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some day a man whose wife or sister or daughter has suffered the last indignity at their hands, as have so many of the daughters of Caracas, may take summary vengeance, and then things would have to be better because-well, because they could not possibly be worse."

I give this picture of affairs in Venezuela as viewed from the inside, because it has seemed to me the truest that was ever painted, and I give it the more readily because the thought of what might happen to my informant, whose identity could be easily recognised, does not deter me. The last mails from Venezuela brought the news of his escape by a natural death from a position which, in view of all the conditions, I will not qualify.

In December, 1908, when the storm broke and the foreign warships were drawing near to the coast, this time with no uncertain purpose, Gomez seized the presidency and as gracefully as he could climbed down from the untenable position in which Castro, in his crass ignorance, had placed his country. When Gomez assumed the reins of authority in his own name the commerce of Venezuela had dwindled to nothing and the country itself was practically outlawed by all civilised. powers. The bountiful crops were not harvested because all markets were closed and there was no money in the land. The pestilence of black death and the ravages of famine travelled from one deserted port to another, and pampas grass grew high in the streets of Caracas. It was indeed a gloomy picture the like of which has not perhaps been seen since the dictator Lopez converted smiling Paraguay into a wilderness of graves, where men and cities lay in ashen shrouds. Gomez has shown himself amenable at least to the logic of warships with shotted guns. Some of the claims

of Holland and of the United States were paid immediately and others by mutual consent were referred to the Hague Tribunal. The international relations of the luckless republic have improved, but the interior situation is, if possible, worse. To replace the money squandered by Castro and to meet the foreign claims new taxes were imposed and further government monopolies inaugurated. A rash prophet indeed would he be who dared to predict the outcome.

The uncouth Andinos, apparently convinced that Castro's career is ended, have with but few and unimportant exceptions transferred their allegiance to the new chief, who is also a highlander. Gomez maintains the military establishment on the same lavish scale as did his predecessor, and the lawless privileges and perquisites of the soldiers are but slightly if at all curtailed: a more radical course would, of course, lead to a military revolt and his deposition.

Gomez, on the other hand, it should be said, has called to the government service a number of the best citizens and he has emptied the prisons, which were filled with political prisoners from the Castro régime. Of his own enemies he has placed very few behind bars, and always after a semblance of a trial. The country is in every sense of the word exhausted, and the prevalent opinion among the people would seem to be that, since the country has to be ruled by an ignorant mountaineer, Gomez is as good a man as any other and rather better than most.

The extremely difficult question which confronts Don Vicente Gomez, and which has to be solved if he would remain in power, is one of ways and means. How and where, with commerce dead and credit at

the vanishing point, is the new President to find the money required to satisfy the exorbitant demands of the soldiers, and at the same time meet engagements recently entered into with the foreign creditors? If Don Vicente solves this question, he will have shown some of the qualities of a Colbert or a Hamilton which, at present, he is not generally supposed to possess.

Early in 1912, when I close this chapter, General Gomez is still in power. He rules the country, as did his predecessor, by means of the Andean troops and the fear of a return of Castro which is felt by Venezuelans as well as by foreigners. Peace prevails and the plantations are protected. Large and illegal commissions are raised by the freebooters in power upon every industry, and it cannot truthfully be said that there are any signs of a permanent improvement in political conditions.

CHAPTER X

COLOMBIA AND THE SPANISH MAIN

By the old "Spanish Main" is generally understood the entire Caribbean coast from the Cape of Yucatan to the mouth of the Orinoco, but for the present we are only concerned with that portion which, stretching between the Isthmus of Panama and Guajira Cape, constitutes the northern shore of the Republic of Colombia. This little-known country is bounded on the northwest by the Caribbean and the recently created republic of Panama, south and southeast by Peru, Ecuador, Brazil, and Venezuela, and west by the Pacific Ocean. In a word, it stretches from the equator northward to a little beyond the twelfth parallel and from the seventieth to the eighty-second meridian, comprising a country larger than France and Italy combined, and though it is closer to Florida than Missouri is to New York, it is certainly less known to the average North American than is the interior of the Black Continent.

Colombia's isolation is all the more remarkable because of her naturally strong position in the matter of commerce and international relations. She is the only South American country that occupies a continental position approximating that of the United States. She has nearly five hundred miles of coast on the Pacific and about the same on the Atlantic, and of course the early completion of the Panama Canal will immensely emphasise these advantages. In 1849 Colombia was

mining ten times as much gold as the United States. To-day her mineral output is insignificant in comparison with ours and is only about half of what this country, our closest South American neighbour, produced a hundred years ago. Of course the explanation of this anomaly in development is that the Colombians, when they work, work with mules and oxen, while we have bridled steam and harnessed electricity. The vast mineral resources of this wonderful country therefore remain nearly intact. There is a great lack of reliable statistics, but it seems quite certain that, if coal should give out in England and the United States, there is enough in Colombia to supply the world for centuries. We will not have to invent a new fuel, as some great chemists predict, but we may have to invent a new gov ernment for Colombia.*

The topographical features of the country are varied and interesting. There are ranges of high mountains, broad, deep, and almost paradisical valleys, rolling steppes, lofty plains, cold wind-swept paramos, and snow-capped sierras. As Baron Humboldt said, the traveller only needs a thermometer and a mule to find any desired climate within the compass of a few miles. When he has tired of perpetual spring on the tableland, he can in a few hours' ride find winter on the mountains above or steaming summer in the valleys of the hot country below.

The capital of this highly favoured country is, unfortunately for tourists, situated far inland. It requires a great deal more time to reach Bogotá from the seacoast than it does to cross Siberia or to journey from

*The trade relations and the fiscal system of Colombia are described in Appendix E, Note I, page 436.

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