COLOMBIA 



11 SO 



COLON 



Civil war raged from 1825 to 1841. A re- 

 formed constitution in 1843 promised better 

 things. Slavery was abolished in 1852. A 

 new constitution, in 1863, restored, under Fed- 

 eral reform, the old name of Colombia 

 "Estados Unidos de Colombia" and reduced 

 the Presidential term to two years. In 1866 a 

 new central constitution was adopted, destroy- 

 ing the Federal one, and the Presidential term 

 was extended to four years. 



In 1903 Colombia rejected the Hay-Herran 

 Treaty with the United States for the conces- 

 sion of the ship canal right-of-way through the 

 Isthmus of Panama to the latter country, de- 

 manding a vastly greater payment for the 

 concession. On November 3 a revolution broke 

 out in the city of Panama, and the new republic 

 of Panama was recognized by the United States 

 four days later. United States marines were 

 landed for the protection of property and the 

 preservation of order, and Colombia was not 

 permitted to attempt the subjugation of the 

 new republic. The suddenness of the move- 

 ment and the fact that the United States had 

 long guaranteed to Colombia the possession of 

 Panama, caused great indignation among the 

 Colombians, who held that an indemnity should 

 have been paid them for their loss. R.A. 



Other Items of Interest. Almost all the 

 money in use in Colombia is paper money, and 

 since a paper dollar, or peso, is worth a little 

 less than a cent, a traveler who pays for an 

 article with a twenty-dollar gold piece and 

 receives ten or fifteen dollars in change is 

 likely to be embarrassed by its bulk. 



The forests of Colombia abound in orchids, 

 and collectors from Europe and North Amer- 

 ica gladly brave the dangers to obtain the 

 gorgeous specimens. An especially rare one has 

 been known to sell for as much as $6,000. 



The natives use a picturesque boat called a 

 champan, which is so heavy that fifteen or 

 eighteen men can with difficulty pull it against 

 the current. 



Colombia's greatest natural beauty is a water- 

 fall almost five hundred feet in height, which 

 is located about twenty miles from Bogota. 



Barranquilla, the chief commercial city, has 

 wide, unpaved streets on which the sand lies 

 thick. 



The government owns and operates the tele- 

 graph lines, and a message of ten words may 

 be sent to any part of the country for ten 

 cents. Beyond that, charges increase rapidly, 

 the eleventh word costing two cents, the twelfth 

 three, the thirteenth four, and so on. 



Cartagena is the finest example in the west- 

 ern hemisphere of the old walled cities of 

 the Spaniards. In some places the wall is forty 

 feet thick, and when, during a civil war in 

 1904, it received the fire from a man-of-war, 

 it turned the cannon shot as easily as, cen- 

 turies ago, it turned the fire from the Spanish 

 muskets. 



Consult Thomson's Colombia and the United 

 States; Petre's The Republic of Colombia. 



COLOMBO, kolohm'bo, a city of great com- 

 mercial importance, the capital and chief sea- 

 port of Ceylon, on the west coast of the island. 

 Its immense breakwater, sheltering 500 acres of 

 water, makes it the shipping point for most 

 imports and exports of the island. It is the 

 center of Ceylon's tea and cocoanut industries. 

 The population, which in 1911 was 213,396, is 

 distributed over two distinct parts. The Euro- 

 pean portion is noted for the beauty of the 

 buildings, roads and gardens. The native por- 

 tion, or Pettah, is a place of crooked, narrow, 

 ill-kept streets. 



Nobody knows when the first settlement was 

 made here. The town, under an Indian name, 

 was mentioned as early as 1345 as the finest 

 settlement in India. It was captured by the 

 Dutch in 1656, and in 1796 by the British, who 

 yet possess it in connection with all British 

 India. 



COLON, kolohn', a seaport of Panama, the 

 northern terminus of the Panama Canal. It is 

 interesting to note that Colon, on the Atlantic 

 side of the Canal, is twenty-two miles farther 

 west than Panama, the southern terminus, on 



COLOMBIA 



LOCATION OF COLON 



the Pacific side. In matters of sanitation and 

 quarantine Colon is under the jurisdiction of 

 the United States, but for all other govern- 

 mental purposes it is a part .of the Republic of 

 Panama (which see). Adjacent to Colon, how- 

 ever, and practically a part of that city, is 



