THE BOCA GRANDE. 



225 



of the bay ; but being unable to take the town of 

 Cartlmgena, which made a gallant resistance, they destroyed 

 the Castillo Grande, (called also Santa Cruz) and the two 

 forts of San Luis and San Jose, which defended the Boca 

 Chica. 



The apprehension excited by the proximity of the Boca 

 Grande to the town determined the court of Madrid, after 

 the English expedition, to shut up the entrance along a 

 distance of 2640 varas. From two and a half to three 

 fathoms of water were found ; and a wall, or rather a dyke, 

 in stone, from fifteen to twenty feet high, was raised on 

 piles. The slope on the side of the water is unequal, and 

 seldom 45. This immense work was completed under the 

 Viceroy Espeleta, in 1795. But art could not vanquish 

 nature ; the sea is unceasingly though gradually silting up 

 the Boca Chica, while it labours unceasingly to open and 

 enlarge the Boca Grande. The currents which'during a great 

 part of the year, especially when the bendavales blow with 

 violence, ascend from S.W. to N.B., throw sand into the 

 Boca Chica, and even into the bay itself. The passage, 

 which is from seventeen to eighteen fathoms deep, becomes 

 more and more narrow,* and if a regular cleansing be not esta- 

 blished by dredging machines, vessels will not be able to enter 

 without risk. It is this small entrance which should have 

 been closed ; its opening is only 250 toises, and the passage 

 or navigable channel is 110 toises. If it should one day be 

 determined to abandon the Boca Chica, and re-establish the 

 Boca Grande in the state which nature seems to prescribe, 

 new fortifications must be constructed on the S.S.W. of the 

 town. This fortress has always required great pecuniary 

 outlays to keep it up. 



The insalubrity of Carthagena varies with the state of 

 the great marshes that surround the town on the east and 

 north. The Cienega de Tesca is more than fifteen miles 

 long ; it communicates with the ocean, where it approaches 

 the village ol Guayeper. When, in years of drought, the 



* At the foot of the two forts (San Jos6 and San Fernando), constructed 

 for the defence of the Boca Chica, it may be seen how much the land has 

 dined upon the sea. Necks of land are formed on both sides, and also 

 before the Castillo del Angel, which, northward, commands the fort of 

 San Fernando. 



VOL, III. 9 



