ilver and platinum. The aggregate value of the exports in 1906
was $3,788,094 U.S. gold.

Cartagena was founded in 1533 by Pedro de Heredia. In 1544 it was
captured by pirates, who plundered the town; in 1585 by Sir Francis
Drake, who exacted a large ransom; and in 1697 by the French, who
obtained from it more than L1,000,000. In 1741 Admiral Vernon
unsuccessfully besieged the town. It was taken by Bolivar in 1815, but
was surrendered to the royalists in the same year. It was recaptured by
the republicans on the 25th of September 1821, and thereafter remained
in their possession. It figured prominently in the political agitations
and revolutions which followed, and underwent a siege in the civil war
of 1885. It was an important naval station under Spanish colonial rule,
and is the principal naval station of Colombia.

CARTAGENA, or CARTHAGENA, a seaport of south-eastern Spain, in the
province of Murcia; in 37 deg. 36' N. and 0 deg. 58' W., at the terminus
of a branch railway from the city of Murcia, and on the Mediterranean
Sea. Pop. (1900) 99,871. Cartagena is fortified, and possesses an
arsenal and naval dockyards. Together with Ferrol and San Fernando near
Cadiz, the other great naval stations of Spain, it is governed by an
admiral with the title of captain-general. It has also an episcopal see.

The city stands on a hill separated by a little plain from the harbour;
towards the north and east it communicates with a fertile valley; on the
south and west it is hemmed in by high mountains. Its grey houses have a
neglected, almost a dilapidated appearance, from the friable stone of
which they are constructed; and there are no buildings of antiquarian
interest or striking architectural beauty, except, perhaps, the ruined
citadel and the remnants of the town walls. The wide streets are
traversed by a system of tramways, which pass through modern suburbs to
the mining district about two leagues inland, and on the west a canal
enables small vessels to enter the town without using the port. The
harbour, the largest in Spain after that of Vigo, and the finest on the
east coast, is a spacious bay, deep, except near its centre, where there
is a ledge of rock barely 5 ft. under water. It is dominated, on the
seaward side, by four hills, and approached by a narrow entrance, with
forts on either hand; a breakwater affords shelter on the east, and on
the west is the Arsenal Basin, often regarded as the original harbour of
t