216 SOUTH AMERICA— THE ANDES EEGIONS. 



Meta to ply as far as Orocué, 370 miles from the confluence, in the dry season, 

 and as far as Cabuyaro, at the foot of the mountains, during the floods. 



Although no regular railway system has yet been developed, Colombia still 

 possesses a few short lines, nearly all at present stopping in the marshy lowlands 

 at the foot of the inland plateaux. Of the three ports that may be regarded as 

 belonging to the Magdalena delta, Savanilla has been connected with the great 

 river since 1892. But the Buenaventura line is still arrested in the forests of 

 the Rio Dagua ; nor have any of the large inland cities — Bogota, Bucaramanga, 

 Antioquia — any direct access by rail to the lower valleys. All, however, enjoy 

 telegraphic communication with each other and with the outer world, through 

 the junctions effected at Colon, Panama, and Buenaventura with the submarine 

 cables. 



The principle of compulsory instruction, several times recognised since 1870, 

 is no longer maintained by the present Government. Most of the inhabitants 

 are still destitute even of a rudimentary education, and in the department of the 

 Magdalena, where the only periodical is the official journal, six of the so-called 

 high schools are said to have been closed in 1891 for lack of teachers. The 

 actual attendance at school may be estimated at 100,000, or about one-fortieth of 

 the whole population. But the proportion of those who can at least read and 

 write greatly exceeds the number of those who have passed through the public 

 schools. 



At Bogota, centre of Colombian culture, the first printing-press was set up in 

 1738, and the first journal appeared in the same place in 1785. A great com- 

 motion was created by a professor who in 1763 first proclaimed the doctrine that 

 the earth turns round the sun, and even still public instruction is " organised and 

 directed in accordance with the Catholic religion," and is therefore required " to 

 react against utilitarianism, materialism, and impiety." The press, also, "free in 

 time of peace," must abstain from attacking the Catholic Church " in any way 

 whatsoever." 



Administration. 



After loi) g constituting a federal republic on the model of the United States, 

 Colombia has, under conservative influences, abolished the autonomous states, and 

 returned to the former centralising system. But there can be little doubt that 

 the new order will again be set aside by some fresh revolution, for the country is 

 divided into two nearly equal parties, or, in other words, is in a state of unstable 

 equilibrium. 



Since the reaction of 1885 the nine federated states have become so many 

 departments dependent on the National Assembly, which meets at Bogota, centre of 

 the executive power constituted by the two chambers. The suffrage is also limited 

 to men twenty-one years old exercising some trade or profession, holding some 

 public office, or enjoying a yearly income. All citizens thus qualified elect the 

 municipal councillors and the departmental delegates. But these voters in " the 



