APPENDIX A. Statement showing the means of communication between the ports of the United States and those of the east coast of Mexico, Central America, Colombia, Venezuela, Hayti, and Brazil, the time required by each line of steamers, the frequency of sailings, the sums of money paid annually to each line for transportation, and the amount of mail transported during the fiscal years ended June 30, 1888, and June 30, 1889. [Foreign lines are marked with an asterisk (*).] 1. TO MEXICO. (a) New York and Cuba Mail. New York to Vera Cruz (via Havana, Progreso, and sometimes Frontera and Campeche).-Average time, ten days; four times a month. Amount paid during fiscal year ending June 30, 1889, $1,138.97. Amount of mail transported, 1889, 4,652 pounds; 1888, 2,938 pounds; increase, 1,714 pounds. (b) Morgan Line, New Orleans to Vera Cruz.-Average time, three and one-half days; twice a month. Amount paid during fiscal year ended June 30, 1889, $77.05. Amount of mail transported 1889, 94 pounds; 1888, 58 pounds; increase, 36 pounds. (c) Thebaud Line,* New York to Progreso.-Average time not known; sailings irregular; about once a month. Amount paid during fiscal year ended June 30, 1889, $15.35. (d) New York and Yucatan Line,* New York to Progreso.-Average (e) Spanish Transatlantic,* New York to Vera Cruz (via Progreso).— Amount paid during fiscal year ended June 30, 1889, $28.96. This line was not used in 1888; amount of mail conveyed in 1889, 466 pounds. RECAPITULATION. To Mexico, five lines; about ten sailings a month. Total amount paid during fiscal year ended June 30, 1889, $1,263.06. Total amount of mail carried in 1889, 5,416 pounds; increase over 1888, 2,149 pounds. H 1. TO CENTRAL AMERICA. (a) Royal Mail, New Orleans to Puerto Cortez (via Balize and Livingstone).-Average time, six days; five times a month. Amount paid during fiscal year ended June 30, 1889, $3,926.91. Amount of mail transported in 1889, 19,030 pounds; 1888, 18,596 pounds; increase, 434 pounds. (b) Morgan Line, New Orleans to Bocas del Toro.-Average time not known; twice a month. New Orleans to Bluefields.—Average time, six days; twice a month. Amount paid during fiscal year ended June 30, 1889, $725.16. Amount of mail transported, 1889, 2,925 pounds; 1888, 1,891 pounds; increase, 1,061 pounds. (c) Oteri's Pioneer Line, New Orleans to Truxillo (also to Ceiba, Ruatan, and Utilla).-Average time, four days; four times a month. Amount paid during fiscal year ended June 30, 1889, $628.71. Amount of mail transported, 1889, 3,544 pounds; 1888, 2,078 pounds; increase, 1,465 pounds. (d) Honduras and Central American Line,* New York to Greytown (via Kingston, Jamaica).-Average time, seven days; twice a month. Amount paid during fiscal year ended June 30. 1889, $390.12. This line was not used in 1888. Amount of mail conveyed in 1889, 5,713 pounds. (e) Atlas Line,* New York to Port Limon (via Kingston and Colon).— Average time not known; three times a month (see also under 3, Colombia). (f) Costa Rica and Honduras Line,* New Orleans to Port Limon.Average time, seven days; three times a month. Amount paid during fiscal year ended June 30, 1889, $602.62. Amount of mail transported, 1889, 8,160 pounds; 1888, 4,790 pounds; increase, 3,370 pounds. (g) New Orleans and Central American Line,* New Orleans to Truxillo.-Average time, four days; twice a month. Amount paid during fiscal year ended June 30, 1889, $50.15. Amount of mail transported, 1889, 637 pounds; 1888, 221 pounds; increase, 416 pounds. RECAPITULATION. To Central America, seven lines; about twenty-three sailings a month. Total amount paid during fiscal year ended June 30, 1889, $6,322.67. Total amount of mail carried in 1889, 40,009 pounds; increase over 1888, 12,460 pounds. 3. TO COLOMBIA. (a) Pacific Mail Steam-ship Company, New York to Colon.—Average time, eight days; three times a month. Amount paid during fiscal year ended June 30, 1889, $24,160.84. Amount of mail transported, 1889, 148,630 pounds; 1888, 116,408 pounds; increase, 32,222 pounds. (b) Atlas Line, New York to Savanilla (via Colon and Cartagena).— Average time, thirteen days; three times a month. Amount paid during fiscal year ended June 30, 1889, $2,140.79. Amount of mail transported in 1888, 27,336 pounds; in 1889, 26,932; decrease, 404 pounds. (c) Spanish Transatlantic, New York to Savanilla (via Santiaga, Cuba).-Average time, thirteen days; once a month. Not used during fiscal year ended June 30, 1889. (c) Booth Line, New York to Para, Maranham, Ceara, Manaos.Average time not known; about once a month. Amount paid during fiscal year ended June 30, 1889, $165.70. Amount of mail transported in 1889, 1,511 pounds; 1888, 1,004 pounds; increase, 507 pounds. (d) Sloman's Line, Baltimore to Rio de Janeiro. -Average time not Amount paid during fiscal year ended June 30, 1889, $643.45. RECAPITULATION. To Brazil, four lines; about four sailings a month. Total amount paid during fiscal year ended June 30, 1889, $14,642.52. N. B.-Mails for Uruguay, the Argentine Republic, and Paraguay are conveyed by the above lines to Rio de Janeiro and thence to Montevideo and Buenos Ayres by steamers of foreign lines. There are occasional sailings from New York for Montevideo and Buenos Ayres direct, but they are so rare and occur at such irregular intervals as to be practically of no value to the mail service. Nothing is known at this office regarding the number and character of the steamers employed on any of the above lines, nor as to their accommodations for passengers. APPENDIX B. SPECIAL REPORT ON COLOMBIA SUBMITTED TO THE COMMITTEE BY THE DELEGATE, MR. CLIMACO CALDERÓN. Hon. MANUEL ARAGÓN, Chairman of the Committee on Communication on the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea : SIR: I have the honor to present to the committee of the International American Conference, of which you are chairman, the following information relative to Colombia, requested by you in your note dated the 23d of last December. At the same time I beg to submit to the consideration of the committee some observations which I deem necessary for the proper understanding and appreciation of said information. The maritime communication between Colombia and the United States is at present carried on by the following steam-ship lines: Atlas, Pacific Mail, Spanish Transatlantic, and Red D line. The first is an English line, established some time ago, whose steamers call regularly at the ports of Cartagena and Savanilla, which are the principal ports of Colombia on the Atlantic. This line dispatches two vessels regularly every month from New York, and in them is carried the greater part of the goods exported from this country to Colombia destined for the Atlantic coast and the markets of the departments of Antioquia, Tolima, Cundinamarca, Boyacá, and part of Santander, in the interior. On the return voyage they bring the greater part of the articles imported from Colombia into the United States, which they take on board at the ports of Savanilla and Cartagena. The American line, called Pacific Mail, dispatches a steamer regularly on the 1st, 10th, and 20th of each month to the port of Colon. The only articles of American production carried by this line to Colombia are those consumed in the department of Panama, which includes the entire Isthmus, and the department of the Cauca on the Pacific. The importations of this latter department are entered at the ports of Buenaventura and Tumaco, to which all the merchandise transshipped at Panama is carried by the vessels of the Pacific Steam Navigation Company and of the recently established South American Steam-ship Company. The Spanish Transatlantic Company only sends one vessel a month to Colombia. The steamers of this line touch at Havana and other ports of the island of Cuba, and carry merchandise to the Colombian ports of Cartagena, Savanilla, and Santa Marta. The steamers of the American line, known by the name of Red D line, sailing regularly between New York and the Venezuelan ports of La Guayra and Puerto Cabello, do not put in at any Colombian port, but they carry the American products which are imported into the northern part of the department of Santander in Colombia, and carry to New York the articles which that region exports to the United States. These steamers touch at Curaçoa, and from thence the merchandise destined to a considerable part of Venezuela and the department of Santander are transported to the port of Maracaibo in steamers of the same line. At Maracaibo the same vessels take on board the products exported from this part of Colombia to the United States, and those sailing between New York and La Guayra and Puerto Cabello take them on board at Curaçoa, together with those which, in a more limited quantity, are sent to the same market from the province of Padilla in the Colombian department of the Magdalena, The postal service between Colombia and the United States is carried on by these same lines of steamers, although the Spanish Transatlantic line does but little of it on account of the length of its route and the slowness with which they necessarily carry the mail. Colombia also has a postal system well established and organized, but subject to the obstacles naturally offered by the undeveloped condition of its interior means of communication. With regard to telegraphic communication, Colombia has all that is at present needed, considering its present commercial and industrial condition. The length of the telegraphic lines now in operation measures more than 4,600 kilometers, and it may be said that all the towns of any importance, no matter how small they are, can communicate with each other and with all the countries of Europe and America by means of the cable which touches at the ports of Colon, Panama, and Buenaventura. The telegraphic system of Colombia connects at the north with that of Venezuela, and at the south with that of Ecuador; so that Colombia is at present in possession of easy, frequent, and rapid communication with those two Republics. The latest statistics published by the Government of Colombia on the exterior import and export trade of the country refer to the year 1887. We find therein that the exports, not including those of the department of Panama, which enjoys freedom from import duty, reached in that year the sum of $14,000,000. The export of natural products from the Isthmus may be estimated at $1,200,000; and it may therefore be said that the exports of Colombia reached in the year 1887 the sum of $15,200,000. According to official documents published by the United States Government,* the exports of Colombia to that country in the fiscal year ending June 30, 1889, amounted to $4,263,519, without including in this sum the gold and silver, coined or in bullion, imported from Colombia in the same year, which appear in the said documents and amount to $1,642,795. It also appears therein that the exports of the United States to Colombia in that fiscal year amounted only to $3,703,705, or $1,194,298 less than those of the year ending June 30, 1888, in which they amounted to $4,923,259. With respect to the imports brought from Colombia, precious metals not included, it may be * Annual report of the Chief of the Bureau of Statistics on the foreign commerce of the United States for the year ending June 30, 1889. |