Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, "Cockaigne" to "Columbus, Christopher" Volume 6, Slice 6

m. The former has been of slight service in the development of the

Chapter 363,280 wordsPublic domain

country because of the unsettled and unhealthy character of the coast region, and the high mountain barriers between its natural ports and the settled parts of the republic. There are only two commercial ports on the coast, Tumaco and Buenaventura, though there are several natural harbours which would be of great service were there any demand for them. The rivers Mira, Patia and San Juan permit the entrance of small steamers, as also some of the smaller rivers. The larger bays on this coast are Tumaco, Chocó, Magdalena, Cabita, Coqui, Puerto Utria, Solano, Cupica and Octavia--some of them affording exceptionally safe and well-sheltered harbours. The Caribbean coast of Colombia has only four ports engaged in international trade--Barranquilla, Cartagena, Santa Marta and Rio Hacha. There are some smaller ports on the coast, but they are open only to vessels of light draft and have no trade worth mention. Barranquilla, the principal port of the republic, is situated on the Magdalena, and its seaport, or landing-place, is Puerto Colombia at the inner end of Savanilla Bay, where a steel pier 4000 ft. long has been built out to deep water, alongside which ocean-going vessels can receive and discharge cargo. The bay is slowly filling up, however, and two other landing-places--Salgar and Savanilla--had to be abandoned before Puerto Colombia was selected. The pier-head had 24 ft. of water alongside in 1907, but the silt brought down by the Magdalena is turned westward by the current along this coast, and may at any time fill the bay with dangerous shoals. The oldest and best port on the coast is Cartagena, 65 m. south-west of Barranquilla, which has a well-sheltered harbour protected by islands, and is connected with the Magdalena at Calamar by railway. The next best port is that of Santa Marta, about 46 m. east-north-east of Barranquilla (in a straight line), with which it is connected by 23 m. of railway and 50 m. of inland navigation on the Ciénaga de Santa Marta and eastern outlets of the Magdalena. Santa Marta is situated on a small, almost landlocked bay, well protected from prevailing winds by high land on the north and north-east, affording excellent anchorage in waters free from shoaling through the deposit of silt. The depth of the bay ranges from 4½ to 19 fathoms. The town stands at the foot of the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, which restricts the area of cultivatable land in its immediate vicinity, and the enclosing high lands make the climate hot and somewhat dangerous for foreigners. Since the development of the fruit trade on the shores of the Caribbean sea and Gulf of Mexico by an important American company, which owns a large tract of land near Santa Marta devoted to banana cultivation, and has built a railway 50 m. inland principally for the transportation of fruit, the trade of the port has greatly increased. The population of this region, however, is sparse, and its growth is slow. The fourth port on this coast is Rio Hacha, an open roadstead, about 93 m. east of Santa Marta, at the mouth of the small river Rancheira descending from the eastern slopes of the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta. It has little trade, and the undeveloped, unpopulated state of the country behind it affords no promise of immediate growth. There are other small towns on the coast which are ports for the small vessels engaged in the coasting and river trade, but they have no international importance because of their inaccessibility to ocean-going steamers, or the extremely small volume of their trade. The Gulf of Uraba is a large bight or southerly extension of the Gulf of Darien. It receives the waters of the Atrato, Bacuba, and a number of small rivers, and penetrates the land about 50 m., but has very little commercial importance because of the unhealthy and unsettled character of the neighbouring country, and because of the bar across its entrance formed by silt from the Atrato. The Gulf of Morosquillo, a broad shallow indentation of the coast south of Cartagena, receives the waters of the Rio Sinú, at the mouth of which is the small port of Cispata. Between the mouth of the Magdalena and Santa Marta is the Ciénaga de Santa Marta, a large marshy lagoon separated from the sea by a narrow sand spit, having its "boca" or outlet at its eastern side. There is some traffic in small steamers on its shallow waters, which is increasing with the development of fruit cultivation on its eastern and southern sides. It extends inland about 31 m., and marks a deep indentation of the coast like the Gulf of Uraba.

_Geology._--The geology of Colombia is very imperfectly known, and it is only by a comparison with the neighbouring regions that it is possible to form any clear idea of the geological structure and succession. The oldest rocks are gneisses and schists, together with granite and other eruptive rocks. These are overlaid by sandstones, slates and limestones, alternating with porphyries and porphyrites sometimes in the form of sheets, sometimes as breccias and conglomerates. Cretaceous fossils have been found abundantly in this series, but it is still possible that earlier systems may be represented. Coal-bearing beds, possibly of Tertiary age, occur in Antioquia and elsewhere. Structurally, the four main chains of Colombia differ considerably from one another in geological constitution. The low Cordilleras of the Chocos, on the west coast, are covered by soft Quaternary sandstones and marls containing shells of extant species, such as still inhabit the neighbouring ocean. The Western Cordillera is the direct continuation of the Western Cordillera of Ecuador, and, like the latter, to judge from the scattered observations which are all that are available, consists chiefly of sandstones and porphyritic rocks of the Cretaceous series. Between the Western and the Central Cordilleras is a longitudinal depression along which the river Cauca finds its way towards the sea. On the western side of this depression there are red sandstones with coal-seams, possibly Tertiary; the floor and the eastern side consist chiefly of ancient crystalline and schistose rocks. The Central Cordillera is the direct continuation of the Eastern Cordillera of Ecuador, and is formed chiefly of gneiss and other crystalline rocks, but sedimentary deposits of Cretaceous age also occur. Finally the Eastern branch, known as the Cordillera of Bogotá, is composed almost entirely of Cretaceous beds thrown into a series of regular anticlinals and synclinals similar to those of the Jura Mountains. The older rocks occasionally appear in the centre of the anticlinals. In all these branches of the Andes the folds run approximately in the direction of the chains, but the Sierra de Santa Marta appears to belong to a totally distinct system of folding, the direction of the folds being from west to east, bending gradually towards the south-east. Although volcanoes are by no means absent, they are much less important than in Ecuador, and their products take a far smaller share in the formation of the Andes. In Ecuador the depression between the Eastern and Western Cordilleras is almost entirely filled with modern lavas and agglomerates; in Colombia the corresponding Cauca depression is almost free from such deposits. In the Central Cordillera volcanoes extend to about 5° N.; in the Western Cordillera they barely enter within the limits of Colombia; in the Cordillera of Bogotá they are entirely absent.[1]

_Climate._--Were it not for the high altitudes of western Colombia, high temperatures would prevail over the whole country, except where modified by the north-east trade winds and the cold ocean current which sweeps up the western coast. The elevated plateaus and summits of the Andes are responsible, however, for many important and profound modifications in climate, not only in respect to the lower temperatures of the higher elevations, but also in respect to the higher temperatures of the sheltered lowland valleys and the varying climatic conditions of the neighbouring plains. The republic lies almost wholly within the north torrid zone, a comparatively small part of the forested Amazonian plain extending beyond the equator into the south torrid zone. The great Andean barrier which crosses the republic from the south to north acts as a condenser to the prevailing easterly winds from the Atlantic, and causes a very heavy rainfall on their eastern slopes and over the forested Amazon plain. High temperatures as well as excessive humidity prevail throughout this region. Farther north, on the open llanos of the Orinoco tributaries, the year is divided into equal parts, an alternating wet and dry season, the sun temperatures being high followed by cool nights, and the temperatures of the rainy season being even higher. The rainfall is heavy in the wet season, causing many of the rivers to spread over extensive areas, but in the dry season the inundated plains become dry, the large rivers fed by the snows and rainfall of the Andes return within their banks, the shallow lagoons and smaller streams dry up, vegetation disappears, and the level plain becomes a desert. The northern plains of the republic are swept by the north-east trades, and here, too, the mountain barriers exercise a strongly modifying influence. The low ridges of the Sierra de Perijá do not wholly shut out these moisture-laden winds, but they cause a heavy rainfall on their eastern slopes, and create a dry area on their western flanks, of which the Vale of Upar is an example. The higher masses of the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta cover a very limited area, leaving the trade winds a comparatively unbroken sweep across the northern plains until checked by the Western Cordillera, the Panama ranges and the Sierra de Baudo, where a heavy precipitation follows. Farther south the coast ranges cause a very heavy rainfall on their western slopes, which are quite as uninhabitable because of rain and heat as are the coasts of southern Chile through rain and cold. The rainfall on this coast is said to average 73 in., though it is much higher at certain points and in the Atrato Valley. As a result the coastal plain is covered with swamps and tangled forests, and is extremely unhealthy, except at a few favoured points on the coast. High temperatures prevail throughout the greater part of the Magdalena and Cauca valleys, because the mountain ranges which enclose them shut out the prevailing winds. At Honda, on the Magdalena, 664 ft. above sea-level, the mean temperature for the year is 82° F., and the mercury frequently rises to 102° in the shade. These lowland plains and valleys comprise the climatic tropical zone of Colombia, which is characterized by high temperatures, and by excessive humidity and dense forests, an exception to the last-named characteristic being the open llanos where dry summers prevail. Above this tropical zone in the mountainous regions are to be found all the varying gradations of climate which we are accustomed to associate with changes in latitude. There are the subtropical districts of the valleys and slopes between 1500 and 7500 ft. elevation, which include some of the most fertile and productive areas in Colombia; the temperate districts between 7500 and 10,000 ft., the cold, bleak and inhospitable _paramos_ between 10,000 and 15,000 ft., and above these the arctic wastes of ice and snow. The temperate and subtropical regions cover the greater part of the departments traversed by the Eastern Cordillera, the northern end of the Central Cordillera, the Santa Marta plateaus, and the Upper Cauca Valley. They include the larger part of the white population and the chief productive industries of the country. There is no satisfactory record of temperatures and rainfall in these widely different climatic zones from which correct averages can be drawn and compared. Observations have been made and recorded at Bogotá and at some other large towns, but for the greater part of the country we have only fragmentary reports. The mean annual temperature on the eastern plains, so far as known, ranges from 87° F. on the forested slopes to 90° and 91° on the llanos of the Meta and Arauca. On the Caribbean coastal plain it ranges from 80° to 84°, but at Tumaco, on the Pacific coast, within two degrees of the equator, it is only 79°. At Medellin, in the mountainous region of Antioquia, 4950 ft. above sea-level, the mean annual temperature is 70°, and the yearly rainfall 55 in., while at Bogotá, 8563 ft., the former is 57° and the latter 44 in. At Tuquerres, near the frontier of Ecuador, 10,200 ft. elevation, the mean annual temperature is said to be 55°. The changes of seasons are no less complicated and confusing. A considerable part of the republic is covered by the equatorial belt of calms, whose oscillations divide the year into a wet and dry season. This division is modified, however, by the location of mountain ranges and by elevation. In the Amazon region there is no great change during the year, and on the northern plains the so-called dry season is one of light rains except where mountain ranges break the sweep of the north-east trades. The alternating wet and dry seasons are likewise to be found on the Pacific coastal plain, though this region is not entirely dry and vegetation never dries up as on the _llanos_. Above the lowland plains the seasons vary in character according to geographical position and elevation. The two-season division rules in the departments of Santander and Antioquia, but without the extremes of humidity and aridity characteristic of the eastern plains. Farther south, at elevations between 800 and 9500 ft., the year is divided into four distinct seasons--two wet and two dry--the former called _inviernos_ (winters) and the latter _veranos_ (summers). These seasons are governed by the apparent movements of the sun, the winters occurring at the equinoxes and the summers at the solstices. The _sabana_ of Bogotá and neighbouring districts are subject to these changes of season. At higher altitudes long, cold, wet winters are experienced, with so short and cold a summer between them that the bleak _paramos_ are left uninhabited except by a few shepherds in the short dry season.

_Fauna._--The geographical position of Colombia gives to it a fauna and flora largely characteristic of the great tropical region of the Amazon on the south-east, and of the mountainous regions of Central America on the north-west. At the same time it is rich in animal and plant types of its own, especially the latter, and is considered one of the best fields in South America for the student and collector. The fauna is essentially tropical, though a few species characteristic of colder regions are to be found in the higher Andes. Of the Quadrumana there are at least seventeen distinct species, and this number may be increased after a thorough exploration of the forested eastern plains. They are all arboreal in habit, and are to be found throughout the forested lowlands and lower mountain slopes. The carnivora are represented by seven or eight species of the Felidae, the largest of which are the puma (_Felis concolor_) and the jaguar (_F. onca_). These animals, together with the smaller ocelot, have a wide geographical range, and are very numerous in the valley of the Magdalena. Two species of bear and the "coatí" (_Nasua_) represent the plantigrades and inhabit the mountain slopes, and, of Pachydermata, the peccary (_Dicotyles_) and "danta" or tapir (_Tapirus_) have a wide distribution throughout the lowland and lower plateau forests. The Colombian tapir is known as the _Tapirus Roulini_, and is slightly smaller than the Brazilian species (_T. americanus_). There are deer in the forests and on the open savannahs, the rabbit and squirrel are to be seen on the eastern slopes of the Andes, and partly amphibious rodents, the "capybara" (_Hydrochoerus_) and "guagua" (_Coelogenys subniger_), are very numerous along the wooded watercourses. The sloth, armadillo, opossum, skunk and a species of fox complete the list of the more common quadrupeds so far as known, though it is certain that a careful biological survey would discover many others. The large rivers of Colombia and the lakes of the lowlands are filled with alligators, turtles, and fish, and several species of fish are highly esteemed by the natives as food. The saurians are represented on land by several species of lizard, some of them conspicuous for their brilliant colouring, and by the large "iguana," whose flesh is considered a great delicacy. Among the ophidians, which include many harmless species, are the boa-constrictor, rattlesnake, the dreaded _Lachesis_ and the coral snake. The "manatee" (_Manatus americanus_) is found in the Atrato and other large Colombian rivers.

In bird and insect life Colombia is second only to Brazil. The condor, which inhabits the higher Cordilleras, is peculiar to the whole Andean region, and is the largest of the Raptores. Among other members of this order are the eagle, osprey, vulture, buzzard, kite and hawk, with about a dozen species in all. Parrots and paroquets are numerous everywhere in the tropical and subtropical regions, as also the gorgeously coloured macaw and awkward toucan. The largest class, perhaps, is that formed by the astonishing number of water-fowl which throng the shallow lagoons and river beaches at certain seasons of the year. They are mostly migratory in habit, and are to be found in many other countries. Among these are the large white crane and small crane, the blue heron, the snowy-white egret, the roseate spoonbill (_Platalea ajaja_), stork, bittern and many species of ducks. The largest and most conspicuous member of this interesting family is the _Mycteria americana_, the gigantic stork so frequently seen in the Amazon valley, and even more numerous about the lagoons of northern Colombia. One of the best game-birds of the forest is the "crested curassow" (_Crax alector_), sometimes weighing 12lb, which feeds on arboreal fruits and rarely comes to the ground. Colombia also possesses many species of the beautiful little humming-bird, among which are the tiny _Steganura Underwoodi_ and the sword-bill, _Docimastes ensiferus_, which were found by Mr Albert Millican on a bleak _paramo_ 12,000 ft. above sea-level. One of the most interesting birds found in the country is the "weaver-bird" (_Cassicus persicus_), which lives in colonies and suspends its long, pouch-like nest from the end of a horizontal branch of some high, isolated tree. In regard to insects, what has been said of Brazil will apply very closely to Colombia. Mosquitoes, butterflies, spiders, beetles and ants are infinitely numerous, and some of the species are indescribably troublesome.

_Flora._--The Colombian flora is richer in species and individual characteristics than the fauna, owing in part to its greater dependence on climatic conditions. It ranges from the purely tropical types of the lowlands to the Alpine species of the more elevated _paramos_. It should be remembered, however, that large areas of the lowland plains have only a very limited arboreal growth. These plains include the extensive llanos of the Orinoco tributaries where coarse, hardy grasses and occasional clumps of palms are almost the only vegetation to be seen. There are other open plains in northern Colombia, sometimes covered with a shrubby growth, and the "mesas" (flat-topped mountains) and plateaus of the Cordilleras are frequently bare of trees. Farther up, on the cold, bleak _paramos_, only stunted and hardy trees are to be found. On the other hand, a luxuriant forest growth covers a very large part of the republic, including the southern plains of the Amazon tributaries, the foothills, slopes and valleys of the Cordilleras, a larger part of the northern plains, and the whole surface of the Western Cordillera and coast. The most conspicuous and perhaps the most universal type in all these regions, below an approximate elevation of 10,000 ft., is the palm, whose varieties and uses are incredibly numerous. On the eastern plains are to be found the "miriti" (_Mauritia flexuosa_) and the "pirijao" or peach palm (_Guilielma speciosa_), called the "pupunha" on the Amazon, whose fruit, fibre, leaf, sap, pith and wood meet so large a part of the primary needs of the aborigines. A noteworthy palm of the eastern Andean slopes is the "corneto" (_Deckeria_), whose tall, slender trunk starts from the apex of a number of aerial roots, rising like a cone 6 to 8 ft. above the ground. It is one of the most fruitful of palms, its clusters weighing from 120 to 200 lb each. Extensive groves of the coco-nut palm are to be found on the Caribbean coast, the fruit and fibre of which figure among the national exports. In north-eastern Colombia, where a part of the year is dry, the "curuas" form the prevailing species, but farther south, on the slopes of the Cordilleras up to an elevation of 10,000 ft., the wax-palm, or "palma de cera" (_Ceroxylon andicola_), is said to be the most numerous. It is a tall slender palm, and is the source of the vegetable wax so largely used in some parts of the country in the manufacture of matches, a single stem sometimes yielding 16-20 lb. Another widely distributed species in central Colombia is known as the "palmita del Azufral" in some localities, and as the "palma real" and "palma dolce" in others. Humboldt says it is not the "palma real" of Cuba (_Oreodoxa regia_), but in the Rio Sinú region is the _Cocos butyracea_, or the "palma dolce," from which palm wine is derived. Another palm of much economic importance in Colombia is the "tagua" (_Phytelephas macrocarpa_), which grows abundantly in the valleys of the Magdalena, Atrato and Patia, and produces a large melon-shaped fruit in which are found the extremely hard, fine-grained nuts or seeds known in the commercial world as vegetable ivory. The Colombian "Panama hat" is made from the fibres extracted from the ribs of the fan-shaped leaves of still another species of palm, _Carludovica palmata_, while in the Rio Sinú region the natives make a kind of butter ("manteca de Corozo") from the _Elaeis melanococca_, Mart., by peeling the nuts in water and then purifying the oil extracted in this way by boiling. This oil was formerly used for illuminating purposes. The forests are never made up wholly of palms, but are composed of trees of widely different characters, including many common to the Amazon region, together with others found in Central American forests, such as mahogany and "vera" or lignum vitae (_Zygophyllum arboreum_). Brazilwood (_Caesalpinia echinata_), valuable for its timber and colouring extract, and "roco" (_Bixa orellana_), the "urucú" of Brazil which furnishes the anatto of commerce, are widely distributed in central and southern Colombia, and another species of the first-named genus, the _C. coariaria_, produces the "divi-divi" of the Colombian export trade--a peculiarly shaped seed-pod, rich in tannic and gallic acids, and used for tanning leather. The rubber-producing _Hevea guayanensis_ is found in abundance on the Amazon tributaries, and the _Castilloa elastica_ is common to all the Caribbean river valleys. Southern Colombia, especially the eastern slopes of the Andes, produces another valuable tree, the _Cinchona calisaya_, from the bark of which quinine is made. These are but a few of the valuable cabinet woods, dye-woods, &c., which are to be found in the forests, but have hardly been reached by commerce because of their inaccessibility and the unsettled state of the country. The adventurous orchid-hunter, however, has penetrated deeply into their recesses in search of choice varieties, and collectors of these valuable plants are largely indebted to Colombia for their specimens of _Cattleya Mendelli_, _Warscewiczii_ and _Trianae_; _Dowiana aurea_; _Odontoglossum crispum_, _Pescatorei_, _vexillarium_, _odoratum_, _coronarium_, _Harryanum_, and _blandum_; _Miltonia vexillaria_; _Oncidium carthaginense_ and _Kramerianum_; _Masdevalliae_, _Epidendra_, _Schomburgkiae_ and many others. Colombia is also the home of the American "Alpine rose" (_Befaria_), which is to be found between 9000 and 11,000 ft. elevation, and grows to a height of 5-6 ft. Tree ferns have a remarkable growth in many localities, their stems being used in southern Cundinamarca to make corduroy roads. The South American bamboo (_Bambusa guadia_) has a very wide range, and is found nearly up to the limit of perpetual snow. The cactus is also widely distributed, and is represented by several well-known species. Among the more common fruit-trees, some of which are exotics, may be mentioned cacáo (_Theobroma_), orange, lemon, lime, pine-apple, banana, guava (_Psidium_), breadfruit (_Artocarpus_), cashew (_Anacardium_), alligator pear (_Persea_), with the apple, peach, pear, and other fruits of the temperate zone on the elevated plateaus. Other food and economic plants are coffee, rice, tobacco, sugar-cane, cotton, indigo, vanilla, cassava or "yucca," sweet and white potatoes, wheat, maize, rye, barley, and vegetables of both tropical and temperate climates. It is claimed in Colombia that a species of wild potato found on the _paramos_ is the parent of the cultivated potato.

_Population._--The number of the population of Colombia is very largely a matter of speculation. A census was taken in 1871, when the population was 2,951,323. What the vegetative increase has been since then (for there has been no immigration) is purely conjectural, as there are no available returns of births and deaths upon which an estimate can be based. Civil war has caused a large loss of life, and the withdrawal from their homes of a considerable part of the male population, some of them for military service and a greater number going into concealment to escape it, and it is certain that the rate of increase has been small. Some statistical authorities have adopted 1½% as the rate, but this is too high for such a period. All things considered, an annual increase of 1% for the thirty-five years between 1871 and 1906 would seem to be more nearly correct, which would give a population in the latter year--exclusive of the population of Panama--of a little over 3,800,000. The _Statesman's Year Book_ for 1907 estimates it at 4,279,674 in 1905, including about 150,000 wild Indians, while Supan's _Die Bevölkerung der Erde_ (1904) places it at 3,917,000 in 1899. Of the total only 10% is classed as white and 15% as Indian, 40% as _mestizos_ (white and Indian mixture), and 35% negroes and their mixtures with the other two races. The large proportion of mestizos, if these percentages are correct, is significant because it implies a persistence of type that may largely determine the character of Colombia's future population, unless the more slowly increasing white element can be reinforced by immigration.

The white contingent in the population of Colombia is chiefly composed of the descendants of the Spanish colonists who settled there during the three centuries following its discovery and conquest. Mining enterprises and climate drew them into the highlands of the interior, and there they have remained down to the present day, their only settlements on the hot, unhealthy coast being the few ports necessary for commercial and political intercourse with the mother country. The isolation of these distant inland settlements has served to preserve the language, manners and physical characteristics of these early colonists with less variation than in any other Spanish-American state. They form an intelligent, high-spirited class of people, with all the defects and virtues of their ancestry. Their isolation has made them ignorant to some extent of the world's progress, while a supersensitive patriotism blinds them to the discredit and disorganization which political strife and misrule have brought upon them. A very small proportion of the white element consists of foreigners engaged in commercial and industrial pursuits, but they very rarely become permanently identified with the fortunes of the country. The native whites form the governing class, and enjoy most of the powers and privileges of political office.

Of the original inhabitants there remain only a few scattered tribes in the forests, who refuse to submit to civilized requirements, and a much larger number who live in organized communities and have adopted the language, customs and habits of the dominant race. Their total number is estimated at 15% of the population, or nearly 600,000, including the 120,000 to 150,000 credited to the uncivilized tribes. Many of the civilized Indian communities have not become wholly Hispanicized and still retain their own dialects and customs, their attitude being that of a conquered race submitting to the customs and demands of a social organization of which they form no part. According to Uricoechea there are at least twenty-seven native languages spoken in the western part of Colombia, fourteen in Tolima, thirteen in the region of the Caquetá, twelve in Panama, Bolívar and Magdalena, ten in Bogotá and Cundinamarca, and thirty-four in the region of the Meta, while twelve had died out during the preceding century. The tribes of the Caribbean seaboard, from Chiriqui to Goajira, are generally attached to the great Carib stock; those of the eastern plains show affinities with the neighbouring Brazilian races; those of the elevated Tuquerres district are of the Peruvian type; and the tribes of Antioquia, Cauca, Popayan and Neiva preserve characteristics more akin to those of the Aztecs than to any other race. At the time of the Spanish Conquest the most important of these tribes was the Muyscas or Chibchas, who inhabited the tablelands of Bogotá and Tunja, and had attained a considerable degree of civilization. They lived in settled communities, cultivated the soil to some extent, and ascribed their progress toward civilization to a legendary cause remarkably similar to those of the Aztecs of Mexico and the Incas of Peru. They are represented by some tribes living on the head-waters of the Meta, and their blood flows in the veins of the _mestizos_ of the Bogotá plateau. Their ancient language has been partly preserved through the labours of Gonzalo Bermudez, José Dadei, Bernardo de Lugo, and Ezequiel Uricoechea, the last having made it the subject of a special study. According to this author the Chibchas were composed of three loosely united nationalities governed by three independent chiefs--the _Zipa_ of Muequetá (the present Funza), the _Zaque_ of Hunsa (now Tunja), and the _Jeque_ of Iraca, who was regarded as the successor of the god Nemterequeteba, whom they worshipped as the author of their civilization. The latter had his residence at Suamoz, or Sogamoso.

The Tayronas, of the Santa Marta highlands, who have totally disappeared, were also remarkable for the progress which they had made toward civilization. Evidence of this is to be found in the excellent roads which they constructed, and in the skilfully made gold ornaments which have been found in the district which they occupied, as well as in the contemporary accounts of them by their conquerors. Among the tribes which are still living in a savage state are the Mesayas, Caquetas, Mocoas, Amarizanos, Guipanabis and Andaquies of the unsettled eastern territories; the Goajiros, Motilones, Guainetas, and Cocinas of the Rio Hacha, Upar and Santa Marta districts; and the Dariens, Cunacunas, and Chocos of the Atrato basin. These tribes have successfully resisted all efforts to bring them under political and ecclesiastical control, and their subjection is still a matter of no small concern to the Colombian government. As late as the year 1900 Mr Albert Millican, while collecting orchids on the Opon river, a tributary of the Magdalena between Bogotá and the Caribbean coast, was attacked by hostile Indians, and one of his companions was killed by a poisoned arrow. These hostile tribes are usually too small to make much trouble, but they are able to make exploration and settlement decidedly dangerous in some districts.

The _mestizos_, like the whites and Indians, chiefly inhabit the more elevated regions of the interior. They are of a sturdy, patient type, like their Indian ancestors, and are sufficiently industrious to carry on many of the small industries and occupations, and to meet the labour requirements of the inhabited plateau districts. Those of the urban middle classes are shopkeepers and artizans, and those of the lower class are domestics and day labourers. The whites of Spanish descent object to manual labour, and this places all such occupations in the hands of the coloured races. In the country the _mestizos_ are small agriculturists, herders, labourers and fishermen; but there are many educated and successful merchants and professional men among them. There are no social barriers in their intercourse with the whites, nor race barriers against those who have political aspirations. The negroes of pure blood are to be found principally on the coastal plains and in the great lowland river valleys, where they live in great part on the bounties of nature. A small percentage of them are engaged in trade and other occupations; a few are small agriculturists.

Bogotá was reputed to be a centre of learning in colonial times, but there was no great breadth and depth to it, and it produced nothing of real value. By nature the Spanish-American loves art and literature, and the poetic faculty is developed in him to a degree rarely found among the Teutonic races. Writing and reciting poetry are universal, and fill as important a place in social life as instrumental music. In Colombia, as elsewhere, much attention has been given to belles-lettres among the whites of Spanish descent, but as yet the republic has practically nothing of a permanent character to show for it. The natural sciences attracted attention very early through the labours of José Celestino Mútis, who was followed by a number of writers of local repute, such as Zea, Cabal, Cáldas, Pombo, Cespedes, Camacho and Lozano. We are indebted to Humboldt for our earliest geographical descriptions of the northern part of the continent, but to the Italian, Augustin Codazzi, who became a Colombian after the War of Independence, Colombia is indebted for the first systematic exploration of her territory. Geographical description has had a peculiar fascination for Colombian writers, and there have been a number of books issued since the appearance of Codazzi's _Resumen_ and _Atlas_. Historical writing has also received much attention, beginning with the early work of José Manuel Restrepo (1827), and a considerable number of histories, compendiums and memoirs have been published, but none of real importance. Some good work has been done in ethnography and archaeology by some writers of the colonial period, and by Ezequiel Uricoechea and Ernesto Restrepo.

_Territorial Divisions and Towns._--Previously to 1903 the republic was divided into nine departments, which were then reduced to eight by the secession of Panama. This division of the national territory was modified in 1905, by creating seven additional departments from detached portions of the old ones, and by cutting up the unsettled districts of Goajira and the great eastern plains into four _intendencias_. The fifteen departments thus constituted, with the official estimates of 1905 regarding their areas and populations, are as follows:--

Area Estimated Estimated Department. sq. m. Population. Capital. Population.

Antioquia 24,400 750,000 Medellin 60,000 Atlantico 1,080 104,674 Barranquilla 40,115 Bolívar 23,940 250,000 Cartagena 14,000 Boyacá 4,630 350,000 Tunja 10,000 Cáldas 7,920 150,000 Manizales 20,000 Cauca 26,030 400,000 Popayán 10,000 Cundinamarca 5,060 225,000 Facatativá 12,000 Galán 6,950 300,000 San Gil 15,000 Huila 8,690 150,000 Neiva 10,000 Magdalena 20,460 100,000 Santa Marta 6,000 Nariño 10,040 200,000 Pasto 6,000 Quesada 2,900 300,000 Zipaquirá 12,000 Santander 11,970 300,000 Bucaramanga 20,000 Tolima 10,900 200,000 Ibagué 12,000 Tundama 2,390 300,000 Santa Rosa 6,000 Federal District .. 200,000 Bogotá 120,000 Intendencias (4) 277,620 .. .. .. ------- --------- ------ ------ Totals 444,980 4,279,674 .. ..

Of these departments the original eight are Antioquia, Bolívar, Boyacá (or Bojacá), Cauca, Cundinamarca, Magdalena, Santander and Tolima. The four intendencias are called Goajira, Meta, Alto Caquetá and Putumayo, and their aggregate area is estimated to be considerably more than half of the republic. The first covers the Goajira peninsula, which formerly belonged to the department of Magdalena, and the other three roughly correspond to the drainage basins of the three great rivers of the eastern plains whose names they bear. These territories formerly belonged to the departments of Boyacá, Cundinamarca and Cauca. The seven new departments are: Atlantico, taken from the northern extremity of Bolívar; Cáldas, the southern part of Antioquia; Galán, the southern districts of Santander, including Charalá, Socorro, Velez, and its capital San Gil; Huila, the southern part of Tolima, including the headwaters of the Magdalena and the districts about Neiva and La Plata; Nariño, the southern part of Cauca extending from the eastern Cordillera to the Pacific coast; Quesada, a cluster of small, well-populated districts north of Bogotá formerly belonging to Cundinamarca, including Zipaquirá, Guatavita, Ubaté and Pacho; and Tundama, the northern part of Boyacá lying on the frontier of Galán in the vicinity of its capital Santa Rosa. The Federal District consists of a small area surrounding the national capital taken from the department of Cundinamarca. These fifteen departments are subdivided into provinces, 92 in all, and these into municipalities, of which there are 740.

The larger cities and towns of the republic other than the department capitals, with their estimated populations in 1904, are:--

Aguadas (Antioquia) 13,000 Antioquia " 13,000 Barbacoas (Nariño) 16,000 Buga (Cauca) 12,500 Cali (Cauca) 16,000 Chiquinquira (Boyacá) 18,000 La Mesa (Cundinamarca) 10,000 Pamplona (Santander) 11,000 Palmira (Cauca) 15,000 Pié de Cuesta (Santander) 12,000 Puerto Nacional 16,000 Rio Negro (Antioquia) 12,000 Santa Rosa de Osos (Antioquia) 11,000 Sonson 15,000 San José de Cúcuta (Santander) 13,000 Soatá (Boyacá) 16,000 Socorro (Galán) 20,000 Velez " 15,000

Among the smaller towns which deserve mention are Ambalema on the upper Magdalena, celebrated for its tobacco and cigars; Buenaventura (q.v.); Chaparral (9000), a market town of Tolima in the valley of the Saldaña, with coal, iron and petroleum in its vicinity; Honda (6000), an important commercial centre at the head of navigation on the lower Magdalena; Girardot, a railway centre on the upper Magdalena; and Quibdó, a small river town at the head of navigation on the Atrato.

_Communications._--The railway problem in Colombia is one of peculiar difficulty. The larger part of the inhabited and productive districts of the republic is situated in the mountainous departments of the interior, and is separated from the coast by low, swampy, malarial plains, and by very difficult mountain chains. These centres of production are also separated from each other by high ridges and deep valleys, making it extremely difficult to connect them by a single transportation route. The one common outlet for these districts is the Magdalena river, whose navigable channel penetrates directly into the heart of the country. From Bogotá the Spaniards constructed two partially-paved highways, one leading down to the Magdalena in the vicinity of Honda, while the other passed down into the upper valley of the same river in a south-westerly direction, over which communication was maintained with Popayan and other settlements of southern Colombia and Ecuador. This highway was known as the _camino real_. Political independence and misrule led to the abandonment of these roads, and they are now little better than the bridle-paths which are usually the only means of communication between the scattered communities of the Cordilleras. In some of the more thickly settled and prosperous districts of the Eastern Cordillera these bridle paths have been so much improved that they may be considered reasonably good mountain roads, the traffic over them being that of pack animals and not of wheeled vehicles. Navigation on the lower Magdalena closely resembles that of the Mississippi, the same type of light-draft, flat-bottomed steamboat being used, and similar obstacles and dangers to navigation being encountered. There is also the same liability to change its channel, as shown in the case of Mompox, once an important and prosperous town of the lower plain situated on the main channel, now a decaying, unimportant place on a shallow branch 20 m. east of the main river. Small steamers also navigate the lower Cauca and Nechi rivers, and a limited service is maintained on the upper Cauca.

With three exceptions all the railway lines of the country lead to the Magdalena, and are dependent upon its steamship service for transportation to and from the coast. In 1906, according to an official statement, these lines were: (1) The Barranquilla and Savanilla (Puerto Colombia), 17½ m. in length; (2) the Cartagena and Calamar, 65 m.; (3) the La Dorada & Arancaplumas (around the Honda rapids), 20½ m.; (4) the Colombian National, from Girardot to Facatativá, 80 m., of which 48½ m. were completed in 1906; (5) the Girardot to Espinal, 13½ m., part of a projected line running south-west from Girardot; (6) the Sabana railway, from Bogotá to Facatativá, 25 m.; (7) the Northern, from Bogotá to Zipaquirá, 31 m.; (8) the Southern, from Bogotá to Sibaté, 18 m.; and (9) the Puerto Berrio & Medellin, about 78 m. long, of which 36 are completed. The three lines which do not connect with the Magdalena are: (1) the Cúcuta and Villamazar, 43½ m., the latter being a port on the Zulia river near the Venezuelan frontier; (2) the Santa Marta railway, running inland from that port through the banana-producing districts, with 41½ m. in operation in 1907; and (3) the Buenaventura and Cali, 23 m. in operation inland from the former. This gives a total extension of 383 m. in 1906, of which 226 were built to connect with steamship transportation on the Magdalena, 49 to unite Bogotá with neighbouring localities, and 108 to furnish other outlets for productive regions. There is no system outlined in the location of these detached lines, though in 1905-1908 President Reyes planned to connect them in such a way as to form an extensive system radiating from the national capital. Tramway lines were in operation in Bogotá, Barranquilla and Cartagena in 1907.

The telegraph and postal services are comparatively poor, owing to the difficulty of maintaining lines and carrying mails through a rugged and uninhabited tropical country. The total length of telegraph lines in 1903 was 6470 m., the only cable connexion being at Buenaventura, on the Pacific coast. All the principal Caribbean ports and department capitals are connected with Bogotá, but interruptions are frequent because of the difficulty of maintaining lines through so wild a country.

There are only five ports, Buenaventura, Barranquilla, Cartagena, Santa Marta and Rio Hacha, which are engaged in foreign commerce, though Tumaco and Villamazar are favourably situated for carrying on a small trade with Ecuador and Venezuela. Colombia has no part in the carrying trade, however, her merchants marine in 1905 consisting of only one steamer of 457 tons and five sailing vessels of 1385 tons. Aside from these, small steamers are employed on some of the small rivers with barges, called "bongoes," to bring down produce and carry back merchandise to the inland trading centres. The coasting trade is insignificant, and does not support a regular service of even the smallest boats. The foreign carrying trade is entirely in the hands of foreigners, in which the Germans take the lead, with the British a close second. The Caribbean ports are in frequent communication with those of Europe and the United States.

_Agriculture._--The larger part of the Colombian population is engaged in agricultural and pastoral pursuits. Maize, wheat and other cereals are cultivated on the elevated plateaus, with the fruits and vegetables of the temperate zone, and the European in Bogotá is able to supply his table very much as he would do at home. The plains and valleys of lower elevation are used for the cultivation of coffee and other sub-tropical products, the former being produced in nearly all the departments at elevations ranging from 3500 to 6500 ft. This industry has been greatly prejudiced by civil wars, which not only destroyed the plantations and interrupted transportation, but deprived them of the labouring force essential to their maintenance and development. It is estimated that the revolutionary struggle of 1899-1903 destroyed 10% of the able-bodied agricultural population of the Santa Marta district, and this estimate, if true, will hold good for all the inhabited districts of the Eastern Cordillera. The best coffee is produced in the department of Cundinamarca in the almost inaccessible districts of Fusagasagá and La Palma. Tolima coffee is also considered to be exceptionally good. The department of Santander, however, is the largest producer, and much of its output in the past has been placed upon the market as "Maracaibo," the outlet for this region being through the Venezuelan port of that name. Coffee cultivation in the Santa Marta region is receiving much attention on account of its proximity to the coast.

The tropical productions of the lower plains include, among others, many of the leading products of the world, such as cacáo, cotton, sugar, rice, tobacco, and bananas, with others destined wholly for home consumption, as yams, cassava and arracacha. Potatoes are widely cultivated in the temperate and sub-tropical regions, and sweet potatoes in the sub-tropical and tropical. Although it is found growing wild, cacáo is cultivated to a limited extent, and the product is insufficient for home consumption. Cotton is cultivated only on a small scale, although there are large areas suitable for the plant. The staple product is short, but experiments have been initiated in the Santa Marta region to improve it. Sugar cane is another plant admirably adapted to the Colombian lowlands, but it is cultivated to so limited an extent that the sugar produced is barely sufficient for home consumption. Both cultivation and manufacture have been carried on in the old time way, by the rudest of methods, and the principal product is a coarse brown sugar, called _panela_, universally used by the poorer classes as an article of food and for making a popular beverage. Antiquated refining processes are also used in the manufacture of an inferior white sugar, but the quantity produced is small, and it is unable to compete with beet-sugar from Germany. A considerable part of the sugar-cane produced is likewise devoted to the manufacture of _chicha_ (rum), the consumption of which is common among the Indians and half-breeds of the Andean regions.

Rice is grown to a very limited extent, though it is a common article of diet and the partially submerged lowlands are naturally adapted to its production. Tobacco was cultivated in New Granada and Venezuela in colonial times, when its sale was a royal monopoly and its cultivation was restricted to specified localities. The Colombian product is best known through the Ambalema, Girardot, and Palmira tobacco, especially the Ambalema cigars, which are considered by some to be hardly inferior to those of Havana, but the plant is cultivated in other places and would probably be an important article of export were it possible to obtain labourers for its cultivation. Banana cultivation for commercial purposes is a comparatively modern industry, dating from 1892 when the first recorded export of fruit was made. Its development is due to the efforts of an American fruit-importing company, which purchased lands in the vicinity of Santa Marta for the production of bananas and taught the natives that the industry could be made profitable. A railway was built inland for the transportation of fruit to Santa Marta, and is being extended toward the Magdalena as fast as new plantations are opened. The growth of the industry is shown in the export returns, which were 171,891 bunches for 1892, and 1,397,388 bunches for 1906, the area under cultivation being about 7000 acres in the last-mentioned year. Yams, sweet potatoes, cassava and arracacha are chiefly cultivated for domestic needs, but in common with other fruits and vegetables they give occupation to the small agriculturalists near the larger towns.

The pastoral industry dates from colonial times and engages the services of a considerable number of people, but its comparative importance is not great. The open plains, "mesas," and plateaus of the north support large herds of cattle, and several cattle ranches have been established on the Meta and its tributaries. Live cattle, to a limited extent, are exported to Cuba and other West Indian markets, but the chief produce from this industry is hides. The department of Santander devotes considerable attention to horse-breeding. Goats are largely produced for their skins, and in some localities, as in Cauca, sheep are raised for their wool. Swine are common to the whole country, and some attention has been given to the breeding of mules.

_Minerals._--The mineral resources of Colombia are commonly believed to be the principal source of her wealth, and this because of the precious metals extracted from her mines since the Spanish invasion. The estimate aggregate for three and a half centuries is certainly large, but the exact amount will probably never be known, because the returns in colonial times were as defective as those of disorderly independence have been. Humboldt and Chevalier estimated the total output down to 1845 at £1,200,000, which Professor Soetbeer subsequently increased to £169,422,750. A later Colombian authority, Vicente Restrepo, whose studies of gold and silver mining in Colombia have been generally accepted as conclusive and trustworthy, after a careful sifting of the evidence on which these two widely diverse conclusions were based and an examination of records not seen by Humboldt and Soetbeer, reaches the conclusion that the region comprised within the limits of the republic, including Panama, had produced down to 1886 an aggregate of £127,800,000 in gold and £6,600,000 in silver. This aggregate he distributes as follows:--

16th century £10,600,000 17th " 34,600,000 18th " 41,000,000 19th " 41,600,000

According to his computations the eight Colombian departments, omitting Panama, had produced during this period in gold and silver:--

Antioquia £50,000,000 Cauca 49,800,000 Tolima 10,800,000 Santander 3,000,000 Bolívar 1,400,000 Cundinamarca 360,000 Magdalena 200,000 Boyacá 40,000 ------------ £115,600,000

Three-fourths of the gold production, he estimates, was derived from alluvial deposits. Large as these aggregates are, it will be seen that the annual production was comparatively small, the highest average, that for the 19th century, being less than £500,000 a year. Toward the end of the 19th century, after a decline in production due to the abolition of slavery and to civil wars, increased interest was shown abroad in Colombian mining operations. Medellin, the capital of Antioquia, is provided with an electrolytic refining establishment, several assaying laboratories, and a mint. The department of Cauca is considered to be the richest of the republic in mineral deposits, but it is less conveniently situated for carrying on mining operations. Besides this, the extreme unhealthiness of its most productive regions, the Chocó and Barbacoas districts on the Pacific slope, has been a serious obstacle to foreign enterprise. Tolima is also considered to be rich in gold and (especially) silver deposits. East of the Magdalena the production of these two metals has been comparatively small. In compensation the famous emerald mines of Muzo and Coscuez are situated in an extremely mountainous region north of Bogotá and near the town of Chiquinaquirá, in the department of Boyacá. The gems are found in a matrix of black slate in what appears to be the crater of a volcano, and are mined in a very crude manner. The mines are owned by the government. The revenue was estimated at £96,000 for 1904. Platinum is said to have been discovered in Colombia in 1720, and has been exported regularly since the last years of the 18th century. It is found in many parts of the country, but chiefly in the Chocó and Barbacoas districts, the annual export from the former being about 10,000 in value. Of the bulkier and less valuable minerals Colombia has copper, iron, manganese, lead, zinc and mercury. Coal is also found at several widely-separated places, but is not mined. There are also indications of petroleum in Tolima and Bolívar. These minerals, however, are of little value to the country because of their distance from the seaboards and the costs of transportation. Salt is mined at Zipaquirá, near Bogotá, and being a government monopoly, is a source of revenue to the national treasury.

_Manufactures._--The Pradera iron works, near Bogotá, carry on some manufacturing (sugar boilers, agricultural implements, &c.) in connexion with their mining and reducing operations. Pottery and coarse earthenware are made at Espinal, in Tolima, where the natives are said to have had a similar industry before the Spanish conquest. There are woollen mills at Popayan and Pasto, and small cigar-making industries at Ambalema and Palmira. Hat-making from the "jipijapa" fibre taken from the _Carludovica_ palm is a domestic industry in many localities, and furnishes an article of export. Friction matches are made from the vegetable wax extracted from the _Ceroxylon_ palm, and are generally used throughout the interior. Rum and sugar are products of a crude manufacturing industry dating from colonial times. A modern sugar-mill and refinery at Sincerin, 28 m. from Cartagena, was the first of its kind erected in the republic. It is partially supported by the government, and the concession provides that the production of sugar shall not be less than 2,600,000 lb per annum.

_Commerce._--In the Barranquilla customs returns for 1906 the imports were valued at $6,787,055 (U.S. gold), on which the import duties were $4,333,028, or an average rate of 64%. According to a statistical summary issued in 1906 by the U.S. Bureau of Statistics, entitled "Commercial America in 1905," the latest official return to the foreign trade of Colombia was said to be that of 1898, which was: imports 11,083,000 _pesos_, exports 19,158,000 _pesos_. Uncertainty in regard to the value of the _peso_ led the compiler to omit the equivalents in U.S. gold, but according to foreign trade returns these totals represent gold values, which at 4s. per peso are: imports £2,216,600, exports £3,831,600. In his annual message to congress on the 1st of April 1907, President Reyes stated that the imports for 1904 were $14,453,000, and the exports $12,658,000, presumably U.S. gold, as the figures are taken from the _Monthly Bulletin_ of the Bureau cf American Republics (July 1907). An approximate equivalent would be: imports £3,011,000, exports £2,637,000; which shows a small increase in the first and a very large decrease in the second. The imports include wheat flour, rice, barley, prepared foods, sugar, coal, kerosene, beer, wines and liquors, railway equipment, machinery and general hardware, fence wire, cotton and other textiles, drugs, lumber, cement, paper, &c., while the exports comprise coffee, bananas, hides and skins, tobacco, precious metals, rubber, cabinet woods, divi-divi, dye-woods, vegetable ivory, Panama hats, orchids, vanilla, &c.

_Government._--The government of Colombia is that of a centralized republic composed of 15 departments, 1 federal district, and 4 intendencias (territories). It is divided into three co-ordinate branches, legislative, executive and judicial, and is carried on under the provisions of the constitution of 1886, profoundly modified by the amendments of 1905. Previous to 1886, the departments were practically independent, but under the constitution of that year the powers of the national government were enlarged and strengthened, while those of the departments were restricted to purely local affairs. The departments are provided with biennial departmental assemblies, but their governors are appointees of the national executive.

The legislative branch consists of a senate and chamber of deputies, which meets at Bogotá biennially (after 1908) on February 1st for an ordinary session of ninety days. The Senate is composed of 48 members--3 from each department chosen by the governor and his departmental council, and 3 from the federal district chosen by the president himself and two of his cabinet ministers. Under this arrangement the president practically controls the choice of senators. Their term of office is four years, and is renewed at the same time and for the same period as those of the lower house. The chamber is composed of 67 members, elected by popular suffrage in the departments, on the basis of one representative for each 50,000 of population. The intendencias are represented by one member each, who is chosen by the intendant, his secretary, and 3 citizens elected by the municipal council of the territorial capital. As the constituent assembly which amended the constitution, according to the president's wishes in 1905, was to continue in office until 1908 and to provide laws for the regulation of elections and other public affairs, it appeared that the president would permit no expression of popular dissent to interfere with his purpose to establish a dictatorial régime in Colombia similar to the one in Mexico.

The executive power is vested in a president chosen by Congress for a period of four years. The first presidential period, dating from the 1st of January 1905, was for ten years, and no restriction was placed upon the choice of President Rafael Reyes to succeed himself. The constituent assembly gave the president exceptional powers to deal with all administrative matters. He is assisted by a cabinet of six ministers, interior, foreign affairs, finance, war, public instruction and public works, who are chosen and may be removed by himself. The office of vice-president is abolished, and the president is authorized to choose a temporary substitute from his cabinet, and in case of his death or resignation his successor is chosen by the cabinet or the governor of a department who happens to be nearest Bogotá at the time. The president is authorized to appoint the governors of departments, the intendants of territories, the judges of the supreme and superior courts, and the diplomatic representatives of the republic. His salary, as fixed by the 1905 budget, is £3600 a year, and his cabinet ministers receive £1200 each. The council of state is abolished and the senate is charged with the duty of confirming executive appointments.

The judicial branch of the government, like the others, has been in great measure reorganized. It consists of a supreme court of seven members at Bogotá, and a superior court in each judicial district. There are various inferior courts also, including magistrates or _jueces de paz_, but their organization and functions are loosely defined and not generally understood outside the republic. The supreme court has appellate jurisdiction in judicial matters, and original jurisdiction in impeachment trials and in matters involving constitutional interpretation. Under the constitution of 1886 the judges of the higher courts were appointed for life, but the reforms of 1905 changed their tenure to five years for the supreme court and four years for the superior courts, the judges being eligible for re-appointment.

The departments, which are administered by governors representing the national executive, are permitted to exercise restricted legislative functions relating to purely local affairs. Municipal councils are also to be found in the larger towns. The governor is assisted by a departmental council consisting of his secretaries and the president of the Corte de Cuentas, which places the political administration of the department under the direct control of the president at Bogotá.

The strength of the army is determined annually by congress, but every able-bodied citizen is nominally liable to military service. Its peace footing in 1898 was 1000 men. After the war of 1899-1903 its strength was successively reduced to 10,000 and 5000, a part of this force being employed in the useful occupation of making and repairing public roads. The navy in 1906 consisted of only three small cruisers on the Caribbean coast, and two cruisers, two gunboats, one troopship and two steam launches on the Pacific. There was also one small gunboat on the Magdalena.

_Education._--Although Bogotá was reputed to be an educational centre in colonial times, so slight an influence did this exert upon the country that Colombia ended the 19th century with no effective public school system, very few schools and colleges, and fully 90% of illiteracy in her population. This is due in great measure to the long reign of political disorder, but there are other causes as well. As in Chile, the indifference of the ruling class to the welfare of the common people is a primary cause of their ignorance and poverty, to which must be added the apathy, if not opposition, of the Church. Under such conditions primary schools in the villages and rural districts were practically unknown, and the parish priest was the only educated person in the community. Nominally there was a school system under the supervision of the national and departmental governments, but its activities were limited to the larger towns, where there were public and private schools of all grades. There were universities in Bogotá and Medellin, the former having faculties of letters and philosophy, jurisprudence and political science, medicine and natural sciences, and mathematics and engineering, with an attendance of 1200 to 1500 students. The war of 1899-1903 so completely disorganized this institution that only one faculty, medicine and natural sciences, was open in 1907. There were also a number of private schools in the larger towns, usually maintained by religious organizations. The reform programme of President Reyes included a complete reorganization of public instruction, to which it is proposed to add normal schools for the training of teachers, and agricultural and technical schools for the better development of the country's material resources. The supreme direction of this branch of the public service is entrusted to the minister of public instruction, and state aid is to be extended to the secondary, as well as to the normal, technical and professional schools. The secondary schools receiving public aid, however, have been placed in charge of religious corporations of the Roman Catholic Church. The expenditure on account of public instruction, which includes schools of all grades and descriptions, is unavoidably small, the appropriation for the biennium 1905-1906 being only £167,583. The school and college attendance for 1906, according to the president's review of that year, aggregated 218,941, of whom 50,691 were in Antioquia, where the whites are more numerous than in any other department; 4916 in Atlantico, which includes the city of Barranquilla, and in which the negro element preponderates; and only 12,793 in the federal district and city of Bogotá where the _mestizo_ element is numerous. Although primary instruction is gratuitous it is not compulsory, and these figures clearly demonstrate that school privileges have not been extended much beyond the larger towns. The total attendance, however, compares well with that of 1897, which was 143,096, although it shows that only 5% of the population, approximately, is receiving instruction.

_Religion._--The religious profession of the Colombian people is Roman Catholic, and is recognized as such by the constitution, but the exercise is permitted of any other form of worship which is not contrary to Christian morals or to the law. There is one Protestant church in Bogotá, but the number of non-Catholics is small and composed of foreign residents. There has been a long struggle between liberals and churchmen in Colombia, and at one time the latter completely lost their political influence over the government, but the common people remained loyal to the Church, and the upper classes found it impossible to sever the ties which bound them to it. The constitution of 1861 disestablished the Church, confiscated a large part of its property, and disfranchised the clergy, but in 1886 political rights were restored to the latter and the Roman Catholic religion was declared to be the faith of the nation. The rulers of the Church have learned by experience, however, that they can succeed best by avoiding partisan conflicts, and the archbishop of Bogotá gave effect to this in 1874 by issuing an edict instructing priests not to interfere in politics. The Church influence with all classes is practically supreme and unquestioned, and it still exercises complete control in matters of education. The Colombian hierarchy consists of an archbishop, residing at Bogotá, 10 bishops, 8 vicars-general, and 2170 priests. There were also in 1905 about 750 members of 10 monastic and religious orders. There were 270 churches and 312 chapels in the republic. Each diocese has its own seminary for the training of priests.

_Finance._--In financial matters Colombia is known abroad chiefly through repeated defaults in meeting her bonded indebtedness, and through the extraordinary depreciation of her paper currency. The public revenues are derived from import duties on foreign merchandise, from export duties on national produce, from internal taxes and royalties on liquors, cigarettes and tobacco, matches, hides and salt, from rentals of state emerald mines and pearl fisheries, from stamped paper, from port dues and from postal and telegraph charges. The receipts and expenditure are estimated for biennial periods, but it has not been customary to publish detailed results. Civil wars have of course been a serious obstacle, but it was announced by President Reyes in 1907 that the revenues were increasing. For the two years 1905 and 1906 the revenues were estimated to produce (at $5 to the £1 sterling) £4,203,823, the expenditures being fixed at the same amount. The expenditures, however, did not include a charge of £424,000, chiefly due on account of war claims and requisitions. During the first year of this period the actual receipts, according to the council of the corporation of foreign bondholders, were $9,149,591 gold (£1,829,918) and the payments $7,033,317 gold (£1,406,663). It was expected by the government that the 1906 revenues would largely exceed 1905, but the expectation was not fully realized, chiefly, it may be assumed, because of the inability of an impoverished people to meet an increase in taxation. An instance of this occurred in the promising export of live cattle to Cuba and Panama, which was completely suppressed in 1906 because of a new export tax of $3 gold per head. Of the expenditures about one-fourth is on account of the war department.

The foreign debt, according to the 1896 arrangement with the bondholders which was renewed in 1905, is £2,700,000, together with unpaid interest since 1896 amounting to £351,000 more. Under the 1905 arrangement the government undertook to pay the first coupons at 2½% and succeeding ones at 3%, pledging 12 to 15% of the customs receipts as security. The first payments were made according to agreement, and it was believed in 1907 that the succeeding ones, together with one-half of the unpaid interest since 1896, would also be met. It is worthy of note that this debt, principal and accumulated interest, exceeded six and a half millions sterling in 1873, and that the bondholders surrendered about 60% of the claim in the hope of securing the payment of the balance. It is also worthy of note that Panama refused to assume any part of this debt without a formal recognition of her independence by Colombia, and even then only a sum proportionate to her population. The internal debt of Colombia in June 1906 was as follows:--

Consolidated 5,476,887 dollars silver, Floating 2,345,658 " gold.

Whether or not this included the unpaid war claims was not stated.

_Money._---The monetary system, which has been greatly complicated by the use of two depreciated currencies, silver and paper, has been undergoing a radical reform since 1905, the government proposing to redeem the depreciated paper and establish a new uniform currency on a gold basis. The paper circulation in 1905 exceeded 700,000,000 _pesos_. The issue began in 1881 through the Banco Nacional de Colombia, its value then being equal to that of the silver coinage. Political troubles in 1884-1885 led to a suspension of cash payments in 1885, and in 1886 Congress made the notes inconvertible and of forced circulation. In 1894 the Banco Nacional ceased to exist as a corporation, and thenceforward the currency was issued for account of the national treasury. On October 16, 1899--the outstanding circulation then amounting to 46,000,000 _pesos_,--the government decreed an unlimited issue to meet its expenditures in suppressing the revolution, and later on the departments of Antioquia, Bolívar, Cauca, and Santander were authorized to issue paper money for themselves. This suicidal policy continued until February 28, 1903, when, according to an official statement, the outstanding paper circulation was:--

Pesos. National government issues 600,398,581 Department of Antioquia 35,938,495.60 " " Bolívar 18,702,100 " " Cauca 44,719,688.70 " " Santander 750,000 -------------- 700,598,865.30

So great was the depreciation of this currency that before the end of the war 100 American gold dollars were quoted at 22,500 _pesos_. The declaration of peace brought the exchange rate down to the neighbourhood of 10,000, where it remained, with the exception of a short period during the Panama Canal negotiations, when it fell to 6000. This depreciation (10,000) was equivalent to a loss of 99% of the nominal value of the currency, a paper _peso_ of 100 _centavos_ being worth only one centavo gold. International commercial transactions were based on the American gold dollar, which was usually worth 100 _pesos_ of this depreciated currency. Even at this valuation, the recognized outstanding circulation (for there had been fraudulent issues as well) amounted to more than £1,400,000. In 1903 Congress adopted a gold dollar of 1.672 grammes weight .900 fine (equal to the U.S. gold dollar) as the monetary standard created a redemption bureau for the withdrawal of the paper circulation, prohibited the further issue of such currency, and authorized free contracts in any currency. Previous to that time the law required all contracts to specify payments in paper currency. Certain rents and taxes were set aside for the use of the redemption bureau, and a nominally large sum has been withdrawn from circulation through this channel. On the 1st of January 1906, another monetary act came into operation, with additional provisions for currency redemption and improvement of the monetary system. A supplementary act of 1906 also created a new national banking institution, called the Banco Central, which is made a depository of the public revenues and is charged with a considerable part of their administration, including payments on account of the foreign debt and the conversion of the paper currency into coin. The new law likewise reaffirmed the adoption of a gold dollar of 1.672 grammes .900 fine as the unit of the new coinage, which is:--

_Gold_:-- Double condor = 20 dollars. Condor = 10 " Half condor = 5 " Dollar (mon. unit) = 100 cents. _Silver_:-- Half dollar = 50 cents. Peseta = 20 " Real = 10 " _Nickel_:--5 cents. _Bronze_:--2 cents and 1 cent.

The silver coinage (.900 fine) is limited to 10%, and the nickel and bronze coins to 2% of the gold coinage. The new customs tariff, which came into force at the same time, was an increase of 70% on the rates of 1904, and provided that the duties should be paid in gold, or in paper at the current rate of exchange. This measure was designed to facilitate the general resumption of specie payments.

_Weights and Measures._--The metric system of weights and measures has been the legal standard in Colombia since 1857, but its use is confined almost exclusively to international trade. In the interior and in all domestic transactions the old Spanish weights and measures are still used--including the Spanish _libra_ of 1.102 lb avoirdupois, the _arroba_ of 25 _libras_ (12½ kilogrammes), the quintal of 100 _libras_ (50 kilog.), the _carga_ of 250 _libras_ (125 kilogs.), the _vara_ of 80 centimetres, and the _fanega_. The litre is the standard liquid measure. (A. J. L.)

HISTORY

The coast of Colombia was one of the first parts of the American continent visited by the Spanish navigators. Alonso de Ojeda touched at several points in 1499 and 1501; and Columbus himself visited Veragua, Portobello, and other places in his last voyage in 1502. In 1508 Ojeda obtained from the Spanish crown a grant of the district from Cape Vela westward to the Gulf of Darien, while the rest of the country from the Gulf of Darien to Cape Gracias-a-Dios was bestowed on his fellow-adventurer, Nicuessa. The two territories designated respectively Nueva Andalucia and Castella de Oro were united in 1514 into the province of Tierra-firma, and entrusted to Pedro Arias de Avila. In 1536-1537 an expedition under Gonzalo Jimenez de Quesada made their way from Santa Marta inland by the river Magdalena, and penetrated to Bogotá, the capital of the Muiscas or Chibchas. Quesada gave to the country the name of New Granada.

By the middle of the century the Spanish power was fairly established, and flourishing communities arose along the coasts, and in the table-lands of Cundinamarca formerly occupied by the Muiscas. For the better government of the colony the Spanish monarch erected a presidency of New Granada in 1564, which continued till 1718, when it was raised to the rank of a viceroyalty. In the following year, however, the second viceroy, D. Jorge Villalonga, Count de la Cueva, expressing his opinion that the maintenance of this dignity was too great a burden on the settlers, the viceroyalty gave place to a simple presidency. In 1740 it was restored, and it continued as long as the Spanish authority, including within its limits not only the present Colombia, but also Venezuela and Ecuador. An insurrection against the home government was formally commenced in 1811, and an incessant war against the Spanish forces was waged till 1824.

In 1819 the great national hero, Bolivar (q.v.), effected a union between the three divisions of the country, to which was given the title of the Republic of Colombia; but in 1829 Venezuela withdrew, and in 1830, the year of Bolivar's death, Quito or Ecuador followed her example. The Republic of New Granada was founded on the 21st of November 1831; and in 1832 a constitution was promulgated, and the territory divided into eighteen provinces, each of which was to have control of its local affairs. The president was to hold office for four years; and the first on whom the dignity was bestowed was General Francisco de Paula Santander. His position, however, was far from enviable; for the country was full of all the elements of unrest and contention. One of his measures, by which New Granada became responsible for the half of the debts of the defunct republic of Colombia, gave serious offence to a large party, and he was consequently succeeded not, as he desired, by José Maria Obando, but by a member of the opposition, José Ignacio de Marquez. This gave rise to a civil war, which lasted till 1841, and not only left the country weak and miserable, but afforded an evil precedent which has since been too frequently followed. The contest terminated in favour of Marquez, and he was succeeded in May 1841 by Pedro Alcantara Herran, who had assisted to obtain the victory. In 1840 the province of Cartagena had seceded, and the new president had hardly taken office before Panama and Veragua also declared themselves independent, under the title of the State of the Isthmus of Panama. Their restoration was, however, soon effected; the constitution was reformed in 1843; education was fostered, and a treaty concluded with the English creditors of the republic. Further progress was made under General Tomas de Mosquera from 1845 to 1848; a large part of the domestic debt was cleared off, immigration was encouraged, and free trade permitted in gold and tobacco. The petty war with Ecuador, concluded by the peace of Santa Rosa de Carchi, is hardly worthy of mention. From 1849 to 1852 the reins were in the hands of General José Hilario Lopez, a member of the democratic party, and under him various changes were effected of a liberal tendency. In January 1852 slavery was entirely abolished. The next president was José Maria Obando, but his term of office had to be completed by vice-presidents Obaldia and Mallarino.

In 1853 an important alteration of the constitution took place, by which the right was granted to every province to declare itself independent, and to enter into merely federal connexion with the central republic, which was now known as the Granadine Confederation. In 1856 and 1857 Antioquia and Panama took advantage of the permission. The Conservative party carried their candidate in 1857, Mariano Ospino, a lawyer by profession; but an insurrection broke out in 1859, which was fostered by the ex-president Mosquera, and finally took the form of a regular civil war. Bogotá was captured by the democrats in July 1861, and Mosquera assumed the chief power. A congress at Bogotá established a republic, with the name of the United States of Colombia, adopted a new federal constitution, and made Mosquera dictator. Meanwhile the opposite party was victorious in the west; and their leader, Julio Arboleda, formed an alliance with Don Garcia Moreno, the president of Ecuador. He was assassinated, however, in 1862; and his successor, Leonardo Canal, came to terms with Mosquera at Cali. The dictatorship was resigned into the hands of a convention (February 1863) at Rio Negro, in Antioquia; a provisional government was appointed, a constitution was drawn up, and Mosquera elected president till 1864. An unsuccessful attempt was also made to restore the union between the three republics of the former federation. The presidency of Manuel Murillo Toro (1864-1866) was disturbed by various rebellions, and even Mosquera, who next came to the helm, found matters in such a disorganized condition that he offered to retire. On the refusal of his resignation, he entered into a struggle with the majority in the congress, and ultimately resorted to an adjournment and the unconstitutional arrest of 68 of the senators and representatives. To the decree of impeachment published by the congress he replied by a notice of dissolution and a declaration of war; but he soon found that the real power was with his opponents, who effected his arrest, and condemned him first to two years' imprisonment, but afterwards by commutation to two years' exile. The presidency of Santos Gutierrez (1868-1870) was disturbed by insurrections in different parts of the republic, the most important of which was that in Panama, where the most absolute disorganization prevailed. Under his successor, General E. Salgar, a Liberal candidate elected in opposition to General Herran, a treaty was finally concluded with the United States in connexion with an interoceanic canal, a bank was established at Bogotá, and educational reforms instituted. Manuel Murillo Toro (1872-1874) and Santiago Perez (1874-1876) saw the country apparently acquiring constitutional equilibrium, and turning its energies to the development of its matchless resources.

The election for the presidential term 1876-1878 resulted in favour of Aquiles Parra, who was succeeded in April 1878 by General Julian Trujillo. His administration was marked by a strong effort to place the financial position of the government on a more satisfactory footing, and the internal indebtedness was substantially reduced during his rule. In April 1880 Señor Rafael Nuñez acceded to the presidency. During his term of office revolutionary disturbances occurred in the provinces of Cauca and Antioquia, but were suppressed with no great difficulty. Provision was made in 1880 for a settlement of the boundary dispute with Costa Rica, and in July of that year the federal Congress authorized the formation of a naval squadron. A movement was now set afoot in favour of a confederation of the three republics of Colombia, Ecuador and Venezuela on the basis of the original conditions existing after the expulsion of Spanish authority, and a resolution was passed by the chamber of deputies to that effect. The opposition shown by Venezuela and Ecuador to this project prevented any definite result from being achieved. In April 1882 Señor Francisco J. Laldua became president, but his death occurring a year later, General José Eusebio Otalora was nominated to exercise the executive power for the unexpired portion of the term. In 1883 the dispute in connexion with the boundary between Colombia and Venezuela was submitted by the two governments to the arbitration of Alphonso XII., king of Spain, and a commission of five members was appointed to investigate the merits of the respective claims. The decision in this dispute was finally given by the queen regent of Spain on the 16th of March 1891. In April 1884 Señor Rafael Nuñez was again proclaimed president of the republic in his absence abroad. Pending his return the administration was left in the hands of General Campo Serrano and General Eliseo Payan. The Liberal party had been instrumental in the re-election of Nuñez, and looked for a policy in conformity with their views and political convictions. President Nuñez had no sooner returned to Colombia than the Liberals discovered that his political opinions had changed and had become strongly Conservative. Discontent at this condition of affairs soon spread. Nuñez from motives of ill-health did not openly assume the presidential office, but from his house near Cartagena he practically directed the government of the republic. The Liberals now began to foment a series of revolutionary movements, and these led in 1885 to a civil war extending over the departments of Boyaca, Cundinamarca, Magdalena and Panama. General Reyes and General Velez were the two principal leaders of the revolt. In order to protect the passage of the traffic across the Isthmus of Panama during these disturbed times detachments of United States marines were landed at Panama and Colon, in accordance with the terms of the concession under which the railway had been constructed. After a number of defeats the leaders of the revolt surrendered in August 1885, and on the 5th of September following peace was officially proclaimed. Nuñez, who had meanwhile assumed the presidential duties, now brought about a movement in favour of a fresh Act of Constitution for Colombia, and a new law to that effect was finally approved and promulgated on 4th August 1886. Under the terms of this act the federal system of government for Colombia was abolished, the states becoming departments, the governors of these political divisions being appointed by the president of the republic. Each department has a local legislative assembly elected by the people. The national congress is constituted of the Senate and the House of Representatives. The Senate is composed of twenty-seven members elected for six years, one-third retiring every two years, three of whom are nominated by each of the nine departments. The House of Representatives comprises members elected for four years by universal suffrage, each department forming a constituency and returning one member for every 50,000 inhabitants. Congress convenes every two years. The presidential term of office under the new act was fixed at six years in place of the two years formerly prevailing. The judiciary was irremovable, and trial by jury was allowed for criminal offences. Capital punishment was re-established, and the press was made responsible for matter published. The unlicensed trade in arms and ammunition thitherto existing was prohibited. Previous to 1886 the crime of murder was only punishable by 10 years' imprisonment, a sentence which in practice was reduced to two-thirds of that term; slander and libel were formerly offences which the law had no power to restrain, and no responsibility attached to seditious publications.

After the promulgation of this new Act of Constitution President Nuñez was proclaimed as president of the republic for the term ending in 1892. He was unable, however, in consequence of ill-health, to reside at Bogotá and discharge the presidential duties, and consequently in August 1888 Señor Cárlos Holguin was designated to act for him. In 1892 President Nuñez was again elected to the presidency for a term of six years, his continued ill-health, however, forcing him to place the active performance of his duties in the hands of the vice-president, Señor Miguel Caro. In 1895 the Liberals made another attempt to seize the government of the country, but the movement was suppressed without any very great difficulty. In this same year Nuñez died, and Vice-President Caro became the actual president, an office he had practically filled during the three previous years. In 1898 Señor M. A. Sanclemente, a strong Conservative, and supported by the Church party, was elected to the presidency for the period ending in 1904. In October 1899 the Liberals organized another revolutionary outbreak for the purpose of trying to wrest the power from Conservatives, but this attempt had no better success than the movements of 1885 and 1895. In January 1900, however, Vice-President José Marroquin seized upon the government, imprisoned President Sanclemente (who died in prison in March 1902), and another period of disturbance began. The rebels were defeated in May in a desperate battle at Cartagena; and continuous fighting went on about Panama, where British marines had to be landed to protect foreign interests. As the year 1900 advanced, the conflict went on with varying success, but the government troops were generally victorious, and in August Vice-President Marroquin was recognized as the acting head of the executive, with a cabinet under General Calderon. In 1901 the rebellion continued, and severe fighting took place about Colon. Further complications arose in August, when trouble occurred between Colombia and Venezuela. On the one hand, there were grounds for believing that the Clericals and Conservatives in both countries were acting together; and, on the other, it was expected that President Castro of Venezuela would not be sorry to unite his own countrymen, and to divert their attention from internal affairs, by a war against Colombia. The Colombian revolutionary leaders had made use of the Venezuelan frontier as a base of operations, and the result was an invasion of Venezuelan territory by Colombian government troops, an incident which at once caused a diplomatic quarrel. The United States government in September offered its good offices, but President Castro refused them, and the state of affairs became gradually more menacing. Meanwhile both Panama and Colon were seriously threatened by the rebel forces, who in November succeeded in capturing Colon by surprise. The situation was complicated by the fact that the railway traffic on the Isthmus was in danger of interruption, and on the capture of Colon it became necessary for the American, British and French naval authorities to land men for the protection of the railway and of foreign interests.

On the 18th of September the Venezuelans, who had entered Colombia, were totally routed near La Hacha, and after fierce fighting the insurgents at Colon were compelled to surrender on the 29th of November. But the Civil War was not yet ended. For another eight months it was to continue, causing immense damage to property and trade, and the loss of tens of thousands of lives. In many towns and villages the male population was almost entirely destroyed. Not till June 1903 was internal peace finally restored. In the autumn of that same year Colombia, exhausted and half ruined, was to suffer a further severe loss in the secession of Panama.

The abrogation of the Clayton-Bulwer treaty in 1901, and the failure of the second French company to construct a canal between Colon and Panama (see PANAMA CANAL) had, after many hesitations, induced the United States government to abandon the Nicaragua route and decide on adopting that of Panama. Negotiations were set on foot with Colombia, and an arrangement--under what was known as the Hay-Herran treaty--was made to the following effect. Colombia agreed (1) to the transfer of the rights, under the concession, of the French company to the United States; (2) to cede, on a hundred years' lease, a right of way for the canal, and a strip of land 5m. broad on either side of the waterway, and the two ports of Colon and Panama. The United States agreed to pay Colombia (1) £2,000,000 down in cash, and, ten years later, an annual rental of £50,000, and further a share of the price paid to the French company, _i.e._ £8,000,000, in which Colombia held 50,000 shares. This treaty was signed by the plenipotentiaries and ratified by the United States Senate. The Colombian Congress, however, refused to ratify the treaty on the ground that when the negotiations had taken place the country was in a state of siege, really in the hope of securing a larger money payment. The adjournment took place on the 31st of October. On the 3rd of November a revolution broke out at Panama, and the state seceded from Colombia and declared itself to be an independent republic. This opportune revolution was no doubt fomented by persons interested in the carrying through of the United States scheme for piercing the isthmus, but their task was one that presented no difficulties, for the isthmian population had been in a state of perennial insurrection against the central government for many years. Whoever may have instigated the rising, this much is certain, that American warships prevented the Colombian troops from landing to suppress the revolt. On the 7th of November the United States government formally recognized the independence of the republic of Panama (q.v.). The other powers in succession likewise recognized the new state; the recognition of Great Britain was given on the 26th of December. Colombia thus sacrificed a great opportunity of obtaining, by the ratification of the Hay-Herran treaty, such a pecuniary recompense for the interest in the territory through which the canal was to be constructed as would have gone far to re-establish her ruined financial credit.

In 1904 the troubled term of President Marroquin came to an end, and by the narrowest of majorities General Rafael Reyes was elected in his place. He had been sent as a special envoy to Washington to protest against the recognition of Panama, and to attempt to revive the Hay-Herran treaty, and to secure favourable terms for Colombia in the matter of the canal. He failed to do so, but it was recognized that he had discharged his difficult task with great skill and ability. On his accession to office as president he found the country exhausted and disorganized, more especially in the department of finance, and the congress was on the whole hostile to him. Finding himself hampered in his efforts to reform abuses, the president dissolved the congress, and summoned a national constituent and legislative assembly to meet on the 15th of March 1905, and with its aid proceeded to modify the constitution.

Having personal acquaintance with the success of the rule of President Porfirio Diaz in Mexico, General Reyes determined to set about the regeneration of Colombia by similar methods. His tenure of the presidency was extended to a term of ten years from the 1st of January 1905, and the restriction as to re-election at the end of that term was withdrawn, other alterations being made in the constitution with the effect of placing General Reyes really in the position of a dictator. He soon proved that he had the ability and the integrity of purpose to use his great opportunity for the benefit of his country. His firm and masterful government and wise measures did much to allay the spirit of unrest which had so long been the bane of Colombia, and though an attempt at assassination was made in the spring of 1906, the era of revolution appeared to be over.

The chief foreign treaties entered into by Colombia in the last quarter of the 19th century were:--(1) A treaty with Great Britain, signed on the 27th of October 1888, for the extradition of criminals; (2) a treaty of friendship, commerce and navigation with Italy, signed on the 27th of October 1892; (3) two protocols with Italy, signed respectively on the 24th of May and on the 25th of August 1886, in connexion with the affair of the Italian subject Cerruti; (4) a consular convention with Holland, signed on the 20th of July 1881; (5) a treaty of peace and friendship with Spain, signed on the 30th of January 1881; (6) a convention with Spain for the reciprocal protection of intellectual property; (7) a concordat with the Vatican, signed on the 31st of December 1887; (8) an agreement with the Vatican, signed on the 20th of August 1892, in connexion with ecclesiastical jurisdiction; (9) an agreement with the republic of San Salvador, signed on the 24th of December 1880, in regard to the despatch of a delegate to an international congress; (10) a treaty of peace, friendship and commerce with Germany, signed on the 23rd of July 1892; (11) a treaty with the republic of Costa Rica, signed in 1880, for the delimitation of the boundary; (12) the postal convention, signed at Washington, on the 4th of July 1891; (13) a convention with Great Britain, signed on the 31st of July 1896, in connexion with the claim of Messrs Punchard, M'Taggart, Lowther & Co.; (14) a treaty of friendship, commerce and navigation with Peru, signed on the 6th of August 1898; (15) an extradition treaty with Peru, signed on the 6th of August 1898; (16) a treaty of peace, friendship and defensive alliance with Venezuela, signed on the 21st of November 1896, and on the same date a treaty regulating the frontier commerce. (G. E.)

AUTHORITIES.--C. E. Akers, _A History of South America, 1854-1904_ (New York, 1905); J. J. Borda, _Compendio de historia de Colombia_ (Bogotá, 1890); Salvador Roldan Camacho, _Notas de viaje_ (Bogotá, 1890), and _Escritos varios_ (Bogotá, 1892); Dr Alfred Hettner, _Reisen in den colombianischen Anden_ (Leipzig, 1888); Angel Lemos, _Compendio de geografia de la Républica de Colombia_ (Medellin, 1894); Albert Millican, _Travels and Adventures of an Orchid Hunter_ (London, 1891); J. M. Cordovez Mauro, _Reminiscencias Santafé y Bogotá_ (Bogotá, 1899); Norris and Laird (Bureau of Navigation), _Telegraphic Determination of Longitudes in Mexico, Central America, the West Indies, and on the North Coast of South America_ (Washington, 1891); R. Nuñez and H. Jalhay, _La République de Colombia, géographie, histoire, &c._ (Bruxelles, 1893); J. M. Q. Otero, _Historia Patria_ (Bogotá, 1891); Lisimaco Palaü, _La Républica de Colombia_ (1893); M. Paz and F. Perez, _Atlas geográfico e histórico de la República de Colombia_ (1893); R. S. Pereira, _Les États Unis de Colombia_ (Paris, 1883); Felipe Perez, _Geografia general, fisica y politica de los Estados Unidos de Colombia_ (Bogotá, 1883); F. Loraine Petrie, _The Republic of Colombia_ (London, 1906); Elisée Réclus, _Geografia de Colombia_ (Bogotá, 1893); W. Reiss and A. Stübel, _Reisen in Südamerika. Geologische Studien in der Republik Colombia_ (Berlin, 1893); Ernesto Restrepo, _Ensayo etnografico y arqueologico de la provincia de los Quimbayas_ (Bogotá, 1892), and _Estudios sobre los aborigines de Colombia_ (Bogotá, 1892); Vicente Restrepo, _Estudio sobre las minas de oro y plata de Colombia_ (Bogotá, 1888, translated by C. W. Fisher, New York, 1886); W. L. Scruggs, _The Colombian and Venezuelan Republics_ (London, 1899; Boston, 1900); W. Sievers, _Reisen in der Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta_ (Leipzig, 1887); F. J. Vergara y Velasco, _Nueva geografia de Colombia_ (Bogotá, 1892); Frank Vincent, _Around and About South America_ (New York, 1890); R. G. Watson, _Spanish and Portuguese South America during the Colonial Period_ (2 vols., London, 1884).

See also the diplomatic and consular reports of Great Britain and the United States; publications of the International Bureau of American Republics (Washington, D.C.); Bureau of Statistics, _Commercial America in 1905_ (Washington, 1906).

FOOTNOTE:

[1] See A. Hettner and G. Linck, "Beiträge zur Geologie und Petrographie der columbianischen Anden," _Zeits. deutsch. geol. Ges._ vol. xl. (1888), pp. 204-230; W. Sievers, "Die Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta und die Sierra de Perijá," _Zeits. Ges. Erdk. Berlin_, vol. xxiii. (1888), pp. 1-158 and p. 442, Pls. i. and iii.; A. Hettner, "Die Kordillere von Bogotá," _Peterm. Mitt._, Ergänzungsheft 104 (1892), and "Die Anden des westlichen Columbiens," _Peterm. Mitt._ (1893), pp. 129-136; W. Reiss and A. Stübel, _Reisen in Süd America. Geologische Studien in der Republik Colombia_ (Berlin, 1892-1899),--a good geological bibliography will be found in part ii. of this work.

COLOMBIER, PIERRE BERTRAND DE (1299-1361), French cardinal and diplomatist, was born at Colombier in Ardèche. He was nephew and namesake of Cardinal Pierre Bertrand of Annonay. After a careful juristic education he was successively advocate at the parlement of Paris, intendant of the council of the count of Nevers (1321), and counsellor-clerk to the parlement (1329). Having taken holy orders, he became dean of St Quentin in 1330, and was employed to negotiate the marriage of the duke of Normandy, the future king John the Good of France, with the daughter of the king of Bohemia. In 1335 he became bishop of Nevers, in 1339 of Arras, and contributed to bring the county of Flanders into the kingdom of France. Created cardinal priest of St Susanna in 1344, he was employed by the pope on important missions, notably to negotiate peace or an armistice between France and England. Having become bishop of Ostia in 1353, he was sent next year to Charles IV. of Germany, and induced him to come to Italy to be crowned emperor at Rome, 1355. In 1356 he went to France to try to arrange a peace with England, and died in 1361 at the priory of Montaud near Avignon.

See A. Mazon, _Essai historique sur l'état du Vivarais pendant la guerre de cent ans_ (Paris, 1889), with references there.

COLOMBO, the capital and principal seaport of Ceylon, situated on the west coast of the island. Pop. (1901) 154,691. Colombo stands to the south of the mouth of the river Kelani. The coast-land is here generally low-lying, but broken by slight eminences. The great artificial harbour, enclosed by breakwaters, is bounded on the south by a slight promontory. This is occupied by the quarter of the city known as the Fort, from the former existence of a fort founded by the Portuguese and reconstructed by the Dutch. In 1869 the governor, Sir Hercules Robinson (afterwards Lord Rosmead), obtained authority to demolish the fortifications, which were obsolete for purposes of defence, and required 6000 men to man them properly. The levelling of the walls and filling up of the moat made the Fort much more accessible and healthy, and since then it has become the business centre of the city. Here are situated Queen's House, the governor's residence; the secretariat or government offices, and other government buildings, such as the fine general post office and the customs house. Here also are most of the principal hotels, which have a peculiarly high reputation among European hotels in the East. A lofty tower serves as the principal lighthouse of the port and also as a clock-tower. On the south side of the Fort are extensive barracks. The old banqueting-hall of the Dutch governors is used as the garrison church of St Peter.

To the north-east of the Fort, skirting the harbour, are the Pettah, the principal native quarter, the districts of Kotahena and Mutwall, and suburbs beyond. In this direction the principal buildings are the Wolfendahl church, a massive Doric building of the Dutch (1749); the splendid Roman Catholic cathedral of St Lucia (completed in 1904); and St Thomas's College (1851), which follows the lines of an English public school. Close to this last is the Anglican cathedral of Christ Church. The Kotahena temple is the chief Buddhist temple in Colombo.

To the north-east of the Fort is the Lake, a ramifying sheet of fresh water, which adds greatly to the beauty of the site of Colombo, its banks being clothed with luxuriant foliage and flowers. The narrow isthmus between this lake and the sea, south of the Fort, is called Galle Face, and is occupied chiefly by promenades and recreation grounds. The peninsula enclosed by two arms of the Lake is known as Slave Island, having been the site of a slave's prison under the Dutch. South-east of this is the principal residential quarter of Colombo, with the circular Victoria Park as its centre. To the east of the park a series of parallel roads, named after former British governors, are lined with beautiful bungalows embowered in trees. This locality is generally known as the Cinnamon Gardens, as it was formerly a Dutch reserve for the cultivation of the cinnamon bush, many of which are still growing here. In the park is the fine Colombo Museum, founded by Sir William Gregory; and near the neighbouring Campbell Park are the handsome buildings of a number of institutions, such as Wesley College, and the General, Victoria Memorial Eye and other hospitals. South of Victoria Park is the Havelock racecourse. Among educational establishments not hitherto mentioned are the Royal College, the principal government institution, the government technical college and St Joseph's Roman Catholic college. Most of the town is lighted by gas, and certain quarters with electric light, and electric tramways have been laid over several miles of the city roads. The water-supply is drawn from a hill region 30 m. distant.

Under British rule Colombo has shared in the prosperity brought to the island by the successive industries of coffee and tea-planting. At the height of the coffee-growing enterprise 20,000 men, women and children, chiefly Sinhalese and Tamils, found employment in the large factories and stores of the merchants scattered over the town, where the coffee was cleaned, prepared, sorted and packed for shipment. Tea, on the contrary, is prepared and packed on the estates; but there is a considerable amount of work still done in the Colombo stores in sorting, blending and repacking such teas as are sold at the local public sales; also in dealing with cacao, cardamoms, cinchona bark and the remnant still left of the coffee industry. But it is to its position as one of the great ports of call of the East that Colombo owes its great and increasing importance. A magnificent breakwater, 4200 ft. long, the first stone of which was laid by the prince of Wales in 1875, was completed in 1884. This breakwater changed an open roadstead into a harbour completely sheltered on the most exposed or south-west side; but there was still liability in certain months to storms from the north-west and south-east. Two additional arms were therefore constructed, consisting of a north-east and north-west breakwater, leaving two openings, one 800 ft. and the other 700 ft. wide, between the various sections. The area enclosed is 660 acres. A first-class graving-dock, of which the Admiralty bore half the cost, has also been added. These improvements caused Galle to be abandoned as a port of call for steamers in favour of Colombo, while Trincomalee has been abandoned as a naval station. The port has assumed first-class importance, mail steamers calling regularly as well as men-of-war and the mercantile marine of all nations; and it is now one of the finest artificial harbours in the world. The extension of railways also has concentrated the trade of the island upon the capital, and contributed to its rise in prosperity.

Colombo was originally known as the Kalantotta or Kalany ferry. By the Arabs the name was changed to Kolambu, and the town was mentioned by Ibn Batuta in 1346 as the largest and finest in Serendib. In 1517 the Portuguese effected a settlement, and in 1520 they fortified their port and bade defiance to the native besiegers. In 1586 the town was invested by Raja Singh, but without success. On its capture by the Dutch in 1656 it was a flourishing colony with convents of five religious orders, churches and public offices, inhabited by no fewer than 900 noble families and 1500 families dependent on mercantile or political occupations. In 1796 it was surrendered to the British.

COLON (formerly known as ASPINWALL), a city of the Republic of Panama, on the Atlantic coast, in the Bay of Limon, and 47 m. by rail N.W. of the city of Panama. Pop. (1908) about 3000, consisting largely of Jamaica negroes and natives of mixed Spanish, Indian and African descent. It is served by the Panama railway, which crosses the Isthmus of Panama from ocean to ocean. Colon has a deep, though poorly sheltered harbour, and is either the terminus or a place of call for seven lines of steamships. It thus serves as an entrepôt for much of the commerce between Atlantic and Pacific ports, and between the interior towns of Central and South America and the cities of Europe and the United States. The city lies on the west side of the low island of Manzanillo, is bordered on the landward sides by swamp, and consists mainly of unimposing frame houses and small shops. The most attractive parts are the American quarter, where the employés of the Panama railway have their homes, and the old French quarter, where dwelt the French officers during their efforts to build the canal. In this last district, near the mouth of the old canal, stands a fine statue of Christopher Columbus, the gift of the empress Eugénie in 1870. Here also stands the mansion erected and occupied by Ferdinand de Lesseps during his residence on the isthmus. With the exception of railway shops, there are no important industrial establishments.

Colon dates its origin from the year 1850, when the island of Manzanillo was selected as the Atlantic terminus of the Panama railway. The settlement was at first called Aspinwall, in honour of William H. Aspinwall (1807-1875), one of the builders of the railway; but some years afterwards its name was changed by legislative enactment to Colon, in honour of Christopher Columbus, who entered Limon Bay in 1502. The original name, however, survived among the English-speaking inhabitants for many years after this change. With the completion of the railway in 1855, the town supplanted Chagres (q.v.) as the principal Atlantic port of the isthmus. Later it acquired increased importance through its selection by de Lesseps as the site for the Atlantic entrance to his canal. During the revolution of 1885 it was partly burned and was rebuilt on a somewhat larger plan. As the city has always been notoriously unhealthful, the United States, on undertaking the construction of the Panama Canal (q.v.), became interested in preventing its becoming a centre of infection for the Canal Zone, and by the treaty of November 1903 secured complete jurisdiction in the city and harbour over all matters relating to sanitation and quarantine, and engaged to construct a system of waterworks and sewers in the municipality, which had been practically completed in 1907. The United States government has also opened a port at Cristobal, within the Canal Zone.

COLON, a town of Matanzas province, Cuba, on the railway between Matanzas and Santa Clara, and the centre of a rich sugar-planting country. Pop. (1907) 7124.

COLON, (1) (Gr. [Greek: kolon], miswritten and mispronounced as [Greek: kôlon], the term being taken from [Greek: kolos], curtailed), in anatomy, that part of the greater intestine which extends from the caecum to the rectum (see ALIMENTARY CANAL). (2.) (Gr. [Greek: kôlon], a member or part), originally in Greek rhetoric a short clause longer than the "comma," hence a mark (:), in punctuation, used to show a break in construction greater than that marked by the semicolon (;), and less than that marked by the period or full stop. The sign is also used in psalters and the like to mark off periods for chanting. The word is applied in palaeography to a unit of measure in MSS., amounting in length to a hexameter line.

COLONEL (derived either from Lat. _columna_, Fr. _colonne_, column, or Lat. _corona_, a crown), the superior officer of a regiment of infantry or cavalry; also an officer of corresponding rank in the general army list. The colonelcy of a regiment formerly implied a proprietary right in it. Whether the colonel commanded it directly in the field or not, he always superintended its finance and interior economy, and the emoluments of the office, in the 18th century, were often the only form of pay drawn by general officers. The general officers of the 17th and 18th centuries were invariably colonels of regiments, and in this case the active command was exercised by the lieutenant-colonels. At the present day, British general officers are often, though not always, given the colonelcy of a regiment, which has become almost purely an honorary office. The sovereign, foreign sovereigns, royal princes and others, hold honorary colonelcies, as colonels-in-chief or honorary colonels of many regiments. In other armies, the regiment being a fighting unit, the colonel is its active commander; in Great Britain the lieutenant-colonel commands in the field the battalion of infantry and the regiment of cavalry. Colonels are actively employed in the army at large in staff appointments, brigade commands, &c. extra-regimentally. Colonel-general, a rank formerly used in many armies, still survives in the German service, a colonel-general (_General-Oberst_) ranking between a general of infantry, cavalry or artillery, and a general field marshal (_General-Feldmarschall_). Colonels-general are usually given the honorary rank of general field marshal.

COLONIAL OFFICE, the department of the administration of the United Kingdom which deals with questions affecting the various colonial possessions of the British crown. The department as it now exists is of comparatively modern creation, dating only from 1854. The affairs of the English colonies began to assume importance at the Restoration, and were at first entrusted to a committee of the privy council, but afterwards transferred to a commission created by letters patent. From 1672 to 1675 the council for trade was combined with this commission, but in the latter year the colonies were again placed under the control of the privy council. This arrangement continued until 1695, when a Board of Trade and Plantations was created; its duty, however, was confined to collecting information and giving advice when required. The actual executive work was performed by the secretary of state for the southern department, who was assisted, from 1768 to 1782, by a secretary of state for the colonies. Both the Board of Trade and Plantations and the additional secretary were abolished in 1782, and the executive business wholly given over to the home office. In 1794 a third secretary of state was reappointed, and in 1801 this secretary was designated as secretary of state for war and the colonies. In 1854 the two offices were separated, and a distinct office of secretary of state for the colonies created.

The secretary of state for the colonies is the official medium of communication with colonial governments; he has certain administrative duties respecting crown colonies, and has a right of advising the veto of an act of a colonial legislature--this veto, however, is never exercised in the case of purely local statutes. He is assisted by a permanent and a parliamentary under-secretary and a considerable clerical staff.

As reorganized in 1907 the colonial office consists of three chief departments: (1) the Dominions Department, dealing with the affairs of the self-governing over-sea dominions of the British crown, and of certain other possessions geographically connected with those dominions; (2) the Colonial Department, dealing with the affairs of crown colonies and protectorates; (3) the General Department, dealing with legal, financial and other general business. In addition to these three departments, standing committees exist to take a collective view of such matters as contracts, concessions, mineral and other leases, and patronage.

COLONNA, a noble Roman family, second only to the Gaetani di Sermoneta in antiquity, and first of all the Roman houses in importance. The popes Marcellinus, Sixtus III., Stephen IV. and Adrian III. are said to have been members of it, but the authentic pedigree of the family begins with Pietro, lord of Columna, Palestrina and Paliano (about 1100), probably a brother of Pope Benedict IX. His great grandson Giovanni had two sons, respectively the founders of the Colonna di Paliano and Colonna di Sciarra lines. The third, or Colonna-Romano line, is descended from Federigo Colonna (1223). In the 12th century we find the Colonna as counts of Tusculum, and the family was then famous as one of the most powerful and turbulent of the great Roman clans; its feuds with the Orsini and the Gaetani are a characteristic feature of medieval Rome and the Campagna; like the other great nobles of the Campagna the Colonna plundered travellers and cities, and did not even spare the pope himself if they felt themselves injured by him. Boniface VIII. attempted to break their power, excommunicated them in 1297, and confiscated their estates. He proclaimed a crusade against them and captured Palestrina, but they afterwards revenged themselves by besieging him at Anagni, and Sciarra Colonna laid violent hands on His Holiness, being with difficulty restrained from actually murdering him (1303). In 1347 the Colonna, at that time almost an independent power, were defeated by Cola di Rienzi, but soon recovered. Pope Martin V. (1417-1431) was a Colonna, and conferred immense estates on his family, including Marino, Frascati, Rocca di Papa, Nettuno, Palinao, &c., in the Campagna, and other fiefs in Romagna and Umbria. Their goods were frequently confiscated and frequently given back, and the house was subject to many changes of fortune; during the reign of Pope Alexander VI. they were again humbled, but they always remained powerful and important, and members of the family rose to eminence as generals, prelates and statesmen in the service of the Church or other powers. In the war of 1522 between France and Spain there were Colonna on both sides, and at the battle of Lepanto (1571) Marc Antonio Colonna, who commanded the papal contingent, greatly distinguished himself. A detailed record of the Colonna family would be a history of Rome. To-day there are three lines of Colonna: (1) Colonna di Paliano, with two branches, the princes and dukes of Paliano, and the princes of Stigliano; (2) Colonna di Sciarra, with two branches, Colonna di Sciarra, princes of Carbagnano, and Barberini-Colonna, princes of Palestrina; and (3) Colonna-Romano. The Colonna palace, one of the finest in Rome, was begun by Martin V. and contains a valuable picture and sculpture gallery.

See A. von Reumont, _Geschichte der Stadt Rom_ (Berlin, 1868), containing an elaborate account of the family; F. Gregorovius, _Geschichte der Stadt Rom_ (Stuttgart, 1872); _Almanack de Gotha_. (L. V.*)

COLONNA, GIOVANNI PAOLO (_circa_ 1637-1695), Italian musician, was born in Bologna about 1637 and died in the same city on the 28th of November 1695. He was a pupil of Filippuzzi in Bologna, and of Abbatini and Benevoli in Rome, where for a time he held the post of organist at S. Apollinare. A dated poem in praise of his music shows that he began to distinguish himself as a composer in 1659. In that year he was chosen organist at S. Petronio in Bologna, where on the 1st of November 1674 he was made chapel-master. He also became president of the Philharmonic Academy of Bologna. Most of Colonna's works are for the church, including settings of the psalms for three, four, five and eight voices, and several masses and motets. He also composed an opera, under the title _Amilcare_, and an oratorio, _La Profezia d' Eliseo_. The emperor Leopold I. received a copy of every composition of Colonna, so that the imperial library in Vienna possesses upwards of 83 church compositions by him. Colonna's style is for the most part dignified, but is not free from the inequalities of style and taste almost unavoidable at a period when church music was in a state of transition, and had hardly learnt to combine the gravity of the old style with the brilliance of the new.

COLONNA, VITTORIA (1490-1547), marchioness of Pescara, Italian poet, daughter of Fabrizio Colonna, grand constable of the kingdom of Naples, and of Anna da Montefeltro, was born at Marino, a fief of the Colonna family. Betrothed when four years old at the instance of Ferdinand, king of Naples, to Ferrante de Avalos, son of the marquis of Pescara, she received the highest education and gave early proof of a love of letters. Her hand was sought by many suitors, including the dukes of Savoy and Braganza, but at nineteen, by her own ardent desire, she was married to de Avalos on the island of Ischia. There the couple resided until 1511, when her husband offered his sword to the League against the French. He was taken prisoner at the battle of Ravenna (1512) and conveyed to France. During the months of detention and the long years of campaigning which followed, Vittoria and Ferrante corresponded in the most passionate terms both in prose and verse. They saw each other but seldom, for Ferrante was one of the most active and brilliant captains of Charles V.; but Vittoria's influence was sufficient to keep him from joining the projected league against the emperor after the battle of Pavia (1525), and to make him refuse the crown of Naples offered to him as the price of his treason. In the month of November of the same year he died of his wounds at Milan. Vittoria, who was hastening to tend him, received the news of his death at Viterbo; she halted and turned off to Rome, and after a brief stay departed for Ischia, where she remained for several years. She refused several suitors, and began to produce those _Rime spirituali_ which form so distinct a feature in her works. In 1529 she returned to Rome, and spent the next few years between that city, Orvieto, Ischia and other places. In 1537 we find her at Ferrara, where she made many friends and helped to establish a Capuchin monastery at the instance of the reforming monk Bernardino Ochino, who afterwards became a Protestant. In 1539 she was back in Rome, where, besides winning the esteem of Cardinals Reginald Pole and Contarini, she became the object of a passionate friendship on the part of Michelangelo, then in his sixty-fourth year. The great artist addressed some of his finest sonnets to her, made drawings for her, and spent long hours in her society. Her removal to Orvieto and Viterbo in 1541, on the occasion of her brother Ascanio Colonna's revolt against Paul III., produced no change in their relations, and they continued to visit and correspond as before. She returned to Rome in 1544, staying as usual at the convent of San Silvestro, and died there on the 25th of February 1547.

Cardinal Bembo, Luigi Alamanni and Baldassare Castiglione were among her literary friends. She was also on intimate terms with many of the Italian Protestants, such as Pietro Carnesecchi, Juan de Valdes and Ochino, but she died before the church crisis in Italy became acute, and, although she was an advocate of religious reform, there is no reason to believe that she herself became a Protestant. Her life was a beautiful one, and goes far to counteract the impression of the universal corruption of the Italian Renaissance conveyed by such careers as those of the Borgia. Her amatory and elegiac poems, which are the fruits of a sympathetic and dainty imitative gift rather than of any strong original talent, were printed at Parma in 1538; a third edition, containing sixteen of her _Rime Spirituali_, in which religious themes are treated in Italian, was published at Florence soon afterwards; and a fourth, including a still larger proportion of the pious element, was issued at Venice in 1544.

A great deal has been written about Vittoria Colonna, but perhaps the best account of her life is A. Luzio's _Vittoria Colonna_ (Modena, 1885); A. von Reumont's _Vita di Vittoria Colonna_ (Italian corrected edit., Turin, 1883) is also excellent; F. le Fèvre's _Vittoria Colonna_ (Paris, 1856) is somewhat inaccurate, but T. Roscoe's _Vittoria Colonna_ (London, 1868) may be recommended to English readers; P. E. Visconti's _Le Rime di Vittoria Colonna_ (Rome, 1846) deals with her poems. (L. V.*)

COLONNADE, in architecture, a range of columns (Ital. _colonna_) in a row. When extended so as to enclose a temple, it is called a peristyle, and the same term applies when round an open court, as in the houses at Pompeii. When projecting in front of a building, it is called a portico, as in the Pantheon at Rome and the National Gallery in London. When enclosed between wings, as in Perrault's façade to the Louvre, it is correctly described as a colonnade. Colonnades lined the streets of the towns in Syria and Asia Minor, and they were largely employed in Rome.

COLONSAY, an island of the Inner Hebrides, Argyllshire, Scotland, 10 m. S. of the Ross of Mull. It is 7½ m. long by 3 m. broad. The highest point is Carnan Eoin (470 ft.). Towards the middle of the island lies Loch Fada, nearly 2 m. long but very narrow, and there are two other small lakes and a few streams. The coast-line, with frequent beautiful sandy reaches, is much indented, the chief bays being Kiloran, Kilchattan and Staosunaig. On the north-western coast the cliffs are particularly fine. To the south, separated by a strait that is fordable at low water, lies the isle of ORONSAY, 2¼ m. long by 2¾ m. wide. Both islands contain a number of ecclesiastical remains, standing stones, and some beautiful sculptured crosses. They are named after Columba and Oran, who are said to have stopped here after they left Ireland. There is regular communication between Scalasaig and Glasgow and the Clyde ports. The golf-course at Kilchattan lends a touch of modernity to these remote islands. Near Scalasaig a granite obelisk has been erected to the memory of Sir Duncan M'Neill (1794-1874), a distinguished Scottish lawyer, who took the title of Lord Colonsay when he became a lord of appeal. The soil of both islands is fertile, potatoes and barley being raised and cattle pastured. Population: Colonsay (1901), 301; Oronsay (1901), 12.

COLONY (Lat. _colonia_, from _colonus_, a cultivator), a term most commonly used to denote a settlement of the subjects of a sovereign state in lands beyond its boundaries, owning no allegiance to any foreign power, and retaining a greater or less degree of dependence on the mother country. The founding and the growth of such communities furnish matter for an interesting chapter in the history as well of ancient as of modern civilization; and the regulation of the relations between the parent state and its dependencies abroad gives rise to important problems alike in national policy and in international economics.

It was mainly the spirit of commercial enterprise that led the Phoenicians to plant their colonies upon the islands and along the southern coast of the Mediterranean; and even beyond the Pillars of Hercules this earliest great colonizing race left enduring traces of its maritime supremacy. Carthage, indeed, chief of the Phoenician settlements, sent forth colonies to defend her conquests and strengthen her military power; and these sub-colonies naturally remained in strict subjection to her power, whereas the other young Phoenician states assumed and asserted entire independence.

In this latter respect the Greek colonies resembled those of the Phoenicians. From a very early period the little civic communities of Greece had sent forth numerous colonizing streams. At points so far asunder as the Tauric Chersonese, Cyrene and Massilia were found prosperous centres of Greek commercial energy; but the regions most thickly peopled by settlers of Greek descent were the western seaboard of Asia Minor, Sicily and the southern parts of the Italian peninsula. Nor were the least prosperous communities those which were sprung from earlier colonies. The causes that led to the foundation of the Greek colonies were very various. As in Phoenicia, pressure created by the narrow limits of the home country coincided with an adventurous desire to seek new sources of wealth beyond seas; but very many Greek emigrations were caused by the expulsion of the inhabitants of conquered cities, or by the intolerable domination of a hated but triumphant faction within the native state. The polity of the new community, often founded in defiance of the home authorities, might either be a copy of that just left behind or be its direct political antithesis. But wherever they went, and whether, as apparently in Asia Minor, Greek blood was kept free from barbaric mixture, or whether, as in Magna Graecia and Sicily, it was mingled with that of the aboriginal races, the Greek emigrants carried with them the Hellenic spirit and the Hellenic tongue; and the colonies fostered, not infrequently more rapidly and more brilliantly than at home, Greek literature, Greek art and Greek speculation. The relation to be preserved towards the mother states was seldom or never definitely arranged. But filial feeling and established custom secured a measure of kindly sympathy, shown by precedence yielded at public games, and by the almost invariable abstinence of the colony from a hostile share in wars in which the mother city was engaged.

The relation of Rome to her colonies was altogether different. No Roman colony started without the sanction and direction of the public authority; and while the _Colonia Romano_ differed from the _Colonia Latina_ in that the former permitted its members to retain their political rights intact, the colony, whether planted within the bounds of Italy or in provinces such as Gaul or Britain, remained an integral part of the Roman state. In the earlier colonies, the state allotted to proposing emigrants from amongst the needy or discontented class of citizens portions of such lands as, on the subjection of a hostile people, the state took into its possession as public property. At a later time, especially after the days of Sulla, the distribution of the territories of a vanquished Roman party was employed by the victorious generals as an easy means of satisfying the claims of the soldiery by whose help they had triumphed. The Roman colonies were thus not merely valuable as _propugnacula_ of the state, as permanent supports to Roman garrisons and armies, but they proved a most effective means of extending over wide bounds the language and the laws of Rome, and of inoculating the inhabitants of the provinces with more than the rudiments of Roman civilization.

The occupation of the fairest provinces of the Roman empire by the northern barbarians had little in common with colonization. The Germanic invaders came from no settled state; they maintained loosely, and but for a short while, any form of brotherhood with the allied tribes. A nearer parallel to Greek colonization may be found in Iceland, whither the adherents of the old Norse polity fled from the usurpation of Harold Haarfager; and the early history of the English pale in Ireland shows, though not in orderliness and prosperity, several points of resemblance to the Roman colonial system.

Though both Genoese and Venetians in their day of power planted numerous trading posts on various portions of the Mediterranean shores, of which some almost deserve the name of colonies, the history of modern colonization on a great scale opens with the Spanish conquests in America. The first Spanish adventurers came, not to colonize, but to satisfy as rapidly as possible and by the labour of the enslaved aborigines, their thirst for silver and gold. Their conquests were rapid, but the extension of their permanent settlements was gradual and slow. The terrible cruelty at first exercised on the natives was restrained, not merely by the zeal of the missionaries, but by effective official measures; and ultimately home-born Spaniards and Creoles lived on terms of comparative fairness with the Indians and with the half-breed population. Till the general and successful revolt of her American colonies, Spain maintained and employed the latter directly and solely for what she conceived to be her own advantage. Her commercial policy was one of most irrational and intolerable restriction and repression; and till the end of Spanish rule on the American continent, the whole political power was retained by the court at Madrid, and administered in the colonies by an oligarchy of home-bred Spaniards.

The Portuguese colonization in America, in most respects resembling that of Spain, is remarkable for the development there given to an institution sadly prominent in the history of the European colonies. The nearness of Brazil to the coast of Africa made it easy for the Portuguese to supply the growing lack of native labour by the wholesale importation of purchased or kidnapped Africans.

Of the French it is admitted that in their colonial possessions they displayed an unusual faculty for conciliating the prejudices of native races, and even for assimilating themselves to the latter. But neither this nor the genius of successive governors and commanders succeeded in preserving for France her once extensive colonies in Canada or her great influence in India. In Algeria and West Africa the French government has not merely found practical training schools for her own soldiers, but by opening a recruiting field amongst the native tribes it has added an available contingent to the French army.

The Dutch took early a leading share in the carrying trade of the various European colonies. They have still extensive colonies in the East Indian Archipelago, as well as possessions in the West Indies. The Danish dependencies in the Antilles are but trifling in extent or importance.

It is the English-speaking race, however, that has shown the most remarkable energy and capacity for colonization. The English settlements in Virginia, New England, New York, New Jersey, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Delaware, South Carolina, North Carolina, and Georgia had, between the first decade of the 17th and the seventh decade of the 18th century, developed into a new nation, the United States of America. It is unnecessary here to deal with the development of what have since been the two great independent branches of the English-speaking people--those of the United States (q.v.) and of the British Empire (q.v.), as their history is given elsewhere. But the colonizing genius which, with the British Isles as centre, has taken up the "white man's burden" in all quarters of the globe, is universally recognized. In the problems of government raised by the organization of the British dominions beyond the seas the system of colonization has been developed to an extent unknown under any other national flag.

COLOPHON, an ancient city of Ionia, situated inland about 15 m. N. of Ephesus. Its port was at Notium or New Colophon. The site, now called _Tracha_ (only recognized towards the end of the 19th century), lies near Diermendere, 5 m. S. of Develikeui station on the Smyrna-Aidin railway, and about 2 m. from the farms and hamlet of Malkajik. It is almost entirely under cultivation, and there is little to be seen but remains of the walls and certain tumuli. Rich tombs, however, have been found beside the old roads leading to it, and the site is usually regarded as a particularly promising one for excavation, since Colophon was a very flourishing city in the great period of Ionia and had declined and been largely superseded by Notium before the Roman age. The common belief, however, that it had no existence after the time of Lysimachus is not borne out by the remains on the site. Founded by Andracmon of Pylos, it was at the acme of its prosperity in the 8th and 7th centuries B.C. up to the epoch of its sack by Gyges of Lydia in 665. It claimed to have produced Homer, but its greatest genuine literary name was Mimnermus. It seems to have been ruled by a rich aristocracy which provided a famous troop of horse; and, from the Greek saying, usually supposed to refer to the decisive effect of the final charge of this troop in battle, the word _colophon_ has come to be used for the final note appended to old printed books, containing date, &c. In 287 Lysimachus transferred a part of the population to his new city at Ephesus. Though an Ionian colony Colophon did not share in the common festival of the _Apaturia_ and seems to have been isolated for some reason among its neighbours, with one of whom, Ephesus, it was constantly at enmity. The forts by which Ephesus protected itself against Colophonian invasion are still to be seen on the hills north of the Caystrus.

Notium or New Colophon contained the important shrine of the Clarian Apollo, whose site has recently been identified with probability by Th. Makridy Bey during excavations conducted for the Ottoman museum.

See C. Schuchardt in _Athen. Mitteil._ (1886); W. M. Ramsay, _Hist. Geog. of Asia Minor_ (addenda) (1890). (D. G. H.)

COLOPHON, a final paragraph in some manuscripts and many early printed books (see BOOK), giving particulars as to authorship, date and place of production, &c. Before the invention of printing, a scribe when he had finished copying a book occasionally added a final paragraph at the end of the text in which he recorded the fact, and (if he were so minded) expressed his thankfulness to God, or asked for the prayers of readers. In the famous Bodleian MS. 264 of the _Roman d'Alexandre_ there is an unusually full note of this kind recording the completion of the copy on the 18th of December 1338 and ending--

"Explicit iste liber, scriptor sit crimine liber, Christus scriptorem custodiat ac det honorem."

Both in manuscripts and also in early printed books authors made use of such a final paragraph for expressing similar feelings. Thus the Guillermus who made a famous collection of sermons on the gospels for Sundays and saints' days records its completion in 1437 and submits it to the correction of charitable readers, and Sir Thomas Malory notes that his _Morte d'Arthur_ "was ended the ix yere of the reygne of Kyng Edward the fourth," and bids his readers "praye for me whyle I am on lyue that God sende me good delyuerance, and whan I am deed I praye you all praye for my soule." So again Jacobus Bergomensis records that his _Supplementum Chronicarum_ was finished "anno salutis nostre 1483. 3º Kalendas Julii in ciuitate Bergomi: mihi vero a natiuitate quadragesimo nono," and in the subsequent editions which he revised brings both the year and his own age up to date. Before printing was invented, however, such paragraphs were exceptional, and many of the early printers, notably Gutenberg himself, were content to allow their books to go out without any mention of their own names. Fust and Schoeffer, on the other hand, printed at the end of their famous psalter of 1457 the following paragraph in red ink:--_Presens spalmorum (sic for psalmorum) codex venustate capitalium decoratus Rubricationibusque sufficienter distinctus, Adinuentione artificiosa imprimendi ac caracterizandi absque calami vlla exaracione sic effigiatus, Et ad eusebiam dei industrie est consummatus, Per Iohannem fust ciuem maguntinum, Et Petrum Schoffer de Gernszheim Anno domini Millesimo. cccc. lvii In vigilia Assumpcionis_. Similar paragraphs in praise of printing and of Mainz as the city where the art was brought to perfection appear in most of the books issued by the partners and after Fust's death by Schoeffer alone, and were widely imitated by other printers. In their Latin Bible of 1462 Fust and Schoeffer added a device of two shields at the end of the paragraph, and this addition was also widely copied. Many of these final paragraphs give information of great value for the history of printing; many also, especially those to the early editions of the classics printed in Italy, are written in verse. As the practice grew up of devoting a separate leaf or page to the title of a book at its beginning, the importance of these final paragraphs slowly diminished, and the information they gave was gradually transferred to the title-page. Complete title-pages bearing the date and name of the publishers are found in most books printed after 1520, and the final paragraph, if retained at all, was gradually reduced to a bare statement of the name of the printer. From the use of the word in the sense of a "finishing stroke," such a final paragraph as has been described is called by bibliographers a "colophon" (Gr. [Greek: kolophôn]), but at what period this name for it was first used has not been ascertained. It is quite possibly not earlier than the 18th century. (For origin see COLOPHON [city].) (A. W. PO.)

COLORADO, a state of the American union, situated between 41° and 37° N. lat. and 102° and 109° W. long., bounded N. by Wyoming and Nebraska, E. by Nebraska and Kansas, S. by Oklahoma and New Mexico, and W. by Utah. Its area is 103,948 sq. m. (of which 290 are water surface). It is the seventh largest state of the Union.

_Physiography._--Colorado embraces in its area a great variety of plains, mountains and plateaus. It lies at the junction of the Great Plains--which in their upward slant to the westward attain an average elevation of about 4000 ft. along the east boundary of the state--with the Rocky Mountains, to the west of which is a portion of the Colorado Plateau. These are the three physiographic provinces of the state (see also UNITED STATES, section _Geology_, ad fin., for details of structure). The last-named includes a number of lofty plateaus--the Roan or Book, Uncompahgre, &c., which form the eastern continuation of the high plateaus of Utah--and covers the western quarter of the state. Its eastern third consists of rich, unbroken plains. On their west edge lies an abrupt, massive, and strangely uniform chain of mountains, known in the neighbourhood of Colorado Springs as the Rampart Range, and in the extreme north as the Front Range, and often denominated as a whole by the latter name. The upturning of the rocks of the Great Plains at the foot of the Front Range develops an interesting type of topography, the harder layers weathering into grotesquely curious forms, as seen in the famous Garden of the Gods at the foot of Pike's Peak. Behind this barrier the whole country is elevated 2000 ft. or so above the level of the plains region. In its lowest portions just behind the front ranges are the natural "parks"--great plateaus basined by superb enclosing ranges; and to the west of these, and between them, and covering the remainder of the state east of the plateau region, is an entanglement of mountains, tier above tier, running from north to south, buttressed laterally with splendid spurs, dominated by scores of magnificent peaks, cut by river valleys, and divided by mesas and plateaus. These various chains are known by a multitude of local names. Among the finest of the chains are the Rampart, Sangre de Cristo, San Juan, Sawatch (Saguache) and Elk ranges. The first, like the other ranges abutting from north to south upon the region of the prairie, rises abruptly from the plain and has a fine, bold outline. It contains a number of fine summits dominated by Pike's Peak (14,108 ft.). Much more beautiful as a whole is the Sangre de Cristo range. At its southern end are Blanca Peak (14,390) and Old Baldy (14,176, Hayden), both in Costilla county; to the northward are Rito Alto Peak (12,989, Wheeler), in Custer county, and many others of almost equal height and equal beauty. The mountains of the south-west are particularly abrupt and jagged. Sultan Mountain (13,366, Hayden), in San Juan county, and Mt. Eolus (14,079), in La Plata county, dominate the fine masses of the San Juan ranges; and Mt. Sneffels (14,158, Hayden), Ouray county, and Uncompahgre Peak (14,289), Hinsdale county, the San Miguel and Uncompahgre ranges, which are actually parts of the San Juan. Most magnificent of all the mountains of Colorado, however, are the Sawatch and adjoining ranges in the centre of the state. The former (the name is used a little loosely) consists of almost a solid mass of granite, has an average elevation of probably 13,000 ft., presents a broad and massive outline, and has a mean breadth of 15 to 20 m. Mt. Ouray (13,956 ft.), in Chaffee county, may be taken as the southern end, and in Eagle county, the splendid Mount of the Holy Cross (14,170)--so named from the figure of its snow-filled ravines--as the northern. Between them lie: in Chaffee county, Mt. Shavano (14,239, Hayden), Mt. Princeton (14,196, Hayden), Mt. Yale (14,187, Hayden), Mt. Harvard (14,375, Hayden), and La Plata Peak (14,342); in Pitkin county, Grizzly Peak (13,956, Hayden); in Lake county, Elbert Peak (14,421), and Massive mountain (14,424), the highest peak in the state; on the boundary between Summit and Park counties, Mt. Lincoln (14,297, Hayden); and, in Summit county, Mt. Fletcher (14,265). The Elk range is geologically interesting for the almost unexampled displacement of the strata of which it is composed, and the apparent confusion which has thence arisen. Among the most remarkable of its separate summits, which rise superbly in a crescent about Aspen, are North Italian Peak (13,225), displaying the red, white and green of Italy's national colours, White Rock Mountain (13,532), Mt. Owen (13,102), Teocalli Mountain (13,220), Snow Mass (13,970, Hayden) and Maroon (14,003, Hayden) mountains, Castle Peak (14,259), Capitol Mountain (13,997, Hayden), Pyramid Peak (13,885, Hayden), Taylor Peak (13,419), and about a dozen other summits above 12,000 ft. A few miles to the north and north-east of the Mount of the Holy Cross are Red Mountain (13,333, Wheeler), in Eagle county, Torrey Peak (14,336, Hayden) and Gray's Peak (14,341, Hayden), in Summit county, Mt. Evans (14,330, Hayden), in Clear Creek county, and Rosalie Peak (13,575), in Park county; a little farther north, in Gilpin, Grand and Clear Creek counties, James Peak (13,283, Hayden), and, in Boulder county, Long's Peak (14,271, Hayden). Many fine mountains are scattered in the lesser ranges of the state. Altogether there are at least 180 summits exceeding 12,000 ft. in altitude, more than 110 above 13,000 and about 40 above 14,000.

Cirques, valley troughs, numberless beautiful cascades, sharpened alpine peaks and ridges, glacial lakes, and valley moraines offer everywhere abundant evidence of glacial action, which has modified profoundly practically all the ranges. The Park Range east of Leadville, and the Sawatch Range, are particularly fine examples. Much of the grandest scenery is due to glaciation.

One of the most remarkable orographical features of the state are the great mountain "parks"--North, Estes, Middle, South and San Luis--extending from the northern to the southern border of the state, and lying (with the exception of Middle Park) just east of the continental divide. These "parks" are great plateaus, not all of them level, lying below the barriers of surrounding mountain chains. North Park, the highest of all, is a lovely country of meadow and forest. Middle Park is not level, but is traversed thickly by low ranges like the Alleghanies; in the bordering mountain rim are several of the grandest mountain peaks and some of the most magnificent scenery of the state. Estes Park is small, only 20 m. long and never more than 2 m. broad; it is in fact the valley of Thompson Creek. Its surface is one of charming slopes, and by many it is accounted among the loveliest of Colorado valleys. Seven ranges lie between it and the plains. South Park is similarly quiet and charming in character. Much greater than any of these is San Luis Park. The surface is nearly as flat as a lake, and it was probably at one time the bed of an inland sea. In the centre there is a long narrow lake fed by many streams. It has no visible outlet, but is fresh. The San Luis Park, which runs into New Mexico, is traversed by the Rio Grande del Norte and more than a dozen of its mountain tributaries. These parks are frequented by great quantities of large game, and--especially the North and Middle--are famous hunting-grounds. They are fertile, too, and as their combined area is something like 13,000 sq. m. they are certain to be of great importance in Colorado's agricultural development.

The drainage system of the state is naturally very complicated. Eleven topographical and climatic divisions are recognized by the United States Weather Bureau within its borders, including the several parks, the continental divide, and various river valleys. Of the rivers, the North Platte has its sources in North Park, the Colorado (the Gunnison and Grand branches) in Middle Park, the Arkansas and South Platte in South Park--where their waters drain in opposite directions from Palmer's Lake--the Rio Grande in San Luis Park. Three of these flow east and south-east to the Missouri, Mississippi and the Gulf; but the waters of the Colorado system flow to the south-west into the Gulf of California. Among the other streams, almost countless in number among the mountains, the systems of the Dolores, White and Yampa, all in the west, are of primary importance. The scenery on the head-waters of the White and Bear, the upper tributaries of the Gunnison, and on many of the minor rivers of the south-west is wonderfully beautiful. The South Platte falls 4830 ft. in the 139 m. above Denver; the Grand 3600 ft. in the 224 m. between the mouth of the Gunnison and the Forks; the Gunnison 6477 ft. in 200 m. to its mouth (and save for 16 m. never with a gradient of less than 10 ft.); the Arkansas 7000 ft. in its 338 m. west of the Kansas line. Of the smaller streams the Uncompahgre falls 2700 ft. in 134 m., the Las Animas 7190 ft. in 113 m., the Los Pinos 4920 ft. in 75 m., the Roaring Fork 5923 ft. in 64 m., the Mancos 5000 ft. in 62 m., the La Plata 3103 ft. in 43 m., the Eagle 4293 ft. in 62 m., the San Juan 3785 in 303, the Lake Fork of the Gunnison 6047 in 59. The canyons formed in the mountains by these streams are among the glories of Colorado and of America. The grandest are the Toltec Gorge near the Southern boundary line, traversed by the railway 1500 ft. above the bottom; the Red Gorge and Rouge Canyon of the Upper Grand, and a splendid gorge 16 m. long below the mouth of the Eagle, with walls 2000-2500 ft. in height; the Grand Canyon of the Arkansas (8 m.) above Canyon City, with granite walls towering 2600 ft. above the boiling river at the Royal Gorge; and the superb Black Canyon (15 m.) of the Gunnison and the Cimarron. But there are scores of others which, though less grand, are hardly less beautiful. The exquisite colour contrasts of the Cheyenne canyons near Colorado Springs, Boulder Canyon near the city of the same name, Red Cliff and Eagle River Canyons near Red Cliff, Clear Creek Canyon near Denver--with walls at places 1000 ft. in height--the Granite Canyon (11 m.) of the South Platte west of Florissant, and the fine gorge of the Rio de las Animas (1500 ft.), would be considered wonderful in any state less rich in still more marvellous scenery. One peculiar feature of the mountain landscapes are the mines. In districts like that of Cripple Creek their enormous ore "dumps" dot the mountain flanks like scores of vast ant-hills; and in Eagle River canyon their mouths, like dormer windows into the granite mountain roof, may be seen 2000 ft. above the railway.

Many parts of the railways among the mountains are remarkable for altitude, construction or scenery. More than a dozen mountain passes lie above 10,000 ft. Argentine Pass (13,000 ft.), near Gray's Peak, is one of the highest wagon roads of the world; just east of Silverton is Rio Grande Pass, about 12,400 ft. above sea-level, and in the Elk Mountains between Gunnison and Pitkin counties is Pearl Pass (12,715 ft.). Many passes are traversed by the railways, especially the splendid scenic route of the Denver and Rio Grande. Among the higher passes are Hoosier Pass (10,309 ft.) in the Park Range, and Hayden Divide (10,780) and Veta Pass (9390); both of these across the Sangre de Cristo range; the crossing of the San Miguel chain at Lizard Head Pass (10,250) near Rico; of the Uncompahgre at Dallas Divide (8977) near Ouray; of the Elk and Sawatch ranges at Fremont (11,320), Tennessee (10,229), and Breckenridge (11,470) passes, and the Busk Tunnel, all near Leadville; and Marshall Pass (10,846) above Salida. Perhaps finer than these for their wide-horizoned outlooks and grand surroundings are the Alpine Tunnel under the continental divide of the Lower Sawatch chain, the scenery of the tortuous line along the southern boundary in the Conejos and San Juan mountains, which are crossed at Cumbres (10,003 ft.), and the magnificent scenery about Ouray and on the Silverton railway over the shoulder of Red Mountain (attaining 11,235 ft.). Notable, too, is the road in Clear Creek Canyon--where the railway track coils six times upon itself above Georgetown at an altitude of 10,000 ft.

_Climate._--The climate of Colorado is exceptional for regularity and salubrity. The mean annual temperature for the state is about 46°. The mean yearly isothermals crossing the state are ordinarily 35° to 50° or 55° F. Their course, owing to the complex orography of the state, is necessarily extremely irregular, and few climatic generalizations can be made. It can be said, however, that the south-east is the warmest portion of the state, lying as it does without the mountains; that the north-central region is usually coldest; that the normal yearly rainfall for the entire state is about 15.5 in., with great local variations (rarely above 27 in.). Winds are constant and rather high (5 to 10 m.), and for many persons are the most trying feature of the climate. Very intense cold prevails of course in winter in the mountains, and intense heat (110° F. or more in the shade) is often experienced in summer, temperatures above 90° being very common. The locality of least annual thermometric range is Lake Moraine (10,268 ft. above the sea)--normally 91° F.; at other localities the range may be as great as 140°, and for the whole state of course even greater (155° or slightly more). The lowest monthly mean in 16 years (1887-1903) was 17.30. Nevertheless, the climate of Colorado is not to be judged severe, and that of the plains region is in many ways ideal. In the lowlands the snow is always slight and it disappears almost immediately, even in the very foothills of the mountains, as at Denver or Colorado Springs. However hot the summer day, its night is always cool and dewless. Between July and October there is little rain, day after day bringing a bright and cloudless sky. Humidity is moderate (annual averages for Grand Junction, Pueblo, Denver and Cheyenne, Wyo., for 6 A.M. about 50 to 66; for 6 P.M. 33 to 50); it is supposed to be increasing with the increasing settlement of the country. Sunshine is almost continuous, and splendidly intense. The maximum number of "rainy" days (with a rainfall of more than 0.01 in.) rarely approaches 100 at the most unfortunate locality; for the whole state the average of perfectly "clear" days is normally above 50%, of "partly cloudy" above 30, of "cloudy" under 20, of "rainy" still less. At Denver, through 11 years, the actual sunlight was 70% of the possible; many other points are even more favoured; very many enjoy on a third to a half of the days of the year above 90% of possible sunshine. All through the year the atmosphere is so dry and light that meat can be preserved by the simplest process of desiccation. "An air more delicious to breathe," wrote Bayard Taylor, "cannot anywhere be found; it is neither too sedative nor too exciting, but has that pure, sweet, flexible quality which seems to support all one's happiest and healthiest moods." For asthmatic and consumptive troubles its restorative influence is indisputable. Along with New Mexico and Arizona, Colorado has become more and more a sanitarium for the other portions of the Union. Among the secondary hygienic advantages are the numerous mineral wells.

_Flora and Fauna._--The life zones of Colorado are simple in arrangement. The boreal embraces the highest mountain altitudes; the transition belts it on both sides of the continental divide; the upper Sonoran takes in about the eastern half of the plains region east of the mountains, and is represented further by two small valley penetrations from Utah. Timber is confined almost wholly to the high mountain sides, the mountain valleys and the parks being for the most part bare. Nowhere is the timber large or dense. The timber-line on the mountains is at about 10,000 ft., and the snow line at about 11,000. It is supposed that the forests were much richer before the settlement of the state, which was followed by reckless consumption and waste, and the more terrible ravages of fire. In 1872-1876 the wooded area was estimated at 32% of the state's area. It is certainly much less now. The principal trees, after the yellow and lodgepole pines, are the red-fir, so-called hemlock and cedar, the Engelmann spruce, the cottonwood and the aspen (_Populus tremuloides_). In 1899 Federal forest reserves had been created, aggregating 4849 sq. m. in extent, and by 1910 this had been increased to 24,528 sq. m. The reserves cover altitudes of 7000 to 14,000 ft. The rainfall is ample for their needs, but no other reserves in the country showed in 1900 such waste by fire and pillage. The minor flora of the country is exceedingly rich. In the plains the abundance of flowers, from spring to autumn, is amazing.

Large game is still very abundant west of the continental divide. The great parks are a favourite range and shelter. Deer and elk frequent especially the mountains of the north-west, in Routt and Rio Blanco counties, adjoining the reservations of the Uncompahgre (White River Ute) and Uintah-Ute Indians--from whose depredations, owing to the negligence of Federal officials, the game of the state has suffered enormous losses. The bison have been exterminated. Considerable bands of antelope live in the parks and even descend to the eastern plains, and the mule-deer, the most common of large game, is abundant all through the mountains of the west. Grizzly or silver-tip, brown and black bears are also abundant in the same region. Rarest of all is the magnificent mountain sheep. Game is protected zealously, if not successfully, by the state, and it was officially estimated in 1898 that there were then probably 7000 elk, as many mountain sheep, 25,000 antelope and 100,000 deer within its borders (by far the greatest part in Routt and Rio Blanco counties). Fish are not naturally very abundant, but the mountain brooks are the finest home for trout, and these as well as bass, cat-fish and some other varieties have been used to stock the streams.

_Soil._--The soils of the lowlands are prevailing sandy loams, with a covering of rich mould. The acreage of improved lands in 1900 was returned by the federal census as 2,273,968, three times as much being unimproved; the land improved constituted 3.4% of the state's area. The lands available for agriculture are the lowlands and the mountain parks and valleys.

Speaking generally, irrigation is essential to successful cultivation, but wherever irrigation is practicable the soil proves richly productive. Irrigation ditches having been exempted from taxation in 1872, extensive systems of canals were soon developed, especially after 1880. The Constitution of Colorado declares the waters of its streams the property of the state, and a great body of irrigation law and practice has grown up about this provision. The riparian doctrine does not obtain in Colorado. In no part of the semi-arid region of the country are the irrigation problems so diverse and difficult. In 1903 there were, according to the governor, 10 canals more than 50 m. in length, 51 longer than 20 m., and hundreds of reservoirs. In 1899 there were 7374 m. of main ditches. The average annual cost of water per acre was then estimated at about 79 cents. The acres under ditch in 1902 were greater (1,754,761) than in any other state; and the construction cost of the system was then $14,769,561 (an increase of 25.6% from 1899 to 1902). There are irrigated lands in every county. Their area increased 8.9% in 1899-1902, and 80.9% from 1890 to 1900; in the latter year they constituted 70.9% of the improved farm-land of the state, as against 48.8 in 1890. The land added to the irrigated area in the decade was in 1890 largely worthless public domain; its value in 1900 was about $29,000,000. As a result of irrigation the Platte is often dry in eastern Colorado in the summer, and the Arkansas shrinks so below Pueblo that little water reaches Kansas. The water is almost wholly taken from the rivers, but underflow is also utilized, especially in San Luis Park. The South Platte is much the most important irrigating stream. Its valley included 660,495 acres of irrigated land in 1902, no other valley having half so great an area. The diversion of the waters of the Arkansas led to the bringing of a suit against Colorado by Kansas in the United States Supreme Court in 1902, on the ground that such diversion seriously and illegally lessened the waters of the Arkansas in Kansas. In 1907 the Supreme Court of the United States declared that Colorado had diverted waters of the Arkansas, but, since it had not been shown that Kansas had suffered, the case was dismissed, without prejudice to Kansas, should it be injured in future by diversion of water from the river. The exhaustion, or alleged exhaustion, by irrigation in Colorado of the waters of the Rio Grande has raised international questions of much interest between Mexico and the United States, which were settled in 1907 by a convention pledging the United States to deliver 60,000 acre-feet of water annually in the bed of the Rio Grande at the Acequia Madre, just above Juarez, in case of drought this supply being diminished proportionately to the diminution in the United States. As a part of the plans of the national government for reclamation of land in the arid states, imposing schemes have been formulated for such work in Colorado, including a great reservoir on the Gunnison. One of the greatest undertakings of the national reclamation service is the construction of 77 m. of canal and of a six-mile tunnel, beneath a mountain, between the canyon of the Gunnison and the valley of the Uncompahgre, designed to make productive some 140,000 acres in the latter valley.

Apart from mere watering, cultivation is in no way intensive. One of the finest farming regions is the lowland valley of the Arkansas. It is a broad, level plain, almost untimbered, given over to alfalfa, grains, vegetables and fruits. Sugar-beet culture has been found to be exceptionally remunerative in this valley as well as in those of the South Platte and Grand rivers. The growth of this interest has been since 1899 a marked feature in the agricultural development of the state; and in 1905, 1906 and 1907 the state's product of beets and of sugar was far greater than that of any other state; in 1907, 1,523,303 tons of beets were worked--more than two-fifths of the total for the United States. There are various large sugar factories (in 1903, 9, and in 1907, 16), mainly in the north; also at Grand Junction and in the Arkansas valley. The total value of all farm property increased between 1880 and 1900 from $42,000,000 to $161,045,101 and 45.9% from 1890 to 1900. In the latter year $49,954,311 of this was in live-stock (increase 1890-1900, 121.1%), the remaining value in land with improvements and machinery. The total value of farm products in 1899 was $33,048,576; of this sum 97% was almost equally divided between crop products and animal products, the forests contributing the remainder. Of the various elements in the value of all farm produce as shown by the federal census of 1900, live-stock, hay and grains, and dairying represented 87.2%. The value of cereals ($4,700,271)--of which wheat and oats represent four-fifths--is much exceeded by that of hay and forage ($8,159,279 in 1899). Wheat culture increased greatly from 1890 to 1900. Flour made from Colorado wheat ranks very high in the market. As a cereal-producing state Colorado is, however, relatively unimportant; nor in value of product is its hay and forage crop notable, except that of alfalfa, which greatly surpasses that of any other state. In 1906 the state produced 3,157,136 bushels of Indian corn, valued at $1,578,568; 8,266,538 bushels of wheat, valued at $5,373,250; 5,962,394 bushels of oats, valued at $2,683,077; 759,771 bushels of barley, valued at $410,276; 43,580 bushels of rye, valued at $24,405; and 1,596,542 tons of hay, valued at $15,167,149. The value of vegetable products, of fruits, and of dairy products was, relatively, equally small (only $7,346,415 in 1899). Natural fruits are rare and practically worthless. Apples, peaches, plums, apricots, pears, cherries and melons have been introduced. The best fruit sections are the Arkansas valley, and in the western and south-western parts of the state. Melons are to some extent exported, and peaches also; the musk-melons of the Arkansas valley (Rocky Ford Canteloupes) being in demand all over the United States. The fruit industry dates practically from 1890. The dairy industry is rapidly increasing. In the holdings of neat cattle (1,453,971) and sheep (2,045,577) it ranked in 1900 respectively seventeenth and tenth among the states of the Union; in 1907, according to the _Yearbook_ of the Department of Agriculture, there were in the state 1,561,712 neat cattle and 1,677,561 sheep. Stock-raising has always been important. The parks and mountain valleys are largely given over to ranges. The native grasses are especially adapted for fodder. The grama, buffalo and bunch varieties cure on the stem, and furnish throughout the winter an excellent ranging food. These native grasses, even the thin bunch varieties of dry hills, are surprisingly nutritious, comparing very favourably with cultivated grasses. Large areas temporarily devoted to cultivation with poor success, and later allowed to revert to ranges, have become prosperous and even noted as stock country. This is true of the sandhill region of eastern Colorado. The grass flora of the lowlands is not so rich in variety nor so abundant in quality as that of high altitudes. Before the plains were fenced large herds drifted to the south in the winter, but now sufficient hay and alfalfa are cut to feed the cattle during the storms, which at longest are brief. An account of Colorado agriculture would not be complete without mentioning the depredations of the grasshopper, which are at times extraordinarily destructive, as also of the "Colorado Beetle" (_Doryphora decemlineata_), or common potato-bug, which has extended its fatal activities eastward throughout the prairie states.

_Minerals._--Colorado is pre-eminently a mineral region, and to this fact it owes its colonization. It possesses unlimited supplies, as yet not greatly exploited, of fine building stones, some oil and asphalt, and related bituminous products, a few precious and semi-precious stones (especially tourmalines, beryls and aquamarines found near Canyon near the Royal Gorge of the Arkansas river), rare opalized and jasperized wood (in the eastern part of the El Paso county), considerable wealth of lead and copper, enormous fields of bituminous coal, and enormous wealth of the precious metals. In the exploitation of the last there have been three periods: that before the discovery of the lead-carbonate silver ores of Leadville in 1879, in which period gold-mining was predominant; the succeeding years until 1894, in which silver-mining was predominant; and the period since 1894, in which gold has attained an overwhelming primacy. The two metals are found in more than 50 counties, San Miguel, Gilpin, Boulder, Clear Creek, Lake, El Paso and Teller being the leading producers. The Cripple Creek field in the last-named county is one of the most wonderful mining districts, past or present, of America. Leadville, in Lake county, is another. The district about Silverton (product 1870-1900 about $35,000,000, principally silver and lead, and mostly after 1881) has also had a remarkable development; and Creede, in the years of its brief prosperity, was a phenomenal silver-field. From 1858 up to and including 1904 the state produced, according to the State Bureau of Mines (whose statistics have since about 1890 been brought into practical agreement with those of the national government) a value of no less than $889,203,323 in gold, silver, lead, copper and zinc at market prices. (If the value of silver be taken at coinage value this total becomes vastly greater.) The yield of gold was $353,913,695-$229,236,997 from 1895 to 1904; of silver, $386,455,463-$115,698,366 from 1889 to 1893; of lead, $120,742,674--its importance beginning in 1879; of copper, $17,879,446-$8,441,783 from 1898 to 1904; and of zinc, $10,212,045--all this from 1902 to 1904. Silver-mining ceased to be highly remunerative beginning with the closing of the India mints and repeal of the Sherman Law in 1893; since 1900 the yield has shown an extraordinary decrease--in 1905 it was $6,945,581, and in 1907 $7,411,652--and it is said that as a result of the great fall in the market value of the metal the mines can now be operated only under the most favourable conditions and by exercise of extreme economy. In Lake county, for example, very much of the argentiferous ore that is too low for remunerative extraction (limit 1903 about $12.00 per ton) is used for fluxes.[1] The copper output was of slight importance until 1889--$1,457,749 in 1905, and $1,544,918 in 1907; and that of zinc was nil until 1902, when discoveries made it possible to rework for this metal enormous dumps of waste material about the mines, and in 1906 the zinc output was valued at $5,304,884. Lead products declined with silver, but a large output of low ores has continued at Leadville, and in 1905 the product was valued at $5,111,570, and in 1906 at $5,933,829. Up to 1895 the gold output was below ten million dollars yearly; from 1898 to 1904 it ran from 21.6 to 28.7 millions. In 1897 the product first exceeded that of California. In 1907 the value was $20,826,194. Silver values ran, in the years 1880-1902, from 11.3 to 23.1 million dollars; and the quantities in the same years from 11.6 to 26.3 million ounces. In 1907 it was 11,229,776 oz., valued at $7,411,652. Regarding again the total combined product of the above five metals, its growth is shown by these figures for its value in the successive periods indicated: 1858-1879, $77,380,140; 1879-1888, $220,815,709; 1889-1898, $322,878,362; 1899-1904, $268,229,112. From 1900 to 1903 Colorado produced almost exactly a third of the total gold and silver (market value) product of the entire country.

In addition, iron ores (almost all brown hematite) occur abundantly, and all material for making steel of excellent quality. But very little iron is mined, in 1907 only 11,714 long tons, valued at $21,085. Of much more importance are the manganiferous and the silver manganiferous ores, which are much the richest of the country. Their product trebled from 1889 to 1903; and in 1907 the output of manganiferous ores amounted to 99,711 tons, valued at $251,207. A small amount is used for spiegeleisen, and the rest as a flux.

The stratified rocks of the Great Plains, the Parks, and the Plateaus contain enormous quantities of coal. The coal-bearing rocks are confined to the Upper Cretaceous, and almost wholly to the Laramie formation. The main areas are on the two flanks of the Rockies, with two smaller fields in the Parks. The east group includes the fields of Canyon City (whose product is the ideal domestic coal of the western states), Raton and the South Platte; the Park group includes the Cones field and the Middle Park; the west group includes the Yampa, La Plata and Grand River fields--the last prospectively (not yet actually) the most valuable of all as to area and quality. About three-fifths of all the coal produced in the state comes from Las Animas and Huerfano counties. In 1901 about a third and in 1907 nearly two-fifths of the state's output came from Las Animas county. The Colorado fields are superior to those of all the other Rocky Mountain states in area, and in quality of product. In 1907 Colorado ranked seventh among the coal-producing states of the Union, yielding 10,790,236 short tons (2.2% of the total for the United States). The total includes every variety from typical lignite to typical anthracite. The aggregate area of beds is estimated by the United States Geological Survey at 18,100 sq. m. (seventh in rank of the states of the Union); and the accessible coal, on other authority, at 33,897,800,000 tons. The industry began in 1864, in which year 500 tons were produced. The product first exceeded one million tons in 1882, two in 1888, three in 1890, four in 1893, five in 1900. From 1897 to 1902 the yield almost doubled, averaging 5,267,783 tons (lignite, semi-bituminous, bituminous, and a steady average production of 60,038 tons of anthracite). About one-fifth of the total product is made into coke, the output of which increased from 245,746 tons in 1890 to 1,421,579 tons (including a slight amount from Utah) in 1907; in 1907 the coke manufactured in Colorado (and Utah) was valued at $4,747,436. Colorado holds the same supremacy for coal and coke west of the Mississippi that Pennsylvania holds for the country as a whole. The true bituminous coal produced, which in 1897 was only equal to that of the lignitic and semi-bituminous varieties (1.75 million tons), had come by 1902 to constitute three-fourths (5.46 million tons) of the entire coal output. Much of the bituminous coal, especially that of the Canyon City field, is so hard and clean as to be little less desirable than anthracite; it is the favoured coal for domestic uses in all the surrounding states.

Petroleum occurs in Fremont and Boulder counties. There have been very few flowing wells. The product increased from 76,295 barrels in 1887 to above 800,000 in the early 'nineties; it fell thereafter, averaging about 493,269 barrels from 1899 to 1903; in 1905 the yield was 376,238 barrels; and in 1907, 331,851 barrels. In 1905 the state ranked eleventh, in 1907 twelfth, in production of petroleum. It is mostly refined at Florence, the centre of the older field. The Boulder district developed very rapidly after 1902; its product is a high-grade illuminant with paraffin base. Asphalt occurs in the high north rim of Middle Park (c. 10,000 ft.). Tungsten is found in wolframite in Boulder county. In 1903 about 37,000 men were employed in the mines of Colorado. Labour troubles have been notable in state history since 1890.

Mineral springs have already been mentioned. They are numerous and occur in various parts of the state. The most important are at Buena Vista, Ouray, Wagon Wheel Gap, Poncha or Poncho Springs (90°-185° F.), Canyon City, Manitou, Idaho Springs and Glenwood Springs (120°-140° F., highly mineralized). The last three places, all beautifully situated--the first at the base of Pike's Peak, the second in the Clear Creek Canyon, and the third at the junction of the Roaring Fork with the Grand river--have an especially high repute. In 1904 it was competently estimated that the mineral yield and agricultural yield of the state were almost equal--somewhat above $47,000,000 each.[2]

In 1900 only 4.6% of the population were engaged in manufactures. They are mainly dependent on the mining industry. There are many large smelters and reduction plants in the state, most of them at Denver, Leadville, Durango and Pueblo; at the latter place there are also blast-furnaces, a steel plant and rolling mills. Use is made of the most improved methods of treating the ore. The cyanide process, introduced about 1890, is now one of the most important factors in the utilization of low-grade and refractory gold and silver ores. The improved dioxide cyanide process was adopted about 1895. The iron and steel product--mainly at Pueblo--is of great importance, though relatively small as compared with that of some other states. Nevertheless, the very high rank in coal and iron interests of the state among the states west of the Mississippi, the presence of excellent manganiferous ores, a central position for distribution, and much the best railway system of any mountain state, indicate that Colorado will almost certainly eventually entirely or at least largely control the trans-Mississippi market in iron and steel. The Federal census of 1900 credited the manufacturing establishments of the state with a capital of $62,825,472 and a product of $102,830,137 (increase 1890-1900, 142.1%); of which output the gold, silver, lead and copper smelted amounted to $44,625,305. Of the other products, iron and steel ($6,108,295), flouring and grist-mill products ($4,528,062), foundry and machine-shop products ($3,986,985), steam railway repair and construction work ($3,141,602), printing and publishing, wholesale slaughtering and meat packing, malt liquors, lumber and timber, and coke were the most important. The production of beet sugar is relatively important, as more of it was produced in Colorado in 1905 than in any other state; in 1906 334,386,000 lb (out of a grand total for the United States of 967,224,000 lb) were manufactured here; the value of the product in 1905 was $7,198,982, being 29.2% of the value of all the beet sugar produced in the United States in that year.[3]

_Railways._--On the 1st of January 1909 there were 5403.05 m. of railway in operation. The Denver Pacific, built from Cheyenne, Wyoming, reached Denver in June 1870, and the Kansas Pacific, from Kansas City, in August of the same year. Then followed the building of the Denver & Rio Grande (1871), to which the earlier development of the state is largely due. The great Santa Fé (1873), Burlington (1882), Missouri Pacific (1887) and Rock Island (1888) systems reached Pueblo, Denver and Colorado Springs successively from the east. In 1888 the Colorado Midland started from Colorado Springs westward, up the Ute Pass, through the South Park to Leadville, and thence over the continental divide to Aspen and Glenwood Springs. The Colorado & Southern, a consolidation of roads connecting Colorado with the south, has also become an important system.

_Population._--The population of the state in 1870 was 39,864; in 1880, 194,327[4]; in 1890, 413,249; in 1900, 539,700; and in 1910, 799,024. Of the 1900 total, males constituted 54.7%, native born 83.1%. The 10,654 persons of coloured race included 1437 Indians and 647 Chinese and Japanese, the rest being negroes. Of 185,708 males twenty-one or more years of age 7689 (4.1%) were illiterate (unable to write), including a fourth of the Asiatics, a sixth of the Indians, one-nineteenth of the negroes, one in twenty-four of the foreign born, and one in 147.4 of the native born. Of 165 incorporated cities, towns and villages, 27 had a population exceeding 2000, and 7 a population of above 5000. The latter were Denver (133,859), Pueblo (28,137), Colorado Springs (21,085), Leadville (12,455), Cripple Creek (10,147), Boulder (6150) and Trinidad (5345). Creede, county-seat of Mineral county, was a phenomenal silver camp from its discovery in 1891 until 1893; in 1892 it numbered already 7000 inhabitants, but the rapid depreciation of silver soon thereafter caused most of its mines to be closed, and in 1910 the population was only 741. Grand Junction (pop. in 1910, 7754) derives importance from its railway connexions, and from the distribution of the fruit and other products of the irrigated valley of the Grand river. Roman Catholics are in the majority among church adherents, and Methodists and Presbyterians most numerous of the Protestant denominations. The South Ute Indian Reservation in the south of the state is the home of the Moache, Capote and Wiminuche Utes, of Shoshonean stock.

_Administration._--The first and only state constitution was adopted in 1876. It requires a separate popular vote on any amendment--though as many as six may be (since 1900) voted on at one election. Amendments have been rather freely adopted. The General Assemblies are biennial, sessions limited to 90 days (45 before 1884); state and county elections are held at the same time (since 1902). A declared intention to become a United States citizen ceased in 1902 to be sufficient qualification for voters, full citizenship (with residence qualifications) being made requisite. An act of 1909 provides that election campaign expenses shall be borne "only by the state and by the candidates," and authorized appropriations for this purpose. Full woman suffrage was adopted in 1893 (by a majority of about 6000 votes). Women have served in the legislature and in many minor offices; they are not eligible as jurors. The governor may veto any separate item in an appropriation bill. The state treasurer and auditor may not hold office during two consecutive terms. Convicts are deprived of the privilege of citizenship only during imprisonment. County government is of the commissioner type. There is a State Voter's League similar to that of Illinois.

In 1907 the total bonded debt of the state was $393,500; the General Assembly in 1906 authorized the issue of $900,000 worth of bonds to fund outstanding military certificates of indebtedness incurred in suppressing insurrections at Cripple Creek and elsewhere in 1903-1904. The question of issuing bonds for all outstanding warrants was decided to be voted on by the people in November 1908. Taxation has been very erratic. From 1877 to 1893 the total assessment rose steadily from $3,453,946 to $238,722,417; it then fell at least partly owing to the depreciation in and uncertain values of mining property, and from 1894 to 1900 fluctuated between 192.2 and 216.8 million dollars; in 1901 it was raised to $465,874,288, and fluctuated in the years following; the estimated total assessment for 1907 was $365,000,000.

Of charitable and reformatory institutions a soldiers' and sailors' home (1889) is maintained at Monte Vista, a school for the deaf and blind (1874) at Colorado Springs, an insane asylum (1879) at Pueblo, a home for dependent and neglected children (1895) at Denver, an industrial school for girls (1887) near Morrison, and for boys (1881) at Golden, a reformatory (1889) at Buena Vista, and a penitentiary (1868) at Canyon City. Denver was one of the earliest cities in the country to institute special courts for juvenile offenders; a reform that is widening in influence and promise. The parole system is in force in the state reformatory; and in the industrial school at Golden (for youthful offenders) no locks, bars or cells are used, the theory being to treat the inmates as "students." The state has a parole law and an indeterminate-sentence law for convicts.

The public school system of Colorado dates from 1861, when a school law was passed by the Territorial legislation; this law was superseded by that of 1876, which with subsequent amendments is still in force. In expenditure for the public schools per capita of total population from 1890 to 1903 Colorado was one of a small group of leading states. In 1906 there were 187,836 persons of school age (from 6 to 21) in the state, and of these 144,007 were enrolled in the schools; the annual cost of education was $4.34 per pupil. In 1902-1903, 92.5% of persons from 5 to 18 years of age were enrolled in the schools. The institutions of the state are: the University of Colorado, at Boulder, opened 1877; the School of Mines, at Golden (1873); the Agricultural College, at Fort Collins (1870); the Normal School (1891) at Greeley; and the above-mentioned industrial schools. All are supported by special taxes and appropriations--the Agricultural College receiving also the usual aid from the federal government. Experiment stations in connexion with the college are maintained at different points. Colorado College (1874) at Colorado Springs, Christian but not denominational, and the University of Denver, Methodist, are on independent foundations. The United States maintains an Indian School at Grand Junction.

_History._--According as one regards the Louisiana purchase as including or not including Texas to the Rio Grande (in the territorial meaning of the state of Texas of 1845), one may say that all of Colorado east of the meridian of the head of the Rio Grande, or only that north of the Arkansas and east of the meridian of its head, passed to the United States in 1803. At all events the corner between the Rio Grande and the Arkansas was Spanish from 1819 to 1845, when it became American territory as a part of the state of Texas; and in 1850, by a boundary arrangement between that state and the federal government, was incorporated in the public domain. The territory west of the divide was included in the Mexican cession of 1848. Within Colorado there are pueblos and cave dwellings commemorative of the Indian period and culture of the south-west. Coronado may have entered Colorado in 1540; there are also meagre records of indisputable Spanish explorations in the south in the latter half of the 18th century (friars Escallante and Dominguez in 1776). In 1806 Zebulon M. Pike, mapping the Arkansas and Red rivers of the Louisiana Territory for the government of the United States, followed the Arkansas into Colorado, incidentally discovering the famous peak that bears his name. In 1819 Major S. H. Long explored the valleys of the South Platte and Arkansas, pronouncing them uninhabited and uncultivable (as he also did the valley of the Missouri, whence the idea of the "Great American Desert"). His work also is commemorated by a famous summit of the Rockies. There is nothing more of importance in Colorado annals until 1858. From 1804 to 1854 the whole or parts of Colorado were included, nominally, under some half-dozen territories carved successively out of the Trans-Mississippi country; but not one of these had any practical significance for an uninhabited land. In 1828 (to 1832) a fortified trading post was established near La Junta in the Arkansas valley on the Santa Fé trail; in 1834-1836 several private forts were erected on the Platte; in 1841 the first overland emigrants to the Pacific coast crossed the state, and in 1846-1847 the Mormons settled temporarily at the old Mexican town of Pueblo. John C. Frémont had explored the region in 1842-1843 (and unofficially in later years for railway routes), and gave juster reports of the country to the world than his predecessors. Commerce was tributary in these years to the (New) Mexican town of Taos.

Colorado was practically an unknown country when in 1858 gold was discovered in the plains, on the tributaries of the South Platte, near Denver. In 1859 various discoveries were made in the mountains. The history of Denver goes back to this time. Julesburg, in the extreme north-east corner, at the intersection of the Platte valley and the overland wagon route, became transiently important during the rush of settlers that followed. Emigration from the East was stimulated by the panic and hard times following 1857. During 1860, 1861 and 1862 there was a continuous stream of immigration. Denver (under its present name), Black Hawk, Golden, Central City, Mount Vernon and Nevada City were all founded in 1859; Breckenridge, Empire, Gold Hill, Georgetown and Mill City date from 1860 and 1861. The political development of the next few years was very complicated. "Arapahoe County," including all Colorado, was organized as a part of Kansas Territory in 1858; but a delegate was also sent to Congress to work for the admission of an independent territory (called "Jefferson"). At the same time, early in 1860, a movement for statehood was inaugurated, a constitution being framed and submitted to the people, who rejected it, adopting later in the year a constitution of territorial government. Accordingly the Territory of Jefferson arose, assuming to rule over six degrees of latitude (37°-43°) and eight of longitude (102°-110°). Then there was the Kansas territorial government also, and under this a full county organization was maintained. Finally, peoples' court, acting wholly without reference to Kansas, and with no more than suited them (some districts refusing taxes) to the local "provisional" legislature, secured justice in the mining country. The provisional legislature of the Territory of Jefferson maintained a wholly illegal but rather creditable existence somewhat precariously and ineffectively until 1861. Its acts, owing to the indifference of the settlers, had slight importance. Some, such as the first charter of Denver, were later re-enacted under the legal territorial government, organized by the United States in February 1861. Colorado City was the first capital, but was soon replaced by Golden, which was the capital from 1862 until 1868, when Denver was made the seat of government (in 1881 permanently, by vote of the people). In 1862 some Texas forces were defeated by Colorado forces in an attempt to occupy the territory for the Confederacy. From 1864 to 1870 there was trouble with the Cheyenne and Arapahoe Indians. A sanguinary attack on an Indian camp in Kiowa county in 1864 is known as the Sand Creek Massacre. In 1867 the Republican party had prepared for the admission of Colorado as a state, but the enabling act was vetoed by President Johnson, and statehood was not gained until 1876. Finally, under a congressional enabling act of the 3rd of March 1875, a constitution was framed by a convention at Denver (20th of December 1875 to 14th of March 1876) and adopted by the people on the 1st of July 1876. The admission of Colorado to the Union was thereupon proclaimed on the 1st of August 1876.

From this time on the history of the state was long largely that of her great mining camps. After 1890 industrial conditions were confused and temporarily set greatly backward by strikes and lockouts in the mines, particularly in 1894, 1896-1897 and 1903-1904, several times threatening civil war and necessitating the establishment of martial law. Questions of railways, of franchises, union scales and the recognition of the union in contracts, questions of sheep and cattle interests, politics, civic, legal and industrial questions, all entered into the economic troubles of these years. The Colorado "labour wars" were among the most important struggles between labour and capital, and afforded probably the most sensational episodes in the story of all labour troubles in the United States in these years. A state board of arbitration was created in 1896, but its usefulness was impaired by an opinion of the state attorney-general (in 1901) that it could not enforce subpoenas, compel testimony or enforce decisions. A law establishing an eight-hour day for underground miners and smelter employees (1899) was unanimously voided by the state supreme court, but in 1902 the people amended the constitution and ordered the general assembly to re-enact the law for labourers in mines, smelters and dangerous employments. Following the repeal of the Sherman Law and other acts and tendencies unfavourable to silver coinage in 1893 and thereafter, the silver question became the dominant issue in politics, resulting in the success of the Populist-Democratic fusion party in three successive elections, and permanently and greatly altering prior party organizations.

The governors of Colorado have been as follows:--

_Territorial._

W. Gilpin 1861 E. M. McCook 1869 J. Evans 1862 S. H. Elbert 1873 A. Cummings 1865 E. M. McCook 1874 A. C. Hunt 1867 J. L. Routt 1875

_State._

J. L. Routt Republican 1876 F. W. Pitkin " 1879 J. B. Grant Democrat 1883 B. H. Eaton Republican 1885 A. Adams Democrat 1887 J. A. Cooper Republican 1890 J. L. Routt " 1891 D. H. Waite Populist 1893 A. W. M'Intire Republican 1895 A. Adams Dem.-Populist 1897 C. S. Thomas " 1899 J. B. Orman " 1901 J. H. Peabody Republican 1903 A. Adams Democrat 1905[5] Jesse F. M'Donald Republican 1905[5] Henry A. Buchtel " 1907 John H. Shafroth Democrat 1909

AUTHORITIES.--For _topography and general description_: Hayden and assistants, reports on _Colorado_, U.S. Department of the Interior, Geological and Geographical Survey of the Territories (13 vols., 1867-1878), various reports, especially annual report for 1874; Captain J. C. Frémont, _Report of the Exploring Expedition to the Rocky Mountains in 1842_, published 1845 as Congressional document 28th Congress, 2nd Session, House Executive Document No. 166, and various other editions. Other early exploring reports are: _The Expeditions of Zebulon Montgomery Pike ... Through Louisiana Territory and in New Spain in the Years 1805-6-7_, edited by E. Coues (3 vols., New York, 1895); _Account of an Expedition from Pittsburgh to the Rocky Mountains, 1819-20, under the Command of Major S. H. Long; compiled ... by Edwin James_ (3 vols., London; 2 vols., Philadelphia, 1823); Captain H. Stansbury, _Exploration of the Valley of the Great Salt Lake_ (2 vols., Philadelphia, 1852; also as Senate Executive Document No. 3, 32nd Congress Special Session); Francis Parkman, _The California and Oregon Trail_ (New York, 1849; revised ed., Boston, 1892),--a narrative of personal experience, as are the two following books: Bayard Taylor, _Colorado; A Summer Trip_ (New York, 1867); Samuel Bowles, _The Switzerland of America, A Summer Vacation in Colorado_ (Springfield, Mass., 1869); F. Fossett, _Colorado; A Historical, Descriptive and Statistical Work on the Rocky Mountain Gold and Silver Region_ (Denver, 1878; New York, 1879, 2nd ed., 1880).

On _fauna and flora_: United States Biological Survey, _Bulletins_ (especially No. 10), &c.; the _Biennial Report_ of the State Game and Fish Commissioner; United States Geological Survey, _10th Annual Report_, pt. v., and 20th A.R., pt. 5, and various publications of the United States Forestry Division for forest and forest reserves; Porter and Coulter, _Synopsis of the Flora of Colorado_ (1879); and scattered papers in scientific periodicals. On _climate_: United States Department of Agriculture, _Colorado Climate and Crop Service_ (monthly). On _soil and agriculture_: _Annual Report_ of the State Board of Agriculture (since 1878), of the State Agricultural College, Agricultural Experiment Station (since 1887), and of the State Board of Horticulture; _Biennial Report_ of the State Board of Land Commissioners (since 1879); publications of the United States Department of Agriculture, various bulletins on agrostology, water supply and irrigation, &c. (See Department bibliographies); United States Census, 1900 (States), _Bulletin_ 177, "Agriculture in Colorado" (Special), _Bulletin_ 16, "Irrigation in the United States" (1902), &c.; United States Geological Survey, various materials, consult bibliographies in its Bulletins 100, 177, 215, 301, &c. On _manufactures_: publications of United States Census, 1900, and the special census of manufactures, 1905. On _mineral industries_: United States Geological Survey, _Annual Report_, annual volume on "Mineral Resources"; also the annual _Mineral Industry_ (Rothwell's New York-London); Colorado State Bureau of Mines, _Biennial Report_, Inspector of Coal Mines, _Biennial Report_ (since 1883-1884); and an enormous quantity of information in the publications of the United States Geological Survey. For labour troubles see below. On _railways_, see annual _Statistics of Railways_ of the United States Interstate Commerce Commission, and Poor's Manual (Annual, New York). _Rivers_, see _Index to Reports of the Chief of Engineers_, United States Army (3 vols., 1900, covering 1866-1900); publications United States Geological Survey. On _population_: United States Census, 1900. _Administration_: J. W. Mills' _Annotated Statutes of the State of Colorado ..._ (2 vols., Denver, 1891; vol. iii. 1896); Helen L. Sumner, _Equal Suffrage in Colorado_ (New York, 1909,); J. E. Snook, _Colorado History and Government_ (Denver, 1904), is a reliable school epitome.

On _history_: F. L. Paxson, "A Preliminary Bibliography of Colorado History," being vol. iii., No. 3, of _University of Colorado Studies_ (June 1906); H. H. Bancroft, _History of ... Nevada, Colorado and Wyoming, 1540-1888_ (San Francisco, 1890); on _labour conditions and troubles_ consult: _Reports_ of the State Bureau of Labour Statistics (since 1892); _Annual Reports_ of the State Board of Arbitration (since 1898); publications of United States Bureau of Labour (bibliographies); also especially Senate Document 122, 58th Congress, 3rd Session, covering the years 1880-1904. See also CRIPPLE CREEK and LEADVILLE.

FOOTNOTES:

[1] The market value of silver varied in the years 1870-1885 from $1.32 to $1.065 an ounce; 1886-1893, $0.995 to $0.782; 1894-1904, $0.630 to $0.5722.

[2] The mineral yield for 1907, according to _The Mineral Resources of the United States_, 1907, amounted to $71,105,128.

[3] The special census of manufactures of 1905 was concerned only with the manufacturing establishments of the state conducted under the so-called factory system. The capital invested in such establishments was $107,663,500, and the product was valued at $100,143,999. The corresponding figures for 1900 reduced to the same standard for purposes of comparison were $58,172,865 and $89,067,879. Thus during the five years the capital invested in factories increased 85.1%, and the factory product 12.4%. The increase in product would undoubtedly have been much greater but for the labour disturbances (described later in the article), which occurred during this interval. Of the total product in 1905 more than four-fifths were represented by the smelting of lead, copper and zinc ores, the manufacture of iron and steel, the production of coke, and the refining of petroleum. The value of the flour and grist-mill product was $5,783,421.

[4] Census figures before 1890 do not include Indians on reservations.

[5] Adams was inaugurated on the 10th of January, having been elected on the return of the vote, which had been notoriously corrupted in Denver and elsewhere. The Republican legislature, after investigating the election and upon receiving from Peabody a written promise that he would resign in twenty-four hours, declared on the 16th of March that Peabody was elected. His resignation on the 17th of March made Lieutenant-Governor M'Donald governor of the state.

COLORADO RIVER, a stream in the south of the Argentine Republic. It has its sources on the eastern slopes of the Andes in the lat. of the Chilean volcano Tinguiririca (about 34° 48' S.), and pursues a general E.S.E. course to the Atlantic, where it discharges through several channels of a delta extending from lat. 39° 30' to 39° 30' S. Its total length is about 620 m., of which about 200 m. from the coast up to Pichemahuida is navigable for vessels of 7 ft. draft. It has been usually described as being formed by the confluence of the Grande and Barrancas, but as the latter is only a small stream compared with the Grande it is better described as a tributary, and the Grande as a part of the main river under another name. After leaving the vicinity of the Andes the Colorado flows through a barren, arid territory and receives no tributary of note except the Curaco, which has its sources in the Pampa territory and is considered to be part of the ancient outlet of the now closed lacustrine basin of southern Mendoza. The bottom lands of the Colorado in its course across Patagonia are fertile and wooded, but their area is too limited to support more than a small, scattered population.

COLORADO RIVER, a stream in the south-west of the United States of America, draining a part of the high and arid plateau between the Rocky mountains and the Sierra Nevada in California. The light rainfall scarcely suffices over much of the river's course to make good the loss by evaporation from the waters drained from mountain snows at its source. Its headwaters are known as the Green river, which rises in north-west Wyoming and after a course of some 700 m. due south unites in south-east Utah with the Grand river, flowing down from Colorado, to form the main trunk of the Colorado proper. The Green cuts its way through the Uinta mountains of Wyoming; then flowing intermittently in the open, it crosses successive uplifts in a series of deep gorges, and flows finally at the foot of canyon walls 1500 ft. high near its junction with the Grand.

The Colorado in its course below the junction has formed a region that is one of the most wonderful of the world, not only for its unique and magnificent scenery, but also because it affords the most remarkable example known of the work of differential weathering and erosion by wind and water and the exposure of geologic strata on an enormous scale. Above the Paria the river flows through scenery comparatively tame until it reaches the plateau of the Marble Canyon, some 60 m. in length. The walls here are at first only a few score of feet in height, but increase rapidly to almost 5000 ft. At its southern end is the Little Colorado. Above this point eleven rivers with steep mountain gradients have joined either the Green or the Grand or their united system. The Little Colorado has cut a trench 1800 ft. deep into the plateau in the last 27 m. as it approaches the Colorado, and empties into it 2625 ft. above the sea. Here the Colorado turns abruptly west directly athwart the folds and fault line of the plateau, through the Grand Canyon (q.v.) of the Colorado, which is 217 m. long and from 4 to 20 m. wide between the upper cliffs. The walls, 4000 to 6000 ft. high, drop in successive escarpments of 500 to 1600 ft., banded in splendid colours, toward the gloomy narrow gorge of the present river. Below the confluence of the Virgin river of Nevada the Colorado abruptly turns again, this time southward, and flows as the boundary between Arizona and California and in part between Arizona and Nevada, and then through Mexican territory, some 450 m. farther to the Gulf of California. Below the Black Canyon the river lessens in gradient, and in its lower course flows in a broad sedimentary valley--a distinct estuarine plain extending northward beyond Yuma--and the channel through much of this region is bedded in a dyke-like embankment lying above the flood-plain over which the escaping water spills in time of flood. This dyke cuts off the flow of the river to the remarkable low area in southern California known as the Salton Sink, or Coahuila Valley, the descent to which from the river near Yuma is very much greater than the fall in the actual river-bed from Yuma to the gulf. In the autumn of 1904, the diversion flow from the river into a canal heading in Mexican territory a few miles below Yuma, and intended for irrigation of California south of the Sink, escaped control, and the river, taking the canal as a new channel, recreated in California a great inland sea--to the bed of which it had frequently been turned formerly, for example, in 1884 and 1891--and for a time practically abandoned its former course through Mexican territory to the Gulf of California. But it was effectively dammed in the early part of 1907 and returned to its normal course, from which, however, there was still much leakage to Salton Sea; in July 1907 the permanent dam was completed. From the Black Canyon to the sea the Colorado normally flows through a desert-like basin, to the west of which, in Mexico, is Laguna Maquata (or Salada), lying in the so-called Pattie Basin, which was formerly a part of the Gulf of California, and which is frequently partially flooded (like Coahuila Valley) by the delta waters of the Colorado. Of the total length of the Colorado, about 2200 m., 500 m. or more from the mouth are navigable by light steamers, but channel obstacles make all navigation difficult at low water, and impossible about half the year above Mojave. The whole area drained by the river and its tributaries is about 225,000 sq. m.; and it has been estimated by Major J. W. Powell that in its drainage basin there are fully 200,000 sq. m. that have been degraded on an average 6000 ft. It is still a powerful eroding stream in the canyon portion, and its course below the canyons has a shifting bed much obstructed by bars built of sediment carried from the upper course. The desert country toward the mouth is largely a sandy or gravelly aggradation plain of the river. The regular floods are in May and June. Others, due to rains, are rare. The rise of the water at such times is extraordinarily rapid. Enormous drift is left in the canyons 30 or 40 ft. above the normal level. The valley near Yuma is many miles wide, frequently inundated, and remarkably fertile; it is often called the "Nile of America" from its resemblance in climate, fertility, overflows and crops. These alluvial plains are covered with a dense growth of mesquite, cottonwood, willow, arrowwood, quelite and wild hemp. Irrigation is essential to regular agriculture. There is a fine delta in the gulf. The Colorado is remarkable for exceedingly high tides at its mouth and for destructive bores.

In 1540, the second year that Spaniards entered Arizona, they discovered the Colorado. Hernando de Alarcon co-operating with F. V. de Coronado, explored with ships the Gulf of California and sailed up the lower river; Melchior Diaz, marching along the shores of the gulf, likewise reached the river; and Captain Gárcia López de Cárdenas, marching from Zuñi, reached the Grand Canyon, but could not descend its walls. In 1604 Juan de Oñate crossed Arizona from New Mexico and descended the Santa Maria, Bill Williams and Colorado to the gulf. The name Colorado was first applied to the present Colorado Chiquito, and probably about 1630 to the Colorado of to-day. But up to 1869 great portions of the river were still unknown. James White, a miner, in 1867, told a picturesque story (not generally accepted as true) of making the passage of the Grand Canyon on the river. In 1869, and in later expeditions, the feat was accomplished by Major J. W. Powell. There have been since then repeated explorations and scientific studies.

See C. E. Dutton, "Tertiary History of the Grand Canyon," _U.S. Geological Survey, Monograph II_. (1882); J. W. Powell, _Exploration of the Colorado River_ (Washington, 1875), and _Canyons of the Colorado_ (Meadville, Pa. 1895); F. S. Dellenbaugh, _Romance of the Colorado River_ (New York, 1902), and _Canyon Voyage_ (1908); G. W. James, _Wonders of the Colorado Desert_ (2 vols., Boston, 1906).

COLORADO SPRINGS, a city and the county-seat of El Paso county, Colorado, U.S.A., about 75 m. S. of Denver. Pop. (1890) 11,140; (1900) 21,085, of whom 2300 were foreign-born; (1910) 29,078. The city is served by the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fè, the Denver & Rio Grande, the Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific (of which the city is a terminus), the Colorado & Southern, the Colorado Springs & Cripple Creek District (controlled by the Colorado & Southern), and the Colorado Midland railways, of which the first three are continental systems. Continuous on the west with Colorado Springs is Colorado City (pop. in 1900, 2914), one of the oldest settlements of Colorado, and the first capital (1861). Colorado Springs is superbly situated where the Rocky Mountains rise from the great plains of the prairie states, surrounded on all sides by foothills save in the south-east, where it is open to the prairie. To the south of the mesa (tableland) on which it lies is the valley of Fountain Creek. To the west is the grand background of the canyon-riven Rampart range, with Pike's Peak (q.v.) dominating a half-dozen other peaks (among them Cameron Cone, Mt. Rosa, Cheyenne Mt.) 9000 to 12,000 ft. in height. Monument Creek traverses the city. The streets are of generous width (100-140 ft.), and are well shaded by trees. There are several fine parks. The city is the seat of a state asylum for the deaf, dumb and blind, of a printers' home for union men, which was endowed in 1892 by Anthony J. Drexel and George W. Childs, and of Colorado College (1874), one of the leading educational institutions of the Rocky Mountain states, and the oldest institution for higher education in the state. The college is coeducational and non-sectarian. In 1908 it had a permanent endowment of about $425,000, a faculty of 46 and 607 students; the library contained 40,000 bound volumes and as many pamphlets. The departments of the institution are a college of arts; schools of engineering (1903), music, and (1906) forestry; and the Cutler Academy, a preparatory school under the control of the college. In 1905 Gen. W. J. Palmer (1836-1909) and W. A. Bell gave to the college Manitou Park, a tract of forest land covering about 13,000 acres and situated about 20 m. from Colorado Springs.

Bright sunshine and a pleasant climate (mean annual temperature about 48° F., rainfall 14 in., falling almost wholly from April to September, relative humidity 59), combined with beautiful scenery, have made the city a favourite health resort and place of residence. Land deeds for city property have always excluded saloons. The municipality owns and operates the water system, water being drawn from lakes near Pike's Peak. The scenery about the city is remarkable. Manitou (6100-6300 ft.) a popular summer resort, lies about 6 m. (by rail) north-west of Colorado Springs, in a glen at the opening of Ute Pass (so-named because it was formerly used by the Ute Indians), with the mountains rising from its edge. Its springs of soda and iron belong to the class of weak compound carbonated soda waters. In the neighbourhood are the Cave of the Winds, the Grand Caverns, charming glens, mountain lakes and picturesque canyons; and the Garden of the Gods (owned by the city)--approached between two tremendous masses of red rock 330 ft. high, and strewn (about 500 acres) with great rocks and ridges of brightly coloured sandstone, whose grotesque shapes and fantastic arrangement have suggested a playground of superhuman beings. At the southern end of the Rampart range is Cheyenne Mt. (9407 ft.), on whose slope was buried Helen Hunt Jackson ("H.H."), who has left many pictures of this country in her stories. The two Cheyenne Canyons, with walls as high as 1000 ft. and beautiful falls, and the road over the mountain side toward Cripple Creek, afford exquisite views. Monument Park (10 m. N.) is a tract of fantastically eroded sandstone rocks, similar to those in the Garden of the Gods.

In 1859 a winter mining party coming upon the sunny valley near the present Manitou, near the old Fontaine-qui-Bouille, settled "El Dorado." Colorado City is practically on the same site. In 1870, as part of the town development work of the Denver & Rio Grande railway, of which General W. J. Palmer was the president, a land company founded Colorado Springs. In 1872 Manitou (first La Fontaine) was founded. Colorado Springs was laid out in 1871, was incorporated in 1872, and was first chartered as a city in 1878. A new charter (May 1909) provided for the recall of elective officials. A road over the Ute Pass to South Park and Leadville was built, and at one time about 12,000 horses and mules were employed in freighting to the Leadville camps. The Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific railway reached the city in 1888. The greatest part of the Cripple Creek mining properties is owned in Colorado Springs, where the exchange is one of the greatest in the world.

COLOSSAE, once the great city of south-west Phrygia, was situated on rising ground (1150 ft.) on the left bank of the Lycus (_Churuk Su_), a tributary of the Maeander, at the upper end of a narrow gorge 2½ m. long, where the river runs between cliffs from 50 to 60 ft. high. It stood on the great trade route from Sardis to Celaenae and Iconium, and was a large, prosperous city (Herod, vii. 30; Xenophon, _Anab._ i. 2, § 6), until it was ruined by the foundation of Laodicea in a more advantageous position. The town was celebrated for its wool, which was dyed a purple colour called _colossinus_. Colossae was the seat of an early Christian church, the result of St Paul's activity at Ephesus, though perhaps actually founded by Epaphras. The church, to which St Paul wrote a letter, was mainly composed of mingled Greek and Phrygian elements deeply imbued with fantastic and fanatical mysticism. Colossae lasted until the 7th and 8th centuries, when it was gradually deserted under pressure of the Arab invasions. Its place was taken by Khonae (_Khonas_)--a strong fortress on a rugged spur of Mt. Kadmus, 3 m. to the south, which became a place of importance during the wars between the Byzantines and Turks, and was the birthplace of the historian, Nicetas Khoniates. The worship of angels alluded to by St Paul (Col. ii. 18), and condemned in the 4th century by a council at Laodicea, reappears in the later worship of St Michael, in whose honour a celebrated church, destroyed by the Seljuks in the 12th century, was built on the right bank of the Lycus.

See Sir W. M. Ramsay, _Cities and Bishoprics of Phrygia_, vol. i.

COLOSSAL CAVERN, a cave in Kentucky, U.S.A., the main entrance of which is at the foot of a steep hill beyond Eden Valley, and 1½ m. from Mammoth Cave. It is connected with what has long been known as the Bed Quilt Cave. Several entrances found by local explorers were rough and difficult. They were closed when the property was bought in 1896 by the Louisville & Nashville railway and a new approach made as indicated on the accompanying map. From the surface to the floor is 240 ft.; under Chester Sandstone and in the St Louis Limestone. Fossil corals fix the geological age of the rock. The temperature is uniformly 54° Fahr., and the atmosphere is optically and chemically pure. Lovely incrustations alternate with queer and grotesque figures. There are exquisite gypsum rosettes and intricately involved helictites.

Tremendous forces have been at work, suggesting earthquakes and eruptions; but really all is due to the chemical and mechanical action of water. The so-called "Ruins of Carthage" fill a hall 400 ft. long by 100 ft. wide and 30 ft. high, whose flat roof is a vast homogeneous limestone block. Isolated detached blocks measure from 50 to 100 ft. in length. Edgar Vaughan and W. L. Marshall, civil engineers, surveyed every part of the cave. Vaughan's Dome is 40 ft. wide, 300 ft. long, and 79 ft. high. Numerous other domes exist, and many deep pits. The grandest place of all is the Colossal Dome, which used to be entered only from the apex by windlass and a rope reaching 135 ft. to the floor. This is now used only for illumination by raising and lowering a fire-basket. The present entrance is by a gateway buttressed by alabaster shafts, one of which, 75 ft. high, is named Henry Clay's Monument. The dome walls arise in a series of richly tinted rings, each 8 or 10 ft. thick, and each fringed by stalactites. The symmetry is remarkable, and the reverberations are strangely musical. The Pearly Pool, in a chamber near a pit 86 ft. deep, glistens with countless cave pearls. The route beyond is between rows of stately shafts, and ends in a copious chalybeate spring. Blind flies, spiders, beetles and crickets abound; and now and then a blind crawfish darts through the waters; but as compared with many caverns the fauna and flora are not abundant. It is conjectured, not without some reason, that there is a connexion, as yet undiscovered, between the Colossal and the Mammoth caves. It seems certain that Eden Valley, which now lies between them, is a vast "tumble-down" of an immense cavern that formerly united them into one. (H. C. H.)

COLOSSIANS, EPISTLE TO THE, the twelfth book of the New Testament, the authorship of which is ascribed to the Apostle Paul. Colossae, like the other Phrygian cities of Laodicea and Hierapolis, had not been visited by Paul, but owed its belief in Jesus Christ to Epaphras, a Colossian, who had been converted by Paul, perhaps in Ephesus, and had laboured not only in his native city but also in the adjacent portions of the Lycus valley,--a Christian in whom Paul reposed the greatest confidence as one competent to interpret the gospel of whose truth Paul was convinced (i. 7; iv. 12, 13). This Epaphras, like the majority of the Colossians, was a Gentile. It is probable, however, both from the letter itself and from the fact that Colossae was a trade centre, that Jews were there with their synagogues (cf. also Josephus, _Ant._ xii. 149). And it is further probable that some of the Gentiles, who afterwards became Christians, were either Jewish proselytes or adherents who paid reverence to the God of the Jews. At all events, the letter indicates a sensitiveness on the part of the Christians not only to oriental mysticism and theosophy (cf. Sir W. M. Ramsay, _Cities and Bishoprics of Phrygia_, and _Church in the Roman Empire_), but also to the Judaism of the Diaspora.

Our first definite knowledge of the Colossian Church dates from the presence of Epaphras in Rome in A.D. 62-64 (or A.D. 56-58), when Paul was a prisoner. He arrived with news, perhaps with a letter (J. R. Harris, _Expositor_, Dec. 1898, pp. 404 ff.), touching the state of religion in Colossae. Paul learns, to his joy, of their faith, hope and love; of the order and stability of their faith; and of their reception of Christ Jesus the Lord (i. 4, 8; ii. 5-7). He sees no sign of an attack upon him or his gospel. On the contrary, loyalty to him and sympathy with him in his sufferings are everywhere manifest (i. 9, 24; ii. 2; iv. 8); and the gospel of Christ is advancing here as elsewhere (i. 6). At the same time he detects a lack of cheerfulness and a lack of spiritual understanding in the Church. The joy of the gospel, expressing itself in songs and thanksgivings, is damped (iii. 15, 16), and, above all, the message of Christ does not dwell richly enough in them. Though the believers know the grace of God they are not filled with a knowledge of his will, so that their conduct is lacking in that strength and joy and perfection, that richness of the fulness of knowledge expected of those who had been made full in Christ (i. 6, 9-11, 28; ii. 2, 7, 10). The reason for this, Paul sees, is the influence of the claim made by certain teachers in Colossae that the Christians, in order to attain unto and be assured of _full_ salvation, must supplement Paul's message with their own fuller and more perfect wisdom, and must observe certain rites and practices (ii. 16, 21, 23) connected with the worship of angels (ii. 18, 23) and elementary spirits (ii. 8, 20).

The origin and the exact nature of this religious movement are alike uncertain. (1) If it represents a type of syncretism as definite as that known to have existed in the developed gnostic systems of the 2nd century, it is inconceivable that Paul should have passed it by as easily as he did. (2) As there is no reference to celibacy, communism and the worship of the sun, it is improbable that the movement is identical with that of the Essenes. (3) The phenomena might be explained solely on the basis of Judaism (von Soden, Peake). Certainly the asceticism and ritualism might so be interpreted, for there was among the Jews of the Dispersion an increasing tendency to asceticism, by way of protest against the excesses of the Gentiles. The reference in ii. 23 to severity of the body may have to do with fasting preparatory to seeing visions (cf. _Apoc. Baruch_, xxi. 1, ix. 2, v. 7). Even the worship of angels, not only as mediators of revelation and visions, but also as cosmical beings, is a well-known fact in late Judaism (_Apoc. Bar._ lv. 3; _Ethiopic Enoch_, lx. 11, lxi. 10; Col. ii. 8, 20; Gal. iv. 3). As for the word "philosophy" (ii. 8), it is not necessary to take it in the technical Greek sense when the usage of Philo and Josephus permits a looser meaning. Finally the references to circumcision, _paradosis_ (ii. 8) and _dogmata_ (ii. 20), directly suggest a Jewish origin. If we resort solely to Judaism for explanation, it must be a Judaism of the Diaspora type. (4) The difficulty with the last-mentioned position is that it under-estimates the speculative tendencies of the errorists and ignores the direct influence of oriental theosophy. It is quite true that Paul does not directly attack the speculative position, but rather indicates the practical dangers inherent therein (the denial of the supremacy of Christ and of full salvation through Him); he does not say that the errorists hold Christ to be a mere angel or an aeon, or that words like _pleroma_ (borrowed perhaps from their own vocabulary) involve a rigorous dualism. Yet his characterization of the movement as an arbitrary religion (ii. 23), a philosophy which is empty deceit (ii. 8), according to elemental spirits and not according to Christ, and a higher knowledge due to a mind controlled by the flesh (ii. 18); his repeated emphasis on Christ, as supreme over all things, over men and angels, agent in creation as well as in redemption, in whom dwelt bodily the fulness of the Godhead; and his constant stress upon knowledge,--all these combine to reveal a speculation real and dangerous, even if naïve and regardless of consequences, and to suggest (with Jülicher and McGiffert) that in addition to Jewish influence there is also the direct influence of Oriental mysticism.

To meet the pressing need in Colossae, Paul writes a letter and entrusts it to Tychichus, who is on his way to Colossae with Onesimus, Philemon's slave (iv. 7, 9). (On the relation of this letter to Ephesians and to the letter to be sent from Laodicea to Colossae, see EPHESIANS, EPISTLE TO THE.) His attitude is prophylactic, rather than polemic, for the "philosophy" has not as yet taken deep root. His purpose is to restore in the hearts of the readers the joy of the Spirit, by making them see that Christ fulfils every need, and that through faith in Him and love from faith, the advance is made unimpeded unto the perfect man. He will eliminate foreign accretions, that the gospel of Christ may stand forth in its native purity, and that Christ Himself may in all things have the pre-eminence.

The letter begins with a thanksgiving to God for the spiritual growth of the Colossians, and continues with a prayer for their fuller knowledge of the divine will, for a more perfect Christian life, and for a spirit of thanksgiving, seeing that it is God who guarantees their salvation in Christ (i. 1-14). It is Christ who is supreme, not angels, for He is the agent in creation; and it is solely on the basis of faith in Him, a faith expressing itself in love, that redemption is appropriated, and not on the basis of any further requirements such as ascetic practices and the worship of angels (i. 15-23). It is with a full message that Paul has been entrusted, the message of Christ, who alone can lead to all the riches of fulness of knowledge. And for this adequate knowledge the readers should be thankful (i. 23--ii. 7). Again he urges, that since redemption is in Christ alone, and that, too, full redemption and on the basis of faith alone, the demand for asceticism and meaningless ceremonies is folly, and moreover robs Christ, in whom dwells the divine fulness, of His rightful supremacy (ii. 8-23). And he exhorts them as members of the Body of Christ to manifest their faith in Christian love, particularly in their domestic relations and in their contact with non-Christians (iii. i-iv. 6). He closes by saying that Tychichus will give them the news. Greetings from all to all (iv. 7-18).

A letter like this, clear cut in its thought, teeming with ideas emanating from an unique religious experience, and admirably adjusted to known situations, bears on the face of it the marks of genuineness even without recourse to the unusually excellent external attestation. It is not strange that there is a growing consensus of opinion that Paul is the author. With the critical renaissance of the early part of the 19th century, doubts were raised as to the genuineness of the letter (e.g. by E. T. Mayerhoff, 1838). Quite apart from the difficulties created by the Tübingen theory, legitimate difficulties were found in the style of the letter, in the speculation of the errorists, and in the theology of the author. (1) As to style, it is replied that if there are peculiarities in _Colossians_, so also in the admittedly genuine letters, _Romans_, _Corinthians_, _Galatians_. Moreover, if _Philippians_ is Pauline, so also the stylistically similar _Colossians_ (cf. von Soden). (2) As to the speculation of the errorists, it is replied that it is explicable in the lifetime of Paul, that some of the elements of it may have their source in pre-Christian Jewish theories, and that recourse to the developed gnosticism of the 2nd century is unnecessary. (3) As to the Christology of the author, it is replied that it does not go beyond what we have already in Paul except in emphasis, which itself is occasioned by the circumstances. What is implicit in _Corinthians_ is explicit in _Colossians_. H. J. Holtzmann (1872) subjected both _Colossians_ and _Ephesians_ to a rigorous examination, and found in _Colossians_ at least a nucleus of Pauline material. H. von Soden (1885), with well-considered principles of criticism, made a similar examination and found a much larger nucleus, and later still, (1893), in his commentary, reduced the non-Pauline material to a negligible minimum. Harnack, Jülicher and McGiffert, however, agree with Lightfoot, Weiss, Zahn (and early tradition) in holding that the letter is wholly Pauline--a position which is proving more and more acceptable to contemporary scholarship.

AUTHORITIES.--In addition to the literature already mentioned, see the articles of Sanday on "Colossians" and Robertson on "Ephesians" in Smith's _Bible Dictionary_ (2nd ed., 1893), and the article of A. Jülicher on "Colossians and Ephesians" in the _Encyclopaedia Biblica_ (1899); the Introductions of H. J. Holtzmann (1892), B. Weiss (1897), Th. Zahn (1900) and Jülicher (1906); the histories of the apostolic age by C. von Weizsäcker (1892), A. C. M'Giffert (1897) and O. Pfleiderer (_Urchristentum_, 1902); and the commentaries of J. B. Lightfoot (1875), H. von Soden (1893) T. K. Abbott (1897), E. Haupt (1902), Peake (1903) and P. Ewald (1905). (J. E. F.)

COLOSSUS, in antiquity a term applied generally to statues of great size (hence the adjective "colossal"), and in particular to the bronze statue of the sun-god Helios in Rhodes, one of the wonders of the world, made from the spoils left by Demetrius Poliorcetes when he raised the siege of the city. The sculptor was Chares, a native of Lindus, and of the school of Lysippus, under whose influence the art of sculpture was led to the production of colossal figures by preference. The work occupied him twelve years, it is said, and the finished statue stood 70 cubits high. It stood near the harbour ([Greek: epi limeni]), but at what point is not certain. When, and from what grounds, the belief arose that it had stood across the entrance to the harbour, with a beacon light in its hand and ships passing between its legs, is not known, but the belief was current as early as the 16th century. The statue was thrown down by an earthquake about the year 224 B.C.; then, after lying broken for nearly 1000 years, the pieces were bought by a Jew from the Saracens, and probably reconverted into instruments of war.

Other Greek colossi were the Apollo of Calamis; the Zeus and Heracles of Lysippus; the Zeus at Olympia, the Athena in the Parthenon, and the Athena Promachos on the Acropolis--all the work of Pheidias.

The best-known Roman colossi are: a statue of Jupiter on the Capitol; a bronze statue of Apollo in the Palatine library; and the colossus of Nero in the vestibule of his Golden House, afterwards removed by Hadrian to the north of the Colosseum, where the basement upon which it stood is still visible (Pliny, _Nat. Hist._ xxxiv. 18).

COLOUR (Lat. _color_, connected with _celare_, to hide, the root meaning, therefore, being that of a covering). The visual apparatus of the eye enables us to distinguish not only differences of form, size and brilliancy in the objects looked upon, but also differences in the character of the light received from them. These latter differences, familiar to us as differences in _colour_, have their physical origin in the variations in wave-length (or frequency) which may exist in light which is capable of exciting the sensation of vision. From the physical point of view, light of a _pure colour_, or homogeneous light, means light whose undulations are mathematically of a simple character and which cannot be resolved by a prism into component parts. All the visible pure colours, as thus defined, are to be found in the spectrum, and there is an infinite number of them, corresponding to all the possible variations of wave-length within the limits of the visible spectrum (see SPECTROSCOPY). On this view, there is a strict analogy between variations of _colour_ in light and variations of _pitch_ in sound, but the visible spectrum contains a range of frequency extending over about one octave only, whereas the range of audibility embraces about eleven octaves.

Of all the known colours it might naturally be thought that white is the simplest and purest, and, till Sir Isaac Newton's time, this was the prevailing opinion. Newton, however, showed that white light could be decomposed by a prism into the spectral colours red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet; the colours appearing in this order and passing gradually into each other without abrupt transitions. White is therefore not a simple colour, but is merely the colour of sunlight, and probably owes its apparently homogeneous character to the fact that it is the average colour of the light which fills the eye when at rest. The colours of the various objects which we see around us are not due (with the exception of self-luminous and fluorescent bodies) to any power possessed by these objects of creating the colours which they exhibit, but merely to the exercise of a selective action on the light of the sun, some of the constituent rays of the white light with which they are illuminated being absorbed, while the rest are reflected or scattered in all directions, or, in the case of transparent bodies, transmitted. White light is thus the basis of all other colours, which are derived from it by the suppression of some one or more of its parts. A red flower, for instance, absorbs the blue and green rays and most of the yellow, while the red rays and usually some yellow are scattered. If a red poppy is illuminated successively by red, yellow, green and blue light it will appear a brilliant red in the red light, yellow in the yellow light, but less brilliant if the red colour is pure; and black in the other colours, the blackness being due to the almost complete absorption of the corresponding colour.

Bodies may be classified as regards colour according to the nature of the action they exert on white light. In the case of ordinary opaque bodies a certain proportion of the incident light is irregularly reflected or scattered from their surfaces. A white object is one which reflects nearly all the light of all colours; a black object absorbs nearly all. A body which reflects only a portion of the light, but which exhibits no predominance in any particular hue, is called _grey_. A white surface looks grey beside a similar surface more brilliantly illuminated.

The next class is that of most transparent bodies, which owe their colour to the light which is transmitted, either directly through, or reflected back again at the farther surface. A body which transmits all the visible rays equally well is said to be colourless; pure water, for example, is nearly quite colourless, though in large masses it appears bluish-green. A translucent substance is one which partially transmits light. Translucency is due to the light being scattered by minute embedded particles or minute irregularities of structure. Some fibrous specimens of tremolite and gypsum are translucent in the direction of the fibres, and practically opaque in a transverse direction. Coloured transparent objects vary in shade and hue according to their size; thus, a conical glass filled with a red liquid commonly appears yellow at the bottom, varying through orange up to red at the upper part. A coloured powder is usually of a much lighter tint than the substance in bulk, as the light is reflected back after transmission through only a few thin layers. For the same reason the powders of transparent substances are opaque.

Polished bodies, whether opaque or transparent, when illuminated with white light and viewed at the proper angle, reflect the incident light regularly and appear white, without showing much of their distinctive colours.

Some bodies reflect light of one colour and transmit that of another; such bodies nearly always possess the properties of _selective_ or _metallic reflection_ and _anomalous dispersion_. Most of the coal-tar dyes belong to this category. Solid eosin, for example, reflects a yellowish-green and transmits a red light. Gold appears yellow under ordinary circumstances, but if the light is reflected many times from the surface it appears a ruby colour. On the other hand, a powerful beam of light transmitted through a thin gold-leaf appears green.

Some solutions exhibit the curious phenomenon of _dichromatism_ (from [Greek: di-], double, and [Greek: chrôma], colour), that is, they appear of one colour when viewed in strata of moderate thickness, but of a different colour in greater thicknesses (see Absorption of Light).

The blue colour of the sky (q.v.) has been explained by Lord Rayleigh as due to the scattering of light by small suspended particles and air molecules, which is most effective in the case of the shorter waves (blue). J. Tyndall produced similar effects in the laboratory. The green colour of sea-water near the shore is also due to a scattering of light.

The colours of bodies which are gradually heated to white incandescence occur in the order--red, orange, yellow, white. This is because the longer waves of red light are first emitted, then the yellow as well, so that orange results, then so much green that the total effect is yellow, and lastly all the colours, compounding to produce white. Fluorescent bodies have the power of converting light of one colour into that of another (see FLUORESCENCE).

Besides the foregoing kinds of colorization, a body may exhibit, under certain circumstances, a colouring due to some special physical conditions rather than to the specific properties of the material; such as the colour of a white object when illuminated by light of some particular colour; the colours seen in a film of oil on water or in mother-of-pearl, or soap-bubbles, due to interference (q.v.); the colours seen through the eyelashes or through a thin handkerchief held up to the light, due to diffraction (q.v.); and the colours caused by ordinary refraction, as in the rainbow, double refraction and polarization (qq.v.).

_Composition of Colours._--It has been already pointed out that white light is a combination of all the colours in the spectrum. This was shown by Newton, who recombined the spectral colours and produced white. Newton also remarks that if a froth be made on the surface of water thickened a little with soap, and examined closely, it will be seen to be coloured with all the colours of the spectrum, but at a little distance it looks white owing to the combined effect on the eye of all the colours.

The question of the composition of colours is largely a physiological one, since it is possible, by mixing colours, say red and yellow, to produce a new colour, orange, which appears identical with the pure orange of the spectrum, but is physically quite different, since it can be resolved by a prism into red and yellow again. There is no doubt that the sensation of colour-vision is threefold, in the sense that any colour can be produced by the combination, in proper proportions, of three standard colours. The question then arises, what are the three primary colours? Sir David Brewster considered that they were red, yellow and blue; and this view has been commonly held by painters and others, since all the known brilliant hues can be derived from the admixture of red, yellow and blue pigments. For instance, vermilion and chrome yellow will give an orange, chrome yellow and ultramarine a green, and vermilion and ultramarine a purple mixture. But if we superpose the pure spectral colours on a screen, the resulting colours are quite different. This is especially the case with yellow and blue, which on the screen combine to produce white, generally with a pink tint, but cannot be made to give green. The reason of this difference in the two results is that in the former case we do not get a true combination of the colours at all. When the mixed pigments are illuminated by white light, the yellow particles absorb the red and blue rays, but reflect the yellow along with a good deal of the neighbouring green and orange. The blue particles, on the other hand, absorb the red, orange and yellow, but reflect the blue and a good deal of green and violet. As much of the light is affected by several particles, most of the rays are absorbed except green, which is reflected by both pigments. Thus, the colour of the mixture is not a mixture of the colours yellow and blue, but the remainder of white light after the yellow and blue pigments have absorbed all they can. The effect can also be seen in coloured solutions. If two equal beams of white light are transmitted respectively through a yellow solution of potassium bichromate and a blue solution of copper sulphate in proper thicknesses, they can be compounded on a screen to an approximately white colour; but a single beam transmitted through both solutions appears green. Blue and yellow pigments would produce the effect of white only if very sparsely distributed. This fact is made use of in laundries, where cobalt blue is used to correct the yellow colour of linen after washing.

Thomas Young suggested red, green and violet as the primary colours, but the subsequent experiments of J. Clerk Maxwell appear to show that they should be red, green and blue. Sir William Abney, however, assigns somewhat different places in the spectrum to the primary colours, and, like Young, considers that they should be red, green and violet. All other hues can be obtained by combining the three primaries in proper proportions. Yellow is derived from red and green. This can be done by superposition on a screen or by making a solution which will transmit only red and green rays. For this purpose Lord Rayleigh recommends a mixture of solutions of blue litmus and yellow potassium chromate. The litmus stops the yellow and orange light, while the potassium chromate stops the blue and violet. Thus only red and green are transmitted, and the result is a full compound yellow which resembles the simple yellow of the spectrum in appearance, but is resolved into red and green by a prism. The brightest yellow pigments are those which give both the pure and compound yellow. Since red and green produce yellow, and yellow and blue produce white, it follows that red, green and blue can be compounded into white. H. von Helmholtz has shown that the only pair of simple spectral colours capable of compounding to white are a greenish-yellow and blue.

Just as musical sounds differ in pitch, loudness and quality, so may colours differ in three respects, which Maxwell calls _hue_, _shade_ and _tint_. All hues can be produced by combining every pair of primaries in every proportion. The addition of white alters the tint without affecting the hue. If the colour be darkened by adding black or by diminishing the illumination, a variation in shade is produced. Thus the hue red includes every variation in tint from red to white, and every variation in shade from red to black, and similarly for other hues. We can represent every hue and tint on a diagram in a manner proposed by Young, following a very similar suggestion of Newton's. Let RGB (fig. 1) be an equilateral triangle, and let the angular points be coloured red, green and blue of such intensities as to produce white if equally combined; and let the colour of every point of the triangle be determined by combining such proportions of the three primaries, that three weights in the same proportion would have their centre of gravity at the point. Then the centre of the triangle will be a neutral tint, white or grey; and the middle points of the sides Y, S, P will be yellow, greenish-blue and purple. The hue varies all round the perimeter. The tint varies along any straight line through W. To vary the shade, the whole triangle must be uniformly darkened.

The simplest way of compounding colours is by means of Maxwell's colour top, which is a broad spinning-top over the spindle of which coloured disks can be slipped (fig. 2). The disks are slit radially so that they can be slipped partially over each other and the surfaces exposed in any desired ratio. Three disks are used together, and a match is obtained between these and a pair of smaller ones mounted on the same spindle. If any five colours are taken, two of which may be black and white, a match can be got between them by suitable adjustment. This shows that a relation exists between any four colours (the black being only needed to obtain the proper intensity) and that consequently the number of independent colours is three. A still better instrument for combining colours is Maxwell's colour box, in which the colours of the spectrum are combined by means of prisms. Sir W. Abney has also invented an apparatus for the same purpose, which is much the same in principle as Maxwell's colour box. Several methods of colour photography depend on the fact that all varieties of colour can be compounded from red, green and blue in proper proportions.

Any two colours which together give white are called _complementary_ colours. Greenish-yellow and blue are a pair of complementaries, as already mentioned. Any number of pairs may be obtained by a simple device due to Helmholtz and represented in fig. 3. A beam of white light, decomposed by the prism P, is recompounded into white light by the lens l and focussed on a screen at f. If the thin prism p is inserted near the lens, any set of colours may be deflected to another point n, thus producing two coloured and complementary images of the source of light.

_Nature of White Light._--The question as to whether white light actually consists of trains of waves of regular frequency has been discussed in recent years by A. Schuster, Lord Rayleigh and others, and it has been shown that even if it consisted of a succession of somewhat irregular impulses, it would still be resolved, by the dispersive property of a prism or grating, into trains of regular frequency. We may still, however, speak of white light as compounded of the rays of the spectrum, provided we mean only that the two systems are mathematically equivalent, and not that the homogeneous trains exist as such in the original light.

See also Newton's _Opticks_, bk. i. pt. ii.; Maxwell's _Scientific Papers_; Helmholtz's papers in _Poggendorf's Annalen_; Sir G. G. Stokes, _Burnett Lectures for 1884-5-6_; Abney's _Colour Vision_ (1895). (J. R. C.)

COLOURS, MILITARY, the flags carried by infantry regiments and battalions, sometimes also by troops of other arms. Cavalry regiments and other units have as a rule standards and guidons (see FLAG). Colours are generally embroidered with mottoes, symbols, and above all with the names of battles.

From the earliest time at which men fought in organized bodies of troops, the latter have possessed some sort of insignia visible over all the field of battle, and serving as a rallying-point for the men of the corps and an indication of position for the higher leaders and the men of other formed bodies. In the Roman army the eagle, the _vexillum_, &c. had all the moral and sentimental importance of the colours of to-day. During the dark and the middle ages, however, the basis of military force being the individual knight or lord, the banner, or other flag bearing his arms, replaced the regimental colour which had signified the corporate body and claimed the devotion of each individual soldier in the ranks, though the original meaning of the colour as a corps, not a personal distinction, was sometimes maintained by corporate bodies (such as trade-gilds) which took the field as such. An example is the famous _carroccio_ or standard on wheels, which was frequently brought into the field of battle by the citizen militia of the Italian cities, and was fought for with the same ardour as the royal standard in other medieval battles.

The application of the word "colour" to such insignia, however, dates only from the 16th century. It has been suggested that, as the professional captain gradually ousted the nobleman from the command of the drilled and organized companies of foot--the man of gentle birth, of course, maintained his ascendancy in the cavalry far longer--the leaders of such bodies, no longer possessing coat-armour and individual banners, had recourse to small flags of distinctive colour instead. "Colour" is in the 16th century a common name in England and middle Europe for the unit of infantry; in German the _Fähnlein_ (colour) of landsknechts was a strong company of more than 300 foot. The ceremonial observances and honours paid nowadays to the colours of infantry were in fact founded for the most part by the landsknechts, for whom the flag (carried by their "ensign") was symbolical of their intense regimental life and feeling. The now universal customs of constituting the colour guard of picked men and of saluting the colours were in equal honour then; before that indeed, the appearance of the personal banner of a nobleman implied his actual presence with it, and the due honours were paid, but the colour of the 16th century was not the distinction of one man, but the symbol of the corporate life and unity of the regiment, and thus the new colour ceremonial implied the same allegiance to an impersonal regimental spirit, which it has (with the difference that the national spirit has been blended with the regimental) retained ever since. The old soldier rallied to the colours as a matter of habit in the confusion of battle, and the capture or the loss of a colour has always been considered a special event, glorious or the reverse, in the history of a regiment, the importance of this being chiefly sentimental, but having as a very real background the fact that, if its colour was lost, a regiment was to all intents and purposes dissolved and dispersed. Frederick the Great and Napoleon always attached the highest importance to the maintenance at all costs of the regimental colours. Even over young troops the influence of the colour has been extraordinary, and many generals have steadied their men in the heat of battle by taking a regimental colour themselves to lead the advance or to form up the troops. Thus in the first battle of Bull Run (1861) the raw Confederate troops were rallied under a heavy fire by General Joseph Johnston, their commander-in-chief, who stood with a colour in his hand until the men gathered quickly in rank and file. The archduke Charles at Aspern (1809) led his young troops to the last assault with a colour in his hand. Marshal Schwerin was killed at the battle of Prague while carrying a regimental colour.

In the British army colours are carried by guards and line (except rifle) battalions, each battalion having two colours, the king's and the regimental. The size of the colour is 3 ft. 9 in. by 3 ft., and the length of the stave 8 ft. 7 in. The colour has a gold fringe and gold and crimson tassels, and bears various devices and "battle honours." Both colours are carried by subaltern officers, and an escort of selected non-commissioned officers forms the rest of the colour party. The ceremony of presenting new colours is most impressive. The old colours are "trooped" (see below) before being cased and taken to the rear. The new colours are then placed against a pile of drums and then uncased by the senior majors and the senior subalterns. The consecration follows, after which the colours are presented to the senior subalterns. The battalion gives a general salute when the colours are unfurled, and the ceremony concludes with a march past. "Trooping the colour" is a more elaborate ceremonial peculiar to the British service, and is said to have been invented by the duke of Cumberland. In this, the colour is posted near the left of the line, the right company or guard moves up to it, and an officer receives it, after which the guard with the colour files between the ranks of the remainder from left to right until the right of the line is reached.

In the United States army the infantry regiment has two colours, the national and the regimental. They are carried in action.

In the French army one colour (_drapeau_) is carried by each infantry regiment. It is carried by an officer, usually a _sous-lieutenant_, and the guard is composed of a non-commissioned officer and a party of "first class" soldiers. Regiments which have taken an enemy's colour or standard in battle have their own colours "decorated," that is, the cross of the Legion of Honour is affixed to the stave near the point. Battle honours are embroidered on the white of the tricolour. The _eagle_ was, in the First and Third Empires, the infantry colour, and was so called from the gilt eagle which surmounted the stave. The _chasseurs à pied_, like the rifles of the British army, carry no colours, but the battalion quartered for the time being at Vincennes carries a colour for the whole arm in memory of the first _chasseurs de Vincennes_. As in other countries, colours are saluted by all armed bodies and by individual officers and men. When the _drapeau_ is not present with the regiment its place is taken by an ordinary flag.

The colours of the German infantry, foot artillery and engineers vary in design with the states to which the corps belong in the first instance; thus, black and white predominate in Prussian colours, red in those of Württemberg regiments, blue in Bavarian, and so on. The point of the colour stave is decorated in some cases with the iron cross, in memory of the War of Liberation and of the war of 1870. Each battalion of an infantry regiment has its own colour, which is carried by a non-commissioned officer, and guarded as usual by a colour party. The colour is fastened to the stave by silver nails, and the ceremony of driving the first nail into the stake of a new colour is one of great solemnity. Rings of silver on the stave are engraved with battle honours, the names of those who have fallen in action when carrying the colour, and other commemorative names and dates. The oath taken by each recruit on joining is sworn on the colour (_Fahneneid_).

The practice in the British army of leaving the colours behind on taking the field dates from the battle of Isandhlwana (22nd January 1879), in which Lieutenants Melvill and Coghill lost their lives in endeavouring to save the colours of the 24th regiment. In savage warfare, in which the British regular army is more usually engaged, it is true that no particular reason can be adduced for imperilling the colours in the field. It is questionable, however, whether this holds good in civilized warfare. Colours were carried in action by both the Russians and the Japanese in the war of 1904-5, and they were supplemented on both sides by smaller flags or camp colours. The conception of the colour as the emblem of union, the rallying-point, of the regiment has been mentioned above. Many hold that such a rallying-point is more than ever required in the modern _guerre de masses_, when a national short-service army is collected in all possible strength on the decisive battle-field, and that scarcely any risks or loss of life would be disproportionate to the advantages gained by the presence of the colours. There is further a most important factor in the problem, which has only arisen in recent years through modern perfection in armament. In the first stages of an attack, the colours could remain, as in the past, with the closed reserves or line of battle, and they would not be uncased and sent into the thick of the fight at all hazards until the decisive assault was being delivered. Then, it is absolutely essential, as a matter of tactics, that the artillery (q.v.), which covers the assault with all the power given it by modern science and training, should be well informed as to the progress of the infantry. This covering fire was maintained by the Japanese until the infantry was actually in the smoke of their own shrapnel. With uniforms of neutral tint the need of some means whereby the artillery officers can, at 4000 yds. range, distinguish their own infantry from that of the enemy, is more pronounced than ever. The best troops are apt to be unsteadied by being fired into by their own guns (e.g. at Elandslaagte), and the more powerful the shell, and the more rapid and far-ranging the fire of the guns, the more necessary it becomes to prevent such accidents. A practicable solution of the difficulty would be to display the colours as of old, and this course would not only have to an enhanced degree the advantages it formerly possessed, but would also provide the simplest means for ensuring the vitally necessary co-operation of infantry and artillery in the decisive assault. The duty of carrying the colours was always one of special danger, and sometimes, in the old short-range battles, every officer who carried a flag was shot. That this fate would necessarily overtake the bearer under modern conditions is far from certain, and in any case the few men on the enemy's side who would be brave enough to shoot accurately under heavy shell fire would, however destructive to the colour party, scarcely inflict as much damage on the battalion as a whole, as a dozen or more accidental shells from the massed artillery of its own side.

COLOUR-SERGEANT, a non-commissioned officer of infantry, ranking, in the British army, as the senior non-commissioned officer of each company. He is charged with many administrative duties, and usually acts as pay sergeant. A special duty of the colour-sergeants of a battalion is that of attending and guarding the colours and the officers carrying them. In some foreign armies the colours are actually carried by colour-sergeants. The rank was created in the British army in 1813.

COLOURS OF ANIMALS. Much interest attaches in modern biology to the questions involved in the colours of animals. The subject may best be considered in two divisions: (1) as regards the uses of colour in the struggle for existence and in sexual relationships; (2) as regards the chemical causation.

1. BIONOMICS

_Use of Colour for Concealment._--_Cryptic colouring_ is by far the commonest use of colour in the struggle for existence. It is employed for the purpose of attack (_aggressive resemblance_ or _anticryptic colouring_) as well as of defence (_protective resemblance_ or _procryptic colouring_). The fact that the same method, concealment, may be used both for attack and defence has been well explained by T. Belt (_The Naturalist in Nicaragua_, London, 1888), who suggests as an illustration the rapidity of movement which is also made use of by both pursuer and pursued, which is similarly raised to a maximum in both by the gradual dying out of the slowest through a series of generations. Cryptic colouring is commonly associated with other aids in the struggle for life. Thus well-concealed mammals and birds, when discovered, will generally endeavour to escape by speed, and will often attempt to defend themselves actively. On the other hand, small animals which have no means of active defence, such as large numbers of insects, frequently depend upon concealment alone. Protective resemblance is far commoner among animals than aggressive resemblance, in correspondence with the fact that predaceous forms are as a rule much larger and much less numerous than their prey. In the case of insectivorous Vertebrata and their prey such differences exist in an exaggerated form. Cryptic colouring, whether used for defence or attack, may be either _general_ or _special_. In _general resemblance_ the animal, in consequence of its colouring, produces the same effect as its environment, but the conditions do not require any special adaptation of shape and outline. General resemblance is especially common among the animals inhabiting some uniformly coloured expanse of the earth's surface, such as an ocean or a desert. In the former, animals of all shapes are frequently protected by their transparent blue colour; on the latter, equally diverse forms are defended by their sandy appearance. The effect of a uniform appearance may be produced by a combination of tints in startling contrast. Thus the black and white stripes of the zebra blend together at a little distance, and "their proportion is such as exactly to match the pale tint which arid ground possesses when seen by moonlight" (F. Galton, _South Africa_, London, 1889). _Special resemblance_ is far commoner than general, and is the form which is usually met with on the diversified surface of the earth, on the shores, and in shallow water, as well as on the floating masses of Algae on the surface of the ocean, such as the Sargasso Sea. In these environments the cryptic colouring of animals is usually aided by special modifications of shape, and by the instinct which leads them to assume particular attitudes. Complete stillness and the assumption of a certain attitude play an essential part in general resemblance on land; but in special resemblance the attitude is often highly specialized, and perhaps more important than any other element in the complex method by which concealment is effected. In special resemblance the combination of colouring, shape and attitude is such as to produce a more or less exact resemblance to some one of the objects in the environment, such as a leaf or twig, a patch of lichen, or flake of bark. In all cases the resemblance is to some object which is of no interest to the enemy or prey respectively. The animal is not hidden from view by becoming indistinguishable from its background, as in the cases of general resemblance, but it is mistaken for some well-known object.

In seeking the interpretation of these most interesting and elaborate adaptations, attempts have been made along two lines. First, it is sought to explain the effect as a result of the direct influence of the environment upon the individual (G. L. L. Buffon), or by the inherited effects of effort and the use and disuse of parts (J. B. P. Lamarck). Second, natural selection is believed to have produced the result, and afterwards maintained it by the survival of the best concealed in each generation. The former suggestions break down when the complex nature of numerous special resemblances is appreciated. Thus the arrangement of colours of many kinds into an appropriate pattern requires the co-operation of a suitable shape and the rigidly exact adoption of a certain elaborate attitude. The latter is instinctive, and thus depends on the central nervous system. The cryptic effect is due to the exact co-operation of all these factors; and in the present state of science the only possible hope of an interpretation lies in the theory of natural selection, which can accumulate any and every variation which tends towards survival. A few of the chief types of methods by which concealment is effected may be briefly described. The colours of large numbers of Vertebrate animals are darkest on the back, and become gradually lighter on the sides, passing into white on the belly. Abbott H. Thayer (_The Auk_, vol. xiii., 1896) has suggested that this gradation obliterates the appearance of solidity, which is due to shadow. The colour-harmony, which is also essential to concealment, is produced because the back is of the same tint as the environment (_e.g._ earth) bathed in the cold blue-white of the sky, while the belly, being cold blue-white bathed in shadow and yellow earth reflections, produces the same effect. Thayer has made models (in the natural history museums at London, Oxford and Cambridge) which support his interpretation in a very convincing manner. This method of neutralizing shadow for the purpose of concealment by increased lightness of tint was first suggested by E. B. Poulton in the case of a larva (_Trans. Ent. Soc. Lond._, 1887, p. 294) and a pupa (_Trans. Ent. Soc. Lond._, 1888, pp. 596, 597), but he did not appreciate the great importance of the principle. In an analogous method an animal in front of a background of dark shadow may have part of its body obliterated by the existence of a dark tint, the remainder resembling, e.g., a part of a leaf (W. Müller, _Zool. Jahr. J. W. Spengel_, Jena, 1886). This method of rendering invisible any part which would interfere with the resemblance is well known in mimicry. A common aid to concealment is the adoption by different individuals of two or more different appearances, each of which resembles some special object to which an enemy is indifferent. Thus the leaf-like butterflies (_Kallima_) present various types of colour and pattern on the under side of the wings, each of which closely resembles some well-known appearance presented by a dead leaf; and the common British yellow under-wing moth (_Tryphaena pronuba_) is similarly polymorphic on the upper side of its upper wings, which are exposed as it suddenly drops among dead leaves. Caterpillars and pupae are also commonly _dimorphic_, green and brown. Such differences as these extend the area which an enemy is compelled to search in order to make a living. In many cases the cryptic colouring changes appropriately during the course of an individual life, either seasonally, as in the ptarmigan or Alpine hare, or according as the individual enters a new environment in the course of its growth (such as larva, pupa, imago, &c.). In insects with more than one brood in the year, _seasonal dimorphism_ is often seen, and the differences are sometimes appropriate to the altered condition of the environment as the seasons change. The causes of change in these and Arctic animals are insufficiently worked out: in both sets there are observations or experiments which indicate changes from within the organism, merely following the seasons and not caused by them, and other observations or experiments which prove that certain species are susceptible to the changing external influences. In certain species concealment is effected by the use of adventitious objects, which are employed as a covering. Examples of this _allocryptic_ defence are found in the tubes of the caddis worms (_Phryganea_), or the objects made use of by crabs of the genera _Hyas_, _Stenorhynchus_, &c. Such animals are concealed in any environment. If sedentary, like the former example, they are covered up with local materials; if wandering, like the latter, they have the instinct to reclothe. Allocryptic methods may also be used for aggressive purposes, as the ant-lion larva, almost buried in sand, or the large frog _Ceratophrys_, which covers its back with earth when waiting for its prey. Another form of allocryptic defence is found in the use of the colour of the food in the digestive organs showing through the transparent body, and in certain cases the adventitious colour may be dissolved in the blood or secreted in superficial cells of the body: thus certain insects make use of the chlorophyll of their food (Poulton, _Proc. Roy. Soc._ liv. 417). The most perfect cryptic powers are possessed by those animals in which the individuals can change their colours into any tint which would be appropriate to a normal environment. This power is widely prevalent in fish, and also occurs in Amphibia and Reptilia (the chameleon affording a well-known example). Analogous powers exist in certain Crustacea and Cephalopoda. All these rapid changes of colour are due to changes in shape or position of superficial pigment cells controlled by the nervous system. That the latter is itself stimulated by light through the medium of the eye and optic nerve has been proved in many cases. Animals with a short life-history passed in a single environment, which, however, may be very different in the case of different individuals, may have a different form of _variable cryptic colouring_, namely, the power of adapting their colour once for all (many pupae), or once or twice (many larvae). In these cases the effect appears to be produced through the nervous system, although the stimulus of light probably acts on the skin and not through the eyes. Particoloured surfaces do not produce particoloured pupae, probably because the antagonistic stimuli neutralize each other in the central nervous system, which then disposes the superficial colours so that a neutral or intermediate effect is produced over the whole surface (Poulton, _Trans. Ent. Soc. Lond._, 1892, p. 293). Cryptic colouring may incidentally produce superficial resemblances between animals; thus desert forms concealed in the same way may gain a likeness to each other, and in the same way special resemblances, e.g. to lichen, bark, grasses, pine-needles, &c., may sometimes lead to a tolerably close similarity between the animals which are thus concealed. Such likeness may be called _syncryptic_ or _common protective_ (or _aggressive_) _resemblance_, and it is to be distinguished from mimicry and common warning colours, in which the likeness is not incidental, but an end in itself. Syncryptic resemblances have much in common with those incidentally caused by functional adaptation, such as the mole-like forms produced in the burrowing Insectivora, Rodentia and Marsupialia. Such likeness may be called _syntechnic resemblance_, incidentally produced by dynamic similarity, just as syncryptic resemblance is produced by static similarity.

_Use of Colour for Warning and Signalling, or Sematic Coloration._--The use of colour for the purpose of warning is the exact opposite of the one which has been just described, its object being to render the animal conspicuous to its enemies, so that it can be easily seen, well remembered, and avoided in future. Warning colours are associated with some quality or weapon which renders the possessor unpleasant or dangerous, such as unpalatability, an evil odour, a sting, the poison-fang, &c. The object being to warn an enemy off, these colours are also called _aposematic_. Recognition markings, on the other hand, are _episematic_, assisting the individuals of the same species to keep together when their safety depends upon numbers, or easily to follow each other to a place of safety, the young and inexperienced benefiting by the example of the older. Episematic characters are far less common than aposematic, and these than cryptic; although, as regards the latter comparison, the opposite impression is generally produced from the very fact that concealment is so successfully attained. Warning or aposematic colours, together with the qualities they indicate, depend, as a rule, for their very existence upon the abundance of palatable food supplied by the animals with cryptic colouring. Unpalatability, or even the possession of a sting, is not sufficient defence unless there is enough food of another kind to be obtained at the same time and place (Poulton, _Proc. Zool. Soc._, 1887, p. 191). Hence insects with warning colours are not seen in temperate countries except at the time when insect life as a whole is most abundant; and in warmer countries, with well-marked wet and dry seasons, it will probably be found that warning colours are proportionately less developed in the latter. In many species of African butterflies belonging to the genus _Junonia_ (including _Precis_) the wet-season broods are distinguished by the more or less conspicuous under sides of the wings, those of the dry season being highly cryptic. Warning colours are, like cryptic, assisted by special adaptations of the body-form, and especially by movements which assist to render the colour as conspicuous as possible. On this account animals with warning colours generally move or fly slowly, and it is the rule in butterflies that the warning patterns are similar on both upper and under sides of the wings. Many animals, when attacked or disturbed, "sham death" (as it is commonly but wrongly described), falling motionless to the ground. In the case of well-concealed animals this instinct gives them a second chance of escape in the earth or among the leaves, &c., when they have been once detected; animals with warning colours are, on the other hand, enabled to assume a position in which their characters are displayed to the full (J. Portschinsky, _Lepidopterorum Rossiae Biologia_, St Petersburg, 1890, plate i. figs. 16, 17). In both cases a definite attitude is assumed, which is not that of death. Other warning characters exist in addition to colouring: thus sound is made use of by the disturbed rattlesnake and the Indian _Echis_, &c. Large birds, when attacked, often adopt a threatening attitude, accompanied by a terrifying sound. The cobra warns an intruder chiefly by attitude and the dilation of the flattened neck, the effect being heightened in some species by the "spectacles." In such cases we often see the combination of cryptic and sematic methods, the animal being concealed until disturbed, when it instantly assumes an aposematic attitude. The advantage to the animal itself is clear: a poisonous snake gains nothing by killing an animal it cannot eat; while the poison does not cause immediate death, and the enemy would have time to injure or destroy the snake. In the case of small unpalatable animals with warning colours the enemies would only first become aware of the unpleasant quality by tasting and often destroying their prey; but the species would gain by the experience thus conveyed, even though the individual might suffer. An insect-eating animal does not come into the world with knowledge: it has to be educated by experience, and warning colours enable this education as to what to avoid to be gained by a small instead of a large waste of life. Furthermore, great tenacity of life is usually possessed by animals with warning colours. The tissues of aposematic insects generally possess great elasticity and power of resistance, so that large numbers of individuals can recover after very severe treatment.

The brilliant warning colours of many caterpillars attracted the attention of Darwin when he was thinking over his hypothesis of sexual selection, and he wrote to A. R. Wallace on the subject (C. Darwin, _Life and Letters_, London, 1887, iii. 93). Wallace, in reply, suggested their interpretation as warning colours, a suggestion since verified by experiment (_Proc. Ent. Soc. Lond._, 1867, p. lxxx; _Trans. Ent. Soc. Lond._, 1869, pp. 21 and 27). Although animals with warning colours are probably but little attacked by the ordinary enemies of their class, they have special enemies which keep the numbers down to the average. Thus the cuckoo appears to be an insectivorous bird which will freely devour conspicuously coloured unpalatable larvae. The effect of the warning colours of caterpillars is often intensified by gregarious habits. Another aposematic use of colours and structures is to divert attention from the vital parts, and thus give the animal attacked an extra chance of escape. The large, conspicuous, easily torn wings of butterflies and moths act in this way, as is found by the abundance of individuals which may be captured with notches bitten symmetrically out of both wings when they were in contact. The eye-spots and "tails" so common on the hinder part of the hind wing, and the conspicuous apex so frequently seen on the fore wing, probably have this meaning. Their position corresponds to the parts which are most offen found to be notched. In some cases (e.g. many _Lycaenidae_) the "tail" and eye-spot combine to suggest the appearance of a head with antennae at the posterior end of the butterfly, the deception being aided by movements of the hind wings. The flat-topped "tussocks" of hair on many caterpillars look like conspicuous fleshy projections of the body, and they are held prominently when the larva is attacked. If seized, the "tussock" comes out, and the enemy is greatly inconvenienced by the fine branched hairs. The tails of lizards, which easily break off, are to be similarly explained, the attention of the pursuer being probably still further diverted by the extremely active movements of the amputated member. Certain crabs similarly throw off their claws when attacked, and the claws continue to snap most actively. The tail of the dormouse, which easily comes off, and the extremely bushy tail of the squirrel, are probably of use in the same manner. Animals with warning colours often tend to resemble each other superficially. This fact was first pointed out by H. W. Bates in his paper on the theory of mimicry (_Trans. Linn. Soc._ vol. xxiii., 1862, p. 495). He showed that the conspicuous, presumably unpalatable, tropical American butterflies, belonging to very different groups, which are mimicked by others, also tend to resemble each other, the likeness being often remarkably exact. These resemblances were not explained by his theory of mimicry, and he could only suppose that they had been produced by the direct influence of a common environment. The problem was solved in 1879 by Fritz Müller (see _Proc. Ent. Soc. Lond._, 1879, p. xx.), who suggested that life is saved by this resemblance between warning colours, inasmuch as the education of young inexperienced enemies is facilitated. Each species which falls into a group with common warning (_synaposematic_) colours contributes to save the lives of the other members. It is sufficiently obvious that the amount of learning and remembering, and consequently of injury and loss of life involved in the process, are reduced when many species in one place possess the same aposematic colouring, instead of each exhibiting a different "danger-signal." These resemblances are often described as "Müllerian mimicry," as distinguished from true or "Batesian mimicry" described in the next section. Similar synaposematic resemblances between the specially protected groups of butterflies were afterwards shown to exist in tropical Asia, the East Indian Islands and Polynesia by F. Moore (_Proc. Zool. Soc._, 1883, p. 201), and in Africa by E. B. Poulton (_Report Brit. Assoc._, 1897, p. 688). R. Meldola (_Ann. and Mag. Nat. Hist._ x., 1882, p. 417) first pointed out and explained in the same manner the remarkable general uniformity of colour and pattern which runs through so many species of each of the distasteful groups of butterflies; while, still later, Poulton (_Proc. Zool. Soc._, 1887, p. 191) similarly extended the interpretation to the synaposematic resemblances between animals of all kinds in the same country. Thus, for example, longitudinal or circular bands of the same strongly contrasted colours are found in species of many groups with distant affinities.

Certain animals, especially the Crustacea, make use of the special defence and warning colours of other animals. Thus the English hermit-crab, _Pagurus Bernhardus_, commonly carries the sea-anemone, _Sagartia parasitica_, on its shell; while another English species, _Pagurus Prideauxii_, inhabits a shell which is invariably clothed by the flattened _Adamsia palliata_.

The white patch near the tail which is frequently seen in the gregarious Ungulates, and is often rendered conspicuous by adjacent black markings, probably assists the individuals in keeping together; and appearances with probably the same interpretation are found in many birds. The white upturned tail of the rabbit is probably of use in enabling the individuals to follow each other readily. The difference between a typical aposematic character appealing to enemies, and episematic intended for other individuals of the same species, is well seen when we compare such examples as (1) the huge banner-like white tail, conspicuously contrasted with the black or black and white body, by which the slow-moving skunk warns enemies of its power of emitting an intolerably offensive odour; (2) the small upturned white tail of the rabbit, only seen when it is likely to be of use and when the owner is moving, and, if pursued, very rapidly moving, towards safety.

_Mimicry_ (see also MIMICRY) or _Pseudo-sematic Colours_.--The fact that animals with distant affinities may more or less closely resemble each other was observed long before the existing explanation was possible. Its recognition is implied in a number of insect names with the termination -_formis_, usually given to species of various orders which more or less closely resemble the stinging Hymenoptera. The usefulness of the resemblance was suggested in Kirby and Spence's _Introduction to Entomology_, London, 1817, ii. 223. H. W. Bates (_Trans. Linn. Soc._ vol. xxiii., 1862, p. 495) first proposed an explanation of mimicry based on the theory of natural selection. He supposed that every step in the formation and gradual improvement of the likeness occurred in consequence of its usefulness in the struggle for life. The subject is of additional interest, inasmuch as it was one of the first attempts to apply the theory of natural selection to a large class of phenomena up to that time well known but unexplained. Numerous examples of mimicry among tropical American butterflies were discussed by Bates in his paper; and in 1866 A. R. Wallace extended the hypothesis to the butterflies of the tropical East (_Trans. Linn. Soc._ vol. xxv., 1866, p. 19); Roland Trimen (_Trans. Linn. Soc._ vol. xxvi., 1870, p. 497) to those of Africa in 1870. The term mimicry is used in various senses. It is often extended, as indeed it was by Bates, to include all the superficial resemblances between animals and any part of their environment. Wallace, however, separated the cryptic resemblances already described, and the majority of naturalists have followed this convenient arrangement. In cryptic resemblance an animal resembles some object of no interest to its enemy (or prey), and in so doing is concealed; in mimicry an animal resembles some other animal which is specially disliked by its enemy, or some object which is specially attractive to its prey, and in so doing becomes conspicuous. Some naturalists have considered mimicry to include all superficial likenesses between animals, but such a classification would group together resemblances which have widely different uses. (1) The resemblance of a mollusc to the coral on which it lives, or an external parasite to the hair or skin of its host, would be _procryptic_; (2) that between moths which resemble lichen, _syncryptic_; (3) between distasteful insects, _synaposematic_; (4) between the Insectivor mole and the Rodent mole-rat, _syntechnic_; (5) the essential element in mimicry is that it is a false warning (pseud-aposematic) or false recognition (pseud-episematic) character. Some have considered that mimicry indicates resemblance to a moving object; but apart from the non-mimetic likenesses between animals classified above, there are ordinary cryptic resemblances to drifting leaves, swaying bits of twig, &c., while truly mimetic resemblances are often specially adapted for the attitude of rest. Many use the term mimicry to include synaposematic as well as pseudo-sematic resemblances, calling the former "Müllerian," the latter "Batesian," mimicry. The objection to this grouping is that it takes little account of the deceptive element which is essential in mimicry. In synaposematic colouring the warning is genuine, in pseud-aposematic it is a sham. The term mimicry has led to much misunderstanding from the fact that in ordinary speech it implies deliberate imitation. The production of mimicry in an individual animal has no more to do with consciousness or "taking thought" than any of the other processes of growth. Protective mimicry is here defined as an advantageous and superficial resemblance of one animal to another, which latter is specially defended so as to be disliked or feared by the majority of enemies of the groups to which both belong--a resemblance which appeals to the sense of sight, sometimes to that of hearing, and rarely to smell, but does not extend to deep-seated characters except when the superficial likeness is affected by them. _Mutatis mutandis_ this definition will apply to aggressive (pseud-episematic) resemblance. The conditions under which mimicry occurs have been stated by Wallace:--"(1) that the imitative species occur in the same area and occupy the same station as the imitated; (2) that the imitators are always the more defenceless; (3) that the imitators are always less numerous in individuals; (4) that the imitators differ from the bulk of their allies; (5) that the imitation, however minute, is _external_ and _visible_ only, never extending to internal characters or to such as do not affect the external appearance." It is obvious that conditions 2 and 3 do not hold in the case of Müllerian mimicry. Mimicry has been explained, independently of natural selection, by the supposition that it is the common expression of the direct action of common causes, such as climate, food, &c.; also by the supposition of independent lines of evolution leading to the same result without any selective action in consequence of advantage in the struggle; also by the operation of sexual selection.

It is proposed, in conclusion, to give an account of the broad aspects of mimicry, and attempt a brief discussion of the theories of origin of each class of facts (see Poulton, _Linn. Soc. Journ. Zool._, 1898, p. 558). It will be found that in many cases the argument here made use of applies equally to the origin of cryptic and sematic colours. The relationship between these classes has been explained: mimicry is, as Wallace has stated (_Darwinism_, London, 1889), merely "an exceptional form of protective resemblance. "Now, protective (cryptic) resemblance cannot be explained on any of the lines suggested above, except natural selection; even sexual selection fails, because cryptic resemblance is especially common in the immature stages of insect life. But it would be unreasonable to explain mimetic resemblance by one set of principles and cryptic by another and totally different set. Again, it may be plausible to explain the mimicry of one butterfly for another on one of the suggested lines, but the resemblance of a fly or moth to a wasp is by no means so easy, and here selection would be generally conceded; yet the appeal to antagonistic principles to explain such closely related cases would only be justified by much direct evidence. Furthermore, the mimetic resemblances between butterflies are not haphazard, but the models almost invariably belong only to certain sub-families, the _Danainae_ and _Acraeinae_ in all the warmer parts of the world, and, in tropical America, the _Ithomiinae_ and _Heliconinae_ as well. These groups have the characteristics of aposematic species, and no theory but natural selection explains their invariable occurrence as models wherever they exist. It is impossible to suggest, except by natural selection, any explanation of the fact that mimetic resemblances are confined to changes which produce or strengthen a superficial likeness. Very deep-seated changes are generally involved, inasmuch as the appropriate instincts as to attitude, &c., are as important as colour and marking. The same conclusion is reached when we analyse the nature of mimetic resemblance and realize how complex it really is, being made up of _colours_, both pigmentary and structural, _pattern_, _form_, _attitude_ and _movement_. A plausible interpretation of colour may be wildly improbable when applied to some other element, and there is _no_ explanation except natural selection which can explain all these elements. The appeal to the direct action of local conditions in common often breaks down upon the slightest investigation, the difference in habits between mimic and model in the same locality causing the most complete divergence in their conditions of life. Thus many insects produced from burrowing larvae mimic those whose larvae live in the open. Mimetic resemblance is far commoner in the female than in the male, a fact readily explicable by selection, as suggested by Wallace, for the female is compelled to fly more slowly and to expose itself while laying eggs, and hence a resemblance to the slow-flying freely exposed models is especially advantageous. The facts that mimetic species occur in the same locality, fly at the same time of the year as their models, and are day-flying species even though they may belong to nocturnal groups, are also more or less difficult to explain except on the theory of natural selection, and so also is the fact that mimetic resemblance is produced in the most varied manner. A spider resembles its model, an ant, by a modification of its body-form into a superficial resemblance, and by holding one pair of legs to represent antennae; certain bugs (Hemiptera) and beetles have also gained a shape unusual in their respective groups, a shape which superficially resembles an ant; a Locustid (_Myrmecophana_) has the shape of an ant painted, as it were, on its body, all other parts resembling the background and invisible; a Membracid (Homoptera) is entirely unlike an ant, but is concealed by an ant-like shield. When we further realize that in this and other examples of mimicry "the likeness is almost always detailed and remarkable, however it is attained, while the methods differ absolutely," we recognize that natural selection is the only possible explanation hitherto suggested. In the cases of aggressive mimicry an animal resembles some object which is attractive to its prey. Examples are found in the flower-like species of _Mantis_, which attract the insects on which they feed. Such cases are generally described as possessing "alluring colours," and are regarded as examples of aggressive (anticryptic) resemblance, but their logical position is here.

_Colours displayed in Courtship, Secondary Sexual Characters, Epigamic Colours._--Darwin suggested the explanation of these appearances in his theory of _sexual selection_ (_The Descent of Man_, London, 1874). The rivalry of the males for the possession of the females he believed to be decided by the preference of the latter for those individuals with especially bright colours, highly developed plumes, beautiful song, &c. Wallace does not accept the theory, but believes that natural selection, either directly or indirectly, accounts for all the facts. Probably the majority of naturalists follow Darwin in this respect. The subject is most difficult, and the interpretation of a great proportion of the examples in a high degree uncertain, so that a very brief account is here expedient. That selection of some kind has been operative is indicated by the diversity of the elements into which the effects can be analysed. The most complete set of observations on epigamic display was made by George W. and Elizabeth G. Peckham upon spiders of the family _Attidae_ (_Nat. Hist. Soc. of Wisconsin_, vol. i., 1889). These observations afforded the authors "conclusive evidence that the females pay close attention to the love-dances of the males, and also that they have not only the power, but the will, to exercise a choice among the suitors for their favour." Epigamic characters are often concealed except during courtship; they are found almost exclusively in species which are diurnal or semi-diurnal in their habits, and are excluded from those parts of the body which move too rapidly to be seen. They are very commonly directly associated with the nervous system; and in certain fish, and probably in other animals, an analogous heightening of effect accompanies nervous excitement other than sexual, such as that due to fighting or feeding. Although there is epigamic display in species with sexes alike, it is usually most marked in those with secondary sexual characters specially developed in the male. These are an exception to the rule in heredity, in that their appearance is normally restricted to a single sex, although in many of the higher animals they have been proved to be latent in the other, and may appear after the essential organs of sex have been removed or become functionless. This is also the case in the Aculeate Hymenoptera when the reproductive organs have been destroyed by the parasite _Stylops_. J. T. Cunningham has argued (_Sexual Dimorphism in the Animal Kingdom_, London, 1900) that secondary sexual characters have been produced by direct stimulation due to contests, &c., in the breeding period, and have gradually become hereditary, a hypothesis involving the assumption that acquired characters are transmitted. Wallace suggests that they are in part to be explained as "recognition characters," in part as an indication of surplus vital activity in the male.

AUTHORITIES.--The following works may also be consulted:--T. Eimer, _Orthogenesis der Schmetterlinge_ (Leipzig, 1898); E. B. Poulton, _The Colours of Animals_ (London, 1890); F. E. Beddard, _Animal Coloration_ (London, 1892); E. Haase, _Researches on Mimicry_ (translation, London, 1896); A. R. Wallace, _Natural Selection and Tropical Nature_ (London, 1895); _Darwinism_ (London, 1897); A. H. Thayer and G. H. Thayer, _Concealing-Coloration in the Animal Kingdom_ (New York, 1910). (E. B. P.)

2. CHEMISTRY

The coloration of the _surface_ of animals is caused either by _pigments_, or by a certain _structure_ of the surface by means of which the light falling on it, or reflected through its superficial transparent layers, undergoes diffraction or other optical change. Or it may be the result of a combination of these two causes. It plays an important part in the relationship of the animal to its environment, in concealment, in mimicry, and so on; the presence of a pigment in the integument may also serve a more direct physiological purpose, such as a respiratory function. The coloration of birds' feathers, of the skin of many fishes, of many insects, is partially at least due to structure and the action of the peculiar pigmented cells known as "chromatophores" (which W. Garstang defines as pigmented cells specialized for the discharge of the chromatic function), and is much better marked when these have for their background a "reflecting layer" such as is provided by guanin, a substance closely related to uric acid. Such a mechanism is seen to greatest advantage in fishes. Among these, guanin may be present in a finely granular form, causing the light falling on it to be scattered, thus producing a white effect; or it may be present in a peculiar crystalline form, the crystals being known as "iridocytes"; or in a layer of closely apposed needles forming a silvery sheet or mirror. In the iris of some fishes the golden red colour is produced by the light reflected from such a layer of guanin needles having to pass through a thin layer of a reddish pigment, known as a "lipochrome." Again, in some lepidopterous insects a white or a yellow appearance is produced by the deposition of uric acid or a nearly allied substance on the surface of the wings. In many animals, but especially among invertebrates, colouring matters or pigments play an important rôle in surface coloration; in some cases such coloration may be of benefit to the animal, but in others the integument simply serves as an organ for the excretion of waste pigmentary substances. Pigments (1) may be of direct physiological importance; (2) they may be excretory; or (3) they may be introduced into the body of the animal with the food.

Of the many pigments which have been described up to the present time, very few have been subjected to elementary chemical analysis, owing to the great difficulties attending their isolation. An extremely small amount of pigment will give rise to a great amount of coloration, and the pigments are generally accompanied by impurities of various kinds which cling to them with great tenacity, so that when one has been thoroughly cleansed very little of it remains for ultimate analysis. Most of these substances have been detected by means of the spectroscope, their absorption bands serving for their recognition, but mere identity of spectrum does not necessarily mean chemical identity, and a few chemical tests have also to be applied before a conclusion can be drawn. The absorption bands are referred to certain definite parts of the spectrum, such as the Fraunhofer lines, or they may be given in wave-lengths. For this purpose the readings of the spectroscope are reduced to wave-lengths by means of interpolation curves; or if Zeiss's microspectroscope be used, the position of bands in wave-lengths (denoted by the Greek letter [lambda]) may be read directly.

Haemoglobin, the red colouring matter of vertebrate blood, C758H1203N195S3FeO218, and its derivatives haematin, C32H30N4FeO3, and haematoporphyrin, C16H18N2O3, are colouring matters about which we possess definite chemical knowledge, as they have been isolated, purified and analysed. Most of the bile pigments of mammals have likewise been isolated and studied chemically, and all of these are fully described in the text-books of physiology and physiological chemistry. Haemoglobin, though physiologically of great importance in the respiratory process of vertebrate animals, is yet seldom used for surface pigmentation, except in the face of white races of man or in other parts in monkeys, &c. In some worms the transparent skin allows the haemoglobin of the blood to be seen through the integument, and in certain fishes also the haemoglobin is visible through the integument. It is a curious and noteworthy fact that in some invertebrate animals in which no haemoglobin occurs, we meet with its derivatives. Thus haematin is found in the so-called bile of slugs, snails, the limpet and the crayfish. In sea-anemones there is a pigment which yields some of the decomposition-products of haemoglobin, and associated with this is a green pigment apparently identical with biliverdin (C16H18N2O4), a green bile pigment. Again, haematoporphyrin is found in the integuments of star-fishes and slugs, and occurs in the "dorsal streak" of the earth-worm _Lumbricus terrestris_, and perhaps in other species. Haematoporphyrin and biliverdin also occur in the egg-shells of certain birds, but in this case they are derived from haemoglobin. Haemoglobin is said to be found as low down in the animal kingdom as the Echinoderms, e.g. in _Ophiactis virens_ and _Thyonella gemmata_. It also occurs in the blood of _Planorbis corneus_ and in the pharyngeal muscles of other mollusca.

A great number of other pigments have been described; for example, in the muscles and tissues of animals, both vertebrate and invertebrate, are the histohaematins, of which a special muscle pigment, myohaematin, is one. In vertebrates the latter is generally accompanied by haemoglobin, but in invertebrates--with the exception of the pharyngeal muscles of the mollusca--it occurs alone. Although closely related to haemoglobin or its derivative haemochromogen, the histohaematins are yet totally distinct, and they are found in animals where not a trace of haemoglobin can be detected. Another interesting pigment is turacin, which contains about 7% of nitrogen, found by Professor A. H. Church in the feathers of the Cape lory and other plantain-eaters, from which it can be extracted by water containing a trace of ammonia. It has been isolated, purified and analysed by Professor Church. From it may be obtained turacoporphyrin, which is identical with haematoporphyrin, and gives the band in the ultra-violet which J. L. Soret and subsequently A. Gamgee have found to be characteristic of haemoglobin and its compounds. Turacin itself gives a peculiar two-banded spectrum, and contains about 7% of copper in its molecule. Another copper-containing pigment is haemocyanin, which in the oxidized state gives a blue colour to the blood of various Mollusca and Arthropoda. Like haemoglobin, it acts as an oxygen-carrier in respiration, but it takes no part in surface coloration.

A class of pigments widely distributed among plants and animals are the lipochromes. As their name denotes, they are allied to fat and generally accompany it, being soluble in fat solvents. They play an important part in surface coloration, and may be greenish, yellow or red in colour. They contain no nitrogen. As an example of a lipochrome which has been isolated, crystallized and purified, we may mention carotin, which has recently been found in green leaves. Chlorophyll, which is so often associated with a lipochrome, has been found in some Infusoria, and in _Hydra_ and _Spongilla_, &c. In some cases it is probably formed by the animal; in other cases it may be due to symbiotic algae, while in the gastric gland of many Mollusca, Crustacea and Echinodermata it is derived from food-chlorophyll. Here it is known as entero-chlorophyll. The black pigments which occur among both vertebrate and invertebrate animals often have only one attribute in common, viz. blackness, for among the discordant results of analysis one thing is certain, viz. that the melanins from vertebrate animals are not identical with those from invertebrate animals. The melanosis or blackening of insect blood, for instance, is due to the oxidation of a chromogen, the pigment produced being known as a uranidine. In some sponges a somewhat similar pigment has been noticed. Other pigments have been described, such as actiniochrome, echinochrome, pentacrinin, antedonin, polyperythrin (which appears to be a haematoporphyrin), the floridines, spongioporphyrin, &c., which need no mention here; all these pigments can only be distinguished by means of the spectroscope.

Most of the pigments are preceded by colourless substances known as "chromogens," which by the action of the oxygen of the air and by other agencies become changed into the corresponding pigments. In some cases the pigments are built up in the tissues of an animal, in others they appear to be derived more or less directly from the food. Derivatives of chlorophyll and lipochromes especially, seem to be taken up from the intestine, probably by the agency of leucocytes, in which they may occur in combination with, or dissolved by, fatty matters and excreted by the integument. In worms especially, the skin seems to excrete many effete substances, pigments included. No direct connexion has been traced between the chlorophyll eaten with the food and the haemoglobin of blood and muscle. Attention may, however, be drawn to the work of Dr E. Schunck, who has shown that a substance closely resembling haematoporphyrin can be prepared from chlorophyll; this is known as phylloporphyrin. Not only does the _visible_ spectrum of this substance resemble that of haematoporphyrin, but the _invisible_ ultra-violet also, as shown by C. A. Schunck.

The reader may refer to E. A. Schäfer's _Text-Book of Physiology_ (1898) for A. Gamgee's article "On Haemoglobin, and its Compounds"; to the writer's papers in the _Phil. Trans._ and _Proc. Roy. Soc._ from 1881 onwards, and also _Quart. Journ. Micros. Science_ and _Journ. of Physiol._; to C. F. W. Krukenberg's _Vergleichende physiologische Studien_ from 1879 onwards, and to his _Vorträge_. Miss M. I. Newbigin collected in _Colour in Nature_ (1898) most of the recent literature of this subject. Dr E. Schunck's papers will be found under the heading "Contribution to the Chemistry of Chlorophyll" in _Proc. Roy. Soc._ from 1885 onwards; and Mr C. A. Schunck's paper in _Proc. Roy. Soc._ vol. lxiii. (C. A. MacM.)

COLSTON, EDWARD (1636-1721), English philanthropist, the son of William Colston, a Bristol merchant of good position, was born at Bristol on the 2nd of November 1636. He is generally understood to have spent some years of his youth and manhood as a factor in Spain, with which country his family was long connected commercially, and whence, by means of a trade in wines and oil, great part of his own vast fortune was to come. On his return he seems to have settled in London, and to have bent himself resolutely to the task of making money. In 1681, the date of his father's decease, he appears as a governor of Christ's hospital, to which noble foundation he afterwards gave frequently and largely. In the same year he probably began to take an active interest in the affairs of Bristol, where he is found about this time embarked in a sugar refinery; and during the remainder of his life he seems to have divided his attention pretty equally between the city of his birth and that of his adoption. In 1682 he appears in the records of the great western port as advancing a sum of £1800 to its needy corporation; in 1683 as "a free burgess and _meire_ (St Kitts) merchant" he was made a member of the Merchant's Hall; and in 1684 he was appointed one of a committee for managing the affairs of Clifton. In 1685 he again appears as the city's creditor for about £2000, repayment of which he is found insisting on in 1686. In 1689 he was chosen auditor by the vestry at Mortlake, where he was residing in an old house once the abode of Ireton and Cromwell. In 1691, on St Michael's Hill, Bristol, at a cost of £8000, he founded an almshouse for the reception of 24 poor men and women, and endowed with accommodation for "Six Saylors," at a cost of £600, the merchant's almshouses in King Street. In 1696, at a cost of £8000, he endowed a foundation for clothing and teaching 40 boys (the books employed were to have in them "no tincture of Whiggism"); and six years afterwards he expended a further sum of £1500 in rebuilding the school-house. In 1708; at a cost of £41,200, he built and endowed his great foundation on Saint Augustine's Back, for the instruction, clothing, maintaining and apprenticing of 100 boys; and in time of scarcity, during this and next year, he transmitted "by a private hand" some £20,000 to the London committee. In 1710, after a poll of four days, he was sent to parliament, to represent, on strictest Tory principles, his native city of Bristol; and in 1713, after three years of silent political life, he resigned this charge. He died at Mortlake in 1721, having nearly completed his eighty-fifth year; and was buried in All Saints' church, Bristol.

Colston, who was in the habit of bestowing large sums yearly for the release of poor debtors and the relief of indigent age and sickness, and who gave (1711) no less than £6000 to increase Queen Anne's Bounty Fund for the augmentation of small livings, was always keenly interested in the organization and management of his foundations; the rules and regulations were all drawn up by his hand, and the minutest details of their constitution and economy were dictated by him. A high churchman and Tory, with a genuine intolerance of dissent and dissenters, his name and example have served as excuses for the formation of two political benevolent societies--the "Anchor" (founded 1769) and the "Dolphin" (founded 1749),--and also the "Grateful" (founded 1758), whose rivalry has been perhaps as instrumental in keeping their patron's memory green as have the splendid charities with which he enriched his native city (see BRISTOL).

See Garrard, _Edward Colston, the Philanthropist_ (4to, Bristol, 1852); Pryce, _A Popular History of Bristol_ (1861); Manchee, _Bristol Charities_.

COLT, SAMUEL (1814-1862), American inventor, was born on the 19th of July 1814 at Hartford, Connecticut, where his father had a manufactory of silks and woollens. At the age of ten he left school for the factory, and at fourteen, then being in a boarding school at Amherst, Massachusetts, he made a runaway voyage to India, during which (in 1829) he constructed a wooden model, still existing, of what was afterwards to be the revolver (see PISTOL). On his return he learned chemistry from his father's bleaching and dyeing manager, and under the assumed name "Dr Coult" travelled over the United States and Canada lecturing on that science. The profits of two years of this work enabled him to continue his researches and experiments. In 1835, having perfected a six-barrelled rotating breech, he visited Europe, and patented his inventions in London and Paris, securing the American right on his return; and the same year he founded at Paterson, New Jersey, the Patent Arms Company, for the manufacture of his revolvers only. As early as 1837 revolvers were successfully used by United States troops, under Lieut.-Colonel William S. Harney, in fighting against the Seminole Indians in Florida. Colt's scheme, however, did not succeed; the arms were not generally appreciated; and in 1842 the company became insolvent. No revolvers were made for five years, and none were to be had when General Zachary Taylor wrote for a supply from the seat of war in Mexico. In 1847 the United States government ordered 1000 from the inventor; but before these could be produced he had to construct a new model, for a pistol of the company's make could nowhere be found. This commission was the beginning of an immense business. The little armoury at Whitneyville (New Haven, Connecticut), where the order for Mexico was executed, was soon exchanged for larger workshops at Hartford. These in their turn gave place (1852) to the enormous factory of the Colt's Patent Fire-Arms Manufacturing Company, doubled in 1861, on the banks of the Connecticut river, within the city limits of Hartford, where so many millions of revolvers with all their appendages have been manufactured. Thence was sent, for the Russian and English governments, to Tula and Enfield, the whole of the elaborate machinery devised by Colt for the manufacture of his pistols. Colt introduced and patented a number of improvements in his revolver, and also invented a submarine battery for harbour defence. He died at Hartford on the 10th of January 1862.

COLT'S-FOOT, the popular name of a small herb, _Tussilago Farfara_, a member of the natural order Compositae, which is common in Britain in damp, heavy soils. It has a stout branching underground stem, which sends up in March and April scapes about 6 in. high, each bearing a head of bright yellow flowers, the male in the centre surrounded by a much larger number of female. The flowers are succeeded by the fruits, which bear a soft snow-white woolly pappus. The leaves, which appear later, are broadly cordate with an angular or lobed outline, and are covered on the under-face with a dense white felt. The botanical name, _Tussilago_, recalls its use as a medicine for cough (_tussis_). The leaves are smoked in cases of asthma.

COLUGO, or COBEGO, either of two species of the zoological genus _Galeopithecus_. These animals live in the forests of the Malay Peninsula, Sumatra, Borneo and the Philippine Islands, where they feed chiefly on leaves, and probably also on insects. In size they may be compared with cats; the long slender limbs are connected by a broad fold of skin extending outwards from the sides of the neck and body, the fingers and toes are webbed, and the hind-limbs joined by an outer membrane as in bats. Their habits are nocturnal, and during the daytime they cling to the trunks or limbs of trees head downwards in a state of repose. With the approach of night their season of activity commences, when they may be occasionally seen gliding from tree to tree supported on their cutaneous parachute, and they have been noticed as capable of traversing in this way a space of 70 yds. with a descent of only about one in five. Europeans in the East know these animals as "flying lemurs." (See GALEOPITHECUS.)

COLUMBA, SAINT (Irish, _Colum_), Irish saint, was born on the 7th of December 521, in all probability at Gartan in Co. Donegal. His father Feidlimid was a member of the reigning family in Ireland and was closely allied to that of Dalriada (Argyll). His mother Eithne was of Leinster extraction and was descended from an illustrious provincial king. To these powerful connexions as much as to his piety and ability, he owed the immense influence he possessed. Later lives state that the saint was also called Crimthann (fox), and Reeves suggests that he may have had two names, the one baptismal, the other secular. He was afterwards known as Columkille, or Columba of the Church, to distinguish him from others of the same name. During his early years the Irish Church was reformed by Gildas and Finian of Clonard, and numerous monasteries were founded which made Ireland renowned as a centre of learning. Columba himself studied under two of the most distinguished Irishmen of his day, Finian of Moville (at the head of Strangford Lough) and Finian of Clonard. Almost as a matter of course, under such circumstances, he embraced the monastic life. He was ordained deacon while at Moville, and afterwards, when about thirty years of age, was raised to the priesthood. During his residence in Ireland he founded, in addition to a number of churches, two famous monasteries, one named Daire Calgaich (Derry) on the banks of Lough Foyle, the other Dair-magh (Durrow) in King's county.

In 563 he left his native land, accompanied by twelve disciples, and went on a mission to northern Britain, perhaps on the invitation of his kinsman Conall, king of Dalriada. Irish accounts represent Columba as undertaking this mission in consequence of the censure expressed against him by the clergy after the battle of Cooldrevny; but this is probably a fabrication. The saint's labours in Scotland must be regarded as a manifestation of the same spirit of missionary enterprise with which so many of his countrymen were imbued. Columba established himself on the island of Hy or Iona, where he erected a church and a monastery. About the year 565 he applied himself to the task of converting the heathen kingdom of the northern Picts. Crossing over to the mainland he proceeded to the residence, on the banks of the Ness, of Brude, king of the Picts. By his preaching, his holy life, and, as his earliest biographers assert, by the performance of miracles, he converted the king and many of his subjects. The precise details, except in a few cases, are unknown, or obscured by exaggeration and fiction; but it is certain that the whole of northern Scotland was converted by the labours of Columba, and his disciples and the religious instruction of the people provided for by the erection of numerous monasteries. The monastery of Iona was reverenced as the mother house of all these foundations, and its abbots were obeyed as the chief ecclesiastical rulers of the whole nation of the northern Picts. There were then neither dioceses nor parishes in Ireland and Celtic Scotland; and by the Columbite rule the bishops themselves, although they ordained the clergy, were subject to the jurisdiction of the abbots of Iona, who, like the founder of the order, were only presbyters. In matters of ritual they agreed with the Western Church on the continent, save in a few particulars such as the precise time of keeping Easter and manner of tonsure.

Columba was honoured by his countrymen, the Scots of Britain and Ireland, as much as by his Pictish converts, and in his character of chief ecclesiastical ruler he gave formal benediction and inauguration to Aidan, the successor of Conall, as king of the Scots. He accompanied that prince to Ireland in 575, and took a leading part in a council held at Drumceat in Ulster, which determined once and for all the position of the ruler of Dalriada with regard to the king of Ireland. The last years of Columba's life appear to have been mainly spent at Iona. There he was already revered as a saint, and whatever credit may be given to some portions of the narratives of his biographers, there can be no doubt as to the wonderful influence which he exercised, as to the holiness of his life, and as to the love which he uniformly manifested to God and to his neighbour.

In the summer of 597 he knew that his end was approaching. On Saturday the 8th of June he was able, with the help of one of his monks, to ascend a little hill above the monastery and to give it his farewell blessing. Returning to his cell he continued a labour in which he had been engaged, the transcription of the Psalter. Having finished the verse of the 34th Psalm where it is written, "They who seek the Lord shall want no manner of thing that is good," he said, "Here I must stop:--what follows let Baithen write"; indicating, as was believed, his wish that his cousin Baithen should succeed him as abbot. He was present at evening in the church, and when the midnight bell sounded for the nocturnal office early on Sunday morning he again went thither unsupported, but sank down before the altar and passed away as in a gentle sleep.

Several Irish poems are ascribed to Columba, but they are manifestly compositions of a later age. Three Latin hymns may, however, be attributed to the saint with some degree of certainty.

The original materials for a life of St Columba are unusually full. The earliest biography was written by one of his successors, Cuminius, who became abbot of Iona in 657. Much more important is the enlargement of that work by Adamnan, who became abbot of Iona in 679. These narratives are supplemented by the brief but most valuable notices given by the Venerable Bede. See W. Reeves, _Life of St Columba, written by Adamnan_ (Dublin, 1857); W. F. Skene, _Celtic Scotland_, vol. ii. "Church and Culture" (Edinburgh, 1877). (E. C. Q.)

COLUMBAN (543-615), Irish saint and writer, was born in Leinster in 543, and was educated in the monastery of Bangor, Co. Down. About the year 585 he left Ireland together with twelve other monks, and established himself in the Vosges, among the ruins of an ancient fortification called Anagrates, the present Anegray in the department of Haute-Saône. His enemies accused him before a synod of French bishops (602) for keeping Easter according to the old British and now unorthodox way, and a more powerful conspiracy was organized against him at the court of Burgundy for boldly rebuking the crimes of King Theuderich II. and the queen-mother Brunhilda. He was banished and forcibly removed from his monastery, and with St Gall and others of the monks he withdrew into Switzerland, where he preached with no great success to the Suebi and Alamanni. Being again compelled to flee, he retired to Italy, and founded the monastery of Bobbio in the Apennines, where he remained till his death, which took place on the 21st of November 615. His writings, which include some Latin poems, prove him a man of learning, and he appears to have been acquainted not only with the Latin classics, but also with Greek, and even Hebrew.

The collected edition of St Columban's writings was published by Patrick Fleming in his _Collectanea sacra Hiberni_ (Louvain, 1667), and reproduced by Migne, p. 4, vol. lxxxvi. (Paris, 1844). See further, Wright's _Biographia Literaria_. Columban's _Regula Coenobitalis cum Poenitenliali_ is to be found in the _Codex Regularum_ (Paris, 1638). A complete bibliography is given in U. Chevallier, _Répertoire des sources hist_. (Bio. Bibliogr.), vol. i. 990 (Paris, 1905).

COLUMBANI, PLACIDO, Italian architectural designer, who worked chiefly in England in the latter part of the 18th century. He belonged to the school of the Adams and Pergolesi, and like them frequently designed the enrichments of furniture. He was a prolific producer of chimney-pieces, which are often mistaken for Adam work, of moulded friezes, and painted plaques for cabinets and the like. There can be no question that the English furniture designers of the end of the 18th century, and especially the Adams, Hepplewhite and Sheraton, owed much to his graceful, flowing and classical conceptions, although they are often inferior to those of Pergolesi. His books are still a valuable store-house of sketches for internal architectural decoration. His principal works are:--_Vases and Tripods_ (1770); _A New Book of Ornaments, containing a variety of elegant designs for Modern Panels, commonly executed in Stucco, Wood or Painting, and used in decorating Principal Rooms_ (1775); _A variety of Capitals, Friezes and Corniches, and how to increase and decrease them, still retaining their proportions_ (1776). He also assisted John Crunden in the production of _The Chimneypiece Makers' Daily Assistant_ (1776).

COLUMBARIUM (Lat. _columba_, a dove), a pigeon-house. The term is applied in architecture to those sepulchral chambers in and near Rome, the walls of which were sunk with small niches (_columbaria_) to receive the cinerary urns. Vitruvius (iv. 2) employs the term to signify the holes made in a wall to receive the ends of the timbers of a floor or roof.

COLUMBIA, a city and the county-seat of Boone county, Missouri, U.S.A., situated in the central part of the state, about 145 m. (by rail) W.N.W. of St Louis. Pop. (1890) 4000; (1900) 5651 (1916 negroes); (1910) 9662. Columbia is served by the Wabash and the Missouri, Kansas & Texas railways. It is primarily an educational centre, is a market for grain and farm products, and has grain elevators, a packing house, a shoe factory and brick works. Columbia is the seat of the University of Missouri, a coeducational state institution, established in 1839 and opened in 1841; it received no direct financial support from the state until 1867, and its founding was due to the self-sacrifice of the people of the county. It is now liberally supported by the state; in 1908 its annual income was about $650,000. In 1908 the university had (at Columbia) 200 instructors and 2419 students, including 680 women; included in its library is the collection of the State Historical Society. The School of Mines of the university is at Rolla, Mo.; all other departments are at Columbia. A normal department was established in 1867 and opened in 1868; and women were admitted to it in 1869. The College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts became a department of the university in 1870. The law department was opened in 1872, the medical in 1873, and the engineering in 1877. The graduate department was established in 1896, and in 1908 a department of journalism was organized. On the university campus in the quadrangle is the monument of grey granite erected over the grave of Thomas Jefferson, designed after his own plans, and bearing the famous inscription written by him. It was given to the university by descendants of Jefferson when Congress appropriated money for the monument now standing over his grave. Near the city is the farm of the agricultural college and the experiment station. At Columbia, also, are the Parker Memorial hospital, the Teachers College high school, the University Military Academy, the Columbia Business College, Christian College (Disciples) for women, established in 1851, its charter being the first granted by Missouri for the collegiate education of Protestant women; the Bible College of the Disciples of Christ in Missouri; and Stephens College (under Baptist control) for women, established in 1856. The municipality owns the water-works and the electric lighting plant. Columbia was first settled about 1821.

COLUMBIA, a borough of Lancaster county, Pennsylvania, U.S.A., on the W. bank of the Susquehanna river (here crossed by a long steel bridge), opposite Wrightsville and about 81 m. W. by N. of Philadelphia. Pop. (1890) 10,599; (1900) 12,316, of whom 772 were foreign-born; (1910) 11,454. It is served by the Pennsylvania, the Philadelphia, Baltimore & Washington, the Philadelphia & Reading, and the Northern Central railways, and by interurban electric railways. The river here is about a mile wide, and a considerable portion of the borough is built on the slope of a hill which rises gently from the river-bank and overlooks beautiful scenery. The Pennsylvania railway has repair shops here, and among Columbia's manufactures are silk goods, embroidery and laces, iron and steel pipe, engines, laundry machinery, brushes, stoves, iron toys, umbrellas, flour, lumber and wagons; the city is also a busy shipping and trading centre. Columbia was first settled, by Quakers, in 1726; it was laid out as a town in 1787; and in 1814 it was incorporated. In 1790 it was one of several places considered in Congress for a permanent site of the national capital.

COLUMBIA, the capital city of South Carolina, U.S.A., and the county-seat of Richland county, on the E. bank of the Congaree river, a short distance below the confluence of the Saluda and the Broad rivers, about 130 m. N.W. of Charleston. Pop. (1890) 15,353; (19O0) 21,108, of whom 9858 were negroes; and (1910) 26,319. It is served by the Atlantic Coast Line, the Southern, the Seaboard Air Line, and the Columbia, Newberry & Laurens railways. Columbia is picturesquely situated on the level top of a bluff overlooking the Congaree, which falls about 36 ft. in passing by, but is navigable for the remainder of its course. The surrounding country is devoted chiefly to cotton culture. The state house, United States government building and city hall are fine structures. Some of the new business houses are ten or more storeys in height. The state penitentiary and the state insane asylum are located here, and Columbia is an important educational centre, being the seat of the university of South Carolina, the Columbia College for women (Methodist Episcopal South, 1854), the College for women (Presbyterian, 1890), and the Presbyterian Theological Seminary (1828); and the Allen University (African Methodist Episcopal; coeducational, 1880), and the Benedict College (Baptist) for negroes. The University of South Carolina, organized in 1801 and opened in 1805, was known as South Carolina College in 1805-1863, 1878-1887 and 1891-1906, and as the university of South Carolina in 1866-1877, 1888-1891 and after 1906; in 1907-1908 it had departments of arts, science, pedagogy and law, an enrolment of 285 students, and a faculty of 25 instructors. By means of a canal abundant water power is furnished by the Congaree, and the city has some of the largest cotton mills in the world; it has, besides, foundries and machine shops and manufactories of fertilizers and hosiery. The manufactures under the factory system were valued at $3,133,903 in 1900 and at $4,676,944 in 1905--a gain, greater than that of any other city in the state, of 49.2% in five years. In the neighbourhood are several valuable granite quarries. The municipality owns and operates its water-works.

While much of the site was still a forest the legislature, in 1786, chose it for the new capital. It was laid out in the same year, and in 1790 the legislature first met here. Until 1805, when it was incorporated as a village, Columbia was under the direct government of the legislature; in 1854 it was chartered as a city. On the morning of the 17th of February 1865 General W. T. Sherman, on his march through the Carolinas, entered Columbia, and on the ensuing night a fire broke out which was not extinguished until most of the city was destroyed. The responsibility for this fire was charged by the Confederates upon the Federals and by the Federals upon the Confederates.

COLUMBIA, a city and the county-seat of Maury county, Tennessee, U.S.A., situated on the Duck river, in the central part of the state, 46 m. S. of Nashville. Pop. (1890) 5370; (1900) 6052 (2716 negroes); (1910) 5754. Columbia is served by the Louisville & Nashville, and the Nashville, Chattanooga & St Louis railways. It is the seat of the Columbia Institute for girls (under Protestant Episcopal control), founded in 1836, and of the Columbia Military Academy. Columbia is in a fine farming region; is engaged extensively in the mining and shipping of phosphates; has an important trade in live-stock, especially mules; manufactures cotton, lumber, flour, bricks, pumps and woollen goods; and has marble and stone works. Columbia was settled about 1807 and was incorporated in 1822. During the Civil War it was the base from which General N. B. Forrest operated in 1862-1863, and was alternately occupied by Confederate and Federal forces during General Hood's Nashville campaign (November-December 1864).

COLUMBIA RIVER, a stream of the north-west United States and south-west Canada, about 939 m. in length, draining a basin of about 250,000 sq. m., of which 38,395 are in British Columbia; some 105,000 sq. m. belong to the valley of the Snake and 11,700 to that of the Willamette. The source of the river is partly in the Yellowstone country, partly near the Titon peaks, and partly in the pine-clad mountains of British Columbia. Some American geographers regard the head as that of the Clark Fork, but it is most generally taken to be in British Columbia about 80 m. north of the United States line. From this point it runs some 150 m. to the north-west to the "Big Bend," and then in a great curve southward, enclosing the superb ranges of the Selkirks, crossing the international line near the boundary of Washington and Idaho, where it is joined by the Pend Oreille river, or Clark Fork, already referred to. This latter river rises in the Rocky Mountains west of Helena, Montana, falls with a heavy slope (1323 ft. in 167 m.) to its confluence with the Flathead, flows through Lake Pend Oreille (27 m.) in northern Idaho, and runs in deep canyons (falling 900 ft. in 200 m.) to its junction with the Columbia, which from this point continues almost due south for more than 106 m. Here the Columbia is joined by the Spokane, a large river with heavy fall, and enters the "Great Plain of the Columbia," an area of some 22,000 sq. m., resembling the "parks" of Colorado, shut in on all sides by mountains: the Moses range to the north, the Bitter Root and Coeur d'Alène on the east, the Blue on the south, and the Cascades on the west. The soil is rich, yielding great harvests of grain, and the mountains rich in minerals as yet only slightly prospected. After breaking into this basin the river turns sharply to the west and skirts the northern mountain barrier for about 105 m. Where it strikes the confines of the Cascades, it is joined by the Okanogan, turns due south in the second Big Bend, and flows about 200 m. to its junction with the Snake near Wallula.

After the confluence of the Snake with the Columbia the greater river turns west toward the Pacific. Throughout its course to this point it may be said that the Columbia has no flood plain; everywhere it is cutting its bed; almost everywhere it is characterized by canyons, although above the Spokane the valley is much broken down and there is considerable timbered and fertile bench land. Below the Spokane the canyon becomes more steep and rugged. From the mouth of the Okanogan to Priests Rapids extends a superb canyon, with precipitous walls of black columnar basalt 1000 to 3000 ft. in height. The finest portion is below the Rock Island Rapids. In this part of its course, along the Cascade range in the Great Plain and at its passage of the range westward, rapids and cascades particularly obstruct the imperfectly opened bed. In the lower Columbia, navigation is first interrupted 160 m. from the mouth at the Cascades, a narrow gorge across the Cascade range 4.5 m. long, where the river falls 24 ft. in 2500; the rapids are evaded by a canal constructed (1878-1896) by the Federal government, and by a portage railway (1890-1891). Fifty-three miles above this are the Dalles, a series of falls, rapids and rock obstructions extending some 12 m. and ending at Celilo, 115m. below Wallula, with a fall of 20 ft. There are also impediments just below the mouth of the Snake; others in the lower course of this river below Riparia; and almost continuous obstructions in the Columbia above Priests Rapids. The commerce of the Columbia is very important, especially that from Portland, Vancouver, Astoria, and other outlets of the Willamette valley and the lower Columbia. The grain region of the Great Plain, the bottom-land orchards and grain field on the plateaus of the Snake, have not since 1880 been dependent upon the water navigation for freighting, but in their interest costly attempts have been made to open the river below the Snake uninterruptedly to commerce.

The Columbia is one of the greatest salmon streams of the world (see OREGON). The tonnage of deep-sea vessels in and out over the bar at the river's mouth from 1890-1899 was 9,423,637 tons. From 1872-1899 the United States government expended for improvement of the Snake and Columbia $6,925,649. The mouth of the latter is the only deep-water harbour between San Francisco and Cape Flattery (700 m.), and the only fresh water harbour of the Pacific coast. To facilitate its entrance, which, owing to bars, tides, winds, and the great discharge of the river, has always been difficult, a great jetty has been constructed (1885-1895, later enlarged) to scour the bars. It was about 4.5 miles long, and in 1903 work was begun to make it 2.5 miles longer. The tides are perceptible 150 m. above the mouth (mean tide at Astoria _c._ 6.2 ft.), the average tidal flow at the mouth being about 1,000,000 cub. ft. per second; while the fresh water outflow is from 90,000 to 300,000 cub. ft. according to the stage of water, and as high as 1,000,000 cub. ft. in time of flood. Improvements were undertaken by the Federal government and a state commission in 1902 in order to secure a 25-ft. channel from Portland to the sea.

In 1792, and possibly also in 1788, the river mouth was entered by Captain Robert Gray (1755-1806) of Boston, Mass., who named the river after his own vessel, "Columbia," which name has wholly supplanted the earlier name, "Oregon." In 1804-1805 the river was explored by Meriwether Lewis and William Clark. Upon these discoveries the United States primarily based its claim to the territory now embraced in the states of Oregon and Washington.

COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY, one of the oldest and most important of the higher institutions of learning in the United States, located for the most part on Morningside Heights, New York city. It embraces Columbia College, founded as King's College in 1754; a school of medicine (the College of Physicians and Surgeons) founded in 1767, in West 59th Street; a school of law, founded in 1858; schools of applied science, including a school of mines and schools of chemistry and engineering, separately organized in 1896; a school of architecture, organized in 1881; graduate schools of political science, organized in 1880, philosophy, organized in 1890, and pure science, organized in 1892; and a school of journalism; closely affiliated with it are the College of Pharmacy, founded in 1829, in West 68th Street; Teachers' College, founded in 1886, as the New York College for the Training of Teachers, and essentially a part of the university since 1899; and Barnard College (for women) founded in 1889, and essentially a part of the university since 1900. Reciprocal relations also exist between the university and both the General Theological Seminary of the Protestant Episcopal Church and the Union Theological Seminary, thus practically adding to the university a theological department. Columbia also nominates the American professors who lecture at German universities by the reciprocal arrangement made in 1905, the German professors lecturing in America being nominated by the Prussian ministry of education. Women are now admitted to all the university courses except those in law, medicine, technology and architecture. Since 1900 a summer session has been held for six weeks and attended largely by teachers. Teachers and others, under the direction of the Teachers' College, are afforded an opportunity to pursue courses _in absentia_ and so meet some of the requirements for an academic degree or a teacher's diploma. All students of good ability are enabled to complete the requirements for the bachelor's degree together with any one of the professional degrees by six years of study at the university. Several courses of lectures designed especially for the public--notably the Hewitt Lectures, in co-operation with Cooper Union--are delivered at different places in the city and at the university.

In 1908 there were in Columbia University in all departments 609 instructors and 4096 students; of these 420 were in Barnard College, 850 were in the Teachers' College, and 229 were in the College of Pharmacy. The numerous University publications include works embodying the results of original research published by the University Press; "Studies" published in the form of a series by each of several departments, various periodicals edited by some members of the faculty, such as the _Columbia University Quarterly_, the _Political Science Quarterly_, and the _School of Mines Quarterly_; and several papers or periodicals published by the students, among which are the _Columbia Spectator_, a daily paper, the _Columbia Law Review_, the _Columbia Monthly_ and the _Columbia Jester_.

With two or three unimportant exceptions the buildings of the university on Morningside Heights have been erected since 1896. They include, besides the several department buildings, a library building, a university hall (with gymnasium), Earl Hall (for social purposes), St Paul's chapel (dedicated in 1907), two residence halls for men, and one for women. The library contains about 450,000 volumes exclusive of duplicates and unbound pamphlets. The highest authority in the government of the institution is vested in a board of twenty-four trustees, vacancies in which are filled by co-optation; but the immediate educational interests are directed largely by the members of the university council, which is composed of the president of the university, the dean and one other representative from the faculty of each school. The institution is maintained by the proceeds from an endowment fund exceeding $15,000,000, by tuition fees ranging, according to the school, from $150 to $250 for each student, and by occasional gifts for particular objects.

The charter (1754) providing for the establishment of King's College was so free from narrow sectarianism as to name ministers of five different denominations for ex-officio governors, and the purpose of the institution as set forth by its first president, Dr Samuel Johnson (1696-1772) was about as broad as that now realised. In 1756 the erection of the first building was begun at the lower end of Manhattan Island, near the Hudson, and the institution prospered from the beginning. From 1776 to 1784, during the War of Independence, the exercises of the college were suspended and the library and apparatus were stored in the New York city hall. In 1784 the name was changed to Columbia College, and an act of the legislature was passed for creating a state university, of which Columbia was to be the basis. But the plan was not a success, and three years later, in 1787, the act was repealed and the administration of Columbia was entrusted to a board of trustees of which the present board is a successor. In 1857 there was an extensive re-organization by which the scope of the institution was much enlarged, and at the same time it was removed to a new site on Madison Avenue between 49th and 50th Streets. From 1890 to 1895 much centralization in its administration was effected, in 1896 the name of Columbia University was adopted, and in the autumn of 1897 the old site and buildings were again abandoned for new, this time on Morningside Heights.

See _A History of Columbia University_, by members of the faculty (New York, 1904); and J. B. Pine, "King's College, now Columbia University," in _Historic New York_ (New York, 1897).

COLUMBINE (Ital. _columbina_, from _columba_, a dove), in pantomime (q.v.) the fairy-like dancer who is courted by Harlequin. In the medieval Italian popular comedy she was Harlequin's daughter.

COLUMBINE, an erect perennial herbaceous plant known botanically as _Aquilegia vulgaris_ (natural order Ranunculaceae). In Med. Latin it was known as _Columbina sc. herba_, the dove's plant. The slender stem bears delicate, long-stalked, deeply divided leaves with blunt segments, and a loose panicle of handsome drooping blue or white flowers, which are characterized by having all the five petals spurred. The plant occurs wild in woods and thickets in England and Ireland, and flowers in early summer. It is well known in cultivation as a favourite spring flower, in many varieties, some of which have red flowers.

COLUMBITE, a rare mineral consisting of iron niobate, FeNb2O6, in which the iron and niobium are replaced by varying amounts of manganese and tantalum respectively, the general formula being (Fe, Mn) (Nb, Ta)2O6. It was in this mineral that Charles Hatchett discovered, in 1801, the element niobium, which he himself called columbium after the country (Columbia or America) whence came the specimen in the British Museum collection which he examined. The species has also been called niobite. It crystallizes in the orthorhombic system, and the black, opaque crystals are often very brilliant with a sub-metallic lustre. Twinned crystals are not uncommon, and there is a distinct cleavage parallel to the face marked _b_ in the figure. Hardness 6; specific gravity 5.3. With increasing amount of tantalum the specific gravity increases up to 7.3, and members at this end of the series are known as tantalite (FeTa2O6). Specimens in which the iron is largely replaced by manganese are known as manganocolumbite or manganotantalite, according as they contain more niobium or more tantalum. Columbite occurs as crystals and compact masses in granite and pegmatite at Rabenstein in Lower Bavaria, the Ilmen Mountains in the Urals, Haddam in Connecticut, and several other localities in the United States; also in the cryolite of Greenland. Tantalite is from Finland, and it has recently been found in some abundance in the deposits of cassiterite in the tin-field of Greenbushes in the Blackwood district, Western Australia.

Dimorphous with columbite and tantalite are the tetragonal minerals tapiolite (= skogbölite) and mossite, so that the four form an isodimorphous group with the general formula (Fe, Mn) (Nb, Ta)2O6. Mossite is from a pegmatite vein near Moss in Norway, and tapiolite is from Finland. All these minerals contain tin in small amount. (L. J. S.)

COLUMBIUM, or NIOBIUM (symbol Cb or Nb, atomic weight 94), one of the metallic elements of the nitrogen group, first detected in 1801 by C. Hatchett in a specimen of columbite (niobite) from Massachusetts (_Phil. Trans._ 1802, 49). It is usually found associated with tantalum, the chief minerals containing these two elements being tantalite, columbite, fergusonite and yttrotantalite; it is also a constituent of pyrochlor, euxenite and samarskite. Columbium compounds are usually prepared by fusing columbite with an excess of acid potassium sulphate, boiling out the fused mass with much water, and removing tin and tungsten from the residue by digestion with ammonium sulphide, any iron present being simultaneously converted into ferrous sulphide. The residue is washed, extracted by dilute hydrochloric acid, and again well washed with boiling water. It is then dissolved in hydrofluoric acid and heated in order to expel silicon fluoride; finally the columbium, tantalum and titanium fluorides are separated by the different solubilities of their double fluorides (C. Marignac, _Ann. chim. et phys._ 1866 [4], 8, p. 63; 1868, 13, p. 28; see also W. Gibbs, _Jahresb._ 1864, p. 685; R. D. Hall and E. F. Smith, _Proc. Amer. Philos. Soc._ 1905, 44, p. 177).

The metal was first obtained by C. W. Blomstrand (_Journ. prak. Chem._ 1866, 97, p. 37) by reducing the chloride with hydrogen; it has more recently been prepared by H. Moissan by reducing the oxide with carbon in the electric furnace (the product obtained always contains from 2-3% of combined carbon), and by H. Goldschmidt and C. Vautin (_Journ. Soc. Chem. Industry_, 1898, 19, p. 543) by reducing the oxide with aluminium powder. As obtained by the reduction of the chloride, it is a steel grey powder of specific gravity 7.06. It burns on heating in air; and is scarcely attacked by hydrochloric or nitric acids, or by _aqua regia_; it is soluble in warm concentrated sulphuric acid.

_Columbium hydride_, CbH, is obtained as a greyish metallic powder, when the double fluoride, CbF5, 2KF, is reduced with sodium. It burns when heated in air, and is soluble in warm concentrated sulphuric acid. Three oxides of columbium are certainly known, namely the _dioxide_, Cb2O2, the _tetroxide_, Cb2O4, and the _pentoxide_, Cb2O5, whilst a fourth oxide, _columbium trioxide_, Cb2O3, has been described by E. F. Smith and P. Maas (_Zeit. f. anorg. Chem._ 1894, 7, p. 97). _Columbium dioxide_, Cb2O2, is formed when dry potassium columbium oxyfluoride is reduced by sodium (H. Rose, _Pogg. Ann._ 1858, 104, p. 312). It burns readily in air, and is converted into the pentoxide when fused with acid potassium sulphate. _Columbium_ _tetroxide_, Cb2O4 is obtained as a black powder when the pentoxide is heated to a high temperature in a current of hydrogen. It is unattacked by acids. _Columbium pentoxide_ (columbic acid), Cb2O5, is obtained from columbite, after the removal of tantalum (see above). The mother liquors are concentrated, and the double salt of composition 2KF·CbOF3·H2O, which separates, is decomposed by sulphuric acid, or by continued boiling with water (C. Marignac; see also G. Krüss and L. F. Nilson, _Ber._ 1887, 20, p. 1676). It is a white amorphous infusible powder, which when strongly heated in sulphuretted hydrogen, yields an oxysulphide. Several hydrated forms are known, yielding salts known as _columbates_. A _percolumbic acid_, HCbO4·nH2O, has been prepared by P. Melikoff and L. Pissarjewsky (_Zeit. f. anorg. Chem._ 1899, 20, p. 341), as a yellow amorphous powder by the action of dilute sulphuric acid on the potassium salt, which is formed when columbic acid is fused in a silver crucible with eight times its weight of caustic potash (_loc. cit._). Salts of the acid H3CbO8 have been described by C. W. Balke and E. F. Smith (_Jour. Amer. Chem. Soc._ 1908, 30, p. 1637).

_Columbium trichloride_, CbCl3, is obtained in needles or crystalline crusts, when the vapour of the pentachloride is slowly passed through a red-hot tube. When heated in a current of carbon dioxide it forms the oxychloride CbOCl3, and carbon monoxide. _Columbium pentachloride_, CbCl5, is obtained in yellow needles when a mixture of the pentoxide and sugar charcoal is heated in a current of air-free chlorine. It melts at 194° C. (H. Deville) and boils at 240.5° C. It is decomposed by water, and dissolves in hydrochloric acid. _Columbium oxychloride_, CbOCl3, is formed when carbon tetrachloride, and columbic acid are heated together at 440° C.: 3CCl4 + Cb2O5 = 2CbOCl3 + 3COCl2, and also by distilling the pentachloride, in a current of carbon dioxide, over ignited columbic acid. It forms a white silky mass which volatilizes at about 400° C. It deliquesces in moist air, and is decomposed violently by water. _Columbium pentafluoride_, CbF5, is obtained when the pentoxide is dissolved in hydrofluoric acid. It is only known in solution; evaporation of the solution yields the pentoxide. The _oxyfluoride_, CbOF3, results when a mixture of the pentoxide and fluorspar is heated in a current of hydrochloric acid. It forms many double salts with other metallic fluorides.

_Columbium oxysulphide_, CbOS3, is obtained as a dark bronze coloured powder when the pentoxide is heated to a white heat in a current of carbon bisulphide vapour; or by gently heating the oxychloride in a current of sulphuretted hydrogen. It burns when heated in air, forming the pentoxide and sulphur dioxide.

_Columbium nitride_, Cb3N5 (?), is formed when dry ammonia gas is passed into an ethereal solution of the chloride. A heavy white precipitate, consisting of ammonium chloride and columbium nitride, is thrown down, and the ammonium chloride is removed by washing it out with hot water, when the columbium nitride remains as an amorphous residue (Hall and Smith, _loc. cit._).

_Potassium fluoxy percolumbate_, K2CbO2F5·H2O, is prepared by dissolving potassium columbium oxyfluoride in a 3% solution of hydrogen peroxide. The solution turns yellow in colour, and, when saturated, deposits a pasty mass of crystals. The salt separates from solutions containing hydrofluoric acid in large plates, which are greenish yellow in colour.

The atomic weight was determined by C. Marignac (_Ann. chim. et phys._ 1866 (4), 8, p. 16) to be 94 from the analysis of potassium columbium oxyfluoride, and the same value has been obtained by T. W. Richards (_Journ. Amer. Chem. Soc._ 1898, 20, p. 543).

COLUMBUS, CHRISTOPHER [in Spanish CRISTOBAL COLÓN] (c. 1446, or perhaps rather 1451,-1506) was the eldest son of Domenico Colombo and Suzanna Fontanarossa, and was born at Genoa either about 1446 or in 1451, the exact date being uncertain. His father was a wool-comber, of some small means, who lived till 1498. According to the life of Columbus by his son Ferdinand (a statement supported by Las Casas), young Christopher was sent to the university of Pavia, where he devoted himself to astronomy, geometry and cosmography. Yet, according to the admiral's own statement, he became a sailor at fourteen. Evidently this statement, however, cannot mean the abandonment of all other employment, for in 1470, 1472, and 1473 we find him engaged in trade at Genoa, following the family business of weaving, and (in 1473) residing at the neighbouring Savona. In 1474-1475 he appears to have visited Chios, where he may have resided some time, returning to Genoa perhaps early in 1476. Thence he seems to have again set out on a voyage in the summer of 1476, perhaps bound for England; on the 13th of August 1476, the four Genoese vessels he accompanied were attacked off Cape St Vincent by a privateer, one Guillaume de Casenove, surnamed Coullon or Colombo ("Columbus"); two of the four ships escaped, with Christopher, to Lisbon. In December 1476, the latter resumed their voyage to England, probably carrying with them Columbus, who, after a short stay in England, claims to have made a voyage in the northern seas, and even to have visited Iceland about February 1477. This last pretension is gravely disputed, but it is perhaps not to be rejected, and we may also trace the Genoese about this time at Bristol, at Galway, and probably among the islands west and north of Scotland. Soon after this he returned to Portugal, where (probably in 1478) he married a lady of some rank, Felipa Moñiz de Perestrello, daughter of Bartholomew Perestrello, a captain in the service of Prince Henry the Navigator, and one of the early colonists and first governor of Porto Santo. Felipa was also a cousin of the archbishop of Lisbon at this time (1478).

Idea of western passage to Asia.

About 1479 Columbus visited Porto Santo, here as in Portugal probably employing his time in making maps and charts for a livelihood, while he pored over the logs and papers of his deceased father-in-law, and talked with old seamen of their voyages, and of the mystery of the western seas. About this time, too, if not earlier, he seems to have arrived at the conclusion that much of the world remained undiscovered, and step by step conceived that design of reaching Asia by sailing west which was to result in the discovery of America. In 1474 he is said to have corresponded with Paolo Toscanelli, the Florentine physician and cosmographer, and to have received from him valuable suggestions, both by map and letter, for such a Western enterprise. (The whole of this incident has been disputed by some recent critics.) He had perhaps already begun his studies in a number of works, especially the _Book_ of Marco Polo and the _Imago Mundi_ of Pierre d'Ailly, by which his cosmographical and geographical conceptions were largely moulded. His views, as finally developed and presented to the courts of Portugal and Spain, were supported by three principal lines of argument, derived from natural reasons, from the theories of geographers, and from the reports and traditions of mariners. He believed the world to be a sphere; he underestimated its size; he overestimated the size of the Asiatic continent. And the farther that continent extended towards the east, the nearer it came towards Spain. Nor were these theories the only supports of his idea. Martin Vicente, a Portuguese pilot, was said to have found, 400 leagues to the westward of Cape St Vincent, and after a westerly gale of many days' duration, a piece of strange wood, wrought, but not with iron; Pedro Correa, Columbus's own brother-in-law, was said to have seen another such waif at Porto Santo, with great canes capable of holding four quarts of wine between joint and joint, and to have heard of two men being washed up at Flores "very broad-faced, and differing in aspect from Christians." West of Europe, now and then, men fancied there hove in sight the mysterious islands of St Brandan, of Brazil, of Antillia or of the Seven Cities. In his northern journey, too, some vague and formless traditions may have reached the explorer's ear of the voyages of Leif Ericson and Thorfinn Karlsefne, and of the coasts of Markland and Vinland. All were hints and rumours to bid the bold mariner sail towards the setting sun, and this he at length determined to do.

Quest of a patron.

The concurrence of some state or sovereign, however, was necessary for the success of this design. Columbus, on the accession of John II. of Portugal, seems to have entered the service of this country, to have accompanied Diego d'Azambuja to the Gold Coast, and to have taken part in the construction of the famous fort of St George at El Mina (1481-1482). On his return from this expedition, he submitted to King John the scheme he had now matured for reaching Asia by a western route across the ocean. The king was deeply interested in the rival scheme (of an eastern or south-eastern route round Africa to India) which had so long held the field, which had been initiated by the Genoese in 1291, and which had been revived, for Portugal, by Prince Henry the Navigator; but he listened to the Genoese, and referred him to a committee of council for geographical affairs. The council's report was adverse; but the king, who was yet inclined to favour the theory of Columbus, assented to the suggestion of the bishop of Ceuta that the plan should be carried out in secret and without its author's knowledge. A caravel was despatched; but it returned after a brief absence, the sailors having lost heart, and refused to venture farther. Upon discovering this treachery, Columbus left Lisbon for Spain (1484), taking with him his son Diego, the only issue of his marriage with Felipa Moñiz, who was by this time dead. He departed secretly;--according to some writers, to give the slip to King John; according to others, to escape his creditors.

Columbus next betook himself to the south of Spain, and while meditating an appeal to the king of France, opened his plans to the count (from 1491, duke) of Medina Celi. The latter gave him great encouragement, entertained him for two years, and even determined to furnish him with three or four caravels, to carry out his great design. Finally, however, being deterred by the consideration that the enterprise was too vast for a subject, he turned his guest from the determination he had come to of making application at the court of France, by writing on his behalf to Queen Isabella; and Columbus repaired to the court at Cordova at her bidding (1486).

It was an ill moment for the navigator's fortune. Castile and Leon were in the thick of that struggle which resulted in the final conquest of the Granada Moors; and neither Ferdinand nor Isabella had time as yet to give due consideration to Columbus' proposals. The adventurer was indeed kindly received; he was handed over to the care of Alonso de Quintanilla, whom he speedily converted into an enthusiastic supporter of his theory. He made many other friends, and among them Beatriz Enriquez, the mother of his second son Fernando. But the committee, presided over by the queen's confessor, Fray Hernando de Talavera, which had been appointed to consider the new project, reported that it was vain and impracticable.

From Cordova Columbus followed the court to Salamanca, having already been introduced by Quintanilla to the notice of the grand cardinal, Pedro Gonzalez de Mendoza, "the third king of Spain"; the latter had befriended and supported the Genoese, and apparently arranged the first interview between him and Queen Isabella. At Salamanca prolonged discussions took place upon the questions now raised; the Dominicans of San Esteban entertained Columbus during the conferences (1486-1487). In 1487 Columbus, who had been following the court from place to place (billeted in towns as an officer of the sovereigns, and gratified from time to time with sums of money towards his expenses), was present at the siege of Malaga. In 1488 he was invited by the king of Portugal, his "especial friend," to return to that country, and was assured of protection against arrest or proceedings of any kind (March 20): he had probably made fresh overtures to King John shortly before; and in the autumn of 1488 we find him in Lisbon, conferring with his brother Bartholomew and laying plans for the future. We have no record of the final negotiations of Columbus with the Portuguese government, but they clearly did not issue in anything definite, for Christopher now returned to Spain (though not till he had witnessed the return of Bartholomew Diaz from the discovery of the Cape of Good Hope and his reception by King John), while Bartholomew proceeded to England with a mission to interest King Henry VII. in the Columbian schemes. If the London enterprise was unsuccessful (as indeed it proved), it was settled that Bartholomew should carry the same invitation to the French court. He did so; and here he remained till summoned to Spain in 1493. Meantime Christopher, unable throughout 1490 to get a hearing at the Spanish court, was in 1491 again referred to a _junta_, presided over by Cardinal Mendoza; but this _junta_, to Columbus' dismay, once more rejected his proposals; the Spanish sovereigns merely promised him that when the Granada war was over, they would reconsider what he had laid before them.

Columbus was now in despair. He at once betook himself to Huelva, a little maritime town in Andalusia, north-west of Cadiz, with the intention of taking ship for France. He halted, however, at the monastery of La Rabida, near Huelva, and still nearer Palos, where he seems to have made lasting friendships on his first arrival in Spain in January 1485, where he especially enlisted the support of Juan Perez, the guardian, who invited him to take up his quarters in the monastery, and introduced him to Garcia Fernandez, a physician and student of geography. Juan Perez had been the queen's confessor; he now wrote to her in urgent terms, and was summoned to her presence; and money was sent to Columbus to bring him once more to court. He reached Granada in time to witness the surrender of the city (January 2, 1492), and negotiations were resumed. Columbus believed in his mission, and stood out for high terms; he asked for the rank of admiral at once ("Admiral of the Ocean" in all those islands, seas, and continents that he might discover), the vice-royalty of all he should discover, and a tenth of the precious metals discovered within his admiralty. These conditions were rejected, and the negotiations were again interrupted. An interview with Mendoza appears to have followed; but nothing came of it, and before the close of January 1492, Columbus actually set out for France. At length, however, on the entreaty of the Queen's confidante, the Marquesa de Moya, of Luis de Santangel, receiver of the ecclesiastical revenues of the crown of Aragon, and of other courtiers, Isabella was induced to determine on the expedition. A messenger was sent after Columbus, and overtook him near a bridge called "Pinos," 6 m. from Granada. He returned to the camp at Santa Fé; and on the 17th of April 1492, the agreement between him and their Catholic majesties was signed and sealed.

As his aims included not only the discovery of Cipangu or Japan, but also the opening up of intercourse with the grand khan of Cathay, he received a royal letter of introduction to the latter. The town of Palos was ordered to find him two ships, and these were soon placed at his disposal. But no crews could be got together, in spite of the indemnity offered to criminals and "broken men" who would serve on the expedition; and had not Juan Perez succeeded in interesting in the cause the Palos "magnates" Martin Alonso Pinzon and Vicente Yañez Pinzon, Columbus' departure had been long delayed. At last, however, men, ships and stores were ready. The expedition consisted of the "Santa Maria," a decked ship of 100 tons with a crew of 52 men, commanded by the admiral in person; and of two caravels; the "Pinta" of 50 tons, with 18 men, under Martin Pinzon; and the "Nina," of 40 tons, with 18 men, under his brother Vicente Yañez, afterwards (1499) the first to cross the line in the American Atlantic.

First voyage.

America discovered.

The adventurers numbered 88-souls; and on Friday, the 3rd of August 1492, at eight in the morning, the little fleet weighed anchor, and stood for the Canary Islands. An abstract of the admiral's diary made by Las Casas is yet extant; and from it many particulars may be gleaned concerning this first voyage. Three days after the ships had set sail the "Pinta" lost her rudder; the admiral was in some alarm, but comforted himself with the reflection that Martin Pinzon was energetic and ready-witted; they had, however, to put in at Teneriffe, to refit the caravel. On the 6th of September they weighed anchor once more with all haste, Columbus having been informed that three Portuguese caravels were on the look-out to intercept him. On the 13th of September the westerly variations of the magnetic needle were for the first time observed; on the 15th a meteor fell into the sea at four or five leagues distance; soon after they arrived at those vast plains of seaweed called the Sargasso Sea; while all the time, writes the admiral, they had most temperate breezes, the sweetness of the mornings being especially delightful, the weather like an Andalusian April, and only the song of the nightingale wanting. On the 17th the men began to murmur; they were frightened by the strange phenomena of the variation of the compass, but the explanation Columbus gave restored their tranquillity. On the 18th they saw many birds, and a great ridge of low-lying cloud; and they expected to see land. On the 20th they saw boobies and other birds, and were sure the land must be near. In this, however, they were disappointed; and thenceforth Columbus, who was keeping all the while a double reckoning, one for the crew and one for himself, had great difficulty in restraining the evil-disposed from the excesses they meditated. On the 25th Martin Alonso Pinzon raised the cry of land, but it proved false, as did the rumour to the same effect on the 7th of October, from the "Niña." But on the 11th the "Pinta" fished up a cane, a pole, a stick which appeared to have been wrought with iron, and a board, while the "Niña" sighted a branch covered with berries; "and with these signs all of them breathed and were glad." At ten o'clock on that night Columbus himself perceived and pointed out a light ahead, and at two in the morning of Friday, the 12th of October 1492, Rodrigo de Triana, a sailor aboard the "Niña," announced the appearance of what proved to be the New World. The land sighted was an island, called by the Indians Guanahani, and named by Columbus San Salvador. It is generally identified with Watling Island.

The same morning Columbus landed, richly clad, and bearing the royal banner of Spain. He was accompanied by the brothers Pinzon, bearing banners of the Green Cross (a device of the admiral's), and by great part of the crew. When they all had "given thanks to God, kneeling upon the shore, and kissed the ground with tears of joy, for the great mercy received," the admiral named the island, and took solemn possession of it for their Catholic majesties of Castile and Leon. At the same time such of the crews as had shown themselves doubtful and mutinous sought his pardon weeping, and prostrated themselves at his feet.

Into the remaining detail of this voyage, of highest interest as it is, it is impossible to go further. It will be enough to say that it resulted in the discovery of the islands of Santa Maria de la Concepcion (Rum Cay), Fernandina (Long Island), Isabella (Crooked Island), Cuba or _Juana_ (named by Columbus in honour of the young prince of Spain), and Hispaniola, Haiti, or San Domingo. Off the last of these the "Santa Maria" went aground, owing to the carelessness of the steersman. No lives were lost, but the ship had to be unloaded and abandoned; and Columbus, who was anxious to return to Europe with the news of his achievement, resolved to plant a colony on the island, to build a fort out of the material of the stranded hulk, and to leave the crew. The fort was called La Navidad; 44 Europeans were placed in charge. On the 4th of January 1493 Columbus, who had lost sight of Martin Pinzon, set sail alone in the "Niña" for the east; and two days afterwards the "Pinta" joined her sister-ship. A storm, however, separated the vessels, and it was not until the 18th of February that Columbus reached the island of Santa Maria in the Azores. Here he was threatened with capture by the Portuguese governor, who could not for some time be brought to recognize his commission. On the 24th of February, however, he was allowed to proceed, and on the 4th of March the "Niña" dropped anchor off Lisbon. The king of Portugal received the admiral with the highest honours. On the 13th of March the "Niña" put out from the Tagus, and two days afterwards, Friday, the 15th of March, she reached Palos.

The court was at Barcelona; and thither, after despatching a letter announcing his arrival, Columbus proceeded in person. He entered the city in a sort of triumphal procession, was received by their majesties in full court, and, seated in their presence, related the story of his wanderings, exhibiting the "rich and strange" spoils of the new-found lands,--the gold, the cotton, the parrots, the curious arms, the mysterious plants, the unknown birds and beasts, and the Indians he had brought with him for baptism. All his honours and privileges were confirmed to him; the title of Don was conferred on himself and his brothers; he rode at the king's bridle; he was served and saluted as a grandee of Spain. A new and magnificent scutcheon was also blazoned for him (4th May 1493), whereon the royal castle and lion of Castile and Leon were combined with the five anchors of his own coat of arms. Nor were their Catholic highnesses less busy on their own account than on that of their servant. On the 3rd and 4th of May Alexander VI. granted bulls confirming to the crowns of Castile and Leon all the lands discovered, or to be discovered, west of a line of demarcation drawn 100 leagues west of the Azores, on the same terms as those on which the Portuguese held their colonies along the African coast. A new expedition was got in readiness with all possible despatch, to secure and extend the discoveries already made.

Second voyage.

After several delays the fleet weighed anchor on the 24th of September 1493 and steered westwards. It consisted of three great carracks (galleons) and fourteen caravels (light frigates), having on board over 1500 men, besides the animals and materials necessary for colonization. Twelve missionaries accompanied the expedition, under the orders of Bernardo Buil or Boil, a Benedictine; Columbus had been already directed (29th May 1493) to endeavour by all means in his power to Christianize the inhabitants of the islands, to make them presents, and to "honour them much", while all under him were commanded to treat them "well and lovingly," under pain of severe punishment. On the 13th of October the ships, which had put in at the Canaries, left Ferro; and on Sunday, the 3rd of November, after a single storm, "by the goodness of God and the wise management of the admiral" an island was sighted to the west, which was named Dominica. Northwards from this the isles of Marigalante and Guadalupe were next discovered and named; while on the north-western course to La Navidad those of Montserrat, Antigua, San Martin, Santa Cruz and the Virgin Islands were sighted, and the island now called Porto Rico was touched at, hurriedly explored, and named San Juan Bautista. On the 22nd of November Columbus came in sight of Hispaniola, and sailing westward to La Navidad, found the fort burned and the colony dispersed. He decided on building a second fort, and coasting on 30 m. east of Monte Cristi, he pitched on a spot where he founded the city of Isabella.

The climate proved unhealthy; the colonists were greedy of gold, impatient of control, proud, ignorant and mutinous; and Columbus, whose inclination drew him westward, was doubtless glad to escape the worry and anxiety of his post, and to avail himself of the instructions of his sovereigns as to further discoveries. On the 2nd of February 1494 he sent home, by Antonio de Torres, that despatch to their Catholic highnesses by which he may be said to have founded the West Indian slave trade. He established the mining camp of San Tomaso in the gold country of Central Hispaniola; and on the 24th of April 1494, having nominated a council of regency under his brother Diego, and appointed Pedro Margarit his captain-general, he again put to sea. After following the southern shore of Cuba for some days, he steered southwards, and discovered (May 14th) the island of Jamaica, which he named Santiago. He then resumed his exploration of the Cuban coast, threaded his way through a labyrinth of islets which he named the Garden of the Queen (Jardin de la Reyna), and, after coasting westwards for many days, became convinced that he had discovered continental land. He therefore caused Perez de Luna, the notary, to draw up a document to this effect (12th of June 1494), which was afterwards taken round and signed (the admiral's steward witnessing) by the officers, men and boys of his three caravels, the "Niña," the "Cordera," and the "San Juan." He then stood to the south-east, and sighted the island of Evangelista (now Isla de los Pinos), revisited Jamaica, coasted the south of Hispaniola, and on the 24th of September touched at and named the island of La Mona, in the channel between Hispaniola and Porto Rico. Thence he had intended to sail eastwards and complete the survey of the Caribbean Archipelago; but he was exhausted by the terrible tear and wear of mind and body he had undergone (he says himself that on this expedition he was three-and-thirty days almost without sleep), and on the day following his departure from La Mona he fell into a lethargy, that deprived him of sense and memory, and had well-nigh proved fatal to life. At last, on the 29th of September, the little fleet dropped anchor off Isabella, and in his new city the admiral lay sick for five months.

The colony was in a sad plight. Every one was discontented, and many were sick, for the climate was unhealthy and there was nothing to eat. Margarit and Boil had deserted the settlement and fled to Spain, but ere his departure the former, in his capacity of captain-general, had done much to outrage and alienate the Indians. The strongest measures were necessary to undo this mischief, and, backed by his brother Bartholomew, Columbus proceeded to reduce the natives under Spanish sway. Alonso de Ojeda succeeded by a brilliant _coup de main_ in capturing the cacique Caonabo, and the rest submitted. Five ship-loads of Indians were sent off to Seville (24th June 1495) to be sold as slaves; and a tribute was imposed upon their fellows, which must be looked upon as the origin of that system of _repartimientos_ or _encomiendas_ which was afterwards to work such mischief among the conquered. In October 1495 Juan Aguado arrived at Isabella, with a royal commission to report on the state of the colony; here he took up the position of a judge of Columbus's government; and much recrimination followed. Columbus decided to return home; he appointed his brother Bartholomew _adelantado_ of the island; and on the 10th of March 1496 he quitted Hispaniola in the "Niña." The vessel, after a protracted and perilous voyage, reached Cadiz on the 11th of June 1496, where the admiral landed, wearing the habit of a Franciscan. He was cordially received by his sovereigns, and a new fleet of eight vessels was put at his disposal. By royal patent, moreover, a tract of land in Hispaniola, of 50 leagues by 20, was offered to him, with the title of duke or marquis (which he declined); for three years he was to receive an eighth of the gross and a tenth of the net profits on each voyage; the right of creating a _mayorazgo_ or perpetual entail of titles and estates was granted him; and his two sons were received into Isabella's service as pages.

Third voyage.

Meanwhile, however, the preparing of the fleet proceeded slowly, and it was not till the 30th of May 1498 that he set sail with his main fleet of six ships--two caravels had already been sent on ahead. From San Lucar he steered for Porto Santo, Madeira, and Gomera, despatching three vessels direct from the Canaries to Hispaniola. He next proceeded to the Cape Verde Islands, which he quitted on the 5th of July. On the 31st of the same month, being greatly in need of water, and fearing that no land lay westwards as he had hoped, Columbus had turned his ship's head north, when Alonzo Perez of Huelva saw land about 15 leagues to the south-west. It was crowned with three hill-tops, from which circumstance, and in fulfilment of a vow made at starting (to name the first land discovered on this voyage in honour of the Trinity), the admiral named it Trinidad, which name it yet bears. On Wednesday, the 1st of August, he beheld for the first time the mainland of South America, the continent he had sought so long. It seemed to him but an insignificant island, and he called it Isla Santa. Sailing westwards, next day he saw the Gulf of Paria (named by him the Golfo de la Ballena), into which he was borne at immense risk on the ridge of waters formed by the meeting of the sea and the Orinoco estuaries. For several days he coasted the continent, esteeming as islands the various projections he saw, and naming them accordingly, nor was it until he had realized the volume poured out by the Orinoco that he began to perceive the truly continental character of his last discovery. He was now anxious to revisit the colony in Hispaniola; and after sighting Tobago, Grenada, and Margarita, made for San Domingo, the new capital of the settlement, where he arrived on the 31st of August. He found that affairs had not prospered well in his absence. By the vigour and activity of the _adelantado_, the whole island had been reduced under Spanish sway; but under the leadership of Francisco Roldan the malcontent settlers had risen in revolt, and Columbus had to compromise matters in order to restore peace. Roldan retained his office of chief justice; and such of his followers as chose to remain in the island were gratified with _repartimientos_ of land and labour.

At home, however, court favour had turned against Columbus. For one thing, the ex-colonists were often bitterly hostile to the admiral and his brothers. They were wont to parade their grievances in the very court-yards of the Alhambra, to surround the king when he came forth with complaints and reclamations, to insult the discoverer's young sons with shouts and jeers. Again, the queen began to criticize severely the shipment of Indians from the new-found lands to Spain. And once more, there was no doubt that the colony itself, whatever the cause, had not prospered so well as might have been desired. Ferdinand's support of Columbus had never been very hearty, and his inclination to supersede the Genoese now prevailed over the queen's friendliness. Accordingly, on the 21st of May 1499, Francisco Bobadilla was appointed governor and judge of Hispaniola during royal pleasure, with authority to examine into all complaints. Columbus was ordered to deliver up his charge to Bobadilla, and to accept whatever the latter should deliver him from the sovereigns. Bobadilla left Spain in June 1500, and landed in Hispaniola on the 23rd of August.

Columbus, meanwhile, had restored such tranquillity as was possible in his government. With Roldan's help he had beaten off an attempt on the island of the adventurer Ojeda, his old lieutenant; the Indians were being collected into villages and Christianized. Gold-mining was profitably pursued; in three years, he calculated, the royal revenues might be raised to an average of 60,000,000 reals. The arrival of Bobadilla, however, speedily changed this state of affairs. On landing, he took possession of the admiral's house and summoned him and his brothers before him. Accusations of severity, of injustice, of venality even, were poured down on their heads, and Columbus anticipated nothing less than a shameful death. Bobadilla put all three in irons, and shipped them off to Spain.

Alonso Vallejo, captain of the caravel in which the illustrious prisoners sailed, still retained a proper sense of the honour and respect due to Columbus, and would have removed the fetters; but to this Columbus would not consent. He would wear them, he said, until their highnesses, by whose order they had been affixed, should order their removal; and he would keep them afterwards "as relics and as memorials of the reward of his service." He did so. His son Fernando "saw them always hanging in his cabinet, and he requested that when he died they might be buried with him." Whether this last wish was complied with is not known.

A heart-broken and indignant letter from Columbus to Doña Juana de Torres, formerly nurse of the infante Don Juan, arrived at court before the despatch of Bobadilla. It was read to the queen, and its tidings were confirmed by communications from Alonso Vallejo and the alcaide of Cadiz. There was a great movement of indignation; the tide of popular and royal feeling turned once more in the admiral's favour. He received a large sum to defray his expenses; and when he appeared at court, on the 17th of December 1500, he was no longer in irons and disgrace, but richly apparelled and surrounded with friends. He was received with all honour and distinction. The queen is said to have been moved to tears by the narration of his story. Their majesties not only repudiated Bobadilla's proceedings, but declined to inquire into the charges that he at the same time brought against his prisoners, and promised Columbus compensation for his losses and satisfaction for his wrongs. A new governor, Nicolas de Ovando, was appointed, and left San Lucar on the 13th of February 1502, with a fleet of thirty ships, to supersede Bobadilla. The latter was to be impeached and sent home; the admiral's property was to be restored; and a fresh start was to be made in the conduct of colonial affairs. Thus ended Columbus's history as viceroy and governor of the new Indies which he had presented to the country of his adoption.

Fourth voyage.

His hour of rest, however, was not yet come. Ever anxious to serve their Catholic highnesses, "and particularly the queen," he had determined to find a strait through which he might penetrate westwards into Portuguese Asia. After the usual inevitable delays his prayers were granted, and on the 9th of May 1502, with four caravels and 150 men, he weighed anchor from Cadiz, and sailed on his fourth and last great voyage. He first betook himself to the relief of the Portuguese fort of Arzilla, which had been besieged by the Moors, but the siege had been raised before he arrived. He put to sea westwards once more, and on the 15th of June discovered the island of Martinino (probably St Lucia). He had received positive instructions from his sovereigns on no account to touch at Hispaniola; but his largest caravel was greatly in need of repairs, and he had no choice but to abandon her or disobey orders. He preferred the latter alternative, and sent a boat ashore to Ovando, asking for a new ship and for permission to enter the harbour to weather a hurricane which he saw was coming on. But his requests were refused, and he coasted the island, casting anchor under lee of the land. Here he weathered the storm, which drove the other caravels out to sea, and annihilated the homeward-bound fleet, the richest that had till then been sent from Hispaniola. Roldan and Bobadilla perished with others of the admiral's enemies; and Fernando Columbus, who accompanied his father on this voyage, wrote long afterwards, "I am satisfied it was the hand of God, for had they arrived in Spain they had never been punished as their crimes deserved, but rather been favoured and preferred."

After recruiting his flotilla at Azua, Columbus put in at Jaquimo and refitted his four vessels; and on the 14th of July 1502 he steered for Jamaica. For several days the ships wandered painfully among the keys and shoals he had named the Garden of the Queen, and only an opportune easterly wind prevented the crews from open mutiny. The first land sighted (July 30th) was the islet of Guanaja, about 40 m. east of the coast of Honduras. Here he got news from an old Indian of a rich and vast country lying to the eastward, which he at once concluded must be the long-sought-for empire of the grand khan. Steering along the coast of Honduras, great hardships were endured, but nothing approaching his ideal was discovered. On the 12th of September Cape Gracias-a-Dios was rounded. The men had become clamorous and insubordinate; not until the 5th of December, however, would he tack about and retrace his course. It now became his intention to plant a colony on the river Veragua, which was afterwards to give his descendants a title of nobility; but he had hardly put about when he was caught in a storm, which lasted eight days, wrenched and strained his crazy, worm-eaten ships severely, and finally, on Epiphany Sunday 1503, blew him into an embouchure which he named Belem or Bethlehem. Gold was very plentiful in this place, and here he determined to found his settlement. By the end of March 1503 a number of huts had been run up, and in these the _adelantado_ (Bartholomew Columbus), with 80 men, was to remain, while Christopher returned to Spain for men and supplies. Quarrels, however, arose with the natives; the cacique was made prisoner, but escaped again; and before Columbus could leave the coast he had to abandon a caravel, to take the settlers on board, and to relinquish the enterprise of colonization. Steering eastwards, he left a second caravel at Puerto Bello; he thence bore northwards for Cuba, where he obtained supplies from the natives. From Cuba he bore up for Jamaica, and there, in the harbour of San Gloria, now St Ann's Bay, he ran his ships aground in a small inlet still called Don Christopher's Cove (June 23rd, 1503).

The expedition was received with great kindness by the natives, and here Columbus remained upwards of a year, awaiting the return of his lieutenant Diego Mendez, whom he had despatched to Ovando for assistance. During his critical sojourn here, the admiral suffered much from disease and from the lawlessness of his followers, whose misconduct had alienated the natives, and provoked them to withhold their accustomed supplies, until he dexterously worked upon their superstitions by prognosticating an eclipse. Two vessels having at last arrived for his relief, Columbus left Jamaica on the 28th of June 1504, and, after calling at Hispaniola, set sail for Spain on the 12th of September. After a tempestuous voyage he landed once more at San Lucar on the 7th of November 1504.

As he was too ill to go to court, his son Diego was sent thither in his place, to look after his interests and transact his business. Letter after letter followed the young man from Seville--one by the hands of Amerigo Vespucci. A licence to ride on muleback was granted him on the 23rd of February 1505; and in the following May he was removed to the court at Segovia, and thence again to Valladolid. On the landing of Philip and Juana at Coruña (25th of April 1506), although "much oppressed with the gout and troubled to see himself put by his rights," he is known to have sent off the _adelantado_ to pay them his duty and to assure them that he was yet able to do them extraordinary service. The last documentary note of him is contained in a final codicil to the will of 1498, made at Valladolid on the 19th of May 1506. By this the old will is confirmed; the _mayorazgo_ is bequeathed to his son Diego and his heirs male, failing these to Fernando, his second son, and failing these to the heirs male of Bartholomew; only in case of the extinction of the male line, direct or collateral, is it to descend to the females of the family; and those into whose hands it may fall are never to diminish it, but always to increase and ennoble it by all means possible. The head of the house is to sign himself "The Admiral." A tenth of the annual income is to be set aside yearly for distribution among the poor relations of the house. A chapel is founded and endowed for the saying of masses. Beatriz Enriquez is left to the care of the young admiral. Among other legacies is one of "half a mark of silver to a Jew who used to live at the gate of the Jewry, in Lisbon." The codicil was written and signed with the admiral's own hand. Next day (20th of May 1506) he died.

After the funeral ceremonies at Valladolid, Columbus's remains were transferred to the Carthusian monastery of Santa Maria de las Cuevas, Seville, where the bones of his son Diego, the second admiral, were also laid. Exhumed in 1542, the bodies of both father and son were taken over sea to Hispaniola and interred in the cathedral of San Domingo. In 1795-1796, on the cession of that island to the French, the relics were re-exhumed and transferred to the cathedral of Havana, whence, after the Spanish-American War of 1898 and the loss of Cuba, they were finally removed to Seville cathedral, where they remain. The present heir and representative of Columbus belongs to the Larreategui family, descendants of the discoverer through the female line, and retains the titles of admiral and duke of Veragua.

In person Columbus was tall and shapely. The only authentic portrait of him is that which once belonged to Paulus Jovius, and is still in the possession of the de Orchi family (related to Jovius by female descent) at Como. It shows us a venerable man with clean-shaven face, thin grey hair, high forehead, sad thoughtful eyes. It bears the inscription _Columbus Lygur. novi orbis repertor_.

AUTHORITIES.--Fernando Columbus, _Historie del Signor Don Fernando Colombo ... e vera relatione della vita ... dell' Ammiraglio D. Christoforo Colombo_ (the Spanish original of this, written before 1539, is lost; only the Italian version remains, first published at Venice in 1571; a good edition appeared in London in 1867); Bartolomé de las Casas, _Historia de las Indias_, written 1527-1561, but first printed at Madrid in 1875, after remaining in manuscript more than three centuries; Andres Bernandez, _Historia de los Reyes Catolicos_ (contemporary with Fernando Columbus's _Historie_, but first printed at Granada in 1856; best edition, Seville, 1870); Gonzalo Fernandez Oviedo y Valdes, _Historia general de las Indias_ (Seville, 1535; best edition, Madrid, 1851-1855); Peter Martyr d'Anghiera, _Opus Epistolarum_, first published in 1530, and _De Orbe Novo_ (_Decades_), printed in 1511 and 1530; Francisco Lopez de Gomara, _Historia general de las Indias_ (Saragossa, 1552-1553, and Antwerp, 1554); Antonio de Herrera, _Historia general de las Indias occidentales_ (publication first completed in 1615, but best edition perhaps that of 1730, Madrid); Juan Bautista Muñoz, _Historia del Nuevo Mundo_ (Madrid, 1793); Martin Fernandez Navarrete, _Coleccion de los Viages y descubrimientos que hicieron por mar los Españoles_ (Madrid, 1825-1837); Washington Irving, _History of the Life and Voyages of Christopher Columbus_ (London, 1827-1828); Alex. von Humboldt, _Examen critique_ (Paris, 1836-1839); R. H. Major, _Select Letters of_ _Columbus_ (London, Hakluyt Society, 1847); Fernandez Duro, _Colon y Pinzon_ (Madrid, 1883); Henry Harrisse, _Christophe Colomb_ (Paris, 1884), and _Christophe Colomb devant l'histoire_ (Paris, 1892); Justin Winsor, _Christopher Columbus_ (Cambridge, Mass., 1891); Josè Maria Asensio, _Cristoval Colon_ (Barcelona, 1892); Clements R. Markham, _Life of Christopher Columbus_ (London, 1892); John Fiske, _Discovery of America_ (Boston and New York, 1892); E. J. Payne, _History of the New World called America_, vol. i. (Oxford, 1892); Paul Gaffarel, _Histoire de la découverte de l'Amérique_ (Paris, 1892); Charles I. Elton, _Career of Columbus_ (London, 1892); _Raccolta Colombiana_ (1892, &c.); Sophus Ruge, _Columbus_ (Berlin, 1902); John Boyd Thatcher, _Christopher Columbus_ (New York, 1903-1904); Henry Vignaud, _La Lettre et la carte de Toscanelli_ (Paris, 1901), and _Études critiques sur la vie de Colomb avant ses découvertes_ (Paris, 1905); Filson Young, _Christopher Columbus and the New World of his discovery_ (London, 1906). (C. R. B.)