ted by the arrival of the
tiny caravels of Columbus a half century before.

The city waxed quickly rich and powerful. Its natural advantages of
location, together with its massive fortifications, and its wonderful
harbor, so extensive that the combined fleets of Spain might readily
have found anchorage therein, early rendered it the choice of the
Spanish monarch as his most dependable reservoir and shipping point
for the accumulated treasure of his new possessions. The island upon
which the city arose was singularly well chosen for defense. Fortified
bridges were built to connect it with the mainland, and subterranean
passageways led from the great walls encircling it to the impregnable
fortress of San Felipe de Barajas, on Mount San Lazaro, a few hundred
yards back of the city and commanding the avenues and approaches of
the land side. To the east, and about a mile from the walls, the
abrupt hill of La Popa rises, surmounted by the convent of Santa
Candelaria, likewise connected by underground tunnels to the interior
of the city, and commanding the harbor and its approaches from the
sea. The harbor formerly connected with the open sea through two
entrances, the Boca Grande, a wide, fortified pass between the island
of Tierra Bomba and the tongue on which the city stands, and the Boca
Chica, some nine miles farther west, a narrow, tortuous pass, wide
enough to permit entry to but a single vessel at a time, and commanded
by forts San Fernando and San Jose.

By the middle of the seventeenth century Cartagena, "Queen of the
Indies and Queen of the Seas," had expanded into a proud and beautiful
city, the most important mart of the New World. Under royal patronage
its merchants enjoyed a monopoly of commerce with Spain. Under the
special favor of Rome it became an episcopal See, and the seat of the
Holy Inquisition. Its docks and warehouses, its great centers of
commerce, its sumptuous dwellings, its magnificent Cathedral, its
colleges and monasteries, and its proud aristocracy, all reflected the
spirit of enterprise which animated its sons and found expression in a
city which could boast a pride, a culture, and a wealth almost
unrivalled even in the Old World.

But, not unlike her ancient prototype, Cartagena succumbed to the very
influences which had made her great. Her wealth excited the cupidity
of freebooters, and her power aroused the jealousy of her formidable
rivals. Her religion itself became an excuse for the pl