keeping you company. Quaint old Tusser has somewhere said, that if, "While wormwood hath seed, You take a handful or twaine To save against March To make flea to refraine, "And chamber be sweeped, No flea for his life will Dare abide to be seen." But this was not written of the ubiquitous Colombian flea. With respect to him, Tusser's remedy is worthless. However, after we are here for a while we will notice the nuisance less. Whether this is because we have got used to it, or whether it is because the little pest considers us naturalized, and therefore entitled to the same immunities as the natives, I know not; but it is a notable fact that natives seldom complain of fleas. At Manzanas, near the western edge of the plain, we dismiss mules and muleteer and make the balance of the journey to the capital in omnibus or coach, leaving trunks and luggage to be leisurely carted across the plain in clumsy two-wheeled vehicles drawn by oxen.1 The oxen are of gigantic size, and are hitched to the vehicle in a most singular manner. A heavy beam of wood is lashed to the horns of the beasts and rests across their foreheads. The tongue or pole of the cart is then fastened to this cross beam or yoke; so that the weight of the massive pole and a part of the cart-bed and its contents rest on the front part of the oxen's heads instead of upon the backs of their necks. In other words, the team pushes rather than draws the 1 This was the case till a very few years ago. There is now a railroad across the plain to the city. burden. The contrivance seems a little barbarous, but it is the uniform custom of the country, and no amount of persuasion or remonstrance can induce the cartman to change it. He uses neither line nor whip, but trots along before his team and prods back at them with an ox-goad or rude spear, Asiatic fashion. There is a peculiarity also about the coach or omnibus. The horses are wiry and vicious-looking little animals which seem never to have been groomed. Their natural gait is either a sort of amble or else a full gallop. They cannot be made to trot. The driver makes no effort to check or regulate their speed, because that would result in a full stop, and he knows the difficulty in getting them started again. When they take the sulks and refuse to move on, a boy rides before and pulls them along by a raw-hide lasso fastened to the pommel of his saddle. As soon as the balky team begin to feel the tension of the lasso they move forward at a full gallop; and as the boy goes bobbing up and down, pounding his rough wooden saddle with his posteriors, you naturally wonder what the little fellow is made of that he is not soon mauled into a jelly. I CHAPTER VI THE COLOMBIAN CAPITAL F we could go to sleep in Washington and wake up next morning in Santa Fé de Bogotá,1 our first im pressions of the quaint old city would hardly be favorable; and, as first impressions are generally lasting, the probabilities are that we should never learn to like the place. But after a month's journey, such as I have attempted to describe, one is generally in a frame of mind to appreciate almost any change, particularly if, as in the present case, it be for the better. Our first impressions of Bogotá are those of surprise and admiration, surprise at finding so large a city perched up in the heart of the Andes fully "six hundred miles from anywhere," and admiration of the surpassing natural beauty of the locality. Our next impressions are that it is one of the most quiet, conservative, slothful, and restful places on the face of the earth, conditions which one appreciates all the more after the hard experiences of the long journey from the coast. After a day or two we discover that the climate is simply perfect, and that the matchless scenery never palls upon us. In the course of a few days more, we discover that many highly educated and accomplished people live here; that there is an inner circle of society equal to the best in Washington; and that the inhabi 1 As the present capital of the Colombian Republic was called prior to the independence of the country. It is now known simply as Bogotá |