| Show IY SOUTHERN SCENES f Bavjai ulla the Most 3Mem Town in Colombia A TB1PJJP THE RIYER3TAGDALENA tA f2 ujIt Ati4 thfUIirk Man A llnpm O1Clrr > iMuiea Fashions Among Ito fabuniihms r JhmuqUliA COLOMBIA Jan 1 IS90 Special correspondence of THE HERALD Though Jistaut from New York scarcely t vo thouvand miles this northernmost republic of the Southern Continent is less known to the world than the heart of Africa and its 200Vearold capital is almost al-most as difficult access Until recently there has been no communication between the ports of the United States and those of Colombia its nearest neighbor and to this day there is no direct way of reaching them Some four years ago an English company Established a line of steamers between New York and the mouth of the Magda J lenarivcr the great fluvial highway to Colombias interior by which two trips per month are made but the vessels go firstto several West India ports consuming consum-ing fifteen days in the voyage to Colombia Three times a month the Pacific Mail 1 steamers leave New York for Aspinwall and at the latter place one may always find a steamer under almost any flag but the stars and stripes which will stop at the Carribean ports on its way to Europe But when you have reached this point the journey to Colombias capital ha hardly begun Before you is a short railroad rail-road ride to Barrauquilla and then 2SO miles by boat up the river to Honda near tIle head of navigation occupying from ten to thirty days according to the time of year and from Honda to Bogota the l capital city though only a distance of L f seventy miles is the worst part of the trip requiring at least rOUlt DATS OX MUJE JACK over skypiercing sierras Though with such a stretch of sea const Colombia possesses no harbor worthy the napie those of Aspinwall and Panama being the best Besides tho last named insecure and rocky port there is but one other on the Pacific sidethat of Buena ventura which has lately been brough into some deCree of prominence On the Atlantic coastor more correctly speak Inc on that of the Carribean sea the only available shipping place for Colombian commerce is Sabanilla both Aspinwal and Panama being merely ports of transi trade with so little of local industry tha primeval forests crowd close upon them Sanbauiila itself is the most desolate and dirty of fishing villages of no conse uence whatever except for its bay which though totally inaccessible to large vessels has been made to answer the purposes pur-poses of a seaport by a company of enterprising enter-prising Germans In 1S71 some Bremen prentlenien j put lighters and steam tugs on Sabanilla bay for the benefit of large vessels that could not come into it and laic a line of railroad from tho coast to the old Spanish town of Barranquilla sixteen miles inland The consequence is that the latter hitherto insignificant village of hardly twenty houses has suddenly bios somed out into the most important city ii i n I the republic commercially speaking wit i a population ot 25000 and still growing far eclipsing the old cities of Carthagen and Santa Marta lying on either side of it I both of which figured so conspicuously ii n the Spanish colonial history of earlier r days The custom house is now located in Bar r ranquilla pronounced Bahr rankielya and through it must go all merchandis and passengers bound for up the river or coming down from Colombias interior into the outer world Also every small steamer and sailing vessel which convey S the multitudinous products of the v art backlying country to the coast via the Magdalena must start from and return to this place and wait for official permission before its cargo can be discharged To return to SABAXIALLA I The village is not situated on the main land but on a long and narrow sand > it I that has formed itself at the mouth of tho river Its bay is neither safe nor convenient conveni-ent for any sort of vessels being full of shifting sand bars and exposed to the fury J of tropical storms Not a green thing grows within sight of Sabanilla and no l body lives there but a miserable colony of cargadores or boatmen and a few even more degraded saloon keepers who absorb all the money the wretches earn in exchange ex-change for the vilest of native intoxicants All up and down the coast of South Amor ica the cargadores are necessary evils as there are few places where vessels can ap proach the shore and these of Colombia arc mostly Canary Islanders with a liberal > sprinkling of lowclass Italians and a f nv Chinamen Their palmthatched huts are filthy beyond description but notmore so than the occupantsmen and women more than halfunclothed and their numerous offspring entirely so I There is not a drop of fresh water in the nlacc all that is used being brought in moos from n point about eight miles up the river Yet the water business is not brisk though retailed by the dippcrful for a very small quantity serves for the meagre cooking of the Sabanillans while cheap liquor dear at any price is the uni i verbal beverage Even less is used for lavatory purposes fresh or salt though the wide ocean rolling up to their doors furnish as fine bathing facilities as can be I found in any quarter of the globe Indeed the people seem to entertain A HrDROPJlOBIC TERROR of water in any form and the pigtailed Celestial who runs the only laundry in the place looks like a sad case of slow starva LionWoe Woe unto the luckless traveler who js compelled to stay over night in Sabanillas alleged hotel If his vessels arrive too 1 late In the day for a train to Barranquilla ho will do well to remain on board until the morrow or if her commander cannot be j i Induced to risk a norther among the sand bars ho would better walk the six teen miles that intervene between the II I coast and civilization In this desperate i community of roustabouts fighting is the chief amusements and murder and rob bcry are of common occurrence But even were the Sabamllans angels in dis I guise the place would be intolerable on account of excessive heat and swarming tleis Were it not for the ocean breezes that constantly sweep across the desolate I snail spit blowing up the sand in blinding clouds no human being could abide there ion i-on At every step in its pavementless streets you sink ankle deep into tho burnIng I burn-Ing sand every infinitesimal grain of which is loaded with a flea whose sting is I like the puncture of a red hot needle About the only industrious citizens I I have found so far in South America YO t arc the wicked fleas In five minutes rime they will completely blacKen your hose and cover your garments inside and out nor cease from troubling you until you arc tattooed from head to foot like a South Sea Islander BAJUUXQUILLA s by all odds the most modern town in i iioaibia unless it may be Aspinivall t Diving many handsome houses and a con si tropic foreign colony Some of the I principal merchants of the republic live here most of them are Germans who maintain considerable style and entertain with generous hospitality although li rings is Uncommonly high Commanding a ring-s it does the oLly outlet from the interior this NeV York of the Carribean coast is of no small consequence from a military as well as a commercial standpoint and a considerable garrison is maintained here Barranquilla 11 the capital of the Department Depart-ment formerly state of Sabanilla and during the revolution of four years ago t a t was the headquarters of the insurrectionary insurrection-ary army Though just now all is quiet throughout the country the powers that be know well that eternal vigilance is the price of peace and that the spirit of evolution born in the blood and bred in bone of these inconstant people is not dead but slcepoth Unlike most South American ports Bar ranquilla hasjan excellent wharf Several steamship companies are running vessels on the Magdalena two of them I believe operated by United States capital The principal line however is German with half a dozen or more small steamers vary ing from fifty tons to two hundrpd tons During the last political upheaval the river boats were seized by the insurgents and those not tied up or destroyed were metamorphosed into EFFECTIVE MEXOrIVAR by simply covering their sides with corrugated corru-gated iron mounting small cannons upon the decks and filling the cabins with sharpshooters sharp-shooters The great river itself is a natural curios ty traversing the whole country from south to north draining an enormous area of mountains covered with perpetual snow and forming the sole outlet for seven Colombian Col-ombian states Its water is as muddy as the Missouri and as swift as the Mississippi Missis-sippi which it greatly resembles So strong is its yellow tide and so full of sediment sedi-ment that it will not mix readily with the salt water of the sea but can be distinctly traced for many miles In some places its it-s scarcely a hundred feet wide in others eight or ten miles Its channel having never been well cleared is full of snags sandbars and floating logs making the pilots position by no means u sinecure The boats are mostly built like those in use on the Ohio river with a paddlewheel in the rear and draw only a foot or two of water even when laden to their utmost capacity as otherwise they could never get over the sand bars During the rainy season sea-son the swollen current is so swift and strong that progress is necessiarily very slow but when the moon is bright the boats are kept in motion both night and day At other times they can run only by daylight and must tieup every night They generally run aground a few times during every trip and then it requires from two days to a week before they can be pulled off and set in motion again thus rendering the date of ones arrival at the journeys end one of the most uncertain things in this uncertain world If you wish to murder your worst enemy by the most diabolical form of torture that the imjigination can conceive just persuade per-suade him to lalte a trip up the Magdalona river at the iieiOit of the mosquito season without netting veil or protection Tne locality is infested with THE BIGGEST THAT EVER BUZZED and passengers must not fail to provide themselves with everything attainable in i the way of offence and defence against them All the officers and deck hands wear thick veils over tncir laces tied close around the neck and long buckskin gloves both night and uay and vet somehow the enemy seems toeoine oil more or less VICtorious VIC-torious It is the fashion hereabouts to tell mosquito stories of astonishing propor tions much as the people around iu et Sound brag of their mammotH rlaius and the Californians of their fruits bull assure as-sure you that the tallest talc can hardly exceed the reality Always bad enough at certain seasons when winds blow strong from the jungles the mosquitoes come iu clouds that literally obscure the sky and the sound of their humming is hue the noise of a saw mill Neither man nor beast can withstand their attacks unprotected unpro-tected and it is an actual fact that cattle and horses are frequently tormented to death by them 1 am told that not ions ago a herd ol valuable cattle which were I being imported from the United States to a rancho up the river becoming perfectly I frantic after a week of untold agonybroke from their fastenings dashed overboard and were all drowned I The longnosed flatbottomed little steamer upon which we are passengershas her engine and all the cargo above water on the first deck ADOVC these is u saloon with tho cabins on either side and still above that story is the captains cabin surmounted sur-mounted by a steepie like pilothouse Directly in the front of the saloon are the tall black chimneys taller even than the watchtower and in front of them is the flagstaff from which float the Colombian colors All around the upper deck are rows of benches and away up here is tho best place to find what little air may bo stirring inn GREAT VAMjcr of the Magdalena extending from the Car ribean coast to the equator varies in width from 100 to 130 miles narrowing to a point as it nears the confines of Ecuador It embraces a region of inexhaustible resources re-sources much of it overgrown with primeval prime-val forests among whose gigantic growths may be found a great diversity of building I timber besides the choicest cabinet and I dye woods and a tropical profusion of gum producing and medicinal plants I Going up from Barranquilla for the first i 200 miles one sees little at this time of the year but continuous swamp on either side j The river itself directly at the mouth is fully a mile and a half wide and its lower I valley is one vast alluvial plain which like the Nile region is subject to neriodi I cal overflows For 300 miles the most magnificent grazing lands stretch away on I either side which are covered with cattle I during most of the year until just before I the Hoods that follow the rainy season when they arc driven up into the rnoun I tains Wherever the land has been cultivated culti-vated it shows surprising fertility and the I overflow might easily be controlled and turned into a blessing by a system of dikes similar to those in use on the lower J1i sis sippi Those inclined to emigrate need not wre tlc for standing room at Okolomoma I among tin multitudes of crazy squatters I when here are vast liacts of the richest j land m the world to Des had for the ask ling I Years ago there were profitable planta lions worked by negroes all up and down the middle valley but after the emancipation emanci-pation 1 of slavery which took place 1 bc 11 I tic c in 1SW the estates rapidly went to ruin and were finally abandoned by their I owners It seems that the Spaniards and tho Indians can not endure Hard labor in this climate and neither love nor lucre could induce the exslaves to do a stroke of it Today the once rich plantations show no traces of former cultivation being 1 completely overgrown with the riotous riot-ous vegetation of the tropics while the ueuroes themselves Lave relapsed into a state of semi carbansm Its thosainn old story tlisasirojbl1 true of every purl of ilia world where TUB BASAKA AND THE BLACK MAX flourish spontaneously side by side Since nature has provided so generously for him and he has no ambitIOn tn ratify why should ho not emulate the scriptural cxaui pie 1 of the lilies which toil not u ither do they spin The l negroes of this section are becoming considerably mixed with Indian Latin and even Anglo Saxon blood 50 that I blue 1 eyes fair skins and even red wool is not i uncommon among them They lead a 3 happygolucky existence subsisting upon i tl < c fruits that grow wild in wonder > ful profusion and such accommodating fish as will nibble at a bit of bacon on u hook suspended from the branch of a tree at wbose other end lies a sleepy negro Hat on his face in the sun During the long slow days of voyaging up the Magdalena passengers may possess their souls in patience as best they ca sn with nothing to do but fight mosquitoes and keep as coolas circumstances will permit The male passengers vary the monotony somewhat by pistol and rifle parctice using the alligators that in some places literally line the banks for targets The alligator is by no means a frisky creature as those who are acquainted with his habits may know but is not to be trusted even in his hours of apparent oblivion < With their noses to the river their small eyes closed and great jaws half open they seem to bo sound asleep until the boat is close upon I i them when in the twinkling of an eye tne Jaws shut with the snap of a mammoth rattrap rat-trap and they plunge into the water in slow pursuit The boat is always followed l by a school of them probably in hope of age meal each seeming to say in the a-ge of the nursery tale monster FEE FI roo FUM 1 I smell the blood of an Englishman and dead or alive I will have some What a rare field is this for the alligator hunter 1 Considering the value of the skins I and the enormous demand for them in the manufacture of shoes satchels etc the 1 render grows why some thrifty Yankee has not bethought himself that fortunes lien lie-n the exhaustless crop On board a Magdalena steamer THE ORDER OF EVERY DAT is about as follows At six oclock the steward thrusts under your misquito net a cup of coffee and a small but very crusty loaf of bread the size of biscuit of course without butter This is the desojuno universal uni-versal in SpanishAmerica Not another mouthful will you get until breakfast or almucrzo which occurs between cloven and twelve oclock and is much like a northern midday dinner barring the excess of grease and garlic served in five or six courses always beginning with soup and ending with fruit and coffee Dinner comes about G pm and is the counterpart of breakfast with the addition of wino and dessert No matter how the days may drag one makes a great mistake who does not arise with the lark and the alligator for by far the pleasantest time is in the early morning morn-ing No pen or tongue can describe the beauty of sunrise and sunset in this latitude lati-tude where the skies flush marvellous colors of crimson and gold orauge pale blue pink seagreen bending to the snow tipped mountains on either side whose stately slopes change from amethyst to purple and gray There are tall gray and white storks standing silent and motionless in the traditional tra-ditional ONE LEG ATTITUDE on bits of floating log watching for fish There are the big gray blue herons and sometimes white ones and clumsy pelicans which by the way invariably fly from south to north in the morning never by any chance or circumstance turning toward another part of the compass And then about five oclock pm home they go again every mothers bird of them flying in a straight line from north to south one behind be-hind another Occasionally we pass a canoe hollowed out of the trunk of a single tree and dy manned by copperhued shockheaded Indians In-dians dressed in the exceedingly summery costume of a white apron tied around the waist There are many small islands in r itt the river all green as emeralds flecked and checkered with sunshine among the trees There are miles of banana groves now mostly stripped of leaves by the locusts that have been doinggreatdamage throughout through-out the country and sometimes the landscape land-scape is varied by groups of tall trees overgrown over-grown with blossoming creepers There is the papaw the puayacon the tamarind the papaya tile mango whose luscious s fruit perfumes the air enormous gourd trees and the Holy Tree which grows to a tremendous height and has a single cluster of flowers growing away at the top m which live great numbers of ants Brown and black monkeys swing from their branches and splendidly dressed macaws ma-caws with ruddybrown and black feathers and long scarlet tails fly screaming at our approach Two or three times a day we stop at some little village for freight and fuel where halfnaked negroes come on board selling strangely carved spoons and bottles made of longnecked gourds flowers fruits chickens eggs etc The women seem to do all the business in these places and to carry all the burdens the men beingsimpl5 ornamental The universal dress of the latter consists of nothing but n pair of breeches stripped red and white reaching j to the knees leaving the wearer bare above and below W3 the women perrabulate in lownecked sleeveless short and scanty gowns of purple calico I I Sometimes we get off and enjoy a ramble I I always laden with flo s returning strange flow j I ors rare butterflies and other curiosities However lovely these riverside hamlets I I may appear from afar their bamboo walls i and thatched roofs shaded by cocoa palms and broad leaved bananas a nearer approach ap-proach disclocs filth und squalor in the midst of which black pigs and variously colored babies roll about together FANNIE B WARD |
