 Tobacco is cultivated at Cumanagota, in the pro- 
 vince of Cumana ; in the valleys of Aragua ; at Bay- 
 ladores and La Guta, in the province of Maracaybo ; 
 at Savaneta in Barinas : and San Antonio in Guya- 
 na. The monopoly of this article has been retained 
 by the present Government as a war-tax, but the ill 
 effects of this measure are evident from the fact, that 
 native tobacco cannot bear the competition of foreign, 
 
 * The price at Caracas in June, 1824, was of Coffee from 
 10 to 10$ dollars the quintal. Cocoa, 27% ditto s ditto. 
 
 C % 
 
30 COLOMBIA : 
 
 even though encumbered with a duty of 50 per cent ; 
 so that the importation of the latter is now prohibited 
 altogether. 
 
 Hides and cattle constituted the principal trade of 
 the plains by way of the Orinoco, and of the province 
 of Barcelona. The West-India Islands have always 
 depended on this country for their mules and horses, 
 but the means of supply have been much diminished 
 by the destruction of the cattle during the war. 
 
 The trade of Brazil-wood belongs exclusively to 
 the province of Rio Hacha, in which alone it is found. 
 It fetches from 8 to 16 dollars the mule load of 
 250 lbs., according to the quality of the wood, and 
 the demand for it, which of late years has been rapidly 
 increasing. 
 
 There was formerly a considerable pearl fishery 
 on the coast of the island of Margaritta, but of late 
 years it has been abandoned : there is another on the 
 Goagira coast, betwixt Rio Hacha and Maracaybo ; 
 it is in the hands of the independent Indians who 
 inhabit that territory, with whom it may be supposed 
 their more civilized neighbours trade to a considera- 
 ble advantage. The pearls of this coast are remark- 
 able for their beautiful orient, as it is termed, or play 
 of light, in which they are much superior to the 
 pearls of the east.* 
 
 * By a decree of Congress, dated in August last, a mono- 
 poly of all the pearl fisheries of Colombia is granted to Messrs. 
 Rundell, Bridge, and Rundell, on certain conditions. 
 
COMMERCE AND REVENUE. 31 
 
 The precious metals, gold and silver, and platina^ 
 are principally extracted from the provinces of Atio- 
 quia and Choco. No small part of the gold was for- 
 merly smuggled to the West Indies, the remainder., 
 as well as the silver, was coined in the mints of Po~ 
 payan and Santa Fe. The annual sums coined in 
 both averaged, during the j^ears 1801-2-3 and 4, 
 2,299,249 dollars. The want of capital and machi- 
 nery, as well as of scientific research, has hitherto 
 locked the mineral wealth of Colombia within the 
 womb of its parent earth. There can be little doubt 
 when these deficiencies are supplied, both that the 
 present mines will be more productive, and that 
 many new ones will be discovered. Gold is known 
 to be very generally dispersed : in Rio Hacha it was 
 found in the sands washed down within the town. 
 The little jiver Sucia, which enters theChama, near 
 Laguillas in the province of Merida, is said to con- 
 tain it. There are unworked mines of silver near 
 Mariquita in New Grenada. Platina is found abun- 
 dantly in the province of Choco. Emeralds are 
 found in many places, especially in the bed of a little 
 river about 20 leagues from Bogota, on the road to 
 the plains, where almost every stone contains an 
 emerald. 
 
 Among minor articles of commerce, bark is of 
 some importance. The provinces of Loxa and Jaen 
 have been long celebrated for the production of this 
 valuable medicine : but the barks of Santa Fe owe 
 
32 COLOMBIA ; 
 
 their reputation to the discoveries of Dr. Mutes, whe 
 published a work on the subject in 1793, entitled 
 " El Jlrcano de la Quina." Betwixt 1802 and 
 1807, 33,418 quintals of these barks had been ex- 
 ported from the port of Cartagena. It grows chiefly 
 in the province of Mariquita. 
 
 The stately forests which cover the banks of the 
 Magdalena and Orinoco, with their tributary streams, 
 will hereafter supply Europe with cedar and mahoga- 
 ny, and an infinite variety of woods of exquisite beauty 
 and durability, both for building and cabinet work. 
 Drugs, precious balsams, particularly the balsam of 
 Tolu — a great variety of dying plants — bees'-wax — - 
 the coarser metals, as copper and iron — cochineal, 
 which is found abundantly about Quito, near Bar- 
 quisemeto, and Timotes in the valley of Truxillo — - 
 articles, now wholly, or in great part, neglected, will 
 one day or other enrich the commerce of this favoured 
 country. 
 
 The following statement of the revenue of Vene- 
 zuela and New Granada, is extracted from a pam- 
 phlet published at Santa Fe in 1810, " Sobre la Con- 
 stitution de los Estados Unidos" by Don Miguel 
 Fombo : 
 
COMMERCE AND REVENUE 
 
 33 
 
 1. Neiv Granada. 
 
 Value of European goods annually imported 
 Value of exports, principally from Guyaquil, ~i 
 
 Panama, and the river Magdalena - - - 5 
 Cast and ingots of gold exported on account ? 
 
 of the Spanish government and of individuals 5 
 
 Tythes -- 
 
 Which sum supposes an annual agricultural £ 
 
 produce of ------- ----5 
 
 Revenue arising from 
 
 1. The 1st and 5th part of gold extracted fronT\ 
 rivers (abolished) -- 
 
 2. Produce of salt works about 100,000 dollars 
 
 3. Capitation tax paid by the Indians (abo- 
 - lished) _-__-.------ 
 
 4. Produce of monopolies of tobacco and spi- 
 rits (partly retained and partly abolished) 
 
 5. Bulls of Crusade Ditto (abolished) - - - )» 
 
 6. Custom-house duties ------- 
 
 7. Alcabala, or duty paid on the sale of every 
 article of consumption (abolished) - - - 
 
 8. Duty on stamp paper __----- 
 
 9. Pecuniary penalties -------- 
 
 10. Produce of lands belonging to the King - 
 
 11. Sale of public employment (abolished) - J 
 
 2. Venezuela. 
 Annual produce of agriculture and cattle - - 
 
 Revenue arising from the same sources as that"? 
 of New Granada - 5 
 
 Monopoly of Tobacco -• ■ -.-•-■'•.-• . - - -, ; . 
 Sale of Bulls (abolished) -------- 
 
 Dollars, 
 2,500,000 
 
 1,150,000 
 
 2,650,000 
 
 800,000 
 
 10,000,000 
 
 3,200,000 
 
 - 6,000,000 
 
 1,400,000 
 
 700,000 
 26,000 
 
 Total Revenue - - - - - - - *2,126,00Q 
 
 Which left an annual surplus of 600,000 dollars. 
 
 Of the present state of the revenue it is impossi- 
 ble to give any satisfactory account. The official 
 report of the minister of Finance to the Congress, 
 for the last year, is most unpromising. Besides 
 dealing too much in generalities to throw light on a 
 
 See note B in the Appendix, 
 
34 COLOMBIA : 
 
 subject doubly perplexed by the complete disorgani- 
 zation of the Financial system, it contained no ac- 
 counts of debts and credits, no statement of out- 
 goings and incomings, by which to judge of the real 
 condition of the Revenue.^ It has even been dis- 
 puted whether the Executive is bound to render 
 such account to the Congress — as if an evil could be 
 prevented or diminished by refusing to see it.— 
 Such are the mischievous effects of inveterate Spa- 
 nish habits, which can scarcely be accommodated to 
 a popular form of government. The project adopted 
 last year of a direct contribution in the shape of an 
 income-tax, has completely failed ; and the minister 
 of Finance avows, as a principal cause of the failure, 
 the general corruption of all the subordinate magis- 
 trates and agents of the Government, which excludes 
 the possibility of obtaining a fair assessment The 
 Custom-house duties, which constitute the most cer- 
 tain branch of the present revenue, are very far from 
 sufficing for the expense of the Government. It is 
 probable, the ingresses of Cumana and Barcelona, 
 though small, may suffice for that department. The 
 duties in La Guayra sometimes amount to 60,000 
 dollars a month ;t but the expenses of the army 
 
 * A Circular has been recently published from the minister 
 of Finance to the Intendants of the several departments, 
 charging them to deliver their accounts for the inspection of 
 the ensuing Congress. 
 
 f See Note B in the Appendix, 
 
COMMERCE AND REVENUE. 35 
 
 hitherto maintained in the department, with the 
 squadron, more than require this sum, were it con- 
 stant. The departments of Maracaybo and the Mag- 
 dalena have always required aid from the interior, 
 at least while there was a war on the coast. The 
 tobacco monopoly is unproductive, from the want 
 of capital to advance to the growers in payment for 
 their crops, who are consequently obliged to smug- 
 gle for a subsistence. The salt-works may be reck- 
 oned at their ancient product.* The amount of 
 gold and silver coined on account of the government 
 is not known, but it does not probably exceed 
 2,000,000 of dollars ; from which sum must be de- 
 ducted the expenses of extraction, coinage, &c, pro- 
 bably two-thirds. Of the National Debt, due prin- 
 cipally to foreigners, we have no statement.! The 
 debt is probably not so great as might be expected, 
 considering the character and duration of the strug- 
 gle in which the republic has been engaged ; nor 
 greater than a liberal system of government, by 
 calling into life and action the natural resources of 
 the country, may easily meet and overcome. 
 
 The difficulties which stifle and fetter the com- 
 merce of Colombia may be reduced under the follow T - 
 
 * They have been lately farmed to an English Company, at 
 the annual rent of 100,0QQ Dollars. 
 
 f Since this was written a " Board of Liquidation" has been 
 established at Bogota, to investigate all claims on the govern- 
 ment — the progress of its labours is regularly reported in the 
 Official Gazette. 
 
36 COLOMBIA : 
 
 ing 'heads: — want of population — -want of industry 
 ■ — want of capital— want of knowledge— and want 
 of internal communications. The necessary conse- 
 quence of a Want of Population is the dearness 
 and scarcity of labour— a disadvantage trebly aug- 
 mented by the feeble and inert disposition of the 
 people, The Creole labourer will perform badly in 
 a week a piece of work which an European would 
 do well in a day. Idleness is, in fact, the predomi- 
 nant propensity of all classes : in the rich it is caused 
 by the want of moral stimulus, in the poor it is che- 
 rished by the facility of subsistence. The love of la- 
 bour is not natural to man : he must have a motive, 
 and a powerful one, to overcome the tendency ti in- 
 action, to which all animals are subject, when excit- 
 ed neither by appetite nor passion. In countries where 
 the social system has made considerable progress, 
 stimuli are never wanting : artificial necessities, as 
 well as artificial enjoyments, are so multiplied, as to 
 include every individual in a vortex of restless acti- 
 vity. In Colombia, the little which exists of social 
 luxury is confined to Caracas, and two or three sea- 
 port towns. Throughout the whole of the interior, 
 the comforts and even the decencies of life are un- 
 valued because unknown. The man who can eat beef 
 and plantains, and smoke segars as he swings in his 
 hammock, is possessed of almost every thing his 
 habits qualify him to enjoy, or to which his ambition 
 
COMMERCE AND REVENUE. 37 
 
 prompts him to attain— the poor have little less, the 
 rich scarcely covet more. 
 
 Want of Capital is another considerable impedi- 
 ment to commercial improvements. Among the 
 merchants, the principal capitalists were European 
 Spaniards, who have generally emigrated ; but at no 
 time did any commercial capital exist in this coun- 
 try, which could enter into competition with those 
 of the third or fourth class in England. The busi- 
 ness of a Creole merchant is more strictly that of a 
 first-rate shop-keeper, than of what would be called 
 a merchant in Europe ; neither are the landed pro- 
 prietors relatively richer : few possess estates of 
 5,O00l. per annum ; 5,000 dollars is a handsome in- 
 come. As there are neither public funds, nor banks, 
 nor speculations, wealth is accumulated by saving 
 only, a method admirably in unison with the unenter- 
 prising and economical habits of the landed gentry 
 of the country, but little calculated to promote its 
 commercial prosperity. 
 
 The Want of Knowledge may be considered as 
 having a twofold operation : First, it operates nega- 
 tively, by leaving the country utterly destitute of all 
 those mechanical and agricultural improvements by 
 which labour is abridged, and the advantages of the 
 soil are best discovered and brought into action. 
 It operates jiositively, by producing injurious politi- 
 cal regulations. There can be no doubt of the good 
 intentions of the Government with respect to com- 
 
 D 
 
38 COLOMBIA : 
 
 merce, and yet the worst enemies of the country 
 could scarcely have devised worse methods to im- 
 prove it. The beacon light which of all others 
 should direct the political career of Colombia, is that 
 of Freedom, unlimited Freedom of Commerce 
 with all Nations ; and yet so difficult is it to get 
 rid of narrow views and obsolete prejudices, that 
 almost every new commercial regulation has been in 
 hostility with this fundamental principle. During 
 the last year, the Vice President, urged on most 
 probably by the Creole merchants, issued a decree 
 prohibiting foreigners from trading in the country 
 on their own account, and compelling them to con- 
 sign themselves to the natives. This is worthy 
 of the worst times of the Spanish Government, 
 especially when it is remembered, that it is to foreign 
 merchants and to foreign arms, Colombia is at this 
 moment indebted for political existence. The defence 
 of this absurd decree was still more absurd : the 
 Minister for Home Affairs, after giving a vague ac- 
 count to the Congress of the provisional enactment, 
 remarked that the proper mode of settling the ques- 
 tion, would probably be to place it on the footing of 
 reciprocity:— as if England, France, and the United 
 States, had the same need of Colombian merchants 
 that Colombia has of foreigners. I believe, on this 
 occasion, the Congress saw the folly of the measure, 
 and it never passed into a law ; in the interim, its 
 bad effects were counteracted, as those of many bad 
 
COMMERCE AND REVENUE 39 
 
 Spanish laws have been counteracted in the colonies, 
 namely, by eluding them ; leaving to the Govern- 
 ment the disgrace consequent on an unwise measure, 
 and the ridicule attendant on an ineffectual one. The 
 importation of foreign tobacco was permitted on 
 paying a duty of 50 per cent, and even with this 
 duty, though monopolized by the government, it 
 could more than meet native tobacco in the mar- 
 kets ; it has in consequence been prohibited altoge- 
 ther, and will in future be smuggled instead of being fi o ? 
 imported. With the same good sense all kinds of 
 distilled foreign spirits have been prohibited, to en- 
 courage the manufacture and consumption of the vile 
 trash called Jiguaidiente, or brandy of the country* 
 Now besides the unanswerable objection of taxing the 
 whole population for the advantage of a particular 
 class, this prohibition, could it be carried into effect, 
 would be doubly foolish. Of all Colombian produce, 
 sugar-cane with distilleries, is the least adapted to 
 her present condition ; it requires more labour, ma- 
 chinery, and capital, than either coffee, cocoa, or 
 cotton, and is much less valuable, although sufficiently 
 advantageous under favourable circumstances. To 
 divert a portion of the small capital already em- 
 ployed from more advantageous branches of culture, 
 and transfer it to one which can only be rendered 
 equally profitable at the expense of the native con- 
 sumer, is the acme of political folly ; or if it be said 
 £hat the intention is to favour capital already embarked 
 
40 COLOMBIA; 
 
 the motive Is equally ridiculous, since it is much 
 more reasonable that capital ill-employed should be 
 transferred to more lucrative speculations, than that 
 the community should be taxed to support its disad- 
 vantageous application :— or, say it is meant to bring 
 new capital into operation- — why should not such 
 new capital, if it exists, be employed on the most 
 profitable branches of cultivation rather than on one 
 which requires unjust and artificial support ? The 
 last example I shall quote of this insane species of 
 legislation is a recent law prohibiting the introduc- 
 tion of every species of Spanish produce. This mea- 
 sure, of course, was intended to distress the Spa- 
 niards, while nobody seems to have considered that 
 the real evil would be inflicted on the Colombian 
 agricultural interest. Of the 140,000 fanegas of 
 cocoa grown in Caracas, according to the estimate 
 p. 28, Spain was a customer for 100,000, I am not 
 prepared to say that such is the exact proportion at 
 present, but it suffices to know that cocoa is the chief 
 article of Venezuelan produce ; and that Spain con- 
 sumes more than all the rest of Europe. Let us 
 suppose Spain to pay for this quanity 2,500,000 
 dollars ; it is well known that this sum never was, 
 nor will be paid in specie, it can be only paid by an 
 exchange of produce. Spain must sell her wines, oils, 
 fruits, &c. before she can buy cocoa : it is most pro- 
 bable that the whole was never paid by direct ex- 
 change of commodities, part would naturally be paid 
 
COMMERCE AND REVENUE. 41 
 
 in various European goods which Spain had pur* 
 chased for this purpose from other nations : but 
 there was still a considerable remainder, which con- 
 stituted the direct trade betwixt the two countries. 
 Let us suppose the amount of Spanish commodities 
 remitted to Colombia in payment of the Cocoa, to be 
 1,000,000 dollars. Colombia now refuses to take these 
 commodities ; in what manner is Spain to make good 
 her purchases ? By exchanging native produce to 
 the amount with other nations, and remitting the 
 value to Colombia ? But these nations have only 
 their own produce or manufactures to give in return^ 
 and if Colombia is to receive these at second-hand 
 from Spain, she might as well receive Spanish pro- 
 duce ; besides, the market for Spanish wines and oils 
 is very limited in Europe, where the preference is 
 given usually to the French, while habit has made 
 them articles of necessity in Colombia. It is vain to 
 say the cocoa of Colombia will be purchased by fo- 
 reign nations— so it will, indeed, but always with a 
 view to the Spanish market ; and if Spain be de- 
 prived of the means to buy, Colombia will find it 
 equally impossible to sell. 
 
 The origin of all these errors, making allowance 
 for political feelings in the case of Spain, appears to 
 lie in the mistake of considering the venders of 
 the prohibited articles in question, in the light 
 only of sellers, without considering, that in order to 
 be sellers, they must, directly or indirectly, be 
 b2 
 
42 COLOMBIA : 
 
 buyers also. The Government might be desirous, that 
 in the present situation of its finances, the commodi- 
 ties raised in Colombia should be all exchanged for 
 the precious metals ; this however is clearly impos- 
 sible : the precious metals can only be augmented 
 hy increase of Trade, Capital, and Population ; and 
 these must be the results, not of a prohibiting, but 
 of a liberal commercial system, in a word of Free 
 Trade with all the world. In the meanwhile 
 the present prohibitions can only be regarded, as 
 they might well be entitled, " Laws for the better 
 Security and Increase of Smuggling." Increase, be- 
 cause until smuggling is so far systematised as to 
 furnish the markets with regular supplies, the pre- 
 mium, in the shape of increased price, will be un- 
 limited : Security, because the whole population 
 will be interested in a trade, which the whole army 
 of Colombia, were it employed for no other purpose, 
 would be inadequate to prevent, because in every 
 case of detection a bribe would ensure connivance. 
 The want of internal communications is a con- 
 siderable drawback on the natural advantages of the 
 country— -throughout the whole of the Republic there 
 is not a road passable for wheel-carriages, nor even 
 one which can be travelled without risk of life or 
 limbs : every species of commodity is conveyed on 
 mules. The carriage is consequently expensive and 
 tedious, and it becomes impossible to convey bulky 
 produce from the interior, so as to enter into com- 
 
MANUFACTURES. 43 
 
 petition with the produce raised near the coast ; even 
 in the neighbourhood of Valencia, as long as Puerto 
 Cabello remained in the hands of the Spaniards, 
 cocoa, coffee, and cotton, could scarcely bear the 
 expenses of transport to Caracas. The internal navi 
 gation is in a condition equally rude and abandoned i 
 the only method known on the Magdalena, is to 
 pole up against the stream, as the Indians did at the 
 first discovery of the country : during the last ses- 
 sion, however, of Congress, patents were granted 
 to Colonel James Hamilton, and Mr. John Elbers 
 for placing steam-boats on the rivers Orinoco and 
 Magdalena. Should these projects succeed, a very 
 considerable and beneficial change will take place., 
 especially with regard to the Orinoco, which opens 5 
 by means of the Meta and Apure, a communication 
 with the whole level country to within about 50 
 leagues of Bogota. 
 
 § 5. MANUFACTURES, ARTS, LITERATURE, AND 
 EDUCATION. 
 
 It is neither probable nor desirable that Manufac- 
 tures should have made, or be likely to make any 
 considerable progress in Colombia. The natural and 
 direct relations betwixt America and Europe are 
 those of Agriculturist and Manufacturer : Europe 
 must for centuries be the workshop of the New 
 World, as long at least as the latter has lands, the 
 
44 COLOMBIA : 
 
 cultivation of which will be a more grateful as well 
 as more profitable occupation, than the unwholesome 
 toils of the manufacturer, " in close pent-up cities.' 7 
 The example of the United States suffices to shew 
 how difficult it is to struggle against the natural 
 bent of circumstances in the direction of labour. 
 All that political zeal can effect in such cases, is to 
 substitute a dear article of inferior quality for a cheap 
 one of superior, to the profit of a few and the con- 
 sequent loss of the many. The only parts of Colom- 
 bia in which manufactures have attained, or can 
 maintain, a limited prosperity are Quito, and some 
 provinces of New Grenada, which from their inter- 
 nal situation and mountainous roads, can scarcely be 
 supplied with bulky manufactured goods from Eu- 
 rope at a cheaper rate than they could be made at 
 home. There is little doubt, however, that in the 
 general increase of internal prosperity, which should 
 result from the independence of the country, its in- 
 ternal communications will be so far improved, that 
 the ports of Esmeraldas and Guyaquil, and the river 
 Magdalena, will suffice to furnish even these provin- 
 ces with almost every article of convenience and 
 luxury. The articles chiefly manufactured at pre- 
 sent are coarse cloths, baizes, blankets, hats, and 
 other articles of clothing used by the common peo- 
 ple In 1S10, the computed annual value of manu- 
 factured produce in the provinces of Quito, Cuenca^ 
 
ARTS. 45 
 
 Casanare, Guyaquil, Tunja, Socorro, and Pamplona, 
 was 5,000,000 of dollars. 
 
 To form an adequate idea of the small progress 
 the most necessary Jirts of Life have made in Co- 
 lombia, we must transport ourselves, I was about to 
 say, to the Saxon period of European civilization, 
 but though this comparison might be apt in some 
 points, it would be doing our ancestors injustice in 
 others, since the public edifices of that remote period, 
 in many instances, possess a grandeur, and solidity, 
 which it would be vain to look for in the buildings 
 of this country. Houses of all classes are built of 
 mud, sometimes mixed with stones, sometimes plas- 
 tered on wattles, but always equally unsubstantial ; 
 in fact, when the means are compared with the end, 
 it is wonderful any one has the courage to set about 
 building a large house. The application of labour 
 is neither aided by machinery, wheel-carriages, or 
 even by a wheel-barrow : the earth dug from the 
 foundation, or collected to make the walls, is carried 
 in trays on men's heads, or on an hide dragged along 
 the ground, while a string of asses may be seen with 
 small panniers full of bits of stones, or dragging each 
 two small sticks of timber- — altogether presenting such 
 a picture of lazy imbecility as would disgrace any 
 thing but a community of sloths. The finishing is 
 equally defective : it would be vain to look for a 
 right angle, or a straight line in the walls, or for a 
 beam or rafter squared or planed ; the doors and 
 
46 COLOMBIA : 
 
 windows would be inadmissible in an English sta- 
 ble. The consequence of all this is, that whoever 
 desires to build according to European ideas of de- 
 cency, must send to the colonies for workmen of 
 every description, or import his house ready made, 
 The same observations apply to every branch of 
 handicraft: furniture, clothes, shoes and boots, sad- 
 dlery, in short, every thing used or worn, must be 
 sought from abroad. When the most necessary arts 
 of life have made so little progress, the fine arts 
 must be in a state of proportionable infancy. Archi- 
 tecture, which in most Roman Catholic countries 
 receives an extraordinary impulse from ecclesiastical 
 wealth and influence, has here raised no monument 
 worthy of the traveller's attention. The facades of 
 several of the churches of Caracas were tasteful, but 
 their crumbling materials yielded to the earthquake. 
 Through the whole of the interior there is no edifice 
 worth mentioning, except in Bogota. The Cathe- 
 dral here is of yellow stone, and though somewhat 
 fantastical and irregular in its style, is, on the whole, 
 an imposing structure. The other churches and con- 
 vents, 29 in number, differ only in the greater or 
 less quantity of gilding and barbarous decorations 
 with which they are overloaded. Other public works 
 there are none, architecturally speaking, except the 
 fortifications of Cartagena and Puerto Cabello. There 
 are some few bridges little worthy of notice, except 
 that of Capitanejo oyer the rapid Sogamozo, a useful 
 
ARTS. 47 
 
 though inelegant structure ; and that of Valencia, 
 neatly built by Moriilo, who employed for this pur- 
 pose the patriot prisoners, several of whom were 
 English officers. Painting is said to be cultivated 
 with some success in Quito, and Bogota boasts the 
 native genius of Vazques, whose portraits certainly 
 have merit, but the difficulties, with which this, like 
 every other liberal art, had to struggle beneath the 
 Spanish yoke, may be estimated by the following 
 anecdote : e A painter in Bogota, of the name of An- 
 tonio Garcia, had two paintings from which he used to 
 study — -a Hercules spinning by the side of Omphale, 
 and Endymion sleeping on the breast of Diana : the 
 Commissary of the Inquisition was informed of the 
 circumstance, and on the ground that the pictures 
 were indecent, searched his cabinet, and had them 
 cut in pieces, which the owner was allowed to keep. 9 
 Few nations are more generally gifted with musical 
 talent than the inhabitants of Venezuela*: before the 
 revolution Music was studied as a science with great 
 success in Caracas, and it is no trifling instance of the 
 spirit which has characterised the war, that Boves, 
 the Robespierre of Colombia, should have felt plea- 
 sure in sacrificing the professors and amateurs of this 
 amiable art, which tyranny itself has frequently re- 
 spected. The talent still survives, though from the 
 difficulty of procuring masters, as well as from other 
 circumstances growing out of political changes and 
 domestic distress^ it may rather be said to scatter its 
 
4S COLOMBIA : 
 
 sweetness wildly on its native air, than lobe a sub- 
 ject of scientific study or professional cultivation. 
 
 When we consider the state of Literature and 
 Education previous to the revolution, we may re- 
 gard Caracas and Santa Fe as two luminous points ra- 
 diating through an atmosphere of almost entire mental 
 darkness. If partial lights were scattered, here and 
 there, through the interior provinces, they were al- 
 most exclusively derived from these two national 
 beacons, which in Venezuela and New Grenada, re- 
 spectively, first pointed at the road to independence. 
 There was a difference, however, in the character of 
 the knowledge acquired and disseminated in the two 
 capitals, in unison perhaps with the national charac- 
 ter of the inhabitants. The lively genius and ar- 
 dent temper of the Caracanians devoted themselves 
 to the study of philosophy, eloquence, and political 
 science. In Santa Fe the several branches of natu- 
 ral history, botany, and mathematics, were begin- 
 ning to be cultivated with success, under the aus- 
 pices of Dr. Mutes, Calders, Zea, and other mem- 
 bers of the University. It may be supposed that 
 both church and state looked most unlovingly on 
 these dangerous and heretical novelties. The course 
 of studies, by law established in the several schools 
 and universities, had hitherto formed a complete gag 
 on the intellect, while the Inquisition was charged 
 to prohibit the entrance of any book which could di- 
 rectly or indirectly tend to remove it. The com- 
 
LITERATURE, &o. 49 
 
 missaries of the Holy Office were, however, some- 
 times negligent, and always corrupt. Prohibited 
 works, endeared by the difficulty of procuring them, 
 were eagerly perused ; and students devoted to Rous- 
 seau, Voltaire, and Volney,the hours formerly wasted 
 over the Philosophia Lugduneusis, Institutiones Ca- 
 nonicag, or the writings of Amet, Cornelius, Lapide, 
 and Calmet. As these studies were always clandes- 
 tine, the jealousy of the government, fluctuating be- 
 twixt habitual indolence and newly awakened sus- 
 picions, was inadequate to repress them, although 
 the disposition was sufficiently evident. In Santa 
 Fe, General Narino, afterwards one of the principal 
 leaders of the revolution in New Grenada, was im- 
 mured and fettered in the dungeons of Cartagena, 
 for having translated Rousseau's Social Contract, 
 although he had previously obtained permission of 
 the Viceroy for this purpose. Even a dancing aca- 
 demy was suppressed, as affording a pretext to the 
 youth of the city for meeting, and inferentially for 
 thinking and speaking. Scientific pursuits, as bear- 
 ing little direct reference to politics, met with less 
 obstruction, and the Flora of Bogota, begun by Dr. 
 Mules, was slowly continuing after his death under 
 the direction of Dr. Senforso Mutes, his nephew, 
 Don Francisco Jose Caldas, and Don Jose Lorano, 
 aided by the pencil of Don Salvados Rezo, when the 
 revolution suspended their labours. But minds illu- 
 minated by science could scarcely be enemies to free- 
 
 E 
 
50 COLOMBIA s 
 
 dom ; with other distinguished individuals they em- 
 braced the cause of Independence, and were sacrificed 
 by Morillo when he took possession of Santa Fe in 
 1S15. 
 
 The progress of the revolution exhibited all those 
 phenomena naturally deducible from the state of 
 knowledge in the country : of knowledge not flow- 
 ing from a general system of education, in harmony 
 with existing institutions, but knowledge, infinitely 
 various in its sources, at war with established opi- 
 nions, and directed by no experience : hence the 
 new political fabric was discordantly and weakly 
 constructed ; the most liberal minds encountered, 
 both in themselves and others, difficulties in prac- 
 tice for which their theoretical studies had left them 
 unprepared ; and they were frequently forced into 
 the routine of arbitrary, or even tyrannical measures, 
 because habit, in matters of government, had made 
 them acquainted with no other ; it is sufficient to cast 
 an eye over the present constitution, or still more to 
 the present practice of the government, to exemplify 
 these remarks : we still find it to " humbly crave its 
 sovereign may be its slave ;" or using Jack Cade's 
 expression, " You shall all be free, and I'll be a king- 
 over vou." Public opinion, in the meanwhile, has 
 obtained little strength or -steadiness ; the Press, if 
 free, has scarcely felt its freedom ; several public 
 journals are established in different parts of the coun- 
 try, but they are, in general, Utile more than recepta- 
 
LITERATURE, &c. 51 
 
 eles of official news, government gazettes, taught, like 
 their brethren in all countries, to applaud to the 
 " very echo/ 7 all government proceedings : the Ve» 
 nezolano of Caracas, has alone assumed a tone of free- 
 dom and independence, but its success has been in- 
 different, nor is its example likely to be immediately 
 followed.* Something has been done in favour of 
 education ; schools on the Lancasterian plan have been, 
 established in Bogota, and in several other principal 
 towns. The Colleges and Universities are to have 
 their course of studies reformed, and accommodated 
 to the general progress of science and philosophy^, 
 and professorships of Mineralogy and Natural His- 
 tory have been recently established, and are filled 
 by several French gentlemen, engaged for the pur- 
 pose by Mr. Zea— In fine, the elements of all things, 
 good and evil, of freedom and slavery, of wealth 
 and poverty, of intellectual light and darkness, are 
 mingled in the political chaos of this country, and 
 will be respectively destroyed or developed, as the 
 system adopted by its government, shall be more or 
 less liberal and enlightened. 
 
 * An account of the first establishment of this paper would 
 forcibly illustrate many of the remarks scattered through the 
 foregoing" pages, but it is not now the time. 
 
 Since the foregoing was written, the " Colombiano," a paper 
 printed in Spanish and English, has been established in Caracas 
 ■ — and the " Constitutional," a paper printed in the same man- 
 ner, at Bogota. 
 
PART II. 
 
 Preliminary Remarks ;— Natural Advantages of 
 Emigration to Colombia ; — Disposition of the 
 Government towards Foreign Settlers; — Cha- 
 . racter of the Inhabitants, as it affects Foreign 
 Settlers ;— -Modes of Emigration* and descrip- 
 tions of persons most proper for this purpose ; 
 — -Preparations necessary; — Choice of place ; 
 — Difficulties arising from difference of Lan- 
 guage, Customs, and Religion ;— Diseases of 
 the Climate. 
 
 § 1. PRELIMINARY REMARKS. 
 
 There is probably no subject which imposes on the 
 writer a heavier responsibility, than that of emigra- 
 tion : the happiness or misery of thousands may de- 
 pend on the fidelity of his narrative, and bitter would 
 be his reflections, should he have reason to think he 
 had ruined a single family, or even a solitary indivi- 
 dual, for the idle pleasure of depicting a Transatlantic 
 Paradise. In no corner of the world, whatever may 
 be its natural advantages, " is a table spread in the 
 wilderness :" in no corner of the world is social man 
 e2 i 
 
54 COLOMBIA 
 
 exempt from the primal law, of earning his bread by 
 the sweat of his brow, of struggling against the ele- 
 ments which seem to conspire against his life and 
 happiness, and, of at last, too frequently seeing his 
 best grounded expectations give way before the pres- 
 sure of inevitable accident, or unmerited calamity ; 
 but these reflections, however they might chill the 
 rash and visionary adventurer, can have no detrimen- 
 tal effect on Emigration, judiciously prepared and 
 directed. They may, and ought to excite inquiry 
 and precaution, but they cannot weaken that impe- 
 rious necessity, which from every country of Europe 
 is daily compelling thousands " to court their fortune 
 where she may prove kinder," at the risk of what- 
 ever is saddening in thought and perilous in action. 
 The love of our country, twined as it is with our 
 dearest recollections, with all we enjoy in the present, 
 or hope in the future, is a feeling too deeply rooted 
 in the human heart, to be wrenched out by one less 
 powerful than itself: men abandon the soil which 
 gave them birth, as sailors abandon a wreck which 
 no longer offers the remotest prospect of safety : the 
 necessity may in some instances be more striking 
 and immediate, but it is in all equally felt to be irre- 
 sistible : the labourer, whose daily toil will no lon- 
 ger afford his family their daily bread, is not more 
 sensible of the necessity of remedying his situation, 
 than is the gentleman by birth and education, who 
 finds the property inherited from his ancestors be- 
 
PRELIMINARY REMARKS, 55 
 
 coming every year less adequate to maintain and 
 transmit to his children, that decency and rank of 
 life, from which to descend is to do more than die : 
 in both these cases, as well as in a thousand others, 
 through which excess of population and defective 
 social instiutions ramify distress, the necessity is the 
 same, the remedy equally sure and applicable ; it is 
 the mode of applying it, which can alone render it 
 deleterious. The United States affords us the most 
 unexceptionable example, both of what is to be de- 
 sired and deprecated in Emigration, and in stating 
 the advantages offered by Colombia, it is to her sis- 
 ter Republic I shall have recourse for analogies and 
 illustrations. 
 
 The Advantages of Emigration to any particu- 
 lar country, may be divided into two classes, Natu- 
 ral and Political : the former comprehends land, 
 considered with respect to quantity, quality, and sit- 
 uation ; Labour, with respect to the quantity neces- 
 sary to be employed on it ; and Subsistence* as more 
 or less abundant, and readily procured : the political 
 advantages are such as arise from the disposition of 
 the government, already established in the new coun- 
 try, the character of its inhabitants, and its state of 
 civilization, being such as to render the influx of for- 
 eigners desirable : the description of persons best 
 adapted for Emigration, with the most eligible mode 
 of carrying it into effect, are next to be considered^ 
 together with the particular portions of the country 
 
56 COLOMBIA : 
 
 In question, most favourable to new settlements. The 
 difficulties which present themselves in the shape of 
 antipathies or prejudices, on the part of the inhabi- 
 tants, or in their customs, language and religion, 
 together with the diseases to which new settlers are 
 principally liable, shall be last stated, and to the best 
 of my abilities be impartially discussed. 
 
 § 2. NATURAL ADVANTAGES OF EMIGRATION TO 
 COLOMBIA. 
 
 The simple consideration of the territorial extent 
 of Colombia, compared with her present population 
 suffices to answer every question as to the quantity 
 of unappropriated land, she can place at the disposition 
 of foreign settlers ; nor have we in this case, as in that 
 of many parts of Asia and Africa, to make large de- 
 ductions for uninhabitable and unprofitable deserts, 
 In the distance of above 1000 miles, betwixt Caracas 
 and Bogota, which comprehends the great mountain 
 region, and consequently that portion of the country 
 which may naturally be supposed least favourable to 
 tillage, there cannot be reckoned 100 unsusceptible 
 of culture. It is not, however, the mere possibility 
 of cultivation, or even the positive fertility of the 
 soil alone, which deserves consideration, it is rather 
 the quality of its productions, which in a commer- 
 cial point of view, are the most valuable in the world. 
 In fact when we add to the Cocoa, Coffee, Tobacco, 
 
EMIGRATION TO, 
 
 57 
 
 Cotton, Sugar, and Indigo, already cultivated, the 
 Wines, Oils, Silks, precious Woods, Dyes and Mine- 
 rals, which the slightest application of science and in- 
 dustry, would suffice to call into existence, we cannot 
 but confess that Colombia, if equal in the quantity 
 of her lands to the United States, in point of their 
 quality, possesses a decided superiority : a simple list 
 of the articles produced, or exported at present, in 
 the two countries, will render further proof super- 
 fluous. 
 
 UNITED STATES. 
 
 COLOMBIA. 
 
 Cotton "1 
 Rice C 
 Sugar J 
 
 Tobacco 
 Maize 
 
 In the Southern 
 States only. 
 
 Southern and 
 Midland States, 
 
 Wheat and Euro-? ronavnlU r 
 pean Grains 5 Genera11 ^ 
 
 Lumber 
 Cod Fisheries 
 
 Salted Provisions. 
 
 Iron. 
 
 Copper. 
 
 Lead. 
 
 Eastern 
 States. 
 
 > Generally. 
 
 Cocoa 
 Coffee 
 
 Cotton 
 Indigo 
 Sugar 
 Rice 
 Maize 
 Tobacco^ 
 Wheat and Euro- "> In the 
 pean grains 5 highlands, 
 Province of 
 Rio Hacha. 
 Pearl Fisheries. 
 Gold. 
 Silver. 
 Iron. 
 Copper. 
 Platina. 
 Emeralds. 
 Cattle 
 Hides 
 
 Brasil wood 
 
 In the Plains. 
 
 Situation is a circumstance of considerable impor- 
 tance to foreign settlers. The coast line of the Uni- 
 ted States (if w 7 e except some parts of the Carolinas 
 and Georgia, too unhealthy to be inhabited) is so 
 
58 COLOMBIA : 
 
 thickly peopled, that from the eastern states there is 
 annually a very considerable emigration towards the 
 interior ; the consequence is, that foreign settlers, 
 especially of the poorer classes, encounter such em- 
 barrassments at the onset, as they are unprepared to 
 meet, and unable to master. From their several 
 points of disembarkation, they are obliged to pene- 
 trate through the centre of the country, until they 
 arrive at the banks of the Ohio, the Mississippi, the 
 Missouri, or the borders of the Canadian lakes; such 
 a journey, however cheaply performed, besides the 
 pecuniary loss to families, whose means are common- 
 ly very limited, involves the inconvenience, that 
 whatever bulky articles, either of furniture, stock, 
 or agricultural implements, the settlers may bring 
 with them, must be either abandoned, or transported 
 at an expense beyond their value, and most com- 
 monly to their great detriment. None of these dis- 
 advantages exist at present in Colombia : thousands 
 of situations may be selected on the coast, and on the 
 borders of the river Orinoco and Magdalena, where 
 settlers may disembark on the very spot they intend 
 to cultivate, and commence their labours on the day 
 after their arrival : some of these shall be particu- 
 larized in treating of the choice of place. 
 
 The quantity of labour necessary to be employed 
 upon new lands is much less in tropical than in cold 
 or even temperate climates. Wherever water can 
 be applied, the powerful agency of heat ensures an 
 
EMIGRATION TO. 59 
 
 abundant harvest : clearing is also a much lighter 
 task in Colombia than in the United States. In eve- 
 ry part of the country there is an alternation of wood* 
 and pasture land, and abundance of land covered 
 with copse wood or light timber, which requires lit- 
 tle more than burning to prepare it for cultivation* 
 The labour of building is not less abridged by the 
 climate ; where cold is unknown, shade for his cat- 
 tle, and a water-tight roof for the cultivator and his 
 family, are all that is absolutely necessary, nay, al- 
 most as much as comfort requires. In many parts 
 of the country it is the custom to build without 
 walls of any kind : a mud flooring is raised about 
 two feet above the soil ; the roof is thatch with palm 
 leaves, the sloping sides of which form a cock-loft^ 
 or dormitory above, while the inmates inhabit the 
 ground- floor, in the full enjoyment of fresh air — no 
 inconsiderable luxury. Three or four active labour- 
 ers will raise a commodious building of this descrip- 
 tion, in less than a week : they are called in the 
 country Rancherias. The Subsistence of man- 
 kind in. tropical climates is not less simplified in 
 all its branches than their lodging and labour; none 
 but the lightest clothing can be worn without incon- 
 venience ; when cloth is used, it is not from neces- 
 sity, but vanity ; the labourer, through the whole 
 of Colombia, except in the elevated regions of the 
 Andes, requires nothing but a shirt and trowsers, of 
 the strength and quality best suited to his occupa- 
 
5' COLOMBIA. 
 
 tions : a blanket, with an aperture in the centre to 
 admit the head, answers the purpose of a travelling 
 cloak, and of a coverlid by night, when the weather 
 happens to require it ; his hat is made of palm-leaves : 
 his shoes, if he wears any, remind the traveller of 
 the Roman sandal, being of the same shape and ma- 
 terial ; his bed is a cotton hammock, which swings 
 from the roof of his cabin, or a hide stretched on a 
 wooden frame : the former may be deemed a luxury, 
 and is used by persons of all classes in preference to 
 any kind of bed. Food cannot fail to be abundant 
 in a climate which yields two and often three crops 
 yearly. In the elevated and temperate regions, 
 wheaten bread is generally used,* with potatoes, cab- 
 bages, peas, beans, and generally all the vegetables 
 and fruits peculiar to Europe. In the warmer dis- 
 tricts, the bread principally used is made of maize or 
 Indian corn, first beaten with a kind of wooden pes- 
 tle, then ground and washed betwixt two stones, and 
 finally converted into cakes. This process, which 
 usually occupies the females of the poorer classes half 
 the day, is a striking instance of the miserable waste 
 of labour occasioned by the want of machinery. In 
 the United States maize is ground like wheat, and 
 makes excellent flour : a second kind of bread is 
 made of the root, called Yucca, and the juice, which 
 
 * The best flour in Bogota market fetches about four dollars 
 tbe quintal. 
 
EMIGRATION TO. 61 
 
 is poisonous, expressed ; it is then spread into broad 
 thin cakes, and dried for use. In this shape it is 
 called cassava, and though much esteemed by the 
 natives, to an European palate (except perhaps a 
 Scotch one) seems harsh, insipid, and little nutri- 
 tious. Plantains are a third species of bread : this 
 fruit is the potatoe of the tropics, as far as respects 
 its abundant produce, and the almost exclusive use 
 of it by the lower classes. In their ripe state, plan- 
 tains have a very agreeable flavour, either eaten raw 
 or roasted, but the natives prefer them nearly green, 
 when they are hard, indigestible, and yield little 
 either of saccharine or farinaceous substance : their 
 cheapness and abundance principally recommend 
 them to the indolent consumer. In Maracaybo, 
 (where I am writing) 36 are in ordinary times sold 
 for three-pence farthing (a media, or half-real), and 
 three or four suffice for a meal. The vegetables pe- 
 culiar to the warmer districts are, sweet" yuccas, 
 yams, sweet potatoes, apios, arracachas, pepers, be- 
 ringhenas or egg-plants, tomatas, and various spe- 
 cies of gourds or pumpkins. The fruits are, pine- 
 apples, melons, oranges, lemons, limes, cocos, agua- 
 cates, (called in the colonies vegetable marrow), 
 guanavanas or sour-sops, chirimoyas, granadillas, 
 mameyas, sapotes, papagayas, and nisperos, besides 
 many peculiar to the country, and little known by 
 name or description in Europe. It is, however, less 
 the variety than the never-failing abundance of ve- 
 
 F 
 
62 COLOMBIA: 
 
 getable productions, which is important to new set- 
 tlers ; an acre well planted and watered, places a 
 family beyond the reach of want. Animal food is 
 equally abundant : in the plains, previous to the re- 
 volution, an ox was worth nothing but his hide, and 
 frequently no part of the flesh was consumed but 
 the tongue ; in other parts of the country where cat- 
 tle are not raised, meat is always so cheap as to be 
 within the means of the poorest labourer : the ordi- 
 nary value of an arroba, or 25 pounds on the coast, 
 is one dollar. Mutton is plentiful in the mountain 
 country ; a sheep is worth about a dollar. When 
 sheep are scarce, their place is supplied by goats, at 
 about five or six reals each (about three shillings.) 
 The value and quantity of the poultry depend en- 
 tirely on the disposition of the inhabitants, since it 
 is raised without cost or trouble ; yet, from the want 
 of industry, it is both scarcer and dearer than in 
 France : in fact, the use of it is, in most parts of the 
 interior, confined to the sick, idleness being the only 
 luxury for which the lower and middling classes have 
 any taste. Although the chase should never be 
 reckoned among the permanent resources of the 
 agriculturalist, yet the wild fowl and animals which 
 people the glades and forests, in every part of the 
 country, and the fish and turtle which abound on the 
 coasts and in the rivers, tend, not inconsiderably, 
 to diminish the difficulties, and augment the comforts 
 of the new settler. As for the drinks of the coun- 
 
EMIGRATION TO. 63 
 
 try : In New Grenada a fermented liquor is used, 
 called chicha, made of Indian corn and molasses, suf- 
 ficiently palatable and intoxicating. In Venezuela 
 and the warm country, the common beverage is a 
 liquor called guarapo, made from sugar, extremely 
 pleasant before the fermentation is carried far, when 
 it becomes acid and intoxicating, in which state it is 
 generally preferred by the common people : rum is 
 manufactured in every part of the country of a very 
 bad quality ; it is called aguardiente : the consump- 
 tion of it is very great ; beer might be made in all the 
 mountain country, and wine almost every where; 
 but the Spanish laws prohibited the cultivation both 
 of the vine and the olive, as interfering with the sale 
 of the wines and oils of the mother country. 
 
 The expenses of living are naturally greater in the 
 sea-port towns than in the interior, where they are 
 extremely small. In the former, house-rent is a 
 principal article of expense : good houses let for 50 
 dollars a month, and diminish in value according to 
 their size and accommodation, to 3 and 4. The ex- 
 pense of food may be graduated by considering that 
 the value of a soldier's ration is a real, or six-pence 
 half-penny, on which he is able to live ; and that 
 the charges of the best hotel at Caracas are one dol- 
 lar and a half per day. Country labourers' wages 
 are two reals, or thirteen pence per day ; but there 
 are few artizans who cannot earn from one to two 
 
4 COLOMBIA : 
 
 dollars, every species of handicraft labour being 
 scarce and expensive. 
 
 In fine, we may sum up the natural advantages 
 of Colombia, as compared with the United States, by 
 observing, that she has at least an equal if not a 
 greater quantity of disposable lands ; that these 
 lands are superior in the quality of their productions, 
 and more accessible ; that the quantity of labour ne- 
 cessary to be expended on them is less, and that sub- 
 sistence, including raiment, food, and lodgings, is 
 more readily obtainable. 
 
 § 3. DISPOSITION OF THE GOVERNMENT TOWARDS 
 FOREIGN SETTLERS. 
 
 The disposition of the Government can scarcely 
 be better manifested than in the words of its own 
 laws, of which we translate the following relative to 
 Emigration : 
 
 The Senate and House of Representatives of the Re- 
 public of Colombia united in Congress, 
 Considering, 
 
 1. That a population numerous and proportionate 
 to the territory of a state, is the basis of its prospe- 
 rity and true greatness ; 
 
 2. That the population of the Republic of Colom- 
 bia, which, in consequence of the barbarous system 
 adopted by the oppressive government, first, of ex- 
 
FOREIGN SETTLERS. 65 
 
 terminating the natives, and secondly, of preventing 
 the entry of all the nations of the world, never ex- 
 tended to the vast extent of her territory, has more- 
 over subsequently been in great part destroyed by 
 the war of death and desolation which she has en- 
 dured for thirteen years ; 
 
 3. That the fertility of the soil, the salubrity of the 
 cimate, the extensive unappropriated lands, and the 
 free institutions of the Republic, permit and require 
 a' numerous emigration of useful and laborious stran- 
 gers, who, by making their own fortunes, may aug- 
 ment that of the nation, have resolved to decree, and 
 do decree as follows : — 
 
 Article 1. The Executive Power, in virtue of the 
 faculty granted by the laws and constitution, and 
 of the means assigned by the present decree, shall 
 eiSaciously promote the emigration of European 
 and North American foreigners. 
 Art. 2. For this purpose it may dispose of from two 
 to three millions of fanegas of the lands belonging 
 to the vState, employing them under such condi- 
 tions and in such manner as it may deem most 
 convenient, but without being allowed to grant 
 more than two hundred fanegas to each family. 
 Art. 3. In the distribution of the said lands the Exe- 
 cutive is not subject to the dispositions of the law 
 of the 11th October, 11th year of the Republic, 
 which fix the value and forms respecting the 
 alienation of unoccupied lands. 
 F 2 
 
36 COLOMBIA: 
 
 Art 4. The Executive power shall order the neces- 
 sary arrangements relative to the situation, social 
 establishment, and other definitive regulations ne- 
 cessary to promote the emigration of foreigners^ 
 as well as the exemptions which they are to enjoy. 
 Art. 5. All the individuals of the said families? 
 as soon as they fix their residence in the territory 
 of Colombia, shall be esteemed naturalized in the 
 Republic, and shall enjoy the rights of citizens, 
 with the exception of those that the constitution 
 reserves to born citizens, or to those who have re- 
 sided a number of years in the territory of the 
 Republic. 
 Art. 6. The Executive shall endeavour that this 
 emigration consist entirely, or in greater part of 
 labourers and artizans, and shall give an account 
 of its measures for the fulfilment of this decree on 
 the first meeting of Congress* 
 
 Given in Bogota^ 7th June 1823 — 13. The Vice- 
 President of the Senate, Jeronimo e Torres— 
 The President of the Chamber of Represent 
 tatives, Domingo Caycedo — The Secretary 
 of the Senate, Jlntonio Jose Caro — The Se- 
 cretary of the Chamber, Pedro de Herrera, 
 Palace of Bogota, 11th June, 1823 — 13. 
 Let it be executed. 
 
 Francisco de Paula Santander, Vice- 
 President of the Republic in charge of the 
 Executive Power. — The Secretary of State 
 for the Interior, Jose Manuel Restrepo. 
 
FOREIGN SETTLERS. 67 
 
 DECREE OF THE GOVERNMENT. 
 
 Francisco de Paula Santander, General of 
 Division of the Armies of Colombia, Vice-Presi- 
 dent of the Republic, charged with the Executive 
 Power, &c. 
 
 The Executive Power being authorised by the law 
 of the 7th instant to promote the emigration of fo- 
 reigners, and to distribute among them two or three 
 millions of fanegas of land on the conditions therein 
 prescribed, I have thought fit to decree as follows :— - 
 
 Art. 1. Every foreigner who makes demand of land 
 in Colombia, in virtue of the said law, shall pre- 
 sent himself to the Governor or Intendant of the 
 province in which he solicits the grant, stating to 
 what nation he belongs, the number of his family, 
 profession or trade, and that which he intends 
 exercising in future. 
 Art. 2. The Governor or Intendant shall point out 
 to him the places where there are vacant lands, 
 that he may choose where he wishes for the grant ; 
 after signifying which, the lands shall be measured 
 by a competent person, named by the Governor 
 or Intendant, until the provincial land-surveying 
 officers shall be established, and, as far as possible^ 
 a topographical plan shall be made of them. 
 Art. 3. After these preliminary steps, and accord- 
 ing to the quality of the lands, the foreigner shall 
 
^8 COLOMBIA : 
 
 make his offers, showing the number of fanegas 
 he requires, and within what time he will begin 
 to cultivate them. The Governor or Intendant 
 shall remit all these documents to the Executive^ 
 with what information he may deem necessary- 
 respecting them, according to which the Supreme 
 Government will refuse or concede the lands in 
 question on the conditions it may deem expedient; 
 and in this case, it will order the Governor or In° 
 tendant to put in possession, and grant the suita- 
 ble title-deeds to the person or persons benefited. 
 
 Art. 4. The expenses of valuing, measurement, and 
 other arrangements, shall be paid from the value 
 of the lands in case of sale; when given by the 
 Government, the expenses shall be borne by the 
 party benefited : but in no case shall the govern- 
 ors, judges, or persons through whom these ar- 
 rangements are made, receive payment, and the 
 whole procedure shall be officially transmitted to 
 the Government. 
 
 Art. 5. The Government in consideration of the 
 advantage which results to the Republic from the 
 settlement of a foreigner, according to his trade, 
 art, or profession, will grant him such exemptions 
 as it may deem convenient, and as are conforma- 
 ble with the laws of the Republic. 
 
 Art. 6. The Governors and Intendants will endea- 
 vour to settle the foreigners who arrive in Co- 
 lombia on the most advantageous lands, near to 
 
FOREIGN SETTLEBS, 6S 
 
 sea-ports and navigable rivers, placing the settle- 
 ments in healthy and elevated situations. They 
 will also frame plans on which to establish these 
 settlements. 
 Art. 7. They are particularly charged with the 
 protection of the new settlers, administering to 
 them prompt justice in all their affairs, and afford- 
 ing them every possible aid within the reach of 
 their authority, until they can complete their es- 
 tablishments. 
 Art. 8. The Secretary of State and Interior is 
 charged with the execution of this decree. 
 Given at the Palace of the Government of Colom- 
 bia in Bogota, the 18th June 1823 — 13. — Fran- 
 cisco de Paula Santander, by his Excel- 
 lency the Vice-President of the Republic. The 
 Secretary of State for the Interior, Jose Man- 
 uel Restrepo. 
 
 The fanega of land is a square of 100 yards, and 
 consequently contains 2,000 square yards of super- 
 ficies. 
 
 The law of the 11th October, 1821, referred to in 
 Art. 3 of the preceding law, regulates the mode of 
 sale of unoccupied lands, fixing the value of those in 
 the maritime provinces at two dollars, and of those 
 in the interior at one dollar the fanega. The same law 
 provided for the establishment of land offices and 
 surveyors, arrangements which would have facilita- 
 ted the establishment of new settlements had they 
 
70 COLOMBIA : 
 
 been carried into effect. The project of selling 
 lands never met with success, and this was the origin 
 of the present law, which would have been more 
 satisfactory, did not the 4th Article of the Vice- 
 President's decree leave it still doubtful how far it is 
 intended to sell and how far to give the lands in 
 question.^ With experience, and necessity at its 
 side, it is indeed strange that the Government should 
 for a moment hesitate betwixt a slow and paltry- 
 profit, and a rapid increase of real national strength, 
 The law of naturalization is another instance of 
 wavering and short-sighted policy. The first law 
 was passed in September 1821, and a second in July 
 of the present year, because, as the preamble ex- 
 presses, the first had unfortunately not produced the 
 effects expected from it, on account of the heavy 
 conditions it imposes on those who require letters of 
 naturalization. It might be imagined, that after such a 
 preamble, the conditions would at least be softened; 
 but no such thing ; they remain precisely as before. 
 The possessor of property to the value of 1,000 
 dollars requires two years' residence, of 2,000 dollars 
 one years' residence, before he can obtain naturali- 
 zation; three years are necessary when there is no 
 qualification of property: all this, in the actual situa- 
 tion of Colombia, may be pronounced pure unmixed 
 nonsense. It seems, too, as if the Congress, while 
 
 * See Appendix Note G, 
 
CHARACTER, 71 
 
 framing the law of naturalization in July, had quite 
 forgotten the law of emigration of June, by the 5th 
 Article of which every occupier of 200 fanegas of 
 land becomes a naturalized citizen as soon as he 
 fixes his residence. 
 
 § 4. CHARACTER OF THE INHABITANTS AS IT 
 AFFECTS FOREIGN SETTLERS. 
 
 ■ It is as natural to desire a knowledge of the cha- 
 racter of the inhabitants as of the soil on which we 
 propose to fix our residence, and although delinea- 
 tions of national character are often little more than 
 erroneous generalizations of particular facts, it may be 
 desirable to throw some light on such points in that 
 of the present inhabitants of Colombia, as are most 
 likely to come in contact with the feelings and inter- 
 ests of foreign settlers. 
 
 One of the facts which most agreeably presents it- 
 self to the mind of the European traveller in almost 
 every part of Colombia, is the opinion which seems 
 universally felt, and is universally avowed, of the 
 necessity of a large influx of foreign settlers. Eve- 
 ry where he hears an outcry for foreigners ; every 
 where lamentations over the ignorance and indo- 
 lence of the present, inhabitants. All this is pretty 
 much as it seems : the necessity of a foreign popu- 
 lation, that is of an increase of population, which can 
 
72 COLOMBIA : 
 
 only be obtained from foreign countries, is obvious 
 to the dullest capacity ; nor is the fact of the inability 
 of the present inhabitants to profit by the immense 
 advantages of their own soil, less irresistibly clear. 
 Foreigners have won its independence, foreigners 
 have created its commerce, its marine has been fur- 
 nished, armed, manned, and commanded by foreign- 
 ers, its soldiers have been disciplined, and are still 
 armed, clothed, and, in great measure fed by foreign 
 capital ; yet all this mass of opinion and circumstance 
 hy no means proves that foreign settlers would meet 
 with that active and benevolent assistance from the 
 inhabitants which gratitude as well as interest would 
 dictate, and which their own opinions seem to pro- 
 mise. It is uncertain how far they might view with 
 philosophic good-will, a foreigner taking advantage of 
 circumstances which, though their indolence had ne- 
 glected, their cupidity might prompt them to lament. 
 Let us suppose a foreigner to discover a mine, or a 
 lucrative branch of commerce, or by some invention 
 or improvement to create a new, and consequently 
 to dry up an old, channel of profit, would the real 
 and imaginary sufferers in this case, those who had 
 missed the discovery or were sharers in the loss, be 
 likely to regard the intruder with particular favour 
 or satisfaction ? besides, the monopolizing or exclu- 
 sive system is too favourable to indolence not to find 
 many supporters, as soon as the dangers of competi- 
 tion are placed in open day : witness the law of con- 
 
CHARACTER. 73 
 
 signments. These observations, are not, however, 
 urged as a serious discouragement, but merely to 
 check extravagant expectation as to the degree of as- 
 sistance which may be calculated on. In fact, were 
 the good-will in this respect far greater than it is like- 
 ly to be, how can it be hoped that they who altoge- 
 ther lack industry in the pursuit of their own advan- 
 tage, should exert themselves to procure that of others? 
 If the line of Pope, 
 
 " Most women have no character at all," 
 have any general application, it can only be true with 
 reference to the want of firmness and fixed princi- 
 ples of conduct in which education usually leaves 
 females deficient, and in this sense it may with equal 
 justice be applied to Colombians. Long habits of 
 slavery and oppression, partially counteracted by a 
 feverish interval of liberty, ill understood and imper- 
 fectly enjoyed ; the almost total want of education, 
 and absence of that moral stimulus, which, under the 
 name of honour or character, forces every respect- 
 able individual of European society to a line of con- 
 duct conformable with his situation ; all these cir- 
 cumstances have produced a negativeness or debility 
 both in thought and action, which renders them 
 troublesome to deal with, and unfit to be relied on. 
 It is, in fact, impossible to calculate their behaviour 
 except you could be certain of the last idea which 
 has occupied their imagination, for the feeling of in- 
 terest most immediately present is pretty generally 
 
74 COLOMBIA : 
 
 decisive of their conduct. Does a merchant contract 
 with a planter for a quantity of coffee or cocoa at a 
 certain rate?— in vain would he suppose the bargain 
 concluded, should another purchaser appear and of- 
 fer the slightest advance of price. The readiness 
 with which they break a promise or an agreement, 
 can only be equalled by the sophistical ingenuity 
 with which they defend themselves for having done 
 so. In this respect they seem a nation of law- 
 yers, who, " with ease, twist words and meanings 
 as they please." As the reproach of being a liar 
 is the last insult which can be offered or en- 
 dured among freemen, so is the term lie the last 
 to be used in decent conversation ; here, on the con- 
 trary, not only is the expression a good one, and 
 adapted to the meridian of the genteelest society, 
 but the reproach of being a liar may be safely cast on 
 friend or foe with as little offence given or taken as 
 the term " Rake" or " Prodigal" would cause in a 
 fashionable London circle. It is indeed a truth worth 
 a " thousand homilies" in defence of liberty, that 
 without it there can be no virtue. 
 
 The most pleasing trait in the character of the 
 Colombian Creoles is good nature. It is easy to 
 live with them if you require little of them : they 
 have little or no active benevolence, because such 
 must result from strong powers of imagination and 
 reflection. But they are not vindictive, for revenge 
 is both a strong and a permanent feeling ; nor are 
 
CHARACTER. 75 
 
 they cruel, although this assertion may seem para- 
 doxical to those acquainted with the history of the 
 Revolution, but we must distinguish between cruel- 
 ties which are the fruit of a savage nature, and such 
 as weakness itself may give birth to, when 
 u Rous'dup to too much wrath which follows o'ergrown fears." 
 Neither are they in general proud or assuming, except 
 when they have obtained place or power, on which 
 occasions they are apt to verify the musty proverb, 
 " Set a beggar on horseback." As far as their ge- 
 neral character is diversified by local circumstances, 
 we may observe that the inhabitants of the coast line, 
 and especially of the principal sea-port towns, are 
 the most refined and intelligent : that the inhabit- 
 ants of the interior and mountain country, particu- 
 larly of New Grenada, are the most simple in their 
 habits, the least crafty in their dispositions, but ig- 
 norant, timid, selfish, and inhospitable. The inha- 
 bitants of the plains form a totally distinct class, 
 whose characteristics, as their mode of life, are pecu- 
 liarly their own. Nothing is, according to an Euro- 
 pean view of the subject, more pacific than the life 
 of a herdsman, nothing less likely to engender fero- 
 city or military habits ; it is sufficient, however, to 
 have once witnessed the mode of tending cattle in 
 South America, to form a different opinion. The im- 
 mense herds raised in boundless and unenclosed 
 plains, are gathered, penned, or conducted, as change 
 of pasture may require, by half-naked horsemen., 
 
76 COLOMBIA . 
 
 each armed with a lance, whose rapid movements, 
 shouts, and wild demeanour, suggest the idea of a 
 body of Tartar cavalry. The untamed nature of 
 the cattle themselves, the attacks of wild beasts to 
 which they are exposed, the deep and rapid rivers 
 over which they are frequently to be led, with a va- 
 riety of circumstances essential to the mode of life 
 of the Llaneros, or Plainsmen, all require and pro- 
 duce those habits by which they are distinguished ; 
 besides being the breeders and keepers of the cattle, 
 they are also their butchers, both from necessity and 
 amusement. Their chief, we may say their only, 
 pastime, is drawn from this source : to throw a 
 Lazo, or coiled rope, round a bull's horns while at 
 his speed, to pierce him in the spine, or hamstring 
 him till they have occasion to kill him, to flay, quar- 
 ter, and divide his quivering carcase with all the 
 technicality of our old European huntsman, is the 
 pride and almost the sole enjoyment of their lives. 
 The Revolution thus found them a ready-made body 
 of irregular cavalry ; a popular chief sprang up to 
 give impetus and direction to their native spirit, and 
 a very short time beheld them excellent Guerillas^ 
 and not less expert thieves and cut-throats — in their 
 favour we must revoke our negation as to the natu- 
 ral cruelty of the Colombians. fThere is not, per- 
 haps, in the world, a race of people who shed hu- 
 man blood with more indifference or with slighter 
 temptation ; it is difficult to say by what good quali 
 
CHARACTER 77 
 
 ties, if we except courage, and a strong love of in- 
 dependence, their defects are redeemed or qualified; 
 pacific virtues they have none ; it is fortunate, how- 
 ever, that the natural abundance of the plains tends 
 constantly to diminish their disposition towards a 
 life of savage marauding ; were it otherwise, the 
 Llarenos would be to Colombia, what the Moors of 
 the Nubian desert are to Egypt, and the interior of 
 Africa. 
 
 Should experience hereafter decide, that any of 
 the foregoing observations are severe or unmerited, 
 it will be necessary to keep in mind the rapid changes 
 to which the whole social system of this country 
 will be subjected. Truth to day, may to-morrow 
 seem libel, or flattery, according as the new moral 
 impulse is favourable or unfavourable to humanity ; 
 above all, as far as respects foreign settlers, it is de- 
 sirable they should come prepared in all things for 
 the ivorst ; should rather be invigorated by unlooked- 
 for advantages, than chilled by unexpected difficul- 
 ties : neither is calumny equally fatal to a nation as 
 an individual. The means of vindication are, in the 
 former case, too numerous and striking to leave the 
 question long doubtful. How many attempts have 
 been made to asperse and degrade the government 
 and population of the United States ! but has the 
 career of her prosperity been less rapid ? Is her 
 example less consoling to outraged freedom? 
 
7S COLOMBIA 
 
 § 5. MODES OF EMIGRATION, AND DESCRIPTION Of 
 PERSONS MOST PROPER FOR THIS PURPOSE. 
 
 All classes of persons who look to emigration as 
 the means of bettering their condition, may be com- 
 prehended under the heads of manufacturers, arti- 
 sans, and agriculturists, the latter comprehending 
 as well agricultural labourers, as capitalists intend- 
 ing to employ their funds in lands ; the learned pro- 
 fessions are clearly out of the question, if we except 
 a few medical men, who would, however, scarcely 
 find their talents recompensed ; and as for the fine 
 arts, they would in vain seek honour and profit in a 
 new country. 
 
 With respect to manufacturers ; the observations 
 already made on the state of the country, with the 
 many more which must readily present themselves 
 to every one in the least acquainted with the prin- 
 ciples of political economy, will be decisive against 
 their seeking to establish themselves in Colombia, 
 It is not that in one or two solitary instances, manu- 
 factures might not be established with something 
 like success — a manufacture for coarse pottery, for 
 example, in some parts of the interior, but the con- 
 dition of the country is essentially unfavourable to 
 manufacturers, and favourable to agriculturists; and 
 as for the few speculations which have any good 
 foundation^ together with many more that have no 
 
MODES OF EMIGRATION, &c. 79 
 
 foundation at all, there are already more than enough 
 projectors employed on them. 
 
 The ease is not the same with regard to Jiriisans. 
 In those trades which require neither large capitals, 
 expensive machinery, nor a complication of labour, 
 many circumstances will contribute to give the 
 home-made article an advantage over the article im- 
 ported, of equal quality : it is evidently indifferent 
 to the purchaser, whether a yard of cloth or linen be 
 home-made or imported, provided he can obtain it 
 when he wants it, of the suitable price and quality ; 
 but, in the case of a pair of boots or shoes, or of a 
 suit of clothes, both taste and convenience would in- 
 duce him to give the preference to the tailor or shoe- 
 maker nearest at hand, always supposing the work 
 and materials equal. There are, also, branches of 
 trade which can scarcely be furnished by importa- 
 tion, such as carpenters' work, joiners', masons', 
 blacksmiths', painters', sawyers', &c. ; tanning is 
 also a trade which might prove advantageous, the 
 hides and bark being extremely cheap, and the na- 
 tive leather, at present, perfectly unserviceable, 
 which is the great difficulty with which European 
 shoemakers and sadlers would have to contend. 
 Furniture is imported in all the sea-port towns from 
 Jamaica and Cura^oa, but this is both expensive and 
 troublesome, even on the coast, and almost impossi- 
 ble in the interior : neat cabinet makers would con- 
 sequently, find great encouragement. But, though 
 
SO COLOMBIA j 
 
 the state of the country offers advantages to foreign 
 artisans of the above descriptions, it is obvious 
 that the demand for them must be limited : it is 
 probable, that there is scarcely a town or village in 
 Colombia, in which one or two European shoemakers 
 might not earn a comfortable subsistence, but it is 
 also evident, that if ten arrived in the same place, 
 seven or eight of them would be compelled to starve, 
 or change their occupation. The mode of emigra- 
 tion^ therefore, with respect to artisans, is, in great 
 measure, the reverse of that to be observed by agri- 
 culturists. It should be always by individuals, or 
 very small bodies. Each workman, as he arrives 
 with his tools, has only to look out for a lodging, 
 and begin his labours. If the peculiar circumstan- 
 ces of the place at which he disembarks are unfavour- 
 able, a short journey will always convey him to a 
 more advantageous spot. Individually, the industri- 
 ous artisan will rarely fail to realize the fable of the 
 Cat and the Fox ; his single shift will suffice for his 
 preservation. It is to agricultural emigrants our 
 observations are principally directed, because it is 
 they who will constitute the great mass of emigra- 
 tion, and produce the most important changes in the 
 moral and physical aspect of the country. As to 
 the description of persons most proper for this pur- 
 pose, there can be little difficulty : the labourer should 
 be hardy, sober, and industrious, and few think of 
 ; emigrating who do not 5 more or less, possess these 
 
MODES OF EMIGRATION, &c. 81 
 
 qualifications. With respect to capitalists, their 
 aptitude will clearly depend on their intelligence, 
 and previous habits ; to point out all their necessary 
 qualifications would be imitating the writers on mili- 
 tary tactics, who always lay down as an axiom, that 
 a general should possess every virtue and talent un- 
 der the sun, though in practice much of this may and 
 must be abated. 
 
 With respect to the most effectual mode of exe- 
 cuting any plan of emigration, which has for its ob- 
 ject an agricultural establishment, the most import- 
 ant point is, to combine in the same plan the advan- 
 tages of capital and labour. The capitalist who 
 should attempt to employ native labour, and the 
 foreign labourers, who should look to native em- 
 ployers, are likely to meet with equal discourage- 
 ment. The more numerous the body of emigrants, 
 the greater the prospect of success, supposing the pre- 
 vious arrangements to be judiciously planned ; inas- 
 much as the labourers have no capital but their la- 
 bour, the expenses of their transport and the neces- 
 sary advances for their subsistence must be borne 
 by the capitalists, who have a right to an adequate 
 portion of their labour in return, on their arrival at 
 the new settlement. Engagements must be entered 
 into to secure these mutual advantages, but the 
 question naturally arises, whether the Colombian 
 courts of justice will acknowledge and enforce con- 
 tracts made in a foreign country? According to the 
 
82 COLOMBIA : 
 
 inquiries I have made on the subject, it appears that 
 such contracts will be acknowledged and enforced 
 by the laws of Colombia, as has been already decided 
 in the case of workmen, hired in the colonies to 
 build houses in Colombia, and who refused on their 
 arrival to fulfil their contract. It would, however, 
 be desirable, that, in the case of emigrants, such con- 
 tracts should be made in the presence of the envoy, 
 or political agent of the Republic, resident in the 
 country from which the emigration is to be made. 
 
 § 6. PREPARATIONS NECESSARY. 
 
 A body of agricultural emigrants, having united, 
 according to the foregoing idea of a combination of 
 capital and labour (for in every other manner, emi- 
 gration could scarcely be carried into effect without 
 much suffering and difficulty), the first step to be 
 taken, after deciding generally on the part of the 
 country in which the settlement is to be made, 
 should be, to send an agent to the seat of the depart- 
 mental government, to provide for carrying into 
 effect the dispositions of the general government, as 
 specified in its laws on this subject already quoted. 
 It would be desirable that the person appointed for 
 this purpose, besides the indispensable knowledge of 
 the quality of lands, should possess such a fluency 
 in the Spanish language as may enable him to trans- 
 act his business personally with the government, 
 
PREPARATIONS NECESSARY. 83 
 
 and its agents, as well as to make the necessary en- 
 quiries relative to the objects of his mission. For, 
 though in all sea-port towns interpreters may easily 
 be met with, it is obvious that a knowledge of the 
 language of a country is both a key to much import- 
 ant information, as well as an instrument to van- 
 quish a variety of difficulties, the want of which can 
 be supplied in no other manner. It will be necessa- 
 ry, that, with respect to the quality and situation of 
 the lands proposed to be allotted, the agent should 
 rely on no species of report or description that is not 
 confirmed by the testimony of his own eyesight. 
 It is also necessary, that the terms of possession, 
 rights or immunities, to be granted to the settlers, 
 together with every other point which may be made 
 a question betwixt them and the government, should 
 be clearly explained, and committed to writing. 
 
 These preliminary arrangements having been con- 
 cluded, it remains only for the emigrating body to 
 make provision of the articles most necessary for its 
 establishment ; and here we notice, it would be desi- 
 rable, every body of agriculturists should have united 
 to it a small number of carpenters, smiths, sawyers, 
 mill-wrights and other artizans, most necessary in a 
 new settlement. The articles most important to be 
 brought out are agricultural implements, such as 
 ploughs and harness, axes, spades and shovels, saws, 
 pickaxes, machinery for water-mills, carpenters 5 
 tools, distilling apparatus, machinery for cleaning 
 
84 COLOMBIA : 
 
 cotton and coffee, a medicine chest, salted provisions 
 for the first four or five months residence, clothes 
 and furniture ; with regard to the latter articles, it 
 is impossible to specify quanty or quality, since 
 these must depend on the taste and means of the set- 
 tlers ; I have already noticed how little is absolutely 
 necessary, but beyond this, it may be observed, that 
 every manufactured article, especially as it approaches 
 towards an article of taste or luxury, is much dearer, 
 and worse in quality in Colombia than in Europe, 
 whence it must be exported, and, consequently, that 
 every thing of this kind which emigrants may re- 
 quire or deem necessary, they should bring with 
 them in the greatest abundance possible, since the 
 overplus may be always disposed of to considerable 
 advantage ; arms too, both for the chase and for de- 
 fence, should not be neglected ; live stock, except as 
 a matter of tasteful speculation, is unnecessar} r . 
 
 § 7. CHOICE OF PLACE. 
 
 The manner in which South America was origi- 
 nally peopled by the Spaniards is extremely favour- 
 able to the formation of new settlements : when the 
 colonization of a new country is peaceably carried 
 on, population spreads gradually, from the sea-coast 
 and navigable rivers towards the interior and moun- 
 tainous districts, which are the last to be occupied. 
 But the Spanish system of conquest and plunder.. 
 
CHOICE OF PLACE. $5 
 
 demanded a contrary method; small bands of adven- 
 turers penetrated through pathless wilds, and across 
 the most inaccessible mountains ; their establish- 
 ments were rather military posts than colonies, the 
 extent of the country peopled, bearing; no proportion 
 to that occupied. There are in consequence, large 
 intermediate tracts of vacant territory, admirably 
 adapted for new settlements, to which the towns 
 and villages already existing form so many Points 
 cPappiti, for the purposes of supplies and communi- 
 cation both external and internal ; for though new 
 settlements require space, both to exist and spread 
 upon, it is by no means desirable that they should 
 be planted in an actual desert, where the greater 
 part of the settlers may perish from want, disease, 
 and hardships, before the establishment acquires 
 strength and maturity ; as was fatally experienced 
 b}' the early North American colonists. 
 
 Of the ten departments into which the Republic 
 is divided, the four maritime departments of the 
 Orinoco, Caracas, Zu'ia, and the Magdalena, which 
 occupy the whole extent of coast, from the mouths 
 of the Orinoco to the Isthmus of Panama, are, in 
 every respect, the most eligible for the purposes of 
 colonization. 
 
 1. The department of the Orinoco, comprehends 
 the provinces of Guyana, Cumana, Barcelona, and 
 Margaritta. 
 
56 COLOMBIA : 
 
 The residence of the departmental government is 
 in the city of Cumana : the cities of Angostura in 
 Guyana, Barcelona in Barcelona, and Assuncion in 
 the island of Margaritta, are the residence of the se- 
 veral provincial governors. 
 
 The province of Guyana is bounded by the Ori- 
 noco, the rich alluvial lands of which are of astonish- 
 ing fertility ; the chief settlements consisted, for- 
 merly, of reduced or christianized Indians, but the 
 war has left this province nearly desolate. Its pro- 
 ductions are cocoa, cotton, tobacco, cattle, and gene- 
 rally every species of vegetation peculiar to hot and 
 moist climates. Angostura is the great depot of the 
 trade of the plains, hides and cattle. The climate 
 is unhealthy, and liable to contagious fevers.* 
 
 The province of Cumana, lies betwixt the Orinoco 
 and the part of the coast opposite to Trinidad and 
 Margaritta. The banks of the Orinoco offer many ad- 
 vantageous situations for new settlements, particular- 
 ly the neighbourhood of Barrancas, betwixtthe mouth 
 of the river and Angostura, which will probably one 
 day surpass Angostura, from its superior local advan- 
 tages, and greater proximity to the sea. The lands 
 bordering on the gulf of Paria, and the rivers which 
 empty themselves into it, are all of great fertility, and 
 famous for the cultivation of cocoa. The immediate 
 vicinity of the island of Trinidad, is here a considera- 
 
 * Some account of Guyana was given to the public by the 
 late Mr. Princep, in one of the London Reviews or Magazines. 
 
CHOICE OF PLACE. S7 
 
 ble advantage; the neighbourhood of the gulf of Ca- 
 riaco, adjacent to Cumana itself, is also eminently fer- 
 tile, and there is little doubt that the mountains, called 
 the Bergantine, which terminate the Andes to the east 
 in this province, would be found adapted to the cul- 
 ture of coffee, with the advantage of a more mitigated 
 temperature, than can be found on the level lands 
 near the coast. 
 
 The province of Barcelona is almost uninhabited, 
 but very fertile, and equally adapted to breeding cat- 
 tle and to agriculture. 
 
 The Island of Margaritta is of too small an extent 
 to be eligible for purposes of Colonization. 
 
 2. The department of Caracas comprehends the 
 provinces of Caracas and Barinas. 
 
 The residence of the departmental government or 
 Intendency is the city of Caracas : the city of Bari- 
 nas is the residence of the governor of that province. 
 
 The province of Caracas, whether we consider its 
 temperature, natural beauty, or fertility, is almost 
 unrivalled upon earth, but in some respects, it is 
 less advantageous for colonization than other less at- 
 tractive provinces. The quantity of its unoccupied 
 lands are much less : those already in cultivation 
 have in many places become in some degree ex- 
 hausted, besides that, there is scarcely an estate upon 
 which there are not such a variety of chains and 
 shackles, as would involve a purchaser, especially a 
 foreigner, in an endless series of litigations ; perhaps 
 
88 COLOMBIA: 
 
 the best advice to give to emigrants is to abstain 
 from visiting this province, since they could not, 
 without difficulty and regret, renounce the celestial 
 climate of Caracas, and the lovely valleys of Aragua, 
 for the superior advantages to be reaped in any other 
 part of Colombia. The line of country least inha- 
 bited, and consequently most proper for new settle- 
 ments, is that betwixt Valencia and San Carlos, and 
 a beautiful tract it is, especially in the neighbourhood 
 of Carabolo. 
 
 The province of Barinas is eminently favourable to 
 colonization. It consists entirely of plains intersected 
 by numerous rivers, most of them navigable, which 
 descend into the Apure, and thus communicate with 
 the Orinoco. The banks of these rivers are covered 
 with superb forests, and when cleared, produce abun- 
 dantly cocoa, indigo, cotton, sugar-cane, tobacco, 
 maize, rice, and all kinds of fruits, and vegetables. 
 The savannahs breed innumerable herds of cattle ; 
 the Cordilleras of Pamplona, Merido, and Truxillo, 
 border it on the west and north, and supply it with 
 wheat and every production of temperate climates, 
 even to the luxury of snow : by these mountains it 
 communicates with the lake of Maracaybo, and 
 through the lesser ridges of La Palomera, and Las 
 Hermanas, with Valencia and Puerto Cabello. The 
 cities of Barinas, Guanore, Arauze, San Carlos, and 
 San Fernando de Apure, were rapidly advancing 
 previous to the war, which visited this province with 
 the full measure of its destructive fury. 
 
CHOICE OF PLACE. S9 1 
 
 3. The department of Zulia comprehends the 
 provinces of Coro, Merida, Truxillo, and Mara- 
 caybo. 
 
 The residence of the departmental government is 
 Maracaybo : the cities of Coro, Merida, and Trux- 
 illo, those of the respective provincial governors. 
 The province of Coro is in many parts arid and ste- 
 ril. In the mountains of the interior, the cultivation 
 of coffee has been introduced with success. Cattle, 
 goats, mules, and asses, were bred in the plains, but 
 the province is, from the effects of the war, almost a 
 desert. 
 
 The province of Merida possesses the advantages 
 of a delightful climate, and a fertile, though moun- 
 tainous, territory ; wheat, tobacco, and all fruits and 
 grains of temperate climates, are raised abundantly 
 in the high lands, while the low warm valleys pro- 
 duce sugar-cane and cocoa, and all tropical fruits. 
 Coffee could be cultivated to great advantage on the 
 mountains. The superb valley of San Chrystoval, 
 near Cucuta, deserves the foreign settler's consider- 
 ation. 
 
 The province of Truxillo differs little from that of 
 Merida, except that its mountains are steeper, and 
 the valleys more confined. 
 
 The province of Maracaybo possesses great agri- 
 cultural and commercial advantages. Its capital, 
 besides being a sea-port town, is situated on a lake 
 which spreads into the interior, with a length of 
 h 2 
 
90 COLOMBIA : 
 
 about 150 miles from north to south, and a breadth 
 of 70 or 80 from east to west. Nearly a hundred 
 rivers and streams discharge themselves into its ba- 
 sin, the banks of which are of an astonishing fertility, 
 but many of the settlements have been partially 
 abandoned from the unhealthiness of the climate. 
 A great part of the trade of New Grenada passes 
 through Maracaybo by way of the valleys of 
 Cucuta. 
 
 4. The department of the Magdalena compre- 
 hends the provinces of Rio Hacha, Santa Marta, and 
 Cartagena. 
 
 The provinces of Rio Hacha and Santa Marta, 
 being separated by no mutual boundary or charac- 
 teristic, we shall consider as one tract of country, 
 It occupies about two degrees of longitude, and one 
 and a half of latitude ; is bounded to the west and 
 east by the rivers Magdalena and Rio Hacha, and 
 to the north and south by the Ocean, and that part 
 of the chain of the Andes which traverses the pro- 
 vince of Ocana. It is besides intersected by the 
 beautiful and lofty ridge called the Sierra Nevada^ 
 or Snow Mountains of Santa Marta, whence descend 
 the numerous streams which water it in every di- 
 rection. It is on these streams, several of which 
 are navigable for some distance, and betwixt this 
 ridge of mountains and the sea, a foreign settlement 
 might, in my opinion, be most advantageously estab- 
 
CHOICE OF PLACE, 91 
 
 Hshed ; the lands are unoccupied, with the excep- 
 tion of two small villages of peaceful and inoffensive 
 Indians : they are eminently fertile, and capable of 
 producing abundantly cocoa, coffee, cotton, sugar- 
 cane, indigo, rice, tobacco, maize, and all kinds of 
 fruits and vegetables. There are large tracts of 
 pasture lands of excellent quality for raising cattle. 
 The climate is healthy, and the settler has the advan- 
 tage, by ascending into the mountains, of choosing a 
 temperament congenial to his constitution, and afford- 
 ing him every production of the temperate zone. 
 The sea abounds in fish, and the woods with game 
 and wild fowl. The city and port of Santa Marta 
 are on the left, the village of Camerones and port of 
 Rio Hacha on the right, the latter within four or 
 five hours ride or sail, and affording a market as well 
 for produce raised, as for every article of consump- 
 tion required in the colony ; add to which advan- 
 tage, that the settler may be brought from Europe 
 and landed on the very spot he intends to cultivate. 
 The trade of Brazil-wood might also be rendered a 
 very profitable speculation in the province of Rio 
 Hacha, with a capital of about a Thousand Pounds, 
 to be laid out in the purchase of mules to convey it 
 from the interior to the Rio Hacha market. Ano- 
 ther tract of country scarcely less advantageous, lies 
 betwixt the Ocana and Santa Marta mountains to its 
 north and south, and the towns of El Valle and Chi- 
 riguana to the east and west. It communicates with 
 
92 COLOMBIA: 
 
 the Magdalena by a series of small lakes; with the 
 interior by the Ocana mountains ; and with the sea- 
 coast by Santa Marta and Rio Hacha. It contains a 
 length of about 30 leagues, with an indefinite 
 breadth, towards the mountains, of alternate woods 
 and savanahs, watered by abundant streams. The 
 climate, though warm, is healthy, and untroubled 
 by the insects which swarm near the great rivers. 
 Betwixt Chiriguana and the Indian village of the Ci- 
 enaga, on the sea-coast near Santa Marta, is a third 
 tract of almost uninhabited country, extending about 
 70 leagues from north to south, nearly covered with 
 superb forests, and abounding with lands of excel- 
 lent quality, especially on the rivers, which descend 
 from the snow-mountains into the lake or Cienaga* 
 The river Magdalena forms its western boundary; 
 the few villages and farms scattered over it, though 
 not numerous enough to impede fresh settlements, 
 are sufficient to afford them such aid as their infant 
 state necessarily requires. 
 
 The province of Cartagena contains excellent 
 lands, especially on the banks of the Magdalena, the 
 advantages and disadvantages of which, have been 
 already stated : there is, however, one spot, which 
 peculiarly claims attention : this is the port of Sava- 
 nilia, at the mouth of the Magdalena ; the lands here 
 are finely timbered, and the temperature refreshed 
 by strong breezes, but the principal advantage con- 
 sists in its being the natural port of Magdalena^ in 
 
DIFFICULTIES OF LANGUAGE, See, 93 
 
 which capacity, there is little doubt, it will one day- 
 become the emporium of the whole trade of the in- 
 terior, though it is closed at present by order of the 
 government for the purpose of favouring Santa Marta, 
 which would be abandoned should commerce be left 
 to its natural channel ; the communication beiwixt 
 the latter and the river being troublesome and cir- 
 cuitous, through the canals which unite with the 
 Cienaga ; whereas Savanilla is the mouth of the river 
 itself; its chief defect as a port is, the shallowness 
 of the river immediately above it, which is caused 
 by the number of mouths through which the Mag- 
 dalena discharges itself into the ocean ; even flat boats 
 when loaded have, in the dry season, some difficul- 
 ty in ascending from Savanilla to Barranquilla. It 
 is probable this defect might be remedied, by closing 
 up the mouth called Boca Viega, but the country 
 is not, at present, ripe for such an undertaking. 
 
 § 8, DIFFICULTIES ARISING FROM DIFFERENCE OF 
 LANGUAGE, CUSTOMS, AND RELIGION. 
 
 It is superfluous to point out the disadvantages of 
 not speaking the language of the country in which 
 we dwell, or to insist on the importance of acquir- 
 ing it by some, at least, of the individuals who pro- 
 pose to form a new settlement : experience, how- 
 ever, shows us, that it is by no means an evil of 
 such magnitude as greatly to impede a scheme of 
 colonization. In Pennsylvania and .New York^ 
 
94 COLOMBIA: 
 
 there are whole districts inhabited by Germans f 
 most of whom speak no English ; the inhabitants of 
 New Orleans are chiefly French ; Lower Canada is 
 peopled by French and English, and the island of 
 Cura^oa, by every nation of Europe. Every body 
 of emigrants should be provided with two or three 
 interpreters, and these, with due care to acquire the 
 Spanish language, on the part of such colonists whose 
 education, and circumstances will permit it, will 
 prove sufficient for all practical purposes. 
 
 There is nothing in the habits and customs of the 
 Colombians to intimidate foreign settlers; the inha- 
 bitants are much less pertinaciously attached to their 
 own usages, than they are desirous of imitating those 
 of other nations. Nor is there any thing in their 
 way of life to which a foreigner may not readily ac- 
 commodate himself, although such complaisance will 
 be neither exacted nor required. 
 
 The matter of Religion requires more considera- 
 tion. A law was published, dated August 22nd, 
 1821, to abolish the Inquisition, and restore to the 
 ecclesiastical courts, jurisdiction in matters of reli- 
 gion, according to the canons and customs of the 
 Roman Catholic Church : the 3rd article of this law 
 says : (i Juridical proceedings in such cases (in mat- 
 ters of faith) shall take place only with respect to 
 Roman Catholics born in Colombia, their children, 
 and those who, having come from other countries, 
 shall have enrolled themselves in the parish registers 
 
DIFFICULTIES OF LANGUAGE, &c. 95 
 
 of the Catholics ; but not with respect to strangers 
 who may come to establish themselves temporarily 
 or permanently nor with their descendants; who 
 can in no manner be molested on account of their 
 belief though they ought to respect the Roman Ca- 
 tholic worship and religion. 
 
 That Toleration is here established, as to the creed 
 of foreigners, there can be no doubt, but it is not 
 equally clear, that this toleration includes the liberty 
 openly to profess and celebrate the rites of their re- 
 spective forms of worship; in such a case the law 
 would require interpretation* and in what spirit 
 would the interpretation be made? As far as respects 
 the opinions of the individuals who compose the go- 
 vernment, and, generally, of all the enlightened men 
 throughout the country, there is little doubt it would 
 be favourable, but the interference of the clergy must 
 in such a case be reckoned on j nor can it be denied 
 that the government, perhaps from an exaggerated 
 calculation of clerical influence, has manifested a dis- 
 position to humour the prejudice of this body, which 
 may render it a problematical question, how far the 
 liberality of its private opinions might control its 
 public conduct. The clergy, on the other hand, are 
 no strangers to the contempt in which their doctrines 
 are held by the enlightened part of the community ; 
 but, as long as this inward feeling is accompanied by 
 no overt a- 5 t of secession, they console themselves 
 with the influence they possess over the ignorant rna~ 
 
96 COLOMBIA i 
 
 jority, and the knowledge that this influence must 
 ensure them the consideration of the government* 
 The toleration of a- rival church, would, however, 
 prove a very different affair : here is not only divi- 
 sion of opinion, but threatened division of pelf and 
 power, and the resistance to such innovation would, 
 doubtless, be proportioned to the interests jeopar- 
 dized. Travellers have noticed the apparent libe- 
 rality of the South American clergy towards stran- 
 gers of a different creed, but their bigotry in such 
 cases is only sleeping because unprovoked ; a solita- 
 ry Protestant traveller may be an object of curiosity, 
 but not of dread or suspicion. Not so, when indivi- 
 I duals of the same persuasion appear in hundreds or 
 1 thousands. The abuse of heretics has long been the 
 / favourite theme in the pulpits of Caracas, and this 
 city has been repeatedly threatened with a second 
 earthquake, in judgment of such abominations. With- 
 out pretending to foretel what course would be fol- 
 lowed by the government, or sanctioned by public 
 opinion, when a case of toleration, in the full sense 
 of the word, practically occurs, we may observe, 
 that if Colombia pretends to tread in the steps of the 
 United States, and to grow powerful by the admis- 
 sion of foreigners into her bosom, some change in her 
 religious system, either legally sanctioned or con- 
 ventionally allowed, must eventually take place. 
 The ecclesiastical regulations, which at present in- 
 terdict marriages betwixt Roman Catholics and he- 
 
DISEASES OF THE COUNTRY. 97 
 
 retics, are* of themselves, a barrier against the amal- 
 gamation of foreigners with the existing population; 
 and exemplify the impossibility of combining reli- 
 gious intolerance with a liberal form of civil govern- 
 ment 
 
 § 9. DISEASES OF THE CLIMATE. 
 
 It is not to be expected that an individual who 
 -pretends to no medical science, should write on the 
 subject of diseases with professional accuracy. Ob- 
 servation and experience may, however, do some- 
 thing to supply the place of science, when the latter 
 is not to be obtained, and this is the more necessary, 
 since the condition of an incipient colony will scarce- 
 ly tempt respectable medical men to employ their 
 talents on its members, who must, in most cases of 
 disease depend on their domestic medicine-chesty 
 with such information as they have been able to pro- 
 cure, as to the mode of applying its contents to the 
 maladies of the country. 
 
 The diseases of the mountainous and temperate 
 districts are few and simple, nor require a treatment 
 different from that which is commonly known and 
 pursued in the north of Europe. There is, however, 
 one exception to this rule ; this is the malady known 
 by the name of papos in this country, and that of 
 goitre in Switzerland : it appears in the shape of a 
 swelling on the throat, which rapidly increases, so 
 1 
 
93 COLOMBIA : 
 
 as often to become larger than the head itself. Be- 
 sides the peculiar deformity of this malady it is 
 observed to be so radical a sign of constitutional 
 weakness, that the children of goitred parents are 
 commonly deaf or dumb, and in the succeeding 
 generation become entirely idiots. This disease 
 exists to an alarming extent through the whole of 
 the mountainous region of the interior ; villages are 
 to be met with, in which there is scarcely an indi- 
 vidual but bears this unseemly excrescence. The 
 cause of it has been much disputed on, and with lit- 
 tle success ; the prevailing opinion attributes it to the 
 waters, although the great distance in which it is to 
 be met with, through tracts of country watered by 
 streams of all descriptions, renders this improbable. 
 The plant barachero has also had the reputation of 
 causing it, by infecting the waters near which it 
 grows : a more probable cause seems to be constitu- 
 tional debility, whatever may be its origin ; in proof 
 of which we may observe, that goitres prevail in 
 those parts of the country, the inhabitants of which 
 are noted for feebleness both moral and physical ; 
 that, among these, women and men of sedentary 
 and mactive habits are chiefly attacked by it ; and, fi- 
 nally, that such as are engaged in constant exercise, 
 the boatmen of the Magdalena, for example, escape 
 altogether. With respect to the cure, no panacea 
 has yet been discovered : in its earliest stages, how- 
 ever, the tumour may be cut away without danger. 
 
DISEASES OF THE CLIMATE. 99 
 
 and a change of climate seldom fails to disperse it 5 
 burnt sponge has also been used with success; but 5 
 when the complaint has made great progress, it 
 would be unsafe to operate surgically, and the case 
 may be considered as remediless. The government 
 has recently invited the attention of medical men to 
 this subject. 
 
 The diseases which reign with peculiar violence 
 on the sea-coast, on the borders of great rivers, and 
 in all hot, low, and damp situations, are fevers, and 
 dysenteries. The exhalations of noxious miasmata, 
 which escape from stagnant waters, and from waste 
 uncultivated lands, are generally considered the pri- 
 mary cause of the first ; while unwholesome diet, bad 
 water, intemperance, and whatever tends to derange 
 the digestive faculty, may be regarded as the princi- 
 pal causes of the second, and very often, directly or 
 indirectly, of both ; it is consoling, however, to re- 
 flect, that all these causes are, more or less, subject 
 to the control of man ; experience has abundantly 
 proved, that in proportion as the soil is cleared, and 
 exposed to the rays of the sun, for the purposes of 
 cultivation, noxious exhalations diminish, or are ra- 
 pidly dispersed, through the atmosphere. In towns 
 and villages the evil would scarcely exist, were it not 
 from the want of police, and indolence of the inha- 
 bitants, who suffer the environs of their habitations to 
 be encumbered with stagnant pools, bushes, and all 
 kinds of filth and rubbish; a neglect, which, not 
 
100 COLOMBIA . 
 
 unfrequently, proves as fatal to themselves as iu 
 strangers. In forming a new settlement, too much 
 attention cannot be paid to choosing a dry elevated 
 situation : the immediate neighbourhood of small 
 lakes or ponds should be carefully avoided. The 
 lands round the village should be cleared as soon as 
 possible, so as to admit a free circulation of air, 
 which is scarcely to be obtained in any of the Cre- 
 ole villages; unless accidentally afforded by local 
 circumstances. Such lakes or ponds as are neces- 
 sary to be retained, should be left surrounded by a 
 small belt of trees, by which the noxious vapours 
 will be, in great measure, absorbed ; it is desirable 
 also, to avoid approaching them after sunset, or early 
 in the morning, especially with an empty stomach; 
 a proper attention to clearing and cleansing the im- 
 mediate neighbourhood of the settlement will also 
 powerfully contribute to destroy the swarms of 
 sandflies and mosquitos so tormenting to Europeans. 
 With regard to the symptoms and classification of 
 the several tropical fevers, I shall confine myself to 
 such broad outlines, as can scarcely be mistaken by 
 the most ignorant ; and with regard to remedies, to 
 such as are simplest in their application, and recom- 
 mended by the best medical opinions, without too 
 confidently assuring their success. It is superfluous, 
 and might seem presuming, to venture upon such 
 questions, as, whether these fevers differ in kind, or 
 only in degree, whether they have a similar or dis- 
 
DISEASES OF THE CLIMATE. 101 
 
 tinct origin. One observation the resident in tropi- 
 cal climates will scarcely fail to make, which is, the 
 propensity of the milder species rapidly to assume 
 the type of the more malignant, and of all to termi- 
 nate in that species called the black vomit. 
 
 Intermittent fevers, or agues, are the most com- 
 mon and least dreaded ; they prevail in all damp and 
 newly-cleared districts, even where the climate is 
 temperate. The mode of treatment is similar to that 
 of Europe, the bowels are first cleansed, either by 
 salts, or a strong dose of calomel and jalap ; after 
 which bark is generally employed with success. 
 Sometimes, however, a change of air is necessary to 
 complete the cure, and in obstinate cases, " Fow- 
 ler's Solution of Arsenic," is a valuable medicine. 
 Simple inflammatory fevers, called by the natives 
 tabardillaSf are distinguished by strength and rapi- 
 dity of pulse, head-aches, eyes starting and inflamed, 
 high colour, heat of the skin and early delirium: the 
 usual mode of cure is the free use of purgatives, par- 
 ticularly calomel and jalap, and refreshing drinks: 
 bleeding and vomits in the first stage of the disease 
 are sometimes used with success, though the prac- 
 tice seems dangerous from the rapid tendency of the 
 system to great debility, and irritation of the sto- 
 mach. Cold effusions would, most probably, be 
 beneficial, though I have never seen them tried. 
 The third, and most dangerous class of fevers, is that 
 which is more strictly denominated putrid or bi- 
 i 2 
 
102 COLOMBIA . 
 
 Hous, and which not unfrequently terminates in black 
 vomit. Its symptoms in the first stage, are violent 
 pains in the back and limbs, and over the temples; 
 great depression and debility ; pulse feeble ; if the 
 disease gains ground, violent irritation of the sto- 
 mach succeeds, attended by frequent vomitings of 
 a matter, in colour and consistency resembling cof- 
 fee grounds ; hence the name of black vomit. Ther 
 patient now becomes restless and irritable, his 
 tongue is black and furred, the pulse grows almost 
 imperceptible, and the fatal hiccup too surely an- 
 nounces a speedy and painful dissolution. As to 
 the method of cure, there are naturally various opin- 
 ions, some maintaining the necessity of breaking 
 down the fever by purges, bleedings, and low diet ? 
 while others uphold the method of stimulants and 
 tonics. Both opinions may be founded in reason*, 
 as far as respects the two stages of the disease : in 
 the first, or inflammatory stage, strong purgatives, 
 and even bleeding are useful : I have seen the most 
 violent symptoms yield in twenty-four hours to 
 strong doses of calomel and jalap, and nothing left 
 of the disease but a slight debility ; but it cannot be 
 denied, that the same treatment has, in other instan- 
 ces, led to the most fatal consequences. When, 
 from the patient's peculiar habit of body, or little 
 custom of taking mercury, this medicine can be 
 brought to act speedily upon the system, so as to 
 produce salivation, there is every reason to hope fbr 
 
DISEASES OP THE CLIMATE. 103 
 
 the best, at least, in such cases, I have never seen it 
 fail : should, however, the contrary prove the case, 
 the period of debility rapidly conies on, and requires 
 a directly contrary treatment ; blisters on the back 
 and stomach, sinapisms, tonics, in the shape of black 
 laudanum, vitriolic ether, wine, especially cham- 
 pagne, and soda-water, are chiefly to be relied on. 
 It is said, that charcoal has, from its antiseptic qua- 
 lities, been used with considerable success. The pe- 
 riod of this malady seldom exceeds four days, and it 
 not uncommonly passes through all its stages in two. 
 The eyes and skin, previous to dissolution, are often 
 strongly tinged with yellow, but this is by no means 
 a constant symptom, nor am I aware that this dis- 
 ease has been completely identified with the yellow 
 fever, though it is probable, if they differ at all, it is 
 only in the minor symptoms. I have never disco- 
 vered the black vomit to be contagious, though I have 
 had but too frequent occasion of making the experi- 
 ment. When many persons, as frequently happens, 
 are attacked by it at the same time, it is rather to be 
 attributed to the general operation of the peculiar 
 causes of the disease upon persons, all equally in a 
 state to receive it, than to any thing contagious in 
 the disease itself, although it is very possible, that ? 
 in crowded hospitals, or in sick chambers, where 
 ventilation is neglected, as too generally is the case 
 among the natives, it may become so. The whole 
 of the sea-coast is liable to this scourge, but the 
 
104 COLOMBIA: 
 
 points most peculiarly fatal, are Vera Cruz in Mex- 
 ico; Puerto Bello on the Isthmus of Panama; Carta- 
 gena, Santa Marta, Puerto Cabello, and Barcelona, 
 on the northern coast of Colombia, and Guyaquil in 
 the Pacific. The inhabitants of the mountainous re- 
 gions of the interior, when they descend to the sea- 
 coast, are even more liable to its attacks than Eu- 
 ropeans. 
 
 Dysenteric complaints, from the simple diarrhoea 
 through all the stages of bloody flux to confirmed 
 dysentery, constitute a class of diseases by far more 
 destructive than fevers. In this city (Maracayho) 
 from the time our troops entered it in September, to 
 the month of November, nearly 1500 soldiers died 
 in the hospital, out of a force little exceeding 3,000; 
 the greater part of these died of flux or dysentery; 
 in this case, however, we must reckon with a com- 
 bination of causes to aid in the propagation of the 
 disease, and the total want of means of cure or pre- 
 vention : in the first place a great deficiency of food, 
 and food of the worst quality ; hospitals wretchedly 
 supplied and attended, and native doctors. In ordi- 
 nary cases, there is little doubt that this malady will 
 yield in all its stages to the free use of calomel, either 
 alone or combined with opium. The practice re- 
 commended byDr, Johnson, in his valuable work, 
 "On the diseases of Tropical Climates/' seems de- 
 serving of the utmost confidence and attention. 
 
 With respect to the medical practitioners of the 
 
DISEASES OF THE CLIMATE. 105 
 
 country, they are more to be dreaded than the dis- 
 eases themselves; they divide with the old women 
 the whole department of quackery. Their principal 
 medicine is cream of tartar, with an endless variety 
 of drinks and decoctions, which perhaps would do no 
 harm if the diseases of the climate did not require 
 prompt and efficacious remedies. If they chance to 
 embrace a more methodical system, they seldom fail 
 to misapply it ; as I have known a patient, in a case 
 of marked inflammatory fever, suffocated by bark 
 and stimulants. In dysenteric cases their remedies 
 are so feeble, that should the patient escape, it is at 
 the cost of many months of debility and reiterated 
 relapses. They are almost entirely ignorant of the 
 use of calomel and opium, or rather regard them 
 with a superstitious dread ; their drugs are always of 
 the worst description, generally stale or damaged. 
 In surgery they have no skill whatever ; in fact, 
 whatever reproaches might justly be cast on medi- 
 cal practitioners in the darkest ages of the profes- 
 sion, may with equal propriety be applied to the 
 living generation of Creole doctors, each of whom 
 may fairly write over his Botica the wag's label, 
 
 Venditur hie catharticum, emeticum, 
 Et omne quod exit in wn, 
 Frseter remedium. 
 
 The natural remedies of the country are sufficiently 
 numerous ; besides a variety of barks, to be found in, 
 most of the mountain regions, the castor oil plants 
 
106 COLOMBIA : 
 
 called el tartaro, is scattered abundantly from the 
 burning sands of the coast to the elevated regions of 
 the Andes, although the natives rarely use the oil 
 for any other purpose than lamps, The root of 
 the kassia caumunis is also a useful purge, as is the 
 fruit of the kaha fistula ; the roasted fruit of the 
 guava is said to be highly beneiicial in dysenteries. 
 Tamarinds and bitter oranges afford excellent drinks 
 in fevers ; gums and balsams are abundant. The 
 -paramos furnish a variety of herbs of much medical 
 reputation, but their beneiicial effects in general re- 
 quire to be investigated with something of scientific, 
 or at least of unprejudiced, observation. It is always 
 easier to prevent than to cure, and foreign settlers 
 will do well to guard against disease by a mode of 
 life adapted to the novelty of their situation. The 
 human frame readily suits itself to variety in tem- 
 perature, but it cannot be expected to pass from a 
 northerly European climate to one in which the 
 thermometer commonly ranges from 80 s to 95° with- 
 out experiencing some effects from the change. 
 There are two words which the foreigner should 
 write in his pocket-book, imprint on his memory, 
 and invariably carry into practice- — these are Tem- 
 perance and Exercise. 
 
 The necessity of temperance both in eating and 
 drinking, is suggested by the obvious connexion 
 there is betwixt good health and good digestion, so 
 that the most malignant classes of tropical diseases. 
 
DISEASES OF THE CLIMATE. 10Y 
 
 fevers and dysenteries, never fail to have their ori- 
 gin, directly or indirectly, in the state of the stomach. 
 It is almost superfluous to give any caution against 
 immoderate, eating in a climate which rarely prompts 
 to any excess of gluttony. Persons, however, whose 
 occupations compel them to a sedentary life, should 
 be cautious of loading the stomach in the morning 
 with heavy and greasy aliments. Chocolate, though 
 commonly used in the country, and highly nutri- 
 tious, is by no means so wholesome a beverage as tea 
 or coffee, especially for persons of delicate stomachs, 
 women and children. Suppers, except very slight 
 or taken very early, are unfriendly both to rest and 
 digestion, and often the immediate causes of disease : 
 the cookery of the natives has two great defects — 
 it is very greasy, and their meat is boiled or roasted 
 to rags or cinders, so that their dishes are both un- 
 suited to a European palate and generally indigesti- 
 ble. Temperance in the use of spirituous liquors 
 is absolutely necessary for the preservation of life. 
 Probably not less than 8,000 Englishmen have come 
 to this country during the war as officers and sol- 
 diers; there are not now 300 survivors, and of this 
 loss, three-fifths must be ascribed to drinking. In 
 tropical climates there is no salvation for the drunk- 
 ard : a few may, by strength of constitution, prolong 
 their career for five or six years, but the period of 
 exhaustion must arrive, though the thread of life 
 should not be snapt by sudden malady. It is not, 
 
1GS COLOMBIA: 
 
 however, habitual drunkenness that is alone to be 
 avoided ; occasional intemperance is often more 
 speedily fatal, because the debility consequent on an 
 occasional debauch, is much greater than that which 
 is felt by the seasoned toper ; and it is in this state 
 an attack of fever is chiefly to be expected. Since, 
 however the wisest cannot be always wise, it would 
 be desirable on the morning succeeding a nocturnal 
 revel to take a small dose of Epsom salts, or magne- 
 sia, to restore the stomach to its healthful tone. It 
 will naturally be asked, if a total abstinence from wine 
 and spirits is here recommended ? I answer, on the 
 contrary, a moderate quantity of wine seems highly 
 beneficial, to supply the waste of strength and stimu- 
 lus occasioned by the climate. From a pint to a 
 bottle of claret, or a proportionate quantity of stron- 
 ger wine, may be taken, not only with safety but 
 advantage. When wine is not attainable, a glass of 
 spirits and water may answer the same purpose, but 
 care must be taken not to multiply the dose from a 
 false estimate of the malady. If every casual depres- 
 sion of spirits, to which the foreigner is liable in a 
 strange country, were to be counteracted by the bot- 
 tle, health and life would speedily be sacrificed to 
 momentary alleviation. It is better, in such cases, to 
 have recourse to exercise, reading, society, and I was 
 about to add, reflection; but remembering the re- 
 mark of Zanga, " He's gone to think — that is to be 
 damned,"— -I hesitate about the prescription. The 
 
DISEASES OF THE CLIMATE. 109 
 
 natives are very generally accustomed to drink a 
 dram early in the morning, which they call &Mana- 
 na, a practice in which they are too readily imi- 
 tated by Europeans, who seldom quarrel with a bad 
 habit. Yet there can be little doubt that raw spi- 
 rits must be, in the highest degree, injurious to 
 the empty stomach ; at the same time it is by no 
 means advisable to encounter the morning air, es- 
 pecially on lands newly cleared, entirely fasting. A 
 cup of coffee is generally taken by those who refrain 
 from spirits; for the traveller, sportsman, or labourer 
 a cup of chocolate is perhaps still better. 
 
 The advantage of exercise may seem somewhat 
 paradoxical to those who have been accustomed to 
 regard a tropical climate as both promoting and ex- 
 cusing indolence. That it does, to a certain degree, 
 enfeeble both mind and body can scarcely be denied, 
 but this enfeeblement is almost always in proportion 
 to the greater or less resistance we oppose to it. 
 The human frame will acquire strength, hardihood, 
 and endurance, under a tropical sun, as amid Nor- 
 wegian ice-bergs ; witness the unparalleled energies 
 and exertions of the Spaniards themselves, in the 
 conquest of this immense continent. It is true that 
 a hot climate does not invite to exercise, but the 
 habit once established, it becomes no less agreeable 
 than salutary. Europeans are accustomed to consi- 
 der the heat of the sun as pernicious : mid-day is 
 eertainly not the time one would choose for travel- 
 
 K 
 
HO COLOMBIA: 
 
 ling, yet I have, repeatedly, myself, journeyed in 
 a heat of 118° without inconvenience. Nor did I 
 ever know an instance of illness arising from mere 
 exposure to the sun. When I first arrived in Co- 
 lombia, I was quartered at Barranquilla, on the banks 
 of the Magdalena, a situation usually esteemed un- 
 healthy : yet I hit upon a mode of life which effectual- 
 ly counteracted the climate. At day-break I took my 
 fowling-piece and amused myself with shooting on 
 the marshy banks of the river, frequently above my 
 knees in water, until about 10 o'clock, when the 
 heat of the sun became extreme ; I then returned, 
 and the fatigue of the morning's ramble was speedi- 
 ly dissipated by a bathe and hearty breakfast. Pro- 
 ceeding on this experience, I always took as much 
 exercise as possible, without respect to sun or wea- 
 ther, and constantly found I enjoyed my health in 
 proportion to my bodily exertions. 
 
 It would be rash to assert, that a man can labour 
 as hard in a tropical, as in a European climate, but 
 nature is also more liberal in the former, and the soil 
 produces with less toil of cultivation ; a European 
 can labour in the hottest climate from day-break 
 until 10 in the morning, and from 4 until sunset. 
 This quantity of labour will be adequate for every 
 agricultural purpose, and is treble what is bestowed 
 by the Creole cultivator. 
 
 A life of temperance and activity will be found 
 the surest preventive of disease, but with the best 
 
DISEASES OF THE CLIMATE. l\\ 
 
 precautions the new settler must look to be exposed 
 to its visitations. In such cases, the sovereign rule 
 to be observed is, to apply the proper remedy with- 
 out waiting till the malady has formally declared 
 itself. In Europe we may almost always delay, and 
 sometimes altogether neglect, medicine, in reliance 
 either on strength of constitution or the Vis Medi- 
 catrix Naturse, but in tropical climates delay is 
 death. The slighest symptom should be the alarm 
 bell, to prepare our defence against an enemy who 
 can never be despised. Europeans almost always 
 err in this respect, they frequently consider it child- 
 ish to take physic until physic can no longer avail 
 them ; a dose of calomel and jalap, or even of mag- 
 nesia, taken as soon as the stomach indicates the 
 least degree of acidity, will often cut short a violent 
 fever. The plan of taking medicine as a preventive 
 when no cause exists, is an opposite extreme equal- 
 ly to be avoided, because medicine by repetition 
 loses much of its effect, and can be less depended on 
 when really necessary. The state of the bowels is, 
 above all, to be strictly attended to, and costiveness 
 should be immediately removed by a small dose of 
 salts ; cold bathing is also a preservative of the 
 health, which should never be neglected. Veno- 
 mous reptiles and insects may be reckoned among 
 the diseases of the climate : for the bites of rnosqui- 
 tos no remedy has been discovered, but care must 
 be taken not to convert them into sores by scratch- 
 
112 COLOMBIA; 
 
 ing ; a little Cologne water or spirits is the best ap« 
 plication in such cases. In general all kinds of 
 scratches have a tendency to become llagas or per» 
 manent ulcers, which often terminate fatally or at 
 least cause the loss of a limb. Labouring men can- 
 not be too careful in the case of any trifling hurt or 
 wound to keep it constantly clean, and wash it at 
 the beginning with spirits. The Indians and inha- 
 bitants are the fittest persons to apply to in case of 
 bites of snakes ; a labourer should be cautious of 
 working with bare legs. There is a little insect 
 called Nigua, common in many parts of the country, 
 which penetrates the skin of the feet and deposits its 
 eggs in a small nest or bag beneath it ; its presence is 
 quickly discovered by the itching it occasions, and 
 by a small black speck ; the skin is opened with a 
 needle and the bag easily extracted. If neglected, 
 these insects spread through the foot and occasion 
 lameness. It must be remembered, that almost the 
 whole of the foregoing remarks apply strictly to the 
 coast line of Colombia ; the mountain zone, though 
 geographically a tropical climate, is temperate ac- 
 cording to its elevation : the heat of the internal 
 plains is also mitigated, as before observed, by con- 
 stant breezes. Commercial interests naturally force 
 many Europeans to a residence in the sea-port towns, 
 which are the most unhealthy spots on the continent ; 
 but in agricultural establishments we should seek as 
 much as possible to combine health with profit, and 
 
DISEASES OF THE CLIMATE. 113 
 
 even sacrifice something of the latter to ensure the 
 former. The tract of country I have pointed out be- 
 twixt Rio Hacha and Santa Marta unites in a singu- 
 lar degree the advantages of contiguity to the coast 
 with a mountain temperature. 
 
NOTES. 
 
 1. DESCRIPTION OF THE PROVINCES OF SANTA 
 MARTA AND RIO HACHA. 
 
 The tracts of country we notice as most eligible 
 for foreign settlements are : 1. The line of coast ex- 
 tending about 30 miles from the river Enea to the 
 river San Diego. 2. The country betwixt the river 
 Frio and the river Ariguani ; and 3, the tract be- . 
 twixt Chiriguana and El Valle, a distance of nearly 
 90 miles. 
 
 The roads through the level country are good in 
 dry weather ; but miry in the extreme during the 
 rainy season, especially when they pass through the 
 thick forests which border the rivers. The rivers, 
 too, during this period, are frequently swollen, and 
 not to be passed without difficulty and danger. The 
 mountain roads are stony and precipitous, but not 
 dangerous to those accustomed to them. The art of 
 making or mending them is entirely unknown. 
 
 The river Magdalena is always navigable; the 
 rivers Frio, Sevilla, Aniataca, San Carlos, Ariguani, 
 and Asar, are navigable during the greater part of 
 the year by canoes and flat boats. The navigation 
 of the Asar is particularly capable of improvement 
 The rivers on the coast betwixt the Penovic and 
 
NOTES. 116 
 
 San Diego, are most of them navigable by small craft, 
 though not to a great distance from their mouths. 
 
 The soil on the coast is sandy, and covered with 
 prickly shrubs, it has, however, been found capable 
 of producing cotton of a superior quality. The 
 banks of the rivers are always rich in proportion to 
 the breadth of their alluvion, so that the magnitude 
 of a river may be accurately conjectured from the 
 extent and luxuriance of the forest which clothes its 
 banks. The cultivation of coffee was successfully 
 introduced some years ago, near San Carlos, by a 
 Frenchman of the name of Cotinet; but his planta- 
 tions have been abandoned during the war. Not 
 only the rich low lands, but almost all the lower 
 mountain ridges, are admirably adapted to its culti- 
 vation. The rich alluvial lands which border the 
 rivers, will, produce cocoa, indigo, and all tropical 
 productions ; while the elevated valleys and moun- 
 tain ridges are equally favourable to the growth of 
 the fruits and productions of European climates. 
 The Indians of San Sebastian, for example, which is 
 the most elevated settlement on this chain of moun- 
 tains, raise maize, tobacco, wheat, potatoes, peas and 
 beans, celery, onions; plantains and oranges, in 
 sheltered situations, with a variety of other fruits, 
 and abundance of sheep and horses. It is impossi- 
 ble, indeed, to approach the majestic chain of the 
 Nevada, without the strongest feelings of pleasure 
 and admiration. The traveller ascends beneath the 
 
116 COLOMBIA: 
 
 shade of stately forests, the graver colouring; of 
 "which is enlivened by the numerous wreaths of 
 brilliant flowers with which the bejucos, or climbing 
 plants, fantastically entwine almost every forest tree. 
 Gradually he emerges on the crest of some bold 
 promontory, and looks down on a sea of verdure 
 " whose shores are mountains," stretched in pictur- 
 esque masses on the horizon, and glowing with the 
 deep effulgence of a tropic sun. As he ascends still 
 higher 9 he finds the vast ridges of the Cordillera bro- 
 ken by numberless ravines and valleys, each water- 
 ed by some wild torrent brawling and whitening 
 over its granite bed, beneath arches of various and 
 graceful verdure — such as, in more poetical regions, 
 would be the haunts of nymphs, and bowers of the 
 Muses, here unnoticed and unknown — but here the 
 traveller feels a renovated existence ; he breathes an 
 air, pure, balmy, and invigorating; he treads with 
 a firmer step; his blood has a brisker movement, 
 and he gazes on the green hills and shining waters 
 as on the face of a friend, for they " bring back the 
 memory of the past," and speak to his heart as with 
 the tongue of his native land. Such, at. least, were 
 the feelings with which I ascended the Nevada of 
 Santa Marta, at a time when whatever I felt of ani- 
 mation or cheerfulness was solely due to the reviv- 
 ing influence of Nature. 
 
ITINERARY. 
 I . Rio Hacha to Santa Marta by El Valte, 
 
 Leagues,, 
 Village of Moreno t\ -.,->->■.- : - - 7 
 
 Level road, country wooded. 
 Fonseca -------- . . . . . g 
 
 Similar road. 
 
 From Fonseca there are two mountain roads 
 to the village of Treinta, each about 9 
 leagues. This tract of mountain is wood- 
 ed, and the land of fine quality. From 
 Trienta to Rio Hacha are 10 leagues of 
 level road. That part of it called the 
 Pantano, or Marsh, is almost impassa- 
 ble in wet weather. 
 
 San Juan ------- 3§ 
 
 Level road— country covered with Meniosas, 
 but favourable to the breeding of cattle. 
 Badillo ------------- 6 
 
 Similar road and country. 
 
 ElValle - - - - - - - 4J 
 
 Valencia de Jesus ---.3 
 
 From Valencia de Jesus there is a mountain 
 road to the Indian village of San Sebas- 
 tian ; the distance about 14 leagues. From 
 this village to the foot of the snow ridge. 
 
US COLOMBIA: 
 
 Leagues, 
 is about 7 leagues, by an Indian path. 
 The path continues over the ridge to the 
 small Indian villages of San Miguel and 
 San Antonio : thence it is two days' jour- 
 ney to Rio Hacha. 
 Hato* de Comperuche -------.9 
 
 Open level country, with good pastures. 
 Guycaras — Indian village ---.---- 10 
 
 Road crosses the Alto de Minas. 
 Hato de Chimeles --------. § 
 
 Road level, mostly through a thick forest, 
 
 with occasional pastures or Savanahs. 
 
 San Carlos or Fundacioro ------- 9 
 
 This village was originally peopled by Ca- 
 tholic Emigrants from North America, a 
 few of whom still survive. The land 
 here is fertile in the extreme, producing 
 Cocoa, Coffee, Cotton, Sugar-cane, Maize, 
 Tobacco, and fruits in the greatest abund- 
 ance ; the timber is of a remarkable size. 
 River Aricutaca ---------- S 
 
 Mostly thick palm forest. 
 
 River Tucarinca ----- 3 
 
 Deep forest with some pastures. 
 River Riguenca ----------5 
 
 * Hato signifies a cattle farm, and Hacienda an Agricultural 
 establishment : Silio means a small hamlet : Jlinaga is a lake or 
 marsh : Inebra a ravine : Sachia is a streamlet: Cano a canal. 
 
NOTES. H§ 
 
 Leagues, 
 River Frio ------------5 
 
 Village of Serillano -----_._ 3 
 
 Indian town of the Ainaga - '- 1 
 
 Santa Marta ----------- 7 
 
 Road partly along the coast, bad and bro- 
 ken. 
 
 100 
 
 From Santa Marta there is a coast road to Rio 
 Hacha, but it is difficult in some places from ne- 
 glect, and the passage of the numerous rivers is 
 dangerous without ferry boats, The distance is pro- 
 bably 150 miles. 
 
 From the Ainaga to the river Magdalena, the com- 
 munication is through the various canals to the vil- 
 lages of Barranquilla or Solidad. 
 
 Leagues* 
 
 From Barranquilla to the port of Saeonilla - 7 
 
 2. Barranquilla to Mompox. 
 Solidad ------ 2 
 
 Level road, country abundant in cotton. 
 Melambo ------- 1 
 
 The road here separates to Cartagena 34 
 leagues. 
 Savana Grande -------...- ® 
 
 San Tomas ----------- o§ 
 
 Ponedera ------------ 3 
 
120 COLOMBIA: 
 
 Leagues 
 Road level, inundated in winter, country 
 
 thickly wooded. 
 Candelaria ---'---;_- -^ .-■;-.,.--; & 
 Campo la Cruz ------ . . . _ g 
 
 Barranca ------------ 6 
 
 Good road, mostly through deep palm 
 
 forests. 
 At Barranca it is necessary to embark, as 
 
 there is no tolerable road by land. 
 Barranca vieja ----------i§ 
 
 Yucal ------------- l 
 
 Tenerife ------------ 10 
 
 Plato ------------- 4 
 
 Sambrano ----------- i 
 
 Tacamuche -----9 
 
 Pinto - 2 
 
 Sn. Ana - 9 ' 
 
 Sn. Fernando ----------2 
 
 Sn. Zenon -----------2 
 
 Mompox ------------5 
 
 65 
 
 The distance from Mompox to the port of Hon- 
 da is 115 leagues, whence there are twenty leagues 
 of mountain road to Bogota, the capital of the Re- 
 public. 
 
 From Mompox there is a road, in summer, to 
 Chiriguana by Chimichagua, but it is more usual to 
 
.NOTES, Igl 
 
 embark, and ascend the small lakes of Zapatosa and 
 Pamaychi. The distance from Mompox to El Ban- 
 co is abott 13 leagues, and from thence to Chirigu- 
 ana, the distance is about 20. 
 
 From Chiriguana to Ocana the distance is about 
 45 leagues, the last 22 of which are through moun- 
 tains, the remainder a level road ; the country a 
 beautiful alternation of woods and pastures. 
 
 From Ocana to Cucuta are 42 leagues of bad 
 mountain road. 
 
 From Cucuta to Bogota are 103 leagues* 
 
 3. Chiriguana to El Voile, 
 
 Leagues. 
 Las Jaquas -----------7 
 
 Level road : Savanah, dotted with clumps 
 of palm trees. 
 Beceril ------------ 3| 
 
 Espiritu Santo ------ - - - - 7 
 
 Tueres - - - ------•-. l| 
 
 Job ------------- 2| 
 
 Silio de Diego Plato -------.-■-;- 4 
 
 SiliodelaPar - - - - - - - - - - li 
 
 Little variation in the road or country. 
 Elle Valle ----------- 3 
 
 Country covered with Brazil wood* 
 
122 COLOMBIA: 
 
 There are several roads from Rio Hacha to Ma- 
 racaybo through the territory of the Goagira In- 
 dians; the distance is about 39 leagues; the whole 
 country is a level savanah ; the road is good in sum- 
 mer, but almost impassable in the rainy season ; it 
 is scarcely safe to travel it without a military escort. 
 The mountain road, from the village of Molino, is 
 sometimes preferred for greater security, but it is 
 extremely bad, and destitute of resources. 
 
 II. — Description of the Koad from Varinas 
 to Valencia. 
 
 Almost the whole of this extensive tract, about 
 210 miles in length, consists of excellent pasture 
 lands : the borders of the rivers are finely wooded, 
 and adapted, when cleared, to the growth of every 
 species of tropical produce, especially of cocoa, 
 coffee, indigo, cotton and tobacco. The tobacco of 
 Varinas has long been known in the European mar- 
 ket. The neighbouring mountains furnish the pro- 
 ductions of temperate climates, but the staple of 
 the plains has always been cattle, which may be 
 raised almost without limitation of number. 
 
 The principal rivers are navigable during the 
 rainy season. The San Domingo, and Masporro, 
 descend directly into the Apure, the Bruno, and 
 
NOTES. 123 
 
 Guanan, with almost all the smaller rivers, unite 
 with the Portugueza, which falls into the Apure 
 near San Fernando, whence the navigation is direct 
 and easy to the port of Angostura, on the Orinoco. 
 
 The communications with the sea coast are more 
 difficult; there is a communication from Baurias to 
 the lake of Maracaybo through Merida, but the dis- 
 tance is considerable, and the roads almost impracti- 
 cable. The communication with Coro through 
 •Barquesimeto is easier, but the distance is great for 
 commercial purposes. The great channel of trade 
 has hitherto been through Valencia to Puerto Ca- 
 bello, but there is little doubt that, in an improved 
 state of the country, the water-carriage by the Apure 
 and Orinoco, will be preferred, from the great diffi- 
 culty and expense of transporting bulky articles of 
 produce, on mules, to any of the northern ports. 
 
 The lower mountain ridges, do not yield in fertil- 
 ity to the plains, and excel them in climate. The 
 country round Carabobo, La. Palma, and the whole 
 tract betwixt San Carlos and Barquesimeto, offer a 
 variety of eligible situations to foreign settlers. In 
 point of population, the whole province of Barinas, 
 comparing the present number of its inhabitants with 
 those it is capable of maintaining, may be called a 
 desert. 
 
124 
 
 COLOMBIA 
 
 ITINERARY. 
 
 
 1. Verinas to Valencia, 
 
 
 Leaguegc 
 
 Yucca ....... 
 
 to 
 
 Bananias . 
 
 n 
 
 Bocono 
 
 • : 4 
 
 Tucupis . . i . . 
 
 4 
 
 Guanare . . 
 
 3 
 
 San Rafael . ..... 
 
 5 
 
 Ospinos . . „ . . 
 
 4§ 
 
 Aparicion . . . . 
 
 3 
 
 Acarigua . . . .'..-'■"■'. 
 
 4| 
 
 Araure ...... 
 
 If 
 
 Aguas Hamas . 
 
 2 
 
 San Rafael ..-..., 
 
 2 
 
 LaLyba . . . . 
 
 4 
 
 San Jose ...... 
 
 3§ 
 
 San Carlos ..... 
 
 04 
 
 Tinaco . . . . . . 
 
 4i 
 
 La Palma ..... 
 
 3 
 
 Tinaquilla ..... 
 
 n 
 
 Carabobo . . . . 
 
 7 
 
 Tornito ....... 
 
 2 
 
 Valencia ...... 
 
 3 
 
 68t 
 
NOTES. 
 
 IZh 
 
 The road is level as far as Tinaco, whence it 
 crosses short hills, and two minor mountain ridges 
 as far as Carabobo. 
 
 2. San Carlos to Barquesimeto. 
 
 1 
 
 Quebra de Camouraka 
 Camaroucama . 
 
 ^eagues. 
 
 5 
 4 
 
 El Altar . 
 
 2 
 
 Gamalstol ..... 
 
 4 
 
 La Morita . 
 
 4 
 
 Rastrajos ...... 
 
 Caudares ...... 
 
 i 
 
 Barquesimeto . . ' . 
 
 i 
 
 23 
 
 Valencia to Puerto Cabello 
 
 Valencia to Caracas 
 
 30§ 
 
 L 2 
 
APPENDIX 
 
 Note A. 
 
 By the constitution there is vested in the Execu- 
 tive Power the right of suspending the Constitutional 
 functions in any part of the Republic which may be- 
 come the seat of war. This was accordingly done in 
 the Departments upon the coast, while Maracaybo 
 and Puerto Cabello remained in possession of the 
 Royalists. On the 9th of December, 1823, since 
 the foregoing sheets were written, the Government 
 announced, by the following Proclamation, the com- 
 plete cessation of hostilities throughout the Republic, 
 and the consequent removal of the suspension of the 
 Constitution. 
 
 " The Vice President of the Republic of Colombia^ 
 in charge of the Executive Power. 
 
 ei TO THE PEOPLE OF THE REPUBLIC. 
 
 * c Colombians ! I announce to you your country 
 entirely free from the enemies, who have so obsti- 
 nately presumed to oppose the immutable decrees of 
 Providence. The Spanish flag which lately floated 
 
APPENDIX, 127 
 
 on the walls of Puerto Cabello has been rent in pieces 
 by the valiant troops of the Republic, and the tri- 
 coloured flag planted thereon in its stead, 
 
 " No longer does an enemy exist for us to contend 
 with. The Colombian territory is entire, and the 
 code of happiness and equality protects all who in- 
 habit the country of Bolivar. 
 
 " People of Colombia : receive the congratulations 
 of the Government on the occupation of this impor- 
 tant fortress; thus terminating a war undertaken to 
 rescue Colombia from the power of Spain. 
 
 " The object of your sacrifices was, the liberty and 
 independence of your Country ; and you now behold 
 your country free and independent. The army and 
 its illustrious chiefs, have realized your hopes, and 
 fulfilled the desire of their own hearts- — their swords 
 are ever ready to enforce respect to the dignity of 
 the Republic, to your rights, and to the inviolability 
 of the constitution. This they have sworn to do 5 
 and a Colombian soldier will not depart from his 
 word. But it is incumbent on you also to maintain, 
 undiminished, the ardour of your patriotism, your 
 submission to the laws, and, above all, your adhe- 
 rence to the constitution, under whose auspices, Co- 
 lombia has perfected her independence, and raised 
 herself to the pinnacle of glory, acquiring with it 
 the respect and applause of other nations. 
 
 " Colombians: may you enjoy the reward of your 
 constancy, and of your undivided triumphs : they se- 
 
Jgg COLOMBIA : 
 
 cure the reign of liberty in America, and enable you 
 to offer a sacred asylum to freemen throughout the 
 world. To be a citizen of Colombia, is to belong to 
 a nation possessing liberty, constancy, and valour. 
 
 " Fellow Citizens : nothing remains for me to de- 
 sire, after having had the good fortune to witness 
 during my administration the ancient oppressors of 
 Colombia driven into the sea, and your felicity es- 
 tablished ; but to behold you possessed of uninter- 
 rupted peace, blessed with abundance, protected by 
 true wisdom, unalterably devoted to the constitution, 
 divested of fanaticism, and governed by laws and 
 magistrates of your own choosing. 
 
 " To behold you in possession of these advantages, 
 and to return to the state of a private citizen like 
 yourselves, is the height of my desires. — Palace of 
 Government, Bogota, December the 9th, 1523—13. 
 
 "Francisco de Paula SantanderP 
 
 Note B. 
 
 The following official documents on Exports and 
 Revenue relate, it will be observed, only to the port 
 of La Guayra. Of other principal ports of the Repub- 
 lic (viz. Puerto Cabello, Maracaibo, Santa Marta, 
 and Cartagena in the Atlantic ; and Guyaquil and 
 Panama in the Pacific), I have not been able to ob- 
 tain similar official details. 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 129 
 
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130 
 
 COLOMBIA: 
 
 Bevenue of the Port of La Guayra, from the 1st 
 
 Jan. to the 3\st Oct., 1823, taken from 
 
 The Official Returns. 
 
 Dollars. 
 Import Duties .... 515,609 04 
 
 Export ditto . . . . 153,101 3* 
 
 Tonnage ditto .... 5,778 3§ 
 
 Salt ditto 4,083 1* 
 
 Anchorage ditto . . . . 414 
 
 Prizes 105,552 3 
 
 Duties appropriated to the Military Hos- 
 pital . . . . ' . • 6,038 04 
 
 790,576 4§ 
 
 Note C. 
 
 The Government has commenced acting upon the 
 Law of the 7th June, as appears by the following 
 notice in the Bogota Official Gazette of December 
 last : — 
 
 " Colonization. 
 
 " The Government of the Republic, in virtue of 
 especial authority from Congress, by its law of the 
 7th of last June, has granted to Messrs. Herring, 
 Graham, and Powles, merchants of the City of 
 London, and long tried friends and supporters of 
 
APPENDIX. 131 
 
 Colombia, two hundred thousand fanegas of land, 
 by a contract entered into on the 29th of last No- 
 vember, with their agent, Mr. William C. Jones, 
 and with a view of encouraging a beneficial intro- 
 duction of Europeans into the country. This grant 
 will consist of uncultivated lands in the provinces of 
 Merida, Caracas and Choco." 
 
 The privileges granted to the above-named mer- 
 chants in this cession are as follows : — 
 
 1st, Exemption, in favour of all the settlers they 
 may send, from military service, except as militia, 
 for Ten years. 
 
 Sdly, Exemption from duties of all clothing im- 
 ported for the use of the settlers. Agricultural im- 
 plements are already exempt from duty. 
 
 3dly, Exemptions, in favour of the settlers, for 
 Six years from direct contributions and ecclesiastical 
 tithes. 
 
 4th, Exemption for the same period, from all ex- 
 port duties on the produce raised by the settlers. 
 
 5th, Settlers not to be in any way molested oo 
 account of their religious belief. 
 
 FINIS, 
 
AUG -1 I9'»3