EXPERIENCES IN COLOMBIA 
255 
trast to the Colombian towns we had just left. Making fast to the 
pier, the steamer was at once surrounded by dugouts, in which natives 
with monkeys, parrots, coral, etc., tried to tempt money from the 
reluctant pockets of the passengers. Getting ashore we took a short 
railroad ride to the middle of the city and breakfasted at 
the Hotel Americano. Even here there were few Anglo-Saxons. 
Indeed, one of the storekeepers to whom we had letters of introduction 
said at that time that there were only seven Americans, four English- 
men, and three Germans in Cartagena. The old citv was fascinating 
BANANAS. 
in the extreme, and we spent every moment that we could spare in view- 
ing the walls, the cathedral, the fortifications, and the public buildings. 
We also went up against a native manufacturer of Panama hats, and 
each bought several of them. Incidentally, of course, we looked for 
rubber, but found that there was very little in town. Indeed, few knew 
anything about rubber any way, either wild or cultivated. A young 
Philadelphian who went down with us reported that on his company's 
concession, which covered some two hundred square miles, the natives 
had cut down nearly all the rubber trees, and that that sort of work- 
had followed throughout the whole of their district. 
It was a very fortunate accident that at this juncture brought me 
in touch with Mr. Henry G. Granger, United States consular agent at 
Ouibdo, Colombia, and it is due to his instant good will that the fol- 
lowing record is here appended. 
