THE HILL OF POPA. 211 



rated the town of Carthagena and the islet of Manga 

 from the Cienega de Tesca. These hills, some of which 

 were more than five hundred feet high, commanded the 

 town. The Castillo de San Lazaro was seen from afar 

 rising like a great rocky pyramid ; when examined nearer 

 its fortifications were not very formidable. Layers of clay 

 and sand were covered with bricks, and furnished a kind 

 of construction which had little stability. The Cerro de 

 Santa Maria de la Popa, crowned by a convent and some 

 batteries, rose above the fort of San Lazaro, and was 

 worthy of more solid and extensive works. The image 

 of the Virgin, preserved in the church of the convent, 

 had been long revered by mariners. The view from the 

 Popa was extensive and varied, and the windings and 

 rents of the coast gave it a peculiar character. Hum- 

 boldt was assured that sometimes from the windows of 

 the convent, and even in the open sea, before the fort of 

 Boca Chica, the snowy tops of the Sierra Nevada de 

 Santa Marta were discernible. 



In order to avoid the excessive heats, and the diseases 

 which prevailed during the summer at Carthagena, 

 the travellers removed inland to the village of Turbaco. 

 This small Indian village stood on a bill, at the entrance 

 of a majestic forest, which extended towards the south 

 and the east as far as the canal of Mahates and the river 

 Magdalena. The houses were mostly built of bamboos, 

 and covered with palm leaves. Here and there limpid 

 springs rose out of the calcareous rock, which contained 

 numerous fragments of petrified coral, and were shaded 

 by the splendid foliage of the anacardium caracoli, a tree 

 of colossal size, to which the natives attributed the pro- 

 perty of attracting from great distances the vapours float- 



