The saddle generally used in the mountains closely resembles the McClellan saddle and is called a galápago. For obvious reasons an English hunting saddle—silla—could not be used where the roads are constantly leading up and down steep mountains—bergauf, bergab, as a German traveler phrases it—and where even on a cavalry saddle it is at times extremely difficult for one to retain one’s position.[11]
The saddle is usually covered by a pellon or shabrack, made either of sheepskin, or horsehair dyed black and neatly braided at the ends. Attached to the saddle are several bags or pockets—bolsas. These are of the greatest convenience for carrying many things necessary on long journeys. In them the natives stow away cheese, cakes of maize, papelon, and the never-forgotten supply of aguardiente, without which a journey of any length is considered impossible.
Cross section of the Oriental Andes from the Meta to the Magdelena, from Karsten.
The stirrups are curiosities. They are usually of brass or bronze in the shape of a shoe, but frequently they are in the form of the basket hilt of a claymore. The stirrups of one of the saddles I used were curiously embossed, and as large as a good-sized bell. But whatever their design, they are admirably adapted for service in the mountains where the paths are so narrow that one is frequently exposed, without such protection, to having one’s feet crushed when his mule approaches too near the rocky wall that flanks one side of the road. The danger is especially great when one meets a herd of cattle or a caravan of pack-mules. Then the rider suddenly finds his mule crushing him against the steep rocks on one side of the path, to avoid being thrown over a precipice which is yawning beneath him on the other side along which the approaching animals pick their way with a skill that is marvelous. We often had reason to be thankful that our feet were protected by these fantastic and cumbersome estribos—stirrups—as otherwise we should have suffered serious bodily injury. Like the leather hoods of wooden stirrups, such estribos also keep the feet dry.
The riding equipment, however, of a Colombian horseman is not complete without huge brass or bronze rowel-spurs—espuelas—and a pair of zamoros—bag-trousers—often made of leather or goatskin. They are not unlike the chaparejos[12] of a New Mexican cowboy, and serve as a protection against rain and mud, and the thorns of the shrubs and brush along the wayside.
From Facatativá to El Alto del Roble, some miles to the west, the road slightly rises. At the latter point, nearly five hundred feet above Bogotá, one has a glorious view of the Sabana, of the chain of Suma Paz, and of the Central Cordillera away beyond the Magdalena.
From El Roble—the oak—so named from the number of ever-green oaks seen there, the descent towards Chimbe is marked by quite a steep grade. A good carretera, or carriage road, extends from Factativá to Agua Larga, and this much-needed highway is to be prolonged as far as the Magdalena. The present plan is to construct the road in such wise that traction cars can be used on it for the transportation of both freight and passengers, and at the time of our passage the road, under the direction of English engineers, was being pushed forward towards completion with a display of energy that augured well for ultimate success.
Only a few minutes after we began our descent on the western declivity of El Roble we observed a change in the temperature. We were passing from the tierra fría to the tierra templada, and a thermometer was scarcely necessary to indicate our rate of progress towards lower altitudes. Aside from the marked change in the atmosphere, there was a corresponding one in the flora.
Near the summit of El Roble we were gratified in finding large patches of strawberries. They were sweet reminders of home, as they were of the same species as our own fragrant Fragaria. These slender mountain runners did not, however, bear the large fruits afforded by our Illinois or Florida plants, but rather the small scarlet, but richly flavored, berries one meets in an uncultivated state in Italy and Russia.