CHAPTER IV. 



COLOMBIA. 



HE republic at present known by the name of Colombia, and till 

 recently variously designated as New Grenada and the United 

 States of Colombia, comprises a vast domain at the north-west 

 corner of the continent, together with the intercontinental 

 isthmus as far north as Costa Rica. The Atlantic and Pacific 

 coastlines have each a development of about 1,530 miles, while the land frontiers 

 may be approximately estimated at 1,250 miles, pending a final settlement of the 

 disputed question of boundaries with the conterminous states. At the extreme 

 north-west the limit of the Panama district towards Costa Rica awaits the deci- 

 sion of the arbitrators charged with the study of the early records preserved in the 

 Spanish archives. 



The frontier towards Venezuela has already been determined by the arbitration 

 of Spain ; but with Brazil, Ecuador and Peru the question is still in a backward 

 state, some of the interested powers claiming vast spaces in the almost unin- 

 habited wilds of the Amazonian slope. But even apart from these disputed and, 

 at least for the present, almost valueless lands, Colombia still remains a very large 

 state, with a superficial area that can scarcely be estimated at less than 500,000 

 square miles. 



The true Colombia, however, regarding it from the standpoint of the general 

 relief and more characteristic physical features, comprises no more than about half 

 of this domain, that is to say the ramifying Andean system with its intermediate 

 valleys. "Were the international frontiers to be determined, not by musty and 

 often contradictory documents, but by the broad natural divisions, Colombia should 

 certainly have retained the Sierra de Merida, as well as the whole of the Mari- 

 caibo basin, leaving to Venezuela the Orinoco, with all its affluents. Towards 

 Ecuador, also, where the limits on the seaboard are indicated by the little Rio de 

 Matajé (Pillanguapi), the frontiers are for the most part artificial, traversing 

 plateaux and mountains with little regard to the geographical and ethnical con- 

 ditions. Its south-eastern plains being mostly almost uninhabited, Colombia as 

 a whole is but sparsely peopled, although certain regions of the plateau already 



