sillero in crossing the isthmus by a woodland path, originally formed of timbers placed lengthways, but horribly out of repair. In some places, the sillero had to cross over bridges of a single log, where, if his foot had slipped, his rider would have had his neck broken. After an hour's travelling, they reached the rising ground which divides the San Juan from the stream of Citera, between which it is proposed to cut a canal that would connect the two oceans. "I particularly inspected it,' says Capt Cochrane," and found the distance from one stream to another to be about 400 yards, and the height of the ground to be cut through, about 70 feet. But, after digging a very few feet, you come to solid rock, which would make the undertaking expensive. Besides, it would be necessary to deepen each stream for about a league; so that, I think, the least cost would be 500,000 dollars, to make a good communication between the Atrato and the Jan Juan." It is an hour's walk from this place to the Tambo of Citera. Again embarking, he descended the very shallow and narrow stream of the San Pablo for two hours, till, being joined by the Rapadura from the north-east, the river becomes broader and deeper: a little lower, it assumes the name of the Quito. Early on the third morning, he reached Citera, a miserable town on the right bank of the Atrato, in the midst of swamps.* On the 12th of March, he embarked in a champan on this noble river; passed, during the night of the 15th, the mouth of the River Niapippi; and, on the 19th, sailed through the Barbacoa, one of the nine mouths of

*From this place to the mouths of the Atrato, nearly the whole tract consists of tierras baidias (unappropriated lands); but, till within three days' journey of the entrance, there is no ground that could be cultivated: "on landing on either bank, and walking fifty yards, you arrive at an impenetrable

morass.

Contrary

the Atrato,* into the Gulf of Darien. winds detained him for some days, but at length on the 27th, he safely and joyfully landed at Cartagena.

With regard to the proposed communication between the two oceans by means of the Niapippi, Captain Cochrane conceives that Baron Humboldt must have been misinformed as to its feasibility. A Colombian officer, who had crossed over to Panama by that route, stated, that he found the Niapippi shallow, rapid, and rocky; that the land-carriage to the port of Tupica, (instead of being over level ground,) crosses three sets of hills; and that he could perceive no possibility of a communication between the Niapippi and the Pacific Ocean. As to the other line of navigation, M. Humboldt states, that the curé of a village near Novita, had actually employed his parishioners to dig a small canal through the quebrada de la Raspadura, and that by this means, during the rainy season, canoes had actually passed from sea to sea. "This interior communication has existed since 1788, unknown to Europe. The small canal of Raspadura unites, on the two oceans, two points 75 leagues distant from each other." This communication, however, Capt Cochrane says, can never become of great utility, from its distance, and the brief season of the year in which it is practicable.

POPAYAN.

M. Mollien proceeded from Bogota to Popayan by way of Guaduas and the Magdalena. His account of the route is, however, so indistinct, and his orthography so doubtful, that we are not able to make any

*The main mouth is La Candelaria, but it is beset with sand-banks. The Atrato is the same river as the Choco and Darien. Its navigation was formerly prohibited by the Spanish government, on pain of death.

satisfactory use of it. The situation of Popayan is most delightful. The valley, he says, has not the gigantic magnificence of that of Bogota; but the air is so pure, the temperature so mild, the soil so fertile, that he would be almost tempted to give it a preference over the plateaus of the other cordilleras, if the number of disgusting insects, particularly fleas, did not render the place almost uninhabitable." The houses are more handsome than those of Bogota, and there are some that would not disgrace the finest parts of our European capitals. But the place is in decay, and the population greatly diminished. Many families struck our Traveller as seeming, from their physiognomy, to be of Jewish origin. The number of negroes and mulattoes here, is double that of the whites.

From Popayan, M. Mollien took the road to Cali, traversing the valley of the Cauca. He then crossed the mountains to Las Juntas, a village so called from the confluence of the Pepita and the Dagua; and descended the latter river to the port of San Buenaventura, on the shores of the pacific, where he embarked on board a schooner for Panama.

"The great ocean," says M. Mollien, "is almost solitary between Lima and Mexico: but few ships arc met with." The commerce is almost confined to the ports of Callao, Guayaquil, Panama, San Blas, and Acapulco; but a coasting trade is carried on by the ships of Païta. On the coasts of the South Sea, and at the mouth of the Guayaquil, large rafts (balzas) have been used by the Indians from time immemorial, for the conveyance of merchandise and for fishing. The annexed plate represents one of these rafts laden with the fruits of the country. They are composed of eight or nine beams of very light wood, and are from fifty to eighty feet in length.

PANAMA.

"Guayaquil," says M. Mollien, "is built of wood; Buenaventura, of straw; Panama has retained something of both kinds of architecture.* At first sight, however, this town pleases the European: he sees houses of three stories, inhabited by several families; consequently, as in his own country, all is noise and bustle.' But on a nearer view, the place presents very far from pleasing or attractive features. The streets are narrow,-much darker, and even much dirtier than those of Cartagena. The people are excessively uncleanly. The town is in ruins. "In some districts, whole streets have been allowed to fall into neglect, and even the military works are fast crumbling to decay. Every thing, in short, tells the same lamentable story of former splendour and of present poverty.' "Panama," says Capt Basil Hall, "has flourished for a long series of years, but its sun has at last set with the golden flag of Spain, the signal of exclusion wherever it waved."

Here we must close our topographical description of the Republic of Colombia. Whole provinces yet remain to be explored by European travellers, before we can have materials for any thing like a complete account of this wonderful country. In the meantime, it is not improbable that the territorial boun

* The French Traveller will be thought to have sacrificed here correctness to antithesis. Panama still presents the remains of magnificent public edifices, among which Captain Basil Hall particularises the Jesuits' College, a church and convent, and "a gorgeous bath by the side of a dried-up mar ble fountain." In fact, there remain" more genuine traces,' he says, "of that luxurious and tasteful splendour which displays itself in fine public edifices," at Panama, than even in Lima, the "city of the kings," with all its tinsel and pretension.-HALL's Journal, vol. ii. pp. 155-7.

daries and internal arrangements of the republic may undergo some modification. It was our intention, agreeably to the intimation given at page 12, to close this volume with a brief historical sketch of the sanguinary revolution which has ushered in the happy era of the national independence; but we the less regret the necessity under which we have found ourselves, of omitting this, inasmuch as a fairer opportunity will be afforded, in the description of Peru, of presenting a complete account of the contest, and, we trust, of its final and successful termination. At the same time, we shall probably be able to furnish some description of the southern provinces of Colombia, which were once politically, and may still be considered as geographically, connected with that viceroyalty.

THE END.