126 COLOMBIA, UNITED STATES OF. 



COLORADO. 



The Government of the United States has no 

 authority to exercise any vigilance over the B. E. 

 Cuyler in Colombian waters, as long as she does not 

 commit or threaten to commit any act of hostility or 

 injury to the United States. 



This reply of the United States Government 

 was communicated to the Acting President 

 Acosta by Minister Sullivan on Dec. 2d. Acosta's 

 answer mainly consisted of general remarks 

 about the high value Colombia places on the 

 friendship of the United States, and the dis- 

 honesty of public servants who have already 

 been condemned by public opinion. 



At the State elections held in December, the 

 conservatives elected their candidate to the 

 Presidency of Cundinamarca. The threats of 

 Aldana, the former incumbent of that office, to 

 forcibly retain possession of the government if 

 he were not himself reflected to the place, 

 were promptly met by the federal government 

 with the assurance that he would not be al- 

 lowed to disturb the public tranquillity. As 

 Aldana had previously depended on the gov- 

 ernment to aid him in his scheme, he was com- 

 pelled by the opposition of Acosta to abandon 

 altogether the idea of revolutionizing the State. 

 The conservatives gained another victory in 

 Bolivar, one of the States verging on the Car- 

 ribbean. Carthagena, the capital, has heretofore 

 been considered a stronghold of the liberals; 

 but a recent municipal election was carried by 

 the opposite party. 



The agents of the Panama Eailroad Company, 

 in August, 1867, after much trouble, consider- 

 able expense, and great anxiety, succeeded in 

 obtaining a renewal of their charter for ninety- 

 nine years: Great efforts had been made by 

 English capitalists to prevent the renewal, and 

 it was believed that President Mosquera was 

 acting hand in hand with them. After the 

 coup d'etat, Mosquera made repeated proposals 

 to the agent of the company to make a 

 contract on his own responsibility; but the 

 agent refused to enter into an agreement which 

 would not bfi ratified by Congress, and he did 

 not wish to furnish the dictator with the money 

 which he alone needed to maintain his rule. 

 The new government at once called Congress 

 together, and with the prospect of legal and 

 constitutional ratification a contract was agreed 

 upon by the Secretary of the Treasury and the 

 agent of the company, accepted by the President 

 and ratified by Congress, with some modifica- 

 tions. The following first four articles of the 

 contract contain the most important points : 



ARTICLE 1. The Government of the United States 

 of Colombia grants to the Panama Eailroad Company 

 the use and possession, for ninety-nine years, of the 

 railroad constructed by the same which actually ex- 

 ists between the cities of Colon and Panama. This 

 grant includes not only the road itself, but also the 

 edifices, storehouses, wharves, docks, the telegraph 

 between Colon and Panama connected with the road, 

 and in general all its dependencies and other works 

 of which said company is now in possession, which 

 are necessary for the development of the enterprise, 

 and those which in future they may establish with 

 the same object. 



ART. 2. The government of the republic binds it- 

 self, during the period that this exclusive privilege 

 granted to the company for the working of the rail- 

 road remains in force, not to construct itself, or 

 concede to any person or company, in any way 

 whatever, the right of constructing any other rail- 

 road on the Isthmus of Panama, and it is also stipu- 

 lated that while the aforesaid privilege exists, the 

 government cannot undertake nor permit any person 

 whatever to undertake, without the permission or 

 consent of said company, the construction or work- 

 ing of any ocean canal that may put in communica- 

 tion the two oceans across the Isthmus of Panama, 

 to the westward of a line from Cape Tiburon on the 

 Atlantic and Point Garashine on the Pacific. But it 

 is stipulated that the right granted to the company 

 to give its consent does not extend to the opposing 

 the construction of a canal across the Isthmus of 

 Panama (except on the actual route of said railroad), 

 but only to exact an equitable price for said privi- 

 lege, and as an indemnification for the losses which 

 the railroad company might suffer from the oppo- 

 sition or competition of the canal. If the govern- 

 ment of the United States of Colombia should 

 consider the sum exacted by the company not equit- 

 able, then it shall be fixed by arbitrators in New 

 York or Panama, one of them appointed by the 

 government and the other by the company, and in 

 case of non-agreement the two shall name a third, 

 whose decision shall be without appeal. In making 

 their decision the arbitrators shall take into con- 

 sideration the grounds on which the company rests, 

 and the report that will be given by the government 

 on the matter ; and having these in view they shall 

 decide, without appeal, what they believe just and 

 equitable. The sum, whatever it may be, that shall 

 be definitively decided on, shall belong, one-half to 

 the railroad company and the other half to the gov- 

 ernment. 



ART. 3. In compensation and as the price of these 

 concessions, the railroad company obliges itself to 

 pay to the government of the United States of Co- 

 lombia one million of dollars in American gold coin, 

 or in drafts payable in New York in the same, as the 

 government may choose, on the day on which this 

 contracts approved by Congress, and to pay from 

 now until the expiration of the present privilege an 

 annual rent of two hundred and fifty thousand dol- 

 lars in American gold coin. The payments shall be 

 made by the company quarterly in ISew York to the 

 agents named by the government of the United 

 States of Colombia, or if convenient for the govern- 

 ment, the company shall place the money in London 

 or Panama on the government giving the necessary 

 advice to the company in New York. These quar- 

 terly payments shall commence to count from the 

 day of approval of this contract by Congress. From 

 the rent which the Eepublic gets by this contract, 

 there shall be deducted annually, during twenty 

 years, twenty-five thousand dollars, which the com- 

 pany shall deliver to the government of the State of 

 Panama. 



AET. 4. The company binds itself to extend the 

 railroad on the Pacific side to the islands of Nao, 

 Calebra, Perico and Flamenco, or to any other place 

 in the bay where there may be permanent depth of 

 water for large vessels. 



COLORADO. The district of country known 

 by the name of Colorado has an area of 106,475 

 square miles. It is wedged in between Kansas 

 and Utah. Idaho is on the north, and New 

 Mexico below it. The Rocky Mountains trav- 

 erse it from North to South. The Arkansas 

 River, emptying into ' the Mississippi ; Grand 

 River, which pours into the Bay of California 

 through the Colorado ; the Rio Grande, that 

 flows into the Bay of Mexico along the south- 



