Up the Orinoco and down the Magdalena

by J. A. Zahm

“A cegua,” he continued, “is a monster somewhat like the sirens of old, that assumes the form of a beautiful woman and leads men astray. A cadejos is a fantastic animal, black and hairy, resembling an enormous dog which has resounding hoofs instead of paws. A llorona is a frightful phantom that is sometimes heard moaning in the mountains in such wise as to strike terror into the passer-by.[14] Botija—the Spanish for a large earthen jar—is the name given in Costa Rica to a buried treasure. The country people believe that, if one having buried money dies in debt, his ghost—hermano—will haunt the place in great distress until the treasure is found and the debt is paid.”

“I wish I could have the assistance of a few such hermanos,” interposed C. laughingly. “If I had, I should have several thousand dollars more to my credit than I have now. Unfortunately, in my country we have not such aids in bringing our debtors to book.”

On our way down the Cordillera, while crossing one of the numerous iron bridges that span the Reventazon and other mountain rivers and torrents, our Josefino friend pointed to a pier of masonry standing alone about forty feet to one side of the bridge. “That pier,” he said, “was formerly under the bridge, but in consequence of a peculiar landslide or earthquake, it was transported, together with a part of the bed of the stream, to the spot where it now stands.”

And then he told us of the opposition of the boyeros to the construction of the railroad. They, like ill-advised people in other parts of the world, feared that it would ruin their occupation and reduce them and their families to starvation. The government and railway company cleverly overcame this opposition by employing the boyeros to haul the material used in the construction of the road.

Then, too, there were wiseacres in Costa Rica, as there were in our Rocky Mountain region when there was question of undertaking some of the remarkable engineering feats that characterize several of our transcontinental railroads, who declared that the projectors of the road from Limon to San José were essaying the impossible. “General Guardia”—the dictator under whose rule the road was begun—they declared “is trying to build a railroad to Port Limon, where the birds themselves can scarcely go with wings.”

And yet, aside from the landslides which occur in all mountainous countries, and the miasmatic climate, there were but few great difficulties encountered. From an engineering standpoint the construction of the road offered far less difficult problems than many of the railroads in Colorado, Peru and Ecuador. The curves are not so sharp and the grades are less, while the altitude attained is less than half of that reached by several Rocky Mountain roads and less than one-third of the height of the celebrated Andean railway which connects Oroya with Lima.

Our first care on arriving at Limon was to have the health officer of that place countersign the certificate we had received from our consul in San José. We then boarded our steamer and were ready to start for Panama.

The weather was again in our favor, and we had a most delightful sail to Colon, and needless to say, we enjoyed every moment of it. We enjoyed it particularly on account of its interesting historical associations, and the romantic legends that have been woven about every isle and inlet and headland along the coast.

That, however, which appealed most strongly to us was the land of Veragua, near the dividing line between Costa Rica and Panama. It was here that Columbus imagined he had found the Golden Chersonese, the land whence came the gold used in the construction of Solomon’s temple. In the letter to his sovereigns, dispatched from Jamaica, he contends “that these mines of the Aurea are identical with those of Veragua.”[15]

It was here, too, near the mouth of the river Belen, that the first settlement on the continent of the New World was located. Although it had soon to be abandoned, it was begun with a view of permanent occupancy, and as such is deserving of special notice. A suitable memorial should indicate this spot, as one should also mark the site of Isabella, the first settlement in the New World.