Bogotá

“ Bogota` (100) , capital of the United State of Colombia, situated on a remarkable, almost mountain-encircled, plateau, on the river Bogotá, 65 m. SE. of its port, Honda, the highest navigable point of the Magdalena, is 8600 ft. above sea-level, and has a spring-like climate. It is regularly built, with innumerable churches, a mint, university, library, and observatory, and several schools. Though the country is fertile and the mountains rich in coal, iron, salt, and precious metals, its situation and the want of a railway hinder trade. ”

“ Santa Fé, also known as Santa Fé de Bogotá, was for a long period the capital of the Viceroyalty of New Granada. After the War of Independence the name was changed to Bogotá—from Bacatá—the name of the old Chibcha capital, where the zipa, the most powerful of the Indian caciques, at the arrival of the Spaniards, had his official residence. The city is nearly two miles in length and of varying breadth. Its present population is nearly one hundred and twenty-five thousand. ”

“ It was the centre of Chibcha civilization before the Spanish conquest and sustained a large population. The climate is mild and temperate, the average annual temperature being about 58° and the rainfall about 431/2 in. The geographical location of the city is unfavourable to any great development in commerce and manufactures beyond local needs.
Bogotá was founded in 1538 by Gonzalo Jiménez de Quesada and was named Santa Fé de Bogotá after his birthplace Santa Fé, and after the southern capital of the Chibchas, Bacatá (or Funza) . ”

“ Bogotá is decidedly a white man’s city. Indeed there is hardly another of its size south of the Canadian border in which the percentage of pure white complexions is higher. On rare occasions a negro who had drifted up from the hot lands below sat huddled in the main plaza in all the blankets and ruanas he could borrow, but his face was sure soon to be numbered among the missing. ”

“ Fronting on the narrow, paveless streets are the plastered, red-tiled houses found in all North Andean cities; behind the bars the pretty Venezuelan girls look out from their cloistered seclusion with the same wistfulness that is noted in Bogotá and Lima. ”

“ Standing at a height which, in the temperate zone, would be covered by eternal snows, the city is sheltered by the surrounding ranges from the bitter chill that descends so often upon less lofty Bogotá. In the Colombian capital we were always suffering more or less from cold in our waking hours, except at midday; in Quito it was possible to sit comfortably on a plaza bench at midnight. With all the stages of nature, from planting through blossoms, fruit, and harvest, existing side by side, its days are like the best half-dozen culled from a northern May. ”

“ Of them all, the town is evidently most proud of Caldas—a statue of whom adorns the central plaza—the tobacco-chewing savant who discovered how to determine altitude by boiling water—no one who has cooked his eggs in the Andes is long in making 90the same discovery—and who taught the revolted colonials how to make gunpowder—only to be shot in Bogotá for his pains.
So aged is the town that it has not a red roof left; all are faded to a time-dulled maroon. ”

“ To one looking towards the west, from a spur of the mountain at the foot of which Bogotá is situated, as Granada is located at the foot of its hills, the ridge of Suba is seen towards the northwest, just as the sierra of Elvira is seen with respect to the old Moorish capital. And so it is with the relative positions of Santa Fé en la Vega and the pueblo of Fontibon. The illusion is complete, and the similarity between these two famous places in Spain and Colombia must have impressed themselves on the receptive mind of the illustrious conquistador with peculiar force. ”

“ The people of Bogota are very kindly and courteous, and no woman I have ever seen surpassed these in the grace and dignity of their manners or in the purity of their lives. They are devoted wives, mothers, and Christians. If Colombia does not increase her population by immigration, she has a sure dependence in her home production. ”

“ The youth who sees his smudged likeness appear on the tissue-paper cover of the weekly pamphlet seethes with ill-suppressed joy at his entrance into the glorious, if crowded, ranks of the “intelectuales.” It is chiefly a dilettante literature, rarely of material reward and of no visible connection with life. But a considerable stream of flowery verse, languidly melancholy in its temperament and not overburdened with deep thought, flows constantly, and the boiling down by time has left Bogotá credited with a few works of genuine worth. ”

“ Under other skies and among a more vindictive people, a roving crowd of peons, clamorous for war and threatening all who opposed them, might be regarded with some alarm. But the mildness of the Andean character, its dislike for actual bloodshed, lessened Bogota’s danger. Even the timid Don Jose was not apprehensive. But there were others who thought it wiser to keep these peons away from Americans living in Bogota. ”

“ Caracas rises and begins business later than La Guayra, where the heat of noonday makes a siesta imperative; it is a bit less foppish than Bogotá or Quito, perhaps because of its greater proximity to the world. Here, too, are ragged men and boys who soften their incessant appeals by using a diminutive “Tiene usted un fosforito?” ”

“ Cabuyaro, however, is not the only place ambitious to become the terminus of the Bogotá Eastern railroad. It has several rivals, some of which are little more at present than rude huts in the wilderness. Among these is Barrigón, which also rejoices in the high-sounding name of Puerto Nuevo. It has, certainly, an advantage over [187] Cabuyaro in that it is much nearer the capital. When this railway, which has been in contemplation for many years, shall have been completed, it will be possible to go from Bogotá to the Meta in ten hours. ”

“ About the beginning of October he set out for Bogotá, the capital of Colombia or New Granada. The distance was about twelve hundred miles, through a very difficult region, and it was performed entirely upon mule-back, after the fashion of the country. ”

“ In the warmer zone there are good sugar plantations: in the temperate zone is grown the coffee so favourably known in the markets of the world under the name of Bogota: it attains its perfection at an altitude of about 5,000 feet, and nowhere else in Colombia has such careful attention been given to its cultivation. The Sabana itself, by which name the plateau of Bogota is known, is [24] all taken up with farms and towns—there is scarcely a foot of undeveloped land. ”

“ Being next-door neighbour to Venezuela, Colombia was naturally one of the first states drawn into the ambitious operations of Bolivar, and for a time it looked as though its capital, Bogota, would assume a predominant importance in the southern continent, but the liberator underestimated the strong sense of nationality which had developed in the different sections of the vast country, and when his influence died down Colombia retained her individuality just as Venezuela preserved hers. ”

“ In colonial times Bogotá won the reputation, if not the actual position, of “literary capital of South America.” Her speech is still the best Castilian of America, with little of that slovenliness of pronunciation so general from the Rio Grande southward. To this day the city has a considerable intellectual life, wider perhaps than it is deep. “Everyone” writes. He is a rare public man who has not published at least a handful of “versos” in his youth. Poets, writers, painters, and musical composers are more numerous than in many a far larger center of civilization. ”

“ Bogotá was attacked, from the south, by Benalcazar, the governor of Quito; whilst Ximenes de Quesada, who had disembarked at Santa Marta, marched against it from the north. They did not fail to meet resistance, which, however, was no match for Spanish discipline, arms, and valour; and the above-named leaders had the renown of adding another grand possession to the South-American dominions of their sovereigns. In the course of time the more distant provinces, of which Bogotá was the centre, became subject to its government. ”

“ Incredible as it may seem, but few Colombians have ever seen the falls of Tequendama. Although the people of Bogotá love to talk about them, as among the greatest wonders of their country, it is rarely that one is found who has actually visited them. And yet they are not more than twelve miles from the capital. Even the peons living on the plains only a few miles from the cataract can give the traveler little or no information as to the best way to reach them. ”

“ The principal tributaries of the Magdalena are the Suaza, Neiva, Cabrera, Prado, Fusagasaga, Funza or Bogotá, Carare, Opon, Sogamoso, Lebrija and Cesar, and the western the La Plata, Paez, Saldaña, Cuello, Guali, Samana or Miel, Nare or Negro and Cauca. There are also many smaller streams flowing into the Magdalena from both sides of the valley. Of those named, the Funza drains the “sabana” of Bogotá and is celebrated for the great fall of Tequendama, about 480 ft. in height; the Sogamoso passes through some of the richest districts of the republic ”

“ Dreams of the past began at once to flit before us as possible realities in the near future. If we once got to Orocué, what was to prevent us from going further up the river—as far as its waters were navigable? Then by crossing the llanos of eastern Colombia, and the Cordilleras of the Andes we would be in far-famed Bogotá, the Athens of South America. ”

“ But, great as has been the change that it has undergone during the last few decades, it preserves much of the quaintness of colonial times. Indeed, it is not difficult, in certain parts of the city, to fancy oneself carried back to a typical Spanish town of the time of Charles V or Philip II. As a whole, however, the Bogotá of to-day does not differ materially in appearance from a city of the same size in Spain or [288] Mexico. All Latin-American cities are similar in their leading features, and when you have seen one you have seen all. ”

“ Thus, in 1718, the Viceroyalty of Santa Fé de Bogotá was established, and in 1777 that of Buenos Aires. Neither of these innovations had occurred a day too soon. With the growing population and the increasing political and commercial importance of the Continent, the strained machinery with which it had been attempted to govern all matters from a single centre had broken down and become useless so far as the remoter provinces were concerned. ”

“ It took us two hours to make the run from Bogotá to Facatativá, the western terminus of the Sabana railway. Here we took luncheon. For a place that has so long been the centre of traffic between the capital and the Magdalena, the town has no reason to boast of its restaurants or hotels. They are about as poor in every way as could well be imagined. A town in Italy or Switzerland, frequented by so many travelers as Facatativá, would have not one but several hostelries where its patrons would have every convenience and comfort. ”

“ The fact is that the nearest point to Bogotá to which vessels of even light draught may ascend by the Meta is Barrigón, more than one hundred and fifty miles from Colombia’s capital. Small flat boats and canoes may, through some of the affluents of the Meta, approach considerably nearer. During the rainy season they may even reach the foothills of the Andes at the base of which Villavicencio stands. But from here, the nearest point to the capital which even the smallest craft can reach to Bogotá, the distance is still ninety-three miles at the lowest estimate. ”

“ In Colombia there seem to be as many “doctors,” that is, men who have the degree of Doctor of Laws, as there are generals in Venezuela. Most of them are politicians, or contributors to the various newspapers of the country, or “professors”—there are no pedagogues—in the numerous educational institutions of the Republic.
The number of newspapers published in Bogotá is surprising—more than there are in Boston or Philadelphia. ”

“ It was by no means the first nor the last time we met a similar disappointment in South America.
We had put it off a long while before we gathered courage and all our woolen garments and hurried through the wintry night to Bogotá’s main theater. As in other restricted societies, entertainments are frequently “got up” here, chiefly with local talent. It is a long way to any other talent in Bogotá. This one was a velada in honor of that same Rafael Pombo. ”

“ The one common outlet for these districts is the Magdalena river, whose navigable channel penetrates directly into the heart of the country. From Bogotá the Spaniards constructed two partially-paved highways, one leading down to the Magdalena in the vicinity of Honda, while the other passed down into the upper valley of the same river in a south-westerly direction, over which communication was maintained with Popayan and other settlements of southern Colombia and Ecuador. ”

“ There are few cities I know of that are more elegant and luxurious than Bogota. Wealthy men from all parts of Colombia make it their home, and England, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, and the United States have their legations there. ”

“ 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. ”