TOPOGRAPHY OF COLOMBIA. 205 



the old Indian village of San Sebastian de Rabago, at an altitude of 6,500 feet, in 

 the very heart of the Sierra Nevada. 



DiBULLA — VirXANUEVA — EsPIRITU SaNTO. 



On the almost uninhabited north-eastern coastlands, Dlbulla, formerly San 

 Sebastian de la Rainada, lies some 60 miles due east of Santa Marta. At this point 

 the shore-line begins to trend north-eastwards in the direction of Rio Hacha (Rio- 

 hacha), the last Colombian station on the Caribbean Sea. Beyond it stretch the 

 unproductive steppes roamed by the Goajiro Indians. The salines along this 

 section of the coast are almost abandoned, although containing a supply of salt 

 sufficient for millions of people. 



Bahia Honda, on a deep inlet at the extremity of the Goajira Peninsula, is the 

 place which Bolivar is said to have regarded as a favourable site for the future 

 metropolis of all Spanish America. A railway might easily be constructed from 

 this point through Soldado and over the low pass in the neighbouring sierra down 

 to the Magdalena basin. This line would pass several towns and stations, amongst 

 others Valledapar, capital of the Hio Cesar district, formerly a flourishing settle- 

 ment, which was founded in the middle of the sixteenth century, and which is 

 noted as the residence of Castellanos, poet of the Colombian Conquest. 



Vilhuiueva and San Juan de Cesar, higher up the Cesar valley, have lately 

 acquired some importance from the coffee plantations that now cover the first 

 slopes of the Sierra Negra. The extensive savannas of the same valley sujDport 

 numerous herds of cattle, destined chiefly for the Cuban market. 



Skirted on the north side by the tei-ritory of the Arhuaco Indians, with its 

 capital, Atanquez, and on the south by that of the Motilones, whose central station 

 is Espiritu Santo (Codazzi), the lower course of the Hio Cesar is also attracting 

 settlers, thanks to the development of stock-farming and of its cacao, coffee, and 

 tobacco plantations. The northern spurs of the Sierra Nevada, culminating in 

 the Alto de las Minas group, abound in coals and minerals. 



Cartagena. 



Cartagena de las Indias, about 65 miles south-west of the Magdalena delta, 

 was founded in 1558 by Pedro de Heredia under the name of Calamar, a name 

 which was afterwards transferred to the riverine station at the head of the canal 

 connecting it with the Magdalena. Finely situated on a cluster of islets forming 

 the harbour, Cartagena, with its suburb of Jijimani (Gethsemaneh), reposes in the 

 shade of Mount Popa, an abrupt eminence dominating the east side of the narrow 

 strait. Church towers, the old palace of the Inquisition, and other buildings rise 

 above the line of old ramparts, which form a circuit of some miles, and on which 

 Spain lavished the prodigious sum of nearly £12,000,000. Nevertheless, this famous 

 stronghold of Spanish power in the New World had, like all fortified towns, to 

 undergo frequent sieges. In 1741 the English Admiral Vernon lost 7,000 men 



