Personal Narrative Of Travels To The Equinoctial Regions Of America During The Years 1799-1804 - Volume 3 - By Alexander Von Humboldt And Aime Bonpland.
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Considered With Reference To The
Distribution Of The Population, The Two Provinces Of New Grenada And
Venezuela, Which Have Been United In One Political Body, Exhibit The
Most Complete Contrast.
Their capitals (and the position of capitals
always denotes where population is most concentrated) are at such
unequal distances
From the trading coasts of the Caribbean Sea, that
the town of Caracas, to be placed on the same parallel with Santa-Fe
de Bogota, must be transplanted southward to the junction of the
Orinoco with the Guaviare, where the mission of San Fernando de
Atabapo is situated.
The republic of Columbia is, with Mexico and Guatemala, the only state
of Spanish America which occupies at once the coasts opposite to
Europe and to Asia. From Cape Paria to the western extremity of
Veragua is a distance of 400 sea leagues: and from Cape Burica to the
mouth of Rio Tumbez the distance is 260. The shore possessed by the
republic of Columbia consequently equals in length the line of coasts
extending from Cadiz to Dantzic, or from Ceuta to Jaffa. This immense
resource for national industry is combined with a degree of
cultivation of which the importance has not hitherto been sufficiently
acknowledged. The isthmus of Panama forms part of the territory of
Columbia, and that neck of land, if traversed by good roads and
stocked with camels, may one day serve as a portage for the commerce
of the world, even though the plains of Cupica, the bay of Mandinga or
the Rio Chagre should not afford the possibility of a canal for the
passage of vessels proceeding from Europe to China,* or from the
United States to the north-west coast of America.
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