Colima

“ On the 28th, they saw the Volcano of Colima, which is in about 18° 36′ N latitude, five or six leagues from the sea, and appears with two sharp points, from each of which issued flames or smoke. The Valley of Colima is ten or twelve leagues wide by the sea: it abounds in cacao-gardens, fields of corn, and plantain walks. The coast is a sandy shore, on which the waves beat with violence. Eastward of the Valley the land is woody. [p. 222] A river ran here into the sea, with a shoal or bar at its entrance, which boats could not pass. On the West side of the river was savannah land. ”

“ The city of Colima, situated on the river of the same name, has a population of 32,000 souls, which is equal to half the number of inhabitants of the entire State. There are some French, German, and English settlers. The volcano of Colima, 11,140 feet high, lies near the city. It is snow-clad in winter, but the summer sun melts the white covering. This peak is conspicuously seen far out to sea, being only 25 miles from the coast. A wagon-road goes from Colima to Manzanillo, about 70 miles distant. The latter
The City of Colima. ”

“ The local industries include two old-fashioned cotton mills, an ice plant, corn-grinding mill, and five cigarette factories. Colima is the commercial centre for a large district, but trade has been greatly restricted by lack of transportation facilities. A railway connects with the port of Manzanillo, and the Mexican Central railway serves Colima itself. Colima was founded in 1522 by Gonzalo de Sandoval. ”

“ Colima is a small state, bordering on the Pacific next below Jalisco, with an area of 4,250 square miles, and population of 66,000 inhabitants. Flat near the coast, the land is mountainous in the interior. There are several rivers, the waters of which, after furnishing the means of irrigation, and water-power for various textile factories, flow to the sea. The climate, good in the north, is hot and subject to malaria upon the coast. The principal products of the state are agricultural; rice, corn, sugar-cane, and coffee being foremost among these. The soil is generally fertile ”

“ From Manzanillo to Colima, about ninety miles, there is no wagon-road though one could be easily built. Just back of the first range of hills, behind the town, there is a fresh-water lake, thirty miles in length, which would float a small steamer. By this lake, people are carried by native canoes toward Colima for its entire length, and from its farther end there is a tolerable wagon-road most of the way to that city. ”

“ In the terrace-lands of western Colima and Oaxaca, near the head-waters of the Rio Lerma and the mountain-lakes of Jalisco, and in the lonely highlands of Vera Paz, we may yet see forests that have never been desecrated by an axe, and free fellow-creatures which have not yet learned to flee from man as from a fiend. ”

“ This little State of Colima—The smallest, or one of the smallest in the Union—contains a population of sixty thousand, of which three-fifths are pure Indian blood, and two-thirds of the remainder have but little European blood, a few only being of pure Castilian descent. Singularly enough, this Indian element appears to be the most liberty-loving and progressive portion of the population, and foreigners generally concede that it is less corruptible and changeable than the pure European. ”

“ The country is well populated, and though the people—mostly of Indian descent—live in poor huts of cane, with rice straw-thatched roofs, open all around the sides to wind and rain, and are miserably clad, they appear to have abundance to eat, and are quite well behaved, and apparently contented with their lot.
Twenty-five miles from Colima, we reached the first "Barranca," a branch of the great "Barranca de Beltran," the insurmountable obstacle to the construction of a passable wagon road from the coast to Guadalajara. ”

“ They themselves say that they force their heads into these shapes that they may be more healthy, and be able to do more work. Some of these people, especially those near the village of Colima, to the northward, go naked. They relate that Huayna Ccapac arrived here, after having put to death the chiefs as far as Colima, where he ordered a fort to be built. Seeing that the Indians went naked, he did not go any further, but returned, leaving orders to his captains to conquer and subjugate as far as the river Santiago. ”

“ The country from Colima to Zapotlan is quite populous, and in the middle part nearly all the arable land is cultivated.
The road is very wide, but poor, and inclosed between very high and substantial stone walls. ”

“ There are two crops of Indian corn a year, but sugar and rice are the principal crops. The “Caracolillo” coffee, produced on the slopes of the mountains culminating in the volcano of Colima, is reputed the best in Mexico, and the entire crop (about 506,000 ℔. in 1906) is consumed in the country at a price much above other grades. There are important mineral deposits in the state, including iron, copper and lead, but mining enterprise has made no progress through lack of transportation facilities. ”

“ Colima has 35,000 or 40,000 inhabitants, and at morning or evening they are all on the streets. As our party passed along, people always civilly made room, and the better class generally bowed politely. In passing the prison, the guard invariably presented arms to me, and I found after a time, this was all owing to the fact that I wore a vest of blue cloth, with brass buttons bearing the coat of arms of the State of California, and for my own convenience I was forced to change it, and by donning a plain white vest retire to private life. ”

“ The larger part of its territory is within the narrow, flat coastal plain, beyond which it rises toward the north-east into the foothills of the Sierra Madre, the higher masses of the range, including the Colima volcano, lying outside the state. It is drained by the Ameria and Coahuayana rivers and their affluents, which are largely used for irrigation. There are tidewater lagoons and morasses on the coast which accentuate its malarious character. One of the largest of these, Cuitlán, immediately south of Manzanillo, is the centre of a large salt-producing industry. ”

“ This territory is bounded north by Jalisco, south by Mechoacan, east by both of these States, and west by the Pacific. It extends between the degrees of 18° 18 ́ and 19° 10 ́ of north latitude, and 102° 51 ́ and 104° 2 ́ west longitude from Greenwich. Its surface is generally level, broken by hills, from among which rises the mountain of Colima, the westernmost of Mexican volcanoes. It lies in the north-eastern corner of the Territory, and reaches a height of 9,200 feet above the level of the sea. ”

“ Adapted from the story by Emma Lindsay Squier, and based on a Mexican legend.
Summary: The god, Colima, tries in vain to win the love of a beautiful maiden who remains loyal to her betrothed. Setting, Michoacan, Mexico. Incorporates scenes of the Paricutin volcano photographed by the American Museum of Natural History.
Credits: Producer, Edward J. Peskay; director, Van Campen Heilner; screenplay, Harold McCracken; adaptation and dialogue, Lester Crocker; music director, Harley Dainger; music score, Vernon Duke; film editor, Robert Matthews. ”

“ Cofradias, the, of Coban, organization of, 92, and suppression, 95. Colima, Devil-fish at, 5. "Colima" steamship, wreck of, 3. Coloradillo insect, 122. Colorado Casa, Chichén Itzá, 199-202. Columbus meets the Mayas at Bonacco, 193-4. Comitan village, Gorgonio’s passport demanded at, 115, 198. Commandante, the, at Monte Cristo, 222. Cooking at high altitudes, 34-5. Conventos at Cajabon, 160-2, at San Andrés Sacabajá, 78, at San Gerónimo, 197, at Uspantan, 84. Copal used in sacrifice, 75, 168-9, 177, 209, 238. Copan, 61, 70; road to, 105, writer’s start for, 114, fording the river, 115 ”

“ The city of Colombo is well spread out. Though I set off early next morning, it was nearly noon when I crossed the Victoria bridge at Grand Pass and struck the open country. Great was the contrast between the Ceylon of my imagination and the reality. A riot of tropical vegetation spread out on every hand; in the dense shadows swarmed naked humans uncountable. But jungle was there none, neither wild men, nor savage beasts. Every acre was producing for the use of man. The highway was wide, well-built as in Europe, close flanked on either side by thick forests of towering palm trees. ”

“ A WALK IN COLOMBO.
Colombo, as most of my readers will remember, is in Ceylon, that beautiful island lying to the south of India.
You would think the people very funny, seeing them for the first time. The man in the picture, who is walking with the little English girl, is a Hindu, and probably you have often seen pictures like him. Nearly all the servants and laborers in Colombo are Hindus from Madras, but the natives of the island are called Cingalese, and are very different in every way. ”

“ This newly discovered dry diggings is twelve miles from Coloma, the point at which gold was first discovered; the intervening distance being a succession of mountain gorges, all containing gold, many of the vales being in the possession of herds of wild cattle, that have never, until recently, been visited by man.
Coloma is situated on the south fork of the American River, fifty-five miles from Sacramento City. The valley, though small, is one of the most beautiful in the State, being about three-fourths of a mile in width, and walled up on either side by lofty mountains. ”

“ In Colymbia the sculptor does his best to represent his subject in the prime of life and the perfection of human beauty, engaged in some one of the sports or exercises that take up so much of the time of the Colymbians, and show off their fine proportions to such advantage. Thus there is no tameness in the attitude of the numerous statues that adorn the lagoon; and a stranger, unaccustomed to the ways of the people, might have thought they were representations of acrobats at work. ”

“ Eliminating its temperature, it is Paradise on earth. With it, it is Hell. Colombo is built about several small lakes whose shores are a very jungle of graceful palms and other dense tropical plants. There is a beautiful driveway along the beach which is the promenade for the wealthy of the place and, during the afternoon, one can almost imagine that he is on some fashionable European thoroughfare from the numerous grand carriages and well-groomed horses which pass. Richardson and I swept back and forth on this lengthy boulevard in our rickshaws. ”

“ Miss Nevil made a gesture of astonishment.
“I got out of Pietranera without being noticed,” continued Colomba, “because I was with you, otherwise I should have been followed. To be so close to him, and not to see him! Why shouldn’t you come with me to see my poor brother? You would make him so happy!”
“But, Colomba—That wouldn’t be at all proper on my part——”
“I see. With you women who live in towns, your great anxiety is to be proper. We village women only think of what is kind.” ”

“ Agriculture, however, is the principal occupation of the state, the more important products being sugar, rice, Indian corn, palm oil, coffee, indigo, cotton and cacao. The production of cacao is small, and that of indigo and cotton is declining, the latter being limited to the requirements of small local mills. ”

“ My readers will imagine Colomba’s radiant face, her companion’s confusion, the prefect’s surprise, the colonel’s astonishment and joy. The public prosecutor permitted himself the mischievous entertainment of obliging poor Lydia to undergo a kind of cross-examination, which did not conclude until he had quite put her out of countenance.
“It seems to me,” said the prefect, “that we may release everybody. These young ladies went out for a walk—nothing is more natural in fine weather. They happened to meet a charming young man, who has been lately wounded—nothing could be more natural, again.” ”

“ Here we are, 112 miles from Colombo, and 6240 feet above the level of the sea. We are on an undulating plain three miles long by one wide, and the ground is covered with rich grasses and with lots of flowers in blossom; the mountains rise around us, but there are not a great many of them, as we are nearly up to the height of most of the mountains of Ceylon. ”

“ It is in obedience to the precept of Horace that I have begun by plunging in media res. Now that every one is asleep—the beautiful Colomba, the colonel, and his daughter—I will seize the opportunity to acquaint my reader with certain details of which he must not be ignorant, if he desires to follow the further course of this veracious history. He is already aware that Colonel della Rebbia, Orso’s father, had been assassinated. Now, in Corsica, people are not murdered, as they are in France, by the first escaped convict who can devise no better means of relieving a man of his silver-plate. ”

“ Few people were ever forced to fight as desperately for their ideas as this brave Italian. But the story of Colombo (or Colon or Columbus, as we call him,) is too well known to bear repeating. The Moors surrendered Granada on the second of January of the year 1492. In the month of April of the same year, Columbus signed a contract with the King and Queen of Spain. On Friday, the 3rd of August, he left Palos with three little ships and a crew of 88 men, many of whom were criminals who had been offered indemnity of punishment if they joined the expedition. ”