COMMERCE. 



475 



tha is at present better adapted than Cartha- 

 gena for the introduction of goods into the in- 

 terior; but Carthagena will eventually become 



Hacha on the right, — the latter within four or five hours' ride 

 or sail, and affording a market as well for produce raised, as 

 for every article of consumption required in the colony ; add 

 to which advantage, that the settler may be brought from 

 Europe and landed on the very spot he intends to cultivate. 

 The trade of Brazil wood might also be rendered a very pro- 

 fitable speculation in the province of Rio Hacha, with a ca- 

 pital of about one thousand pounds, to be laid out in the 

 purchase of mules to convey it from the interior to the Rio 

 Hacha market. Another tract of country, scarcely less ad- 

 vantageous, lies betwixt the Ocana and Santa Martha 

 mountains, to the north and south, and the towns of El 

 Valle and Chiriguana to the east and west. It commu- 

 nicates with the Magdalena by a series of small lakes, 

 with the interior by the Ocana mountains, and with the 

 sea-coast by Santa Martha and Rio Hacha. It contains a 

 length of about thirty leagues, with an indefinite breadth, 

 towards the m.ountains, of alternate woods and savannahs, 

 watered by abundant streams. The climate, though warm, 

 is healthy, and untroubled by the insects which swarm near 

 the great rivers. Betwixt Chiriguana and the Indian village 

 of the Cienaga, on the sea-coast, near Santa Martha, is a 

 third tract, of almost uninhabited country, extending about 

 seventy leagues from north to south, nearly covered with su- 

 perb forests, and abounding with lands of excellent quahty, 

 especially on the rivers, which descend from the snow-moun- 

 tains into the Lake of Cienaga. The river Magdalena forms 

 the western boundary ; the few villages and farms scattered 



