"Bogota, the capital of Colombia, is situated between ranges of the Andes on a plateau at an elevation of more than a mile and a half. It is approximately 450 miles from the Caribbean sea along the most accessible route and 200 miles from the Pacific across the Andes. It has no rail connection with either sea. To reach it one must travel for more than sixty miles up the winding course of the Magdalena river by boat, skirting rapids by means of a short length of railroad, and ultimately cover the last 50 miles from the head of navigation by rail. The trip sometimes requires several weeks.

More than half of the area of Colombia lies east of the three ranges of the Andes and consists of country sloping toward the center of the continent and drained by the headwaters of the Amazon.

Orinoco river systems, plains of the great Amazon and covered with succulent grasses, these plains form an unsurpassed stock-raising country. It is largely unutilized and is to be compared with the plains of Rhodesia, South Africa, as one of the richest unoccupied regions suitable for cattle raising remaining in the world. It is estimated that more than ten million head of cattle could be pastured on these plains of eastern Colombia." 