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 COLOMBIA

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COLOMBIA

from 450 000 to about 500,000 square miles, but exact data are not obtainable. Colombia has at least eleven active or dormant volcanoes, the tallest of which, Huila, rises to about 19.000 feet and seems to be the highest point in the country. Almost on the Carib- bean shores are the mud- volcanoes of Turbaco. 1 he republic is highly favoured by nature in most parts of its territory, and capable of producing nearly every staple. It is' very rich in useful tropical plants. The animal kingdom, too, is far better represented than farther south along the Pacific coast. The climate shows aU. possible varieties, from the moist heat of the lowlands to the bitter cold of the mountain wastes. Since 1870 no census of the population has been at- tempted. To-day the number of inhabitants is vari- ously estimated, four millions beinga likely conjecture. One estimate (made in 1904) gives 3,917,000 souls; another, two years later, 4,080,000, of which 4,08.3.000 for the sixteen departments, 120,000 for the federal district, and 427,000 for the intendancies. Four- fifths at least of this population resides in the moun- tainous western half, the eastern lowlands being mostly helil by wild Indian bands. The number of aborigines is given at about 1.50,000, without reliable basis, how- ever, for this estimate. The most populous city is the capital, Bogota, situated at an altitude of 9000 feet above the .sea, with 85,000 inhabitants; Medellin, in the department of Antioquia (4000 feet above the sea) comes next, with 50,000 souls, then Barranquilla, Colombia's most active seaport, with 32,000 (later ac- counts say 55,000). Negroes and mulattoes are num- erous, and mestizos form a large proportion of the jjeo- ple. In the mountains the pure Indian has been re- duced by amalgamation to a small proportion of the inhabitants and most of the aboriginal stocks have completely disappeared as such. Near the Gulf of Maracaibo the Goajiros still maintain autonomy, but the Tayronas, Panches, Musos, are practically extinct. Around Bogotd there are descendants of the Chibchas (q. v.), a sedentary tribe once of considerable numeri- cal importance, for aborigines.

Hi.sTORY. — The earliest information concerning the territory which was to become in the nineteenth cen- tury the Republic of Colombia goes back to the year 1500 and comes down to us from Rodrigo de Bastidas and Alonzo de Ojeda. But even a few months before the.se explorers, Christoval Guerra and Pero Alonzo Nino had coasted Venezuela and, possibly, the north- ern shores of Colombia, gathering pearls and gold. Bastidas saw the snowy range of Santa Marta in 1.500, and Ojeda settled on the coast near by. The Spanish colonies on the Isthmus of Darien (since 1903, the Re- public of Panama, but previously a province of Colom- bia) and the discovery of the South Sea by Balboa (q. V.) directed the course of exploration of Colombia to its north-western and Pacific sections. The banks of large rivers, Atrato, (^lauca, and Magdalena, were also explored and conquered at an early period. The val- leys, especially that of the Cauca, were inhabited by comparatively numerous agricultural tribes, who also gathered gold by washing and worked it into figures, ornaments, and sometimes vessels. Much of the pre- cious metal was found in graves. The Indians of Antio- quia, Ancerma, Call, and Lile, though living in vil- lages, were cannibals, and wars of extermination had to be waged against them. The languages of these peo- ples have wellnigh disappeared, as well as the tribes themselves, and their classification in four principal groups, Catios, Nutabes, Tahamies. and Yamacies (of which the first two held both banks of the Cauca), re- quires confirmation. In western Colombia the Span- iards penetrated to the northern confines of Ecuador (Pasto, Popayan) comparatively early, and there met other explorers from their own people coming up from Quito. This led to strife and even to bloodshed.

The valley of the Magdalena formed the natural route into the interior. The Indian tribes around.

and to the south of, the Santa Marta Mountains (Chimilas, Panches, Tayronas, Musos) were of a sed- entary and warlike character, and offered a protracted resistance. It seems that they belonged to the lin- guistic stock of the Chibcha (or Muysca). and con.sid- erable gold was found among them, chiefly in burial places. Up to 1536, Tamalameque (about 9°N. lat.) had been the most southern point reached from Santa Marta. In the beginning of that year, however, an important expedition was set on foot under the com- mand of Pedro Fernandez de Lugo, with the object of penetrating into the unknown mountains to the south. Lugo soon died, but his lieutenant Gonzalo Xim^nez de Quesada persevered, and reached the plateau, where he found the numerous tribes of the Chibcha estab- lished in formal settlements, and rich in gold and in emeralds obtained from the country of the Musos where they are still obtained. By August, 1538, Cun- dinamarca (by which name theChibcha range is mostly known) was occupied by Quesada after considerable warfare with the natives, and the city of Santa F^ tie Bogota was founded as capital of the " Kingdom of New Granada", which continued the official designa- tion of Colombia until its independence was achieved. Upon the conquest of the Chibcha country followed expeditions to the east and south-east, in quest of the "Gilded Man" (el Dorado) with little more than geo- graphical results. These expeditions led towards the region now forming the Republic of Venezuela.

The establishment of a German administration in Venezuela, by the Welser family, in 1529, also led the Spaniards and Germans into Colombia from the East. Ambrosius Dalfinger (1529-32) reached Tamalameque and, in 1538, when Quesada was beginning to organize his recent conquest at Bogotd, he was surprised by the arrival of a force from Venezuela commanded by the German leader Nicolas Federmann. Shortly after this another body of Spaniards reached the plateau of Cundinamarca from the Cauca Valley. This was the expedition headed by Sebastian Belalcazar of Quito. Each of the three commanders having acted independ- ently, each claimed the territory as his conquest, but Quesada succeeded in buying his rivals off, and re- mained master of the field, thus avoiding bloodshed.

New Granada, under its own audiencia established in 1563, formed part of the Spanish Viceroyalty of Peru until 1718, was then severed from Peru for four years, then again placed under an audiencia, and finally, in 1751, con.stitiited a separate viceroyalty. During the seventeenth century, the ports of the Colombian coast were exposed to the formidable attacks of pirates. In 1671 the notorious Morgan took Panama and sacked it. and the most horrilile cruelties were committed upon its inhabitants. Two years later it was the turn of Santa Marta. In 1079 the French Baron de Pointe took and pillaged Cartagena (founded 1510). Relig- ious strife, too, between the secular and some of the regular clergy, and between the bishops and the civil authorities, troubled Cartagena, Popayan, and other dioceses. Extreme measures of taxation, exorbitant duties, provoked a popular uprising in 1781. The country remained in a state of ferment, which was ag- gravated by the downfall of Spain before the power of Napoleon. Miranda made in 1806 an attempt at in- surrection, directed in the first instance against Ven- ezuela, but threatening New Granada as well, had it succeeded. On 20 July, 1810, a revolutionary junta met at Bogota, and in the following year " The United Provinces of New Granada" were proclaimed. These embraced also Venezuela and Ecuador, and soon two parties appeared among the revolutionists, so that, previous to 1816, three civil wars had taken place. Bolivar, who appeared upon the scene in 1810, was im- able to establish harmony. Spain could do almost nothing to recover its colonies until 1S15, when a re- spectable force under General Morillo landed in Ven- ezuela. This united the factions again, and for five