Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 4.djvu/162

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COLOMBO


124


COLOMBO


republic is a series of borrowings and attempted settle- ments of accumulated capital and interest, rendered impossible by political disturbances. The budget for 1905-1906 amounted to £4,203,823. There are no official or general statistics of either exports or im- ports. Partial data, however, may give some general idea of the principal articles of Colombian produce. The Colombian gold mines up to 1845 yielded £71,- 200,000. Another source states it at £115,000,000 up to 1886. The same authority (Restrepo) estimates the silver-production during the same period at £6,- 600,000. The average output of rock-salt from 1883 to 1897 has been 1 1 ,000 tons per year. The exploitation of the emerald mines in the Province of Musos yielded the Government, in 1904, £10,000, but the production was not always so high in former times. Among vegetable products coffee takes the first rank for ex- ]iort, but the annual figures have varied according to the political state of the country. Thus, in 1S99, be- fore the revolution, 254,410 bags of coffee were ex- ported from Barranquilla. In the year following only 86,917. Peace being restored, 574,270 bags could be shipped from the same port in 1904. In the same year 24,000 tons of bananas left Barranquilla for the United States, and tobacco and india-rubber may soon figure largely in Colombian export lists.

For the periods embracing the struggle for independence see the bibhogranhy to the articles: Bolivia, Ecuador, and Vene- zuela, to wnich we add: Bexedetti, Historia de Colombia (Lima, 1SS7); also a concise but quite fair sketch in the vol. Bresil of the Univcrs pittoresque (1S38), by F.amin, Colombie et Guyanes: Petre, The Republic of Colombia (London, 1906); Scruggs, The Colombian and Venezuelan Republics (Boston, 1902). — On the protracted negotiations as to the Colombia-Costa Rica boundaries see Fernandez, Coleccion de Doaimentos para la historia de Costa Rica (San Jos^, lSSl-1886). The North American Review (New York) for 1902 contains a paper by .Morales, The Political and Economical Situation of Colombia. — On the volcanoes of Colombia, Stubel, Die Vulkanberge von Colombia (Dresden. 1906). — On the Panama question, Johnson, Four Centuries of the Panama Canal (New York. 1906). Of the numerous books of travels in Colombia in the first half of the past century may be mentioned Humboldt, Relation histori- que du voyage aux regions cquinoxiales du nouveau continent (Paris. 181(5-22); Vues des Cordilleres, et monuments des petiples indigines de V Amcrique (Paris, 1816); Mollien. Voj/ngp dans la rcpublique de Colombia (Paris, 1824). For the polifitvil history of the past century, Constitucifjn del es/(p/-' "' ' - ' ■ ■ .; de In- dias snncionada en Ih de Junie del ano de /■ ,,,),./, s^t Jji- dtpendencia (Cartagena, 1S12); Constitu, , • /. :■• .',>.l,Uca de Colombia (Bogotd, 1888). In Spanish hliiauiie iiuui the six- teenth century early exploration and colonization of Colombia is extensively treated, notably in Enciso, Suma de geografia (1519, 1530. and 1549): Gomara, Historia general de las Indias (Antwerp, 1554) ; Herrera, Historia general &ca. (Madrid, 1601-15 and 1726-30; Antwerp, 1728). Colombian writers from the sixteenth century: de Ques.ad.v, Tres ratos de Suezca (1568); Castellanos, Elegias de varonrs itustres dc Indias; Piedrahita, Historia general de las conqui^ta^ drl Shirro Reijno de Granada (Antwerp, 1688); deZamora, // ./-w/rT r/. /,; proin'n- cia de San Antonio del Nuevo Reyno de Gniii'i'hi ./, / <h,/, ,i ,lr Pre- dicadores (Barcelona, 1701); Cassani, Hi.-'t"i I'l ./. la jirnrincia de la compatiia de Jesus del Nuevo Reyno Jt iirunadu uMadrid, 1741); Julian, La Perla de la America (Madrid, 1787) — import- ant especially on the Goajiros Indians. From the nineteenth century; Docum. incditos de Indias and Documentos para la his- toria de Esparia. Of the highest value for the extin'-f In^iinn tribes of the Rio Cauca and its valleys as well a^ t m i!i.> ^^ . i coast of Colombia in general, Cieza de Leon, C. ' . ■ /' (Part I, Antwerp, 1554); Andagova, Relaciiin d, i.. ,,, ... ,., Pcdrarias Diivila, tr. in Hackluyl Soc. XXXIV.

Ad. F. Bandelier.

Colombo, AncHDiocE.SE of, situated on the western seaboard of the Island of Ceylon, includes two of the nine jjrovinces into which the island is divided, viz. the Western and the Northwestern. The history of the see begins in 1518, when Christianity was intro- duced by the Franciscans. The religion spread rap- idly, the town and the surrounding districts were soon erected into a diocese, and Don Juan de Monteiro was created first Bi.shop of Colombo. This prelate re- ceived into the church Don Juan Dharmajiala, the grand.son of the Cingalese King Buwenekabalui VII. The young prince succeeded his gr:iiiilf;ither in 1542. Six years after his accession, Colombo contained a Catholic population of 12,000, with two parish churches, Our Lady's and St. Laurence's, four monas-


teries or convents under the Cordeliers, Dominicans, Augustinians, and Capuchins, and a college conducted by the Jesuits.

In 1.597 Don Juan Dhamiapala died. By that time the Portuguese had established their authority throughout the whole island except in the Kingdom of Kandy in the centre of the island, and religion was free to develop in Jaffna and in the other parts of Cey- lon. But peace was of short duration, for the Dutch arrived in the island and, after a struggle of more than fifty years, succeeded in obtaining possession of all the territory that had been held by the Portuguese; Co- lombo fell in 1656 and Jaffna in 1658. Thenew rulers made no secret of their attitude towards the Church, for in 1642 they concluded with the King of Kandy a treaty by which "all priests, friars and clergymen" were to be banished from Ceylon. The Refonned Church of Holland was declared established, and a scries of severe penal enactments against Catholics followed. Catholic education was forbidden. Catho- lic worship abolished, and harbouring a priest was de- clared a capital offence. In 1796 Colombo was taken by the English, and one of their first acts was to repeal all the Dutch laws against the Catholics (1806); soon afterwards the rights restored to the Catholics of the United Kingdom by the Emancipation Act were con- ceded to their coreligionists in Ceylon.

During the Dutch period the ecclesiastical adminis- tration of the island had been in the hands of the Bishop of Cochin on the neighbouring continent; but in 1830 Gregory XVI constituted Ceylon a vicariate Apostolic and the first vicar Apostolic, Don Vincente de Rozario, was consecrated in 1836. In 1845 Propa- ganda found it necessary to increase the number of missionaries in the island, and sent the Sylvestrine Benedictines for that purpose. In 1847 Jaffna in the north of the island, was severed from the Vicariate of Colombo, and erected into a separate vicariate with Bishop H. Bettachini as vic:ir Apostolic. At his death in 1857, the in'itln in \ i(:iriate was given over to the Oblates of Mary lniiii;i(iil;ite who had arrived in Ceylon two years :iffi'r tin- Benedictines. Bishop Semeria, O. M. I., \v:is :i]>|«iiiiied Vicar Apostolic of Jaffna, while Bishop Hi:i\i, i ). S. B., succeeded Bishop Caetano Antonio (1843-57; as Vicar Apostolic of Co- lombo.

A further partition was made in 1883, when the southern vicariate was divided into two, Colombo and Kandy. The Benedictines retained the latter, the former being given to the Oblates, in whose hands it has since remained, and Bishop C. Bonjean, O. M. I., was transferred from Jaffna to Colombo. Three years later (1886) the hierarchy was established in Ceylon, and the above-mentioned Bishop of Colombo, Dr. Bonjean, was made metropolitan with two suffragan sees, Jaffna and Kandy. In 1893 two new dioceses were created and entrusted to the Jesuits, Galle in the South being severed from Colombo, and Trincomali in the East, separated from Jaffna. In the same year Bishop Melizan, O. M. I., was transferred from Jaffna to Colombo as successor to Bishop Bonjean who had died in 1892; Bishop Melizan was succeeded in 1905 by Bishop Antoine Coudcrt, O. M. I., from 1898 coad- jutor, with right of succession.

According to the last census returns the total popu- lation of the archdiocese is 1,274,000, of whom 206,000 are Catholics. There are 100 missionaries, 91 Ob- lates and 9 secular priests, and 295 churches and chapels. The Cathedral of Santa Lucia, a fine build- ing in the Ren:ussance style, has acconmiodations for 6000. Att:iclied to the cathedral arc an English school for boys :iiid one for girls, the former with over a tho\is:iii.l piipil^, bring tauglit by tlie brothers of the Christi:in Sell.., lis. wliilein Hie latter, the Sisters of the Good .SliL'ijhcrd give instruction to 500 girls. All the charitable institutions in the arclulioeese, and many educational institutions of the archdiocese are in the