COLES, COWPER P. 



COLOMBIA, UNITED STATES OF. 109 



I 



; iMi^ino and boiler at large, steam navi- 

 i. lii-i'l^i-s, railway works, and ineohaiiic:il 

 .riii^ iu general, he was a first-rate 

 ritv. The saddest part of Mr. Colburn's 

 rfiiiains to bo told. Overwork, to-Mhi-r 

 with liis natural iiii]ulsivon089 and his habit- 

 ual invu'iilarity in relaxation, as well ns in 

 work, drove him within a few months into 

 partial insanity. He came back to this country 

 in April, avoided all his old friends, strayed 

 away to a country town in Massachusetts, and 

 thriv died by his own hand on May 4th. 

 COLES, Captain COWPER PHIPPS, R. N., C. 

 British naval officer and constructor of 

 aniifd ships, born at Ditcham Park, Hants, 

 Kiiirlaiid, in 1819; lost by the foundering of the 

 Captain, in the Bay of Biscay, September 7, 

 1870. Captain Coles entered the navy in 1881, 

 ! with ability on various stations, distin- 

 guished himself on board tho Agamemnon at 

 the siege of Sevastopol, and subsequently at 

 Kertch and in the Sea of Azof. In 1855 a 

 board was appointed by the commander-in- 

 chief to report upon a plan submitted by Cap- 

 tain Coles for the construction of shot-proof 

 rat'N, guns, and mortars ; and so favorable was 

 their report, that lie was ordered to England, 

 and put in communication with the surveyor 

 of the navy and the dock-yard authorities at 

 Portsmouth. His first idea was to protect 

 guns by means of fixed shields, and at Sir J. 

 Brunei's suggestion, in 1859, the shield and' 

 gun were placed together upon a turn-table, in 

 place of moving the raft to point the gun, as it 

 had been necessary to do previously. The plan 

 was, however, yet crude and not satisfactory, 

 and, after the great success of Captain Ericsson's 

 Monitors as armed vessels for harbor siege and 

 defence, Captain Coles, a little disingenuously, 

 claimed the turret system as his own invention, 

 and proceeded to apply it to the new armored 

 ships of the British Navy. His general plan of 

 the ship's form and armament differed material- 

 ly from that of Ericsson ; and, though his ships 

 were much more elegant in model and grace- 

 ful in appearance than those of the Swedish 

 engineer, they had the fatal defect of being 

 top-heavy and almost unmanageable in a storm. 

 This defect cost him his life, and more than 

 five hundred of his gallant comrades perished 

 with him. The Captain and the Monarch, twin 

 iron-clads built after his models, were regarded 

 by the English Admiralty as perfect specimens 

 of what armored ships should be ; the Mon- 

 arch had crossed the Atlantic, and was greatly 

 admired ; and so great was Captain Coles's 

 confidence in the Captain, that he went to sea 

 in her, though only a passenger, the ship hav- 

 ing her regular commander and a full comple- 

 ment of officers. They found her sailing 

 qualities unexceptionable, until they encoun- 

 tered a storm, not of extraordinary severity, in 

 the Bay of Biscay, and the beautiful ship 

 foundered in the night, only seventeen out of 

 five hundred and forty escaping with their 

 lives. Captain Coles was an accomplished en- 



gineer, resolute and persevering in whatever he 

 uii'li-rtook, and of very amiable and gentle- 

 manly address. 



COLOMBIA, UNITED STATES OF, a republic 

 in South America. President for two years 

 from April 1, 1870, General E. Salgar; Secre- 

 tary of State and of Foreign Affairs, Dr. F. 

 Zapata ; Secretary of Finances, Dr. 8. C. Rol- 

 dan ; Secretary of the Treasury and of National 

 Credit, General J. Trnjillo; Secretary of War, 

 Dr. R. Nunez. The republic consists of the nine 

 States of Antioquia, Bolivar, Boyaca, Cauca, 

 Cundinamarca, Magdalena, Panama, Santan- 

 der, and Tolima. Area, variously estimated at 

 from 857,000 to 513,000 square miles; popu- 

 lation, census of 1864, 2,794,473, not includ- 

 ing the uncivilized Indians, whoso number is 

 estimated at 126,000. Revenue, 1866-1867, 

 $2,417,870, gold ; expenditure, 1865-1866, 

 $2,020,000, gold. According to a report of 

 the British ambassador at Bogota (published 

 in London, 1869), the revenue of 1866-1867 

 was derived from the following sources : 



Duties... .. $1.027,554 



Salt-Monopoly 1,086,613 



Post Department 45,(M3 



Various 257,&W 



Total $2,417,370 gold. 



The report does not contain any informa- 

 tion concerning the public debt, beyond the 

 remark that one-half of the customs duties 

 and 15 per cent, of the revenue derived from 

 the salt-monopoly are mortgaged as securi- 

 ty for the claims of British creditors. The 

 sum required for the payment of interest on 

 the home-debt for 1866-1867 amounted to 

 $218,104; for the floating debt, to $68, 100, gold. 

 The Federal army comprises 1,420 men in 

 time of peace; at the outbreak of war one per 

 cent, of the population of each State is drafted. 

 The movement of commerce and navigation, 

 according to the above report, was as fol- 

 lows: Imports in 1866, $7,897,206; exports, 

 $6,772,017; imports, in 1867, $5,524,493; ex- 

 ports, $5,494,259, gold. The exportation of 

 gold and silver, which is estimated at $3,000,000 

 annually, is not included in the above figures, 

 nor is any mention made of the transit-com- 

 merce over the Isthmus of Panama. The ag- 

 gregate value of merchandise entered at Colon 

 for transit, in 1864, was estimated at $3,750,000, 

 while the clearances summed up $66,020,000. 

 The movement of navigation, in 1867, con- 

 sisted of 703 vessels entered ; of which 147 ves- 

 sels, of 26,992 tons register, were under home 

 flag; and 556 vessels, of 247,721 tons, under 

 foreign flag. Clearances under home flag, 133 

 vessels, of 27,113 tons; under foreign flag, 587 

 vessels, of 225,152 tons. 



The only railroad in operation is tho road 

 across the Isthmus of Panama, 48 miles long. 



The presidential election resulted in favor 

 of General E. Salgar, the liberal candidate, 

 against General Herran. President Salgar 

 was inaugurated on the 1st of April. In May 

 he sent an important message to Congress 



