their administration, including payments on
account of the foreign debt and the conversion of the paper currency
into coin. The new law likewise reaffirmed the adoption of a gold
dollar of 1.672 grammes .900 fine as the unit of the new coinage,
which is:--

_Gold_:--
Double condor = 20 dollars.
Condor = 10 "
Half condor = 5 "
Dollar (mon. unit) = 100 cents.
_Silver_:--
Half dollar = 50 cents.
Peseta = 20 "
Real = 10 "
_Nickel_:--5 cents.
_Bronze_:--2 cents and 1 cent.

The silver coinage (.900 fine) is limited to 10%, and the nickel and
bronze coins to 2% of the gold coinage. The new customs tariff, which
came into force at the same time, was an increase of 70% on the rates
of 1904, and provided that the duties should be paid in gold, or in
paper at the current rate of exchange. This measure was designed to
facilitate the general resumption of specie payments.

_Weights and Measures._--The metric system of weights and measures has
been the legal standard in Colombia since 1857, but its use is
confined almost exclusively to international trade. In the interior
and in all domestic transactions the old Spanish weights and measures
are still used--including the Spanish _libra_ of 1.102 lb avoirdupois,
the _arroba_ of 25 _libras_ (12-1/2 kilogrammes), the quintal of 100
_libras_ (50 kilog.), the _carga_ of 250 _libras_ (125 kilogs.), the
_vara_ of 80 centimetres, and the _fanega_. The litre is the standard
liquid measure. (A. J. L.)

HISTORY

The coast of Colombia was one of the first parts of the American
continent visited by the Spanish navigators. Alonso de Ojeda touched at
several points in 1499 and 1501; and Columbus himself visited Veragua,
Portobello, and other places in his last voyage in 1502. In 1508 Ojeda
obtained from the Spanish crown a grant of the district from Cape Vela
westward to the Gulf of Darien, while the rest of the country from the
Gulf of Darien to Cape Gracias-a-Dios was bestowed on his
fellow-adventurer, Nicuessa. The two territories designated respectively
Nueva Andalucia and Castella de Oro were united in 1514 into the
province of Tierra-firma, and entrusted to Pedro Arias de Avila. In
1536-1537 an expedition under Gonzalo Jimenez de Quesada made their way
from Santa Marta inland by the river Magdalen