CART (A.S. crœt, Gaelic cairt; connected with “car”), a general term for various kinds of vehicles (see [Carriage]), in some cases for carrying people, but more particularly for transporting goods, for agricultural or postal purposes, &c., or for carriers. Though constructed in various ways, the simplest type for goods is two-wheeled, topless and springless; but as a general term “cart” is used in combination with some more specific qualification (dog-cart, donkey-cart, road-cart, polo-cart, &c.), when it is employed for pleasure purposes. The “dog-cart,” so called because originally used to convey sporting dogs, is a more or less elevated two-wheeled carriage, generally with scats back to back, in front and behind; the “governess-cart” (presumably so called from its use for children), a very low two-wheeled pony-carriage, has two side seats facing inwards; the “tax-cart,” a light two-wheeled farmer’s cart, was so called because formerly exempted from taxation as under the value of £21.
CARTAGENA, or Carthagena, a city, seaport, and the capital of the department of Bolívar, Colombia, South America, on the Caribbean coast, in 10° 25′ 48″ N., 75° 34′ W. Pop. (1905, official estimate) 14,000. The population of Cartagena is largely composed of blacks and mixed races, which form the predominant type on the lowland plains of northern Colombia. The well-to-do whites of Cartagena usually have country houses on the Turbaco hills, where the temperature is much lower than on the coast. The mean annual temperature in the city is 82°, and the port is classed as very unhealthful, especially for unacclimatized foreigners. The harbour, which is the best on the north coast of South America, is formed by an indentation of the coast-line shut in by two long islands lying parallel to the mainland. It covers an area of about 62.5 sq. m. and affords deep and secure anchorages and ample facilities for loading and unloading large vessels. The city itself has no modern quays, and large vessels do not approach within a mile of its landing-stages, but the railway pier (lengthened 120 ft. in 1898) on the mainland opposite permits the mooring of vessels alongside. There were formerly two entrances to the harbour—the Boca Grande (large mouth) between the low sandy island or peninsula on which the city stands and the island of Tierra Bomba, and the Boca Chica (small mouth) at the south end of the latter island. The Boca Grande was filled with stone after the city had been captured three times, because of the ease with which an enemy’s ships could pass through it at any time, and the narrow and more easily defended Boca Chica, 7 m. farther south, has since been used.
The city occupies a part of the upper island or peninsula facing the northern end of the harbour, and is separated from the mainland on the east by a shallow lagoon-like extension of the bay which is bridged by a causeway passing through the extramural suburb of Xiximani on another island. The old city, about ¾ m. long, north and south, and ½ m. wide, is enclosed by a heavy wall, in places 40 ft. thick, and is defended by several formidable-looking forts, which have long been dismantled, but are still in a good state of preservation. At the mainland end of the causeway leading from the city is the fort of San Felipe, about 100 ft. above sea-level, adapted as a distributing reservoir in the city’s waterworks; and behind it are verdure-covered hills rising to an elevation of 500 ft., forming a picturesque background to the grey walls and red-tiled roofs of the city. The streets are narrow, irregular and roughly paved, but are lighted by electricity; tramway lines run between the principal points of the city and suburbs. The houses are built with thick walls of stone and brick round open courts, in the Moorish style, and their iron-barred doors and windows give them the appearance of being a part of the fortifications. Among the numerous churches, the largest and most imposing is the Jesuit church of San Juan de Dios, with its double towers and celebrated marble pulpit; an old monastery adjoins. Cartagena is an episcopal see, and its cathedral dates from colonial times. The city was once the headquarters of the Inquisition in South America, and the edifice which it occupied, now private property, is an object of much interest. The water supply of the city was formerly obtained from rainwater tanks on the walls or by carriage from springs a few miles inland. But in 1906 an English company received a concession to bring water by pipes from springs on the Turbaco hills, 300 ft. above the sea.
The commercial importance of Cartagena declined greatly during the period of civil disorders which followed the war for independence, but in later years has revived. In the reign of Philip II. the Spaniards had opened a canal (“El Dique”) through some marshes and lagoons into a small western outlet of the Magdalena, which gave access to that river at Calamar, about 81 m. above the bar at its mouth; during Cartagena’s decline this was allowed to fill up; it was reopened in 1846 for a short time and then was obstructed again by river floods; but in 1881 it was reopened for steam navigation. Towards the end of the 19th century a railway, 65 m. long, was built between Cartagena and Calamar. Imports consist of cotton, linen and woollen fabrics, hardware, cutlery and machinery, kerosene, glass and earthenware; and the exports of cattle, sugar, tobacco, coffee, coco-nuts and fibre, dividivi and dye-woods, vegetable ivory, rubber, hides and skins, medicinal forest products, gold, silver and platinum. The aggregate value of the exports in 1906 was $3,788,094 U.S. gold.
Cartagena was founded in 1533 by Pedro de Heredia. In 1544 it was captured by pirates, who plundered the town; in 1585 by Sir Francis Drake, who exacted a large ransom; and in 1697 by the French, who obtained from it more than £1,000,000. In 1741 Admiral Vernon unsuccessfully besieged the town. It was taken by Bolívar in 1815, but was surrendered to the royalists in the same year. It was recaptured by the republicans on the 25th of September 1821, and thereafter remained in their possession. It figured prominently in the political agitations and revolutions which followed, and underwent a siege in the civil war of 1885. It was an important naval station under Spanish colonial rule, and is the principal naval station of Colombia.
CARTAGENA, or Carthagena, a seaport of south-eastern Spain, in the province of Murcia; in 37° 36′ N. and 0° 58′ W., at the terminus of a branch railway from the city of Murcia, and on the Mediterranean Sea. Pop. (1900) 99,871. Cartagena is fortified, and possesses an arsenal and naval dockyards. Together with Ferrol and San Fernando near Cadiz, the other great naval stations of Spain, it is governed by an admiral with the title of captain-general. It has also an episcopal see.
The city stands on a hill separated by a little plain from the harbour; towards the north and east it communicates with a fertile valley; on the south and west it is hemmed in by high mountains. Its grey houses have a neglected, almost a dilapidated appearance, from the friable stone of which they are constructed; and there are no buildings of antiquarian interest or striking architectural beauty, except, perhaps, the ruined citadel and the remnants of the town walls. The wide streets are traversed by a system of tramways, which pass through modern suburbs to the mining district about two leagues inland, and on the west a canal enables small vessels to enter the town without using the port. The harbour, the largest in Spain after that of Vigo, and the finest on the east coast, is a spacious bay, deep, except near its centre, where there is a ledge of rock barely 5 ft. under water. It is dominated, on the seaward side, by four hills, and approached by a narrow entrance, with forts on either hand; a breakwater affords shelter on the east, and on the west is the Arsenal Basin, often regarded as the original harbour of the Carthaginians and Romans. The island called La Escombrera, the ancient Scombraria (i.e. “mackerel fishery”), 2½ m. south, protects Cartagena from the violence of wind and waves. The mines near the city are very productive, and thousands of men and beasts are employed in transporting lead, iron, copper, zinc and sulphur to the coast. The industrial and commercial progress of Cartagena was much hindered, during the first half of the 19th century, by the prevalence of epidemic diseases, the abandonment of the arsenal, and rivalry with the neighbouring port of Alicante. Its sanitary condition, though still defective, was improved by the drainage of the adjacent Almajar Marsh; and after 1870, when the population had dwindled to about 26,000, Cartagena advanced rapidly in size and wealth. The opening of the railway enabled it to compete successfully with Alicante, and revived the mining and metallurgical industries, while considerable sums were expended on bringing the coast and land defences up to date, and adding new quays, docks and other harbour works. As a naval station, Cartagena suffered severely in 1898 from the maritime disasters of the Spanish-American War; and its commerce was much affected when, at the beginning of the same year, Porman, or Portman, a mining village on a well-sheltered bay about 11 m. east, was declared by royal order an independent port. Vessels go to Porman to land coke and coal, and to load iron ore and lead. From Cartagena the principal exports are metallic ores, esparto grass, wine, cereals and fruit. Esparto grass, which grows freely in the vicinity, is the spartum, or Spanish broom, which gave the town its Roman designation of Carthago Spartaria. It is still used locally for making shoes, ships’ cables, mats and a kind of spun cloth. Timber is largely imported from the United States, Sweden and Russia; coal from Great Britain; dried codfish from Norway and Newfoundland. In 1904, exclusive of coasters and small craft trading with north-west Africa, 662 ships of 604,208 tons entered the port of Cartagena, 259 being British and 150 Spanish; while 90 vessels were accommodated at Porman.