Aug. i6, igoa.] 
the buglers seem to be fond of blowing. There are saw- 
mills, boat yards, printing offices — one run by ex-U. S. 
Consul Pellet — and other industries, but the place is es- 
sentially a shipping point. Perhaps the principal port 
of entry in the country, it distributes its imports by the 
Magdalena River and its tributaries over an extensive 
territory, and receives by the same streams large amounts 
of articles for export — hides and coffee the principal 
ones. The Magdalena is navigable for steamboats from 
Barranquilla to Honda, where one leaves the river for 
Bogota, the capital 
Its principal affluent, the Cauca, is perhaps longer than 
5l is, but with more current and shallower. It joins the 
main stream 200 miles above Barranquilla, and is navi- 
gable to Caceres when the water is high; otherwise to 
Boca del Nechi, 70 miles from the mouth. When there 
is good water, boats run up the Nechi 60 miles to Zara- 
goza, a town of some 2,000 people. 
Our destination being a landing called Matanzas, 24 
miles below this place, we had to take passage wheii we 
did, as boats left Barranquilla for the Cauca and Nechi 
only when the water was right and cargo offered. Bar- 
ranquilla is a healthy place; the sandy soil it is built on 
allows no stagnant water, and there is always a fine, 
strong breeze. We rose at 5:30 A. M., with the air as 
bright and clear as on a northern October morning, so 
that I could see the huge peaks of the Sierra Nevada of 
Santa Marta away to the east. 
Several of the large shipping and importing houses in 
Barranquilla run lines of steamboats on the Magdalena. 
These are metal-hulled, shallow draft boats, with stern 
wheel, an upper deck with four to six staterooms on 
either side amidship, the space between used as a dining 
room; the forward part covered and fitted with side 
curtains for use against sun and rain. Some were built 
in Pittsburg", and put together and finished in Barran- 
quilla. 
We set forth on the Antioquia, an hour or two after the 
appointed hour, of course, time being little thought of 
where we were. The hold was filled with cargo. The 
after part of the main deck showed the boiler and hori- 
zontal engine, while its sides and available space amid- 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
our coming by the steamer's whistle, lining the top of 
the bank from one end of the place to the other, some- 
times a half or three-quarters of a mile — men and 
women variously clothed or partially so; little children 
unclothed, Caballeros on prancing horses, fishermen 
with brown and white hats, all sorts of odd-looking peo- 
aOirSE <>F *MtE NEWLY WEDDED GOUPLE. 
i^linto by Cecil Clay. 
pie came to hear the music and followed up stream as 
far as the water street or roadway permitted. Not far 
from Barranquilla we pas.sed a field of huge cacti, of 
which I was sorry n<Jt to get a photograph. Soon after, 
we stopped at a house on the bank to let a newly mar- 
ried couple get on board. At 11:30 we breakfasted, the 
captain .of the bftat at the head of the table. It seemed 
near shore, and large white cranes were numerous. We 
saw many canoes, some of them large cargo canoes, as 
they arc called. At Savannah was a very large one, 
Ijrilliantly painted, loaded with crockeryware made in the 
interior, and on its way, probably, to Barranquilla. Later 
in the day we saw some caimanes, fifteen or twenty. On 
one point lay a large one, 15 or 16 feet long. On another 
l.'iy eight or nine, one of them larger than the solitary 
one. They seemed to know we were not allowed to 
molest them. At intervals, flocks of parrots flew chat^ 
lering across the stream, and I saw one small bunch of 
ducks. 
Early in the afternoon we stopped for wood, and an 
hour later reached Magongue, 160 miles from Barran- 
quilla. It is quite a place, the business street, as usual, 
running along the river front, with a long string of 
white and yellow stuccoed buildings. Part of the front 
was disfigured by Syrian or Turkish peddler booths, 
placed on the edge of the bank, some hanging over it 
and all with their backs turned to the river. Along the 
bank were remains of the old Spanish brick work to 
protect it. Queer cargo canoes with thick thatched tops 
lay along the shore and a pack train for the interior was 
loaded just before we started away. 
After some delay we got off again and crossed the 
river to a brickyat'el, where the crew went ashore with 
their machetes to j.-nt grass for the cattle we carried. 
At midnight we tied up at a woodyard at the mouth of 
the Cauca, forty miles from Magongue, tht: law allow- 
ing steamers lo run that river by daylight only, because 
of its swift current, changing- channel and many snags. 
We went on again at half past 5. As we went up the 
Cauca, mountains began to appear in the distance, and 
later in the day hills came to the stream. One peak, 
the Cerro Corcovado (Himchback) loomed up splendidly 
at a distance of thirty miles. We saw a number of 
caimanes, big and little. One village, La Raya, at the 
mouth of a small river of that name, on a title If at at the 
foot of a fine wooded hill, was pointed out as a bad town, 
where one should not stop over night. The people go 
up the Rio La Raya after ivory nuts. We tied up for the 
night at a woodyard two leagues below Boca del Nechi, 
A FAMILY GROUP. 
Photo by Cecil Clay. 
ships were piled high with firewood. Forward there 
w ere some deck load for nearby points and a few cattle. 
We secured adjoining staterooms next the captain's, 
put all our belongings inside, and opening our steamer 
chairs, had time to sit and look about us. There is a 
long island opposite the whole front of Barranquilla, so 
that the town faces a rather narrow back channel, with 
the main stream beyond. The upper end of this channel 
is closed; why, I could not understand, imless because 
the large firm.s located at the lower end of town did not 
wish trade to draw away to the other end, so ail tiie 
boats have to go down stream, round the lower end of 
the island, then turn back up the main river. As we 
went down this chamiel we passed a washing and water- 
ing place, where a crowd of washerwomen occupied the 
bank rxnd the water, too, among whom the water carriers 
drove their barrel carts into the stream to be filled. As 
we swung out into the main stream we saw a caiman, 
and soon after, another on the bank. The law forbids 
shooting at the.se from the steamers under a penalty of 
$200. This is not to protect the caimanes, but 
■persons on shore and their property, for the ordinary 
people are such poor shots that they are more likely to 
hit a horse, cow or fellow citizen on top of the bank 
than the caiman at the water's edge. We had quite a 
number of passengers, among them two young girls, who 
had been at school near Barranquilla, and were going 
home in care of a priest. There was also an American, 
then in charge of the Magdalena end of the Cartha- 
gen'a and Magdalena Railway at Calamar. He 
was a Grand Army man who had been in the Second 
Massachusetts Cavalry. We enjoyed his company until 
he went ashore at his station, and he seemed as much or 
more pleased to have a couple of fellow countrymen to 
talk to. 
A band of twelve pieces was on board, going home 
after having been to Barranquilla for the carnival. Some 
of its members were mere boys, swarthy-faced Indian- 
looking fellows, with long, black hair. All had excellent 
rs for harmony, and their time was capital. When- 
ever we approached a village or came to a town the band 
played, and we found the inhabitants, already warned of 
to be etiquette for no one to leave the table until the 
captain rose, and for him to keep his seat as long as 
any guest was still eating. This was annoying to us, 
for the other passengers bolted their food so fast that 
we were away behind, and had to let part of the meal 
go untouched or keep the rest of the guests in their 
seats watching us. In the evening there was dancing 
on the passenger deck- — waltzes, Spanish and Colombian 
dances. Our part was confined to helping the fun for 
the band and applauding the dancers from our coign of 
vantage next tht- forward rail, where we smoked our 
cigars, fashioned of the fragrant Ambalema tobacco. 
About 8 o'clock we reached Calamar, a busy-looking 
place, with a crowd at the landing, white and yellow 
stiiccoed buildings glaring in the moonlight, lights 
streaming from their windows, in one a party of young 
people in gay attire. .\ couple of leagues beyond this 
the band left us. The boat simply sidled up to the 
bank, which, although in shadow, the moonlight showed 
to be covered with thick brush; a gangplank \yas puslied 
out a few feet, .some one held a lantern aloft, possibly 
to disconcert those who could see a little by the un- 
meddled-with moonlight, and the musicians, one by 
one, sprang into the darkness of the brush and disap- 
peared like the point of a pen stuck into an ink blot. 
As we steamed away after a chorus of "Adios," we could 
hear their calls to each other as they scrambled their 
various ways to the upper ground. We ran all night. 
About an hour and a half after midnight, we stopped 
at a wood yard for fuel. The little settlement in the 
mystery of the moonlight, the flaring lights and moving 
figures made a delightfully picturesque combination. 
We did not like to go to sleep, but rest was necessary; 
however, we rose at 6 o'clock. Presently the boat stop- 
ped at Savannah, a small, neat-looking village, where 
the captain bought fowls and other supplies for the 
table fare. The air continued to be most delightful; like 
one of our spring mornings, so that as I sat clothed in 
a linen duck coat and waistcoat, with corduroy trousers, 
I wondered when and where the "tropical heat" was 
to come in. The river teemed with fish, as did all the 
streams I saw, big and little j lots of them were leaping 
A TYPICAL TOWN. 
Photo by Cecil Clay. 
which place we reached about 7 o'clock next morning. 
Tliis is seventy miles up the Cauca, or 270 from Barran- 
quilla. Our steamer was to go from here up the Cauca 
to Caceres return and then go up the Nechi. We pre- 
ferred to go on by canoe ratlier than to wait for it, so 
engaged two men to take us to Matanzas in a dugout 
and started up the Nechi the next morning, the captain 
with a huge l)road-bladed paddle in the stern, we with our 
effects amidships, and the crew with the forward third to 
himself and his inish pole. When we set out the crew 
was clothed, but when we left the village out of "sight 
Leliind a point he kicked off his sandals and removed his 
attire piece by piece, as his work wanned him: blouse, 
shirt, trousers, everything, came off tmtil there was left 
only a short skirt reaching froni the waist to near the 
knees, When uncomfortably warm, he jumped into the 
river for a minute, then climbed to his place again. At 
10 o'clock the crew ate a few l)ites of fish and bread, and 
at noon we lunched. There are no villages on the Nechi 
from the moutli to Zaragoza. We passed a lew houses 
during this day, and occasionally cattle or a canoe, to re- 
mind us that the country was inhabited. The usual flocks 
of parrots flew back and forth across stream, and gangs 
of monkeys made racket enough for a menagerie in 
uproar, but we did not see them. We found mosquitoes 
plentiful where we spent the night, but put up our toldos 
(nets) and defied them. A traveler leaving Barranquilla 
supplies himself with a bright-colored matting rug, pil- 
low, sheet, striped cotton blanket or other coverlet, and 
a mosquito net, made up in oblong box shape with a 
stick across each end at the top, and cords to hang it up. 
On the steamboats cots are placed all over the passenger 
deck, and each traveler puts his sleeping outfit on one 
of them to secure it. If not sleepy, he lies under his 
net and smokes. 
The people in this region are descendants of the In- 
dians and negroes. When the Spaniards occupied the 
district of Guomoco, they found a population of 90,000 
Indians. These, after some years of toil and working in 
the mines, were reduced to 15,000, mcstly women. Then 
slaves were brought from Africa and a mixed race re- 
placed the original. The people are strong, well built 
