K*2 J\ N D n; \ jMSujiiflwi 1 ■ v^ Qass ' Book H. M. THE EMPEROR OF BRAZIL. AROUND AND ABOUT SOUTH AMERICA TWENTY MONTHS OE QUEST AND QUERY BY FRANK VINCENT author of 'the land of the white elephant," "through and through the tropics, "two months in burmah," "the wonderful ruins OF CAMBODIA," "NORSK, LAPP, AND FINN," " IN AND OUT OF CENTRAL AMERICA," "STRAY SKETCHES OF TRAVEL AND TRAVELLERS," ETC. WITH 3IAPS, PLANS, AND ILLTJSTBATIONS i • ' > NEW YOEK: D. APPLETON & CO. SOLD BY KEGAN PAUL, TRENCH, TRUBNER, & CO., Ltd., LONDON 1890 -^1> J -> Copyright, 1890, By D. APPLETON AND COMPANY. A / i3 TO H. M. DOM PEDRO II., EMPEROR OP BRAZIL, SCHOLAR AND SCIENTIST, PATRON OP ARTS AND LETTERS, STERLING STATESMAN AND MODEL MONARCH, WHOSE REIGN OP HALF A CENTURY HAS BEEN ZEALOUSLY AND SUCCESSFULLY DEVOTED TO PUBLIC INSTRUCTION, INDUSTRIAL ENTERPRISE, AND THE ABOLITION OF SLAVERY THROUGHOUT THE VAST AND OPULENT "EMPIRE OF THE SOUTHERN CROSS," THIS WORK IS, BY SPECIAL PERMISSION, MOST RESPECTFULLY DEDICATED BY HIS MAJESTY'S HUMBLE AND OBEDIENT SERVANT, THE AUTHOR PREFACE. Mr recent journey through South America included visits to all the capitals, chief cities, and important sea- ports; expeditions into the interior of Brazil and the Ar- gentine Republic; and ascents of the Parana, Paraguay, Amazon, Orinoco, and Magdalena Rivers. It covered about thirty-five thousand miles, and forced me to realize that our great southern continent contains twice the area and half the population of the United States. It has been my aim and . aspiration to grasp salient feat- ures and emphatic characteristics, and to delineate them with a careful conciseness that shall beget a correct and lively general impression. The difficulty of carrying out this design within so com- paratively small a space will at once be perceived by the discriminating reader, and will, I hope, induce him to extend to the present volume the same leniency which both press and public have bestowed upon my former contribu- tions to the universal and ever incomplete library of travel, adventure, and discovery. Postscript. — The unexpected change of government in Brazil, which has just occurred, found this narrative already in type, and hence it is published as originally written. Nothing, however, has been asserted of the Empire which vi PREFACE. ought to be revoked; while for the Republic one should uot vouch until time and trial have demonstrated its fit- ness and stability. In the words of Dom Pedro, " I shall always have kindly remembrances of Brazil and hopes for its prosperity." F. V. CONTENTS. PAGE Preface v CHAPTER I. OUTWARD BOUND. The Acapulco's lonely voyage — San Salvador is now Watling Island — Aspin- wall Harbor and the town itself — The French town of Christophe Colomb — Fever, filth, and flood — South American revolutions — How ringleaders are treated — Features of the railway to Panama — M. de Lesseps's interoceanic canal — French settlements and mammoth excava- tions — Wages of laborers — The canal might possibly have been com- pleted in the year 2013 — Hacks at Panama — General characteristics of the town — Matters of interest to the archaeologist and architect — Cosmopolitan population — Ici l'on parle Francais, and also English — A newspaper in three languages 1 CHAPTER II. ON TO GUAYAQUIL. Muskets and cutlasses give piratical remedies — Panama Railway extortion paralleled — My first attempts in Spanish — They fail beyond my most sanguine expectations — Reptiles and birds in the Galapagos Islands — Why species unknown to other parts of the world exist there — An Ecuadorian Botany Bay — Variation upon Alexander Selkirk — Scenes in the Gulf of Guayaquil — Features of the town of that name — Sample- rooms and senoritas — Preparations for going over the Andes to Quito — Advantage of taking your board and lodging with you — How Guay- aquil fever affects one — Chimborazo by moonlight — Ecuador's only railway — Traversing tropic jungles at the rate of ten miles an hour — Forests impenetrable even to sight — Puerile muleteers and gentle mules — Other qualities of the Ecuadorian animal — Two soups for din- ner — Lack of culinary cleanliness 9 CHAPTER III. OVER THE CORDILLERA. The seven racial varieties in South America — Indian population of Quito —Intense cold experienced at night — The ruined city Latacunga — A viii CONTENTS. PAGE two million dollar road — Shivering on the equator — A diligence drawn by mules — Brutality of postilions — Volcanoes along the route — The ap- proach to Quito — Complexions and costumes there — Architectural traits — The women and their mantillas — Democracy in church wor- ship — Army uniform — Lucifer in state presiding over the tortures of Avernus 19 CHAPTER IV. QUITO PARADISE OF PRIESTS. System of the Andes — Situation of Quito — Rectangular arrangement of the streets — Climate — Peculiarities of the cemeteries — The penitentiary — Strange manner of apportioning justice — Ecuadorian vicissitudes — Market produce — Congressional buildings — Monasteries of Quito — A paradise for priests, a pandemonium for the public — Religious paint- ings — Effigies of the virgin — Unique furniture — America unrepresented in Quito — Foreigners in business — Place they hold in society — Apa- thetic natives — Importance of investing in real estate — Hard and soft dollars — Depreciation of the paper money of Quito — No foreign phy- sicians there — Telegrams paid in postage-stamps . . . .28 CHAPTER V. BREAKFASTING IN AN ACTIVE VOLCANO. Quito's hospital — Lung and throat troubles prevalent — Lunatics and lepers — Educational opportunities — Pichincha, or the boiling mountain — View f rem the summit — Difference between the Andes and the Hima- layas — Brother volcanoes of Pichincha — Detailed description of it — A good breakfast is not less good inside its crater — Returning to Guay- aquil — Violence of tropical rains — Bad roads — Abruptness of the land- scape changes — Plantations alternate with jungles — Chicha, guarapo, and sugar-cane juice contrasted — Military bands at Bodegas . .37 CHAPTER VI. COASTWISE TO CALLAO. Approach to Payta — Appearance of the dilapidated town — Rich inland country — The railway to Piura — The coast of Peru and Bolivia — De- scription of a balsa — A few small villages — Memories of Incas — Pacas- mayo — Samanco — Views on the Pacasmayo — Comparison with Nor- wegian scenes — Casma and Supe — The town of Huacho — Foreign merchants — Callao — Appearance of the roadstead — Interior of the city — English and American railways — Lima — A national anniversary — Lima ladies — Horse-races — General Iglesias — General Caceres — Rev- olutions smoldering beneath public festivities 45 CONTENTS. ix CHAPTER VII. LIMA. PAGE The famous cathedral — General appearance of this celebrated building — Its interior — Poor carvings and paintings — Pizarro's bones — View of the city from Cerro de San Cristobal — Tram-cars and hackney-coaches — Roofs and balconies — Uninflammable brick — The fire-brigades — Houses of Congress — Statue of General Bolivar — Hall of Senators — Hall of Deputies — Principal market — National Library — Column of the 2d of May, in memory of the Peruvians who fell in the battle of Callao Bay in 1866 — The 2d of May hospital, an institution any country might be proud of — The Oroya Railway — Revolutionary com- plications — Circulating mediums — The mint — The Esmeralda — Alame- da de los Descalzos — The general cemetery, or Panteon . . .53 CHAPTER VIII. GLIMPSES OP THE PERUVIANS. Lima's public gardens — Pavilion of the President — Promenade ground of the Lima belles — Residences of the wealthy — Advantage of one-story houses — Rich and luxurious appointments — House-rent and cost of furnishing — Mode of life — Foreign education — Beauty of the young girls — The duenna — The masking mantilla — Sefioritas and cigarettes — Female culture — Depressing climate — Typical religious procession — Social amenities of the saints — The church-bell nuisance — The theatre in Lima— Bull-Ring — Clubs — Ball-room 64 CHAPTER IX. RAILROADING ABOVE THE CLOUDS. Mollendo — Its uninviting aspect — Railway between Mollendo and Arequipa — Places by the way — Steepness of the hills — Misti, Charchani, and Coropuna — The sand-dunes — Bearding Nature in her fastnesses — Mr. J. M. Thorndike's residence near Arequipa — The railway headquarters — The cathedral — Railway companions — The famous Verrugas bridge on the Oroya Railway — Some engineering particulars — Ubinas — Llamas, alpacas, and vicunas — Paucity of inhabitants between Arequipa and Puno — Mirage — Lakes Saracocha and Cachipuscana — The highest point on the railway 72 CHAPTER X. THE ACME OF STEAMER NAVIGATION. A Peruvian curiosity — The Anonymous Company for Exploration of the Inca Sepulchres — Lake Titicaca — Remains of the naturalist James Orton — Copacabana — Sorata, Huani Potosi, Illimani— The Andes east of Lake Titicaca — The port of Chililaya — The journey to La Paz — Abundance x CONTENTS. PAGE of sheep and cattle — Situation of La Paz — The Grand Plaza — Native passion for gambling — Parisian costumes in vogue — Hall of Deputies — Incipient cathedral of the Greek order of architecture — Troops in La Paz — Constant exercise and discipline . . . . .81 CHAPTER XI. LA PAZ THE QUAINT. Population — View of the city from an adjacent bluff — Stage-road and mule- trails — Kerosene-lamps — Absence of sidewalks — Scarcity of wood — Po- sition of the Alameda — Suggestion with respect to statues — Bustling streets — A large market — Great display of vegetables and fruit — " Yan- kee notions " in full force — Flower-women — Mode of contracting for bouquets — Hotels — Sefior Manuel Vicente Ballivian — Thirty-five hun- dred books and pamphlets all about Bolivia — " Barba Azul " at the theatre — Style of dress at the opera— Newspapers well represented — The Banco Nacional — Trade with Europe — Product of the silver-mines —Those of Potosi still fertile 89 CHAPTER XIL VOYAGING TO VALPARAISO. Environs of La Paz — Bare feet of the women — Native music and dances — A scene of general ebriety — Gambling very popular — A pathetic in- stance of intoxication — The Aymaras — Dr. H. H. Rusby — From Mol- lendo to Valparaiso — Arica — Pisagua — Iquique — Toeopilla — Cobija — Autofagasta — Caldera — Coquimbo — Valparaiso as seen from the sea — The harbor — Statue of Lord Cochrane — Female conductors on the tram- cars — Juan Fernandez — A pleasure-trip there — Robinson Crusoe's look-out — Commemoration tablet 98 CHAPTER XIII. THE CAPITAL OF CHILI. The railway to Santiago — Vino del Mar — Cerro de Santa Lucia — Benjamin Vicuna Mackenna — Plaza Independencia — The Capitol — Monument in memory of the holocaust at the Jesuits' church — Botanical and Zoolog- ical Gardens — Large foreign element in Santiago — Sworded policemen — En route for Montevideo — The overland routes from Chili to the Ar- gentine Republic — Snow-houses — Proposed Uspallata railway — Status of Chili — Her revenues and foreign trade — Matched against Peru — Leaving Valparaiso — Aconcagua as seen from the harbor . . . 10*7 CHAPTER XIV. FIORD AND FUEGIAN. Lota — Senora Cousifio, the wealthiest woman in Chili — Labor omnia vincit — The " Countess of Monte Cristo " — She is worth hundreds of millions CONTENTS. xi PAGE of dollars — Chiloc — The Chonos Archipelago— Wellington Island — Messier Channel — Surrounding scenery — Mount Stokes — Fantastic Chilian mountains — How they contrast with others — Chilian bays and inlets — The Fuegians — They are by no means a beautiful or attract- ive race — Their favorite mode of barter — Their tastes in general — Could their children become civilized ? 117 CHAPTER XV. the globe's southernmost town. Melancholy localities — The Strait of Magellan — Cape Froward and Cape Horn — Neighboring mountains — Punta Arenas — Its products and popu- lation — Strange vicissitudes that make people drift there — Ostrich rugs — Contrast between the western and the eastern half of the Strait of Magellan — False impressions about Terra del Fuego — Its climate less rigorous than Canada's — The Yahgans and the Onas — Contrast of the two tribes — The Falkland Islands — Cape Pembroke — Stanley Har- bor — Appearance of the settlement — Alfred the Little — Snobbery, how many absurdities are committed for thy sake ! . . . .127 CHAPTER XYI. THE FORLORN FALKLANDS. Consuls and vice-consuls at Stanley — Execrable climate — Sunday is kept there with true British rigidity — The Falkland group — Good harbors abound- — Cattle and products — Lafone's negotiations — John Davis — De Bougainville — Beginning a lonely voyage — Patagonia not so utterly dreary as supposed — Soil and population — Difference between the Fuegians and the Patagonians — The ostrich and the rhea — Ostrich rugs cheap there — Ostrich-culture needed — Pumas and condors — The Argentine Government paying increased attention to Patagonia — A railroad from Bahia Blanca to San Luis in contemplation . . .136 CHAPTER XVII. MONTEVIDEO— THE ATTRACTIVE. The Parana and the Rio de la Plata — Bay of Montevideo — El Cerro — The city of Montevideo — Its position — Gunboats of many nationalities — Architectural aspect of the town — Large foreign element — The cathe- dral clock — Grand plaza — Government Building — Paso Molino — Basque music — The opera-house — Ocular flirtation — Feminine street fashions — General Santos — Uruguayan soldiers — Peculiarity of their uniform — Strange method of making recruits — Do prisons create pa- triots? . . . . . . . . . . . .143 xii CONTENTS. CHAPTER XVIII. THE METROPOLIS OP THE KIVER PLATE. PAGE On to Buenos Ayres — The " Norte " and the " Pampero " — Queer river-craft — The city of Buenos Ayres — Streets and sidewalks — North American names — Parisian splendor of shops — The Exchange — Cosmopolitan characteristics — Plaza de la Victoria — Statue of General San Martin — Municipal buildings — The Recoleta — Mural burial not used — Handsome villas — Banks — Theatres — The Politeano Argentino — The city of La Plata — Public buildings there — Pampas — Importation of reapers — Inexpensive railways — Level nature of the country . . . .151 CHAPTER XIX. TOWARD THE HEART OF THE CONTINENT. A wonderful rocking-stone — Similar ones nearer home — Glacial action places them — Matto-Grosso — Prevailing style of river-vessel — Rosario — Parana — Goya — Gran Chaco — The camelotes — Alligators and car- pinchos — Asuncion — Effects of the war — Palace of Lopez — Hotel His- pano- Americano — How the city is laid out — Medisevo-Oriental aspect — The women outnumber the men — The town-hall — Custom-house — Unfinished opera-house — Cathedral — Absence of male worshipers — A solitary monument 159 CHAPTER XX. A COUNTRY OF WOMEN. Preponderance of market-women — Great variety of produce — Buyers carry home their purchases — Dress of women — Handsome girls and ugly hags — Smoking universal — Indian blood among Paraguayans — The currency — Salient features of the cemetery — Genuine grief and per- functory praying — The town of Paraguari — Its situation — Its means of communication with other places — Proposed route — Orange-women — Corrientes — It is not without a statue to Liberty — Biblioteca popu- lar — Indisputable evidences of civilization 167 CHAPTER XXI. ON THE TRAIL OF THE JESUITS. Difficult voyaging — Banks of the upper Parana — Procrastination of the natives — A coach like the Swiss diligence universally used in these parts — Character of the landscape — The Gaucho — Between Itusaingo and Posadas — Songless birds — Posadas — Encarnacion — It is a street rather than a town — The reducciones — Abdon Ahumada — Incidents of travel — Swarms of butterflies — Hard life for civilized travellers — Primi- tive bathing-house — Ingenuous natives — Scantiness of female costume CONTENTS. x iii PAGE — Every kind of ornamentation popular — Why do mosquitoes exist ? — The river Iguassu — Sefior Adam's garden — Qualities of the Parana . 176 CHAPTER XXII. THE NIAGARA OF SOUTH AMERICA. The mouth of the Iguassu — Making up a party for the falls — Wild animals along the shore — The Tupi Indians — Plague of insects — Jerked beef good for the hungry — Pursuing sleep under difficulties — We begin the hard part of our journey — Rock-climbing at 115° Fahr. — Bearding the jaguar in his den — The carrapato, the pest of the forest — The jigger likewise unendurable — Rewarded at last with a view of the great falls — They constitute the Niagara of South America — Prototypes of the "Canadian" and "American" cataracts — A roar that can be heard twenty miles — I christen them " Daly Palls," in honor of the President of the American Geographical Society 186 CHAPTER XXIII. A PARAGUAYAN RANCH. Exact position of the Daly Falls — Through-express routes non-existent in South America — Messrs. Uribi's establishment — A typical Paraguayan farm — Enormous ant-hills — Yerba forests — Primitive life of the In- dians — A ride through the forest — Delightful life on Tupurupucu ranch — Ox-carts with yerba-mate — All but a duel — San Tome — It contains the ubiquitous plaza — On the way from San Borje — Railways, present and prospective — Itaqui — Mate and cigarettes — How the former is served— Sipping through silver tubes — Gathering and preparing mate for consumption 195 CHAPTER XXIV. nOWN THE URUGUAY. Aime Bonpland — His work — Restauracion — Ceibo — Monte Caseros — Con- cordia — Paysandu — Fray Bentos — Liebig's famous meat-extract factory — More than twenty-five hundred thousand cattle slaughtered by the company in twenty years — The matador — How animals are lassoed and killed — Incredible velocity with which bullocks are slain and sliced — Process of making the extract — Eight million jars sold annually — On to Rio de Janeiro — Dangers of La Plata — Superiority in some respects of French, Italian, and German steamers 204 CHAPTER XXV. RIO DE JANEIRO. The harbor — Sugar-Loaf Rock — Beautiful appearance of the city from the water by night — Corcovado — I see the harbor by moonlight, starlight, gaslight, and daylight — Difference between Rio Janeiro and Valparaiso xiv CONTENTS. PAGE — Large ironclads — Narrow streets — Picturesque houses — Singularity of the signs — Tramways and public vehicles — The great show-sight of Rio — Physical and mechanical attributes of the road to Corcovado — An opportunity Theophile Gautier would have improved — A pass that outdoes any on Mount Washington or the Righi — The wondrous pano- rama that is unfolded — A mid-air vision that takes away the breath — Emotions aroused by the outlook from the top of Corcovado . .212 CHAPTER XXVI. STREET SCENES. Their inexhaustibility — Morbid curiosity of the Brazilians — With them star- ing is a fine art — Nonchalance of store-keepers — The people are in- quisitive rather than acquisitive — A splendid residence sacrificed to curiosity — Nuisance of music practice— Meager appearance of the white Brazilians — Coolness of neighboring hill-resorts — Yellow fever — Pro- portionof deaths — Causes of yellow fever and small-pox. — Bad drain- age, lack of fresh air, stagnation of water, corruption of garbage — Apparent extravagance of prices — The real explanation — Rio's market — Negresses — Turkey - sellers — Milkmen — The Carnival — Danger of wearing a silk hat — Merry maskers — Toleration of customs that should be obsolete 221 CHAPTER XXVII. PUBLIC BUILDINGS AND GARDENS. Botanical Gardens — Their situation — An arborescent gallery — Wonderful Royal palms — Campo Sant' Anna — Cascade Grotto — Small influence of the priesthood in Brazil — Features of a grand requiem — Few handsome public edifices — The splendid Misericordia Hospital — Supervised by Sisters of Charity — Academy of Fine Arts — The Dom Pedro II. Thea- tre — Military band of seventy-five mulattoes — The Emperor's box — Complexions of the audience — Results of miscegenation — His Majesty arrives amid silence — Distribution of prizes — A local poet shines — The public reserves its enthusiasm for comic operas 231 CHAPTER XXVIII. ENVIRONS OF RIO. National Library — National Museum — Contributions by foreign naturalists and savans — Dr. Ladislau Netto— Astronomical observatory — Histori- cal, Geographical, and Ethnographical Institute of Brazil — Tijuca— Whyte's Hotel — The " Chinese View " — Petropolis — A Brazilian Gov- ernor's Island — Raiz do Serra — Various languages that assail one's ears — Foreign ministers make Petropolis their summer home — It re- sembles an old German town — Theresopolis — Organ Mountains — The Switzerland of Brazil — Piedade — Beautiful scenery . . . . 242 CONTENTS. xv CHAPTER XXIX. THE EMPEROR OF BRAZIL. PAGE San Cristoval, the Emperor's palace — His Majesty receives me — Dom Pedro described — His tact, energy, culture, and humanity — His pleasant rec- ollections of the United States— His address, while in this country, be- fore the American Geographical Society — A democratic emperor — Bra- zilian royalties — Dom Pedro's intellectual and physical activity — Untiring manner in which, both at home and abroad, he admits alter- nately the claims of business and pleasure — Princess Isabella — Size of Brazil — National finances — The Riachuelo, the admiral's flag-ship — The Brazilian navy — The monitor Javari — Discomfort of a voyage on such a vessel 252 CHAPTER XXX. THE PROVINCE OF SAN PAULO. The richest coffee region of Brazil — Scenery along the road — Position of San Paulo — Headquarters of the coffee interest — Campinas — Manor- houses — Ignorance, indolence, loveliness, and content of the women — Brazilian slavery — Provisions of 1871 — Later legislation — Contem- plated revolt in 1886 — Causes of dissatisfaction — Immediate and un- conditional emancipation granted in 1888 — Festivities on May 18th, 19th, and 20th of that year — Civic and educational processions — Free theatrical performances — Santos — Views from the summit of Serra do Mar — Unhcalthiness of the seaport — The Barra 259 CHAPTER XXXI. A TRIP TO MORRO VELHO. The province of Minas-Geraes — Proposed tour — A splendid ride in the Celeridade — Along the Piabanha — Valley of the Parahybuna River — Railroad and steamboat lines — Queluz — A town more dead than alive — Doctors practice medicine " pour passer le temps " — Prevalence of lepers — Hippolyte, the guide — Habits of muleteers and cart-drivers — Ouro Branco — Terrific thunder-showers — Rough specimen of a Brazil- ian pousada — Laced bed-linen amid filth and squalor — A knifeless din- ner — Caxones — Strange ecclesiastical emblems upon crosses — The lat- ter became disheartening on account of tragic associations ascribed to them 267 CHAPTER XXXn. DOWN THE GREAT GOLD-MINE. Congonhas — It is a hamlet, but nevertheless contains a theatre and a ca- thedral — Mr. George Chalmers, superintendent of the San Juan del xv i CONTENTS. PAGE Rey Mining Company — Descending the Morro Velho mine — The man- ner in which the trip is made — Rumblings and reverberations inside the mme — The air is pure, but the environment is pandemoniac — Gangs of men singing while at work — Dore and Dante would have been at home there — Dynamite in constant demand — The way you reach daylight again — Contented troglodytes — Colored people at the Casa Grande — Africa let loose — Baiting the bull — Slaves speak their native language — Ceaseless clatter of the mills — " Timbuctoo "—Mine and mills em- ploy 1,500 persons of nine nationalities — The gold troop . . . 276 CHAPTER XXXIII. ON THE RIO DAS VELHAS. Between Morro Velho and Jaguara — Sahara — Santa Luzia — A closet bedroom like those in New York flats — An automatic corn-smasher — Jaguara — The buildings going to ruin — Bats and owls have it all to themselves — Method of catching serpents — Amenities of convict life in Santa Luzia — Hotel-keeping in Brazil— Ouro Preto — Mules and horses in Brazil contrasted with those of Ecuador, Peru, and Bolivia — The roads and wayside inns — The peak of Itacolumi — Ouro Preto consists chiefly of one thoroughfare 285 CHAPTER XXXIV. CIRCLING BACK TO EIO. A Tyrolese town suggested — Ouro Preto is the capital of one of the finest provinces of Brazil — Municipal buildings — Brazilian sense of time — Church of Antonio Dias — School of Mines — Off for Teixeiras — Mari- anna and San Sebastian — Apparent preponderance of negroes — Euro- peans in Minas-Geraes — Yankee clocks and sewing-machines — Bread and eggs not to be had for the asking — Noise and shallow politeness of people at the hotels — From Teixeiras to San Geraldo — A crooked rail- way — Remarkable bit of engineering — The distance to Canto Gallo — Over the mountains thither — Route to Nictheroy — Nova Friburgo — Serra da Boa Vista — The Fell system of railway — The peak of Tijuca — Nictheroy — An exquisite panorama wherewith to close the day . . 294 CHAPTER XXXV. THE SECOND CITY OF BRAZIL. Farewell to Rio — Bay of Bahia — Situation of the city — Residences on the bluff — No public buildings of special merit — Open-air market — Muscu- lar development of the negroes — Sedan-chairs — Mediaeval streets — The old Government House — The Municipal Hall — The plaza and its sur- roundings — Tramways in Bahia — Rio Vermelho — The "seven sta- tions " — Public Garden — A favorite promenade — Cachoeira — Landing CONTENTS. xvii PAGE the mail in a bottle — Mr. Joseph Mawson, Superintendent of the Bra- zilian Imperial Central Bahia Railway — Along the course of the Para- guassu River — Caverns not made by man — Diamond-washings . . 304 CHAPTER XXXVI. ON THE SAN FRANCISCO. From Bahia to Penedo — Aracaju — President's palace — House of Delegates — Piassabossu — Penedo — It exports cotton, sugar, and hides — Steep streets — Beggars in abundance — Religious procession — The people are religious but untheological — How Good Friday was observed — Effi- gies of Judas Iscariot — From Penedo to Piranhas — Propria — Traipu — Threading the tortuous San Francisco — Pao d'Assucar — Apparent inac- cessibility of Piranhas — Absence of good hotels — The railway from Piranhas to Jatoba — Horses and mules still employed for transporta- tion — People of Piranhas — Pedra do Sino, or bell-stone . . .315 CHAPTER XXXVII. THE KING OP RAPIDS. From Piranhas to Sinimbu — Rapids of Paulo Affonso — The vaqueiro and his family — Vai-vem — Seven great cataracts — Inferno and Arcadia combined — " Emperor's View " — Vampire Grotto — Locality for a pro- spective Cataract House — The village of Jatoba — It is without a hotel — How travelers may fare — Cataracts of Itaparica — Resounding roar — Lawless character of Jatoba and Piranhas — Capital punishment non- existent in Brazil — Parisian clock in Piranhas — Love- songs through the night — The town of Maceio . 326 CHAPTER XXXVIII. THE " CITY OF THE REEF." Pernambuco — It possesses the essential characteristics of a city — Country- houses of rich merchants — Recife — Custom-house and Arsenal of War — President's house and gardens — Theatre — School of Fine Arts — Hospital of Dom Pedro II. — House of Deputies — Cemetery — Public market — Building of the Commercial Association — Sugar and cotton interests — Private residences in Pernambuco — Village of Caxanga — Great variety of vegetable produce — New reservoir and water-works — Olinda as a suburb — Predominance of churches and convents — Theo- logical seminary — Palmares — Mandioc and beans — The engenhos, or sugar-mills — Cape Saint Roque — San Luiz — Para .... 335 CHAPTER XXXIX. AN EQUATORIAL EMPORIUM. Para is also called Belem — Its situation — Public market — Botanical Gar- dens, so-called — Pretty dwelling-houses — Variable climate — Large B xviii CONTENTS. PAGE opera-house — A leaderless band — Audiences enter and exit en masse ■ — Manrico passes round the hat — Braganca — Forest intricacies and luxuriance — Vagaries of tree-growth — Mr. E. S. Eand's gardens — Ama- zonian passenger-line — Idleness of the voyagers — Amazon Valley, the country of hammocks — Beautiful specimens on the Rio Negro — Pre- vailing character of the Amazon — Magnificent scene at the mouth of the Xingu — A botanist's paradise — Palms in exhaustless varieties . 344 CHAPTER XL. UPON THE SEA-LIKE AMAZON. Daily deck-washiDg — Invisibility of the captain — Expertness of the pilots — Abundance of local travel— -The two-mouthed Xingu — The Amazon a veritable " ocean-stream " — Largest river in the world — Three fourths of Brazil tropical — Birds — Santarem — Obidos — It seems almost like a cemetery — Piratical-looking craft — Wind and current on the Amazon — Pirarucu — The Amazon assumes new names at particular points — Manaos — Zinc market-house — Brazil Street — Elastica — Newspapers — Hackney-coaches — Cafes — Billiard-saloons — Barber - shops — Botanical Museum of Amazonas — Works on Brazil — Dr. J. Barboza Rodrigues— Beef-cattle — Method of hoisting bullocks on board steamers — The long- est way round, the shortest home — I cross the equator for the eleventh time ............. 355 CHAPTER XLI. TO THE GUIANAS Via BARBADOS. Roadstead of Bridgetown — Government offices — Narrow sidewalks — Build- ings of all sizes and shapes — Church of England cathedral — Parlia- ment Houses — Assembly and Council Chamber — Library — Albert Hall — Hastings, an English garrison-post — Barbados as a sanitarium — Eng- lish residences — Sugar-mills and wind-mills — Paucity of trees — Cod- rington College — Coast of British Guiana — Demerara River — George- town — Berbice — Great variety of races represented — Tower Hotel — Use of canals in Georgetown — Large stores amply stocked — Tramways — Choice of churches and clubs — Sea-front of British Guiana — Immi- gration — Sugar estates — Provinces and parishes — Governor and Court of Policy — Governor's " contingencies " 366 CHAPTER XLII. A BRITISH COLONY. Fine public buildings wanting in Georgetown — Law Courts — The Public Building — Market — Roman Catholic Cathedral — British Guiana Muse- um — Royal Agricultural and Commercial Society — Newspapers and magazines — Government House — Promenade Gardens — Drives — Sea- CONTENTS. xix PAGE wall — Botanical Gardens — "Victoria Regia — Climate — Georgetown set- tlement — British Guiana — Mouth of the Essequibo— Wood-cutting and stone-quarrying — Bartica Grove — Penal settlement — Up the Demerara — Negroes and Creoles — Macusi Indians — Gold-mining — The Royal Dutch West-India Mail — Surinam — Administration Building — Govern- ment House — Paramaribo I . . . . 376 CHAPTER XLIII. PARAMARIBO AND CAYENNE. Churches and cemeteries — Jews an important factor — Climate — Police — Fire-engines— Dress and appearance of the women — Ball at the Gov- ernment House — Pyjamas — Imported ice — Dutch architecture — Pub- lic garden — Colonial Council — Circulating libraries — Club — Cayenne — How it looks from a distance — Magasin general — Vultures clean the streets — Gowns of Creole women — French garrison — Enfant Perdu — Kaw Mountains — Gold quartz — Cabbage-Palm Square — Double palm- tree — Gendarmerie — Government House — Semaphore — Levee — Gulf of Paria — La Brea — Port-of-Spain 385 CHAPTER XLIV. TRINIDAD AND UP THE ORINOCO. Hospitals and asylums in Port-of-Spain — Queen's Park — Botanical Gardens — Pitch Lake of La Brea — San Fernando — Asphaltum — Pitch volca- noes — Orinoco line of steamers — Accommodations on them — Macareo River — Character of the Orinoco— Barrancas — Las Tablas — El Callao — Prairie fires — The delta — Bolivar — Steamers at anchor — How the city of Bolivar is supplied with water — El Respiroso — Bust of General Guzman Blanco — The " Illustrious American Regenerator " — Gambling on shipboard — Vingt-et-un — Birds along the river .... 396 CHAPTER XLV. THE BIRTHPLACE OF BOLIVAR. Island of Margarita — Tortuga — Roadstead of La Guayra — Government work — Macuto — The Coney Island of Venezuela — Appearance of La Guayra from the ocean — Absence of vegetation — Dwellings of negroes — Streets — Equestrian statue of General Blanco — Offer of an English company — Imported British rolling-stock — -Heavy rains — Skillful en- gineering — Zigzag — Caracas — Manner in which it is laid out — Peculiar nomenclature of the streets — Orientation necessary to the stranger — Carriage-hire — The telephone in use — French and Spanish cookery — Paseo Guzman Blanco — Profuse supply of vegetables — Stone sun-dial belonging to Humboldt — Statue of Bolivar — Handsome public build- ings — Statues of Vargas and Cajegal — Government buildings — Federal Palace — Opera-House — Teatro Caracas 405 XX CONTENTS. CHAPTER XLVI. GENERAL GUZMAN BLANCO. PAGE Panteon Nacional — Attachment of Venezuelans to Bolivar — National Mu- seum — Caracas ladies — Their dress and appearance — Influence of Blanco — He pervades Caracas — George Washington not forgotten — Welcome given to General Blanco — The latter's birth and education — How he became instructed in politics — Became Vice-President and Secretary of the Treasury — Provisional President — His influence upon public instruction and the development of the country — He spends millions on public works — Revises the civil, military, and penal codes — He retires, but is recalled — He extends the boundaries of the repub- lic — Two thousand public schools attest his devotion to education — He is the friend of railways, telegraph lines, electric lighting, and telephones — His masterly management of the finances — Riches and houses of Blanco — Wealth of Venezuela — Puerto Cabello — Willemstad — A Dutch colony — Curacao — Santa Marta — Sierra Nevada — The Magdalena .415 . CHAPTER XLVII. A WEEK ON THE MAGDALENA. An impracticable custom-house — Salgar — Barranquilla — Mule hackney- coaches — Yeguas — Caracoli — Steamers on the Magdalena — Value of mosquito-netting — State-rooms — Pilot-house — Very mixed meals — A stampede for the table — Lightning-like ingurgitation — Tortuousness of the Magdalena — Mompos — Floods — The Indians like the water's edge — Character of the Magdalena — Bay of Cartagena — Calamar — Mercan- tile fair at Magangue — Banco — Wild animals in the forest — Profusion of towns and villages — The river people — Aborigines — Andes — Ocana — Canoe-traveling — Railway to Pamplona and Socorro — Angostura . 426 CHAPTER XLVni. THE ANDES AGAIN. Honda — Pendulum-boat — Mules for mountain travel — Dress of the men — Guaduas — Roadside inn — Chicha — Villetta — Agua Larga — Cone of To- lima — Facatativa — The grand plaza — Omnibuses — Plain of Bogota — Guadalupe and Monseratte — Position of Bogota — Badness of the best hotel— Prevalence of goitre — Costly mule-road — December in Bogota Conspirator cloaks — Fondness for black — Cathedral and public build- ings — Pilgrimages — The great square of the Constitution — Capitol — Mud houses and iron gratings — Diversity of house-fronts — Absence of carts and carriages — Sedan-chairs — Kerosene-lamps in the streets — One line of tramway — Chapinero — Horsemanship — Amusements. . 436 CONTENTS. XX1 CHAPTER XLIX. SANTA FE DE BOGOTA. PAGE The mint — Coins in circulation — Paper currency — Churches — La Tercera — Statue of General Mosquera — Senate and House of Representatives — Revolutions in Colombia — How people live there — School of Fine Arts — A regiment of boys — The paradise of generals — Military oddities — President's body-guard — National Museum— National Library — Astro- nomical observatory — New opera-house — Newspapers — Muzzling the press — Folletins — Tequendama Falls — Their location — How to reach them — Features of the scenery — Landscape lineaments — A cataract that jumps six hundred feet. — Tolima and Ruiz — View up the Magda- lena — Steep staircases — The straw in my saddle almost eaten by my mule — Munchausen-like, but true 446 CHAPTER L. HOMEWARD BOUND. The Colombian's extraordinary conception of business — No stamps procur- able at the mailing-place — Hotel-bills — Detention of steamers — Exag- gerated politeness — Trade with Barranquilla — Fifteen stops for freight — Cartagena — The bay — Groves of cocoanut-palms — Coolie Town — Aspinwall — Danger of fire — Iron steamer- warehouses — Arcade style of sidewalks — Multifarious shops — Gambling in all classes — Currency — Communication with the rest of the world — Chinese shop-keepers — Panama — The canal more destructive to human life than the railway — Three hundred million dollars spent — The most gigantic financial disaster of the nineteenth century — A fabulous enterprise — I conclude my travels with quick and multitudinous glimpses — A blessing on my readers . 455 Index 465 ILLUSTRATIONS. FACING PAGE H. M. the Emperor of Brazil Frontispiece Llamas, Ecuador 20 Professional Mourners 29 President Caamano 32 Chimborazo from a Height of Fourteen Thousand Feet . . .42 General Caceres 51 Panorama of Lima 55 Viaduct of Verrugas, Oroya Railroad . . . . . .59 The General Cemetery of Lima 62 A House Entrance, Lima 65 A Lima Belle 67 The Fandango of Peru 69 Silver Head from an Inca Cemetery ....... 81 Copacabana, Lake Titicaca 83 Crusoe's Lookout (with Commemorative Tablet) 106 View from the Principal Square of Santiago . . . . . 109 Puerto Bueno, Smyth's Channel 120 Fuegians at Home 124 A View in the Strait of Magellan 128 Patagonians and their Tent 141 General View of Montevideo 144 A Private Residence, Buenos Ayres 154 The Famous Rocking-Stone of Tandil 159 The Daly Falls, Iguassu River 192 The Daly Falls ; a Near View from the Brazilian Side . . . .194 View of the Entrance to the Harbor of Rio Janeiro .... 212 View from the Summit of the Corcovado 212 Statue of Dom Pedro I. 216 By Rail to the Corcovado 218 A Market-Woman 227 A Part of the Avenue of Royal Palms 231 A Profile of the Avenue of Royal Palms 233 Four Pretty Sisters 238 The Palace of San Cristoval 252 xx iy ILLUSTRATIONS. FACING PAGH The Empress of Brazil . . . . 255 The Brazilian Ironclad Riachuelo 257 Pines, Minas-Geraes, Brazil 267 Wooden Images in a Church at Congonhas . . . . . . . 276 A Wealthy Negress 297 General View of Bahia 305 A View from the Public Gardens .311 The King of Rapids 328 The Reef and Harbor of Pernambuco 335 A Chinese Immigrant, Georgetown 373 Colonial Produce, British Guiana 377 A Paramaribo Creole ... . 386 A Cayenne Creole 390 A Big Tree in a Public Square, Port-of -Spain . • . . . . 396 A Hindoo Coolie, Port-of-Spain ........ 400 Scene on the Railway from La Guayra to Caracas .... 409 General Guzman Blanco ......... 418 Magdalena River Steamboats 427 Colombian Horsemen 437 A Business Street of Bogota 444 MAPS AND PLANS. Map of South America, with Routes of the Author . . . .1 Situation of the Argentine Republic in South America . . . 151 Chart of the Bay of Rio Janeiro 214 The Map of Brazil and the Chart of the Bay of Rio Janeiro . . 248 Chart of a Section of the Lower Amazon 352 Plan of the Railway fro.n La Guayra to Caracas 407 AROUND AND ABOUT SOUTH AMERICA. CHAPTER I. OUTWAKD BOUND. On June 10, 1885, the well-appointed and ably com- manded Pacific Mail steamship Acapulco sailed from New York, numbering the present writer among her passengers. Most of us were bound for the Isthmus of Panama, the steamer conducting us to the well-known commercial port of Aspinwall. The distance is two thousand miles. We trav- ersed it in nine days — rather slow travel when the Atlantic is skimmed in six ; but doubtless the Pacific Mail Steamship Company finds it more profitable to lodge and board its pas- sengers for a long period than to waste the extra coal that would be required for a short one. Our voyage was no ex- ception to those usually experienced in the tropics, where a good steamer, with good company, makes dullness a dream. In the days there is the exhilaration of brightness and breeze ; in the nights, the balm of coolness and repose. If the moon be large and brilliant, her fantastic glory gives an invitation to romance. This might easily have been our case, though it was not, and through the entire route scarcely a dozen ves- sels appeared, to relieve for a moment the Acapulco's loneli- ness. The first land we beheld was that part of the New World which Columbus, thirty-five days from Spain, in his ninety- ton pinnace, named San Salvador. To geographers it is now more prosaically known as Watling Island. It is one of the Lrmgitudi- 3"Vk-s longitude E.-tst 7' J from W.isbiotft' cJ&lBBEAN >° SEA R T H ATLANTIC OCEAN .. olfHuifin J^fcif" 5fBT° Seguro "T \% jfc ** iS^SQy J \ 2 ABOUND AND ABOUT SOUTH AMEBIC A. most fertile of the Bahamas, producing sub-tropical fruits, grain, and roots in lavish abundance. It was a treat to gaze, even from a distance, upon an island, the discovery of which, nearly four centuries ago, has proved the greatest blessing of the kind the world has known. Passing the eastern extrem- ity of Cuba, we were soon greeted by the flaming stars of the Southern Cross, the most splendid constellation of the south- ern heavens. Numerous flying-fish and tiny nautili in their boat-like shells betoken an entrance into another and stranger zone. A few uninteresting islands, right and left, did not at the moment enhance this strangeness, as we performed the practical duty of dropping our mail-bags into whale-boats, which put off to us from solitary lighthouses. But soon the purple mountains of Hayti loomed grandly from the east, and then, crossing the Caribbean, we saw no more land until the famed Isthmus of Panama faintly looked at us from the vanishing-point which unites water and sky. We entered Aspinwall Harbor at six in the morning. A few men-of-war, a dozen passenger-steamers, and half a dozen ships, rode lazily at anchor. Behind them were the ruins of the town, which had been recently burned by the Colombian rebels, and in the distance stood the thickly wooded hills. The only wharf untouched by the fire was that owned by our steamer's company. We landed and took a walk. Our sea- legs had begun to envy the art of the pedestrian. The town is situated upon the western side of Manzanilla Island, which itself lies at the northeastern corner of Limon Bay. This island is perhaps three miles long and two broad, and has been artificially joined with the mainland by a narrow neck of soil. The northern terminus of the Panama Canal is at the head of Limon Bay. Upon a point of land extending into this bay, about half a mile from Aspinwall, is the French town of Christophe Colomb, which has sprung up since the inception of the canal. It is a much more healthy location than that of Aspinwall, which is scarcely a foot above the sea-level, and is a neat little settlement of two-story houses, with macadamized and well-drained streets. Here stands a OUTWARD BOUND. 3 colossal bronze statue of " Columbus and the Indian." This and a plain granite shaft to the memory of the three founders of Aspinwall — William H. Aspinwall, Henry Chauncey, and John L. Stephens — at the opposite end of the island, near the sea, are about the only artistic embellishments of a town which, first and last, is only a side station on one of the great highways of commerce. It is almost useless to add that Colomb is peopled entirely by canal employes. Vast stores of canal-digging implements and machinery are here collected, some under cover, but the greater part exposed. The town had apparently been built upon level, marshy ground, with its houses reared upon brick and wooden piles. Thousands of Jamaica negroes were busily engaged in erect- ing all sorts of temporary shanties. The depot having been burned, the trains of the Panama Railroad departed from a random point in the street. The yellow fever was raging, and three corpses, borne on canvas litters, passed me in my walk and prepared me for the sight of a score of cheap wooden coffins lying in a row in an old freight-house. The streets were filthy and everywhere flooded with water, the heat was intolerable, and I only wondered that any human beings could live, to say nothing of their keeping well, under such adverse conditions. In an old church about thirty of the late rebels were con- fined as prisoners of war, and guarded by as sorry a looking lot of native soldiery as I ever saw in any land. Two of the prisoners, found guilty of firing Aspinwall, had been hanged, but it was considered doubtful whether any severe punish- ment would be meted out to the others. The continued revolts and miniature revolutions of the disaffected South American states would soon become less frequent if stern and speedy retribution — such as death by hanging — should be administered to the leaders. But the authorities, instead, treat their distinguished prisoners to champagne, and free them on parole. As these malcontents are simply profes- sional freebooters, if a rebellion is suppressed in one state or in one part of a state, they at once set forth for any place, 4 AROUND AND ABOUT SOUTH AMERICA. neighboring or distant, where another rebellion may happen to be in progress. The governments are often bad, but these riotous outbreaks seldom embrace many of the intelligent, sober-minded citizens. The rebellions never result in any good. Their ringleaders are not patriots, but men intent only upon personal power and aggrandizement by any means, however foul. The best remedy for these evils would be strong central governments, with sufficient power and inclina- tion to preserve the peace and compel the observance of law and order. But, unfortunately, the existing governments are generally too weak or too vacillating to take such measures. The railway to Panama is forty-seven miles in length, and tickets have to be purchased on board the trains. Twenty-five dollars in gold was charged for a through pas- senger — an extortionate monopoly of fifty-three cents per mile, which made it the most expensive railway in the world. Four passenger trains run each way daily, the express requir- ing three hours to make the trip. Personal baggage is very dear, and must be paid for at the rate of thirteen cents per pound. Of the thirty stations on the railway, the express stops at fewer than half, and many of these seem to be only negro hamlets of palm-thatched huts. The cars, of which there are two classes, those of even the first not equaling the appointments of an ordinary American car, are made in Philadelphia, and the locomotives in Paterson. The engineers and conductors are whites ; and generally Ameri- cans ; the firemen and brakemen are Colombians or negroes. Our train was filled with a most cosmopolite crowd, and smoking was universal, even in the first-class cars. The line of the railway is very sinuous. For about one third of the distance the country is undulating and swampy, while the remainder is diversified by hillocks and small rivers. For the purposes of the railroad, a width of about fifty feet is kept cleared through the very dense tropical jungle which covers the isthmus. The predominant trees are cocoa-palms, bananas, bread-fruits, papayas, and bamboos. The famous interoceanic canal of M. de Lesseps follows OUTWARD BOUND. 5 generally the line of the railway, which it twice crosses. Tt was to have run in a general northwest and southeast direc- tion, and be forty-five miles in length, or two miles less than the railway. It was expected to be twenty-eight feet in depth and one hundred feet wide at its bottom. There were to be five stations on the canal, where ships might pass each other, and five other intermediate stations. The Isthmus of Panama extends in a general east and west direction, and is extremely hilly, covered with virgin forest, and full of large and small rivers. As the center of the isthmus is in about 9° of north latitude, in the " rainy season " the deluge is ter- rific, and all these rivers and streams rise suddenly and flow furiously, with disastrous and readily conceivable effects. The dividing ridge of the isthmus is about fifteen miles from the Pacific. From this point, in the same course as that in which the canal is being built, the Chagres River runs to the At- lantic and the Rio Grande to the Pacific. To restrain the waters of the Chagres, which has been known to rise forty feet in the rainy season, and which the canal has to cross about a dozen times, twenty huge and massive dams will have to be constructed. The Rio Grande, however, is crossed but once, and that near its mouth. In the dividing ridge of the isthmus a great regulative reservoir is being formed by damming the Chagres at that point, a lake being enlarged and otherwise fitted for that purpose. Upon the hills here- about are very extensive French settlements, the little cot- tages with wide, projecting roofs being erected upon brick or stone pillars six feet in height, and placed in situations most exposed to the sun and air. Some distance from the Pacific terminus it was intended to excavate a large interior port like that at Aspinwall, which opens directly into the Bay of Limon. Continuing from that point, the canal was to enter the Pacific, not at Panama, but three miles to the southwest, and a channel would have to be excavated nearly to a distance of three miles — in fact, almost to the islands south of Panama, where the Pacific Mail steamers have a coaling and repairing station. Of course, the entire line has 6 AROUND AND ABOUT SOUTH AMERICA. been carefully marked out and cleared of jungle, but no part of it is wholly completed. Work has not been continuous from either end, but has been expended at intervals in sec- tions. Here you see trenches dug and dirt trains running upon temporary tracks ; there possibly a huge digger eating quietly into a hill-side. I saw one mammoth excavator from Springfield, Mass., belonging to the American Contracting and Dredging Company, at work digging through a rocky hill with as much ease apparently as if it were simply raising oozy mud from the bottom of New York Harbor. The di- mensions of this great dredge were : Length, one hundred and twenty feet; breadth, sixty-five feet; and height of tower, seventy-five feet. Here were vast heaps of tools and machinery piled around warehouses of material ; there rows of huge dormitories for laborers. The latter were mostly negroes from Jamaica and other West India islands and from the cities of the Spanish Main. At the time of my visit fifteen thousand of them were said to be at work, in addition to more than two thousand foreigners, mostly French, serv- ing as surveyors, engineers, machinists, superintendents, and clerks. All were well paid and promptly. The ordinary laborers got one dollar and twenty cents a day, operating engineers from ninety to one hundred and twenty dollars a month. Belgium furnished the greater part of the machinery, and Belgium and Germany most of the mechanical engineers. At scarcely any point of the line will you find anything resembling what you imagine to be a canal, but instead the whole country seems turned upside down; everything ap- pears crude, rough, and unfinished. The reader will please understand that I am giving the observations and impressions of my first visit in 1885. That the canal would some day be completed, I thought improbable ; but, if it should be, it seemed wholly impossible that at such an enormous outlay it could prove a financial success. But when was it likely to be finished ? Who knew ? About as many men were engaged upon it as could be conveniently handled and fed. The cli- mate, of course, was very much against the European employes, OUTWARD BOUND. 7 thousands of whom had died since the work began. That very sanguine and vivacious veteran, M. de Lesseps, first ap- pointed the year 1888 as the period of the opening of "la grand canal du Panama." But this, it should be remembered, was when he was on his travels in search of subscriptions. He has since postponed the occasion to 1890. The French engineer-in-chief told a friend of mine that he estimated that about one thirty-second part of the whole work was done at the time of my first visit in 1885. Active labor was begun in 1881 ; so at this rate of progress it would require one hun- dred and twenty-eight years to complete the canal! There seemed a strong probability that before many years the money would run short and the work droop and languish, until either the sea-level project was exchanged for one with locks, or else possibly the governments of several rich and powerful nations would unite in the completion of the most gigantic and daring design of man upon this globe. A later review of the work will be found in my last chapter. On alighting from the train at Panama, crazy little hacks carry you over ill-paved, and, at the rainy season, very muddy roads, beyond the wretchedly dirty and bad-smelling out- skirts of the city. Thence you pass through narrow and crooked ways, between rows of two-story and three-story houses, whose projecting balconies sometimes nearly touch each other across the street, and at last you enter the cathe- dral plaza. On one side of this is the office of the " Com- pagnie Universelle du Canal Interoceanique," on another the bishop's palace, on still another the cathedral, and on the fourth the Grand Central Hotel. This is the best hotel in Panama, a great four-story building, which has on the ground floor a large American bar-room and barber-shop and a spa- cious dining-room paved with marble. Up-stairs is a com- modious public parlor with a waxed floor and cane furniture. Bedrooms either have exterior openings upon the streets or interior ones upon a court-yard. The huge caravansary is lighted with gas, and the Saratoga price of five dollars a day is charged for very inferior lodging and worse board. The 8 AROUND AND ABOUT SOUTH AMERICA. city, of very old Spanish origin, is built upon comparatively level ground, on a narrow peninsula extending out into the Pacific Ocean, or rather the Bay of Panama. At the extreme eastern point of this peninsula are still standing the walls of the old citadel. They are built of brick and faced with cut stone. They are thirty or forty feet in height and twenty- five in thickness, and notwithstanding their great age still re- main in good condition. Their top, provided with masonry seats, forms a needed promenade and cool lounging-place of an evening. The slowly combing waves of the Pacific dash in huge rollers against the foot of the walls, and you have a fine view, not only seaward, but toward the islands where anchor the coasting steamers, as well as toward the wooded and \erj irregular hills of the isthmus. But the city of Panama itself I found intolerably hot, damp, and dirty, with little of special interest for the traveler, unless he were an archaeologist or architect. In the latter case he would like to study the cathedral, in the former the old fort. The cathedral is an ancient edifice, with two towers, the cupolas of which have an edging of oyster-shells by way of ornament. Upon the facade are thirteen full-length statues of alleged saints. The interior of the cathedral is extremely plain, both walls and altars, and is enriched with no fine paintings or carvings. The Isthmus of Panama is credited with a population of about 200,000 ; while Panama city contains some 20,000, mostly cosmopolites like those found in Aspinwall. The English and French languages are everywhere spoken, and the best stores, restaurants, and bar-rooms are managed in either the French or the American fashion. There is a very good daily newspaper, called the " Star and Herald," which consists of eight pages, a third of it being printed in English, a third in French, and a third in Spanish. Moreover, these three sections are adapted to the interests of the separate classes of readers represented by the respective languages, in that they do not contain altogether the same matter, except, of course, the important cable and telegraphic dispatches. The paper sells for ten cents, silver. CHAPTER II. ON TO GUAYAQUIL. Fkom Panama I took one of the (British) Pacific Steam Navigation Company's vessels for the chief seaport of Ecua- dor. She was the Ilo, a steamer of about fifteen hundred tons burden, upon whose upper deck, running flush from stem to stern were a double row of commodious state-rooms and a large and finely-upholstered dining-saloon, the whole surrounded with ample room to promenade. The hatch- ways, with steam winches for loading and unloading cargo, were placed nearly at the sides of the steamer instead of along the center, as is usual. This novel arrangement had several advantages for the passengers. Above the roof of the dining-saloon and state-rooms an awning was spread, and from this elevated position a good breeze and an extended view were readily obtainable. As a slight testimony to the prevailing lawlessness and insecurity of life in the South American states, our steamer carried a stand of muskets and cutlasses in the pilot-house, precisely as was formerly the cus- tom with vessels exposed to predatory visits of Malay pirates in the East India and China Sea navigation. There were on board about thirty passengers, bound for various towns along the coast, but mostly for Guayaquil and Callao. The first- class fare from Panama to Guayaquil, a passage of but little more than three days, was one hundred and two dollars, American gold ! This was the most expensive voyage that I remember ever to have made in any part of the world. It was a fit companion to the Panama Railroad extortion just ex- perienced. But when did a monopoly have a conscience ? 10 AROUND AND ABOUT 80UTE AMERICA. As I was rapidly nearing the lands of Pizarro and Alma- gro, I thought it well to begin at once the practice of the pure Castilian which I flattered myself I had recently ac- quired with considerable zeal and effort in New York. My first victims were unsuspecting sons of Peru and Chili, who waited upon table, and whose profiles I was sure I had seen on some terra-cotta pitchers in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. They listened to me anxiously but kindly, frequently repeating my questions with an accent different from mine. This I attributed to the fact that they had not before had the good fortune to hear their dulcet tongue spoken with such purity as by the natives of Madrid, Manila, Havana, or New York. I was not hurt — I only pitied the unsophisticated de- scendants of the Incas. But when occasionally I received an answer in curt English to my precise and melodious Spanish, I marveled greatly that they did not understand better their own language, and should prefer to address me in one hardly known to themselves and now so rapidly fading from my memory. I frankly admit that I wondered, but I was not utterly crushed — as the reader might with great show of rea- son suspect — for the above linguistic experience is not unfa- miliar to the circumnavigator. On the 23d of June we crossed the equator. Eight hun- dred miles to the westward of the mainland of Ecuador, and under the line of the equator, lie the Galapagos Islands, an archipelago of a dozen mountainous and almost barren islands of volcanic origin, which, though mostly uninhabited, belong politically to the Republic of Ecuador. A very interesting feature in this lonely group is that furnished by the singu- larity of their indigenous animals. Species abound of reptiles and birds quite unknown to every other part of the world. Among them are twenty-four species of land birds, a re- markable kind of turtle, a gigantic tortoise, two extraordi- nary species of lizards, and several peculiar snakes. The nearest allied forms to these isolated species are found upon the distant mainland. But still more remarkable than the fact of these species being unknown to every part of the ON TO GUAYAQUIL. 11 world, is the circumstance that some of them are restricted to certain islands of the group, with species allied but quite distinct on another island. The clew to the explanation of these peculiar phenomena of geographical distribution will doubtless be found in the fact that the islands are separated from each other by deep channels, with strong currents, and, being volcanic, and having emerged from the sea, must have been separately elevated by subterranean forces and can never, at any time, have been closely connected with the ad- joining continent, or with each other. They were probably peopled by their present stock of animals at so very remote a period as to have allowed time for much variation in the characters of the species. Intermigration has been pre- vented by the above-mentioned reasons, and so an isolated development of a most interesting and instructive character has been brought about by natural means and great lapse of time. A penal colony of Ecuadorians was once planted on one of the larger islands of the group. But the convicts re- volted, killed the governor, and escaped, leaving behind pigs, cattle, donkeys, and horses. No one was suspected to have lived there since that time. But a party from the Albatross Expedition were rather surprised, when they visited the island, to come upon another Alexander Selkirk, a man near- ly naked, carrying a pig on his back. He was quite as sur- prised as they, and was at first in great fear ; but finally they got him to talk. His hair and beard had grown to great length, and he had lost all notion of time. He said that some years previous he had come from Chatham Island, an- other of the group, with a party in search of a certain valu- able moss ; that he had deserted his companions, who had gone off without him, and that since that time he had been alone. He had lived on fruits and herbs ; had captured wild cattle by setting traps for them ; killed them with a spear made by tying a pocket-knife to a stick, and from their hides made a hut. He was glad to see men again, and asked to be taken back to Chatham, which, of course, was granted. We soon entered the Gulf of Guayaquil, and, turning 12 AROUND AND ABOUT SOUTH AMERICA. about, headed toward the north. The country in sight was level in the foreground, with pretty, wooded hills stretching away in the distance. At our fore was now hoisted the Ecuadorian flag — three broad, longitudinal stripes, yellow, blue, and red, typifying, it was understood, that the blue ocean now separated bloodthirsty Spaniards from the yellow gold of Ecuador. We pass two national men-of-war, merely small trading-steamers of about five hundred tons burden each, without armor-plating, and mounting only a few small guns. Then came some ships, but no merchant-steamers. A little farther on we anchor near the shore and abreast of the market- place of Guayaquil. All that appears of the low-lying, level city from the gulf is a long row of houses of yellow and white bamboo and stucco, and of varying altitudes, with tiled roofs and piazzas, large windows fitted with green Venetian blinds and bamboo or canvas awnings. The buildings are generally arranged as stores below and dwelling-rooms above. The side- walk passes through a corridor of the buildings, as is usual in Ecuadorian towns. A few twin church-towers, of odd, Ori- ental styles, rise in different directions. On a hill east of the city there seems to be a small fort. Along the bank runs a tramway with double-decked cars drawn by mules. Donkey- carts and loaded pack-mules pass. A brass band is heard, and I see a slow procession headed by a priest, and a great wood and tinsel figure of the Virgin Mary borne upon the shoulders of six men. The object of this religious parade is to take up a collection to help build a church. While ob- serving that subscriptions do not seem to flow in any more rapidly than they do at home under the incitement of stained glass, flowers, and an organ voluntary, my attention is sud- denly drawn to a huge alligator, fully fifteen feet in length, swimming with horrible, gaping jaws down the swiftly run- ning tide of the gulf. The captain of the port and other Ecuadorian officials come off to our steamer, all with great display of gay bunting and uniforms, and no deficiency of self-appreciation. Native fruit-sellers, with huge boat- loads of bananas and pineapples, ON TO GUAYAQUIL. 13 also approach and beg eagerly for patronage. Going on shore I am passed through the custom-house with a hurried examination of my baggage, and soon find a comfortable room in the " Hotel de Europa." Guayaquil is not only the commercial seaport of Quito, the capital, but of all Ecuador, and in walking through the streets — many of them paved and lighted with gas — I am struck by the very great variety and general good quality of the merchandise exposed for sale. The number of drinking-shops, where fiery liquors are sold, is, however, disproportionately large. On most of the leading thoroughfares are mule tram-cars. From behind the curtains of many of the deep, latticed balconies, which hang midway over the streets, I often caught glimpses of flashing black eyes, velvety cheeks of pearly hue, raven tresses, and cherry-ripe lips. This was all that was vouchsafed me, for the senoritas of Ecuador, as of Old Spain, are extremely coy. One of the churches has such a very Chinese-looking pair of pyramidal towers, that I half expected to find some natives of distant Cathay lounging about its carved wooden portals. I called at a neighboring bamboo convent and was cordially received by some of the old padres. Their cells were bare of furniture, as usual, though the walls were covered with re- ligious pictures and texts. A great number of empty brandy- bottles were hidden behind a door, and some of the red-faced and very corpulent old monks showed only too plainly where the contents had recently gone. The old route to Quito was first by steamboat, seventy miles up the Guayas River, in one day, to a town called Bodegas, and then one hundred and sixty-five miles in seven or eight days, on mule-back, over the flank of Chimborazo and the lofty table-lands of the valley, to the capital. But a new route, which I proposed to follow, permitted two other varie- ties of travel — namely, railroad and diligence. This led al- most directly eastward, over the Andes, until we reached the great valley of Quito, when we proceeded nearly due north to our goal. I was fortunate enough to have as companions on this journey Mr. Kelly, the contractor, and Mr. Mali- 14 AROUND AND ABOUT SOUTH AMERICA. nowski, the engineer, of the new railway. Mr. Kelly has already had considerable experience in railway construction in Central America, while Mr. Malinowski is one of the best- known men in his profession in South America, having been engaged with Mr. Meiggs in the building of the famous Oroya Railroad from Lima eastward over the Cordillera. He had been employed at a large salary to lay out the new Ecuadorian line toward the great central highway of the country and possibly to Quito itself. Both of these gentle- men were fine linguists, thoroughly conversant with the cus- toms of the natives and with the best methods of traveling, and I was greatly indebted to them for many hints on what proved to be a hard and exhausting trip. My preparations for mountain-travel were soon complete. I procured a saddle, with metal stirrups, stout crupper and breeching, bridle, lariat, a pair of spurs with rowels fully two inches in diameter, rubber and woolen ponchos or cloaks, rubber cover for a huge felt hat, canvas leggings, leather gloves, and stout shoes. A revolver was worn more for intimidation than be- cause the need to use it was probable. A large gunny-bag contained the entire mule outfit. Then my clothes were snugly packed in two mule-trunks — stout, tin-covered boxes, about twenty-four inches long, fifteen wide, and fifteen deep ; these were not to be opened until I reached Quito. A small leather bag contained material for use upon the road. The native inns are without exception ill-furnished and filthy, and their food and cooking are not at all adapted to foreign palates. So it would be well for the traveler, who wishes some degree of comfort, to take a supply of canned food and wines, together with knives, forks, and plates. Nor would a mattress and pillow come at all amiss. We left Guayaquil on the evening of Friday, the 26th, in a diminutive high-pressure steamboat, bound eastward to a little town called Yaguachi, on a small river of the same name, which flows into the Guayas, and where the railway begins. I had not been on board an hour before a severe headache, from which I had suffered all the afternoon, sud- ON TO GUAYAQUIL. 15 denly developed into a sharp attack of the Guayaquil fever — a sort of bilious fever, accompanied with terrific pains in the crown and back of the head, in the small of the back, and in the thighs. Severe vomiting ensued. My pulse mounted with fearful rapidity, and some of the Ecuadorian passengers were at first of the opinion that I was afflicted with the dreaded yellow fever. In fact, a bad bilious fever resembles, in the beginning, a mild attack of Yellow Jack. During the night I was delirious, but in the morning the fever had greatly abated, though the pain in the head con- tinued, and I was too weak to stand. I took at once a strong purgative and afterward powerful doses of quinine. "When the first sharp attack came on, the Ecuadorians gave me a great quantity of the strong native brandy, called aguardi- ente, made from sugar-cane. This stopped the pain in the back but rather increased that in the head. However, it was a relief to have such severe pain in one place instead of two. The Guayas River was muddy, and ran with a swift cur- rent, which bore along many small floating islands of reeds and flowers of varied species, which perhaps resembled the chinampas of Montezuma's Mexico. The banks seemed al- most uninhabited ; they were low, and covered with a dense growth of bananas, plantains, and palms. In the distance were many gracefully outlined and jungle-clad hills. We had a remarkably fine view by moonlight of the great Chim- borazo, from its very summit down to the snow limit. The appearance of this wonderful mountain has been so often de- scribed that I will merely say that its solitariness and mass- iveness are the qualities which most impress one. It is nearly covered in a winding-sheet of purest snow and ice, though the tempests seem to have bared great streaks on its rugged sides. When upon the plateau of Quito, we are nearly two miles high, which greatly dwarfs Chimborazo, Cotopaxi, and the neighboring Andean giants, so that our unusually clear view from the level of the sea showed the celebrated mount- ain to the best advantage. We reached Taguachi about midnight, and found a good supper ready for us in the sta- 16 AROUND AND ABOUT SOUTH AMERICA. tion-house of the Southern Railway of Ecuador, and a little later comfortable sleeping-rooms in the second story of the same building. We had advanced about fifty miles. The next morning at daybreak we entered the cars of the first and only railway yet built in the Republic of Ecuador. This railway was then about fifty miles in length, and has since been extended twenty miles more. It is a narrow- gauge line, with steel rails, and very diminutive cars and locomotives, which were built in Pennsylvania. As upon the Isthmus of Panama, the engineers are foreigners, the firemen and brakemen natives. But one trip a day is made, the train in which we went not returning until the following day. The rate of speed is about ten miles an hour, though even this is occasionally somewhat reduced by accidents to the rolling-gear, the steam becoming low, or some other avoidable mishap. There are no cuttings or fillings of any extent on the whole line, and the grade is easy except for a short distance near the mountains at the eastern extremity of the line. You cross about fifty small streams on wooden bridges. The road traverses a magnificent tropical jungle throughout its entire extent. The vegetation largely repre- sents the bread-fruit, banana, India-rubber, papaya, cacao, coffee, pineapple, orange, lemon, mango and cocoa-palm. The forest is so dense that not only can you not make a way into it, but you can not even look into it. Creepers and climbers extend in every direction, hang from every limb, and cover every trunk. They cross each other, they run parallel like telegraph wires, they interlace and braid the smaller shrubbery, until it seems like a solid mass of glossy verdure. Yery many trees are covered with orchids in vari- ous gay colors, a splendid blood-red predominating. At the terminus of the railway we found our saddle-mules and don- keys for the baggage waiting in the care of muleteers. Here ensued a scene of great confusion and a long delay. As with all tropic children, an immense amount of discussion about the veriest trifles had to be indulged in, and very many wrangles had to be calmed and adjusted. Then we break- ON TO GUAYAQUIL. 17 fasted in a neighboring house — a simple bamboo structure raised upon wooden piles and having a thick, straw-thatched roof. The breakfast consisted of the popular native dish, potato-soup — not bad, but still not very nutritious ; broiled chicken, fresh killed and therefore tough ; eggs fried in cocoanut-oil ; and a most delicious large pineapple. Then we were off through the virgin forests, up hill and down dale, fording raging mountain torrents, crossing frail bamboo bridges, scrambling along precipices, toiling in and out of gluey bogs, and brushing through tangled thickets. A great part of the road was simply a series of holes, a foot or so in depth, worn and hollowed by rain and much travel, and in and out of which our mules had to step with most laborious slowness. We were mounted, however, upon good stout animals that possessed all the surety and safety of step pecul- iar to their race. They are extremely gentle creatures, rare- ly having even the expected attribute of obstinacy. Their memory is exceedingly imperfect, and requires to be con- tinually jogged with the spurs. The natives, when riding, play a constant tattoo upon the flanks of their mules, in order to obtain uniform and satisfactory progress, though they al- ways allow the animals to select the part of the road which they prefer. A good mule in Ecuador is more expensive than a good horse. Donkeys are employed in the transport of baggage, and good donkeys will carry as much as a mule can, or two hundred and fifty pounds. As they wear no head-gear, they are not led, but are driven in troops by mule- teers. About a dozen of them were required to carry all our baggage. We rode slowly forward, with magnificent forest and mountain views on every hand, until at dusk we reached the farm-house of a friend of Mr. Kelly's, where we stopped for the night. Round about the country was plant- ed with coffee, sugar-cane, and orange and lemon trees. A primitive press for extracting the juice of the sugar-cane, and a huge copper caldron for boiling the liquid, were located near the house. The master was absent on business in Guay- aquil, but his daughter, a beautiful girl of eighteen, made us 2 18 AROUND AND ABOUT SOUTH AMEBIC A. most welcome and did the honors with a native grace that elicited the warmest praise from even such old campaigners as my critical companions. In the absence of her father the young lady was administering the entire estate, and it was extremely interesting to watch her direct half a dozen men in their diverse duties in as many minutes. She treated us to some very fair food, though it is generally necessary for foreigners to acquire a liking for the products of an Ecua- dorian kitchen. Into nearly everything are put cheese, gar- lic, and oil or fat, and of course the frying-pan is in frequent request. They have an odd practice of serving two kinds of soup at a meal, the second coming near the conclusion, and being followed perhaps by a sweet — some sort of cake or jelly. They keep strong coffee-extract already prepared in a bottle, and serve it at your discretion with hot water or boiled milk. A proper degree of cleanliness is lacking, both at table and in bedrooms, but it is quite the same in all Spanish countries — in the Philippine and West India Islands, and even in European Spain herself. CHAPTER III. OVER THE COEDILLEEA. We went on early in the morning and experienced a day of terrible roads and wild torrents, but with most magnificent scenic treats. The views of umbrageous valleys and huge hills more than repaid me for the rough travel. All nature was on a tremendous scale ; even the hillocks were several thousand feet in height. At night we reached a small In- dian village far up among the hills, and found quarters in a wretched wayside inn. This building was of sun-dried mud, with a straw-thatch atop. We had but two very small rooms, and both were full of spiders, fleas, and other insect pests. We improvised a dining-table out of an empty pro- vision-box, and put down our beds in the inner room, vir- tually a cellar with a mud floor. On awakening in the morn- ing, I spoke of a rat which had playfully coursed about my head during the night ; but one of my companions said it must have been a mouse, for the room was really too small to admit a rat. I sighed deeply, and turned over for another nap. On our arrival in the village, a market was in progress in the plaza or great square. The Indians had for sale barley, maize, meat, and oranges. The mestizoes, or half-castes, that I had seen since leaving Guayaquil reminded me strongly of the Siamese in facial appearance and, to some extent, in their good-natured but apathetic manner. Most of the people in Ecuador, and the rest of South America as well, belong to the mixed races. They are, for the most part, inoffensive and uncivilized. To be precise, there are actually seven racial varieties in South America : 1. Foreigners, among whom are 20 AROUND AND ABOUT SOUTH AMERICA. Spaniards and Portuguese. 2. Creoles, descendants of Eu- ropeans and North Americans settled in the country. 3. Mestizoes, offspring of Europeans and North Americans and Indians. 4. Mulattoes, offspring of Europeans and North Americans and negroes. 5. Zamboes, offspring of Indians and negroes. 6. Indians. 7. Negroes. The whites, who are, of course, the ruling class, are principally the descend- ants of the early Spanish settlers in all the countries save Brazil, where the settlers were Portuguese. The Indian population of Quito and its neighborhood are descendants of the aboriginal tribes. They are still more apathetic than the mestizoes. They are also shorter and stouter, with broad faces and great shocks of strong black hair. Their language is the Quichua, one of the most polished and widely diffused of all native American tongues, formerly spoken everywhere in the empire of the Incas. They wear coarse cotton shirts and trousers, and the always graceful and picturesque poncho. The poncho, it is hardly necessary nowadays to describe, is simply an oblong piece of gay-colored woolen stuff with a small slit in the center, through which the head is thrust. On their feet they wear straw sandals, or more generally go barefoot. The women, who are no better-looking than the men, wear a long skirt of a coarse, dun-colored fabric. They do a great part of the heavy loading and unloading of mer- chandise, which rather unsexes them and makes them pre- maturely old. As we entered the market, the priest and a number of young men were engaged in playing a game astonishingly like our popular lawn-tennis. The priest we found not only to be sadly in need of a bath and clean clothes, but of temperance principles as well, for he was exceedingly drunk. He assumed so important an air that we could scarce repress our smiles in his very face. Near here I first saw the gentle and useful llama, the peculiar beast that figures upon the escutcheon of Peru, and the only native domesti- cated animal in South America. They move with a most graceful, swan-like motion, and resemble somewhat the camel, though inferior to it in size, strength, and intelligence. They OVER TEE CORDILLERA. 21 will carry loads of about one hundred pounds fifteen miles a day. Their only weapon is their saliva, which is very acrid, and which they eject in a similar fashion to that employed in his self-defense by our very pretty but also very unsavory skunk. The next day was a hard one of mountain scramble, con- tinually ascending until we left the forests behind, and found instead vast fields of coarse grass and stunted shrubs. The cold was intense at night, which we were compelled to pass in a mud-hut hardly fit for cattle, and one of my companions suffered from the rarefaction of the air. The hard ground was our floor, and piles of hay laid on boughs our luxurious couches. We awoke quite stiff from the cold. As we jour- neyed on, the hills were swept by furious winds. The In- dians, clad in goat-skin trousers, had adopted the profession of shepherds, and large flocks of sheep and goats dotted the hills, while cattle, large and sleek, lent a homelike aspect to the landscape. After traversing some very dreary plains, at noon we reached the old ruined city of Latacunga, and rat- tled through its desolate streets to the inn. Latacunga has suffered so much from earthquakes that it is even now half in ruins. The houses are built of pumice, and are but one story in height. Leaving this town, we entered upon a very fine carriage-road, the work of a former Ecuadorian President, G. Garcia Moreno. This road, which runs to the capital, Quito, cost two million dollars. It is about thirty feet in width, with a deep ditch on each side. It was not necessary to macadamize it, for the clay of the country packs almost as solidly as rock. . In certain steep inclines, however, it is paved with cobble-stones, as are the bridges — handsome arches of stone and brick most substantially built — and also the twenty miles of it nearest the capital. At night we reached a place called Chuquipoyo, on the southeastern flank of Chim- borazo, which from the inn piazza seemed startlingly near, as well as almost insignificantly small and easy of ascent. It should be noticed that Chuquipoyo is nearly thirteen thou- sand feet above sea-level, and that the atmosphere at this 22 ABOUND AND ABOUT SOUTH AMERICA. altitude is remarkably clear. I was afterward similarly de- ceived, and to my cost, in ascending Popocatepetl. From where I spent the night, also at an altitude of about thirteen thousand feet, it seemed as if one might get to the summit easily in a couple of hours ; but it was an eight hours' severe climb. At Chuquipoyo we all suffered greatly from the peculiarly penetrating quality of the cold atmosphere. We were almost immediately on the equator, and yet we shiv- ered with two heavy blankets beneath and five over us. In the morning we went northward, across a vast treeless desert, swept by furious winds and gusts of fine sand, past a deserted village called Mocha, and on again until, early in the after- noon, we reached Ambato, the interior town next in impor- tance to Quito, or the third town of the republic. The houses are built of sun-dried brick, whitewashed, and their roofs are covered with red tiles. We straggled up a long street, narrow but nicely paved, and with a central gutter, to the chief inn, but it had no better accommodation and was no cleaner than the others. Here we found the diligence which was to take us to Quito. It was an English-made coach, holding eight inside and six outside passengers, drawn by six mules, and driven by a coachman assisted by two pos- tilions. As we had engaged nearly all the seats, we decided to detain the coach until the following morning, to await the arrival of our baggage, coming on the slow donkeys, and also to obtain a night's rest, which we all sadly needed. In the evening the native governor called upon us and presented us with a bottle of champagne. We made an early start, our baggage being heaped on top of the coach, one of the postilions blowing a bugle, and the coachman driving furiously along the narrow streets of the town. Reaching the open country, it was interesting to notice the native method of driving the mules. Tor the wheelers a short whip is employed, for the next pair a long- handled one, while the leaders are peppered by one of the postilions, with unerring aim, with pebbles stored in the coachman's box for that express purpose. All these instiga- OYER TEE CORDILLERA. 23 tors, together with shouts, exhortations, anathemas, shrill whistling, and blowing of the bugle, are kept up unremittingly from the beginning to the end of each stage, whether it is ten or twenty miles in length. Should the mules flag from a gal- lop, or a swift and steady trot, or even drop to a walk, as they are naturally constrained to do at the foot of very steep hills, the postilions dismount and running, one on either side, deal such fearful blows with their coarse whip-lashes of bull's hide that I almost feared the poor little brutes would be bisected. They were certain to arrive at the end of the stage horribly chafed, bleeding, and utterly exhausted. The diligence com- pany does not provide suitable mules for the service, although it is well able to do so, since but one trip a week is made, and the charge is six dollars for an inside and four for an outside seat. A first-class passenger is allowed only twenty pounds of bag- gage free, and for extra baggage must pay at a high rate. The distance from Ambato to Quito is seventy-five miles, and the time allowed two days. We enjoyed always splendid views of the sharp, smooth cone of Cotopaxi upon our right, the steep and jagged Iliniza upon our left, and behind us the massive dome of Chimborazo. We had sent a courier for- ward to engage fresh mules at an inn nearly opposite, and not five miles distant from the base of Cotopaxi, which has the same deceptive appearance of accessibility as has Chimbo- razo from Chuquipoyo, but upon arriving we were surprised to find that our order had been ignored. This caused us a delay of a night, and we suspected that the courier and land- lord had " put their heads together " to compel us to patron- ize the inn. During the afternoon we had passed an enor- mous flow of lava, rocks, and sand, the eruption from Coto- paxi in 1868. Once we were obliged to dismount and walk for a long distance, where a great stone bridge and the road had been torn away. In the plain before Cotopaxi there is a huge, smooth mound, of oval shape, which the natives claim was reared by the old Incas in honor of some of their divini- ties. It seems almost too enormous for such an explanation, for it is very much larger than those of our old Indian mound- 24 AROUND AND ABOUT SOUTH AMERICA. builders in the Western United States. We were favored with a view of Cotopaxi by moonlight — a magnificent sight, with its sides of vari-colored lava, its long patches of black sand, and its great fields of the purest white snow and bine ice. At daybreak we were off with fresh mules and a mounted horse, attached to our team simply by his tail as leader, and in this odd manner he proved a powerful aid. We had a long and weary ascent, and then began gradually to descend into a beautiful green valley that bore quite a resemblance to valleys that may be found in the northern part of England. There were smooth, velvety meadows, well-cultivated fields, and hedge-rows for fences. We breakfasted in the vestibule of a native inn with this lovely scene before us, and then hurried on to the end of our journey. The road was now paved, and we had another long and winding ascent, and then the number of pack-trains we met, the number of natives traveling on their prancing and caracoling steeds, and the more frequent collections of huts, betokened our near ap- proach to the capital Before us rose the volcano of Pichin- cha, the summit of which is only five hours' travel from the metropolis, while away to the right loomed the double-domed Antisana and square-topped Cayambi. Not long afterward faintly appeared the red roofs and white walls of Quito, and soon we were rattling through the Indian suburbs and along the narrow streets of low, two-story houses, their little bal- conies full of people to see the coach pass — the great event of the week. I bore a letter of introduction to a Danish gentle- man, who had been ten years in Quito, where he had made a large fortune as a druggist. This gentleman very kindly en- gaged for me two large rooms on one of the principal streets, with a native boy to take care of them and to bring me coffee and rolls early in the morning. For the more substantial meals of breakfast and dinner he offered me a seat with a party of English and French speaking friends, at the best res- taurant of the city, a French establishment. When one has not his own cook, this is the approved method of living, there OVER TEE CORDILLERA. 25 being no hotel as we understand the terra — that is, no place where both rooms and meals are furnished. For use of the restaurant I had to pay one dollar, for my rooms two dollars per day. The latter were large and well furnished, according to the Spanish, or, more precisely, Ecuadorian idea of comfort and elegance. In my parlor there was a lavish display of glass-ware, porcelain vases, trinkets, and paper flowers. There were as many as five small tables in the room. Two large windows opened upon balconies overlooking the street. The bedroom had but one window, tilled with iron bars like a prison-cell, and open toward the court-yard. A noticeable feature of the doors was their enormous locks, with keys four inches long and weighing a pound or more. Since, on ac- count of the petty thieving prevalent, the rooms must be kept locked, the carrying of one of these Bastile rivals be- comes almost necessary, though exceedingly irksome. A stone staircase from the street, and a brick-paved corridor, ornamented with flowers, gave access to the rooms. At last I am settled in Quito, just three weeks and two days from the time of leaving New York city — one day being spent in Panama and two days in Guayaquil. The time occu- pied on the journey from Guayaquil to the capital was seven days, and the distance thus traversed about two hundred miles. Here in Quito, before I set out to make any special study of the place, I am struck by the lighter complexion of the people than of those dwelling nearer the coast. This is explained by their living at a greater altitude rather than by their possessing purer strains of blood. The next striking peculiarity is the dress of the men, or perhaps I should say the full-dress of the gentlemen, who wear high black silk hats, black broadcloth frock-coats, black kid gloves, and carry orna- mental canes. These indications of other and very different civilizations seem about as much out of place as would Hin- dostanee turbans or Indian war-plumes. Always noticeable and interesting are the horsemen and their beautiful horses. One hardly knows which to admire the more, the perfect seat and pose of the rider or the perfect form and gait of the animal. 26 AROUND AND ABOUT SOUTH AMERICA. The following day being the Sabbath, I visited the cathe- dral, where high mass was being celebrated in presence of the archbishop and a consistory of bishops. The cathedral occu- pies one side of the principal square, and opposite is the pal- ace of the archbishop. On the north side is the Capitol, and on the remaining side the private residence of an old and very wealthy Spanish family. The plaza or square is laid out with flowers and shrubs and paved paths, which intersect each other at a central stone fountain. The outside view of the cathe- dral is more quaint than imposing. There is a large green- tiled dome, and a facade with small windows and a piazza. The doors are covered with carvings and huge metal bosses. Inside the flooring is of brick, while the roof is of carved wood richly gilded or painted red. A number of very large paintings of no great merit cover the walls. The altar dis- played the usual tawdry collection of flowers, candles, pict- ures, and effigies, and the stalls of the bishops were ranged about it in horseshoe-form. As is usual in all churches, both Protestant and Catholic, the greater number of the worship- ers were women, though here they were of every shade of color and of every social grade. Some of the upper-class young girls were pretty, though I looked in vain for the rav- ishing beauties I had been told to expect. Their stature is rather below the average of their North American sisters. They wore red or blue dresses, high-heeled kid slippers shod with metal, and always the picturesque black shawl or man- tilla, richly embroidered in silk, and, though worn coquet- tishly over the head, yet not concealing the face, which fre- quently displayed traces of paint and always of powder. Rings adorned their fingers, but no other jewelry was visi- ble. The elder women were clothed wholly in somber black, and frequently covered all the face save the eyes. These women had doubtless outlived their beauty. Almost every woman carried a prayer-book, and a prayer-cloth or stool on which to kneel. Occasionally these necessary articles would be borne by a servant. The women wear neither hats nor gloves. The gentlemen, in addition to the dark clothes al- OVER TEE CORDILLERA. 27 ready spoken of, wore black cloaks of a fashion that remind- ed me of the conventional " heavy villain " in the theatres at home. This resemblance was increased by the flashing black eyes, fierce mustache, or forked beard. I could not avoid observing the democratic footing of the congregation. The dirtiest ^wicAo-covered Indian jostled the most aristocratic cloth-cloaked hidalgo, the daintiest senoritas and the women who tend cattle knelt together in the same chapels. A fine organ, artistically handled, and a competent choir, furnished the sensuous music always provided in Catholic churches. As I left the cathedral a battalion of native troops passed on its way to the Jesuit church, and I followed. The Ecua- dorian army numbers about a thousand men and boys, part stationed in Guayaquil and a part in the capital. The troops are neatly uniformed in blue cloth with red facings and trim- mings, and armed with old Remington rifles. Many of the cartridge-boxes also came originally from the same place, and were plainly marked " U. S." The battalion was largely com- posed of boys, marshaled without any reference to size. It was preceded by a brass band of about thirty instrumentalists and was followed by about twenty buglers. The step was very quick, and the band played very fair music, which sounded comparatively fine as it reverberated through the arches of the church. This church has a remarkably hand- some carved facade. It is about the only example of really beautiful stone carving remaining in Quito. The great wooden doors are also elaborately carved, though in a more modern style than the facade. The altar is very massively and richly gilded, and the walls of the nave are ornamented with raised tile-work pictures which are very effective as seen from below. Near the door is a remarkable picture of the tortures of hell. Lucifer is seen sitting in state upon his hell- hounds, and directs the infernal proceedings. The offense of each victim is painted in plain letters near him. The tortures consist in being devoured by various animals, pierced by knives, in being made to swallow melted lead, and in other ingenious inventions of delirious cruelty. CHAPTER IV. QUITO — PAKADISE OF PRIESTS. The system of the Andes is the longest in the world, though not the highest, that being the Himalaya. The Andes lie in parallel ranges, which inclose elevated valleys. This plateau and mountain section are from one hundred to two hundred and fifty miles in width. Quito lies nearly at the northern extremity of a valley, or, more properly, of an elevated plateau, which extends from the borders of Peru to the United States of Colombia, a distance of about four hun- dred miles. This plateau, which is nearly two miles above the sea-level, has an average width, throughout, of about forty miles, and is shut in from the rest of the world, as it were, by the giant ranges of the Cordillera, one of which I had crossed in my journey from Guayaquil. Entering upon the plateau, I found a " right royal " road, lined with gigantic sentinels of rock and ice and snow, many of them the lofti- est and most famous peaks in the world. From one of the neighboring hills I obtained a good general view of the city, which slopes gradually toward the east and extends over the spurs of several hills that cause very abrupt irregularities of surface. It is laid out nearly at right angles, with neatly paved streets but very narrow sidewalks. Each landholder is obliged every day to brush that part of the public thor- oughfare before his property. He is also compelled at night to display a candle, and with these alone is the city lighted, save in the great square, where kerosene-lamps are substi- tuted. A fine of forty cents for each offense is imposed upon those who neglect to sweep or illuminate their portion Professional Mourners. QUITO— PARADISE OF PRIESTS. 29 of the public streets. Quito has a decidedly monotonous ap- pearance as viewed from an eminence. There are only three or four church edifices and towers to vary the dull uniform- ity of the houses \ and the streets themselves, rarely more than twenty feet in width, make but slight marks of divis- ion. The roofs of most of the houses project over the nar- row sidewalks, thus affording some shelter to pedestrians in the rainy season. The streets seem always filled with people, both on foot and on horseback, and the many-colored^>