Spanish America, Vol. 1 (of 2)

by Sir Richard Henry Bonnycastle

Capital.—The metropolis of the viceroyalty of Santa Fé, or New Granada, is the city of Santa Fé de Bogota, in north latitude 4° 6ʹ, and west longitude 78° 30ʹ, near the river Funza, or Pati. It was founded in 1538 by Ximenes de Quesada when he conquered the tribes who then inhabited this country.

Santa Fé is situated in a spacious and luxuriant plain to the east of the great chain of the Andes, and between it and its first parallel branch; though only four degrees from the equator, the elevation of 8694 feet above the level of the sea renders its climate rather cold. The city is large, and handsomely built, containing four great squares, with wide, regular and well laid out streets. Two small rivers, the San Francisco, and San Augustin, run through the town, and join the main stream of the Funza at a short distance; over these rivulets, five handsome bridges are erected. The cathedral is a magnificent structure, and forms the chief ornament of the place, which also contains three other churches, eight convents, four nunneries, and an hospital; the university was founded in the year 1610, since which time two colleges have been endowed for public education; and a library was established in 1772. Besides the above mentioned churches, there are several others, as well as numerous chapels, all of which are tolerably well built. There is also a royal mint, several courts of justice, and state offices, necessary for the government of the viceroyalty.

The city is governed by six regidores and two alcaldes, with some subordinate officers; their jurisdiction extending over fifty-two villages in the neighbourhood, which are divided into seven districts. The inhabitants, amounting to 30,000, are in general not very wealthy, and most of them are occupied in the internal trade of the country. They are represented as possessing agreeable manners, and much good sense, combined with a considerable degree of industry; the latter quality is manifested by the appearance of the plain surrounding the city, which they take so much pains with, as to cause it to produce two harvests in the year. The elevation of this plain renders the temperature of the air so equable, that the Bogotians enjoy a perpetual spring.

The viceroy of New Grenada has a palace in Bogota, which is also the seat of the archbishopric, founded by Pope Julius III. in 1554, and the court of the royal audience of Santa Fé. In the environs are some mines of gold, as well as of Peruvian emeralds; salt and coal are found also in considerable quantities, but the difficulty of carriage renders the latter very expensive.

The cataract of the Tequendama, by which the river Funza joins the Great Magdalena, is the most noted object in the surrounding country. The Funza or Bogota, after receiving the waters of the numerous small rivers which flow through the great plain, is about 140 feet in breadth, a short distance above the fall; approaching the crevice through which it dashes, its breadth is diminished to thirty-five, when, with accumulated force, it rushes down a perpendicular rock at two bounds, to the astonishing depth of 600 feet, into a dark, unfathomable gulf, out of which the river again issues under the name of Rio Meta, and continues its course, by an immense descent, till it joins the great river Magdalena.

In the fall of this river may be observed a strange variety of climate. The plain of Bogota is covered with crops of wheat, with oaks, elms, and other productions of a temperate region. At the foot of the fall are seen the palms of the equinoctial low-lands. The face of the rock, which finishes and borders the vast plain of Bogota, near the cataract, is so steep, that it takes three hours to descend from the river Funza to the Rio Meta; and the basin or gulf cannot be approached very close, as the rapidity of the water, the deafening noise of the fall, and dense mass of vapour, render it impossible to get nearer the edges of the abyss than four or five hundred feet. The loneliness of the spot, the dreadful noise, and the beauty of the vegetation, render this situation one of the wildest and most picturesque scenes that are to be observed in the Andes.

When Quesada first arrived at Bogota, he discovered that the inhabitants, whom we have spoken of under the name of Muyscas, were rapidly approaching to civilization. The xaque or prince was absolute; his people carried him about in a sort of palanquin, attended by his guards and courtiers; whilst flowers were strewn along the ground over which he was to pass. They never approached him but with an averted countenance, as if they imagined that he was a divinity, in whose face they dared not look.

These people subsisted chiefly by agriculture, were clothed in cotton garments, and lived in regular society. Crimes were punished by judges appointed to watch over them, and they possessed, property independent of each other, on which taxes were levied for the support of the government. They had temples, altars, priests and sacrifices, but their religion, which consisted in the adoration of the sun, moon, Bochica, his descendants, and the evil deities, was intermixed with barbarous and bloody ceremonies; they resembled the Mexicans, with whom they had no connection, in a particular point of these immolations; the heart of the living victim was torn out, and supposed to be the most grateful offering to their gods.

One of their notions of the power of Bochica, and of the formation of the moon, is singular; and as it relates to the cataract of the Tequendama, we shall give it at length.