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from Colombia, which was less than half our imports for the corresponding year from Venezuela. Mexico came next on the list with nearly 27,250,000 pounds, and then Costa Rica with a little more than 16,500,000, and Guatemala with nearly 15,000,000 pounds. The average price of these coffees a pound was: Brazil, 5.6 cents; Venezuela, 7.7 cents; Colombia, 8.6 cents; Mexico, 9.8 cents; Costa Rica, 14.5 cents; Guatemala, 12.1 cents. These figures, taken from the Commerce and Navigation volumes of the United States, indicate that there is a good deal of truth in the statement made by the Brazilian minister. Until the acquisition of the Hawaiian Islands, Porto Rico, and the Philippines no coffee was produced in any territory under the control of the United States. The fact that a superior quality of coffee has long been produced in these islands, and that their conditions are eminently favorable for its production, coupled with the fact that it has always been the policy of the United States to protect her own industries, whether agricultural or industrial, makes the question of coffee production doubly interesting. Porto Rico has produced coffee in large quantities, that being her principal export for many years, the bulk of it going to Spain, where it has long been considered the finest coffee in the world. Her exports of coffee have amounted to 30,000,000 pounds per annum for many years. The Statesman's Year-Book for 1902 gives 200,000 acres under coffee cultivation in the island, which now produce 60,000,000 pounds of coffee annually. The Division of Insular Affairs gives the exportation of coffee from the island from the date of our occupation in October, 1898, to the end of April, 1900, as a little more than 62,000,000 pounds, of which 23,500,000 went to France, 9,000,000 to Cuba, nearly as much to Spain, 7,500,000 to Italy, a little more than 5,000,000 to Austria-Hungary, and a little less than 5,000,000 to Germany, this country receiving only a little more than 2,250,000 pounds of the product.

The Philippine Islands are said to be peculiarly adapted for the production of coffee, but the Division of Insular Affairs gives for the years 1899, 1900, and 1901 but small amounts exported from Manila, the amount for 1899 being 73,500 pounds; in 1900 only 24,500 pounds left that port; but in 1901 the shipments rose to 65,000 pounds.

Coffee appears as a natural product in the Hawaiian group, growing in many of the islands in a wild state; but as yet it is not produced on an extensive scale. It is said that there are more than 200 small plantations in the islands, and the exports given for 1897 were 337,158 pounds, worth $99,696. It is said that the area in these islands in which coffee can be successfully grown is small, but the quality of the product is excellent.

The Coffee Conference.-Owing to the low price obtainable for coffee in the producing countries, it was proposed by Mr. Lazo Arriaga, delegate for Guatemala at the Pan-American Congress held in the city of Mexico last winter, that a commission be convened within one year in the city of New York, to be composed of one or more delegates from each of the American republics, to study the causes of the low price, which was producing a crisis in the producing countries, and to devise some means of remedying it. He called attention to the fact that 15 of the nations represented at the congress were producers of the precious bean, while the 4 remaining nations were consumers of it. He further

said that the low price had affected the treasury receipts of some of the producing countries to such a degree that perhaps for this reason some of them were in a state of revolution, owing to the misery and poverty caused by the low price of their chief product. All the countries entered into the project through their delegates, who signed the resolution, with the exception of Chile, which declared itself being exclusively a coffee-consuming country, with no interest in a congress the avowed object of which was to study a means of raising the price of a product which she purchased in considerable quantities at a price already sufficiently high.

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ANTONIO LAZO ARRIAGA.

Owing to the foresight of Mr. Lazo Arriaga, in placing the details of convening the proposed Coffee Conference in the hands of the Bureau of American Republics, it was one of the first, if not the first, of the many resolutions adopted by the Pan-American Congress to be acted upon. The conference met at the New York Coffee Exchange on Oct. 1, and was composed of delegates from all the producing countries with the exception of Colombia, Hayti, and Bolivia. Two of the non-producing countries-Ecuador and Uruguay-were represented at the conference, so that only 6 of the American republics were unrepresented at the conference. The sessions of the conference were presided over by Percy B. O'Sullivan, a delegate of the United States and president of the Coffee Exchange, and were held throughout October.

Papers were presented upon the production, distribution, consumption, and causes of the low price of coffee by representatives of the coffeeproducing countries. It was generally agreed that the cause of the low price was overproduction, and to remedy the evil it was proposed by the committee charged with the study of the subject, of which Senhor J. F. de Assis, Brazilian minister at Washington, was chairman, that the coffee-producing countries enter into a combine to hold back a sufficient percentage of their entire crops to reduce the supply to the limit of consumption, and that in case no demand should be created for the surplus so held back by increased consumption, the surplus should be ultimately destroyed by fire. This proposition met with a vigorous protest from the delegate from Porto Rico, who demonstrated that his country was in no wise to blame for the overproduction, the cyclone of 1899 having destroyed more than half of the plantations on the island, and that the present Porto-Rican crop would hardly equal 40 per cent. of the crop of former years. He pointed to Brazil as the country responsible for the overproduction, and said there was where the remedy should be applied. Of course the United States could not enter into any such radical project to raise the price of any product in which it was interested either directly or indirectly, and consequently its delegation abstained from

voting on this measure. Peru and the Dominican republic voted against it, while the other countries voted in its favor.

A second measure adopted by the conference was a recommendation to the coffee-producing countries that the exportation of refuse as coffee and to the consuming countries the importation of such refuse and the use of falsifications or substitutes for coffee be prohibited by the most efficacious means possible. It was also proposed to recommend to the consuming countries the abolition, or at least a reasonable reduction, of the import duties in those countries where the consumption of coffee is materially affected by them.

A third measure was a proposition to organize a permanent international union to watch the interests of the coffee industry, and especially to maintain a propaganda for the purpose of increasing the consumption of coffee throughout the world.

The surprise and consternation of some of the other delegates to the conference were evident at the attitude of the Porto-Rican delegate when he came out openly for protection for his island product by the United States. When it was proposed as one of the most practical measures for increasing the consumption of coffee that the producing countries should endeavor to secure suppression of the duties imposed upon coffee by European countries, he said that to accept this proposition in an absolute manner would be against the wishes of the Porto-Rican people, who, if not citizens of the United States at present, expected to be in the near future, and consequently expected protection in the United States for their coffee. But he favored a reduction of the exorbitant duties in some of the European countries. The conference adjourned on Oct. 31, with the adoption of a final resolution that the Government of Brazil be invited to convene a second conference as soon as possible, to meet in São Paulo, the center of the coffee-producing district of Brazil, the delegates to have full power to carry into effect by treaty such recommendations as may be made by that conference.

COLOMBIA, a republic in South America. The Congress consists of a Senate of 27 members, 3 from each department, and a House of Representatives containing 66 members, each department sending as many as its population numbers multiples of 50,000 persons. The members are elected for four years by universal male suffrage. The President is elected for six years by an electoral college. M. A. Sanclemente was elected for the term beginning Aug. 7, 1898, but since July 31, 1900, J. M. Marroquin has acted as President. Congress meets biennially. The Cabinet in the beginning of 1902 was composed as follows: Minister of State and Minister of the Interior, Gen. S. Quintero Calderon; Minister of Foreign Affairs, Dr. A. J. Uribe; Minister of Commerce and Communications, Dr. Abadia Mendez; Minister of War, Gen. J. V. Concha.

Area and Population.-The estimated area of Colombia is 513,938 square miles, and the population is estimated at 4,000,000. Bogotá, the capital, has about 120,000 inhabitants; Medellin, 40,000; Barranquilla, 40,000; Panama, 30,000; Cartagena, 20,000; Bucaramanga, 20,000.

Finances. For the two years 1897 and 1898 the revenue was 37,461,000 pesos, and the expenditure 41,429,180 pesos. The preliminary estimate of revenue was 34,361,000 pesos, and of expenditure 35,771,013 pesos. The official estimate of revenue for 1899 and 1900 was 29,918,640 pesos, and expenditure was estimated at the same

figure. For 1901 and 1902 a revenue of 28,983,640 pesos was expected, while the estimate of expenditure was 40,427,575 pesos. Of the revenue 21,453,640 pesos are from customs. Heavy duties are imposed on exports of coffee, hides, rubber, gold, silver, and cattle as well as on imports. The expenditure for war in 1901-'02 was estimated at 13,317,088 pesos; for justice, 4,571,892 pesos; for finance, 4,336,238 pesos; for debt, 3,773,500 pesos. The departments obtain reyenues mainly from monopolies of tobacco, salt, opium, and ice, and the privilege of keeping gambling-houses, which are farmed out to the highest bidders. The net revenues of the departments for 1899 and 1900 were estimated at 16,986,756 pesos and the expenditures at 17,346,. 040 pesos. The external debt, mostly held in England, amounted, with arrears of interest, to £3,514,442, when an arrangement was made with the bondholders, in the beginning of 1897, for its reduction and exchange for £2,700,000 of new bonds on which the interest should be 1 per cent. for three years, 2 per cent. for the next three years, 24 per cent. for a third period of three years, and after that 3 per cent. The insurrection interrupted the payments in 1899, and in July, 1901, the arrears of interest amounted to £101,250. The currency consists of depreciated paper, of which there were 350,000,000 pesos in circulation in 1901, worth only 4 per cent. of its face value. At Panama the paper does not circulate and the Peruvian sol is legal tender.

The Army.-Congress, at each session, fixes the strength of the standing army, which was 1,000 men for the biennial period 1898-'99. In the event of war the President has authority to raise the strength as he deems necessary and can impress every able-bodied citizen into the service.

Commerce and Production. The average production of gold and silver is $4,000,000 a year. Gold is washed in every department, and quartzmines are worked in Antioquia, Cauca, Bolivar, Panama, and other departments. Copper, platinum, mercury, cinnabar, manganese, and lead are also mined. The Government emerald-mines at Muzo and Coscuez were leased in 1901 to a French corporation. The total number of mines of all kinds on which license fees were paid in 1891 was 4,961, mostly gold-mines. İron is smelted near Bogotá. The Government derives a considerable revenue from its salt-mines at Zipaquira, and has reopened the coal-mines at San Jorge. The pearl fisheries have been worked with success by natives, but the Government proposes to lease them out. Coffee of fine quality is produced, and the cultivation is extending. The country is generally very fertile, but with primitive means of transportation agriculture can only be carried on for local wants. Cacao and tobacco are grown for export and rubber is gathered in the forests, as also is copaiba. Tolu balsam is a cultivated product. The number of cattle is estimated at 3.465,000, and many are exported. Vegetable ivory and dyewoods are minor exports. The chief imports are cotton goods, woolens, flour, rice, petroleum, wine, brandy, and salt. The value of the coffee exported in 1900 was £270,876; of gold in bars and dust, £99,266; of silver ore and bars, £49,149; of hides, £59.451; of cattle, £84,092; of tobacco, £58.204; of rubber, £14,063; of precious stones, £7,835; of tolu, £4,030; of divi-divi, £2,271. The share of the Unites States in the export trade is about 27 per cent., while Great Britain takes 25 per cent., France 17 per cent.,

and Germany 16 per cent., leaving 15 per cent. for other countries. The Panama Railroad in 1900 carried westward across the isthmus 153,758 tons of goods, of which 60,518 tons were from New York and 54,905 tons from European ports, and eastward 203,619 tons, of which 118,670 tons were for New York and 77,219 tons for Europe. Navigation. The number of vessels entered at Barranquilla and Sabanilla in 1898 was 266, of 441.673 tons; cleared, 263, of 442,777 tons. The number entered in 1897 at Panama, Colon, Santa Maria, and Cartagena was 923, of 1,213,110 tons; cleared, 919, of 1,210,629 tons. The merchant navy in 1898 consisted of 7 sailing vessels, of 1,770 tons, and 1 steamer, of 457 tons.

Railroads, Posts, and Telegraphs. The length of railroads in operation in 1901 was 400 miles, while 76 miles were unfinished and 330 miles were projected.

The post-office during the two years ending in 1898 carried 2,794,069 letters and postal cards, 1233,313 newspapers and circulars, and 161,217 packets.

The telegraph-lines had a length of 8,600 miles in 1898. The number of messages in two years was 1,388,388, besides 9,887 cablegrams.

The Panama Canal.-The company formed by Ferdinand de Lesseps in 1881 to construct a tide-level ship-canal across the Isthmus of Panama from Panama to Colon, 46 miles, raised 772,545,412 francs before the middle of 1886, but was forced to go into liquidation and suspend the work on March 15, 1889. An extension was obtained in March, 1893, to enable a new company to be formed, and in 1894 the company was organized and agreed to complete the canal in ten years. The term was, in 1900, extended for six years longer, till March 31, 1910. It was estimated that the canal might be completed with locks, the tide-water level having been abandoned, at a further cost of 512,000,000 francs. The directors, who at first demanded $109,000,000, when the Isthmian Canal Commission recommended the Nicaraguan route to Congress, estimating that the work done on the Panama excavation was not worth over $43,000,000 and that it could not be worked with profit if a higher price were paid, made an offer on Jan. 4, 1902, to sell the unfinished canal and all its franchises and rights for $40,000,000. The matter was referred to the Isthmian Canal Commission, which now recommended the purchase and the completion of the Panama Canal in preference to one through Nicaragua, estimating that the canal could be completed in ten years and that it would cost $45,630,700 less to complete it than to construct the projected Nicaragua Canal. The French company excavated for 10 miles on the Atlantic side and 15 miles on the Pacific side, the sections at tide-level. Considerable work was done also in the Culebra cut, the highest point above tide-water, which will be cut down to something over 100 feet above the a. There were 2,500 men at work there in 1902. The advantages of the Panama over the Nicaragua route are, that although the latter is shorter to ports on the Atlantic and Gulf easts and those of the Pacific coasts of the United States, the Panama route is the shorter one to South American ports and more direct between Europe and all Pacific ports; that the more tortuous Nicaragua route would probably not be navigable at night and vessels would take thirty-three hours to pass through, whereas they could go through the Panama Canal in twelve hours; that the cost of maintenance of the Panama Canal would be only $2,500,000, a saving of

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$1,000,000 a year over the Nicaragua route, with a saving too of interest on $5,630,700, the difference in the cost of construction. The damming of the San Juan river is a difficult engineering problem on the Panama route, and on the other silt offers difficulties and there is some question of possible volcanic disturbances. Both routes are unhealthful and demand much attention to sanitation. Besides the property and franchise of the Panama Canal Company, the title of which is clear, having been transferred to the new company by the receiver of the original company, it was considered necessary to acquire a strip of land 6 miles wide, in order that the canal may be policed and protected from unsanitary conditions. To obtain this it was necessary to have a new concession from the Colombian Government. After having concluded a contract with the existing Panama Canal Company to pay $40,000,000 in cash for the surrender of its perpetual lease and all right and title to the canal, all contracts and machinery, and the railroad running from ocean to ocean, subject to the title being valid and to ratification by the United States Congress, Secretary Hay entered into negotiations with Señor Concha, the Colombian minister. He agreed in behalf of the United States Government to pay $7,000,000 in cash and an annuity of $600,000 to the Government of Colombia for the absolute surrender to the United States of 3 miles of land on either side of the canal for its entire length and authority over 5 leagues of the sea at either entrance. The United States Government undertook to expend immediately at least $15,000,000 to install proper machinery and appliances to complete the canal and to employ an increased force of American laborers to do the work. great part of the work already done will have to be reconstructed. The plans of the French engineers have been much enlarged to provide for a canal accommodating three times as great a tonnage as the Suez Canal carries now. The waterway is to be 47 miles long and to have a depth of 35 feet and a width at bottom of 150 feet, instead of 30 feet of depth and 70 feet of width as originally designed. It will be possible for 4 steamships of 30 feet beam to pass one another at any spot without danger. A traffic of 7,000 vessels a year is expected: 12,000 vessels can be taken care of. Between European ports and those of the Orient the saving of distance by the Panama route is 4,000 miles. Between American ports on the Atlantic and the Pacific the voyage can be made, in most cases, in onefifth of the time now consumed. Experts calculate that the canal will return a net profit on the capital expended of 6 per cent. The Panama Railroad, acquired with the canal, is valued at $7,000,000. During the work of construction it will be useful in carrying men and materials, and when the canal is completed in transporting passengers from one port to the other. The total cost of the canal, including the purchase money, is estimated at $130,000,000. The Panama Canal Company could not transfer its rights to the United States Government without first obtaining the consent of the Colombian Government. In the negotiations with Nicaragua and Costa Rica respecting the Nicaragua Canal, Nicaragua stipulated for a payment of $6,000,000 and Costa Rica for $1,000,000, with a nominal rent of $25,000 a year to Nicaragua and $5,000 to Costa Rica, serving as evidence of their sovereignty over the land traversed by the canal transferred by a perpetual lease to the United States. Colombia, for $7,000,000 and an annual rental of $600,000,

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offered the same thing as a perpetual lease of the 6-mile strip and the interests in the canal reserved in the contract with the company. lease in perpetuity was illegal under the Colombian Constitution, but a lease for the term of one hundred years, renewable after each term at the option of the United States, answers the same purpose. Attorney-General Knox examined the title of the Panama Canal Company and its power under the French law to transfer its property and rights to the United States Government. The new company when constituted assumed an obligation to pay 60 per cent. of the profits of the canal to the stockholders of the old company. Since the entire assets of the old company were turned over to the new company the latter can dispose of this claim of 60 per cent. of the profits. The new company was found to be solvent, with full power to sell with the consent of the French court, which was given. United States Government can take title to the shares of the canal company in the Panama Railroad. It can take and hold any kind of property it may have need of in the same manner that an individual can. The Colombian Government raised difficulties regarding the policing of the canal strip and the terminal ports. A joint jurisdiction was proposed, the administration of justice to be by mixed tribunals, with American and Colombian police both employed, having the right to pursue persons charged with crimes committed within the limits of the belt into any part of Colombia. A treaty was concluded between Secretary Hay and Señor Concha on May 18, but further arrangements were necessary to provide for these questions of sovereignty and jurisdiction. When the United States naval authorities stopped the transport of Colombian troops by the Panama Railroad the Colombian minister delayed negotiations. The canal is to be completed in six years.

The Civil War. The armed conflict, begun on Oct. 17, 1899, between the Liberals and the Conservatives, who have been entrenched in power for seventeen years, was mostly confined, in the early part of 1902, to the Department of Panama. The people of the isthmus, who originally joined the Republic of New Granada of their own free will, have always felt more or less detached in political sentiment, as they are geographically and racially, and in an increasing degree economically detached from the natives of the interior parts of the republic, who provide their administrators and subject them to taxes and monopolies that they consider unequal. They sympathized generally with the Liberal cause, and in other parts of the republic the common people, on whom the stress of the war taxation and the conscription mainly fell, sympathized more and more with the Liberals, who began the war, and blamed the Government for not making peace. Duties on all imported merchandise were raised, in some cases doubled. The effect in Panama was more marked than elsewhere. The once lively commerce was paralyzed: prosperous industries went out of existence. The necessaries of life were hard to get. Hundreds of suspected Liberals filled the prisons. At the opening of the year an insurgent force of 2.000 men camped within 6 miles of the city of Panama. Risings occurred from time to time in various parts of the republic. The struggle grew fiercer and subsided intermittently, but was the most exhausting and disastrous in the history of the country. Sometimes the revolutionists had 35,000 men under arms. The Government raised now and then a total force of 75,000 men, im

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pressing boys of ten and twelve years, who served as foragers for the soldiers. The peso, which was worth 25 cents in gold at the beginning of the war, fell with every new emission of inconvertible paper, until, when 250,000,000 pesos were in circulation, it was worth only 2 cents, and subsequently it sank below 13 cent. Liberals charged the Conservatives with having established a despotic government in which the President can legislate by executive decrees and enforce these by administrative process. Cabinet officers, the governors of states, the whole administrative personnel, being his nominees, are his political creatures and agents. The favors shown to the clergy in exempting them from trial in the ordinary courts and from the payment of taxes and import duties, and the political influence that they wield, are specially repugnant to the Liberals, and the secularist principle that they seek to establish offends the religious sentiment of the Conservatives, who accuse them of wishing to destroy the Church and sweep away the moral foundations of the social fabric.

A new Cabinet was constituted at Bogotá on Jan. 19, as follows: Minister of State and Minister of the Interior, Señor Veles, afterward replaced by Señor Laforest; Minister of War, Gen. Fernandez; Minister of Finance, Señor Cordoba; Minister of Foreign Affairs, Dr. Mendez. On the following day a naval battle took place in the Bay of Panama, where the Liberals tried to force a landing near Sabina from their vessels, the Padilla, Darien, and Gaitan. The Government forces entrenched themselves to oppose them, while the guns from the fortifications of Las Bovedas fired at the ships. The Government vessels Lautaro and Chicuito were brought into the action. The Padilla went after the Lautaro, and a battle ensued at close quarters while the Lautaro was sinking. Dr. Alban, Governor of Panama, was killed and 9 others were hit on the Government side, while the revolutionists had 17 casualties. Gen. Garcia was made military commander in succession to Dr. Alban, and Señor Amaya Civil Governor. The attempt to capture Panama failed. A sharp battle occurred within 20 miles of Bogotá, at Facacativa, where the insurgents were driven back, leaving 360 dead, while 90 were killed on the Government side. The capital city was disturbed and business suspended. The new Minister of War sent to Antioquia and other provinces for troops. At La Cruz the Liberals, under Gen. Soto, captured cannon, rifles, and ammunition from a Government detachment after a spirited engagement. Gen. Benjamin Herrera, the revolutionary commander in Panama, proposed to the foreign consuls that the railroad line, though not the ports of Panama and Colon, should be declared neutral. The consuls approved the suggestion, but the Government would not agree.

On Feb. 20 Gen. Herrera attacked Aguadulce. After repeated assaults, in which his force was said to have lost 550 men, he forced the town, and Gen. Castro retreated with the Government troops, breaking through the line of besiegers and reaching Bocas del Toro with 400 men left out of 1,000. This place was taken some weeks afterward by insurgents brought by steamers, and later was recaptured by the Government. Gen. Uribe Uribe made a fresh advance on Bogotá, and was met and thoroughly defeated at Medina, and forced to retire over the Venezuelan border. Gen. Salazar was appointed Governor of Panama, and the forces on the isthmus were largely reenforced with the object of

attacking the insurgents by land and sea, their forces in other parts of the republic having been reduced to guerrilla bands. At David and Aguadulce the Liberals suffered much from disease. The town of Aguadulce, which had been reoccupied by the Conservatives, was invested by the rebels, and Government troops were sent to the relief of the garrison. The Government troops landed there were soon in worse case than the rebels, without shelter and short of provisions and unused to the climate. Severe fighting began on July 29, continuing two days, and beginning again after a short armistice to allow both sides to care for the wounded and bury the dead. The insurgent gunboat Padilla cut off the communications of the Government troops, which had to depend on a sea base, and were therefore practically surrounded. The Government steamers Boyaca and Chicuito on July 30 attempted to enter the river with supplies and reenforcements, but retired after some firing, the Chicuito returning to Panama, while the Boyaca was chased and captured with 300 soldiers, besides the crew, stores of provisions and ammunition, and two fine new guns. Gen. Salazar made ready to seize a British merchant steamer, there being no British war-vessel at Panama, but, under instructions from Washington, Capt. Potter of the Ranger interfered by the courtesy of nations when requested by the British consul. Most of the Liberal troops on the isthmus were sent to the siege of Aguadulce, where Gen. Morales Berti with 2,200 men was held by 2,500. Gen. Her rera at the same time made a demonstration against Colon, where the Government troops improved their entrenchments. They held both terminal ports in strength, while the rebels occupied the line. The mortality among the Government troops from bad food, exposure, and lack of sanitary regulations was excessive, not less than 25 per cent. of the reenforcements. American marines were landed to guard the railroad and the stations at Panama and Colon. While the siege of Aguadulce was going on peace negotiations were begun in Washington between the Colombian minister and Gen. Soto y VargasSantos, the supreme chief of the revolutionists. Peace commissioners went to Aguadulce to arrange a truce, but were unable to communicate with Gen. Herrera. Dr. Concha was sent from Washington with more definite instructions. After a siege lasting over a month Gen. Berti surrendered with honor. This victory not only released the besiegers for operations against Colon, held by 1,000 Government troops, and Panama, held by 2,500, but it stimulated the rebels to fresh exertions in other parts of the republic. At Santa Marta the Government troops were suddenly attacked and routed with a loss of 100 by revolutionists who committed barbarities in revenge for the execution of rebel officers at Panama. Gen. Uribe Uribe and Gen. Castillo appeared on the Magdalena river with fresh forces. Gen. Herrera sent arms and ammunition to the rebels in Cauca. Gen. Perdomo was sent with 4,000 men to reenforce the Government troops on the isthmus, but he waited at Barranquilla until he could complete arrangements for commissariat and sanitation. At the pros pect of active operations at the isthmian ports United States war-ships were ordered to the isthmus, the Wisconsin to Panama and the Cincinnati to Colon, to enforce the treaty stipulations by preventing any interference of traffic, even by the bombardment of Panama. The steamer Panther carried a battalion of marines to Colon. Capt. McLean of the Cincinnati on arrival noti

fied both parties that neither army would be allowed to obstruct traffic, and landed a force of bluejackets. He allowed an exchange of Government troops between Colon and Panama, their arms being taken in a separate train and guarded by a naval force. Before the end of September 2,000 United States marines and sailors were landed in spite of the protest of Gen. Salazar, who had forbidden the continued employment of Liberals on the railroad, but was overruled by his Government. When the Pacific Steam Navigation Company declined to transport troops to the isthmus an order exempting foreign vessels from tonnage dues was revoked. The main revolutionary force operating on the great plains east of Bogotá, under Gen. Carreazo, surrendered in the middle of September. An attempt of rebels to take a Government gunboat on the Magdalena river failed. After the arrival of Gen. Perdomo's reenforcements the military situation became more critical. Capt. McLean had notified the opposing commanders that the United States navy had taken the direction of the railroad from sea to sea and would not permit any fighting along the line. By the treaty of 1846 between the United States and New Granada Colombia guarantees the right of way for transit across the isthmus to the Government and citizens of the United States and their property, and the United States guarantees the neutrality of the isthmus and undertakes to protect free transit from sea to sea so that it shall not be interrupted or embarrassed. The instructions of the United States Navy Department were not to allow any transportation of troops which might contravene these provisions of the treaty, nor to sanction any use of the road which might convert the line of transit into a theater of hostility. Capt. McLean had permitted Government troops to go by special train. When Rear-Admiral Casey arrived on the Wisconsin he ordered that no more Colombian officers, troops, arms, or ammunition be permitted unless by special permission. The Colombian Government, through its minister at Washington, protested against being prevented from transporting troops at will by any route or means of transit within its territory. The withdrawal of Government troops from the Magdalena river was followed by such renewed activity of the insurgents that some of them were sent back from Panama. Gen. Uribe held Tenerife, near Santa Marta, and with quick-firing guns cut communications on the river. The Government was reduced to such financial straits that its ability to continue the war was in question. All classes endured severe hardship and the poor were reduced to pitable destitution. The troops sent out from the interior, now including boys eight years of age, were half starved. Already over 50,000 men had fallen in the 400 engagements that had been fought, or died in the camps. The misery and privation attending the war had decimated the population. Much valuable property belonging to foreign nations had been destroyed, and several times the United States had interfered to protect the property of its own citizens and those of European countries, although, as a rule, both sides spared and protected foreigners. The blockade of the Magdalena river ceased when the Government sent a sufficient force to cause Gen. Uribe to retire. Later Gen. Uribe surrendered at Rio Frio. Gen. Castillo's force was beaten at La Cienaga by troops under Gen. Marjarres. In accordance with the proposal of the Government, at a peace parley a general amnesty was proclaimed, and this helped

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