COLOMBIA. 



105 



Consuls at Bogota and the chief Colombian sea- 

 ports respectively are: Barranquilla, W. W. 

 Randall ; Bogota, B. Koppel ; Carthagena, E. 

 W. P. Smith ; Colon, J. Thorington ; Panama, 

 J. M. Wilson ; and Riohacha, N". Daniels. 



The regulation strength of the army in time 

 of peace is 2,000, and in time of war each of 

 the nine States is required to furnish a contin- 

 gent of one per cent of its population. 



The revenue and expenditure of the republic 

 for the fiscal year, 1882-'83, were officially re- 

 ported at $6,327,540 and $9,097,549, thus 

 showing a deficit of $2,770,009. The previous 

 budget had been: 1881-'82 income, $5,- 

 917,000; outlays, $9,529,547; showing a de- 

 ficiency of $3,612,547. 



The national debt was reported as follows, 

 on August 31, 1881 : 



Foreign debt $9,510,500 



Home debt 10,386,278 



Total $19,956,178 



The foreign trade of the republic by land 

 and sea was as follows : 



In 1879-'80 the exports were distributed as 

 follows: To the United States, $4,565,200; to 

 England, $4,326,200; to France, $1,971,000; 

 to Germany, $1,648,000 ; and to other coun- 

 tries, $1,294,581 ; together, $13,804,981. 



The following articles constituted this export 

 movement: Quinine-bark, $3,229,000; coffee, 

 $3,051,000; leaf-tobacco, $1,284,000; hides, 

 $1,009,000; cattle, $528,000; India-rubber, 

 $355,000; vegetable ivory (tdgua), $285,000; 

 cabinet and dye woods, $133,000; gold and 

 silver bullion, $2,765,000 ; gold and silver ores, 

 $515,000. 



One of the most valuable products of Co- 

 lombia, quinine-bark, or cinchona, is being rap- 

 idly exhausted there as well as in Peru, and 

 its culture has therefore been successfully in- 

 troduced into Ceylon and Java. We may be 

 permitted to add, with reference to this impor- 

 tant drug, a passage we take from Cassell's 

 "New Popular Educator": The discovery of 

 the medical properties of cinchona-bark is 

 enveloped in great obscurity. All that we 

 know about it for certain is this: Before the 

 year 1638 that is to say, one hundred and fifty 

 years subsequent to the discovery of America 

 not even the Spaniards were acquainted with 

 the febrifuge qualities of cinchona-bark ; but 

 in this year, or thereabout, the Countess de 

 Chinchon, the wife of the Spanish Viceroy of 

 Peru, was cured of a violent intermittent fever 

 by drinking an infusion of the bark, and this 

 led to its introduction into Europe. Were the 

 natives themselves acquainted with it ? Hum- 

 boldt answers this question very positively in 

 the negative, and refers the discovery to the 



Jesuit missionaries, who, being in the habit of 

 tasting the bark of every tree they hewed 

 down, at length discovered the precious febri- 

 fuge. Other authors of repute contend that 

 the virtues of cinchona-bark were known to 

 the Indians long before the advent of the Span- 

 iards; but the question again arises how they 

 first became acquainted with its properties. 

 To account for this, the ridiculous tale has 

 been invented that certain animals, while la- 

 boring under fever, happened to gnaw the bark 

 of one of the cinchona-trees, and were cured 

 forthwith. Far more probable is it that some 

 cinchona-trees having been laid prostrate by 

 the tempests in a pool of water, and the latter 

 becoming charged with the medicinal principle, 

 some person laboring under fever drank of 

 this water, was cured, and published the result. 

 But, however this may be, it is certain that the 

 remedy first became popularized in Europe 

 through the agency of Count de Chinchon, 

 Viceroy of Peru, whose wife, as we have 

 said, was cured of intermittent fever by its 

 administration. The new remedy, however, 

 was badly received in France and" Italy. The 

 faculty set their faces against it. Physicians 

 who dared prescribe its use were persecuted, 

 and it was only the patronage of Louis XIV 

 which ultimately rendered it popular in France. 

 This monarch, suffering from intermittent fe- 

 ver, was cured by an English empiric named 

 Talbot, by means of a secret remedy. This 

 was no other than cinchona-bark. Louis XIV 

 purchased the secret for the sum of 48,000 

 livres, and bestowed yearly a pension of 2,000 

 livres on the Englishman, besides giving him 

 letters of nobility. Three years subsequently 

 the remedy was published. It was a highly 

 concentrated vinous tincture of cinchona-bark. 

 Cinchona-trees grow in the densest forests of 

 Peru and Colombia. The task of discovering 

 them, removing their bark, and conveying the 

 latter to the place of export, is troublesome, 

 difficult, and dangerous. In these forests there 

 are no roads. Frightful precipices intersect 

 the path of the cascarillero, or bark-gatherer, 

 across which it is difficult to pass, even while 

 unembarrassed by a load. So soon as the 

 treasure of bark has been secured, these diffi- 

 culties and dangers proportionately increase, 

 so that the comparatively low price at which 

 cinchona may be procured is in itself a matter 

 of surprise. 



As for the maritime movement in 1880-'81, 

 it may be judged of by the entries, which were : 

 sailing-vessels, 1,119, with a joint tonnage of 

 79,600, and 524 steamers of, together, 661,460 

 tons. 



IMPORTS FROM THE UNITED STATES OF COLOMBIA INTO 

 THE FOLLOWING COUNTRIES (MERCHANDISE ONLY). 



