so that with the freely circulating air the patio is the most desirable part of the house. A French writer of the last century who visited the city said of the town, that it contained “skilful jewellers, good carpenters, excellent shoemakers, tolerable tailors, indifferent joiners, black rather than white smiths, masons destitute of ideas of proportion, bad painters, but impassioned musicians.” If this was true of the inhabitants of one hundred years ago, it might with considerable aptness be applied to their descendants to-day. The arts and crafts are in a poor way, but they still love music. The population of the whole of Colombia has a lot of black blood running through its veins; and as is the case elsewhere where the same mixture exists, it is rare to find much culture or refinement. The women of Cartagena, the half-breeds, mulattoes, and octoroons, are tall and lithe, often very handsome, resembling the types of Martinique more than those of the English islands of the Caribbean. The whites so called and coloured people mix freely with one another, and no defined colour-line seems to exist. In Cartagena the old order is loath to give place to the new, although in many cases new uses have been found for old buildings. Erstwhile forts are now common dwellings; stately buildings have been turned into shops and warehouses, churches and chapels into stables. The cathedral, an imposing building with a magnificent altar-piece and many curious relics of the past, stands out conspicuously from the other buildings in the town. In its dark vaults are great piles of human skulls and bones, the crumbling remains of victims of the Inquisition, which exercised its terrible power in the early days of the city. These mouldering bones have little respect shown them by the verger of the church, who turns them over with his foot to pick out specimens to show to visitors, and anyone who cares can possess a souvenir. There is a cemetery on a flat, sandy site, a little way out of the city, surrounded by white walls. The enclosed space [Illustration: ON THE BANKS OF THE MAGDALENA RIVER.]