COLOMBIA. 



115 



tapping the Magdalena at Calamar, connects 

 that river with the harbor of Cartagena, and 

 which, reopened to navigation by the national 

 and State governments, was under repairs as 

 early as 1879, by an American engineer, and 

 already navigable by craft of five feet draught. 

 The cotton fabrics are almost exclusively from 

 Great Britain and Germany : those from Man- 

 chester alone, in 1878, were of the value of 

 $100,000.* United States products are little in 

 demand, and the few articles received are re- 

 garded as inferior to similar commodities from 

 Europe. French butter, for instance, brings 

 $1 per pound ; American, but 60 cents. The 

 imports and exports at Cartagena for the year 

 ending August 31, 1879, were as below : 



Through the port of Sabanilla the trade with 

 the United States is steadily increasing. The 

 value of the exports to the latter in 1879 was 

 $2,464,668, against $2,071,131 in the year im- 

 mediately preceding, as follows: 



From examination of the foregoing statistics 

 the general impression derived would be that 

 the trade between Colombia and the United 

 States is less than that between Colombia and 

 Europe. But there are figures to demonstrate 

 that such is in reality not the case. For ex- 

 ample, let France and Great Britain be taken 

 as points of comparison, and we find the fol- 

 lowing elements : 



Colombia imported from Great Britain in 1878. . . $5,098.000 



44 " " France * in 1878 5,104,000 



44 " " the United States in 1879 6,585,000 



Total .- $15,787,000 



Colombia exported to Great Britain in 1878 $4.534,000 



44 * " France* in 1878 2,592.000 



44 " " the United States in 1S79. . 7,187,000 



Total $14,818,000 



Thus our exports to Colombia were, though 

 slightly, in advance of those of either of the 

 other two countries; but we imported from 

 her more than both of the others together. 



The chief imports by Colombia from all 

 three countries last mentioned were as fol- 

 lows : 



* A single Manchester firm, it has been said, sent tn Me- 

 dellin. in Colombia, prints of the value of $750,000 in the 

 same year. 



t Shipped via New York for Europe without invoice. 



Four lines of steamers make Panama their 

 terminal port, namely : 1 . The line from Pan- 

 ama to San Francisco ; 2. That from Panama 

 to Central America and Mexico ; 3. From 

 Panama to the South Pacific as far as Valpa- 

 raiso; 4. From Panama to Guayaquil. The 

 two first-mentioned lines are owned and man- 

 aged by the Pacific Mail Steamship Company, 

 of New York ; the two latter by the Pacific 

 Steam Navigation Company, of Liverpool, 

 England. The line from Panama to San Fran- 

 cisco runs two and, during the coffee season, 

 three steamers a month each way, calling at 

 Pnnta Arenas, Costa Rica; La Libertad, Sal- 

 vador ; San Jos6, Guatemala ; Acapulco, Man- 

 zanillo, San Bias, and Mazatlan, Mexico. The 

 Central American and Mexican line runs three 

 steamers per month, each way, calling at Punta 

 Arenas, San Juan del Sur, Corinto, Amapala, 

 La Union, La Libertad, San Jos6, Champerico, 

 Port Angle, and Acapulco. The line from 

 Panama to the South Pacific runs weekly each 

 way from Panama to Callao, calling at the 



* About $1.000,000 of the imports from France were from 

 other countries and in transit through France; and perhaps 

 a like proportion of the exports to *'rance were likewise for 

 other countries. 



