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imprudence of travellers, who, frightened at a false step of the carguero, leap down from their chairs."*

Captain Cochrane was advised by the alcalde to take a mule in preference to a sillero (chairman), but he had reason sorely to repent of having followed this recommendation. On the second day, while his companion went on smoothly before, and quite dry, he found himself left behind, his mule being up to the girths in mud, and in momentary danger of stumbling or sticking fast. "The road was originally formed by the old Spaniards, about eight feet broad, with trees laid equally together and well secured, affording a very good passage; but, in consequence of neglect, the mountain-torrents have torn away the wood, which has not been repaired, and it has become in parts so bad and worn, that the present road is from twenty to thirty feet below the original level, with perpendicular sides, and so narrow, that I was frequently compelled to draw my feet from the stirrups, and lay them close to the ears of the mule, to prevent my knees from being crushed by the banks on both sides; the muleteer being obliged to go in advance of the laden mule, to cut the banks with a kind of straight hoe, in order to make room for the animal to pass, although the baggage was laid as much on the back as possible."

In other places where he was compelled to walk, he observed the original line of road far above his

up.

* Researches, vol. i. pp. 61–9.

The annexed plate, copied from the learned Author's Picturesque Atlas, represents the entrance of the mountain near Ibague. In the fore-ground a band of cargueros are coming A part of the town of Ibague, the great valley of the Magdalena, and the eastern chain of the cordilleras, are seen in the back-ground; and the truncated cone of Colima, covered with perpetual snow, appears above the mass of granitic rocks, The small river, forcing its way across a thicket of palm-trees, is the Combeima.

head, the beams sticking out at the sides. Soon after passing a mountain torrent on the third day, his companion pointed out the spot where a Spanish officer met his deserved fate. The road here lies along the edge of an abrupt precipice, 1,500 feet in perpendicular depth to the river below. The officer, having fastened on an immense pair of mule spurs, was incessantly darting the rowels into the bare flesh of the poor sillero who carried him. In vain his bearer assured him

that he could not quicken his pace. Even Indian patience, however, may be exhausted, and, on reaching this spot, the sillero jerked his inhuman rider from his chair into the torrent below, and made his escape into the mountain. On the sixth day, Captain Cochrane found himself scarcely able to sit his mule, having been very ill in the night, with violent vomitings. This day, he passed the River Quindiu three times. On the eighth, he had to descend declivities so nearly perpendicular, that "the mules, squatting on their hams, slide down twenty or thirty yards, without a possibility of stopping themselves, and with imminent peril to the rider." Twice, in going down such a steep, the crupper of the saddle broke, and threw him on the mule's neck, where he with difficulty kept his seat, owing to the poor animal's having neither time nor power for kicking. This night, he reached the small village of La Balsa, where he halted a day for the mules and peons. On the 10th day,* he crossed, at the end of three hours, the Rio Vieja, and, three hours farther, came in sight of Cartago, at the base of the mountain, which he reached by a descent of about an hour and a half.

Cartago, which bears the title of a city, is well situated on the left bank of the River Vieja, a little above its junction with the Cauca. There is a cathe

* Yet the post is said to go from Cartago to Ibague in four days.

dral and two parish churches, in good repair, with tolerable organs, made by an ingenious native, who is almost self-taught. What gave our Traveller the greatest pleasure, he says, was a school established on the Lancastrian principle, for girls and boys, which appeared to be well conducted. The commerce of the place is nearly confined to sending dried beef and live pigs to Choco, where there are scarcely any cattle, as the pasturage there will not support them. Coffee is grown in great abundance, but only for home consumption. The cacao of the plains of Cartago is far superior to that of Guayaquil, and both the sugar-cane and tobacco flourish luxuriantly. The whole district is rich in mineral productions, and the hills contain nitre. But, owing to the want of convenient outlets, and the great expense of conveyance to Buenaventura, the nearest port, the produce of this fertile valley cannot be turned to account, and the cultivation is confined to the home demand. The magnificent River Cauca flows through the whole of these plains, but is navigable only in particular places. Among other natural productions in this valley, is the herb called cabuca, the juice of which is said to be a specific for all wounds, ulcers, and gangrenes. There are three species, the Mexican, the kind called macho, and the embra. In Venezuela, the plant is called cocaisa.

FROM CARTAGO TO CITERA.

On leaving Cartago, Captain Cochrane had to cross a second range of mountains to reach Choco. He now thought it prudent to provide himself with a sillero, but, owing to the desertion of one of his peons, he was obliged, on the third day, to dismount, and let the bearer carry his trunk, till the stock of provisions grew light enough to allow of a spare man of burden; he then had his sillero again. Incessant torrents of rain aggravated the difficulties and perils of the road. 28*

VOL. I.

"How often," exclaims our Traveller, "while I was scarcely able to keep my seat from soreness of limbs, and the rain falling in torrents, did I wish myself safe out of these mountains; and vow never to cross them again!" Both he and his peons were sometimes so ill, as to be scarcely able to proceed. One day they were in want of water, when the sillero conducted our Traveller to a guaduc-tree, in which he made an incision, and water flowed in abundance. "Applying my mouth to the orifice," he says, "I quenched my

thirst with the fluid, which was clear and delicious. Each joint of this tree contains about two gallons of water." On the 10th day, the route lay directly along a ridge of mountains leading down to Las Juntas. "My sillero," continues Captain Cochrane, "being sufficiently recovered to carry me, I was mounted in my chair, when suddenly, about noon, he turned round, and began descending an almost perpendicular declivity, backwards. My face was thus turned to the abyss below, the bottom of which was 2,000 feet from the place where we were, with a platform sixty feet beneath us, about twelve feet square. My sillero commenced his descent, holding by the roots of trees, sometimes only with one hand, whilst with the other he was scratching with his pole, of hardened wood pointed (which all the peons have in these mountainous parts), a place for his foot to rest on at his next step. I had been taken by surprise, and called out to him, as soon as possible, to set me down; but he desired me to sit quite still, if I had any regard for my safety, with which I complied, and we eventually reached the small platform below without accident.

"We here halted for some time before we again proceeded. The road continued along this lower ridge; the path at first nearly fourteen feet wide, but gradually narrowing to about two feet, and continuing so with but little variation for some distance; the

sides of the mountain being nearly perpendicular, and the trees growing thickly on them, up to the very edge of our path on either side. Occasionally, where the trees allowed, we had a picturesque and commanding view of the deep vales beneath, and the towering mountains that surrounded them; whilst a boisterous and foaming torrent dashed below, on both sides of the mountain we traversed, hurrying on the same course as ourselves to the termination of the ridge, at Las Juntas; and adding, by its silvery appearance and sparkling foam, to the magnificence of the striking scenery."

Las Juntas derives its name from the confluence of the mountain streams, which here form the River Tamina. Here he embarked in a canoe, and, for an hour and a half, glided with rapidity down the stream, passing many dangerous shoals and rapids, to La Cabezera. The river is then for two leagues navigable only by rafts, owing to the falls and rapids. At a place called Guaybal, our Traveller was glad to discharge his peons, except his sillero, on embarking for Novita. In that "miserable town," he was detained for six days, while a messenger was despatched to order a canoe to come to the Tambo of San Pablo, on the Citera side of the isthmus of San Pablo. The population of Novita is nearly all black, amounting to about 1,000 souls. At length he again embarked, and was rapidly carried down the Tamina for three hours to its junction with the River San Juan, by which, in three days, you may arrive at the Pacific Ocean.

At this junction, the San Juan is about 400 yards broad; but, as our Traveller now began to ascend it, changing his course from south to west, it became narrower, shallower, and more rapid. Soon after sunset, he reached San Pablo, and, after passing some gold mines, crossed over to the Tambo on the Novita side. The next day, he had again occasion for his

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