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National Geographic : 1947 May
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Cruising Colombia's "01' Man River" on the river made the Jesusita's bow flop like a number 12 slipper on a number 7 foot. Four days after leaving Puerto Berrio, the Jesusita docked in the steamboat-cluttered basin at Barranquilla, Colombia's main port on the Caribbean (Plate XVI and page 657). In the general spurt of progress that affected every large city in Colombia, things have hap pened in Barranquilla. The city is situated on the west bank of the Magdalena, 12 river miles from the sea. Its progress really began with the unplugging of the bar-choked mouth of the river. This was accomplished by constructing two parallel mile-long jetties that enabled the river to scour its own channel through the millions of tons of silt dumped annually on the bar. By 1935, 10,000-ton vessels were able to come over the bar and up to Barranquilla to discharge their cargoes. Long-time rival of Santa Marta and Carta gena for the ocean outlet to the Magdalena Valley, Barranquilla now controls a major portion of the trade. But the bugaboo of a silting river mouth still haunts port authorities. I found the new Barranquilla had a pure water supply, excellent municipal services, attractive homes, sport facilities, beautiful plazas and promenades, and one of the best hotels in South America. Its spacious airport is a crossroads for planes shuttling between the Americas. As I walked the sunny streets where the tropical sun glared from the white buildings, an urchin called out, "Hey, Joe, gotta cigarette?" Memories of Buccaneers I arrived in Cartagena, lying three hours' journey by road southwest of Barranquilla, after seven months of tropical wanderings. The "Queen of the Indies" I had saved before departing from Colombia. Founded in 1533, Cartagena was built into the greatest fortress in the Western Hemi sphere. Today it remains the hemisphere's finest historical museum. Its city walls, 40 feet high and 60 feet wide in places, with 27 bastions and outlying forts all connected by underground tunnels, were two centuries in the building (page 656). Because of its wealth, Cartagena became the coveted prize of the buccaneers and pirates of the Spanish Main almost from the day of its founding. Here tribute and booty extracted from Spain's South American colonies were ac cumulated for transport to Spain on the treas ure fleet which sailed yearly under convoy.* Sir Francis Drake with 20 ships descended on Cartagena in 1586, sacked and set fire to part of the city, and even stole the church bells. After nearly two months' sojourn, this ungrateful guest departed. Nearly a hundred years later the French buccaneer Jean Bernard Desjeans, the Sieur de Pointis, besieged the city with 22 vessels and 5,000 men. In 1741 Admiral Edward Vernon with a powerful British fleet of 186 vessels and 28,000 men, including American Colonials, attacked Cartagena. After 56 days of siege, Vernon retired to Jamaica, leaving 18,000 dead. Law rence Washington, half-brother of George, returned to Virginia after participating in the unsuccessful campaign and on the banks of the Potomac built a home which he named Mount Vernon in honor of the Admiral. Cartagena, embracing the ideals of Bolivar, was the first city to declare its independence from Spain. The Spanish army captured the city in 1815 after a terrible siege, during which 6,000 Cartagenians died of starvation and pes tilence. In 1821 the city capitulated to the forces of Bolivar, and the Spaniards had to salute the tricolor of Colombia. For a week I wandered reverently through the twisting, narrow streets of this heroic city where every stone is a precious heritage. Even here the closely knit city has spilled over the ancient walls into new residential sections that rival those of Barranquilla. Cartagena today is beginning to receive an increased share of trade from the Magdalena Valley. Trails and rivers connect it with the vast back country of Bolivar Department, where range tens of thousands of cattle. Some day travelers will rediscover this glorious old city, and treasure will again flow into her coffers. Down the Caribbean coast close to Carta gena I watched tankers load Colombian oil for world markets. Through a looped 10-inch pipe line with a capacity of 55,000 barrels daily, oil flows from the more than a thousand wells in the De Mares concession, in the Magdalena Valley, 334 miles from El Centro to a terminal at Mamonal, a few miles below Cartagena. For most of the way the line parallels the river. From Petr6lea, in the Barco concession on the Venezuelan frontier, oil flows through a 12-inch pipe line-capacity 75,000 barrels daily-for 263 miles across country to the port of Covenas. I flew over part of this line. For a distance the pipe is laid through jungles where pump stations force the "black gold" over mountains a mile high to the Magdalena Valley. *See "Haunts of the Caribbean Corsairs," by Nell Ray Clarke, NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE, Febru ary, 1922. 655
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