188 



SOUTH AMERICA— THE ANDES REGIONS. 



-Honda and La Doeada 

 Railway. 



Scale 1 : 80,000. 



northwards to the riverine port of Concjo, Avhich is of far more easy access than 

 Las Yeguas. 



Mariquita, founded in 1550 in the Guali valley, has now little to show except 

 ruined monuments of the past. The gold- and silver-mines which made it the 



chief place in the whole district have long 

 Fig. 71.— Honda and La Doeada been abandoned, while the crumbling remains 



of sumptxious Spanish dwellings stand out amid 

 the surrounding verdure, side by side with the 

 hovels inhabited by a goitrous community of 

 sambos and other half-breeds. This historical 

 place, where the pioneer Quesada died, and 

 where the renowned botanist Mutis made his 

 collections and planted his groves of cinnamon 

 and other rare exotics, shared the fate of 

 Honda in 1805, when over 10,000 persons were 

 destroyed by the earthquake in both places. 



The Eio Negro, which joins the Magdalena 

 below the rapids, contains several important 

 places, such as Vil Jet o and Guadiias, the latter of 

 which was till lately the second largest town 

 in Cundinamarca, and a flourishing station 

 between the capital and the river. Although 

 deprived of much of its trade by the opening of 

 new routes, Guaduas remains one of the most 

 delightful cities in Colombia, being favoured by 

 a mild climate, rich vegetation, and romantic 

 scener3\ PacJio, near the sources of the Rio 

 Negro, a place well known to orchid collectors, 

 is at present the chief centre of the hardware 

 industry, thanks to the neighbouring iron-mines. 

 The last village in the department of Toliraa 

 on the left bank of the Magdalena bears the 

 fully justified name of Buena Vista. It is en- 

 circled by magnificent woodlands, and separated 

 from the province of Antioquia by the lovely 

 Rio Miel (Timona), which reaches the Magda- 

 lena just below the Negro confluence. Nare, 

 74° 50' on the left bank farther north, was formerly 



liMiie. the only port of the province of Antioquia on 



the Magdalena. Lying above the Angostura 

 (" Narrows "), it was a natural depot for the trafiic of the Rio Nare, which is 

 navigable for boats as far as 1st if as, at the confluence of the Nus. But its 

 unhealthy climate, and the selection of another riverine station more favourably 

 situated lower down, hastened the ruin of Nare. In the upper Nare basin are the 



W.oFG. 74° 51' 



