COLOMBIA. 



107 



which thirty-three are in operation ; 3. The 

 Antio'quia Railroad, from Port Berrio, on the 

 Magdalena, to Medellin in the State of An- 

 tioquia, two hundred kilometres, of which 

 sixteen are finished ; 4. The Cucuta, to the 

 port St. Buenaventura, on the Tulia River, 

 which flows into the Lake of Maracaibo (Vene- 

 zuela), one hundred and thirty-eight kilome- 

 tres, one quarter finished ; 5. A small railway 

 between the upper Magdalena and the Honda 

 rapids, soon to be finished ; 6. The Bogota 

 and Girardot Railroad, the latter a village near 

 Honda. 



A project is besides on foot to connect by 

 rail the port of Riohacha with the rich coal- 

 mines forming the basin of the river Cesar, in 

 the State of Magdalena; and several short 

 branch-lines to stretch from Bogota to im- 

 portant points in the Savana, such as Facata- 

 tiva, Cipaquira, Pandi, and others. 



Respecting the Panama Canal, a report, 

 which has just been made to Rear-Admiral 

 Cooper, commanding the North Atlantic sta- 

 tion, by Lieutenant Raymond P. Rodgers, of 

 the navy, has the great merit of describing 

 simply, intelligibly, and candidly exactly what 

 has been done toward constructing the canal, 

 and what remains to be done. It differs from 

 the rose- colored generalities of the financial 

 managers of the enterprise on the one hand, 

 and on the other from the depreciatory criti- 

 cisms and the prophecies of evil set forth by the 

 partisans of the rival routes through Tehuante- 

 pec and Nicaragua. 



Two years ago, when the vanguard of the 

 construction party arrived at Aspinwall, they 

 not only found no part of their way cleared, 

 but even the proposed line of the canal not cer- 

 tainly fixed, and no houses to live in or build- 

 ings tit for the storage of their tools, machinery, 

 and property. What has been since accom- 

 plished, as Lieutenant Rodgers makes plain, 

 is the building of wharves at the termini, the 

 erection of workshops all along the line, the 

 setting up of machinery therein, the construc- 

 tion of villages for the workmen and engi- 

 neers, the definite fixing of the axis of the 

 canal, and the clearance of the route from 

 surface impediments to a width of over 300 

 feet throughout. Lately the delayed contracts 

 have been completed. It is safe to say that 

 the machine-digging of the canal proper will 

 open with vigor at the beginning of the dry 

 season. 



But the details also show that a greater 

 quantity of actual excavation has already been 

 done by manual labor than many people sup- 

 pose. On the Colon section there has been 

 much dredging for the basin in which vessels 

 about to enter the canal may lie in security. 

 At Gorgona the excavation of the main cut 

 has been begun by hand. Beyond Obispo, 650 

 men have been for some weeks engaged in the 

 actual work of canal- digging. In the Culebra 

 section, which is the highest point of the route, 

 they have dug down to the proposed full depth 



of the canal. In short, it is evident from the 

 observations of Lieutenant Rodgers, that not 

 only reservoirs and railways for carrying off 

 the refuse, besides other important aids, have 

 been thoroughly prepared, and docks, quarters, 

 machinery, and rolling-stock made ready, but 

 in four sections the actual work of digging is 

 going on by manual labor. 



The theory of a sea-level canal is to be strictly 

 carried out, in preference to the lock system, 

 which the American naval engineers were in- 

 clined to consider less difficult and less costly. 

 Lieutenant Rodgers does not conceal his opinion 

 that the completion of the canal, now announced 

 by Count de Lesseps for the year 1888, will be 

 postponed far beyond that date, and the esti- 

 mate of cost hitherto given, namely, $120,000,- 

 000, will be very largely exceeded. So confi- 

 dent is Lieutenant Rodgers as to the latter 

 point that, although studiously cautious and 

 apparently unswayed by prejudice throughout 

 his report, he yet concludes that "it seems 

 probable that this will undergo the experience 

 of many other great projects that the original 

 subscribers must again subscribe or lose their 

 venture, and that new stockholders will be the 

 ones who will share the profits." When it is 

 reflected how much remains to be done, and 

 how long the preliminaries have dragged, it 

 seems likely that the canal will not be open 

 before the year 1890, at the earliest ; and, as 

 the statistics of Lieutenant Rodgers show that 

 the sum of $26,000,000 has already been ex- 

 pended, it is also reasonable to suppose that 

 the original estimate of cost will be exceeded. 

 Still, the existing expenditures include the cost 

 of all the machinery thus far ordered, as well 

 as the purchase of grounds, while about 5,000 

 men are under constant employ. Besides, the 

 eagerness with which the company's shares 

 were taken up makes it obvious that more 

 money could easily be raised if required, and in 

 any case it would seem possible to enlarge the 

 capital stock instead of calling upon the original 

 subscribers to put in more money. 



The Colombian Post-Office forwarded, in 

 1879-'80, 463,832 letters and 413,350 newspa- 

 pers, and money to the amount of $2,283,974, 

 exclusive of 4,920 kilogrammes of gold, and 

 14,348 kilogrammes of silver. 



The length of telegraphs in operation in the 

 country, in 1879-'80, was 2,960 kilometres, 

 (1,865 miles), and the number of telegrams 

 passed over the wires was 150,204. 



The foreign hospital at Panama received in 

 1882 1,154 sick persons, of whom only 76 

 died ; the patients received belonged to thirty- 

 three different nationalities. The municipal- 

 ity of the capital, Bogota, has asked the 

 Federal Government for aid to the extent of 

 $20,000, in order to improve its sanitary con- 

 dition. 



Two candidates for the presidency are 

 prominently before the country, ex-President 

 Raphael Nufiez, for re-election, and General 

 Solon Wilches. 



