1898; (15) an extradition treaty with Peru, signed on the 6th of August 1898; (16) a treaty of peace, friendship and defensive alliance with Venezuela, signed on the 21st of November 1896, and on the same date a treaty regulating the frontier commerce. (G. E.)
Authorities.—C. E. Akers, A History of South America, 1854–1904 (New York, 1905); J. J. Borda, Compendio de historia de Colombia (Bogotá, 1890); Salvador Roldan Camacho, Notas de viaje (Bogotá, 1890), and Escritos varios (Bogotá, 1892); Dr Alfred Hettner, Reisen in den colombianischen Anden (Leipzig, 1888); Angel Lemos, Compendio de geografia de la Républica de Colombia (Medellin, 1894); Albert Millican, Travels and Adventures of an Orchid Hunter (London, 1891); J. M. Cordovez Mauro, Reminiscencias Santafé y Bogotá (Bogotá, 1899); Norris and Laird (Bureau of Navigation), Telegraphic Determination of Longitudes in Mexico, Central America, the West Indies, and on the North Coast of South America (Washington, 1891); R. Nuñez and H. Jalhay, La République de Colombia, géographie, histoire, &c. (Bruxelles, 1893); J. M. Q. Otero, Historia Patria (Bogotá, 1891); Lisimaco Palaü, La Republica de Colombia (1893); M. Paz and F. Perez, Atlas geográfico e histórico de la República de Colombia (1893); R. S. Pereira, Les États Unis de Colombia (Paris, 1883); Felipe Perez, Geografia general, fisica y politica de los Estados Unidos de Colombia (Bogotá, 1883); F. Loraine Petrie, The Republic of Colombia (London, 1906); Elisée Réclus, Geografia de Colombia (Bogotá, 1893); W. Reiss and A. Stübel, Reisen in Südamerika. Geologische Studien in der Republik Colombia (Berlin, 1893); Ernesto Restrepo, Ensayo etnografico y arqueologico de la provincia de los Quimbayas (Bogotá, 1892), and Estudios sobre los aborigines de Colombia (Bogotá, 1892); Vicente Restrepo, Estudio sobre las minas de oro y plata de Colombia (Bogotá, 1888, translated by C. W. Fisher, New York, 1886); W. L. Scruggs, The Colombian and Venezuelan Republics (London, 1899; Boston, 1900); W. Sievers, Reisen in der Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta (Leipzig, 1887); F. J. Vergara y Velasco, Nueva geografia de Colombia (Bogotá, 1892); Frank Vincent, Around and About South America (New York, 1890); R. G. Watson, Spanish and Portuguese South America during the Colonial Period (2 vols., London, 1884).
See also the diplomatic and consular reports of Great Britain and the United States; publications of the International Bureau of American Republics (Washington, D.C.); Bureau of Statistics, Commercial America in 1905 (Washington, 1906).
COLOMBIER, PIERRE BERTRAND DE (1299–1361), French cardinal and diplomatist, was born at Colombier in Ardèche. He was nephew and namesake of Cardinal Pierre Bertrand of Annonay. After a careful juristic education he was successively advocate at the parlement of Paris, intendant of the council of the count of Nevers (1321), and counsellor-clerk to the parlement (1329). Having taken holy orders, he became dean of St Quentin in 1330, and was employed to negotiate the marriage of the duke of Normandy, the future king John the Good of France, with the daughter of the king of Bohemia. In 1335 he became bishop of Nevers, in 1339 of Arras, and contributed to bring the county of Flanders into the kingdom of France. Created cardinal priest of St Susanna in 1344, he was employed by the pope on important missions, notably to negotiate peace or an armistice between France and England. Having become bishop of Ostia in 1353, he was sent next year to Charles IV. of Germany, and induced him to come to Italy to be crowned emperor at Rome, 1355. In 1356 he went to France to try to arrange a peace with England, and died in 1361 at the priory of Montaud near Avignon.
See A. Mazon, Essai historique sur l’état du Vivarais pendant la guerre de cent ans (Paris, 1889), with references there.
COLOMBO, the capital and principal seaport of Ceylon, situated on the west coast of the island. Pop. (1901) 154,691. Colombo stands to the south of the mouth of the river Kelani. The coast-land is here generally low-lying, but broken by slight eminences. The great artificial harbour, enclosed by breakwaters, is bounded on the south by a slight promontory. This is occupied by the quarter of the city known as the Fort, from the former existence of a fort founded by the Portuguese and reconstructed by the Dutch. In 1869 the governor, Sir Hercules Robinson (afterwards Lord Rosmead), obtained authority to demolish the fortifications, which were obsolete for purposes of defence, and required 6000 men to man them properly. The levelling of the walls and filling up of the moat made the Fort much more accessible and healthy, and since then it has become the business centre of the city. Here are situated Queen’s House, the governor’s residence; the secretariat or government offices, and other government buildings, such as the fine general post office and the customs house. Here also are most of the principal hotels, which have a peculiarly high reputation among European hotels in the East. A lofty tower serves as the principal lighthouse of the port and also as a clock-tower. On the south side of the Fort are extensive barracks. The old banqueting-hall of the Dutch governors is used as the garrison church of St Peter.
To the north-east of the Fort, skirting the harbour, are the Pettah, the principal native quarter, the districts of Kotahena and Mutwall, and suburbs beyond. In this direction the principal buildings are the Wolfendahl church, a massive Doric building of the Dutch (1749); the splendid Roman Catholic cathedral of St Lucia (completed in 1904); and St Thomas’s College (1851), which follows the lines of an English public school. Close to this last is the Anglican cathedral of Christ Church. The Kotahena temple is the chief Buddhist temple in Colombo.
To the north-east of the Fort is the Lake, a ramifying sheet of fresh water, which adds greatly to the beauty of the site of Colombo, its banks being clothed with luxuriant foliage and flowers. The narrow isthmus between this lake and the sea, south of the Fort, is called Galle Face, and is occupied chiefly by promenades and recreation grounds. The peninsula enclosed by two arms of the Lake is known as Slave Island, having been the site of a slave’s prison under the Dutch. South-east of this is the principal residential quarter of Colombo, with the circular Victoria Park as its centre. To the east of the park a series of parallel roads, named after former British governors, are lined with beautiful bungalows embowered in trees. This locality is generally known as the Cinnamon Gardens, as it was formerly a Dutch reserve for the cultivation of the cinnamon bush, many of which are still growing here. In the park is the fine Colombo Museum, founded by Sir William Gregory; and near the neighbouring Campbell Park are the handsome buildings of a number of institutions, such as Wesley College, and the General, Victoria Memorial Eye and other hospitals. South of Victoria Park is the Havelock racecourse. Among educational establishments not hitherto mentioned are the Royal College, the principal government institution, the government technical college and St Joseph’s Roman Catholic college. Most of the town is lighted by gas, and certain quarters with electric light, and electric tramways have been laid over several miles of the city roads. The water-supply is drawn from a hill region 30 m. distant.
Under British rule Colombo has shared in the prosperity brought to the island by the successive industries of coffee and tea-planting. At the height of the coffee-growing enterprise 20,000 men, women and children, chiefly Sinhalese and Tamils, found employment in the large factories and stores of the merchants scattered over the town, where the coffee was cleaned, prepared, sorted and packed for shipment. Tea, on the contrary, is prepared and packed on the estates; but there is a considerable amount of work still done in the Colombo stores in sorting, blending and repacking such teas as are sold at the local public sales; also in dealing with cacao, cardamoms, cinchona bark and the remnant still left of the coffee industry. But it is to its position as one of the great ports of call of the East that Colombo owes its great and increasing importance. A magnificent breakwater, 4200 ft. long, the first stone of which was laid by the prince of Wales in 1875, was completed in 1884. This breakwater changed an open roadstead into a harbour completely sheltered on the most exposed or south-west side; but there was still liability in certain months to storms from the north-west and south-east. Two additional arms were therefore constructed, consisting of a north-east and north-west breakwater, leaving two openings, one 800 ft. and the other 700 ft. wide, between the various sections. The area enclosed is 660 acres. A first-class graving-dock, of which the Admiralty bore half the cost, has also been added. These improvements caused Galle to be abandoned as a port of call for steamers in favour of Colombo, while Trincomalee has been abandoned as a naval station. The port has assumed first-class importance, mail steamers calling
