Bogotá, the Capital of Colombia, is situated on a plateau or savanna, a sort of shelf over 8000 feet above the sea, on the west side of the East Cordillera. The shelf, overlooked by fine snowclad volcanoes, has a low rim on the west and a high ridge on the east. About 70 miles long and 30 wide, it is entirely covered with towns and farms. The city is the largest in Colombia (population probably 150,000), on account of its being the capital and having a good climate; the mean temperature ranges from 54° to 64°. 600 miles from the north coast and 210 from the Pacific, Bogotá is the most difficult of access of any of the South American capitals. Nevertheless, the city has always been noted as the home of culture and of intellectual tastes. It is well laid out and covers a large area, as the houses are of only one or two stories with interior patios or courts, as in most South American cities. Many streets have asphalt pavements; there are hundreds of carriages and automobiles, also 23 miles of electric tramways. Like all South American cities, it has large plazas, open squares usually with trees and other green in the centre, and public gardens. The Capitol is an imposing building covering two and a half acres. Other good public buildings include the Presidential Palace, a public library, a museum, etc. Of course there is a cathedral and many churches, two theatres of the first rank, several fair hotels, a large bull ring, a hippodrome, polo grounds, etc. Here are telephones and electric lights as in all other considerable cities. The people are industrious, intelligent, and fond of amusement.
A more precise idea of the geography of Colombia and of the commercial possibilities of the different sections will be gained by reviewing them in order, beginning with the north coast, going around the outside, and concluding with the interior.
The Goajira Peninsula, a Comisaría at the northeast, is inhabited chiefly by Indians who are practically independent. They gather forest products such as tagua nuts (vegetable ivory), breed useful horses, and do some trading at the port of Riohacha in Magdalena. A few savage tribes make travel in some sections dangerous. The peninsula contains much wet lowlands, as well as mountains, extensive forests, and fine fertile country, with considerable mineral wealth yet unexploited: gold, and probably extensive veins of coal. Large sections covered with guinea grass are capable of supporting great herds of cattle.
Magdalena, adjoining the Peninsula, is a Department a great part of which is low and hot. The inhabitants include many Indians, a friendly tribe on the Sierra Nevada. Back of these mountains are rich valleys, where white settlers have been disturbed by savage Indians who live on the lower slopes of the East Cordillera. Among the products of the region are coffee, cocoa, sugar, and bananas. The upper valleys are the better settled and cultivated; mineral wealth including petroleum is evident.
Santa Marta, the capital, an ancient city and port, founded 1525, has recently entered upon an era of prosperity, largely due to the enterprise of the United Fruit Company. Finely located on a good harbor west of the Nevada of Santa Marta, some distance east of the mouth of the Magdalena, the city is an important centre of the banana industry, to which it owes its present development; other agricultural products are for local consumption. The climate is hot but healthful, though the banana zone is malarial. An excellent hospital is maintained by the United Fruit Company. Within a few miles are regions with a delightful temperature. A Marconi wireless, one of the most powerful in South America, is of general service, though the property of the Fruit Company. Their enormous banana trade is served by a 100 mile network of railways into sections favorable to this fruit.
Atlántico is a small Department occupying the flat hot delta of the Magdalena River.
Barranquilla, the capital, is a busy place with many resident foreigners. It has quays, a large new warehouse, hotels, one of which is said to have all conveniences, theatres, two clubs, electric lights, trams, and telephones. In spite of the heat, which averages 82° for the year, the deaths are less than 25 per 1000, a percentage better than in some other tropical cities.
Bolívar follows, a very large Department, with the Magdalena River for its eastern boundary. Bolívar like Atlántico has vast plains suited to tropical agriculture and to cattle raising, now a growing industry. The great natural resources of forest, agriculture, and mineral products are but moderately developed. The breeding of horses, donkeys, and mules is a profitable business followed by many. Ten gold mines are worked.
Cartagena, the capital, is considered the most interesting city on the Caribbean coast and one of the most picturesque in South America. Its massive walls and fortifications were erected at great expense nearly four centuries ago—1535. It has fine buildings both ancient and modern, and comfortable hotels. Montería and Lorica are busy commercial cities on the Sinú River, each with a population of 20,000 or more.
Antioquia, the next and largest department, has a smaller coast line. The coast section has Bolívar on the east and the Gulf of Urabá on the west; but the larger part is south of Bolívar, bordering at the east on the Magdalena River, with the Departments of Santander and Boyacá opposite. At the west is the Atrato River and through the centre the Cauca River. All these rivers are more or less navigable by steamboats as are some of their affluents; others at least by rafts and canoes. Traversed also by the West and Central Cordillera Antioquia has great diversity of character. It is the leading Department in mining, in education, and as centre of industries; it is among the foremost in agriculture, has the largest, most enterprising, and prosperous population. Nearly one-fourth of the coffee exported from Colombia comes from Antioquia, that from Medellín bringing the highest price. The forests contain hard wood and rubber. The Department has five cities besides the capital with a population of 20,000 or above, and 30 more with a population over 10,000.
Medellín, the capital, the second largest city of the Republic, is said to be the wealthiest for its size of any city in South America. It has wide streets, well built houses, many factories, and many educational institutions. The climate is excellent, the altitude being 4600 feet. Here is the National Mint.
Caldas, south of Antioquia and formerly a part of it, is a small Department, very mountainous, with Cundinamarca east and Chocó west. The population, mostly white, possessing sturdy qualities, is devoted to mining, stock raising, and to agriculture of various zones. The rivers have rich alluvium inciting to 2600 mining claims. In the valleys the mean temperature ranges from 77° to 86°. Palm straw and fibres are employed in making hats, cordage, and sacking.
Manizales, the capital, is an important, comparatively new city, founded in 1846. Although distant from any river or railway at an altitude above 7000 feet, it is growing rapidly as a distributing centre. Sulphur and salt mines are near and thermal and saline springs; large herds of cattle graze on the plains.
Chocó, the next coast region to Antioquia, is in striking contrast to Caldas. An Intendencia bordering on Panamá and the Pacific as well as on the Caribbean, it is rich in possibilities for mining, and for agricultural and forest products; but the excessive rainfall and great heat, unpleasant throughout the district, make the lowlands swampy and unhealthful, and the whole region unattractive to settlement. Less than one-tenth of the population is white; negroes form the great majority of the rest, and there are some Indians. Of the latter, there are three principal tribes in the Atrato Basin and four near the rest of the Caribbean Coast. The Atrato Basin with that of the San Juan forms one of the richest mining sections in Colombia, important for the rare platinum, most of the tributaries carrying this metal with gold. The San Juan Basin is probably the richer in platinum. Rubber, cacao, hides, and timber are other exports. The region will be developed some time.
Quibdó, the capital, is a busy trading centre, which within the last ten years has increased in population fourfold in spite of the disagreeable climate.
El Valle, the Department on the south, again is a striking contrast. Although including a strip of coast with the chief Pacific port, Buenaventura, the name of the Department indicates the part deemed of the greatest importance; and the one that is The Valley among so many we must expect to have especial merits. With an altitude of 3000 feet and upwards, it is a beautiful garden spot between the West and Central Cordilleras, where plantains grow two feet long, a bunch of bananas weighs 200 pounds, the cacao without cultivation commands a higher price than that of Ecuador, where its culture is a specialty; and sugar plantations are said to yield for several generations without replanting or fertilizing. At greater altitudes grow the products of temperate climes. Such a region must some day receive intensive culture, although now the leading industry is cattle raising; since the upper classes are indolent, it is said, the negro laborers also. Yet a brilliant future is sure to come. The mining outlook is good. Many claims for gold mines have been filed, some for platinum and for silver, one each for emery, talc, copper, iron. There is a large deposit of coal and of rich crystal. The rivers possess auriferous alluvium.
Cali, the capital, is an old, but progressive and important commercial city, with a fine climate, altitude 4000 feet, mean temperature 77°. It has fine old buildings and new ones, poor hotels, banks, automobiles, etc. Other busy cities farther north, are Palmira, 27,000 population, and Cartago, 21,000.
Cauca follows, five times the size of El Valle but with no larger population, of which 25 per cent is white. It extends back from the ocean south of El Valle and of the Department Huila as well. The region has many undeveloped coal mines, and other minerals, with vegetation tropical and temperate in abundance. In some parts there are dense forests. Over 4000 mining claims have been filed, and gold and platinum are exported, but agriculture is the chief industry.
Popayán, the capital, was founded in 1536 at an altitude of nearly 6000 feet. At the foot of an extinct volcano and 17 miles from an active one, with a good climate it has violent electric storms and earthquakes. It has some fine old buildings, a university, and some say that here the best Spanish in the New World is spoken.
Nariño, the last Department at the south, has a large settled Indian population, with some Indians uncivilized. It contains a number of volcanoes a few of which are active; several rivers flow into the Pacific, the Patía the most important. Gold mines have been worked from colonial times and gold is one of the chief exports. Other mines exist and 2500 claims have been denounced. Rich copper has been noted; corundum and sapphires have been found. Besides gold the chief exports are Panamá hats, hides, rubber, coffee, tobacco, and anise.
Pasto, the capital, at an elevation of 8650 feet, at the base of the volcano Galera, has a beautiful location, a fine climate, and a hardy industrious people. There are 21 Indian settlements near. Barbacoas, 100 miles from the coast, is a considerable city of over 12,000 population where the making of Panamá hats is a leading industry. Tumaco, population 15,000, is a picturesque island port with a better climate than Buenaventura.
Putumayo, a Comisaría east and extending far to the southeast of Nariño, is on the northeast boundary of Ecuador, from which it is separated by the watershed between the river Napo and the Putumayo, which latter separates it from Caquetá, both rivers affluents of the Amazon. The northern part with an elevation of 3000 feet or more has a comfortable climate.
Mocoa, the capital, is in this section, and a few small towns, several entirely Indian.
Caquetá, the adjoining Comisaría, is similar in character, the higher portion a good cattle country. The animals with other products could easily be shipped down stream to Manaos, where they would command high prices. The lower section is a good rubber district; cinnamon, cacao, tagua, hides, oils, balsams, sarsaparilla, varnishes, and feathers are other products of the region.
Vaupés, the next Comisaría shares the characteristics of the low, untrodden, rainy, forest region and of the more open and agreeable lands higher up, a promising territory for the rather distant future. In the Vaupés section the rivers are of black water, near which are no mosquitoes, therefore a more healthful region. Along the rivers of white water, which are in the majority, mosquitoes are a terrible pest. The distinction generally prevails in the countries of the north coast.
North of the Amazon region is that of the llanos belonging to the Orinoco Basin. There is hardly a real watershed between the two; in a number of places channels, especially in the rainy season, connect different tributaries, besides the well known Casiquiare connection between the Orinoco and, by way of the Rio Negro, the Amazon.
The Meta Intendencia, formerly separated from Vaupés by the Guaviare, the most southern tributary of the Orinoco in Colombia, extends to the Meta River on the north. This section with some country farther north is similar to the llanos of Venezuela, chiefly grass lands of inferior quality, with patches of forest. It supports some cattle and might a great many more, although much of the pasture land is very wet in the long rainy season, and so dry in the short dry season that in many districts the grass practically disappears. The Meta River in its lower part has Venezuela on the north; higher at the northwest is the Casanare region (similar) of the Department of Boyacá. Near the Meta River are more towns, a few cattle centres, richer soil, with easier outlet to Venezuela, to which the few exports chiefly go. The forests of the section teem with deer and other animals, the rivers are full of alligators; the only entrance to Casanare safe from tribes of wild Indians is the Cravo highway from Sogamoso, an ancient town in Boyacá, where Chibcha priests once dwelt in palaces roofed with gold.
The Vichada Comisaría, so recently organized as not to appear on any map (1921), is along the Vichada River between Vaupés and Meta.
Arauca, a small Comisaría, is a part of the region north of the Meta River between Boyacá and Venezuela.
Arauca, the capital, on the river Arauca is called but three days by water (generally seven) from Ciudad Bolívar, the eastern port of Venezuela on the Orinoco.
Boyacá, west and north, except for the Casanare Province, is a Department chiefly in the tierra fria of the East Cordillera. The population is mostly Indian and mestizo, the agriculture is mainly of temperate character: wheat, barley, maize, alfalfa, potatoes. Mining is actively carried on: gold, silver, copper, iron, quicksilver, marble, have been denounced, and 157 emerald claims. Asphalt is worked; there are salt works at Chita, an old Indian town, population 11,000.
Tunja, the capital, is called a fine old city with three public libraries.
Santander del Norte, north of Santander, is also traversed by the East Cordillera. The mean temperatures vary greatly: 46° on several paramos, and 81° in the valleys of the Catatumbo and Zulia. Gold, silver, copper, lead, coal are mined. Rio de Oro, tributary to the Catatumbo, has rich auriferous deposits, and what is now of greater importance, it passes through a district rich in petroleum. The varied crops are the chief source of wealth: wheat and potatoes, coffee and cacao.
Cúcuta, the capital, altitude 1000 feet, with a temperature of 84°, is an important commercial city.
Santander, written also with Sur, south of Santander del Norte and of Magdalena, has Boyacá on the east and south; Antioquia and Bolívar are across the Magdalena River on the west. Similar to Santander del Norte, it has more low plains. Gold, silver, copper, talc, asphalt are found.
Bucaramanga, the capital, has a mean temperature ranging from 64° to 84°.
Cundinamarca, south of Boyacá, has Meta on the east, Tolima and Huila south, and Tolima west. Less than one-half of the population is white; about one-third is on the high plateau, the rest on the slopes or in the Magdalena Valley, or on the Orinoco watershed. The scattered population is in 110 municipalities. Agriculture is most important, the land near Bogotá being especially well cultivated. In the city many factories are operated and a variety of trades followed. Mines are widely distributed: iron, gold, silver, copper, lead, coal, jasper, etc.
Bogotá is the capital of the Department as well as of the country.
Huila, south of Cundinamarca and Tolima, has Meta and Caquetá east, Cauca south, and Cauca and Tolima west. Half of Huila is Government land, forest and mountain. Cattle raising is well developed. Wheat, maize, rice, coffee, sugar, tobacco, are cultivated on a large scale. There are four quartz mines, and gold placers receive attention.
Neiva, the capital, is practically at the head of steam navigation on the Magdalena River. With an altitude of about 1500 feet it has an even temperature approximating 80°.
Tolima, west of Huila and Cundinamarca, is a long Department with the Magdalena River on the east and the Central Cordillera west. Cacao and coffee are raised on the warm lowlands. Twenty-six million coffee trees have been producing; perhaps 4,000,000 more are now in bearing. Over 2,000,000 tobacco plants grow on the foothills, other crops higher, also cattle. Of the last there are 580,000, also 140,000 horses, 100,000 hogs, with fewer sheep and goats. The rivers are auriferous and 60 properties are worked for gold and silver.
Ibagué, the capital, is a pleasant and important city, an active commercial town with mines and thermal springs in the neighborhood, exporting a variety of articles, and with a considerable cattle trade.