138 



COLOMBIA. 



Dabney H. Maury, and the Colombian Minis- 

 ter at Washington is Don Kicardo Becerra. 

 The Colombian Consul at New York is Seflor 

 0. Calderon. The American Consul- General 

 at Bogota is John G. Walker. 



A decree was issued in July, recalling the 

 Colombian legations in France and Germany, 

 and abolishing the consulates at London, Brus- 

 sels, and San Francisco. 



Army. The strength of the army was fixed 

 for 1887 at 6,500 on a peace footing, to be in- 

 creased in time of war to any extent that may 

 be deemed necessary. 



Finance. The public indebtedness in 1887 

 was represented by a foreign debt of $11,158,- 

 000 and a home debt of $11,057,628. The 

 national bank, founded in 1881, has besides is- 

 sued $8,000,000 notes, still in circulation. A 

 branch bank is to be established at Panama. 

 The budget estimate for 1887-'88 fixes the in- 

 come at $20,890,000, and the outlay at $22,893,- 

 645. The product of the salines in the interior 

 during the last four months of 1886 gave 

 jointly a revenue of $483,874. Dating from 

 Dec. 15, 1886, the Government established as a 

 monopoly of its own the manufacture of sea- 

 salt in the department of Panama ; all salt con- 

 sumed there will have to be purchased at the 

 government offices. 



Much trouble was experienced in P.-mama 

 during the spring and summer respecting the 

 circulating medium, and this led to a decree de- 

 claring legal tender, in the department of Pa- 

 nama, the national silver coins of 0*885 and 

 0*900 fineness, in dollar and fifty-cent pieces, 

 and those of equal coinage of lower denomina- 

 tions, even should their fineness be inferior to 

 that mentioned. Foreign gold and silver coins 

 of 0.900 fineness, and national gold coins of the 

 same quality, or of 0'666, coined in the Medellin 

 Mint under decree 659 of 1885, and national 

 and foreign bank-notes of all descriptions and 

 denominations will be considered in the de- 

 partment of Panama to be merely objects of 

 commerce. Meanwhile in Medellin, Cauca, in 

 August, gold rose 20 per cent, in value, as com- 

 pared with June prices, and drafts on foreign 

 countries were at 80 per cent, premium; im- 

 ported goods rose from 8 to 10 per cent, in 

 price. 



During the spring a law was passed abrogat- 

 ing all privileges and exemptions granted by 

 prior legislation or government decrees in favor 

 of banks doing business in Colombia. 



Commerce. The imports into Colombia in 

 1885-'86 were valued at $6,879,541, and the 

 exports at $14,171,241. The United States' 

 trade with Colombia in two years has been : 



The national legislative council determined 

 in January that the law of Sept. 21 and 22, 

 1886, prohibiting the coasting-trade in sailing- 



vessels from Panama southward, should not 

 comprise the port of Buenaventura. 



The Panama Canal. On July 21, a meeting of 

 the Panama Canal Company was held in Paris. 

 The aggregate expenditure, during the fiscal 

 year 1885-'86, was 144,311,119 francs, and as, 

 since the incorporation of the company, there 

 had been spent 495,862,076 francs, the total 

 amount reached the sum of 640,173,195 francs. 

 But there is to be deducted from this the sum 

 of 38,446,785 francs not yet paid, reducing the 

 actual disbursements to 601,726,410 francs. 

 Deducting the latter from the share capital of 

 the company, the 250,000 5-per-cent. bonds, 

 the 600,000 3-per-cent. bonds, and the 409,667 

 4-per-cent. bonds, together, 734,098,628 francs, 

 there remained on June 80, 1886, an available 

 capital of 132,372,218 francs. 



While the U. S. steamer " Galena " lay at 

 anchor off Colon early in March, 1887, Lieut. 

 Kogers was assigned by the Navy Department 

 to accompany M. Charles de Lesseps, vice- 

 president of the canal, on his tour of inspec- 

 tion. The trip began on March 10, and lasted 

 seventeen days. The report of Lieut. Rogers 

 embraces the following passages : " Estimates 

 of the total excavations necessary to complete 

 the canal are now placed at 105,090,000 cubic 

 metres. Out of this, up to date, the amount 

 completed is 31,920,000 cubic metres, leaving 

 73, 170,000 metres to be excavated. Up to the 

 end of 1885, 18,417,318 cubic metres had been 

 excavated. During 1886 11,727,000 cubic me- 

 tres were added. I put down the time of the 

 completion of the canal at seven years. That 

 is, without there being any hitches, and every- 

 thing working in perfect order. M. Ferdinand 

 de Lesseps has quoted the most sanguine fig- 

 ures as to the possible output in the coming 

 two years. To my mind, there will be no in- 

 crease on the present output. In the first place, 

 it is easy to see that the deeper the works get, 

 the more difficult becomes the task of remov- 

 ing the rock and soil ; and the difficulty of the 

 Culebra mountain has not yet been solved. M. 

 Charles de Lesseps was rather guarded on the 

 subject, saying: 'In two years the canal will 

 be completed from Colon to Kilometre Forty- 

 four, and from La Boca to Paraiso. As to the 

 Culebra, I leave you to form your own conclu- 

 sions. It is a difficult work.' The serious 

 question in the Culebra is, how to avoid the 

 accumulation of sediment and the vast land- 

 slides it is subject to. Last year 78,000 cubic 

 metres of earth were washed away or fell into 

 the bed of the canal, and, according to the rate 

 of extraction of 1886, it must have taken the 

 work of six weeks to make good the damage. 

 The hill-side on the left is a mixture of sand, 

 alluvium, and conglomerate. During the rainy 

 season, the surface deposit becomes saturated 

 with water, and the increased weight, coupled 

 with the incline, causes the deposit to slide 

 over the smooth surface of the clay into the 

 canal excavation-works. The clay in turn 

 contracts during the dry season, large fissures 



