If in the matter of details the history of Colombia--the republic in the extreme north-west corner of the South American continent--has been more lurid than some of its neighbours, in general outline that history has followed the course with which students of Spanish-American affairs are so familiar. There was, first, the discovery of the territory away back in the fifteenth century by Spanish mariners, and its subsequent settlement by colonists from the mother country. Spain always started this work with magnificent enthusiasm, but the feeling of rapture over the possession of new dominions soon wore off, and the annals of these colonies during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries make drab and uninteresting reading. Colombia’s history is no exception to the general rule. All its existing cities were founded during the early rule of the conquistadores, and the type of slavery imposed upon the Indian population was given its enduring shape. No great developments or changes occurred in the country until the Spanish rule ended and independence was declared. Being next-door neighbour to Venezuela, Colombia was naturally one of the first states drawn into the ambitious operations of Bolivar, and for a time it looked as though its capital, Bogota, would assume a predominant importance in the southern continent, but the liberator underestimated the strong sense of nationality which had developed in the different sections of the vast country, and when his influence died down Colombia retained her individuality just as Venezuela preserved hers. Not only did the Spanish sovereignty entirely disappear from the State, but the name, New Granada, given to it by the early conquerors, in honour of the province in the mother country, was changed for the more American substitute, Colombia. At first it was known as the “United States of Colombia,” but in 1886 a reform in the direction of centralisation was brought about, and the country is now called “the Republic.” [Illustration: A COLOMBIAN MOTHER.]