TOPOGRAPHY OF COLOMBIA. 207 



of Ticrra Bomba, which is itself separated by a narrow channel from a northern 

 promontory of Baru Island. The marine inlet thus enclosed has a superficial area 

 of no less than. 15 square miles, with an average depth of from 10 to 15 fathoms. 

 But the approaches are difficult, the southern passage between Baru and the main- 

 land being fordable by cavalry, whence its name, " Pasa Caballos." 



The south-western entrance of Boca Chica (" Little Mouth ") is wide enough 

 only for a single vessel, while the Boca Grande (" Large Mouth ") has been com- 

 pletely closed by an embankment which cost thirteen years of labour (1775 to 

 1788), and an outlay of nearly £300,000. Communication is afforded with the 

 Magdalena by the Calamar Canal, which, however, reaches the coast at an inlet 

 some distance south of the roadstead. This winding passage has been at different 

 times deepened or re-excavated, but only for small steamers, the mean depth at no 

 time exceeding 8 feet. 



Nevertheless, Cartagena possesses in the neighbouring plantations and pas- 

 tures the elements of a local traffic which, when fully developed, mav prove more 

 profitable than the foreign trade, which is almost entirely in the hands of the 

 English. When easy access is given to large vessels, and the railway completed 

 to the Magdalena basin, this place cannot fail to recover its former prosperity. 

 Of the agricultural centres which gravitate towards Cartagena, one of the best 

 known is Turhaco, the ancient Yurbaco, where the Indians successfully resisted 

 the advance of Hojeda in 1510. Amongst those killed in the engagement was 

 the famous pilot, Juan de la Cosa. 



Tout — Lokk;a — Quibdo — Uiirao. 



For some years the Gulf of Morosquillo, wâth its south-western inlet, Puerto 

 Cisjxda, has been coming to the front. Here debouches the Rio Sinu, the 

 " Colombian Pactolus," which traverses a district even more productive in agricul- 

 tural produce than in mineral wealth. Toht, on the shores of the gulf, was 

 founded by Alonso de Ileredia in 1535, and does a brisk trade in colonial produce, 

 including the balsam named from this place. But at present settlers are attracted 

 chiefly to the Sinu valley, and to its capital, Lorica, which lies below a labyrinth 

 of channels communicating with the mainstream, and navigable by steamers. This 

 district of the lower Sinu is being rapidly settled, and promises to become an 

 important centre for the export trade in timber, cabinet-woods, cacao, ipecacuanha, 

 and vegetable fibres. The ipecacuanha plant, which formerly grew wild, is now 

 cultivated on the Monteria plantations, owned b}^ a French company. 



The San Andres, Providencia, and Santa Catalina islands in the Caribbean 

 Sea, off the coast of Mosquitia, are dependent on the department of Bolivar, and 

 not on that of Panama as might be supposed from their geographical position. 

 Westwards, the basin of the Pio Leon and of the Atrato, confined between the 

 AYestern Cordillera and the Panama range, belongs to the department of the 

 Cauca, a vast territorial division still but thinly peopled, with many districts quite 

 uninhabited. Such is the valley of the Atrato, one of the richest but, at the same 



