EXPERIENCES IN COLOMBIA 255 



trast to the Colombian towns we had just left. Making fast to the 

 pier, the steamer was at once surrounded by dugouts, in which natives 

 with monkeys, parrots, coral, etc., tried to tempt money from the 

 reluctant pockets of the passengers. Getting ashore we took a short 

 railroad ride to the middle of the city and breakfasted at 

 the Hotel Americano. Even here there were few Anglo-Saxons. 

 Indeed, one of the storekeepers to whom we had letters of introduction 

 said at that time that there were only seven Americans, four English- 

 men, and three Germans in Cartagena. The old city was fascinating 



BANANAS. 



in the extreme, and we spent every moment that we could spare in view- 

 ing the walls, the cathedral, the fortifications, and the public buildings. 

 We also went up against a native manufacturer of Panama hats, and 

 each bought several of them. Incidentally, of course, we looked for 

 rubber, but found that there was very little in town. Indeed, few knew 

 anything about rubber any way, either wild or cultivated. A young 

 Philadelphian who went down with us reported that on his company's 

 concession, which covered some two hundred square miles, the natives 

 had cut down nearly all the rubber trees, and that that sort of work 

 had followed throughout the whole of their district. 



It was a very fortunate accident that at this juncture brought me 

 in touch with Mr. Henry G. Granger, United States consular agent at 

 Quibdo, Colombia, and it is due to his instant good will that the fol- 

 lowing record is here appended. 



