TUE EOCA Grande. 
225 
masters of the bay ; but being unable to take the town ot 
Oartliageua, wbich made a gallant resistance, they destroyed 
the Castillo Grande, (called also Santa Cruz) and the two 
forts of San Luis and San Jose, which defended the Boca 
Chica. 
The apprehension excited by the proximity of the Boca 
Grande to the town determined the court of Madrid, after 
the English expedition, to shut up the entrance along a 
distance of 2640 varas. Eroin two and a half to three 
fathoms of water were found ; and a wall, or rather a dyke, 
in stone, from fifteen to twenty feet high, was raised on 
piles. The slope on the side of the water is unequal, and 
seldom 45°. This immense work was completed under the 
Viceroy Espeleta, in 1795. But ai-t could not vanquish 
nature ; the sea is unceasingly though gradually silting up 
the Boca Chica, while it labours unceasingly to open and 
enlarge the Boca Grande. The currents which, during a great 
part of the year, especially when the hendavales blow with 
violence, ascend from S.W. to N.E., tlu’ow sand into tlio 
Boca Chica, and even into the bay itself. The passage, 
■which is from seventeen to eighteen fathoms deep, becomes 
more and more narrow,* and if a regular cleansing be not esta- 
blished by dredging machines, vessels will not be able to enter 
without risk. It is this small entrance which should have 
been closed ; its opening is only 250 toises, and the passage 
Or navigable chamiel is 110 toises. If it should one day be 
determined to abandon the Boca Chica, and re-establish the 
Boca Grande in the state which nature seems to prescribe, 
aew fortifications must be constructed on the S.S. vV. of the 
town. This fortress has always required great pecuniary 
outlays to keep it up. 
The insalubrity of Carthagena varies with the state of 
the great marshes that surround the town on the cast and 
Oorth. The Cicnega do Tcsca is more than fifteen miles 
tong ; it communicates with the ocean, where it approaches 
the village ot Guayeper. When, in years of drought, the 
* At the foot of the two fort.s (San Jose and San Fernando), constructed 
the defence of the Boca Chica, it may be seen how much the land has 
gained upon the sea. Necks of land are formed on both sides, and also 
b“fure tlie Castillo del Angel, which, northward, commands the fort of 
Fernando. 
TQL. in. q 
