204 SOUTH AMERICA— THE ANDES EEGIONS. 



marine station, with ship-building yards, repairing doclvs, and a whole flotilla of 

 river steamers. But sea-going vessels are excluded by the dangerous bar, and 

 compelled to ride at anchor some 12 miles to the north-west in Savanilla Bay, 

 which, however, is connected with Barranquilla by a railway and by some shallow 

 channels soon to be replaced by a navigable marine canal. Through the 

 passages ramifying eastwards in the direction of Cienaga, this flourishing emporium 

 also commands the trade of Santa Marta with the Magdalena, and with all the 

 inland cities, and has thus become the converging point of two-thirds of the whole 

 traffic of the republic. 



Savanilla, at the head of the deep bay to which it gives its name, is accessible 

 only to the lightest craft ; but the railway connecting it with Barranquilla has 

 been continued along the shore south-eastwards through Salgar to Puerto Columbia, 

 at the foot of the steep and rocky coast range. Ou the north side the bay is 

 skirted by a chain of islets and sandbanks, where it was hoped that better 

 anchorage might be obtained. A branch line had already been constructed to 

 Puerto Belillo at the extremity of these half-submerged lands ; but the sheltering 

 islet of Ida Verde (" Green Isle ") was swept away during a fierce storm 

 in 1887. 



Santa Marta [Santamarta) may also be regarded as belonging to the region of 

 the Magdalena delta, although actually lying at the north-west extremity of the 

 snowy range to which it gives its name. This is the oldest Spanish settlement 

 in Colombia, having been founded by Rodrigo Bastidas in 1525; here, also, was 

 organised the expedition which was led by Jimenez de Quesada, a few years later, 

 to the conquest of the Muysca empire. Communicating with the Magdalena by 

 the great Cienaga ("Lagoon"), and by several passages separated from the sea by 

 the Salamanca spit, Santa Marta remained down to the present century the chief 

 Colombian seaport in the Caribbean waters. But since the opening of the 

 Savanilla railway the "Samarios," as the inhabitants are called, have lost nearly 

 all their trade. In 1889 the whole of the foreign exchanges had fallen to about 

 £8,000. But they hope to recover the ascendency by constructing a railway to 

 the Magdalena at the Cerro San Antonio nearly opposite the Dique de Calamar, 

 or even much farther up, at Banco, on the Bio Cesar confluence. But in 1893 this 

 line had only reached the Bio Frio affluent of the Cienaga. Santa Marta also 

 suffers from an unhealthy and oppressively hot climate, with a mean temperature 

 of 83° or 84° Fahr. 



Mamatoco, on the Manzauares height, and various other settlements on the 

 encircling slopes, serve as health resorts, although the surrounding mountains 

 still remain almost an unknown region. San Juan de Cordoba, better known by 

 the name of Cienaga, from the neighbouring lagoon, has already outstripped Santa 

 Marta in population and commercial activity. 



Southwards, the highway running along the foot of the sierra in the direction 

 of the Rio Cesar valley has recently attracted numerous settlers. Here have 

 sprung up the settlements of Rio Frio and La Fundacion, both on the same 

 affluent of the lagoon, while planters from Bogota have established themselves in 



