A slight improvement is, however, manifest in the latest budgets of the country, but the task of making “both ends meet” is a difficult one. If the republic in many of its features cannot compare for sheer interest with its neighbours, it has yet a commanding claim to the attention of antiquarians, for it possesses the city of Cartagena, which was the most ancient and strongest of the Spanish power in South America. The renown of the city’s prototype in Spain, itself inheriting the name of the still more ancient and famous colony, Carthage, was transplanted to the New World, and for two centuries it enjoyed the esteem of the whole maritime world. Its sun-bleached walls still endure, stern relics of the power of Spain. Belonging entirely to the past, it has escaped unharmed the vandal hand of progress. Surrounded on all sides with walls, it gave shelter to the great “plate” ships and their convoys which anchored within its land-locked waters. There are three harbours, which together extend for some nine miles from north to south, and have a surface of nearly forty thousand acres. The situation was well chosen, for although the waters of the Caribbean form the western boundary of the city, great rocks protect it from the approach of ships; and of the two entrances to the harbour, the Boca Grande and Boca Chica, only the latter is of sufficient depth to allow the passage of vessels of any size. The middle harbour is protected by two forts, and the narrow entrance to the shallow waters of the inner harbour was an additional protection to the city which lies within. To the east of the city, standing upon a formidable hill, is the fort of San Lazar, whilst on another hill about a mile away stands an ancient convent. Although the city stands upon flat ground, it has a magnificent panorama of undulating hills spread before it. Innumerable islets, bays, and capes fill the great harbour, and as the steamer makes its way across the smooth waters it passes many of the loveliest bits of tropical scenery to be found anywhere. Cartagena formerly possessed untold wealth; rich and powerful merchants prospered within its protecting walls. Its fame was world-wide, and attracted the unwelcome attentions of the pirates, adventurers, and privateers of the sixteenth century. Sir Francis Drake captured the city by one of the most daring assaults recorded in the annals of piracy, and the very defences thrown up by the garrison proved helpful to his purpose. As the Spaniards retreated from the hard-pressing invaders, they fell upon the poisoned stakes they had driven into the ground, and their bodies made a soft foothold for the English. The Cartagenians, dismayed and demoralised, fled in all directions, and the city fell into the hands of Drake, who profited by the adventure to the tune of one hundred thousand ducats, which added to the store of gold and glory he had already acquired upon the Spanish Main. The wealth of Cartagena had