46 BOGOTA'. 



some parts of Spain, which were so made, 

 that the tremendous noise of the creaking 

 wheels might give the custom-house officers 

 timely notice of the approach of smugglers ; 

 or, in fact, might occasion the prevention of 

 smuggling, by summoning the officers to in- 

 spect each car, which announced its coming 

 most audibly. • 



In consequence of the great decrease in 

 the commerce of the country, (which is how- 

 ever reviving,) a natural effect of the revolu- 

 tion, the correspondence is not considerable. 

 A courier goes out every week to one of the 

 three great divisions of the republic, and re- 

 turns in like manner. Mails go and come 

 from and to Carthagena, and to and from 

 Bogota, three times each month. They leave 

 Carthagena every 10th, 20th, and 30th. They 

 are nineteen or twenty days from Carthagena 

 to Bogota, and about ten days from Bogota 

 to Carthagena with the stream ; and in this 



