The Colombian and Venezuelan republics

Front matter

Ciass.

Book.

,^4^

Introduction

THE following pages contain a brief account of the Author's personal experiences, observations, and studies in Central and South America, and more particularly in the republics of Colombia and Venezuela, during the period of twenty-seven years, from 1872 to 1899.

During the greater part of that time, his official and professional relations with the Governments and peoples of those countries afforded him exceptional opportunities for studying their early history and civilization, their constitutions of government, their present political and social conditions, their great natural resources, and their future commercial possibilities.

The comparatively little hitherto known of those beautiful and interesting countries, especially in the United States, and the general awakening to their commercial importance and the consequent desire for some authentic and reliable information concerning them, have induced the Author to publish these Notes, in the hope of stimulating further inquiry, and of inducing closer relations between the Latin and Anglo-Saxon races of the two Americas.

The descriptive chapters were written on or near the exact spots described, and have been carefully revised, from time to time, as those localities have been revi Introduction

visited, or as they have undergone material changes, during the past quarter of a century; the aim being accuracy of statement, rather than to satisfy any popular demand for the marvellous and improbable.

The chapters relating to the various inter-oceanic canal projects, to the Mosquito Coast controversy, to the principles of the Monroe Doctrine, to the race problem in the Americas, to Democracy in Latin America, to South American " revolutions," to the rights and duties of foreign residents therein, to social and religious customs, to the Anglo-Venezuelan boundary dispute in Guayana, to the final award of the arbitration tribunal in that dispute, and to other kindred topics, are deemed essential to a clear understanding of the present political conditions of those countries, and of their relations to each other and to the United States.

Chapter I

Page First impressions — The town of Colon- Aspinwall — Its origin — Tropical rain-storms — Topography and climate — Social conditions — General aspect of the country — Mixed population — Traditions and historical reminiscences — The isthmus in diplomacy, etc i

Chapter II

General Simon Bolivar's scheme for interesting foreign capital — Origin of the De Lesseps' scheme — Its relation to the United States — Joint guarantee of the neutrality of the isthmian transit — Why it was rejected by England and France — The conditions under which the United States became the sole guarantor — This not affected by the De Lesseps' concession of 1878, etc 16

Chapter III

The City of Carthagena — Ancient traditions — Spanish- American commerce in the 17th century — The Old " Dique," or Magdalena Canal — Savanilla and Barranquilla — Changes there during 25 years — Present conditions of trade, etc. , 26 viii Contents

Chapter VIII

How the Anglo and Latin Americans misunderstand each other — Military and literary titles — Odd forms of speech

— Curiosities of dress — Social life — The priest a social favorite — Religious forms — Sundry laws and customs,

Contents ix

Chapter XXII The Monroe Doctrine And The Mosquito Coast Controversy

How that controversy originated — Principles involved — The treaty of 1 786, whereby England renounced all claim there — How England's claim was subsequently revived; and how it was finally abandoned, etc 257

Chapter XXIII

Origin of the fable of El Dorado — Its supposed locality — Origin of the boundary dispute in Guayana — The controversy inherited by Venezuela and England — Description of the territories in dispute, etc „ 268

Chapter XXIV The Anglc-venezuelan Boundary Dispute

The principles involved — How and under what circumstances the United States interposed in 1895 — The boundary commission of 1896 — The protocol and treaty of arbitration of 1897 — A new principle incorporated into the law of the nations, etc 285

Chapter XXV . The Award By The Arbitration Tribunal Of 1 899

Nature and character of the tribunal — Constituted a tribunal of jurists, not a commission of plenipotentiaries — The question as submitted to its decision — The conxii Contents

Page ventional " Rules " by which it was to be governed — A new departure in the doctrine of prescription — The facts in the case as proven — Principles of public law applicable thereto — The final award a compromise; an expedient rather than a judicial decision — Description of the new divisional line, etc 306

Chapter XXVI The Principle Of International Arbitration

Arbitration as applied to individual disputes, as old as civilization itself — How it became a part of the English jurisprudence — ■ How incorporated into the laws of the United States — How and when it was first applied in settlement of international disputes — The proposition to establish a permanent court of international arbitration, etc. . . . 326

Chapter XXVII More About " Panama Canal Projects "

Expenditures, etc., of the De Lesseps Company — Assets of the company — Origin and purpose of the " New Panama Canal Company" — Origin of "the Hepburn Bill" — President McKinley and the Nicaragua route — Origin of "the Spooner law" — The " Hay-Heran Treaty" — Its rejection by Colombia — Panama declares her independence of Colombia — Recognition of the new republic by the United States — Convention between the United States and Panama for construction of ship canal, etc. — Doctrine of non-intervention — Nature of the guarantee by the United States in the treaty of 1846, etc. . . . 334

APPENDIX A. Treaty of arbitration for the settlement of the Anglo-Venezuelan boundary dispute in Guayana, June 14, 1897 . . . . 353

APPENDIX B. Convention between the United States and the republic of Panama for the construction of a ship canal between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, Feb. 26, 1904 . 363

INDEX 375

Illustrations

Scene on the La Guayra and Caracas Railroad . . . Frontispiece

PAGE

Interior of a Fruit Market, Bogota 63

Carib Indians of Guayana 87

Forest View, Northwest Coast Region, Guayana . . . . 115

Patio or Inner Court of a Private Residence ...... 136

Federal Palace, Caracas 156

La Guayra 180

Caracas seen from La Guayra Station 205 "

View of Caracas from Mont Calvario . i\\ v

Water-front, Angostura (Ciudad Bolivar), on the Orinoco . 223

MAPS

FACING PAGE

Republic of Colombia 25

Republic of Venezuela . . . 192

British-Venezuelan Guayana ........... 324

The Colombian and Venezuelan Republics

Chapter I

IT was in the midsummer of 1873 when I saw the Isthmus of Panama for the first time. In all probability it could not have been seen at a more unpropitious season nor under more unfavorable circumstances. The " sickly season " had already set in, somewhat earlier than usual; there had just been a local "revolution" with all its attendant disorders; and the whole Province seemed to be on the verge of anarchy, financial ruin, and moral bankruptcy. I have visited that locality many times since ; have been an eye-witness of its many subsequent changes for the better ; have kept in pretty close touch with it during the past quarter of a century ; and some of the happiest years of my life have been spent among the Colombian people. But I shall probably never be able to get entirely rid of my first unfavorable impressions of the Colombian isthmus ; and, despite all its many recent improvements and its prospective importance, I doubt whether its Atlantic side will ever look quite so charming on close inspection as it does some leagues distant « 1 from the upper deck of an ocean steamer. That was the way it impressed me twenty-seven years ago, and it is the way it impresses the stranger to-day.

Our vessel was the old Henry Chauncy, a clumsy, wooden " side-wheeler " of a past era and generation. She was on her final voyage before giving place to the modern iron keel with screw propeller. With the fairest of weather, and without accident of any kind, we had been nine whole days and nights out from New York, touching only at Kingston, Jamaica, for about an hour. The same trip is now made by one of the modern " greyhounds " of the ocean in about half that time, at a reduced cost, and with much more comfort to the passengers.

About eight o'clock in the morning of the tenth day out, the watchman at the forecastle called out, " Land ! " There was the usual rush forward by the passengers, glass in hand, to see what was to be seen. What we saw was something resembling a twisted green ribbon, barely perceptible, at the junction of sea and sky; something which some poetic genius on board called a " microscopic shadow on the outer hem of space."

As we drew nearer, this dim outline gradually broadened and deepened ; and very soon it assumed the form and proportions of an indented shore of crescent shape, clothed in that bright emerald green peculiar to the American tropics during the " rainy season." By ten o'clock we were safely anchored in the harbor, only a few rods from the northern or Atlantic terminus of the trans-isthmian railway. Our poetic conceptions of the place, excited by the distant view some hours ago, now began to vanish rapidly and forever; for we were face to face with what was then perhaps the filthiest, the unwholesomest, and most disorderly and repulsive hole of a place in all Christendom.

One of the passengers — a gentleman of culture and position — hired a negro porter to carry his trunk from the steamer to the railway station less than two hundred yards distant. The price agreed upon was fifty cents, which was all the fellow had asked. When he got within less than a dozen paces of the station, he threw down the trunk and demanded five dollars ! The owner remonstrated, mildly but firmly. In less than five minutes he was surrounded by a threatening mob of negroes and half-breeds, all yelling and cursing at the top of their voices. To prevent a riot, one of the resident consuls advised the gentleman to pay the five dollars, which he did, " with curses not loud but deep."

I relate this incident as merely illustrative of the disorders then prevailing at the little seaport town which all Anglo-Americans called Aspinwall, but which all Colombians as persistently called Colon. This confusion as to the name of the place had a capricious Origin, by the way; and, trivial as it now seems, it once led to a somewhat vexatious diplomatic controversy. Away back in the early fifties, when the Panama Railway Company (an American corporation) made their final survey of the route, the Atlantic terminus was located in a swamp a little southward of Old Navy Bay. No white man had ever attempted to live there, and the reptiles and red monkeys had never been disturbed in their possessions, even by the Indians. But now that this malarious and inhospitable spot was to be the site of a seaport town, it had to have a name. Several names were proposed, but none seemed to " stick." Finally, when the road was nearing completion, a banquet was given by the managers, at which were present as honored guests all the native local officials, and also several members of the Colombian cabinet who had come all the way from Bogota to participate in the general jubilee. Champagne flowed freely, and amid the hilarities some one proposed to call the prospective new town " Aspinwall," in honor of the first president of the road. The motion was promptly seconded and unanimously adopted, and the best speech of the occasion was made by Dr. Parades, then Colombian Minister for Foreign Affairs.

Some years afterwards, when, by constitutional amendment, the name of the country itself was changed from New Granada to Colombia, dissatisfaction arose with the name of Aspinwall, and the Congress of the Republic changed it to Colon in honor of the discoverer of the continent. 1 This was all well enough. Nobody disputed the right of the Government to give names to towns and cities within its own domain and jurisdiction. Besides, the name selected was by no means inappropriate. But the blunder consisted in the failure to notify the new name to the outside commercial world or even to the officers of the railway company. So it continued to be called Aspinwall by everybody except Colombians, and even they sometimes wrote it " Aspinwall-Colon."

Finally, in 1872, when our diplomatic agent at Bogota applied for the usual exequatur for a newly-appointed consul at Aspinwall, he was politely told there was " no such place as Aspinwall in Colombia ; " but that if the name Colon were substituted in the consul's commission, there would be no difficulty in obtaining the desired exequatur. This created surprise at Washington, and for a while Mr. Hamilton Fish, then Secretary of State, was disposed to construe the attitude of the Bogota government as discourteous. But satisfactory explanations soon followed, and ever since then Colon has been accepted as the legal name of the place, though some thoughtless people still write it " Colon- Asp in wall."

1 Cristobal Colon is the Spanish for Christopher Columbus.

But to return to the isthmus itself. As we lay at anchor by the wharf, the scorching rays of the sun had already drawn up the mists and vapors of the forenoon into great banks of cloud, which hung heavily on the mountain sides, or floated in broken fragments over intervening swamps and watercourses. It was easy to trace the serpentine course of " the deadly Chagres " through the mountain fastnesses by the dense volume of white vapor which hovered just above the surface. Very soon these floating masses of steam (for they were little else), began to cohere and darken the sky, and in a few moments the sun was completely obscured. Then came a gust of damp chilly wind, followed by a blinding flash of lightning and a deafening roar. The next moment the whole vapory mass came down in perfect torrents. I had witnessed many midsummer thunderstorms on our Gulf coast, but never before had I seen anything like this. The water seemed to come down, not in a community of well defined raindrops, but in solid sheets, which soon covered the already wet and smoking earth to the depth of many inches.

This downpour continued without cessation for about an hour, and then ceased altogether, quite as suddenly as it had begun. The sun now shone out with such dazzling brightness and power as to almost benumb the senses. The heat was intense beyond description. Very soon the hot, murky vapors began to rise in dense and sickening folds from the fever-laden earth. The lagoons and watercourses smoked like so many cauldrons. The perspiration streamed from every pore of the body. Bathe and shift your clothing never so often, you were always wet and clammy. A strange feeling of suffocation came over you as you attempted to inhale the wet, poisonous atmosphere ; and one was made to think of the " Carboniferous period," when the earth was yet too new and crude and too densely enveloped in rank and noxious vapors to be a fit habitation for man 8 — the era when birds were yet slimy reptiles, and the remote ancestors of the human race were without treetops in which to gambol.

This interval of roasting, or rather boiling, was of short duration, for very soon there was another sudden and ominous darkening of the sun ; another chilly gust of wind ; another blinding flash of lightning, followed by another downpour of the floods. And thus the long summer day was made up of regular alternations of drenchings and roastings, with an ever-varying temperature ranging between the seventies and nineties, resulting in the usual complement of liver and stomach disorders, the end of which usually was violent and often fatal ague and fever.

True, this was in the beginning of the so-called inviemo, or " wet season," when tropical fevers are most frequent and fatal. What is called the verano (" summer ") or dry season, is better. It is less unhealthful, and with proper care a stranger may sojourn there for a few weeks or months without constant dread of the cemetery. But at no time can Colon be considered a healthy locality, nor in any respect a very desirable place of residence. The streets, though very much improved of late, are often impassable in wet weather, and never attractive when dry. The town is environed by stagnant ponds and lagoons, and the inland breeze is ■ always laden with deadly malaria. Sickening odors assail the nostrils at every turn. Even the dogs and donkeys look forlorn and unhappy. You seldom hear a hearty laugh, or see a cheerful face. The only species of animate nature which seems to really enjoy life here is the mosquito. He comes in swarms so thick that you are constantly afraid to take a deep breath, lest you inhale a whole mouthful of the poisonous pests. Day and night he is your constant companion. If by vigorous fanning you keep him from your face and neck, he will slip in unawares and attack your hands. If you put on thick gloves or sit under a bunker, he will manage to reach your ankles and legs through your socks and trousers. And, be never so careful, he will generally manage somehow to get inside your netting, and keep you awake the better part of the night.

However, this is but one side of the picture. Colon is not the isthmus, any more than is the isthmus Colombia ; and strangers should not prejudge one of the most picturesque and beautiful countries on the Continent by what little they see of it on the coast. Even the isthmus has its brighter side ; for if we would form anything like a correct estimate of it we must pass over to the Pacific shore. The distance by rail is forty-seven miles, and the cost of transportation about twenty-five dollars in American gold coin. The time required is about three hours ; some of our fast mail trains would make the same distance in less than one hour. But here, not even the railroads take much note of time. They have printed schedules, but seldom follow them to the minute, and I never heard of a belated passenger being " left." The conductor will generally wait for him if he happens to be a little late ; and the train will stop along the line apparently for no other purpose than to allow passengers to see the country and dicker with the fruit peddlers.

During the first hour's ride from Colon to Panama there is very little to be seen. The country is a mere succession of swamps and lagoons, where it would seem impossible for human beings to live. Yet even before the country was partially reclaimed from a wilderness state by the railway, there were occasionally seen rude huts inhabited by Indians, negroes, and mestizos. A little further on, we see cone-shaped hills with intervening lagoons and rapidly-running streams. Before the De Lesseps Canal Company cleared away the forest and jungle, and thus changed the whole aspect of the country, these hills and little mountain slopes were covered with dense forests, which were resonant with the screams of red monkeys and the shrill notes of tropical birds. All along the railway, even in this unfavored region, one now sees little towns and settlements, but few or no good houses. The habitations are, for the most part, thatched-roof sheds with dirt floors; and their inmates can hardly be classed as belonging exclusively to either of the three primal races. They are a curious mixture of red, white, and black ; crude evidence of that lax morality which prevailed here in early Spanish Colonial times. Just how these unfortunate people manage to live, or why they never had the energy and ambition to better their condition, nobody seems to know ; yet they are apparently happy in their life of poverty and wretchedness. They have few wants of body or mind, and one almost envies them an existence which seems to have no cares. The indigenous plantain and banana afford a cheap and convenient substitute for bread ; and fish from the streams and lagoons, and a few yellow-legged chickens, afford all the meat they want. Occasionally one sees an inferior specimen of the domestic pig, or a forlorn looking, half-famished donkey, and sometimes a few domesticated ducks; but there are no cows or horses or other live-stock, and one rarely sees a vegetable garden.

As we ascend the dividing ridge between the Atlantic and Pacific shores, we perceive a marked change for the better. The whole aspect of the country is different. The temperature, though but a few degrees lower, is less oppressive. The air is purer ; the environments are more cheerful and inviting ; and we no longer experience that strange mental depression which we felt a while ago on the Colon side. As we begin the gradual descent of the water-parting ridge towards the Pacific coast, the beauty of the landscape often charms us, and we are tempted to forget all trie discomforts and annoyances of Colon. The country is more thickly populated, the houses are better, the people look cleaner, healthier, stronger, and more self-respecting.

But even here they are not quite angels, either in appearance or in disposition ; and you must know them and their language if you would get along pleasantly with them. Treat them civilly and kindly, and you are almost sure to receive civil and even courteous treatment in return. But have a care how you touch their sensibilities or wound their vanity ! Serious disturbances sometimes result from a mere thoughtless jest. The great riot of 1856, for instance, grew out of an altercation between an ignorant railway passenger and a native fruit peddler. The passenger fancied he was being swindled out of a few cents in the price demanded for a pineapple, and coarsely remonstrated. Very soon he lost his temper and began to call ugly names in very bad Spanish. In less than ten minutes an angry crowd had collected : and in a few minutes more the whole neighborhood was in an uproar. The excitement soon spread ; and before order could be restored, some sixty people had been killed outright, and many more wounded. It was many long years before the affair was definitely and amicably adjusted, for it became the subject of a protracted and vexatious diplomatic cor^ respondence, and was finally referred to a mixed Commission.

The city of Panama occupies a tongue of land which io Colombian and Venezuelan Republics

extends some distance out into the great shallow bay. On the outer edge of this bay, several miles from the mainland, is a beautiful group of small islands which were once coveted by Great Britain, and which our own Government once made a blundering effort to acquire by purchase. Thirty years later when we might have had them for almost the asking, we did not want them! The city, as I first saw it in 1873, was not unlike scores of others in Spanish America ; but since then there have been many notable changes, which give it more individuality. Many fine buildings have been erected, among them a modern hotel that would be a credit to almost any city. The population is variously estimated at from thirty to forty thousand ; I believe no correct census has ever been taken. At one time during the booming era of the De Lesseps Canal bubble, the resident and floating population probably amounted to fifty thousand. Since then the town has suffered somewhat, like some in our own country that got into the hands of" boomers," but it is still reasonably prosperous.

The site of the old town of Panama, founded in 15 18, is some five or six miles distant from the present city, and is now a ruin. But it was an important place in its day, and became the radiating point of Spanish civilization on the South Pacific coast. Here dwelt the good prelate Luque who befriended Pizarro when that miscreant most needed a friend, and who was the recipient of characteristic ingratitude and ill-treatment in return. Pizarro was guilty of a hundred baser acts ; but if this had been the only instance of his treachery and ingratitude, it would have been enough to consign his name to eternal infamy.

It was on the outskirts of this historic spot that I once witnessed a most singular blending of superstition and religious devotion. There was an odd looking pile of stones, some ten or twelve feet high, which seemed to have been loosely thrown together without much design. On the crest of this was an old iron cross, half consumed by rust. On one side of the rock pile (for it was little else), opening from the ground, was a rude doorway, barely large enough to admit a man's body on hands and knees. This led back to an inner cavern (it could hardly be called a room), wherein lighted tapers were burning. In this and beneath a rustic altar, was a quantity of human bones, collected in a sort of stone urn. The attendant friar, getting his dates a little mixed, told me these were the mortal remains of some early Christian missionaries who had died on this identical spot early in the sixteenth century. I asked him how he knew this. " Ah, senor mio," said he, " such is the tradition of holy men, and I accept it." If he entertained any doubts as to its truth, others of the faithful did not ; for the place was visited regularly at intervals during the year by simple-minded Indians from a distance who deposited their pesetas} and renewed their vows over the bones of the saintly dead. 2

The so-called " State " of Panama is coextensive with the isthmus of that name, and comprises an area of about 30,000 square miles. Its present population is perhaps 400,000, including an independent tribe of Indians who are said to number about 8,000. It is the most northern of the nine constituent commonwealths of the present

1 A. peseta is a native silver coin, corresponding to the franc, worth about sixteen cents.

2 Paracelsus stated what is now an admitted scientific fact when he uttered these remarkable words : — " Whether the object of your faith be real or false, you will nevertheless obtain the same effects. Thus, if I believe in Saint Peter's statue as I have believed in Saint Peter himself, I shall obtain the same effects that I should have obtained from Saint Peter. But that is superstition. Faith, however, produces miracles ; and whether it is a true or a false faith, it will always produce the same wonders."

Colombian union, and to most foreigners is better known than the Republic itself. The result is that one of the most beautiful and interesting countries on the continent is habitually misjudged by what little is here seen of it.

And yet, strange to say, this is precisely the section of which Colombians seem to feel most proud. Like a deformed and useless member of a family, it is a sort of pet of the household, humored and spoiled and habitually deferred to by all the others. It has already cost the central Government, in the way of reclamations growing out of local disorders, more than the entire "State" would bring if put up at auction; and yet if you would touch the pride of the average Colombian at the most sensitive point, just intimate that his Government might be induced to part with the sovereignty of the isthmus! He believes Panama to be "the navel of the world," and that at some time or other, and in some manner, not very clear even to his own mind, it will be the source of fabulous wealth. Stranger still, he seems to have the impression that this particular spot is especially cQveted by all the nations of the world, and that "the United States of the North" (as he persistently miscalls the title of our Government), is merely awaiting some favorable pretext to take forcible possession of it. Nevertheless, every time the federal Government at Bogota gets into some serious trouble with its " revolutionists " on the isthmus, it importunes the Washington authorities to intervene for the preservation of order there.

The general topography of the isthmus may be described as a succession of hills and valleys with intervening swamps and rapidly-running streams. The great central range of hills, often rising to the dignity of mountains, which separates the Atlantic and Pacific watersheds, is merely the extension of the great western cordillera of the Andes, which, under a different name, continues through Central America, Mexico, and the United States, and is finally lost in the icy slopes of Alaska. The Atlantic side is drained by the Atrato and the Chagres. ; the Pacific side by the Tuya and its confluents. The head-waters of the Atrato and of the Tuya are not a great way apart, with a sort of table-land swamp intervening; and there is an Indian tradition that some of the early buccaneers once passed from one to the other in light canoes and pirated a small settlement on the Pacific coast near Darien.

It is interesting to note how persistently this shadowy tradition of a natural water-pass across the isthmus hangs about the early literature of the country. We find frequent allusions to it, not only in the Spanish poems and romances of the seventeenth century, but likewise in the colonial state papers and official correspondence of a much later date. The most remarkable instance occurs, however, in an official communication by the Governor of Panama (one Don Dionicio Alceda) which bears the date of 1743. In that communication, speaking of the River Mandingua (the former name of the Atrato), the Governor says :