allegiance, she is nevertheless technically a citizen of the United States. She may have acquired her husband's nationality, but she does not thereby necessarily lose her own. She thus owes a dual allegiance, and our law is powerless to relieve her of possible embarrassment. True, it has been said that Article XIV. of the Constitution, and the so-called "Expatriation Act" of Congress, already referred to, change the common-law rule. But this is at least doubtful. The Expatriation Act merely asserts the abstract" right" of expatriation; it does not go beyond this and point out how this "right" may be converted into a fact. It is also true that an American woman married to an alien and living in her husband's country is beyond the jurisdiction of the United States; and this, under the provisions of Article XIV., has been supposed to deprive her of American citizenship. But our male citizens reside abroad for purposes of business or pleasure without thereby losing their nationality, and the rule is supposed to be of uniform application to all citizens, male and female. Both owe a temporary and qualified allegiance to the country of their residence; but if the one does not thereby forfeit the right to claim protection by our government, why should the other? Manifestly, the old common-law rule is still in force; and if it be desirable to place ourselves in accord with other nations on this point, there is but one way to do it, namely, by an Act of Congress repealing the common-law rule and making the nationality of the wife to follow that of her husband, and to change as he changes his. And if this should cause American women to be a little cautious about contracting matrimonial alliances with titled and impecunious foreigners, perhaps that might be urged as an additional reason in its favor.

The average North American, living in a large coun

try and accustomed to go where he pleases unchallenged by provost marshal or military sentinel, has a natural aversion to anything like a passport. He seems to take it for granted that he will have the same liberty abroad that he enjoys at home; and that, if he should happen to get into trouble, our ministers and consuls will have no difficulty in accepting his ex-parte statement that he is an American citizen. Hence he cannot see the necessity of carrying a passport issued from the State Department. But while such a passport may not be a necessity, it is always a very great convenience, and it may save him much annoyance. A passport is the highest evidence of his nationality, especially when properly viséd by the consul at the port of disembarkation. In Spanish-America, where travel is generally free and unrestricted, he will rarely have occasion to use it, except in time of "revolution." But he will certainly need it then; and since "revolutions" are liable to occur at any time, he should never visit those countries without a passport.

Passports can be issued at home only by the Secretary of State, and in a foreign country only by the accredited diplomatic representative. A passport issued by the government of any one of our states is simply worthless. Even a consul-general or consul has no authority to issue a passport, except in countries where we have no diplomatic representative; and a mere certificate of citizenship, whether given by a minister or consul, is irregular and invalid. The passport must be in regular form, and can be issued only to bona fide citizens. A mere declaration of intention by an alien to become a citizen, although made in good faith, and under due form before a competent tribunal, even after the requisite five years' residence, does not make him a citizen. He must have been regularly admitted, and

that fact must be duly certified by the judge of the court which admitted him, before he is entitled to a passport as a citizen of the United States. A passport is good for two years only. It then expires by limitation. But on presentation at any of our legations abroad it will be taken up and a new one for two years more issued by the minister. If the citizen neglects to take out a passport in the United States, he can always get one at any of our legations, provided he can satisfy the minister that he is a bona fide citizen of the United States, and therefore entitled to it. But this is always more difficult than it is to identify himself at home; consequently it is always the safer and better plan to procure a passport before embarking for a foreign country.

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CHAPTER XIV

COLOMBIA AND ITS POSSIBILITIES

HE present Republic of Colombia is bounded on the northwest by the Caribbean sea and

the free state of Costa Rica; south and southeast by Peru, Ecuador, Brazil, and Venezuela; and west by the Pacific ocean. We thus outline an irregularshaped area of more than 500,000 square miles, which extends from the equator northward to a little beyond the 12th parallel, and from the 7th to the 82d meridian, comprising a country larger than France and Italy combined.

The Caribbean coast line is about 1,400 miles; that on the Pacific nearly 2,000. Both are marked by numerous inlets, bays, and gulfs, and have many deep and commodious harbors; and both are contiguous to a number of beautiful and fertile islands which constitute part of the national domain. Very few of these islands are as yet inhabited; and perhaps it is safe to say that less than one quarter of the area of the mainland is occupied by actual settlers.

The topographical features of the country are varied and interesting. There are ranges of high mountains, broad and deep valleys, rolling steppes, elevated plains, icy paramos, and snow-capped sierras, all interspersed with great rivers, fresh-water lakes, and rapidly running streams. In the language of Baron Humboldt, the tourist needs but a thermometer and a mule " to find any

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climate within the compass of a few leagues. When he tires of the torrid heats of the deep valleys, the frozen regions of the sierras are just in sight. When he has had enough of perpetual spring on the tablelands, he can, by a few hours' ride, readily find autumn on the steppes above, or summer in the valleys below.

The most extensive and fertile of the numerous tablelands are those of Pasto, Popayan, and Tuquerres, in the department of the Cauca; Santa Rosa and Herveo, in the department of Antioquia; Bogotá, Ubaté, and Simajaca, in Cundinamarca; Sogamoso, Tunja, and Chiquinquirá, in Boyaca; and Pamplona and Jerido, in Santander. The temperature on all these plateaux is that of perpetual spring, and the soil is exceptionally fertile. Two and three crops may be easily raised on the same ground within the year, and the planting and the harvest season may be in almost any month of the twelve.

The great prairies, or llanos as they are known in the language of the country, are generally eastward of the cordillera of Sumapaz, and extend to the borders of northern Brazil and southwestern Venezuela. They are vast, treeless regions, but generally well watered and thickly matted with perennial grasses which afford excellent pasturage. The soil is a black loam of immense depth, and needs but little cultivation to be even more productive than the plains of Louisiana and Texas.

The great forests of the Republic occupy the valleys of the rivers, the coves of the mountain ranges, and the rolling steppes southeastward of the prairies. Many of these forests are so dense as to be almost impenetrable; but nearly all of them, at least so far as they have been explored, abound with every variety and species of cabinet and dye woods, and every medicinal plant known to