NOVITA. 



417 



the miserable town of Novita. I went to 

 the house of Francisco Mosquera, to whom I 

 had a letter of introduction ; but he was absent 

 at his mine. 1 was, however, received by his 

 cousin, Pepeta Mosquera, lately married to Don 

 Raphael Mosquera, who is representative for 

 Novita in the Congress. Shortly after my arri- 

 val, her father, Sehor Hurtado, administrador of 

 the post-office, came in, and her brother Juakim, 

 a young lad about sixteen, who has a situation 

 in the administration of tobacco. Supper w^as 

 soon served, and we had much conversation 

 on the state and resources of Chocd. Amongst 

 other things, Sehor Hurtado informed me, that 

 if I wished to proceed to Citera, it would be 

 absolutely necessary to despatch a messenger 

 to order a canoe to come to the Tambo of San 

 Pablo, on the Citera side of the Isthmus of San 

 Pablo ; as otherwise I might have to wait per- 

 haps a month on the Tamho, where no one 

 lives, until, by chance, a canoe should arrive. 

 He then added, that I had but little prospect of 

 getting away from Citera in less than a month 

 or six weeks, as there is no boat belonging 

 to that place trading to Carthagena. The 

 boats are called champanas, and only arrive 



VOL, II. 2 E 



