and richly furnished. All the above public buildings were erected by Francisco Pizarro, whose ashes repose beneath the grand altar in the cathedral. There are fifty-six other ecclesiastical edifices, one of the most splendid of which is the immense church of San Pedro, founded in 1598, which has seventeen altars, and contains the national library. A fountain stands in each of the four corners of the Plaza Mayor, and one in the centre surrounded by a gorgeous circular garden. In the centre of the Plaza de la Independencia is an equestrian statue of General Bolivar. In 1873 a portion of the ancient wall in the southwestern part of the city was pulled down, and a beautiful boulevard was laid out, and named in honor of Henry Meiggs, the American engineer and builder of Peru's great railroad over and through the mountains. The famous marble statue of Columbus was then erected between the boulevard and the exhibition building. There are eight national colleges in the city, an ecclesiastical seminary, a medical college, a normal school, a military and naval institute, an industrial municipal school, a botanic garden, a national museum, the largest circus for bull-fighting in the world, two theatres, and numerous public baths. The exports and imports of the city together average over $25,000,000 per annum. Lima suffered severely from earthquakes in 1630, 1687, 1746, 1806, and 1828.

CITY OF CALLAO.

ALLAO, the port of Lima and principal seaport of Peru, is a fortified city on the Pacific Ocean, six miles by railroad from the capital. It is in latitude 12° 4′ south, and longtitude 77° 13' west, has an admirable harbor and roadstead sheltered by two islands, and further improved by harbor walls, floating and wet docks, and a costly mole. It is defended by the fortress of San Felipe, from whose turrets the flag of Castile and Leon floated for the last time on the American continent as the emblem of Spanish authority. The city has gas works, sugar refineries, machine shops, and steam cranes for loading and unloading vessels. The chief exports are guano, gold, silver, saltpetre, cinchona, sugar, hides, raw cotton, copper, and Indian wool. Its population in 1886 was 33,502. Callao was destroyed by an earthquake in 1746, and sustained great damage and loss of life by a tidal wave in January, 1878. The blockade of the port by the Chilians in the war of 1880-1 was a very serious matter for the Peruvians, as it was the rendezvous of all the

lines of foreign steamships, and the point at which the commercial mails of all nations engaged in South Pacific trade were made up. The harbor was full of vessels from all parts of the world when the blockade was established; but as no foreign power has a right to interfere in a war between the South American republics, their presence could do Peru no good.

THE UNITED STATES OF COLOMBIA.

HE United States of Colombia is a republic in the north-western part of South America, includes the Isthmus of Panama, which connects the two continents, was formerly known as New Granada, has an area of 586,000 square miles, and had a population in 1886 of 3,500,000. It is bounded on the north by the Caribbean Sea, on the northeast and east by Venezuela, on the southeast and south by Brazil and Ecuador, and on the west by the Pacific Ocean. The republic is composed of nine states, Antioquia, Bolivar, Boyacá, Caucà, Cundinamarca, Magdalena, Panama, Santander, and Tolima; the chief cities are Bogata, Cartagena, Santa Marta, Sabanilla or Baranquilla, Rio Hicha, Buenaventura, Panama, and Lumaco; and the capital is Bogota, on the San Francisco River. The Andes Mountains here have three great ranges, the eastern, central, and western, between which are the large valleys of Cauca and Magdalena. The eastern branches have a series of table-lands from 8,000 to 14,000 feet above the sea level, and in the southern part are the table-lands of Pasto and Luquerres, with a mean elevation of 14,000 feet. The climate on the highlands is mild and healthful; but on the lowlands and along the coast it is intensely hot.

The republic is exceedingly rich in natural resources. There is scarcely a state which does not possess in its soil more or less gold; and even though rudely operated by a few laborers they produced annually between 1870 and 1880 from $10,000,000 to $12,000,000 worth of that metal. The district of Choco has produced nearly all the platinum, and that of Muzo the emeralds that have abounded in foreign markets for several years; and in various parts of the country are mines of silver, copper, lead, iron, quicksilver, coal, amethysts, and other varieties of valuable stones and minerals. Wheat, potatoes, the breadfruit, Peruvian bark, cedar, balsam, lignum vitæ, mahogany, rubber, and vanilla thrive with little cultivation. Among the peculiar varieties of tree-growth are three which have extraordinary virtues: one as a specific

against inflammation, the second for stanching effusion of the blood, and the third for instantaneously stopping bleeding at the nose.

In 1886 the army consisted of 3,000 men. The law makes one per cent. of the male population liable to be called to arms in case of war. The funded. debt of the republic on Dec. 31, 1884, amounted to $26,000,000, of which. $11,000,000 were on foreign account. The commercial dealings with the United States showed exports (1885) $2,342,077; (1886) $3,008,921; and imports (1885) $5,397,412; (1886) $5,294,798. The transit trade through the ports. of Panama and Aspinwall is of far greater importance than the direct commerce, its value being estimated at not less than $85,000,000 per annum.

Since the early history of this continent the cutting of a passage through the Isthmus, which would unite the two great oceans, has been the object of constant solicitude and speculation on the part of commercial nations, enterprising engineers, and far-seeing publicists; and since the beginning of the sixteenth century innumerable surveys have been made for a connecting canal through Tehuantepec, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Panama. In the early part of 1888 the great project seemed in a fair way toward accomplishment, M. deLesseps being then well advanced on his Panama ship-canal, and work on a second, through Nicaragua, in which the United States was more particularly interested, being actively opened. But in the latter part of 1888 the French scheme became seriously impaired by the bankruptcy of the company, and in May, 1889, on the failure of the French people to respond with sufficient contributions, and the government to vote a subsidy or sanction a public lottery in its interest, the scheme was abandoned, and all the work done reverted to the possession of the Colombian government. This failure of the French project gave renewed encouragement to the advocates of the "American plan for Nicaragua. The United States Congress passed a bill creating a corporation for prosecuting the work, the secretary of the navy granted a distinguished officer a year's leave of absence to enable him to become constructing engineer, and in May, 1889, the first shipment of men and machinery was made from New York by the corporation. It is proposed to improve the capacious and long neglected harbor of Greytown-designed for one terminiby dredging out the accumulated silt, and building a long breakwater. Estimated cost, $2,000,000.

New Granada was discovered by Alonzo de Ojeda in 1499; the first settlement was made at Santa Maria la Antigua in 1510; but the interior of the country was only conquered toward the middle of the sixteenth century by

Benalcazar and Ximenes de Quesneda, who founded Santa Fé de Bogata in 1545. The Spaniards remained in possession of the country till 1811, when New Granada proclaimed its independence, and the war that ensued lasted till 1821. New Granada, Venezuela, Ecuador, and Panama formed a union in 1823. This was dissolved 1831, and the territory was divided between Venezuela, New Granada, and Ecuador. A confederation was formed 1857, and a new constitution proclaimed the following year. The present form of government was established 1861, and the present constitution adopted 1863Like all South American countries, this has been kept in turmoil and deluged with blood through the machinations of ambitious men, and has had comparatively few years of peaceful government.

CITY OF BOGOTA.

OGOTA, the chief city and capital of the republic, is situated im

latitude 4° 36′ north, and longitude 74° 13′ 59′′ west, and at the junction of the San Francisco River with the Rio de Bogata, is on a wide plateau 8,800 feet above sea level, and has a climate somewhat similar to that of autumn in the middle portion of the United States. The city is well-built, with houses averaging two stories in height; but the streets are exceedingly narrow, and few will admit of the passage of ordinary vehicles. The residences are constructed of adobe in the form of a hollow square, are roofed with tiles, and inclose pretty court-yards and flower gardens. The streets are paved with cobble-stones and are mainly used for laundry purposes, having drainage ditches in the centre supplied with water from pipes at the houses on the corners, and in these ditches the people wash their clothing. There is a grand plaza in the centre of the city, with the cathedral on one side and the president's palace and the government houses on the other; and in the centre is a bronze statue of Simon Bolivar on a pedestal of stones contributed by the different states in the republic. The cathedral is 300 feet long and 100 wide, and contains a large number of magnificent paintings and decorations placed there by the Spaniards. There are thirty-six other churches, two of which are on the mountains, 1,500 feet above the city, and a number of monasteries and convents. Other prominent buildings are the market, where one can buy the fruits and vegetables of the torrid and temperate zones, the University of Bogata, which has an astronomi

cal observatory ranking next after the National Observatory at Washington, D.C., three Jesuit colleges, the national academy, the public library, the mint, the hospital of San Juan de Dios, the opera house, and the theatre. There are mines of silver, gold, and precious stones in its immediate vicinity. One of the greatest attractions to the tourist is the grand cataract of Tequendama, a few miles below the city, where the Bogota River has a perpendicular fall of 650 feet.

The prevailing religion is the Roman Catholic, but there are no restrictions against other forms. Education is highly appreciated and liberally advanced. The city has suffered severely several times from earthquakes, and the massive cathedral was greatly damaged by one in 1827. It is on account of the prevalence of earthquakes that nearly all the buildings are but one and two stories in height. The chief exports of Bogota are gold, silver, copper, tobacco, coffee, cocoanuts, and rubber. The population in 1886 was 40,883.

THE REPUBLIC OF VENEZUELA.

HE republic of Venezuela is in the extreme north of South America, between latitude 1° 8′ and 12° 16′ north, and longitude 60° and 73° 17' west, and is bounded on the north by the Caribbean Sea, on the east by the Atlantic Ocean and British Guiana, on the south by Brazil, and on the west by the United States of Colombia. According to a census taken in 1884, it had an area of 632,695 square miles and a population of 2,121,988. Politically it is divided into eight states, one federal district, eight territories, and two national settlements. The country is traversed by two distinct mountain systems north and south of the Orinoco River, with an average height of from 5,000 to 6,500 feet; but in the Sierra Nevadas there are two peaks which reach an altitude of 15,000 feet. Venezuela is watered by the Orinoco with its 400 navigable tributaries, a large number of streams which empty into the Caribbean Sea, and numerous lagoons and lakes.

The soil is exceedingly fertile, and the climate is divided into hot, temperate, and cold according to location. In mineral resources the country possesses gold mines in the Yuruari district, which are among the richest in the world and to which England laid semi-official claim in the early part of 1888. There are also considerable veins of silver, platinum, copper, iron, tin, zinc, and quicksilver, as well as mines of diamonds and other precious stones. But