lombian representative to the Pan-American Congress. At the banquet which was tendered to the delegates by the City Council of Mexico he created something of a sensation by paying a warm tribute to old Spain, the mother country of all Spanish-Americans. However, no offence was intended to the delegates of the United States and none was taken.

Like the few Colombians who are of pure Spanish descent, Reyes is very proud of his ancestry. After the Congress closed he said, with reference to Panama: "I firmly believe the United States will finish the canal within five years. I certainly trust she will. A river of gold will flow to the Isthmus from the day the first ship floats through. The United States will benefit. Colombia will benefit; the opening of the canal, too long delayed, will benefit the whole world."

What Mr. C. E. Akers, in his recent history of South America, 1854-1904, says of the inveterate insurgents of Colombia is so true and to the point that I cannot do better than quote the man who was the London Times correspondent in Latin-America for many years. Of course what Mr. Akers says of the disorderly political classes in Colombia is equally true of large fractions of the population in several South American States-notably in Venezuela.

"The present-day insurgents of Colombia are not far removed from brigands, and the political character given to revolutions is generally a cloak to cover illegal forms of pillage and rapine. It is from such elements. that political adventurers of one or other party factions, striving to control the administration, draw elements for armed revolt against the authorities; and the rank and file of the men who enter the contest know little

and care less about the merits of the cause. It is convenient for them to maintain the fiction that they are engaged in this or that struggle from patriotic motives rather than be classified as robbers and outlaws, and this spirit makes armed insurrection easy in Colombia. Nor does any punishment follow an unsuccessful rebellion. Property is seldom confiscated, treason is rarely made an offence demanding severe castigation, participation in seditious conspiracies entails no loss of civic rights; this immunity being probably due to the fact that the individual privileges of citizens are so mythical as to be thought little of where respect for law and order is practically unknown. In this part of South America the general conditions more closely resemble the early Middle Ages in Europe than anything in modern civilisation; the injured must seek redress by the sword, or bear without remonstrance all indignities heaped upon them " (p. 602).

In one State at least it is expressly provided that people are not to be punished for taking part in insurrections, the notion in fact being that insurrection is a regular part of the machinery of public life, which may as well be recognised. It is needless to say that the government actually in power at any given moment has no moral presumption in its favour. It is the child of revolution, and a revolution to overthrow it is therefore just as likely to have good grounds as had the revolution which installed it. Similarly, the constitutions of some Central American States provide that the force and validity of a constitution shall not be affected by the fact that a revolution has occurred. It is to go on without needing to be reënacted. Revolution is part of the normal machinery of politics. *

* For trade and fiscal conditions, together with record of "civic commotions," see Appendix E, page 436.

CHAPTER XI

CARTAGENA AND THE LOYAL NORTH AMERICANS

WHILE the course of Isthmian events may yet drift us into more or less of desultory and sickly war with Colombia, and as apparently only old Mr. Methusaleh and myself remember the details of our first invasion of the Isthmian country, it behooves me to tell some of the things that might with profit be borne in mind, though General Corbin did say and he, more than any other man, was in a position to know-that none of our little wars has ever taught us anything.

It was in 1740, a long time before Uncle Sam was born, when we were loyal North Americans, that His British Majesty declared war against Spain, and in particular that tenderloin district of Don Whiskerando's possessions which is known to-day as Colombia. It was a "holy war," our purpose being, in the words of the King's proclamation, which was read aloud by every magistrate and squire throughout the colonies and plantations," to open the ports of Spanish-America to mer

cantile enterprise."

Times were hard, the hardest we have ever had. According to William Cooper's election sermon there was "an empty treasury, a defenceless country, an embarrassed trade." It was just the time when a holy war appealed to most folks, and when a profitable one could only be hailed as a godsend. The recruiting sergeant with his pipes was heard through the land, and four

1

thousand five hundred loyal North Americans toed the line.

And soon they sailed away to singe the King of Spain's beard and relieve him of his ducats. The objective point of the expedition was Cartagena, the great city of the Spanish Main, where the plate ships rendezvoused and the golden argosies came together for their voyage across the sea.

It should be borne in mind that in the days of which I speak we were merely poor colonials and not the prosperous cousins to be cajoled and flattered that we are to-day. So somewhat sternly we were ordered to furnish four thousand foot soldiers, and as many able seamen as His Majesty's fleet might be needing when it came into American waters.

Massachusetts sent five hundred men and Virginia, the Old Dominion, the same. The Virginians were headed by a mere boy, one Lawrence Washington, Esq., of Hunting Creek, the elder half-brother of the immortal George. He brought back from the Colombian war a constitution undermined by disease and an undying admiration for his commander-in-chief, Admiral Vernon, which was not shared by many North Americans, loyal or otherwise. This he signalised by changing the name of his plantation into Mount Vernon, which in due course of time received the remains of the Father of Our Country, and became the Mecca of all patriots.

Perhaps it may be said that only this name survives to remind us of a long forgotten Colonial War, in which many hundred of our best and bravest lost their lives. We who are accustomed to-I had almost said surfeited by-typewritten campaigns and wars personally conducted by press agents can hardly account for the

meagre records that have come down to us of this expedition to the Spanish Main, that ended so lamentably before Cartagena.

Only a few of our men came back, 'tis true, but they might have done something if they had only hung together, as nothing tends to keep green the memory of a campaign so much as a talkative contingent of survivors. However, be this as it may, our loyal North Americans neither wrote nor talked. They simply died and certainly deserved the sobriquet which the colonial historians gave them of the "lost brigade."

But, though the colonial archives throw the smallest possible light upon the disastrous expedition, the story still survives in English literature. When you have read what Thomson, the laurel-crowned poet of the day, had to say about it you feel that you have not been spared a funeral note, and that no army ought to invade Colombia without a doctor in command.

"You, gallant Vernon, saw

The miserable scene. You, pitying, saw
To infant weakness sunk the warrior arm.
Saw the deep, racking pang, the ghastly form,
The lip pale, quivering, and the beamless eye,
No more with ardour bright;

Heard nightly plunged amid the sullen waves
The frequent corse."

But it is hard to get twenty-five thousand men together without letting at least one slip in who can tell a story, and there was a certain Tobias Smollett serving. on board the Admiral's ship in the humble capacity of apothecary's clerk, or surgeon's mate, who lived to become one of the greatest realistic writers of his age. Tobias was perhaps the first Spanish war "roaster" of