The importance and wealth of this place have made it the object of frequent attacks. In 1544, it was taken and pillaged by some French adventurers, under the direction of a Corsican pilot. About forty years after. wards, half of it was laid in ashes by Sir Francis Drake, and the rest was saved from destruction by the neigh bouring colonies, who paid for it a ransom of 120,000 silver ducats. It was a third time invaded, in 1597, by the French under the command of M. de Pointis, to whom it capitulated, but whose avarice consigned it to plunder. It was again besieged in 1740, by the English under Admiral Vernon, but it held out successfully, and the besiegers.wcre obliged to retire after a great loss of men and labour.—The inhabitants of Carthagena consist of various casts or tribes : whites, negroes, and Indians. and the different classes produced by the intermarriages of these. They drink brandy in the forenoon, make use of a great deal of chocolate, and are fond of smoking tobacco, which last practice is indulged in equally by both sexes. The fandango is the common amusement. This ball, or dance, which is the ordinary mark of rejoicing on festivals and remarkable days, is conducted with great propriety in houses of distinction ; but among the lower orders it is accompanied with hard drinking, indecency, and quarrels. Their funeral ceremonies they observe with great pomp and ostentation, lamenting for the deceased in the most clamorous and frantic manner, and continuing their mourning in the house for nine days after the interment. Their diseases are chiefly
the black vomit, with which the distemper that attacks Europeans on their first landing frequently terminates ; the leprosy, to which the people both in town and coun try are very subject, and for the purpose of stopping which a hospital, called San Lazard, is erected on the top of a hill in the neighbourhood, where persons of both sexes infected with it are strictly confined ; the cobri!la, or little snake, so called from the general belief that it is one of those animals which and introduced itself beneath the skin of the patient ; and the spasm, or con• vulsion, which is very prevalent, seldom comes alone, and always proves mortal. The intense heat and moisture of the climate, to the conclusion, that the inhabitants must be unhealthy ; yet it is a fact that in general they enjoy good health, and it is not uncommon for them to survive their eightieth year. The profuse perspirations, however, occasioned by the high tempera ture, render their complexions wan and livid, and all their movements sluggish. The population is said to be between 20,000 and 30,000, of which above 9000 are in communion. West Long. 26' 45", North Lat. 10° 26' 35". Juan and Ulloa's Voyage to South America, by Adams, vol. i. ; II umboldt's Political Essay on .Neap Spain, vol. iv. ; Aleedo's Geographical Dictionary of America and the West Indies, with Thompson's Addi tions, vol. i. ; and Peuchet's Diction. Univers. tie la Geograph. Commrrf. tom. iii. (T)