of an Orchid Hunter. 209 



spent here by the Royal Mail ships is very short, we 

 were soon on shore to see as much of the place as 

 the time would allow. The houses are most curious, 

 looking like a city of forts. Many of them are 

 spacious, and even palatial ; the massive stone walls 

 are at least four feet thick, and the spaces for the 

 windows fitted with strong iron bars. They are 

 built round a square, open court, after the Moorish 

 style, the heavy doors, which form the only entrance, 

 reminding one of the old English portcullis ; and 

 though many of them are half-ruined and deserted, 

 they give an idea of what Carthagena must have been 

 in its glory. I visited what is called the Inquisition 

 Building, the only one of the kind left in Colombia. 

 For nearly sixty years after the then despotic power 

 of the Romish Church had been overthrown it stood 

 empty ; it is now the residence of a rich citizen, 

 and although it was once fitted with instruments of 

 torture, and prison-cells where hundreds died a 

 miserable death, very little remains in the immense 

 building to prove what deeds of horror were enacted 

 within its walls. There are two cathedrals, one of 

 the time of the early settlers, and one modern — both 

 beautiful specimens of architecture, adorned with the 

 usual extravagant decorations of hicdi-class Roman 

 Catholic places of worship. In the oldest of these 

 is located the famous marble pulpit. The story told 

 o 



