of an Orchid 1 1 cater. 8i 



the canoe over the rocky shallows; and in descending, 

 there are the fearful rapids and whirlpools, where 

 many of the canoes, with their freight and passengers, 

 are lost every year. Thousands of bags of coffee 

 are annually brought down from the interior on this 

 river, and a corresponding number of bales of 

 manufactured goods are carried up. The town of 

 Bucaramanga contains about fifty thousand inhabitants, 

 and every one of these who would make a journey 

 to the coast, however distinguished or delicate — from 

 the polished Spanish lady to the hardiest Indian — 

 must submit to a six days' imprisonment in one of 

 these miserable craft on the river Lebrija, or another 

 branch river called the Sogamoso, where the circum- 

 stances are pretty much the same, the only way 

 to this large interior town being by way of these 

 rivers, with the alternative of the overland route, 

 which is a hundred miles' tramp through the forest, 

 with men bearing provisions. When I made the 

 ascent of the Lebrija I left the Magdalena steamboat 

 at Bodega Central, which is largely owned by two 

 estimable merchants, Messrs. Lopez and Navarro, 

 and is remarkable for the immense thatched ware- 

 houses, crowded with piles of bags of coffee, hides, 

 gutta-percha, cocoa, plants, and various other products 

 of the magnificent State of Santander, one of the 

 richest, most important, and most progressive States 



G 



