Magdalena River

“ The Magdalena River is the main artery of traffic, its normal transportation being more than doubled because of the important railways leading to or branching from the River. As its mouth is navigable only for light launches, nearly all freight and travel comes by rail either from Puerto Colombia to Barranquilla, 17 miles, or from Cartagena to Calamar, 65 miles. However, Barranquilla has some traffic with Santa Marta by means of steam launches of light draft through channels of the delta. By the Cartagena railway freight is shipped without cartage to Calamar within five days. ”

“ At the north-west angle of the island is a region of very bold mountains and large glaciers. It is [218] well represented by the beautiful and often described Magdalena Bay. Nothing is known about the interior south-east of it, but some old Dutch charts mark a valley leading from the extremity of Mauritius or Dutch Bay up to a sequestered lake in the hills. Whether the draughtsman intended his winding valley and river to represent a glacier and the lake a snowfield, or whether a true lake and river existed here in the eighteenth century, can only be settled by some one going to look. ”

“ In these broad plains, there are no fewer than half a million cattle, not to speak of large numbers of horses, mules and other domestic animals. Some of the cattle we saw reminded us of the fat, sleek animals we had seen on the llanos watered by the Rio Negro and the Humea. Under more favorable conditions the number could greatly be increased.
The scenery along the Magdalena is much like that along the Meta and the Orinoco, except that along the western river one sees more of the mountains, especially in the southern part. ”

“ The river is also navigable at high water for small steamers up to Neiva, 100 m. farther and 1535 ft. above sea-level, beyond which point it descends precipitously from the plateaus of southern Colombia. The Honda rapids have a fall of only 20 ft. in a distance of 2 m., but the current is swift and the channel tortuous for a distance of 20 m., which make it impossible for the light-draught, flat-bottomed steamers of the lower river to ascend them. The Cauca differs much from the Magdalena, although its principal features are the same. ”

“ The iron safe, however, is only to be opened by a golden key, and a coined dollar in Magdalena is worth a fortune underground. Little doubt exists that, when the railways, now (1882) entering from the States, are completed, and capital and energy pour into the country, enormous wealth will be found hidden in its quartz. The hills around Magdalena give evidence of gold, silver, and galena ore in every direction. Nor is gold wanting in the river beds and valleys. All that is required is a little capital and systematic industry. ”

“ As the day on which we passed through it was Sunday, the stream was full of bathers, amongst them several women, their luxuriant hair covered with broad-brimmed hats to shade them from the sun. From the ford the road takes a sharp turn and inclines first to the east and then to the south-east, till it reaches Magdalena, between which and Majaijai the country becomes hilly. Just outside the latter, a viaduct takes the road across a deep ravine full of magnificent ferns, which remind the traveller of the height—more than 600 feet—above the sea level to which he has attained. ”

“ Towards the end of the rainy season, however, the water rises from forty to fifty feet above low-water mark. Sometimes it rises considerably higher. In 1891 the flood was so high that the stores and dwellings of the part of the city fronting the river were inundated to a height of several feet. Then the inhabitants were obliged to have recourse to canoes in passing from house to house. Then, too, stray alligators were seen in the streets and it was possible to catch enough fish for a meal in the patio—court-yard—of one’s residence. ”

“ The traveler’s descent from the Bogotá sabana to the Magdalena on his departure from the country, will store his memory with vistas of grandeur and beauty that will never be effaced, for the Upper Magdalena valley is one of the most beautiful in the world. By the old mule path to Honda, the head of navigation for big steamers on the Magdalena, by way of La Mesa, Tocaime, and Jirado, one will be traveling over a route that for centuries was the great thoroughfare for peon or viceroy, and is to-day practically unchanged in the scenes that make it interesting. ”

“ 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; and the Cesar rises on the elevated slopes of the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta and flows southward across a low plain, in which are many lakes, to join the Magdalena where it bends westward to meet the Cauca. The course of the Magdalena traverses nine degrees of latitude and is nearly 1000 m. ”

“ If cared for as it should be, it could easily be rendered an artery for inland commerce of the first importance. As it is, transportation, as now carried on, is always slow and uncertain, and never free from danger and disaster. [356]
As a serviceable means of communication with the outside world we were constantly contrasting the Magdalena with the Meta. From our observations, we should consider the Meta, from its junction with the Orinoco to Cabuyaro or even to the mouth of the Humea, as a safer waterway than the Magdalena. ”

“ The proposed road would cross many branches of the Amazon, and thus connect with fifty thousand miles of navigable waters, at least 9000 of which are above Iquitos; and it is claimed that the business from 20,000 miles of navigable waters would find by this route a nearer outlet to Europe and America than by Para.
There is every variety of climate on the route. The valley of the Magdalena is sultry; every afternoon the water grows tepid, and the stones burning hot, in the sun's rays. In crossing the Cordilleras the cool breezes of the mountains are met. ”

“ The part of the Magdalena valley between Honda and the island of Mompos is but sparsely inhabited. Most of the inhabitants are Indians, mestizos, or negroes, the descendants of former slaves.8 On account of the heat and malaria that always prevail in the lowlands, but few white men are found here, and their sojourn, as a rule, is only temporary. But near the confluence of the Cauca and the Magdalena, and thence to the Caribbean, there are rich and extensive esteros—grazing lands—covered with succulent Para and Guinea grasses, several feet high. ”

“ The deep barrancas surrounding the whole site formed a natural moat and made the position easily defensible.
We spent an hour rambling amongst these ruins, and then rode on to overtake our pack-mules, which, as the country was open, we could still distinguish some miles ahead of us by the little cloud of dust that marked their progress. About four o’clock we came to the edge of the gorge of the Rio Negro and began a steep descent of twelve or thirteen hundred feet to the bridge over the river. The views which opened before us as we descended were very fine and of a peculiar character. ”

“ Looking down from the hill-tops one is able to appreciate the great extent of the river valley. It is a level-looking plain, thinly covered with pine-trees and seamed by steep-sided barrancas cut by the Motagua and its affluents. The hills on either side were cultivated in patches to their summits, and above the southern range we could still see the peaks of Agua, Fuego, and Atitlan. ”

“ The average difference of the thickness of these formations is 300 toises. The rocky ridge of the Angostura of Carare branches from the south-east, from the spur of Muzo, through which winds the Rio Negro. By this spur, and by those that come from the west, the eastern and central chains approach between Nares, Honda, and Mendales. In fact, the bed of the Rio Magdalena is narrowed in 5 and 5 degrees 18 minutes, on the east by the mountains of Sergento, and on the west by the spurs that are linked with the granitic mountains of Maraquito and Santa Ana. ”

“ Throughout the whole of its length the Rio de la Pasion must be a very sluggish stream. In its westerly course before its junction with the Chixoy there are reaches of the river where during the dry season hardly any current it is perceptible, and after heavy rains the flood-waters extend for so many miles through the forest that one is almost led to think that this region from the mouth of the Chajmaic northward may at one time have formed the bed of a great lake. ”

“ Although we were always on the alert, so as to miss nothing of interest, especially anything that concerned the animal life of the tropics, we must confess that in all our experience we never heard growls, squeals, howls, moans, screams, or other sounds of terror and conflict, either along the Magdalena or anywhere else in South America. ”

“ This country, under a wise government, is capable of sustaining an immense population and giving abundant support to such a railroad; but it is now unexplored, excepting the valleys of the navigable rivers, and is uninhabited save by wild and savage Indians, though these are not numerous.
The route up the Magdalena may be expensive by reason of the climate, but not otherwise. ”

“ In some of the more thickly settled and prosperous districts of the Eastern Cordillera these bridle paths have been so much improved that they may be considered reasonably good mountain roads, the traffic over them being that of pack animals and not of wheeled vehicles. Navigation on the lower Magdalena closely resembles that of the Mississippi, the same type of light-draft, flat-bottomed steamboat being used, and similar obstacles and dangers to navigation being encountered. ”

“ The track would conduct one to the ruins of a bridge which has been built over the Pilcomayo, but the road bed of the structure was in such a rotten condition, that the arrieros do well to trust themselves to the chances of the ford rather than risk falling through from the bridge into the river. On either side of the ravine are patches of cultivated land, watered by “azequias,” or irrigation channels, led from the necessary distance up the stream. ”

“ The greater part of its territory lies between the Magdalena and Cauca rivers and includes the northern end of the Central Cordillera. The country is covered with valuable forests, and its mineral wealth renders it one of the most important mining regions of the republic. ”

“ A few miles below the junction with the latter a low range of hills almost bars its course, and for a short distance the water with its surface slowly twisted in great oily-looking swirls, swings through a narrow pass between cliffs not more than forty feet apart. During the heavy autumn rains the flood-water rises rapidly above this narrow passage and tears through it with tremendous force. When I descended the river in a canoe from the Paso Real to the ruins of Menché Tinamit in 1884 I saw huge mahogany logs lying stranded thirty or forty feet up the banks, and my companion Mr. ”

“ The rain was heaviest in the Mádgole and Golgonda hills and consequently the damage was worst in the valley of the Sárada river. This stream was already running full from bank to bank when every one of its tributaries came down simultaneously in flood. It rose twelve feet above the level of ordinary freshes and inundated the whole of its valley. ”

“ 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. ”

“ One day we hired a dug-out canoe from a man who was also the possessor of a casting-net, and set off at dawn on a fishing-expedition. After paddling and poling up the river for about a league, we came to the mouth of a small stream with muddy banks half hidden in giant reeds. A few hundred yards from its mouth the stream broadened out into a pool about eighty yards long and forty wide, and here I counted sixteen alligators, some sunning themselves on the bank, others basking on the top of the water. ”

“ We were favoured with a breeze increasing in freshness as the night drew on, and our mules made good time over the plain, so that by 9 o'clock we had reached the river which runs within a mile of the town. Just at this moment the moon rose and in the half-light the stream looked black and formidable, and our men hesitated and began to discuss the situation, as none of them knew the depth of the water; but the ever-ready Gorgonio pulled off some of his clothes, and soon put our doubts at rest by wading across and shouting back to us that the water was no more than breast high. ”

“ A good recent map of Madagascar will show that on this coast, for about three hundred miles south of Hivòndrona, there is a nearly continuous line of lakes and lagoons. They vary in distance from the sea from a hundred yards to a couple of miles; and in many places they look like a very straight river or a broad canal, while frequently they extend inland, spreading out into extensive sheets of water, two or three miles across. ”