1 62 Travels and Adventures 



this place with the town of Honda, and runs to the 

 part of the river where the steamboats land, called 

 Yeguas, about four miles from Honda. At this point 

 the mountains which wall in the valley of the Magda- 

 lena are very near to each other, and there seems to 

 be no breeze which ever reaches the town ; it is pro- 

 verbially known all over the country as being very 

 hot, and I have seldom seen the thermometer fall below 

 95 Fahr. in the shade. It is a curiously built little 

 town, with neither system nor design in the architec- 

 ture. It was at one time lar^e and important, but 

 earthquakes have proved its ruin, and now the fine 

 churches, convents, hospitals, and even a beautiful 

 stone bridge, have all been destroyed. Travellers to 

 the interior must inevitably pass this way, and every- 

 one will find lodging-houses an( j facilities for hiring 

 mules, etc., to help him on his way to the capital. 

 When I got on board the steamboat here to descend 

 the Magdalena river, I practically said good-bye for 

 the time being to four States of this magnificent 

 country — Boyaca, Cundinamarca, El Cauca, and El 

 Tolima. No pen or picture has or ever will be able 

 to give more than a faint idea of the glories of this 

 part of Colombia — of its riches in mines of emeralds 

 and gold and silver ; of its agricultural products of 

 coffee, cocoa, and grain ; of its trackless forests, with 

 their exhaustless supply of timber and choice woods, its 



