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CARPENTERS 
 WORLD TRAVELS 
 
 Familiar Talks About Countries 
 and Peoples 
 
 WITH THE AUTHOR ON THE SPOT AND THE 
 READER IN HIS HOME, BASED ON A 
 HALF MILLION MILES OF TRAVEL 
 OVER THE GLOBE 
 
 “READING CARPENTER IS SEEING THE WORLD” 
 
Digitized by the Internet Archive 
 in 2022 with funding from 
 Princeton Theological Seminary Library 
 
 https://archive.org/details/landsofandesdeseOOcarp_0 
 
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IN THE LANDS OF THE ANDES AND THE DESERT 
 
 Although Spain could not hold her overseas possessions against the 
 wave of independence that swept over all the Americas, she left an in- 
 delible impression upon their religion and architecture. 
 
\ OF Prine 
 <a "Np 
 =P 2U 1930 
 
 oS 
 i> 
 
 LANDS OF THE ANDES 
 AND) LAB DESERT 
 
 BY 
 
 FRANK G”CARPENTER 
 OF Fe Pe Od et hak Cao 
 
 WITH I104 ILLUSTRATIONS 
 FROM ORIGINAL PHOTOGRAPHS 
 
 GARDEN CITY NEW YORK 
 DOUBLEDAY, PAGE & COMPANY 
 1920 | 
 
COPYRIGHT, 1924, BY CARPENTERS WORLD 
 
 TRAVELS. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. PRINTED 
 
 IN THE UNITED STATES AT THE COUNTRY 
 LIFE PRESS, GARDEN CITY, N. Y. 
 
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 
 
 N THE publication of this volume on my travels in 
 Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and Bolivia, I wish to 
 thank the Secretary of State for letters that have 
 given me the assistance of our official representatives 
 
 in those republics. I thank also our Secretary of Agricul- 
 ture and our Secretary of Labour for appointing me an 
 honorary commissioner of their departments in foreign 
 lands. Their credentials have been of great value, mak- 
 ing accessible sources of information seldom opened to the 
 ordinary traveller. 
 
 I acknowledge also the assistance and codperation of 
 Mr. Dudley Harmon, my editor, and of Miss Josephine 
 Lehmann and Miss Ellen McB. Brown, associate editors, 
 in the revision of the notes dictated or penned by me on the 
 ground. 
 
 While most of the illustrations in CARPENTER’S WORLD 
 TRAVELS are from my own negatives, those in this volume 
 have been supplemented by photographs from the Colom- 
 bian Government Information Bureau, the Pan American 
 Union, the Guayaquil and Quito Railway, the United 
 Fruit Company, W. R. Grace & Company, Arthur Dubois, 
 W. Duval Brown, A. A. Hauff, the Publisher’s Photo 
 
 Service, and Ewing Galloway. 
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CONTENTS 
 
 INTRODUCING A CONTINENT 
 
 FROM PANAMA TO THE EQUATOR . 
 
 A MopeErRN CAVE OF ALADDIN 
 GUAYAQUIL 
 
 A LAND oF Cacao 
 
 THE CAPITAL OF ECUADOR 
 
 THE HEAD-HUNTING JIVAROS 
 
 Down THE DESERT COAST OF PERU . 
 THE CITY OF PIZARRO . 
 
 IN THE SHOPS AND MARKETS OF LIMA 
 On THE Wor Lp’s HIGHEST RAILROAD 
 CERRO DE PAsco 
 
 AMERICAN INDUSTRY IN THE HEART OF PERU 
 By RoLLeER CoASTER DOWN THE ANDES. 
 AREQUIPA, CITY OF THE STARS 
 
 FARMING IN THE LAND OF THE Sky . 
 THE ANCIENT CAPITAL OF THE INCAS 
 THE Cuzco oF To-DAY . 
 
 STORIES OF BURIED TREASURE 
 
 SLAVES OF ALCOHOL AND COCAINE 
 
 64 
 
 93 
 104 
 112 
 120 
 127 
 136 
 145 
 156 
 165 
 174 
 
CHAPTER 
 
 XX] 
 XXII 
 XXIII 
 XXIV 
 XXV 
 XXVI 
 XXVII 
 XXVIII 
 X XIX 
 
 INDEX 
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 On LAKE TITICACA 
 
 THE TIBET OF SOUTH AMERICA 
 SUNDAY IN LA Paz 
 
 THE First City iN AMERICA 
 THE AYMARA INDIANS 
 
 From LA Paz To OrRuRO 
 
 THE GREAT TIN MINEs . 
 
 DOWNSPOUTS OF THE PLATEAU . 
 
 THE BAckKwoops OF BOLIVIA 
 
 PAGE 
 
 186 
 194 
 202 
 214 
 223 
 232 
 240 
 
 252 
 
 . 204 
 
 275 
 
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 Overlooking a Spanish patio . . . Frontispiece 
 
 FACING PAGE 
 PPAR AMASDATK ous one RNA tone aM Ry IU cA ath ae 6 
 ihe narbourOl Waltagenaue ese nan sai) ioe cates ,, 
 The city of Bogota EL eT MEU ey CONE MRNA OS oes TTPO Ee 
 Boadin gia river DOA raid: sagt e ea an el Ur AVA 
 Onathe covernmentraininen iin hry arp entan keke hea 
 The world’s greatest emerald mines ya vere pura RP ul Bo 
 PCEGIOMIDIAN Wate©ria liens When WLW ARIS Vi We ge licen RED 
 PION KEVF LEIDEN CATHICLS ru Vi ines ti feta cumin te May ianegines 
 eeiC ESCA GKAIN CsA Va GUI y penn shee chk Galles ginal 
 BAIN DOOIMOUSCS rev) Th Gr teat, PRA ee CLA OLR IO 
 DALAT AsT Al Chee ae Tro Nuch wy Atuye Eh ER Aen ae IP tema ae I 
 Wevingicacao yey RTO TIMINGS AN te NMR aM 
 Cacao harvesters going to an PATON ESM es NO oh RAEI 9 
 Barms on)the mountainsides) 2) (iu. ee Whew i 38 
 MIOUNERGCOLODAXL] tiene aise Hecate ep hal  ean bam 1 LAC) 
 BaAlISREWOOCS Wenteriti abies childs ke Ae Aye, Ae ae eC 
 MEER OEVILSEINOSE)) i) 25h a eo a bee y nett eed © 
 PETIT CIVIL EO te igiy a0) Pp oy ip ae tah ahaa AR LA he ee AT 
 Pe riementitnan NEA, 32 ii) Ae ae BVO IY 6 ta Gat 
 iidian hut in theinterior!)’. /: euaieeaes ls hile awe y Be 
 Begging in a railroad station WRU: ao eke 2 
 APA CARTONS SANG UNG hy ee a anit nth Or Guo en NOS 
 Fish peddlers meeting asteamer . . . . . . 70 
 
 Xl 
 
ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 Irrigating the desert 
 
 _ A unique landing arrangement 
 
 In the city of Pizarro 
 
 Woodwork carved by the raters 
 In the Plaza de Armas . 
 Mounted constabulary . 
 Peruvian Senate Chamber . 
 Business street in Lima. 
 
 Indian fruit peddler 
 
 In the harbour of Callao 
 
 The world’s highest railroad 
 Indian shepherd woman 
 
 Crossing the Viscas Bridge 
 Suspension bridge in the interior . 
 Native mother and baby 
 
 Street in Cerro de Pasco 
 Children mine workers . 
 
 A power plant in the Andes 
 Patio process of ore treating 
 “The Little Hell” 
 
 Weird rock formation in the Noes 
 Ships anchored off Mollendo 
 
 On the road to Arequipa 
 
 Old Arequipa 
 
 The Harvard Guenter ard Mount Mich 
 
 Juliaca 
 
 A llama train 
 
 Farms in the Cuzco Walley 
 
 The fortress of Sacsahuaman . 
 
 Inca masonry 
 
 Stone seats overlooking iSacea nearer 
 Xil 
 
 FACING PAGE 
 ve. 
 74 
 
ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 FACING PAGE 
 
 SAIS COLLUTC: DIGGK 0.) vai tation ey eee Mae etal yk 
 Meals “DULL bIDY thes INCAS!) 100) Sees eon ier a Ohi CE Be 
 Bie GatnedralOMmGuzcOpl us iihedh een akan ran LSS 
 BDODDIN GM LHe IPOralEes: 4.) Woo eal awe Moon sok 1 O2 
 streetscene)... Soba AR he Nagle ania ML TOR 
 Ruins of an Inca ferinle OUP ee i Wwe Naiian RTE De Ni RUA f 956) 
 Astobogegan slide of the ancients |). 2.0.00.) Ys) 107 
 Quichua water carrier MMe ck INERT be Mena Rw Na Tp a F 
 Native pottery PSU MPL bE Dar ae MPa! Ponto cath 
 Mepetabless DVI the; Dues Tala thieebtrt ives) Cowman ten ALES 
 Reatker Gay On tne: plateaus © te Dns tar ona Ms) ES 
 A native loom . . PD eey Siamese Maus, SCOP EUE Te L7G 
 Indians and their flares OY) eo ae Vee at Nr are Op (3 
 Molin grin Pering lt Wis) SUN rity MRING ORES MAUI CN Ep 
 Farms along Lake ation VoonVs | eet Masten th een age YI) ee, LE 
 SAT KIStIN CAKE RL ItICACA YE Von ial alas omarion Mash ee ULOO 
 Native balsas . . AMAA ee Meme sep, vate OE 
 The world’s highest eapieal {FN a NG A Math HL Fw 
 esiientialrstreel imi Paz vn). Peay AL beta LOO 
 PEclerssOIVLOUNL TImManiey (iy ci sitetnien clits ek azOO 
 A street merchant .. CDE CaM Oran CRT SCHL IIS Ae 98, 
 A chola in her “Sunday best” LP AE NG RELAT Ror) Sieg OMT LO 
 NINDS Ab az StTeeLen uw tout orcas mare en Labia LO 
 ESL TAN OG CEMELCLYV Stan \ Pk ial. wi alates otha Abel cia Zak te ALE 
 Pa CIONELOOOT WAV d) ts. taht, len eMr ein omen Sinl teh PLA 
 PORTILLO LIAN LLATIACOS 1) cc Pa) cuenta einen TL Sona 
 STEAM ITINTI TICS 1 orks kt 5) 2, eee SIC CO Rds eke ta ee 
 A prehistoric stone figure Ser ee WON UO LA Rt Do 
 An Aymara Indian OR (ie Sigs tees KAR ED ERC hae 8 
 SRICAMENE WING FECESS /1/) ot) une Maem Wate cular nua \nee g 
 PRIMA SCUOOL Nis poe aan ade aw eo eueti > (AULT 20 
 
 Xill 
 
ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 _ A native festival 
 
 Weaving a poncho . 
 
 Scene in Oruro 
 
 Chola business woman . 
 
 Sacks of tin ore 
 
 Primitive ore crusher 
 
 Lakes of borax 
 Balconied street in Potosi . 
 
 A mountain of silver 
 
 Road through the mountains . 
 A railway refreshment stand 
 Bolivian wood cutters 
 
 On a motor highway 
 
 Indian raftsmen 
 
 Backwoods Bolivia 
 
 Gathering coca leaves 
 
 A native wedding ceremony 
 Indian brave in holiday costume . 
 
 XIV 
 
 FACING PAGE 
 231 
 231 
 2338 
 239 
 242 
 243 
 243 
 246 
 247 
 254 
 
 - 255 
 WR BS 
 258 
 259 
 262 
 263 
 270 
 271 
 
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 CHAPTER | 
 
 INTRODUCING A CONTINENT 
 
 OUTH AMERICA! The words make my blood 
 tingle. Of all the six continents I have visited, 
 there is none that breathes more of adventure, of 
 romance, of history, of rapidly increasing develop- 
 
 ment, and of great opportunity. In the varied features 
 of the land and its peoples, it is a whole world of possibili- 
 ties. 
 
 And what a world it is! | saw it first twenty-five years 
 ago when | travelled the wilds in small boats, on mule- 
 back, and on foot. | have since traversed many of the 
 same routes in comfortable trains. During that first 
 trip the Chilean transcontinental railway across the 
 Andes was not yet completed, and to go from Valparaiso 
 to Montevideo I went on a small steamer several thousand 
 miles out of the way via Smyth’s Channel and the Strait 
 of Magellan. Now there are several railroads connecting 
 the Atlantic and the Pacific, and two days will carry one 
 from Santiago de Chile to Buenos Aires, Argentina. In 
 that first trip I had to sail from the mouth of the Parana 
 to Rio de Janeiro, from where a coastal steamer carried 
 me lazily on to the mouth of the Amazon. There are now 
 
 I 
 
LANDS OF THE ANDES AND THE DESERT 
 
 railways crossing Uruguay and Brazil to Rio. It is the 
 same in other parts of the interior of South America. Rail- 
 ways are opening up the eastern foothills of the Andes, 
 and my last journey to the heart of Paraguay was made 
 over a highway of steel. 
 
 While slowly but surely a network of rails is enclosing 
 the continent, above it have sprung into being multitudi- 
 nous airplanes, which vie with the condor and other birds in 
 their flight. Twice every week passenger planes make 
 the trip up the Magdalena River of Colombia to Bogota, 
 the capital. Passenger and mail planes flying between 
 Buenos Aires and Montevideo, the capitals of Argentina 
 and Uruguay, have brought those two great cities of At- 
 lantic South America within less than two hours’ ride of 
 each other, a saving in time of ten or twelve hours. Quito 
 and Lima, the capitals of Ecuador and Peru, miles above 
 sea level, will be on the air routes of the near future. The 
 Andes have been flown over again and again, and South 
 America, from the Atlantic to the Pacific, will soon be 
 covered by a fleet of aérial mails. 
 
 In all my travels in South America I have been con- 
 tinually amazed at the extent of the continent and the 
 magnificent distances of its ten republics and three colo- 
 nies. The Isthmus of Panama is farther from the Strait 
 of Magellan than the distance from Los Angeles to Yoko- 
 hama, Japan, and the continent, where it is widest, is 
 five hundred miles farther across than from Cape Cod to 
 the Golden Gate. 
 
 North America is larger in area than South America, but 
 our continent has also more waste land. Its mighty heart 
 is the Rocky Mountain plateau, a desert region that ex- 
 tends from Alaska to Central America, and our great 
 
 2 
 
INTRODUCING A CONTINENT 
 
 northern bulge is covered with snow and ice a good part 
 of the year. South America, as the merchant would put 
 it, is a yard wide and almost all wool. The Andes form a 
 lean strip at the west, and from them vast plains and 
 plateaus reach far east tothe sea. There are great patches 
 of fertile irrigated lands along the Pacific, and the mighty 
 plains that slope down to the Atlantic manywheres rival 
 the valleys of the Nile and the Ganges in their potential 
 productivity. The continent has, all told, one eighth of 
 the land upon earth, and the greater portion of it is still 
 to be conquered by man. 
 
 The size of the South American republics astonished 
 me. Some seemed mere spots on the map, but I found 
 Ecuador bigger than either Germany or France; Paraguay 
 is more than equal to two South Carolinas; and Bolivia 
 could hold fifty Belgiums, or two states as big as Texas, 
 and have room to spare. Argentina has one third as 
 much land as the forty-eight United States, and you can 
 hardly put your foot down on a spot that will not raise 
 grass or grain. The long shoestring of Chile, if cut up into 
 squares, would more than equal seven states as big as 
 Ohio, Virginia, or Kentucky. We think of Brazil as a 
 far-off country of minor extent from whence come coffee 
 and rubber, but it is so big that it could cover the main 
 body of the United States like a blanket and have enough 
 land left over to tuck in ten Maines under the edges. 
 
 All this vast territory is still in the making. Our dis- 
 coveries in sanitation while building the Panama Canal 
 showed that man can conquer the tropics, and the vast 
 valley of the Amazon may yet become a region of culti- 
 vated farms. Central, southern, and eastern Brazil lie 
 in a great plateau that will produce grain, coffee, cotton, 
 
 3 
 
LANDS OF THE ANDES AND THE DESERT 
 
 and sugar, besides pasturage for cattle. The Parana 
 basin, including Paraguay, Uruguay, and Argentina, is po- 
 tentially the richest meat and bread basket on earth. The 
 same might also be said of the eastern slopes of the Andes 
 and the irrigated valleys bordering the Pacific. Even the 
 lands at the Strait of Magellan, a thousand miles nearer 
 the South Pole than the Cape of Good Hope, have a 
 climate so mild that cattle feed out of doors there all the 
 year round and sheep have populated the islands adjoin- 
 ing. 
 
 As to minerals, since the days of Pizarro South America 
 has been the El Dorado of gold and silver and of emeralds 
 and diamonds as well. It has now become the continent of 
 tin, copper, and iron. Under the famous silver mines of 
 Cerro de Pasco, Peru, | saw an American company mining 
 great beds of copper, and in Bolivia watched the Indians 
 breaking up ore that was almost pure tin. Nearly half the 
 tin of the world comes from Bolivia. On the coast of 
 Chile is an iron mountain from which an ocean caravan of 
 steamers is carrying ore north to the mills of the Bethlehem 
 Steel Company, and on the highlands of Brazil are de- 
 posits of iron comparable to ours about Lake Superior. 
 In every way the South American continent is fast growing 
 in wealth. Its development is being carried on largely 
 with money furnished by us. Since the World War we 
 have bought more than six hundred million dollars’ worth 
 of South American government bonds, and our invest- 
 ments in all sorts of enterprises in those countries amount 
 to more than three thousand million dollars. Our trade 
 with our sister continent is rapidly growing. 
 
 I have found the peoples of South America of intense 
 human interest. The white man who governs the coun- 
 
 4 
 
INTRODUCING A CONTINENT 
 
 cry has all the feeling and the courtesy of the Spaniard. He 
 is awaking to modern conditions and is responding to the 
 spirit of twentieth-century progress. South America has 
 always had more Indians than ever lived in the lands we 
 possess, and to-day they are numbered by millions. They 
 populate the highlands of the Andes and are found in the 
 wilds of the Amazon. Some of them are savages whose 
 favourite trophies are the heads of their enemies, cured 
 and dried to a turn. 
 
 In the North I travelled among the descendants of the 
 Chibchas, who centuries ago had farms and houses and 
 an organized government, and in the Far South I saw the 
 remains of the Araucanians, Indians who were so brave 
 that the Spaniards had to leave them unconquered. Be- 
 tween the two are the Quichuas and the Aymards. The 
 Quichuas were ruled by the Incas. They built houses 
 and temples, they wove cloth and wrought in gold and 
 silver, and they watered their fields from irrigation canals 
 hundreds of miles long. The Aymards were also more or 
 less semi-civilized. Both of these nations are now practi- 
 cally the slaves of the whites. Their present condition 
 is described in these travels, as is also that of the more 
 savage Indians found on the eastern slopes of the Andes. 
 Farther over in the basins of the Parana and the Amazon 
 are the gentle Guaranis, who have intermarried with the 
 whites and have become largely civilized. 
 
 The travels of this book cover only the northwestern 
 part of the continent. Most of our time will be spent on 
 the high plateau of the Andes, which, upheld by two 
 great ranges, once was the home of the great Inca civiliza- 
 tion. We shall visit also the tropical lands to the east 
 that slope down to the Orinoco and the Amazon, and shall 
 
 xy 
 7 
 
LANDS OF THE ANDES AND THE DESERT 
 
 pass through the great desert that, with its valley oases 
 _ populated by whites, runs for two thousand miles from 
 north to south along the western coast of South America, 
 backed by the thirsty walls of the Andes. 
 
 The countries included are Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, 
 and Bolivia, all of which are of perennial interest to me, 
 and which I hope will have a like place in the minds of my 
 readers. 
 
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Colombia is the only country of South America that has ports on 
 both the Atlantic and the Pacific oceans. Cartagena, on the north coast, is 
 an important point of export of balsam, rubber, coffee, and cacao. 
 
CHAPTER II 
 FROM PANAMA TO THE EQUATOR 
 
 AM seated on the deck of a little Peruvian vessel 
 
 steaming along the western coast of Colombia only a 
 
 few degrees north of the Equator. We left Balboa 
 
 two days ago, going out as the sun was setting over 
 the fortifications on the islands of Flamenco, Perico, and 
 Naos, which guard the Panama Canal, and turning south- 
 ward when not far from Taboga. We are now in the 
 doldrums, the zone of equatorial calms, where there is so 
 little wind that north-bound sailing vessels are hardly 
 able to reach the Canal. The air is almost still and 
 would be stifling were it not for a slight breeze from the 
 northeast trade winds. 
 
 The sea appears to steam; it is a vast expanse of molten 
 silver, rippled now and then by the light winds that 
 transform it into an undulating sheet of diamonds, rising 
 and falling under the tropical sun. Here the Pacific is 
 widest, its waters stretching westward for almost ten 
 thousand miles before they reach Asia. This great ocean 
 contains nearly half of all the salt water on the globe. 
 
 Our steamer belongs to a company subsidized by the 
 government of Peru, and its fuel comes from the desert oil 
 fields of that country. It can make sixteen knots and it 
 moves over the quiet sea without perceptible vibration. 
 Especially constructed for travel in the tropics, its cabins 
 have large windows and doors opening on the deck. They 
 
 7 
 
LANDS OF THE ANDES AND THE DESERT 
 
 are seldom closed except in bad weather, and one can 
 sit in his room as though upon a porch and look far out 
 over the ocean. 
 
 The meal hours are strictly Latin American. They 
 begin with desayuno, which is a cup of black coffee and a 
 cracker served in the cabin on rising. At eleven, in the 
 dining salon, comes almuerzo, or breakfast, consisting of 
 soup and fish, steak or eggs, and bananas or oranges. At 
 four o’clock in the afternoon we have tea, and at seven 
 a table-d’héte dinner. The cooking is Spanish, the bills 
 of fare are printed in that language, and the waiters are 
 natives of South America. ) 
 
 We carry a supply of live meat with us, and I awake 
 every morning thinking I am on my mountain farm in 
 Virginia. There is a bleating of sheep, a crowing of 
 cocks, and a quacking of geese and ducks. Now and 
 then a cow moos or a pig squeals. On the upper deck 
 within ten feet of where I am writing are two big coops 
 full of chickens, ducks, and geese. The coops are two- 
 story affairs walled with slats. The chickens are in the 
 top story, some roosting and others poking their heads out 
 to get at the water and corn in the troughs outside. The 
 ducks and geese are in the compartments below. A little 
 farther over are crates filled with potatoes and onions, and 
 others containing oranges and pineapples. The sheep 
 and cattle are in pens and stalls two decks below. 
 
 If one of our sea-going cows should take it into her head 
 to jump overboard, and succeed in swimming to shore, 
 she would land on the west coast of Colombia. Our 
 boat does not touch at any Colombian port on this trip, 
 but I can tell you a good deal about that country, and can 
 give you a bird’s-eye view of it as we steam south through 
 
 8 
 
FROM PANAMA TO THE EQUATOR 
 
 the placid sea. Colombia occupies the northwest corner 
 of South America. From north to south it is cut by the 
 three mighty ranges of the Andes, known as the Western, 
 the Central, and the Eastern Cordilleras. Between those 
 ranges are fertile valleys, and east of them are grassy 
 plains, or llanos, sloping down to the Atlantic. It is a 
 land of every climate, from the tropical to the frigid, 
 and it has a plant and animal life similarly varied. The 
 region about Bogota, the capital, eight or nine thousand 
 feet above sea level, has a temperature throughout the 
 year like that of New York in May. 
 
 That great table-land was once the home of the Chib- 
 chas, an Indian race that ranked with the Aztecs and the 
 Incas in their civilization. They numbered more than a 
 million and governed a territory as large as the combined 
 areas of Belgium and Holland. Some of them were found 
 even as far north as the Isthmus of Panama. At the 
 height of their power and progress they irrigated land for 
 farming, wove cotton into cloth, and had a knowledge of 
 how to make utensils and ornaments of gold. Although 
 they resisted the Spaniards for a long time they were 
 finally conquered, and to-day only a few members remain 
 of their once mighty tribes. 
 
 Colombia is the only South American country fronting 
 on both the Atlantic and the Pacific oceans, and thus has 
 especial natural advantages for trade with the United 
 States and the rest of the world. It has a coast line of 
 almost five hundred miles on the Pacific and more than 
 six hundred on the Caribbean Sea. From south to north 
 its territory is longer than from New Orleans to St. Paul, 
 and from east to west it is wider in some parts than from 
 Baltimore to Chicago. All our Atlantic coast states, with 
 
 9 
 
LANDS OF THE: ANDES AND ODE DESERT 
 
 Ohio and West Virginia added, could be packed easily 
 within its borders. It is eight times the size of New 
 York, ten times as big as Kentucky, and as large as 
 Germany, France, Holland, and Belgium combined. 
 Colombia used to be much larger than it is now. It 
 formerly included the territory of the neighbouring re- 
 publics of Venezuela, Ecuador, and Panama. The first 
 two broke away within twenty years after freedom from 
 
 Spain was won in the early part of the last century. 
 Panama became independent in the revolution of 1903, 
 
 when the United States had made up its mind to build the 
 Panama Canal. 
 The loss of Panama was keenly felt by the Colombians, 
 
 and was for years the cause of great resentment against’ 
 
 the United States. The people believed that not only had 
 their country lost the great revenues incidental to the 
 building and operation of the Canal but that their na- 
 tional honour had been assailed. Finally, in 1921, the 
 United States Senate ratified a treaty that provided for 
 the payment of twenty-five million dollars to Colombia 
 in five annual instalments. With this money, the Colom- 
 bian government established a new fiscal system in ac- 
 cordance with the best standards of the times, and was 
 enabled to effect other improvements that will contribute 
 greatly to her future progress and development. In view 
 of the intense anti-American feeling that so long pre- 
 vailed, it is gratifying to know that Colombia chose a 
 commission of Americans to serve as her financial ad- 
 visers in re-organizing the fiscal system. 
 
 The shortest distance between the northern shore of 
 Colombia and the United States is not so great as that 
 between Philadelphia and Chicago. Tampa, Florida, is as 
 
 10 
 
 ee 
 
FROM PANAMA TO THE EQUATOR 
 
 near Cartagena as New York is to St. Louis, and from 
 that Colombian port to New Orleans is only four days of 
 easy steaming. Barranquilla, near the mouth of the 
 Magdalena River, is less than nineteen hundred miles from 
 New York, and the trip can be made in five days. By 
 way of the Panama Canal, ships from Boston can reach 
 the west coast of Colombia by a voyage of a little more 
 than two thousand miles. 
 
 The chief Pacific port is Buenaventura, which has a 
 population of less than seven thousand, a large percentage 
 of which is Negro. The town is built on an island at the 
 head of Buenaventura Bay, and at the mouth of the 
 Dagua River. It is three hundred and sixty miles south of 
 Panama, and the first port of call for south-bound steamers 
 fromthe Canal. Buenaventura is eight miles from the 
 open sea, and with the completion of improvements 
 planned or under way it will have a good harbour, with an 
 anchorage space about a mile long and a half mile wide. 
 It is proposed to build a new city, including water- 
 works, a system of sanitation, and paving, that can accom- 
 modate fifty thousand inhabitants. 
 
 Buenaventura is the outlet for the great Cauca River 
 Valley, one of the most beautiful regions of the South 
 American continent. It has been called a giant patio in 
 the midst of the high mountains enclosing it, and the 
 traditional politeness of its people has given it the name 
 of “The Land of the Gentle Yes.”” Beginning near the 
 Ecuadorian boundary, it runs northward between the 
 Western and the Central Cordilleras at an altitude of 
 more than three thousand feet above sea level. The 
 valley is almost as large as California and its soil is as rich 
 as that of our Pacific coast states. With proper develop- 
 
 11 
 
LANDS OF THE ANDES AND THE DESERT 
 
 ment it will be one of the most productive agricultural 
 districts of the country. 
 
 A railway has been built from Buenaventura to Cali, the 
 metropolis of the Cauca Valley. Cali is a city of thirty 
 thousand or so. It has many picturesque old Spanish 
 buildings, although in the business district they are being 
 replaced by modern brick structures. This is the first 
 stage of the journey from the Pacific to Bogota. The road 
 crosses a pass five thousand feet high, whence there is an 
 easy grade down to Cali. At first this line was so lightly 
 constructed that when a heavy rain came, lasting for days, 
 the rails were washed away. A call was sent all over the 
 country for pack mules, and thousands of these animals 
 were used to carry the freight until another, and more 
 substantial, railroad track could be laid. 
 
 The journey from Cali to Bogota is now made by boat, 
 horse or muleback, and rail. Although the capital is 
 only seven hundred miles from Barranquilla on the Carib- 
 bean, and less than half as far from Buenaventura on the 
 Pacific side, it has no through rail connection with either 
 port. 
 
 In 1921 an air service was inaugurated from Barran- 
 quilla to Girardot and instead of the seven-day ride up the 
 Magdalena River the trip may now be made in as many 
 hours. From Girardot passengers may go on to Bogota 
 by rail or may continue the trip by air, and may even 
 engage a plane for flights to Cali or other interior cities. 
 A plane recently covered the distance from Girardot to 
 Bogota and back in twenty-two minutes, a saving in time 
 over the railway trip of fifteen hours or more. 
 
 The pilots are former German army aviators, and a 
 large part of the operating capital is German money. 
 
 12 
 
FROM PANAMA TO THE EQUATOR 
 
 The machines are hydroplanes of the Junker type, and 
 since the beginning of the service they have made the six- 
 hundred-mile trip from the coast twice each week without 
 mishap. The fat man and the one with heavy baggage 
 find it most expensive, as fares are based on the weight 
 of the passengers and their belongings. The average 
 fare is about one hundred and fifty dollars a person, and 
 the rate for mail about thirty cents a letter. Because it 
 is in competition with the river steamboats, which charge 
 more for the journey up the river than for that down- 
 stream, the air service charges more for the trip inland 
 than for the passage down to the sea. The principal 
 source of profit is in the transportation of currency. 
 Money exchange rates in the cities of the interior always 
 differ considerably from those of the ports, and formerly, 
 when currency was sent from Bogota to the coast towns, 
 so much time was required for its transportation that the 
 banks frequently sustained great losses in their transac- 
 tions. The Department of War has established a na- 
 tional school of aviation to encourage the use of airplanes 
 as a means of communication and transportation in 
 Colombia. 
 
 The flight to Bogota affords panoramic views of great 
 beauty. Passengers look down upon a vast expanse of 
 jungle plain, much of it thinly inhabited and still unex- 
 plored by white men. It is shut in at the east and the 
 west by the Cordilleras, the snow-capped peaks of which 
 are obscured from sight at a lower level by the clouds. 
 The Magdalena River looks like a shining ribbon, and the 
 stern-wheeler boat forcing its way up the current is a 
 mere speck on its surface. The elevation makes the 
 temperature pleasantly cool and gives a perspective of 
 
 13 
 
LANDS OF THE ANDES AND THE DESERT 
 
 mountains and valleys, icy peaks and steaming jungles, 
 _ that brings a thrill to the most seasoned traveller. 
 
 Bogota ranks so high as a centre of culture and educa- 
 tion that it is sometimes called the ‘‘Athens of South 
 America.” It has numerous universities and colleges, 
 including one founded in 1654. Next to that of Quito its 
 astronomical observatory is said to be the highest in the 
 world. The city has an opera house, museums, a na- 
 tional library, and polo, golf, and tennis clubs. There 
 are fine stone buildings and many asphalt streets. In the 
 shopping and business district one finds the typical 
 crowds of the South American capital—well-dressed men, 
 women fashionably gowned in Paris models or wearing 
 black mantillas, and on every hand Indians and mestizos, 
 or half-breeds, attired in all the colours of the rainbow. 
 
 A city was founded on the site of Bogota by one of the 
 several expeditions sent here by Spain in 1536 to conquer 
 the Chibchas. Columbus had touched the Colombian 
 coast in 1502 on his fourth and last voyage to the New 
 World, and other Spaniards had carried on explorations, 
 but comparatively little was known about the country. 
 It was not until 1717 that it was made a viceroyalty of 
 Spain, when it received the name of New Granada, and 
 it was so called even after it proclaimed its independence 
 from Spain in 1819. Although Colombia had a more or 
 less stormy history for the remainder of the nineteenth 
 century, it is now one of the only three countries in 
 South America that have been without revolutions in the 
 last twenty years. The other two are Argentina and 
 Chile. 
 
 The agricultural resources of Colombia are but little 
 developed. Its pasture lands may make it one of the 
 
 14 
 
ALAREARLLANAA 
 AY ii 
 
 ee SY \ 
 
 _ More than a mile high in the Andes, Bogota has a cool, spring-like 
 climate. It 1s one of only three South American capitals that have not 
 witnessed a revolution in more than twenty years. 
 
The rivers of Colombia are the main highways of trade, on which 
 light-draft steamers and native dugouts do most of the transport busi- 
 ness of the republic. 
 
 Passenger aeroplanes operated on regular schedules between Barren- 
 quilla and the capital have cut the seven-day trip from the coast to 
 Bogota, by way of the Magdalena River, to as many hours. 
 
FROM PANAMA TO THE EQUATOR 
 
 future sources of our meat supply, for the Janos sloping 
 down to the Amazon and the Orinoco rivers could feed 
 millions of cattle. The Cauca Valley, if extensively 
 cultivated, could supply the chocolate markets of the 
 world. In the interior and along the Caribbean Sea are 
 regions suitable for coffee growing. The United Fruit 
 Company has immense banana plantations in northern 
 Colombia and exports millions of bunches from Santa 
 Marta. In that district it has eighty thousand acres of 
 land suited for raising bananas, sixteen thousand acres or 
 more being already under cultivation. In addition, the 
 total area on which this fruit is raised by individual 
 growers is almost as large. Colombia’s entire foreign 
 trade in bananas is worth one million dollars a year. In 
 the valleys and lowlands corn, sugar cane, rubber, and 
 cotton also are grown. The Indians weave quantities of 
 Panama hats from the straw of the toquilla palm, and 
 ipecac is an important article of export. 
 
 One of the little-known and most interesting products of 
 Colombia is the tonka bean, from which most of the per- 
 fume sold as sweet clover and new-mown hay is made. 
 It grows on a tree from sixty to ninety feet high. The 
 fruit of the tree is a pod that contains a single bean about 
 an inch long and shaped like a large kidney bean. The 
 odour of the tonka somewhat resembles that of vanilla 
 and the bean is frequently used as an adulterant in making 
 cheap vanilla extracts. Another use of the tonka is in 
 the manufacture of tobacco. In bygone days every jar 
 or box of snuff contained a tonka bean, and the flavour of 
 some of our smoking tobacco is still enhanced in the 
 same way. 
 
 The chief crop of Colombia is coffee. Colombia leads 
 
 15 
 
LANDS OF THE ANDES AND THE DESERT 
 
 the world in the quality of her coffee and is second only 
 to Brazil in the quantity produced. It is much used to 
 mix with the cheaper Brazilian grades. The industry 
 has grown so that the annual production has tripled in the 
 last ten years, and the value of that now sold abroad 
 amounts to one half of Colombia’s entire export trade. 
 Two hundred million pounds have been bought in one 
 year by the United States, which during the World War 
 became Colombia’s best customer. 
 
 This republic is an undeveloped empire awaiting foreign 
 capital to bring it to life. It will require, however, 
 large investments and a willingness to await returns. 
 Much of its wealth is in sparsely settled regions. The 
 great need of the country is railroads, but it does not 
 pay to build railroads until there is freight to be hauled, 
 while production will not pay until goods can be delivered 
 to a market at reasonable rates. 
 
 Colombia is eight times as large as our New England 
 states, but has only one ninth as much railway track. 
 Its total railway mileage is so small that if all the lines 
 were joined together they would reach little farther than 
 from New York to Chicago. The fact that there are 
 three different gauges adds to the difficulty of developing 
 a national railway system. 
 
 To-day the rivers of Colombia carry much of the freight. 
 The Magdalena is navigable for almost a thousand miles, 
 and through the Meta and other streams the interior is 
 connected with the Orinoco and the Amazon, which 
 reach the Atlantic through Venezuela and Brazil. The 
 Sinu and the Atrato rivers have considerable traffic, and 
 the Cauca, which flows into the Magdalena, gives outlet 
 to the products of the lower part of the rich valley of that 
 
 16 
 
 i 
 
FROM PANAMA TO THE EQUATOR 
 
 name. Before the Girardot-Bogota air service was es- 
 tablished, everything was carried from the Magdalena to 
 Bogota in ox carts and on the backs of men and mules, and 
 in many parts of the country the mule is still the common 
 carrier. 
 
 17 
 
CHAPTER III 
 A MODERN CAVE OF ALADDIN 
 
 URING colonial times Colombia was the chief 
 gold-producing country of all the Spanish posses- 
 sions in the New World, and was second only to 
 Peru and Mexico in its entire mineral output. 
 
 It was here that Balboa first learned from the Indians of 
 the treasures beyond the mountains that were afterward 
 seized by Pizarro. Since then seven hundred million 
 dollars’ worth of gold has been taken out of Colombia, and 
 there are now more than eighteen thousand gold mines in 
 the republic. The richest gold-bearing regions are in 
 the Antioquia province and farther south in the ranges be- 
 tween the Cauca and the Magdalena rivers. In that area, 
 which covers thousands of square miles, gold is said to 
 occur wherever there is gravel. In the mountains, where 
 the rock has been laid bare, are many quartz veins that 
 require only modern methods to extract the metal in 
 quantity, and in the department of Narino, bordering on 
 Ecuador, gold nuggets are found in the beds of the rivers 
 flowing into the Pacific Ocean. 
 
 Many of the mines of the Antioquia region have been 
 worked continuously since before the arrival of the 
 Spaniards. For centuries the natives have washed out 
 the placer gold in wooden pans, or bateas. During the 
 last decade or so English and American mining companies 
 
 18 
 
Nearly all the emeralds in the world come from Colombia, where far 
 centuries gangs of Indians have been getting out gem-bearing quartz 
 from pits and terraces in the mountain sides. 
 
A mountainous country of countless rivers, Colombia has almost un- 
 limited water-power. With the increase in mining operations and the 
 development of the cities, some of the streams are being dammed and put 
 to work. 
 
A MODERN CAVE OF ALADDIN 
 
 have installed modern dredgers, dams, and placer-mining 
 equipment costing millions of dollars. 
 
 Nearly all the Indian tribes have more or less gold, 
 which, like the rest of us, they try to keep. To make the 
 Indians give up their hoards, sometimes the priests have 
 set up images of saints supposed to cure diseases provided 
 the supplicants made suitable offerings. If a man had a 
 sore leg he moulded a leg of gold, the size of his little 
 finger or larger, and presented it to the saint. If the 
 afflicted member became well, the Indian was naturally 
 convinced that the saint did the work and that the cure 
 was worth what it cost. 
 
 Another story I hear is about the sacred Lake of Gua- 
 tavita. That lake lies far back in the interior and high up 
 in the mountains two miles above sea level. It covers a 
 deposit of mud thirty feet deep, which is believed to con- 
 tain gold images, gold plates, and gold dust, thrown there 
 by the Indians as offerings to their gods. The ceremony 
 was performed by the chief, who first took a bath in gold 
 dust. He was then put on a raft loaded with gold and 
 emeralds and rowed out to the centre of the lake, where his 
 subjects washed the gold dust from his body and threw the 
 other offerings into the water. 
 
 An enterprising Englishman conceived the idea of 
 draining the lake to recover its hidden treasure. This 
 was done after much labour and expense by driving a 
 tunnel through a small hill on its shores. But when the 
 water was drained off, the bottom of the lake was found 
 to be a mass of liquid mud, making the work already 
 done practically worthless. Nevertheless, long con- 
 tinued dredging in the ooze brought to the surface many 
 valuable evidences that the old Indian tradition was not 
 
 19 
 
LANDS OF THE ANDES AND THE DESERT 
 
 without foundation. At Panama I saw golden curios 
 ~ from Lake Guatavita, and I know that for many a year 
 golden images were dug up from its shores. 
 
 Colombia has long ranked second in the world in the 
 production of platinum. Indeed, during and after the 
 World War, owing to the shutting off of supplies from 
 Russia, this republic became the principal source of this 
 metal, and a movement was started for mining it on a 
 large scale. Practically the entire production, worth more 
 than three million dollars annually, is exported to the 
 United States. 
 
 The largest deposits of platinum are found in the 
 western part of the country, near the head waters of the 
 Atrato and the San Juan rivers. The several foreign 
 companies that are operating there have done much to 
 improve the healthfulness of those regions. Modern 
 and sanitary camps have been established, the jungle 
 undergrowth has been cut away, and large areas of land 
 have been drained to lessen the danger from mosqui- 
 toes. 
 
 Europe first knew of the existence of platinum in Colom- 
 bia when the Spanish traveller, Don Antonio de Ulloa, 
 upon his return from an expedition to the New World in 
 1735, told of finding it there. A few years later several 
 specimens of the ore were brought to England. They 
 were found along the River Pinto, and were called ‘ Pla- 
 tina de Pinto,” platina meaning “‘little silver.” 
 
 Platinum is always found with gold, and for years 
 after it was first discovered in 1737 it was thrown away in 
 gold-mining operations. When its value was realized, 
 frantic efforts were made to recover it. In the town of 
 Quibdo the earth of the streets and yards has been washed 
 
 20 
 
A MODERN CAVE OF ALADDIN: 
 
 to get out the discarded metal, and one man extracted 
 nearly thirty thousand dollars’ worth from around the 
 foundations of his house. 
 
 Petroleum exists in many parts of Colombia, but at 
 present the most promising fields are in the Magdalena 
 Valley, along the Atrato River, and in the Jlanos toward 
 the Venezuelan frontier. The oil often is found on the 
 surface, seeping out through cracks in the earth. In 
 Antioquia is an oil geyser that spouts a stream of petro- 
 leum twenty feet high. In parts of the tropical jungle 
 are places where the natives collect crude oil, which they 
 burn in earthenware lamps. The oil from the petroleum 
 springs along the Sinu River is of sufficiently high grade 
 to be used in an ordinary kerosene lamp. 
 
 The existence of oil in Colombia was until recently a 
 matter of interest only to geologists, but the increasing use 
 of petroleum products has led the principal oil compa- 
 nies of the world to acquire drilling rights on millions of 
 acres of Colombian land. One of the largest American 
 oil corporations has established a refinery at Barranca 
 Bermeja on the Magdalena River, and is shipping kerosene 
 and gasoline to various parts of the country. It has 
 built large receiving stations along the river and plans to 
 lay a pipe line to the coast as a means of getting the oil 
 to foreign markets. The petroleum deposits will probably 
 not be developed to their fullest extent, however, until a 
 change is made in the present laws of the republic, which 
 are now designed to protect national rights rather than to 
 attract foreign capital. 
 
 In addition to its untold wealth in precious metals, 
 Colombia now produces practically all of the world’s 
 supply of emeralds. From earliest recorded times these 
 
 21 
 
LANDS OF THE ANDES AND THE DESERT 
 
 _ gems have been regarded as even more valuable than dia- 
 monds. They were formerly believed to have super- 
 natural powers and were supposed to drive away evil 
 spirits from the owners. Some of the ancients thought 
 that looking at an emerald benefited the eyesight. Other 
 powers attributed to the gem were giving the wearer 
 eloquence of speech, exposing falsehoods, and making 
 snakes blind. 
 
 The emerald mines of Colombia have been famous for 
 many centuries. They belong to the State and are worked 
 through concessions or leases. Individuals are prohibited 
 from claiming any gems they may discover, unless they 
 hold permits to work the deposits and pay a heavy royalty 
 to the government. No stranger is allowed to approach 
 the mines without permission from the Minister of Fi- 
 nance, under whose jurisdiction they are placed, and 
 labourers are carefully searched before being allowed to 
 leave the property. 
 
 The most important mines are those of Muzo, about 
 ninety miles north of Bogota. They are located in a 
 dense jungle of the Central Cordillera, miles from any 
 settlement, although the remains of two cathedrals and 
 several other buildings indicate that there was once a 
 large city there. The mines are protected by a dozen 
 guard houses on hills overlooking the workings. The 
 precious stones are found in the bow] of an extinct volcano. 
 They are dug out by Indians, who break up the rock 
 along the terraced hillsides, uncovering the trail of green 
 quartz containing the crystals. This quartz is taken out 
 with great care, and after the emeralds are removed the 
 débris falls into a sluiceway where it is washed off by 
 water dropping from the higher levels of the mine. After 
 
 22 
 
 _—_— OO, EEE ee 
 
With only about one thousand miles of railroads, 
 Colombia is carried mostly on muleback, over roads 
 little improved since the days of the Spaniards. 
 
 overland freight in 
 that have been but 
 
= emake 
 
 The citizen of Guayaquil, like nearly all Latin Americans, has a strain 
 of sporting blood in his veins and dearly loves a horse race. In some 
 cities racing is becoming more popular than the bull-fight. 
 
A MODERN CAVE OF ALADDIN 
 
 the water is drained away the gravelly sediment is again 
 searched for gems. 
 
 The Duke of Devonshire, the most valuable emerald 
 known, was found in such gravel. This stone was about 
 two inches long, two inches thick, and weighed a little more 
 than a half pound. Another famous gem, the Hope emerald, 
 also came from Colombia. Its weight was six ounces. 
 There is a tradition that Cortes got from the Aztecs an 
 emerald worth forty thousand ducats, and that another the 
 size of an ostrich egg came from Peru, where the Indians 
 worshipped it as a goddess. 
 
 The Colombian mines were first worked by the Indians 
 before the arrival of white men in South America. After 
 the conquest by the Spaniards, the natives were driven 
 into tunnels in the hillsides and forced to dig for emeralds. 
 On account of the underground dampness and cold, they 
 usually died within a few months or a year. Food was 
 thrown to them as long as they produced emeralds, but if 
 they failed to find any gems they were allowed to die of 
 starvation. 
 
 Later, many of the mines were abandoned and remained 
 hidden in the jungle for more than a hundred years. They 
 were rediscovered near the end of the nineteenth century. 
 Until a few years ago the skeletons of the victims of the 
 cruel treatment of the Spanish conquerors were still being 
 dug up in the new workings. To-day the Colombian 
 government gives the miners every reasonable comfort, 
 and if it were not for the unhealthful climate they would 
 be well off. 
 
 The Muzo group of mines has yielded eight hundred 
 thousand carats of emeralds in a year, of which about one 
 third are first class, more than one half second class, 
 
 23 
 
LANDS OF THE ANDES AND THE DESERT 
 
 and the remainder of lower grades. Recently the output 
 of many rich mines has been kept down to prevent over- 
 production and a glutting of the market. 
 
 Coal exists in almost every part of Colombia, copper is 
 found in large quantities, and there are vast untouched 
 deposits of iron, tin, lead, and nickel. Under Spanish 
 rule the mines were exploited by slave labour, and when 
 the despotic power passed away production was limited to 
 the supply of domestic needs. It is only within recent 
 years that modern progress has roused Colombia, like a 
 sleeping princess, to arise and gather up her jewels. 
 
 24 
 
CHAPTER IV 
 GUAYAQUIL 
 
 HE city of Guayaquil! How shall | describe it? 
 
 It is one of the strangest places in the world. The 
 
 chief gateway to the republic of Ecuador, it lies 
 
 seventy miles up the wide Guayas River, and is 
 almost on the Equator. It is frowned upon by the snowy 
 peaks of Chimborazo and Cotopaxi, the latter the highest 
 active volcano in the world, and it is bathed in the moist, 
 miasmatic air of the tropics. Seen from the river, it 
 reminds one of Venice along the Grand Canal; upon the 
 wharves the scenes make one think of Naples; while its 
 business sections include a maze of bazaars like those of 
 Cairo, Calcutta, or Bombay, as well as broad streets lined 
 with the plate-glass windows of modern stores. 
 
 The people are of many types. Well-dressed men and 
 women pass to and fro, workmen labour at their trades in 
 the open, and porters carry bales and bags on their backs. 
 Everywhere we see piles of cacao beans drying in the 
 sun, stirred now and then by the feet of half-grown 
 youngsters. | 
 
 When I was here before, Guayaquil had hundreds of 
 donkeys. I saw one with a load of boards strapped to its 
 sides so that it looked as though it were walking between 
 walls of pine planks, and another with panniers containing 
 loaves of bread slung across its back. To-day on those 
 streets automobiles and motor trucks are speeding by. 
 
 25 
 
LANDS OF THE ANDES AND THE DESERT 
 
 Their use has increased rapidly since the cobblestones have 
 been removed and the streets paved with asphalt. 
 
 Guayaquil to-day is in every respect a well-ordered city, 
 and has a good police force. Ona former visit I was kept 
 awake during my first few nights here by the policemen 
 shouting that they were awake. Every man on watch 
 was required by regulation to cry out or whistle at in- 
 intervals of a quarter of an hour. The cry was: “El 
 sentinel es alerto,’ and the whistle was a combination 
 more wonderful than anything except the noise of the 
 Guayaquil frogs, which screamed out “‘hi-hi-hi’ all night 
 long. One of the policemen almost dropped his gun 
 on my foot one day as | attempted to pass behind him. 
 ] afterward learned that a person was supposed to pass in 
 front of a policeman and not between him and the wall. 
 Another regulation in force during times of revolution was 
 that all persons out after eleven o’clock in the evening 
 had to be prepared to give an account of themselves. 
 The challenge was: ‘‘ Who goes there?” and if your answers 
 did not satisfy the police you were taken to jail. 
 
 In coming to Guayaquil, I entered the estuary of the 
 Guayas River just opposite the island of Puna, on which 
 Pizarro landed on his way south to conquer Peru. With 
 most of his men he had landed farther north and pro- 
 ceeded southward by overland marches, his vessels follow- 
 ing him just off the coast. Many of his soldiers were 
 landed on the island by means of the native rafts of balsa 
 wood. The Indians of Puna at first accorded the Span- 
 iards every hospitality, but later hostilities broke out, 
 and hundreds of men were slaughtered. Finally, with the 
 arrival of two more vessels carrying reinforcements of men 
 and horses, Pizarro left the island and landed on the 
 
 26 
 
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GUAYAQUIL 
 
 mainland again at the port of Tumbez near the present 
 boundary between Peru and Ecuador. 
 
 Some of the largest vessels anchor here, discharging their 
 passengers and cargoes in lighters. Our steamer drew 
 less than twenty-two feet of water and so we could go on 
 up the river. Skirting the island, we came into the Gulf 
 of Guayaquil, which forms the mouth of the river. The 
 estuary is six miles wide at this point, and as we steamed 
 along we seemed to be passing through an inland sea. 
 The water was of the colour and the thickness of yellow 
 pea soup. It was spotted with patches of green—great 
 trees and other débris from the Andes being carried down 
 to the sea. 
 
 At Guayaquil the river is wider than the Mississippi ac 
 St. Louis. It furnishes a safe harbour and is usually filled 
 with craft of all kinds, from ocean-going steamers to the 
 dugouts, rafts, and cargo boats used by the Indians. 
 The wharves are crowded with men and women who have 
 brought fruit and other things to sell. Among their 
 wares are papayas, or melons that grow on trees. In size 
 and in their rich yellow meat they seem much like our 
 muskmelons. The thin-skinned, juicy Ecuadorian oranges 
 are as sweet as any I| have ever tasted, and the pineapples 
 from the hot coast lands sometimes weigh as much as 
 twenty-five pounds. | 
 
 Many of the Indians have for sale Panama hats, hun- 
 dreds of thousands of which are woven by hand each 
 year by the natives. The quality and style vary accord- 
 ing to the locality from which they come, but even the 
 very best are sold at much lower prices than in the United 
 States. 
 
 The Guayas is to South America what the Columbia is 
 
 27 
 
LANDS OF THE ANDES AND THE DESERT 
 
 to North America. It is the largest river on the western 
 side of the continent, and the outlet of the great network 
 of streams that flow down from the Andes. During the 
 rainy season from December to May, they convert much 
 of the country into a vast lake. Then boats like those on 
 the Ohio or the Mississippi can travel two hundred and 
 fifty miles farther inland from here. They make the 
 rounds of the villages and the plantations, and bring out 
 cacao, ivory, nuts, sugar, coffee, and rubber. Nine tenths 
 of all the foreign commerce of Ecuador passes through 
 Guayaquil, and since the improvement of the port its 
 traffic is steadily increasing. The opening of the Panama 
 Canal brought the city within only eight days of New 
 York and stimulated trade with the United States. We 
 now furnish more than half the imports of Ecuador, and 
 take three fourths of its exports. We supply most of its 
 cotton goods, and compete with Great Britain in the sale 
 of machinery and woollens. We lead in selling it boots 
 and shoes, and also lard, wheat, flour, and coal. 
 
 When I first visited Guayaquil it was a town of forty 
 thousand inhabitants. It has now one hundred thousand 
 people or more, and with its growth has acquired electric 
 lighting and street-railway systems. It hasa university, a 
 theatre, and several moving-picture houses. Indeed, our 
 “movies” are very popular here, and though most of the 
 streets are deserted at night, there are always crowds in 
 the neighbourhood of a ‘“‘movie’”’ theatre. The streets 
 of Guayaquil have been widened and many modern build- 
 ings erected. Some of them are of two or three stories, 
 covered with stucco, and painted all the colours of the 
 rainbow. Many of the older buildings have balconies that 
 extend out over the street, and not a few have galleries 
 
 28 
 
GUAYAQUIL 
 
 along the second story. The balconies are walled with 
 windows through the half-closed shutters of which there 
 may be dark-eyed beauties looking down upon us as we 
 pass by. 
 
 The city has several banks, sugar mills, rice factories, 
 and coffee hullers. There are large stores filled with fine 
 goods, and great warehouses stacked high with bags of 
 cacao, coffee, and sugar awaiting shipment. Cables 
 connect Guayaquil with all parts of the world. It has 
 telephone service with long-distance connections with 
 Quito, almost three hundred miles away in the Andes. 
 One of Guayaquil’s newspapers, El Telégrafo, inaugurated 
 an airplane service to Quito mainly for the quick delivery 
 of newspapers to the capital city. A military aviation 
 school, with Italian pilots as instructors, has been es- 
 tablished in the province of Guayas. A French syndicate 
 has a thirty-year concession for the operation of the tele- 
 phone, the telegraph, and the radio systems of Ecuador. 
 The government pays the company an annual subsidy of 
 at least two hundred and fifty thousand dollars, and 
 shares in any profits that may be made. 
 
 The eradication of yellow fever, malaria, and other con- 
 tagious diseases in Guayaquil was one of the great achieve- 
 ments of the twentieth century in the field of sanitation. 
 This city long had a death rate higher than that of any 
 other place in the world, and was known all over the 
 globe as “‘the pest hole of the Pacific.” Because of the 
 almost continual presence of yellow fever, malaria, and 
 even the bubonic plague, this port was dreaded by ship- 
 ping men, and was regarded as a menace to the success of 
 the Panama Canal. During the rainy season the town 
 used to be flooded with stagnant water, which the authori- 
 
 29 
 
LANDS OF THE ANDES AND THE DESERT 
 
 ties were so afraid of stirring up that it was against the 
 law to drive a cart or carriage through the streets without 
 a special permit from the police. Winter was the most 
 dangerous season of Guayaquil—the season of yellow 
 fever and malaria—when death hovered over the town 
 and the doctors made enough money to pay for summer 
 vacations in Europe. The water lay all about in pools 
 upon which floated a thick coat of green slime. In 
 summer, the unpaved streets were filled with dust, and 
 the donkeys wore pantalets to protect them from the bites 
 of gadflies and mosquitoes. 
 
 In the great yellow fever epidemic at Panama in °1905 
 it was thought that the infection came from Guayaquil, 
 although the Ecuadorians say this isnot true. The spread 
 of the disease cost the lives of some of the officials in 
 charge of building the Canal. I was at Panama several 
 weeks during the height of the epidemic, and frequently, 
 after having had dinner with a man, I would hear a few 
 days later that he had been stricken, and perhaps a week 
 later that he was dead. 
 
 Another danger at Guayaquil was from malaria, which, 
 you will remember, caused so many deaths on the Isthmus 
 at the time of the building of the Panama railroad. This 
 the Ecuadorians call perniciosa, and it is known to the 
 Panamans as Chagres fever. I once experienced a severe 
 attack of it in this part of the world. Guayaquil was 
 avoided by ships also because of the bubonic plague, which 
 first broke out here in 1908. The moment a traveller 
 landed he was grabbed by the doctor and a plague serum 
 injected into his arm. He then was given a certificate 
 showing that he had been vaccinated, and he had to pro- 
 duce this before he was allowed to go into the interior. 
 
 30 
 
 bs at ee a 
 
 ly ee ee: A 
 
ven, 
 
 In the older portions of Guayaquil many houses have walls of split 
 bamboo, with removable sections. The more modern buildings are 
 made of wood and covered with plaster in imitation of stone. 
 
Products of Ecuador’s forests and farms are rafted down 
 tributary to the Guayas, which affords the chief outlet for the 
 
 of the country. 
 
 the rivers 
 commerce 
 
 anneal 
 
GUAYAQUIL 
 
 The towns swarmed with rats, the fleas from which 
 carried the plague. Most of the houses stood close to the 
 ground and had wooden floors under which the rats could 
 burrow. 
 
 During my travels in China and India I have encoun- 
 tered many epidemics of bubonic plague. I visited Hong- 
 kong and Canton when the people were dying at the rate 
 of so many hundreds a day that sixty thousand coffins 
 had to be furnished by charitable associations to bury the 
 dead. The plague in China was spread by rat fleas, and 
 it raged with devastating fury in the densely built warrens 
 of the Chinese at Hongkong. It was this plague that 
 broke out in Europe again and again in the years between 
 the sixth and the eighteenth centuries, and is said to have 
 caused more deaths than any other epidemic that has 
 populated the graveyards of man. This also was the pest 
 that Daniel DeFoe described in his story of the great black 
 plague in London of 1665 and 1666. The terrible infection 
 is believed to have been spread over the world from China. 
 
 The work of cleaning up Guayaquil was begun under 
 the direction of General William C. Gorgas, the United 
 States Army surgeon who made Havana and the Canal 
 Zone safe for Americans. It was brought to a successful 
 completion in codperation with the Rockefeller Founda- 
 tion. Millions of dollars were spent, and the city was 
 almost rebuilt. The docks and wharves, where countless 
 rats lived, were torn down and new ones constructed, and 
 drains and sewers were laid to carry away the stagnant 
 pools, the breeding places of the Anopheles, or malaria 
 mosquito. A water system was installed, and water is 
 now piped from the mountains, fifty-three miles away, to 
 a reservoir on one of the hills north of the city. 
 
 31 
 
LANDS OF THE ANDES AND THE DESERT 
 
 The Stegomyia, or yellow-fever mosquito, unlike the 
 Anopheles, does not like dirty water, but is fond of rain 
 barrels. Experiments showed that certain kinds of fish 
 would eat the larve of this mosquito, and a law was passed 
 requiring that at least one fish be kept in every rain barrel 
 or other small water container. This regulation, together 
 with the screening or sealing of the larger tanks, proved 
 an effective means of eliminating the yellow-fever mosquito 
 and thereby putting an end to the epidemics. 
 
 In the meantime, the scientists codperating with the 
 Ecuadorian government were successful in isolating the 
 fever germ and producing a vaccine to fight the disease. 
 This vaccine, administered before the third day after a 
 person had been bitten by a yellow-fever mosquito, re- 
 duced the mortality from fifty-six to thirteen per cent., 
 while people who had been twice vaccinated were entirely 
 immune from contagion. 
 
 But before we leave Guayaquil let me tell you some- 
 thing about the republic of Ecuador. Its name means 
 “Equator,” and this land, called after the hot girdle en- 
 circling the waist of Mother Earth, lies wholly in the 
 tropics. It forms a triangle on the west coast of South 
 America, wedged between Colombia, Brazil, and Peru. 
 Its shape is somewhat like that of a fan, with its handle in 
 northern Brazil and its scalloped rim washed by the Pacific 
 Ocean. 
 
 Ecuador is one of the least known of all the South 
 American republics. Parts of it have never been surveyed, 
 and estimates of its area vary from the size of California 
 to that of Texas. The best authorities place it at one 
 hundred and sixteen thousand square miles, which is about 
 equal to Ohio, Virginia, and Indiana combined. Ecuador 
 
 32 
 
GUAYAQUIL 
 
 and her neighbours have never been able to agree as to her 
 boundaries, and there are maps showing six different 
 frontiers. 
 
 The country is divided naturally into three distinct 
 zones. Along the Pacific is the tropical coast region, next 
 is the land of mountains and plateaus known as the Mon- 
 tafia, and east of the Andes are the vast stretches of al- 
 most unexplored territory called the Oriente. The coast 
 lands are low, and tropical vegetation extends for about 
 eighty miles back from the ocean to the foot-hills of the 
 Andes. The mountains cross the country from north to 
 south in two mighty ranges, upholding between them a 
 series of beautiful valleys in which nine tenths of the people 
 live. These valleys have a greater elevation above sea 
 level than Mexico City and a climate like that of New 
 York or Ohio in June. They are walled by some of the 
 greatest volcanoes in the world. There are twenty-one 
 volcanic peaks from three to four miles in height, and 
 seventeen others more than two miles high. Ten of them 
 are more or less active, and at times the air here at Guaya- 
 quil is filled with ashes from their eruptions. To with- 
 stand the occasional earthquakes, many of the houses are 
 small and built of wooden timbers so joined together that 
 they can sway with the trembling of the earth and not 
 give way. | 
 
 The tropical wilderness of the Oriente extends to the 
 tributaries of the Amazon, and some of Ecuador’s streams 
 flow into that mighty river. A railway from the plateau 
 to one of the rivers emptying into the Amazon is planned. 
 Such a line would open up a rich mining region and lands 
 suitable for growing sugar cane, cacao, cotton, and coffee. 
 
 As in Colombia, the minerals of Ecuador have never 
 
 33 
 
LANDS OF THE ANDES AND THE DESERT 
 
 been exploited to any extent. The Zaruma gold mines 
 are important, and in Canar are large silver deposits. 
 The highlands are known to be rich in coal, copper, iron, 
 lead, and platinum, while sulphur exists on the slopes of 
 Mount Chimborazo and in the Galapagos Islands. Salt 
 is found in several provinces and mined as a government 
 monopoly, and in recent years petroleum has been pro- 
 duced in increasing quantities in the oil fields of Santa 
 Elena. 
 
 34 
 
i ll 
 
 _After the cacao bean is harvested it must be dried in the sun before 
 being sent to the chocolate mills of the world. One fourth of the Ecuador 
 crop, or about twenty-five million pounds, goes to the United States, 
 
With machetes and knives fastened to long poles, the cacao harvest- 
 ers gather the beans from which our chocolate and cocoa are made, 
 This crop furnishes Ecuador’s chief export commodity. 
 
CHAPTER V 
 A LAND OF CACAO 
 
 HAVE just returned from a visit to a town where 
 
 to-day the streets are crossed by bridges and the house- 
 
 wives go to market in canoes. I started from Guaya- 
 
 quil in an American-built steamer for the river port of 
 Bodegas, forty miles away at the foot of the Andes. Soon 
 after leaving Guayaquil we passed the mouth of the Daule 
 River and a few hours later came into the Bodegas River, 
 the headstream of the Guayas. We sailed up that river 
 all night and early in the morning came to anchor among 
 the houses of Bodegas, which seem to float upon the 
 water. , 
 
 For most of the year Bodegas is the head of navigation 
 of the Guayas, but now, during the rainy season, small 
 river boats can go two hundred miles farther inland. The 
 town has a population of five thousand, and is an impor- 
 tant transhipping point between Guayaquil and the in- 
 terior. It is located in a region rich in cacao, sugar cane, 
 rice, and minerals. 
 
 When we arrived at Bodegas | was carried ashore on the 
 shoulders of a half-naked Indian, and crossed from street 
 to street on bridges of logs. In the lower parts of the 
 town the houses are built on stilts, and in dry seasons 
 the ground underneath is occupied by chickens, donkeys, 
 and cattle. At the time of the floods these animals are 
 
 35 
 
LANDS OF THE ANDES AND THE DESERT 
 
 kept in the houses with the people or upon rafts moored to 
 the piles and rising and falling with the water. 
 
 Hundreds of the houses can be reached only in canoes, 
 and the children go to school in boats. The poorer Indian 
 homes consist of little more than one room about six feet 
 square, usually ten feet above the ground, and reached by a 
 ladder outside. The women do their cooking in clay pots 
 over a charcoal fire built in a box filled with earth. The 
 chief food is the potato-like tuber known as the yucca, and 
 plantains or large bananas. Much rice is eaten; it is 
 cooked with lard, most of which is imported from the 
 United States. 7 
 
 There is no privacy whatever in these homes. Men 
 and women, boys and girls, and wives and maidens all herd 
 together, sleeping in the same clothes they wear during 
 the day, and lying indiscriminately on the floor or in the 
 hammocks. These hammocks, made of woven fibres, are 
 not only the common beds of many of the Indians of 
 Ecuador, but are also widely used in neighbouring coun- 
 tries. The usual bathroom is a floating shed with holes 
 in its floor, through which one may dip himself into the 
 river, with the possibility of losing a leg by the nip of an 
 alligator. 
 
 The business section of Bodegas is on a strip of elevated 
 land, so that the shops are free from water. Here the 
 buildings are of wood, the larger ones two stories high, 
 with cave-like stores on the ground floor and living 
 quarters above. Pavements and other modern improve- 
 ments are unknown, and there are neither gutters nor 
 sewers. There is not a chimney in the town. Neither 
 have I seen any glass windows, the second-floor rooms 
 being ventilated by latticework around the ceiling. The 
 
 36 
 
 a meee a 
 
A LAND OF CACAO 
 
 front walls of the lower stories are movable, and are 
 thrown back in the daytime so that, as in the houses of 
 Japan, one can see all that goes on within. 
 
 I was at a loss to make myself understood in Bodegas, 
 as my Spanish was lame. At last I learned that an 
 American carpenter and undertaker named Klein lived 
 there. I found him among his coffins. He left his work 
 and together we went to visit one of the biggest planta- 
 tions in Ecuador, the owner of which has great herds 
 of cattle and horses and sells hundreds of thousands 
 of pounds of cacao beans every year. Most of the 
 country-side was under water, so we went to the plantation 
 in a dugout about thirty feet long and about three feet 
 wide. It was poled and sculled by two lusty, brown- 
 skinned gondoliers, one of whom stood at each end. Mr. 
 Klein sat in the bottom and I was given a place beside 
 him and told to hold myself steady. 
 
 We were pushed along through the wide streets of 
 water lined with floating huts, and on into the tropical 
 forest. We glided among the treetops, now grazing a 
 great black alligator and now chattered at by monkeys 
 that made faces at us as they scampered away. The 
 woods were full of strange birds which fluttered about 
 with shrill cries as we passed. We had a shot at one, a 
 beautiful creature the size of a pigeon, with a blood-red 
 bill, long legs of golden yellow, and feathers of royal 
 purple. I fired also at an alligator but the canoe rocked 
 as I stood up, and the monster dived down unharmed. 
 Mr. Klein told me that on the highlands he often bagged a 
 deer and sometimes a jaguar or a wild hog, and that among 
 the mountains were to be found all kinds of beautiful 
 humming birds in great numbers. 
 
 37 
 
LANDS OF THE ANDES AND THE DESERT 
 
 The trip was wonderfully beautiful. Under us was 
 twelve feet of water, covering what a few weeks before 
 had been dry land. The partly submerged trees formed 
 a thick arbour of shade as we wound in and out among 
 them. Now we moved along a narrow canal of green, 
 and now out into a great foliage-walled chamber, where 
 every branch was loaded with orchids—rare blooms 
 that would be worth thousands of dollars in New York. 
 There were insects everywhere, bugs and ants of every 
 kind falling upon us as we floated onward. My com- 
 panion told me that once a boa-constrictor dropped into 
 his boat from the branches of a tree overhead. 
 
 In this dense tropical vegetation were rubber trees, 
 trees loaded with alligator pears, and here and there a tall 
 palm lifting its great head high over the forest. The 
 silence was oppressive, the soft air heavy, and the lapping 
 of the water against the sides of the canoe invited one to 
 sleep. Occasionally a dugout containing an Indian family 
 passed us, or a great cargo boat loaded with cacao moved 
 by on its way to the market. 
 
 Nearly all the country over which we travelled was the 
 property of the planter we were to visit, and most of it 
 was flooded. Even the grazing lands of the plantation 
 were under water, but the herds had been taken to the 
 highlands at the foot of the Andes. We came upon the 
 planter’s house in a wide waste of waters, with the tops 
 of fence posts sticking up above the surface. We paddled 
 over the fences, passing tenant houses of bamboo thatched 
 with palm leaves and built upon stilts. Under each 
 house was a platform, just clear of the water, on which 
 the family chickens and pigs lived within six inches of 
 drowning. We passed a floating butcher-shop, went by 
 
 38 
 
On the small farms lying in the narrow valleys below Quito, or clinging 
 to the steep mountain sides, the fruits and vegetables of both the tem- 
 perate and tropical zones are grown, for the climate is hot or cool 
 according to altitude. 
 
The world’s loftiest active volcano is Cotopaxi, nearly four miles high 
 Sometimes its heat, by melting the snow on the sides of the peak, causes 
 disastrous floods in the lowlands. 
 
 Because of its lightness, the wood of the balsa tree has become a com- 
 petitor of cork. The Ecuadorians use the logs to make rafts, which they 
 operate not only on the river but along the sea coast. 
 
A LAND OF CACAO 
 
 a great barn on piles, made our way through a number of 
 cacao boats, and sailed over the front gate up to the 
 second-floor level of a large white three-story building sur- 
 rounded by wide verandas. 
 
 The owner met us at the door. He ordered our boat 
 tied to the veranda and invited us to come in and make 
 ourselves at home. A moment later food and wine were 
 placed before us. The daughters of the house were called 
 in, and we drank to the better relations of our countries 
 and continents. Later a servant was sent after fresh 
 coconuts. We drained their sweet milk from the shell 
 and then went out in canoes to look over the property. 
 
 From what I have learned in talking with the cacao 
 exporters in Guayaquil, together with what I saw with my 
 own eyes on that inundated plantation, I can tell you the 
 whole story of the product without which we could not 
 have chocolate candies to eat or cocoa to drink. 
 
 Until I came here I had an idea that the beans from 
 which chocolate is made grew on bushes, and I was sur- 
 prised to learn that they come from an evergreen tree that 
 reaches a height of twenty or thirty feet, although it is 
 usually kept lower by trimming. Its large glossy leaves 
 are chiefly on the ends of the branches, but sometimes 
 on the trunk. The pinkish-white blossoms and. the 
 short-stemmed fruit grow on the trunk and on the main 
 branches. When mature the fruit is of the shape of a 
 squash, usually six or eight inches long and six inches 
 thick, and yellow or reddish in colour. It has a thick, 
 hard, warty shell, inside which are light-brown seeds, or 
 beans, which form the cacao of commerce. The beans 
 are about as big as almonds and a little thicker. Each 
 has a thin outer coating inside which is a dark-brown 
 
 39 
 
LANDS OF THE ANDES AND THE DESERT 
 
 kernel. It is from the kernel that our chocolate is made. 
 There are twenty or thirty and sometimes forty seeds in 
 one fruit. | 
 
 In raising cacao the seeds are planted in nurseries, and 
 after the trees are a foot or more high they are trans- 
 planted, about two hundred and fifty being set out to the 
 acre. At first they are shaded by banana plants to keep 
 off the hot rays of the sun. The ground is thoroughly 
 cultivated until the trees are five years old, when they 
 begin to bear fruit. They continue to bear for twenty or 
 thirty years. The average yield for a tree is about three 
 pounds of beans a year, although some trees produce more. 
 Five or six hundred pounds to the acre is considered a good 
 crop. 
 
 The fruit is harvested by being cut from the trees with 
 sharp knives fastened to long poles so as to reach high 
 above the ground. Later the seeds are taken out, dried 
 in the sun, and shipped to the market. Cacao is the 
 principal agricultural product of Ecuador, and constitutes 
 eighty per cent. of its export trade. This country is out- 
 ranked only by Brazil and the Gold Coast of Africa in 
 the amount of cacao it produces every year. The total 
 area of its cacao plantations is more than three hundred 
 thousand acres, and the annual crop amounts to almost a 
 hundred million pounds. Practically all of it is exported 
 and one fourth goes to the United States. 
 
 Some years ago a number of leading cacao growers and 
 business men here founded the Agricultural Association of 
 Ecuador, a body similar to our rice and cotton growers’ 
 organizations in the United States. The Association is 
 authorized by the government to collect a tax of fifty 
 cents gold on every one hundred pounds of cacao exported. 
 
 40 
 
A LAND OF CACAO 
 
 This money is applied to a fund that is used to better work- 
 ing conditions, for experiments to improve the quality 
 and quantity of the crop, and to suppress speculation and 
 monopolies. Membership in the organization assures 
 the planters a fair profit on their crops, for when the 
 market price of cacao falls to a point that the Association 
 considers too low, it buys the crop and stores it until the 
 price has risen. 
 
 Smaller organizations have been formed in the various 
 provinces to modernize planting and harvesting methods 
 and to secure a higher quality in other crops besides cacao. 
 Better seeds have been introduced into the country for 
 coffee, rice, cotton, and peanuts, and selected live stock 
 for breeding purposes is being imported. 
 
 Probably the largest cacao plantation in Ecuador is the 
 Caamafio Tenguel Estate, sixty miles from Guayaquil. 
 It is owned by a British syndicate, and produces about 
 one fifteenth of the total cacao output of the republic. 
 It really is made up of eight separate plantations, covering 
 altogether a half million acres. Besides its three and a 
 half million cacao trees, the estate raises also coffee, sugar, 
 bananas, and rubber, and has more than a thousand head 
 of cattle. It supports the progressive little town of 
 Tenguel, which has modern homes for the employees, a 
 church, a school house, a club, and a physician to look 
 after the health of the workers and their families. It has 
 its own fire brigade, waterworks, electric light plant, and a 
 private telephone system connecting all parts of the 
 several plantations. 
 
 It was some four hundred years ago that chocolate was 
 first drunk in Europe, where it was introduced by Cortes 
 soon after his conquest of Mexico in 1519. He and his 
 
 41 
 
LANDS OF THE ANDES AND THE DESERT | 
 
 band of conquistadors found cacao beans being used as 
 money in Mexico. Ten beans was the price of a rabbit, 
 while a fairly good slave might be had for a hundred. No 
 less than two thousand jars of chocolate were made every 
 day for the Emperor Montezuma and his court. The 
 monarch’s drink was flavoured with vanilla and chilis and 
 beaten into a froth. He drank it from a golden goblet 
 and stirred it with a tortoise-shell spoon. Pizarro found 
 the Incas enjoying the same drink in Peru. 
 
 The Spaniards readily took to the new beverage, and 
 from Spain chocolate drinking quickly spread to France, 
 Germany, and Italy. By 1665 it had become a feature 
 of the court life of the “Merry Monarch,” Charles II, 
 of England. Only the wealthy could have indulged in 
 it then, for a pound cost the equivalent of five dollars in 
 our money. Cardinal Richelieu, the great prime minister 
 of Louis XIII, found that it marvellously restored his 
 vitality. The Spanish princess, Maria Theresa, was said 
 by one historian of her time to have but two passions: 
 her husband, Louis XIV, and chocolate. Its stock went 
 down, though, when Madame de Coétlogon, one of the 
 ladies of the court, had a child ‘‘as black as the devil’ 
 because of the quantities of chocolate she had drunk. And 
 in 1673 the English brewers and grain growers demanded 
 the prohibition of chocolate along with rum, brandy, and 
 tea, because the popularity of these drinks cut down the 
 consumption of drinks brewed from good old British 
 barley. The prohibitionists were unsuccessful, however, 
 and England and the rest of Europe continued to sip its 
 chocolate. 
 
 While cacao is the chief source of income of Ecuador, 
 coffee and rubber are also important in its trade with the 
 
 42 
 
A LAND OF CACAO 
 
 rest of the world. The coffee grown in this country is 
 especially popular in Europe, where some four million 
 pounds of it are consumed every year. As to rubber, it is 
 now being produced here under plantation methods, and 
 more than a million trees have been set out. With in- 
 tensive and scientific cultivation, there is no reason why 
 Ecuador should not compete with Malaysia as a source 
 of rubber. 
 
 Another great export of Ecuador is ivory nuts, which 
 come from a low palm tree known as the tagua. The fruit 
 is as large as a man’s head, and looks somewhat like a 
 huge chestnut bur. The bur contains from sixty to ninety 
 nuts, each the size of a baby’s fist. It is from these nuts 
 that we get our vegetable ivory, which in recent years has 
 become an important commodity. In the green state the 
 nuts are soft and jelly-like inside, but when ripe they are 
 as hard as bone throughout. They can be dyed any 
 colour, and take a high polish. 
 
 The ivory palm grows wild in the forests and the natives 
 travel through the woods to gather the nuts. There are 
 organized bands of taguaros, or ivory-nut gatherers, who 
 camp out in the swampy forests and bring the product in 
 boats to Guayaquil. The boats are usually rafts made 
 by the Indians of balsa wood, which is so light that two 
 men can carry a twenty-foot log two or three feet thick. 
 The nuts are carried to the rafts in rude baskets and then 
 floated down the rivers. Often they are delivered to an 
 agent who makes a business of furnishing outfits to 
 taguaros in return for most of their crops. 
 
 The United States buys twenty million pounds of ivory 
 nuts a year and turns them into buttons, paper knives, and 
 everything that can be made from vegetable ivory. 
 
 43 
 
LANDS OF THE ANDES AND THE DESERT 
 
 When the nuts come to the factory they look like small 
 potatoes. They are dried and the hard shells removed. 
 Next they are sawed into thin pieces, the slices being taken 
 off the sides until only the very centre, which is useless, 
 is left. As the slices of ivory are further dried, their bluish 
 white colour changes to a creamy hue, and they are ready 
 to be made into finished products. 
 
 Most of the buttons we use are from these palm nuts, 
 so that it may be truly said that Ecuador fastens together 
 the garments of America. 
 
CHAPTER VI 
 THE CAPITAL OF ECUADOR 
 
 INE tenths of the inhabitants of Ecuador live in 
 the clouds. There are a dozen towns twice as high 
 as Denver, and Quito is one of the highest capital 
 cities in the world. It is more than a half mile 
 
 higher than Mexico City, and a thousand feet nearer the 
 sky than the hospice of St. Bernard in the Alps, the 
 highest point in Europe where men live all the year round. 
 It is situated in a valley between two ranges of the Andes, 
 on the very roof of South America, and only about fifteen 
 miles from the Equator. 
 
 In 1897, when I made my first trip to Ecuador, one 
 could cross the Andes to Quito only on mules. The 
 round trip cost more than one hundred dollars, with an 
 additional charge for every pound of baggage. All goods 
 had to be carried on the backs of mules or men. At one 
 point I saw twenty-four Indians starting for Quito bearing 
 on their heads a piano in a great box. The cost of trans- 
 portation was almost equal to the original price of the 
 piano, and the freight on a small boiler shipped to Quito 
 was one hundred dollars. 
 
 There were then almost no roads over the mountains. 
 Men and mules toiled along narrow trails, forded rushing 
 streams, and often sank deep in mud. The ascents were 
 so steep in places that all one could do was to put his arms 
 around the neck of his mount and hold on for dear life. 
 
 45 
 
LANDS OF THE ANDES AND THE DESERT 
 
 Going down hill the mules sat on their haunches and slid. 
 As the Ecuadorians say, their “‘roads are for birds, not 
 men.’ Now there is a railroad from Guayaquil that 
 carries one comfortably and quickly over this region 
 of former discomfort, and Quito is readily accessible at all 
 times of the year. 
 
 Come with me for a journey over the route of the 
 Guayaquil and Quito Railroad. We cross the Guayas 
 River on a ferry early in the morning and by seven o’clock 
 have left the terminal at Duran and are moving through 
 the tropical lowlands. There are pastures containing 
 herds of fat cattle, cacao groves loaded with the squash- 
 like fruit hanging close to the trunks and branches, and 
 many little villages with houses on piles so that the first 
 floors have to be reached by ladders. These houses are 
 thatched with broad white leaves tied to a framework of 
 bamboo. The floors are of cane, and the cracks are so 
 many that the women do not need to sweep, for the dirt 
 falls through to the ground or the water. We pass 
 banana plantations, fields of sugar cane, and modern sugar 
 mills, go through forests loaded with orchids, and finally 
 stop at Bucay, which ts fifty-seven miles from Guayaquil. 
 Our wood-burning locomotive is now changed for one 
 built in Philadelphia that uses oil fuel, for here the Andes 
 begin to rise steeply before us. With the further develop- 
 ment of the oil fields of Ecuador, it is expected that none 
 but oil-burning locomotives will eventually be used. 
 
 The speed of the train so far has been not quite twelve 
 miles an hour, and we have risen to an altitude of less than 
 one thousand feet. In the next three hours we rise three 
 thousand feet more to Huigra, where the Americans in 
 charge of the railway have their homes and offices. It is 
 
 46 
 
Construction of the Guayaquil and Quito Railroad was a triumph of 
 American engineering skill. The “Devil’s Nose,” on the most difficult 
 part of the route, has three levels of track, one above the other. 
 
| 
 | 
 | 
 | 
 | 
 | 
 ; 
 é 
 
 As the capital of a country intensely devoted to the Catholic faith, 
 Quito has many fine churches, of which that of the Jesuits Is considered 
 the most beautiful in design and decoration. 
 
THE CAPITAL OF ECUADOR 
 
 Proposed to build a branch line from here to Cuenca, the 
 third city of Ecuador. From Huigra we go on up, up, 
 sighting Chimborazo, higher than our own Mount 
 McKinley in Alaska, and in the early evening reach Rio- 
 bamba. Here we spend the night, as travelling by dark- 
 ness is still considered dangerous in Ecuador. Our climb 
 is resumed the next morning, and during the day we go 
 over the pass at Urbina, the highest station on the road, 
 nearly twelve thousand feet above the sea. We reach 
 Quito late in the afternoon, at the end of a two-day journey 
 covering two hundred and eighty-six miles. 
 
 The building of the Guayaquil and Quito Railroad, like 
 most of the trans-Andean roads of South America, pre- 
 sented almost insurmountable difficulties. Atone place on 
 the route, known as the “‘Devil’s Nose,” the track proceeds 
 from one switchback to another over ground dangerous in 
 the extreme. The successful completion of the road is a 
 monument to the engineering skill and determination of 
 Archer Harman, the Virginian who conceived and built it. 
 A few years ago his nephew, bearing the same name, be- 
 came the president and general manager of the line. 
 
 Quito is walled in by some of the highest peaks of the 
 Andes. Just back of it is the active volcano, Pichincha, 
 its snow-capped peak so near the city that it furnishes 
 the ice for making Quito’s ice-cream. Pichincha has a 
 crater a half mile deep and a mile wide at the bottom. 
 It is a mile higher than Mount Etna; and its eruptions, 
 which occur at long intervals, are such stupendous blasts 
 from the fiery bowels of the earth that Mount Vesuvius 
 seems but a portable furnace in comparison. A fair road 
 has been built to its summit, from which twenty other 
 volcanoes are visible. 
 
 47 
 
LANDS OF THE ANDES AND THE DESERT 
 
 Let us hire an automobile and ride up Pichincha. At 
 the top we see all Quito spread out in the valley beneath 
 us. It is a city of white adobe houses roofed with red 
 tiles, with the towers of churches and monasteries rising 
 here and there. There are no chimneys, and the houses, 
 mostly of one or two stories, look squatty. They stand 
 along narrow streets that cross each other at nght angles. 
 Two deep ravines, one of which is arched over, divide the 
 city from east to west. In the centre is the Plaza Mayor, 
 a great square on which face the cathedral, the naa 
 ment palace, and the city hall. 
 
 Quito is one of the ancient seats of learning in Siuth 
 America. It has a university a half century older than 
 Harvard, a library, a museum, an astronomical observa- 
 tory, and a technical school. Its theatre is subsidized by 
 the government and is visited by troupes of players from 
 up and down the west coast. The special accommodations 
 for persons in mourning are an odd feature of the theatre. 
 They are boxes fitted with shutters so that the occupants 
 can look through the slats and watch the performance 
 or the audience without being seen themselves. When 
 in deep mourning the afflicted use only the slats, but later 
 the shutters are gradually opened. This custom reminds 
 me of the Chinese, who send out white cards at the death 
 of a relative to express great sorrow, and follow them a 
 few months later with blue cards labelled, “Grief not so 
 bitter as before.” 
 
 The city is not one third as large as it was three hundred 
 and fifty years ago, before the invasion of the Spaniards. 
 Then it had several hundred thousand people with a 
 better civilization, on the average, than the masses of 
 Ecuadorian Indians enjoy to-day. According to tradi- 
 
 48 
 
THE CAPITAL OF ECUADOR 
 
 tion, there was a town on the site of Quito a hundred 
 years before Christ was born, and it is known that a city 
 existed here in 1000 A. D. It had long been the capital 
 of an ancient Indian nation when it was captured by the 
 Incas, and it was the northern capital of that mighty race 
 when the city was taken by the Spaniards in 1534. This 
 was about a hundred years before the cows began to mark 
 out the streets of Boston. Atahualpa, the Inca monarch 
 who was captured and murdered by Pizarro, had a palace 
 at Quito, the roof of which, it is said, was covered with 
 pure gold. It is believed that vast quantities of the 
 treasures hidden by the Indians at that time are still 
 buried in Ecuador. 
 
 Quito has many Indians to-day, although most of its 
 people are whites. The Indians from the country for miles 
 around also come in to trade, and those seen on the 
 Streets are of a dozen different tribes, with as many pic- 
 turesque costumes. They have adopted the Christian 
 religion, and go from church to church saying their pray- 
 ers. Being extremely superstitious, they are controlled 
 largely by the priests. 
 
 Until recently Ecuador was entirely Catholic. Up 
 to the beginning of the twentieth century its national 
 constitution prohibited any other form of worship. 
 Since then laws have been passed giving full religious 
 liberty, and the Protestants have sent in missionaries who 
 have distributed tons of Bibles throughout the land. 
 However, the vast majority of the people probably will 
 always be Catholic. 
 
 One of the finest buildings in Quito is the Jesuit Church, 
 and the convent of San Francisco is said to be one of the 
 largest in the world. There are eleven monastic establish- 
 
 49 
 
LANDS OF THE ANDES AND THE DESERT 
 
 ments, six of which are nunneries, and religious processions 
 are frequently seen in the streets. The people of Quito 
 have contributed so generously to the Church that the 
 city has sometimes been called ‘‘The Little Mother of the 
 Pope.” 
 
 The government of Ecuador is vested in a president who 
 rules through a cabinet of five ministers and a council of 
 state. There is a congress elected by the people. The 
 president has the power of veto, but the congress can 
 pass a law over his veto. Just now the most pressing 
 public questions are the improvement of the ports and the 
 building of railroads. Means of transportation are so 
 poor in the interior that the mails to the Oriente are 
 carried only once a week, on horseback. In the past, 
 travellers from the regions east of the Andes have gone 
 almost around the continent to reach Quito. Rather 
 than make the journey across country over the, rough 
 mountain trails, they have gone down the Amazon to the 
 Atlantic, thence by steamer to Buenos Aires, and by the 
 Transandine Railway to Valparaiso, Chile. They there 
 took another steamer up the west coast to Guayaquil, 
 and made the last lap of the journey from that city up to 
 the capital. 
 
 Although the department of the Oriente occupies about 
 sixty per cent. of the entire area of Ecuador, its white 
 population, consisting chiefly of government officials, 
 numbers only a few more than a hundred people. For- 
 merly, there were many more whites employing large 
 gangs of native rubber gatherers, but that industry has 
 greatly declined in recent years. The region is fertile 
 and well watered, and the Indians raise rice, corn, beans, 
 sugar cane, bananas, and pineapples. When railway con- 
 
 50 
 
THE CAPITAL OF ECUADOR 
 
 nection is effected with the western part of Ecuador, the 
 Oriente will be a promising field for colonists. 
 
 Control of the expenditure of money involved in na- 
 tional improvements is often the cause of the frequently 
 occurring revolutions in the country. Each time I have 
 visited it, Ecuador has been in the throes of an uprising. 
 During my first trip to South America, the head of the 
 administration was Don Alfaro, who later lost his life 
 trying to recapture the presidency after he had been in 
 exile in Panama. Alfaro was a born revolutionist, and 
 had many narrow escapes. At one time he was captured 
 by members of the rival political party while on a little 
 Ecuadorian gunboat, and escaped by swimming to the 
 shore on a barrel. At another time he lived for weeks in 
 the wilds of Ecuador and Colombia while being hunted by 
 government troops. 
 
 One way in which a popular clamour against the 
 government in power has been started is for a revolution- 
 ary leader to charge that the president is plotting to sell 
 the Galapagos Islands to another nation. These are, per- 
 haps, the strangest islands in the world. They are 
 officially known as the Archipelago of Colon, and are 
 governed as a territory of the republic. Lying in the 
 Pacific six hundred miles off the coast, they consist of ten 
 large and innumerable small islands of volcanic origin. 
 Their combined size is not greater than that of Rhode 
 Island, although they are scattered over an area equal to 
 our state of Maryland. They were discovered in 1535 
 by a Spanish bishop whose boat was blown out of its 
 course in going from Panama to Peru. The numbers of 
 gigantic turtles he found there led him to call these bits 
 of land “Galapagos,” the Spanish word for those reptiles. 
 
 SI 
 
LANDS OF THE ANDES AND THE DESERT 
 
 Of human inhabitants there were none then or for three 
 hundred years afterward. 
 
 The islands were first explored by American whaling 
 crews. Sperm whales were found to be abundant in the 
 near-by waters, and for years the site was used as a base 
 for the industry. In 1832 an expedition was sent by the 
 Ecuadorian government to take formal possession of the 
 Galapagos, perhaps with a view to obtaining a revenue 
 from the whalers or because it was feared that a foreign 
 country might annex the islands. In the ensuing years a 
 half-dozen projects for the lease and exploitation of the 
 islands by various countries came to naught, while Ecua- 
 dor herself retarded their development by making them a 
 penal colony. © 
 
 The chief interest of the Galapagos group has been 
 geological and biological rather than commercial. Here 
 are found the largest turtles on earth, many of them being 
 three feet high, and some weighing six hundred pounds. 
 These reptiles have been killed in such numbers for the 
 oil they contain that their extinction seems only a matter 
 of time. Gigantic lizards of prehistoric type, often 
 three or four feet long exist here also, while rare birds and 
 plants abound. The islands have two hundred species of 
 plant life that are found nowhere else in the world, as well 
 as hundreds of well-known varieties. One peculiar weed 
 growing here is the orchilla, often called dyers’ moss. 
 Before the discovery of aniline dyes it was used in the 
 manufacture of certain tints, and gathering it was at one 
 time a profitable industry. In several parts of the island 
 are found many trees, which, though not large, have a 
 luxuriant growth and are often bound together with a 
 jungle of creepers and underbrush. 
 
 52 
 
 Ie Pe 
 
 Si eee ae 
 
 Pe ORES Mam) 
 
. 9 
 
 THE CAPITAL OF ECUADOR 
 
 After the opening of the Panama Canal the islands came 
 once more into the limelight. Lying directly on the ocean 
 routes from Panama to New Zealand and Australia, they 
 have great possibilities as future naval fuelling stations. 
 They hold much the same relation to the Pacific entrance 
 to the Canal that the West Indies do to the Atlantic 
 entrance, and for this reason may some day possess in- 
 ternational strategic importance. 
 
CHAPTER Vil 
 THE HEAD-HUNTING JIVAROS 
 
 ROBABLY the most warlike Indians in all South 
 
 America are the Jivaros, who live in the forests of 
 
 eastern Ecuador. They are man-hunters who 
 
 preserve the heads of their slain enemies as tro- 
 phies of war. I have seen several such heads during my 
 travels and was once offered one for a hundred dollars in 
 gold. I refused to buy it lest the ghost of the dead 
 man haunt me the rest of my life. The head was about 
 as big as my fist, the bones of the skull having been re- 
 moved and the flesh so skilfully shrunken that none of the 
 features were lost. The skin was black and the long 
 thick hair was of the same raven hue. The nose was 
 almost negroid in shape and the lips were sewed together 
 with cotton strands that hung down like a fringe. 
 
 When the Indians discovered that travellers and scien- 
 tists were willing to pay high prices for these cured heads, 
 they began to kill their enemies on the slightest pretext. 
 The supply still not meeting the demand, the warriors cast 
 aside their few remaining scruples, and killed members of 
 their own tribes and sold their heads. Since then, the 
 government has passed a law making it a crime to buy or 
 sell zhanzhas, or cured heads, and the severest penalties 
 are now imposed upon any one caught engaging in the 
 traffic. 
 
 After killing his victim the Jivaro cuts off the head close 
 
 54 
 
The Jivaro Indians are known as head-hunters, having long been ex- 
 perts in the ghastly art of preserving such trophies, skillfuly removing all 
 the bones of the skull and shrinking the flesh without destroying the 
 outlines of the features. 
 
The forest furnishes the Indian all the poles and thatch he needs in 
 building his hut; also the logs which, when hollowed out, provide him with 
 means of transportation along the river that usually flows by his front 
 door. 
 
THE HEAD-HUNTING JIVAROS 
 
 to the shoulders, and carries it to camp. There he opens 
 it, crushes the skull, and takes out the bones. The skin 
 is then sewed together from the crown to the base of the 
 neck and painted with the juice of the huito, a fruit that 
 looks much like an aguacate pear. This juice is a pre- 
 servative and is smeared on both inside and out. The 
 head is next filled with hot sand to preserve its shape. 
 As the flesh dries, it is pressed inward from time to time, 
 and some of the sand removed, until the head is reduced to 
 one fourth or one fifth of its original size. As it grows 
 smaller, a stone is inserted and the flesh is worked down 
 upon it. This stone is taken out before the skin has 
 grown too hard, but not until after the features are fixed. 
 The head is then hung up over a fire to be cured by the 
 smoke. 
 
 The story is told that a red-whiskered German came out 
 to Ecuador some years ago to learn the head-curing process. 
 He went to Quito and then made his way eastward to the 
 Indian country. He was never seen again, but about 
 three months after his disappearance a beautifully cured 
 head was brought in for sale. The skin was light and the 
 features were Teutonic in cast, while on the chin was a 
 beard the colour of brick-dust. 
 
 A tale is also current that another Teuton whose head 
 was sought by the Jivaros was no less a personage than 
 Kaiser Wilhelm himself. In 1918, when newspapers 
 all over America published the opinions of various readers 
 as to what should be done with the Kaiser, it is said that 
 
 the following advertisement appeared in a Riobamba news- 
 paper: 
 The Head of the Kaiser 
 
 To him who produces it | offer a prize of one thousand sucres to 
 convert it into a ghanzha and keep it as a war trophy. 
 
 99 
 
LANDS OF THE ANDES AND THE DESERT 
 
 This offer was signed by an agent of the Jivaros, one 
 of the few white men who have ever been on friendly terms 
 with them. Being able to speak their language fluently, 
 he had endeavoured to tell them of the World War, which 
 was then at its height. Asa result, he was directed by the 
 Jivaro chief to make the above announcement. 
 
 The Jivaro Indians are well-built, good-looking men. 
 They are polygamists, some of them having seven or eight 
 wives. One reason for this is that when a girl marries all 
 her sisters become wives also and share the husband with 
 her. They have large families, but the population is kept 
 down by feuds, during which one family will lie in am- 
 bush for another and kill any of its members on sight. 
 In order to be ready to defend themselves, they sometimes 
 sleep in a sitting posture, each brave having his spear be- 
 tween his knees. 
 
 These Indians are very superstitious. They have 
 witch doctors who brew a tea called hiahuasa from the 
 roots and the leaves of a shrub. The drink has the 
 effect of opium, in that it makes one dream and see visions. 
 An American with whom I have talked tried it once. 
 Shortly afterward spots began to dance before his eyes 
 and a little later he saw pictures of saints. The witch 
 doctor told him to concentrate his mind on his family. 
 He did so and at first saw only snakes, but finally his 
 family appeared before his mind’s eye far more realisti- 
 cally than in any dream he had ever experienced before. 
 
 The Jivaros live in villages, usually near a river or a 
 small stream. Their houses are often sixty feet long and 
 thirty feet wide, and are made of bamboo slats tied to- 
 gether on a framework of poles. The roof is of thatch, 
 and there is a heavy wooden door at each end. Several 
 
 56 
 
THE HEAD-HUNTING JIVAROS 
 
 families live in one house, the men sleeping at the front of 
 the hut and the women at the back. The beds are long 
 platforms slightly higher than the level of the floor. 
 Between these platforms and the fires, which are kept 
 burning all night, are wooden poles that serve as foot rests 
 for the sleepers, who do not consider themselves com- 
 fortable unless they roast their toes. Hanging about the 
 walls of the houses are the hunting equipment and the 
 personal adornments of the men. The only other furnish- 
 ings are the earthenware pots in which the women cook 
 the meals. When a Jivaro dies in one of these dwellings 
 the body is buried under the house, and the whole building 
 burned down. The other occupants then move away and 
 build another house. 
 
 The favourite weapon of some of the Ecuadorian Indians 
 is a reed blow-gun, through which they shoot poisoned 
 darts. These guns are long tubes just large enough for 
 the arrows, which are wrapped with cotton at the ends 
 to make them fit closely. The arrows are not more than a 
 foot or a foot and a half long and not much thicker than 
 a wooden toothpick. The poison with which their tips 
 are smeared comes from Brazil. These blow-guns have a 
 range of from forty to fifty feet and with them the Indians 
 can hit a bird or a monkey perched in a tree top. For 
 fighting they use also spears much like those of the knights 
 of the Middle Ages. 
 
 Some tribes poison their spears with the juice of a plant 
 mixed with liquid from dead bodies in a state of putrefac- 
 tion. They put up this preparation in earthenware jars or 
 in joints of bamboo and make it an article of commerce 
 among themselves. It is used also on hunting arrows to 
 kill game, and does not, apparently, poison the meat. 
 
 57 
 
LANDS OF THE ANDES AND THE DESERT 
 
 I have talked with a German who has spent three years 
 among the Indians of the eastern Andes. He was twice 
 wounded with poisoned arrows and had narrow escapes 
 from the head-hunters near the River Napo. He tells 
 me that some of the Indians in that region wear in the 
 lobes of their ears cylinders of wood or metal as big around 
 as the bottom of a tumbler. The holes for these strange 
 ornaments are first made during childhood, and gradually 
 enlarged by inserting bits of grass and twigs until they 
 become big enough to hold the ear plugs. The same 
 custom prevails in Burma and in other parts of the Orient, 
 while in the highlands of east central Africa I have seen 
 ear lobes stretched so much that when the plugs are taken 
 out they hang down like straps. Their owners sometimes 
 fasten them over the tops of the ears in order that they 
 may not catch in the trees and brush of the forests. 
 
 The few explorers who have made their way through the 
 eastern slopes of the Andes from Ecuador to Bolivia say 
 that cannibalism still exists among some of the Indian 
 tribes. I have pictures of cannibal Indians, called Cachi- 
 bos, who live along the River Pachitea in Peru. These 
 people give as an excuse for the custom their belief that 
 he who eats a man acquires all the courage and other good 
 qualities possessed by the victim. Moreover, they say 
 they would rather be eaten by men than by worms. The 
 Cachibos hunt with blow-guns and poison-tipped arrows. 
 They do not know the use of money, and all their dealings 
 are by barter. They wash gold from the streams and 
 bring it to the traders as nuggets and coarse dust. 
 
 The Aguarunas are a warlike tribe who fight with 
 poisoned arrows and build war towers for defence. They 
 are polygamous and one man may havea half-dozen wives. 
 
 58 
 
THE HEAD-HUNTING JIVAROS 
 
 Both men and women wear nothing but short skirts of 
 bark or cotton. 
 
 Another curious tribe, found farther south in Peru and 
 Bolivia along the Madre de Dios River, are the Huachi- 
 pairis. For personal adornment they wear feathers and 
 sticks thrust through holes pierced in their upper lips. 
 They cultivate the soil and weave cloths and ropes of wild 
 cotton. Like the Aguarunas and Jivaros, the men have 
 several wives apiece. The warriors often make raids on 
 the Quichuas, the descendants of the Incas who live on the 
 high plateaus of the Andes, and steal the Quichua women 
 to replenish their harems. Sometimes wives are bought 
 and sold, the price of a woman being a knife or a hatchet. 
 These Indians are unfriendly to the whites and so far 
 the missionaries have been able to do little with them. In 
 contrast to the many fierce tribes of savages known as 
 “bad” Indians, are the Yumbos, or “good” Indians. For 
 a long time they were in a state of peonage, and they are 
 still submissive and willing to work for the whites for 
 almost no wages. Although their customs show traces of 
 the efforts of the Spaniards to Christianize them, they are 
 superstitious to an extreme. During a severe epidemic of 
 smallpox some years ago, when they died by the thousands, 
 the survivors hid in the forest rather than submit to 
 vaccination, which they believed would offend the evil 
 one. 
 
 The religion of the Indians of the eastern Andes is of 
 the most primitive nature. Some tribes believe in a god 
 and some in a future life, in which the soul goes through 
 a series of transmigrations much like those described in 
 the Buddhist faith. They say that the spirits of the good 
 live again in jaguars and monkeys, while those of the evil 
 
 19 
 
LANDS OF THE ANDES AND THE DESERT 
 
 inhabit the bodies of reptiles and parrots. Some of the 
 Indian tribes believe there are two gods, one evil and one 
 good, that fight for the control of mankind. The Conibos 
 are sun worshippers, as were the Incas at the time of 
 Pizarro. Nearly every tribe has its witch doctors, and 
 all are honeycombed with a myriad of superstitions. 
 
 Certain tribes have legends of the beginning of man. 
 One is that when the world emerged from its original chaos 
 all mankind lived in a great cave, the entrance to which 
 was guarded by a tiger. The human race was kept 
 prisoner by this beast until one day the liberator of man- 
 kind, a giant among his fellows, fought with the tiger 
 and killed it. Then man came out and populated the 
 earth. After living so long in a cave the people had be- 
 come very dirty. They realized this when they reached 
 the light of day and so decided to wash. They heated 
 water in a colossal earthen jar. Those who got the first 
 bath came out white and thus the white race was created. 
 Those who had the next bath were brown and formed the 
 brown race. The last to bathe had only the dregs left in 
 the jar and so were black. 
 
 Some of the tribes wear clothes made of tree bark. | 
 have a blanket of bark cloth made by these Indians. It is 
 as large as a bed quilt and as soft and pliable as though it 
 were wool. I have rolled it up and carried it about in 
 a shawl strap. Still, it is merely the unwoven bark of a 
 tree. The Indians make cuttings about the tree, tear off 
 the bark in sheets, and soak it in water, after which they 
 pound off the rough outer layers. The inner layers are 
 composed of fine fibres so knit together by nature that they 
 are not unlike cloth. They are warm enough for blankets 
 and soft enough to take the place of a mattress. The same 
 
 60 
 
THE HEAD-HUNTING JIVAROS 
 
 sort of cloth 1s made in Uganda in tropical Africa, where it 
 is a common article of clothing. Like the Africans, also, 
 many of the South American savages are musical. They 
 have reed or bone flutes and three-stringed violins. 
 Drums, made out of hollow logs, are used for sending 
 messages from camp to camp. 
 
 None of these tribes associate with one another. They 
 have no organized governments, and in each one the 
 chiefs are generally chosen for their superior ferocity 
 and strength. Their languages differ widely and there is 
 no common method of writing. Some savages count by 
 movements of the fingers, but all are in a low state of 
 development and are sinking lower through contact with 
 the vices and the liquor of the whites. 
 
 Few of the South American Indians are equal, physically 
 or mentally, to those of North America. Most of them 
 are short in stature and they vary in colour from reddish 
 brown to black. They have high cheek bones and black 
 eyes, with long, straight black hair. Some are very 
 strong, and a few are brave, but the majority are cowardly 
 and afraid of white men. 
 
 These primitive peoples are widely scattered and the 
 social organization of many of them is in families rather 
 than in tribes. There are probably not more than one 
 hundred thousand all told on the eastern slopes of the 
 Andes. The Geographical Society of Lima, Peru, esti- 
 mates the number of savages in those regions at about 
 one hundred and fifty thousand. 
 
 Indians form three fourths of the population of Ecuador, 
 but the majority of them are at least semi-civilized, as dis- 
 tinguished from the wild tribes | have described. These 
 people do all the rough work of the country, and until 1918 
 
 61 
 
LANDS OF THE ANDES AND THE DESERT 
 
 most of them were practically the slaves of the land- 
 holders. Slavery did not, of course, exist as in the days 
 of Pizarro, when the Indians were branded, whipped, and 
 killed at the will of their owners, but it was in force through 
 the laws and customs by which the peons were kept in 
 debt to their masters. Wages were low and once an 
 Indian got in debt he found it almost impossible to get out. 
 
 It was a common procedure for a planter who wanted 
 labourers for his estate to go to the jails and settle the 
 debts of such prisoners as agreed to work out the money 
 thus paid. He then gave them very low wages, and al- 
 ways held back a portion of what was due them. The 
 farm hand was given a hut to live in, and received a daily 
 ration of a little meat, rice, or beans, and some lard or 
 salt. He received also a hat, three coarse cotton shirts, 
 and three pairs of cotton pantaloons a year. In addition, 
 he was given a few cents in money. The hours of work 
 were from sunrise to sunset, and when a man skipped a day 
 it was charged against his wages. The women and the 
 children were forced to labour as well as the men. 
 
 If a peon once was free from debt the conditions soon 
 compelled him to become a debtor again. He had nothing 
 ahead and if there was a death in his family he had to 
 borrow money for the funeral. If he would be married 
 by the priest he was charged six dollars, and consequently 
 many of the Indians were obliged to forego the ceremony. 
 For this reason it is said that seventy-five per cent. of 
 the births in Ecuador formerly were illegitimate. 
 
 In 1918 debt slavery was abolished by law, and since 
 then conditions have greatly changed for the better. Al- 
 though the lot of the unskilled Indian labourer and his 
 family is still a hard one, wages and living conditions in 
 
 62 
 
Most of the inhabitants of Ecuador are Indians. These primitive 
 people, while no longer subject to either slavery or peonage, are desper- 
 ately poor and have little hope or capacity for bettering their condition. 
 
Along the coast of Peru and Chile, between the Andes and the ocean, 
 lies a narrow strip of desert, more barren than the Sahara, with sand dunes 
 
 that are continually being shifted about by the winds. 
 
— - 
 
 THE HEAD-HUNTING JIVAROS 
 
 general have been much improved: Some of the workers 
 have organized themselves into unions, and have thus 
 been able to make better terms with their employers. 
 The government also is doing much to give these people 
 the advantages of education and modern civilization. 
 
CHAPTER VIII 
 DOWN THE DESERT COAST OF PERU 
 
 HAVE come from the jungles of the Ecuadorian tropics 
 
 to the desert of Peru, a region as barren as any part 
 
 of the Sahara. From the ocean to the Andes it is 
 
 nothing but sand and rock, and the mountains them- 
 selves are as sterile as the driest part of our great western 
 plateau. 
 
 Peru is divided naturally into three zones. The first 
 is this desert coastal region, the second consists of the high 
 Andean valleys and plateaus, upheld by the three parallel 
 ranges of these mighty mountains, and the third slopes 
 eastward from the Andes to the Amazon Valley. The 
 latter region, which forms the larger part of the republic, 
 has never been thoroughly explored. 
 
 Peru extends north and south through one fourth of the 
 length of the entire Andean highland. It is more than 
 one thousand miles long, and in places more than seven 
 hundred miles wide. If it could be laid down on the 
 United States with the Chilean boundary at New Orleans, 
 southern Ecuador would be somewhere near Minneapolis, 
 and the country would extend from the Mississippi River 
 eastward to Pittsburgh. Peru is equal to more than one 
 fifth of the area of the United States, and is six times as 
 large as Great Britain and Ireland. There is enough of it 
 to make fourteen states as big as New York, and one of its 
 departments, the name of which many of you have never 
 
 64 
 
DOWN THE DESERT COAST OF PERU 
 
 heard, is larger than Texas. That is Loreto, at the head- 
 waters of the Amazon. The department of Cuzco, in 
 southern Peru, is nearly as big as California, and there 
 are other departments almost as large. 
 
 The South American desert begins south of Tumbez, 
 near the Ecuador-Peru boundary, and extends from there 
 southward along the western coast of the continent for 
 two thousand miles. It borders the whole of Peru and 
 reaches down into northern Chile almost to Valparaiso. 
 In no place is it more than ninety miles wide. At its 
 eastern edge it is merged with the Andes, which, from 
 their foot-hills to their snow-capped peaks, are practically 
 without vegetation. 
 
 I have seen something of the other great deserts of the 
 world. I have been on the edge of the Kalahari in South 
 Africa, and I have travelled through the Sahara from 
 Morocco to the valley of the Nile. I have sailed along the 
 coast of Arabia, and I know something of Gobi, on the 
 edge of Mongolia. None of them is like the Peruvian 
 desert, and none seems to be so fated to remain barren 
 for all time to come. 
 
 This desert forms a strip between the ocean and the 
 great wall of the Andes. Those mountains rise almost 
 precipitously from this long coastal plain. It is so cold 
 at the great height of their peaks that winds from the 
 east lose all their moisture by condensation before they 
 reach the Pacific slope. It is this phenomenon that causes 
 the rains that cover eastern South America with tropical 
 verdure and gives the valleys of the Amazon and the 
 Parana the greatest water supply known to man. But 
 while most of the continent blooms like a garden, the 
 lands west of the Andes have practically no rain. 
 
 05 
 
LANDS OF THE ANDES AND THE DESERT 
 
 Throughout this desert strip of two thousand miles 
 nearly all the water comes from the little rivers that have 
 their sources in the melting snows on the tops of the moun- 
 tains. It rains so seldom that there are people living on 
 the coast who have not seen an umbrella in twenty years, 
 and who get a good laugh over the occasional American 
 who comes here to sell waterproof coats and rubber boots. 
 
 Parts of the desert of Peru are rocky, like much of the 
 Sahara, and parts are covered with sand as fine as that 
 surrounding the pyramids on the banks of the Nile. In 
 some places the sand gathers in great crescent-shaped 
 dunes that move over the desert. The strong south 
 winds roll the sand grains up over the top of the crescent, 
 which, like the crest of a wave, moves steadily onward. 
 The shifting dunes climb the hills and make their way 
 through the valleys. They will not stop for roads or 
 railways, and it is impossible to keep them back by wind- 
 breaks or fences. Some of the railways that cross the 
 desert have been covered over again and again, and it is 
 repeatedly necessary to dig out the tracks so that trains 
 may pass. The sand often covers up the trails, and fre- 
 quently blots out landmarks. 
 
 The only fertile regions of the desert are where the 
 snow-fed rivers from the mountains cross it on their 
 way to the sea. There are fifty-five such streams along 
 the coast of Peru, and it is estimated that they make it 
 possible to irrigate an area of fifty million acres. About 
 two million acres are now cultivated, producing large crops 
 of sugar and cotton. American tractors are used on the 
 bigger plantations, and there are many sugar factories with 
 modern machinery. These oases comprise the most im- 
 portant agricultural lands of Peru. They feed the greater 
 
 66 
 
DOWN THE DESERT COAST OF PERU 
 
 number of the people and supply much of the export prod- 
 ucts of the republic. 
 
 My first port of call along the coast of Peru was Paita. 
 It has streets of sand and sidewalks of wood. Most of 
 the one- and two-story houses are of recent construction, as 
 many of the buildings of the town were burned some years 
 ago by a commission appointed to eradicate yellow fever 
 and bubonic plague. The older structures are painted all 
 the colours of the rainbow. The customs house, for 
 example, is bright green, and when I passed through the 
 plaza behind it I faced a church of sky-blue surrounded 
 by buildings as yellow as gold. The plaza contains about 
 the only bit of vegetation in the whole town. This is a 
 garden no larger than an ordinary room, filled with 
 stunted palm trees and thirsty-looking plants. 
 
 Although a few motor trucks and automobiles are now 
 in use in Paita and in other parts of the Piura district, 
 donkeys form most of the traffic of the city. )]) saw cara- 
 vans of them bringing vegetables, sugar, and rice to the 
 port, and when I went to the post office I walked along 
 beside the mail wagon, which was a dray drawn by a mule. 
 Much of the drinking water is peddled from house to house 
 in ten-gallon kegs carried by donkeys. 
 
 Paita has a railroad to the Piura Valley, which is about 
 sixty miles inland. I am told that this road may be 
 extended a distance of four hundred miles over the Andes 
 to connect with the Marafion River, one of the great tribu- 
 taries of the Amazon. This extension would give Paita 
 direct connection with the upper Amazon Valley and 
 would bring one of the most fertile parts of South America 
 within a few days’ travel of the Panama Canal. 
 
 The Piura Valley is one of the richest of the desert oases. 
 
 67 
 
LANDS OF THE ANDES AND THE DESERT 
 
 It produces the famous native cotton of Peru. Thousands 
 of bales of this cotton, comprising sixty per cent. of the 
 total crop, are shipped to the United States, where it 
 brings several cents a pound more than the cotton raised 
 in our Southern States. Practically all the rest of the 
 yield goes to England. This “ Peruvian rough”’ cotton, as 
 it is called, has a heavy, kinky fibre, and looks and feels like 
 wool, It is usually spun on woollen machinery, and is 
 mixed with wool in the manufacture of hats, hosiery, and 
 underwear. It is said to give wool-and-cotton mixed 
 cloth a finer lustre and to render it less liable to shrinkage 
 than do other varieties of cotton. | 
 
 Indeed, this land seems to have been one of the first 
 homes of cotton. The plant was growing here when 
 Pizarro came, and he found cotton cloth in the tombs of 
 people who lived long before the Incas. The Incas un- 
 doubtedly sold it also to tribes in other parts of South 
 America, as mummies wrapped in cloth made of this 
 characteristic Peruvian cotton have been found along the 
 Amazon in Brazil. 
 
 The Peruvian variety grows on a tree that bears for 
 twenty years. The common method of planting is to put 
 the seeds in the ground with a stick, and let the trees grow 
 to a height of six or eight feet. After that they are cut 
 back from year to year in order that the crop may be more 
 easily gathered. 
 
 The picking is done by native men, women, and children, 
 who also sort the cotton by colour before it is ginned. | 
 say by colour, for much of the Peruvian product is brown 
 or red. Brown and white varieties grow on the same 
 tree, and there may be brown and white lint in the same 
 boll. The coloured cotton is sold largely to the Indians, 
 
 68 
 
DOWN THE DESERT COAST OF PERU 
 
 who use it for their ponchos and hammocks. While 
 most of the crop is exported, some of it is manufactured 
 in this country. There are several cotton factories in 
 Peru, all but two or three of which are in Lima. 
 
 The Peruvians are now growing also upland cotton and 
 sea-island cotton from American seed. The sea-island 
 cotton has but a small acreage, its production being 
 limited to a few little valleys. The upland cotton here 
 yields for three years in succession without replanting. 
 
 Paita is near Peru’s most important oil-producing 
 region. My steamer brought here two barge-loads of iron 
 pipe and eight-inch cast-iron casings for the Lobitos cil 
 fields, which are situated along the coast not far from here. 
 Farther south I saw from the boat the derricks of the 
 petroleum port of Talara. There are oil wells at Tum- 
 bez, and there is a refinery at Zorritos, where between 
 forty and fifty wells are producing. Oil is being found 
 also in southern Peru, and even on the shores of Lake 
 Titicaca, two miles above the sea, where it has been struck 
 at a depth of about eight hundred feet. 
 
 The annual petroleum exports of Peru are worth more 
 than twenty million dollars, and the business is still only 
 at its beginning. The oil is of a high grade, and it can be 
 used for lighting as well as for fuel. The steamer upon 
 which | am travelling down the coast burns fuel oil in- 
 stead of coal, and has taken on a fresh supply at Paita, 
 where oil is stored in a great round tank on the bluffs 
 above the town. A pipe line runs down to the ocean, and 
 the fuel is brought out to the steamer in a little oil barge. 
 
 As at most of these west coast ports, steamer passengers 
 are landed at Paita in small boats. There are few har- 
 bours, and vessels must usually lie in the open roadsteads 
 
 69 
 
LANDS OF THE ANDES AND THE DESERT 
 
 and transfer cargo by lighters. The moment our ship 
 came to anchor off Paita white boats with red flags 
 started out from the shore. They were rowed by bare- 
 footed blue-clad Indian sailors with white caps on their 
 heads. Behind them came the small craft of the natives 
 bringing vegetables and other products out to the steamer, 
 and still farther back were tugs towing the great barges 
 loaded with freight to be taken on board. 
 
 Among the merchandise the natives brought out to the 
 ship were the finest of Panama hats. [| bought one for 
 about ten dollars, although the first price of the Indian 
 salesman was six pounds, or thirty dollars. I offered 
 him one pound ten shillings and he came down to five 
 pounds. At the last moment he took two pounds. The 
 hat is as closely woven as the finest of silk and so soft that 
 I can bundle it up in my pocket and hardly know it is 
 there. The straws are no bigger around than a needle. 
 
 The Panama hats that are now sold so largely in our 
 stores are not made in Panama. They come from Ecua- 
 dor, Colombia, and northern Peru. They are shipped 
 from here all over North America, as well as to Germany, 
 France, and England, and to other parts of South America. 
 The Ecuadorians are now also exporting the straw, much 
 of which comes down into Peru, where it is made into hats. 
 
 Ordinary Panamas, such as are commonly sold in our 
 stores, can be bought in Paita for one or two dollars 
 apiece. They come chiefly from Guayaquil, which ex- 
 ports several hundred dozen of them every month. The 
 very finest Panamas cost so much that there is practically 
 no demand for them abroad. Some, which sell here for 
 as high as one hundred dollars, would cost twice as much 
 in New York. One, made several years ago as a present 
 
 79 
 
There are few sheltered harbours on the west coast, and large ships 
 usually lie offshore. A newly arrived steamer is quickly surrounded with 
 the rude craft of Indians peddling fish, fruit, or vegetables. 
 
The only water on the western slopes of the Andes comes from the rivers 
 fed by the melting snows of the mountains, but it is estimated that these 
 streams make possible the irrigation of some fifty million acres of land. 
 
DOWN THE DESERT COAST OF PERU 
 
 to the King of England, was so finely woven that it could 
 be folded into a package no larger than a man’s watch. 
 That hat was more than six months in the making. It 
 was of the finest straw, and the work upon it was done 
 only during certain hours of the morning and evening, 
 when the amount of moisture in the air was just right. 
 
 The Panama hat is made from the leaf of a palm called 
 the foquilla. This tree is now cultivated. It becomes 
 full grown at eighteen months and lives for forty years or 
 more. The straws are made from the new leaves, which 
 are cut off just as they are about to unfold, and split with 
 needles or with the fingernail. 
 
 At the port of Eten, which was our next stop after Paita, 
 the sea was so rough that passengers were lowered from 
 the ship to small boats in a barrel, which had been turned 
 into a chair by cutting part of it away. Travellers were 
 brought aboard from the boats alongside in the same 
 manner. [I saw three women thus lifted: one of them 
 wrapped her head in her shawl and seemed to be praying 
 fervently all the way up. 
 
 Steaming on to the south, we came to Pacasmayo, 
 which, with its low white buildings and flat roofs, looks 
 like a town of Arabia. It lies on the coast, with the desert 
 and the mountains behind it. It has a steel pier built 
 by the American engineer, Henry Meiggs, when he was con- 
 structing railroads in this part of South America. From 
 the town a little railway runs back into the valley 
 to Chilete and thence northward to Guadalupe. This 
 line may some day be extended to the Amazon region by 
 an easy pass over the mountains. 
 
 High in the Andes not far from Pacasmayo is Ca- 
 jamarca, where the Inca king, Atahualpa, was put to 
 
 7! 
 
LANDS OF THE ANDES AND THE DESERT 
 
 death by Pizarro, the Spanish invader. Arriving at 
 this northern capital of the Inca Empire on the fifteenth 
 of November, 1532, Pizarro found it a well-built city lying 
 in the beautiful valley of a little river, the waters of which 
 irrigated many fields and gardens. ‘The use of the build- 
 ings of the town as quarters for his troops was offered 
 Pizarro by Atahualpa, who also sent a message from his 
 camp some distance away that he would visit the Spaniard 
 the following day. Thereupon Pizarro conceived a plan 
 to seize the king, and ordered his soldiers to arm them- 
 selves but to keep out of sight when Atahualpa arrived. 
 
 Early the following morning the Inca army left the 
 royal camp and proceeded to Cajamarca. Pizarro had 
 with him only a handful of men and horses, but the 
 native monarch was preceded by so many soldiers that 
 it was almost nightfall before the last of them arrived in the 
 city. As Atahualpa was borne before Pizarro, he was 
 met and addressed by the friar Vicente de Valverde, who 
 extended a cross in one hand and a Bible in the other. 
 Valverde’s words, whether intentionally or because of 
 their faulty translation by the interpreter, offended the 
 Inca monarch, who disdained the offerings and threw them 
 to the ground. 
 
 At this action, Valverde, who has been depicted by 
 many historians as a rascally trouble maker, shouted to 
 the hidden Spanish soldiers: ‘Fall on—I absolve you!” 
 In the slaughter that followed, hundreds of Indians were 
 killed and Atahualpa was taken prisoner. 
 
 The person of the Inca king was so sacred that his 
 capture paralyzed the nation, and in spite of their over- 
 whelming numbers the Indians seemed helpless. Ata- 
 hualpa then said that if Pizarro would release him he 
 
 72 
 
DOWN THE DESERT COAST OF PERU 
 
 would fill the room in which he was confined with gold to a 
 point as high as he could reach. This offer was accepted, 
 and for several weeks gold was brought in great loads 
 from all parts of Peru. The room was seventeen feet long 
 and twenty feet wide, and the point up to which it was to 
 be filled was designated by a red mark nine feet above the 
 floor. The treasure was in many forms. Some of it 
 consisted of gold plates torn from the Temple of the Sun 
 at Cuzco. There were golden basins, drinking cups, 
 vases of all kinds, and many objects of the finest workman- 
 ship, beautifully carved. When the room was almost 
 filled up to the mark indicated, Pizarro ordered the Indian 
 goldsmiths to melt it all into ingots. There was so much 
 gold that they worked day and night for a month at the 
 task. Then Pizarro refused to let Atahualpa go, and after 
 a trial that was a mockery of justice had him strangled to 
 death. A prison now covers the spot where the palace 
 stood, and in one of its rooms is a stone that the Indians 
 say is still stained with Atahualpa’s blood. 
 
 Salaverry, not far south of Pacasmayo, is an important 
 sugar-exporting town. It is the port for Trujillo, a city 
 of about fifteen or twenty thousand people. Trujillo 
 was founded by Pizarro in 1535 and was named in memory 
 of his native town in Spain. Near by are ruins of an 
 ancient city built by the Yuncas, one of the tribes con- 
 quered by the Incas. 
 
 There are many ruins of Indian cities scattered over 
 the Peruvian desert, and from some of them have been 
 dug mummies in an excellent state of preservation. The 
 desert air is as dry and healthful as that of Egypt. As in 
 Egypt, it is the dryness that accounts for the good condi- 
 tion of the centuries-old mummies dug up here. Most 
 
 73 
 
LANDS OF THE ANDES AND THE DESERT 
 
 of the mummies found in Peru showed that the corpse was 
 placed in a sitting posture, wrapped in cloth, and bound 
 with string. During a former trip to this country | 
 visited a number of cities from which such mummies had 
 been dug, and I saw piles fifteen feet high containing skulls 
 that had been taken from the excavations. 
 
 Some of the ruins in this desert are the remains of cities 
 that were in existence long before the Incas came. In 
 the Jequetepeque Valley back of Pacasmayo I saw a large 
 mound that was once the site of a palace, or possibly a 
 temple to the vestal virgins of the sun. All about were 
 bits of pottery, moulded by the people of an unknown 
 nation of the past. The ruins showed that the building 
 was nearly square and five hundred feet wide at the base. 
 Its adobe walls had been plastered on the outside with 
 mud and washed with colour. In other parts of the desert 
 earthen vessels have been found that are believed to have 
 been made by a people who were old when the pyramids 
 of Egypt were young. 7 | 
 
 74 
 
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 cA 
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 4 
 # 
 ef 
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 Going ashore on the Peruvian coast is not usually a matter of walk- 
 ing down the gang-plank. It is more likely to mean being. lowered from 
 
 steamer deck to a tender in a chair operated by a steam crane. 
 
The capital of Peru lies in the narrow Rimac Valley, eight miles inland 
 from the Pacific, and one thousand feet above its level. It was founded by 
 Pizarro only forty-three years after Columbus discovered America. 
 
CHAPTER IX 
 THE CITY OF PIZARRO 
 
 LIMB with me to the rocky top of San Cristobal 
 and take a look over Lima, the capital of Peru. 
 We are on the edge of the Rimac Valley, within 
 eight miles of the Pacific Ocean, and about a 
 thousand feet above it. From here the sea seems a wide 
 streak of silver, beyond which are the mountainous islands 
 that border the coast. At the water’s edge is the port of 
 Callao, and directly opposite it the island of San Lorenzo. 
 Behind us, half hidden in the clouds, is the westernmost 
 range of the Andes, where 
 In awful pride, enthroned above the skies; 
 Peaks upon peaks in matchless grandeur rise 
 
 ’Mid frowning glaciers on whose snowy crest 
 The savage vulture builds its craggy nest. 
 
 San Cristobal is a bare hill of the desert, rising nine hun- 
 dred feet above Lima. Its summit can be reached on foot 
 or by an aérial tramway. On top of the hill, rising three 
 hundred and fifty feet still higher into the air, are the 
 steel towers of a radio station, from which messages are 
 sent over the high wall of the Andes to the government 
 station at Iquitos in the heart of the rubber country of the 
 Amazon Valley, and even across the continent to Rio de 
 Janeiro. 
 
 From the top of San Cristobal we could throw stones 
 upon the roofs of Lima beneath us. The city is a vast 
 
 79 
 
LANDS OF THE ANDES AND THE DESERT 
 
 expanse of low, flat-roofed buildings, most of them of one 
 or two stories, above which rise a cathedral and many 
 churches. Almost directly below us is the great round 
 Plaza de Toros, the immense bull ring where fights are 
 held every Sunday, and where the Limefios come by the 
 thousands to see their favourite matadors butcher the 
 bulls. Some of these people seem to be quite as blood- 
 thirsty as those who watched the gladiatorial fights of 
 ancient Rome. Only last Sunday, when the bulls were 
 not considered as fierce as they should be, the crowd hissed 
 the fighters and drove them out of the ring. They had 
 even begun to tear up the seats and set fire to the building 
 when the police rushed in and restored order. In recent 
 years boxing and horse-racing have grown in popularity 
 and the latter now rivals bull-fighting as a favourite sport. 
 The Jockey Club of Lima is famous all over the west coast, 
 and during the races that are held from July to December 
 leaders of society, including the president and his officials, 
 are frequently in attendance. 
 
 The winding stream that runs through the city 1s the 
 Rimac River. It springs forth from the glaciers of the 
 Andes, and gives life to the valleys below, providing water 
 to irrigate the orchards, the vineyards, and the fields of 
 grain along its course. Lima is built in the Peruvian 
 desert, and the irrigated lands that surround it are scat- 
 tered through fifteen small valleys. They are divided 
 into about one hundred and eighty estates, many of 
 which are large holdings. Practically the whole support 
 of the city comes from this region and from its trade with 
 the rest of Peru. 
 
 Lima was founded by Pizarro only forty-three years 
 after Columbus discovered America. In honour of the 
 
 76 
 
THE CITY OF PIZARRO 
 
 sovereigns of Spain he called it ‘Ciudad de los Rayes,”’ or 
 The City of the Kings, and it was so known for a long time 
 afterward. The present name of Lima is a corruption of 
 the word “Rimac,” the name of the river on which it is 
 built. The city had grown great one hundred years before 
 the ground on which Chicago now stands was trodden by the 
 feet of white men. It was the capital of all South America 
 when our country was subject to England, and to-day it 
 is one of the most interesting cities upon the two con- 
 tinents. 
 
 But let us go down from San Cristobal and make our 
 way over the Rimac to the main part of the city. One of 
 the first places we visit is the museum, which vies with the 
 one at Cairo in its relics of a bygone civilization. Its 
 collections of potteries, textiles, and mummies depict not 
 only the handicraft of the Inca régime, but of the more 
 ancient civilizations of centuries before. Side by side 
 with these objects of antiquity are many evidences of 
 modern Peru and its progress in commerce and industry. 
 One of them is the remains of the first airplane to cross the 
 Alps, in which a young Peruvian aviator lost his life. 
 
 Lima is sprinkled with great plazas or squares containing 
 fountains and gardens, and extending out from these run 
 narrow thoroughfares, other streets crossing them at right 
 angles. The main business streets are not more than 
 thirty feet wide, and the car tracks are so close to the 
 sidewalk that one has to be careful lest he lose a leg as he 
 walks along. Another thing that makes the visitor to 
 Lima stay on the alert to keep his bearings is the system 
 by which the streets are named. In addition to a thor- 
 oughfare having a designation for its entire length, each 
 block has also an individual name. 
 
 77 
 
LANDS OF THE ANDES AND THE DESERT 
 
 The buildings are close to the street, and in the resi- 
 dential section the ground-floor windows are barred. The 
 houses of two or three stories have balconies that extend 
 out over the sidewalks. Some of these balconies are so 
 wonderfully carved that they make me think of the 
 harem quarters of Cairo or old Spain. In the business 
 parts of the city, where most of the stores have living 
 quarters above them, one sees long lines of them stretching 
 from one end of the street to the other. | 
 
 Lima has practically no backyards, and only in the 
 suburbs are there outside gardens. Most of the residences 
 surround courts or patios upon which the principal rooms 
 face. The larger houses cover a good deal of ground, a 
 single one sometimes having twenty or more rooms and 
 several large courts in which are fountains, growing 
 plants, and even trees. 
 
 Often the rooms that do not open on the court are 
 lighted by little dormer windows that extend up through 
 the flat roofs and look like chicken coops. It is difficult, 
 in fact, to tell the dormers from the real chicken coops. 
 There are thousands of chickens that are hatched, lay their 
 eggs, and grow fat for the kitchens on the roofs of this 
 city. On a previous visit here | was awakened every 
 night by the crowing of the cocks above me. There was 
 one asthmatic old rooster that crowed me awake regularly 
 at five a. m. and another that sometimes made the air 
 shake at midnight. I have not yet seen a cow on the 
 roofs, though I am told that some families have their 
 stables so located, the cattle not being taken down until 
 they are to be killed. Nowhere are there any chimneys 
 to be seen. Practically all the cooking in Lima is done 
 over charcoal, the fumes of which escape as best they 
 
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 In keeping with its early name, “City of the Kings,” Lima was noted 
 in colonial times for its beautiful buildings, in which the Spanish aristo- 
 crats combined the Moorish architecture with the fine carving done by 
 the native Indians. 
 
erred oth. 
 thy ats 
 
 A 
 
 Pizarro selected the Plaza de Armas as the centre of the future city of 
 Lima, and laid the cornerstone of the first cathedral erected on this site. 
 The present structure contains the bones of the conqueror. 
 
THE CITY OF PIZARRO 
 
 can. During recent years electric stoves have come into 
 use. 
 
 Many of the older buildings are beautiful and ex- 
 ceedingly comfortable. Some of them are constructed of 
 sun-dried brick, and some have roofs of plaster spread 
 over a framework of wood lathed with bamboo canes. 
 The outer walls are covered with stucco, and such buildings 
 have a substantial appearance in spite of their flimsy con- 
 struction. 
 
 Of late many fine houses of reinforced concrete have 
 been put up, and along the Avenue of the Exposition, for 
 instance, are residences that would be considered fine 
 anywhere in the world. This street is almost as wide as 
 Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington, and_ has along 
 its centre a continuous garden of flowers, shrubs, and trees. 
 It is a popular place in the afternoon, when the sidewalks 
 are crowded with promenaders, and processions of motors 
 and smart carriages move along the pavement. 
 
 Lima has almost two hundred thousand inhabitants and 
 is steadily growing. Its population and business have in- 
 creased since the opening of the Panama Canal, and when 
 it has better hotels it will be as delightful a city as one can 
 find along the west coast. Its resorts on the Bay of 
 Chorillos, where regattas and water sports are held each 
 summer, are already popular places for both Peruvians and 
 foreigners. In winter, because of the heavy fogs near the 
 sea, many of the people go inland to Chosica, in the 
 Andean foothills. 
 
 But let us leave the streets and go into the Cathedral. 
 It is in the heart of the city, and its towers can be seen 
 from almost anywhere in the Rimac Valley. It faces 
 the Plaza de Armas with its palm trees and its beautiful 
 
 79 
 
LANDS OF THE ANDES AND THE DESERT 
 
 fountains, and is said to be the finest church edifice on the 
 American continent, with the single exception of the 
 cathedral in Mexico City. It was founded by Pizarro 
 before John Smith landed at Jamestown. Ninety years 
 were taken to complete it, and although it has been 
 damaged again and again by earthquakes, each time it 
 has been rebuilt. 
 
 The interior of the Cathedral is impressive. The high 
 altar is of massive silver construction, and the stalls of the 
 sanctuary are fine specimens of the best carving done by 
 the Indians when that art was still in its prime. On the 
 walls are fine paintings by Murillo and other masters, and 
 the chapels are of exceeding beauty. 
 
 I was especially impressed by the chapel of Pizarro. 
 The little verger of the Cathedral took me into it, and 
 under the altar he showed me the coffin in which lie 
 Pizarro’s bones. The casket is of white marble with glass 
 sides and top. The verger lighted a candle and waved it 
 up and down over the glass, and as he did so I could see 
 all that is now left of the first Spaniard to explore and 
 conquer the west coast of South America. His skeleton, 
 which is as black as old mahogany and looks as though 
 it were varnished, lies upon a red velvet cushion em- 
 broidered with gold. The skull, which rests on a pillow, 
 is fastened to his backbone by wires through the ears. 
 The jaw is a trifle drooping, the nose is prominent, and the 
 great eyeless sockets stared up at me as I gazed down 
 through the top of the casket. As I looked more closely 
 the whole seemed merely a shell. The shins have begun to 
 peel, showing the honeycombed structure of the bone 
 beneath. I am told that in times past pieces have been 
 cut off and given to relic hunters, but as far as I could 
 
 80 
 
THE CUY, OFVWPIZARRO 
 
 see, most of the skeleton is intact, though decidedly 
 leathery and the worse for wear. From the outside of the 
 coffin I copied these words: 
 
 Capitan General Don Francisco Pizarro, Fundador de Lima en 18 
 de enero de 1535. Muerto en 26 de junio de 1541. 
 
 It was on the latter date that Pizarro was murdered by 
 followers of his former partner, as a result of a quarrel over 
 the division of the Inca territory. 
 
 Lima has seventy churches in all, and nearly every one 
 is worth visiting. The church and convent of San 
 Francisco are said to have cost two million dollars. The 
 altar of Santa Rosa, the patron saint of Lima, had in it at 
 one time fifteen hundred pounds of gold and silver, and 
 jewels that included fourteen hundred diamonds, twelve 
 hundred emeralds, six hundred rubies, and one hundred 
 and twenty fine pearls. 
 
 Lima appears to be a godly city although there is a 
 Methodist bishop here in my hotel who says it is the most 
 bigoted on earth. There are priests and nuns everywhere, 
 and great monasteries and convents galore. Most of the 
 people are devout churchgoers, and on Sunday morning 
 the streets are filled with families on their way to mass. 
 Although on other days the women wear as gay apparel 
 as in our own cities, many of them attend Sunday services 
 clad all in black. The usual head-dress is a black cloth 
 or lace mantilla, covering the hair and the neck so that 
 only the face is visible. I am told that in some churches 
 women are not supposed to enter wearing a hat and that 
 those who do so are tapped with a long stick by the sexton 
 and told to remove their headgear. The men sit by 
 themselves on one side of the church and the women have 
 their seats on the other. 
 
 81 
 
LANDS OF THE ANDES AND THE DESERT 
 
 I find that there is a great movement going on in this 
 country for freedom of religious worship. Laws have 
 been passed by the national congress making it possible 
 for any person to establish any kind of church anywhere he 
 pleases. Previously, the Protestant missionaries had not 
 been permitted to introduce their religion in the interior. 
 Women also are demanding a greater freedom and are 
 beginning to take their places in the business and pro- 
 fessional world. One woman has organized a sort of 
 
 nursery hospital for children, and another has opened a 
 
 woman’s exchange, where needlework and other articles 
 may be bought and sold. Many are teachers, and hun- 
 dreds are stenographers and typists. The changing idea 
 regarding the feminine sex was reflected in a much-talked- 
 of float at the celebration of the Peruvian centennial. It 
 
 was called “The Lima that is Passing,” and showed,’ 
 
 among other things, a sefiorita wearing her black manta 
 peering out from behind the shelter of her barred balcony 
 windows. 
 
 Girl students are now enrolled in the University of San 
 Marcos at Lima, the oldest in all America, which was 
 founded a century before Harvard. It was modelled 
 after the ancient University of Salamanca, and though it 
 has been destroyed again and again by earthquake and 
 siege, it stands to-day as the foremost institution of learn- 
 ing in Peru. 
 
 Near the Cathedral and facing the Plaza is the national 
 palace, where I called upon some of the government 
 officials. It was built about the same time as the Cathe- 
 dral, and has all the features of Spanish architecture in the 
 days of Columbus. It covers a whole city block, and has 
 several patios in which are royal palms and tropical 
 
 82 
 
Monuments to liberty, and mounted constabulary to preserve it, are 
 characteristic of Peru, which, like other South American republics, has 
 experienced more than one revolution since it won independence from 
 Spain. 
 
Yh eye 
 
 In the chamber where Peruvian senators now deliberate upon the wel- 
 fare of the republic, the black-robed officers of the Spanish Inquisition 
 once sat in solemn session and sentenced luckless heretics to imprison- 
 ment and death. 
 
“a! ooo 
 
 EE Cry OFS PIZARRO) 
 
 flowers. On my way in I was shown a fig tree said to 
 have been planted by Pizarro. It is more than three 
 hundred years old and is still bearing fruit. 
 
 The government palace formerly contained the residence 
 and offices of the president of Peru. I have interviewed 
 two presidents of this country, and have talked with them 
 about its progress and development. Not long ago the 
 government brought in experts from the United States to 
 assist in formulating new methods of administration. As 
 a result, improvements in the national commercial and 
 educational systems have been effected, sanitary condi- 
 tions bettered, and police, customs, and harbour regula- 
 tions revised. 
 
 The president is elected by a direct vote of the people 
 for a term of five years. He has a cabinet of five members. 
 The legislative branch of the government is divided be- 
 tween a senate of thirty-five members and a house of 
 representatives of one hundred and ten. The senate 
 occupies a building on the Plaza Bolivar that was once the 
 seat of the Spanish Inquisition, and in front of which 
 hundreds of victims were executed and burned to death. 
 The interior of the Inquisition chamber is lined with 
 beautiful woodwork, the ceiling especially being noted for 
 the rare and intricate designs of the carving. In con- 
 trast to the Old World beauty of the room is an interesting 
 and up-to-date device by which members vote on questions 
 before the senate. Each desk is equipped with an elec- 
 tric button, which, when pressed, registers the vote at the 
 presiding officer’s table. 
 
 83 
 
CHAPTERVX 
 IN THE SHOPS AND MARKETS OF LIMA 
 
 HAVE just returned from a morning in the city market 
 
 of Lima. I arrived at the market house at seven 
 
 o'clock and ate my desayuno at a little restaurant 
 
 among the stalls. This meal, which the Peruvians 
 eat upon rising, consists of two small pieces of toast and 
 a cup of coffee or tea. The real breakfast is not eaten 
 until eleven or twelve o'clock. Being afflicted with a 
 good American appetite, I pieced out this scanty menu 
 with a bunch of white grapes as big as my head, the 
 grapes themselves being the size of damson plums. 
 
 The table was large and I had hardly taken my seat 
 before an Indian woman with a broad-brimmed Panama 
 hat coming well over her bronzed features sat down 
 opposite me and ordered some ice cream, which was 
 served in a champagne glass. Then a pock-marked 
 Peruvian of the lower class took a seat at the table, and 
 just as I was about to leave, a fat old Negress, wearing a 
 black manta that covered the entire upper part of her 
 body and all of her head except her face, slid down into a 
 chair beside me. While eating, I was besieged by all 
 sorts of peddlers, from women who offered me lottery 
 tickets to men who were selling waxen images of the 
 Virgin Mary dressed in the latest styles. 
 
 All about were the queer characters that make up the 
 masses of the Peruvian capital. There were cooks by the 
 
 84 
 
IN THE SHOPS AND MARKETS OF LIMA 
 
 hundreds doing their daily marketing. Some were 
 Chinese, some Negroes, and many had the yellow skins 
 that showed their combined Indian and Spanish ancestry. 
 There were scores of women dressed all in black, and many 
 in calico dresses and straw hats. Not afew were mountain 
 folk, and they looked about with eyes of wonder at the 
 strange sights of the great city. The crowd numbered 
 thousands, and was the busiest assemblage I have seen 
 in Peru. 
 
 The Lima market covers a city square, the chief stalls 
 being in a great court roofed with galvanized iron and 
 surrounded by stores. As I strolled among the fruit 
 peddlers I saw white and red grapes, apples as yellow as 
 gold, and rosy peaches, as well as pomegranates, guavas, 
 and tunas, the fruit of the cactus. There were oranges, 
 lemons, pineapples, and bananas, and bushels of alligator 
 pears. The latter cost only five or ten cents each, yet 
 | had to pay fifty cents for the one I ordered with my 
 dinner at the hotel yesterday. 
 
 Among the vegetables were string beans as long as my 
 arm and yuccas as big around as a baseball bat and often 
 two feet in length. They are the roots of a species of lily 
 plant and are eaten like potatoes. I saw roasting ears 
 at nearly every vegetable stand. Some of them were 
 bright yellow and others as black as my boots. I saw 
 grains of hominy twice the size of the largest lima beans. 
 They come from a corn grown here that is so mealy that 
 the Indians make flour of it by pounding it with a stone. 
 There were many tomatoes, great heads of cauliflower 
 and cabbage, muskmelons and watermelons, and other 
 fruits the names of which I do not know. 
 
 A large part of the market is devoted to meats and game. 
 
 85 
 
LANDS OF THE ANDES AND THE DESERT 
 
 I] saw lamb, kid flesh, and great cages of guinea pigs, which 
 when cooked taste like squab pigeons or tender young 
 squirrels. There were stalls full of corbina, which is a 
 large and sweet-fleshed fish not unlike the bluefish of the 
 Atlantic, though of a more delicate flavour. A certain 
 variety of Peruvian fish is considered especially delicious 
 when served raw with the juice of a lemon. The acid 
 seems to have the same effect on the flesh as boiling, and 
 it is thought even better than the raw fish eaten in Japan. 
 There are also many kinds of shell fish, including a clam 
 called the sevorita. Its flesh is as white as snow except for 
 a morsel of meat the colour of the brightest red pepper. 
 About the only sea food I have eaten here that I do not like 
 is the Peruvian oyster, which is parboiled and served on 
 the half-shell. 
 
 There is no place that I have yet visited that has so 
 much pepper and potatoes upon its tables as I find here. 
 It is said that the Peruvians eat more pepper than salt. 
 They serve it with nearly everything, and one always finds 
 beside his plate a little dish of a sort of red pepper paste 
 called aji. Papas con aji is a favourite concoction made 
 of potatoes and pepper with a sauce of tomatoes and 
 eggs. It is as hot as fire, but not bad after you get used 
 to it. Papas rellena is made of mashed potatoes mixed with 
 olives, onions, eggs, and raisins, and fried. Papas con 
 arros 1s potatoes cooked with rice. The chief meal of 
 many of the poorer class of people is a soup made by 
 cooking together nearly every kind of vegetable and a 
 goodly portion of meat. The soup is drained off and 
 served clear, and the vegetables and the meat are brought 
 in on a separate plate to be eaten afterward. 
 
 Peru, it seems to me, is the paradise of the housekeeper. 
 
 86 
 
 EN ge ee a _ 
 
 ie ee ae ee ee 
 
 Pere 
 
Lima does most of its business on the ground floor, the upper stories 
 of the buildings along the Mercadero being devoted to living quarters. 
 Many of them have handsomely carved balconia and galleries. 
 
One of the pleasures of a visit to Peru is eating its delicious fruits, many 
 of which are not grown in our country. Panniers slung across a burro’s 
 back provide the native substitute for our push-carts. 
 
IN THE SHOPS AND MARKETS OF LIMA 
 
 There are few places where it is easier to manage a home 
 than here. The cooks do all the marketing, the ladies of 
 Lima seldom going out of the house except to shop or visit. 
 The cook is allowed a certain amount of money a day, for 
 which he is expected to supply the meals. In other 
 words, you board with your cook. If you havea good one, 
 you are better and more cheaply served than if you try to 
 manage it all yourself. At the same time, the cook 
 usually makes a profit from the marketing allowance in 
 addition to his wages. Servants are cheap in Peru. The 
 native families pay less than the foreigners, and in the 
 country districts there are many house servants who do 
 not get much more than their board and clothes. / 
 
 Outside of the market much of the peddling of Lima is 
 done by women, who ride on horseback from house to 
 house. Nearly all the milk is carried in cans tied to the 
 sides of a horse, upon the back of which the woman sits 
 with her legs straddling the animal’s neck. When she 
 reaches a house where she has a customer she slides down 
 over the horse’s neck, lifts off one of the cans, carries it 
 inside, and pours out a quart or a pint, according to order. 
 There are also many women vegetable peddlers. Other 
 peddlers are men and boys who sit just in front of the 
 tails of their donkeys with their backs against their loads 
 of goods. There are no huckster wagons, and the drays 
 of the city are long-bodied two-wheeled carts, each pulled 
 by three mules abreast. 
 
 In the chief shopping section only the newest of the 
 stores have plate-glass windows, and there are no fancy 
 fronts with gorgeous displays that may be looked at 
 Sundays and evenings. Most of the stores have no 
 windows at all. They are shut in from the street by great 
 
 87 
 
LANDS OF THE ANDES AND THE DESERT 
 
 doors that are removed during business hours. The sun- 
 light comes in through the door or from the roof. The 
 shops are separated only by thin walls, and strolling 
 along in front of them is like walking through a museum or 
 an Oriental bazaar. The sidewalks are narrow and the 
 merchandise is displayed close to the streets. Many of 
 the dry-goods stores hang fancy patterns of cloth from the 
 ceiling, and the larger establishments have piles of goods 
 stacked upon the floor near the street. Notions of every 
 kind are hung from strings stretched from wall to wall, and 
 all sorts of unusual ways of display are contrived. Asa 
 rule, the prices are high. The best from all over the 
 world is brought here for sale, for this city, while not 
 a rich one, has thousands of well-to-do people. They 
 make as many trips to Europe as do our own wealthy 
 families, their children are educated abroad, and the 
 women frequently go to Paris to buy the latest styles in 
 clothes. 
 
 The chief shopping hours are from four to six o’clock in 
 the afternoon. Then the streets are thronged with men 
 and women, and the crowd is as great as that on F Street 
 in Washington at about the same time of day. One 
 difference here is that no one is in a hurry. The people 
 saunter along or stop and chat with their friends. Nearly 
 everyone is well dressed, and nearly every man, old and 
 young, carries a cane. There are many women wearing 
 the fashionable styles of to-day, and there are also many 
 who are clad in the dead black that the lady of Lima of 
 the past always wore when she went out to walk. Such 
 women do not wear hats, but instead wrap a shawl of fine 
 black goods about the head, pinning it back so that the 
 face alone shows. This background adds to their beauty, 
 
 88 
 
IN THE SHOPS AND MARKETS OF LIMA 
 
 and the costume is more becoming than the changing 
 fashions. 
 
 There is no business done in Lima on the Sabbath. The 
 stores are closed and the great doors fastened with pad- 
 locks. There is not a sign of goods of any kind to be 
 seen. Sometimes there is a grating at the top of the door 
 for ventilation, and sometimes a round hole has been made 
 lower down so that if the owner is within he may look 
 out; but there is no sign of business anywhere. This is 
 so also in the evenings of week days. Nearly all the 
 stores close at six o’clock, and after dark the streets are 
 almost deserted, except near the movies. The barricades 
 in the past have protected the merchants’ stocks in times 
 of political disturbances and revolutions. 
 
 I find American goods for sale in all the stores, although 
 the merchants are mostly English and German, with some 
 Peruvians and a number of Chinese and Italians. The 
 hardware stores carry American axes, hatchets, and other 
 tools, and there are many agencies for American ma- 
 chinery. Much of the cotton print cloth comes from our 
 country, and American canned goods have a great sale 
 here. If I want to pay high prices, I can buy a pair of 
 shoes made in the United States, or one of our American 
 hats sold in competition with those from England and 
 France. The Peruvians have mills not far from Cuzco 
 where they are turning out blankets and underwear, but 
 most of their other woollens still come from abroad. Just 
 now the stores are showing more and more goods from 
 Germany, which is successfully reéstablishing its pre-war 
 market in Peru. 
 
 An American enterprise that is doing much for our trade 
 with Peru is the publication of the West Coast Leader, a 
 
 89 
 
LANDS OF THE ANDES AND THE DESERT 
 
 weekly paper printed in English here in Lima. This 
 journal is devoted to opening up Peru to English and 
 American capital and to the pushing of foreign trade. 
 Its editor was for a long time a newspaper man in the 
 United States. 
 
 At the present time the chief North American firm doing 
 business on the west coast of South America is the house of 
 W.R.Graceand Company. It has its head offices in Lon- 
 don and New York, with branches in Peru, Bolivia, and 
 Chile. This company, which has been operating here for 
 more than a generation, deals in all kinds of merchandise, 
 from a small package of goods to rolling stock for a rail- 
 road, and it handles big contracts involving millions of 
 dollars. The Graces have long run a line of steamers 
 from New York to western South America. The company 
 is known everywhere for the ability and probity of its 
 officials and members, and it is an institution of which the 
 United States may well be proud. 
 
 Another opportunity for American capital down here is 
 in the establishment of a line of first-class hotels along the 
 west coast. There should be one at Guayaquil, another 
 at Quito, and a third at Lima. Since the opening of the 
 Panama Canal there has been a great increase in tourist 
 travel to this part of the world, but at present the hotel 
 accommodations are, to say the least, very poor, and the 
 rates are about as high as at home. 
 
 I have been stopping here at the Maury, one of a chain 
 of a half-dozen hotels under the same ownership. It 
 vies with the Grand as the best hotel in Peru. It is a 
 great two-story structure with wide balconies. The 
 best accommodations I could get were a room facing the 
 street and, back of it, a little dark sitting room. There 
 
 ye 
 
IN THE SHOPS AND MARKETS OF LIMA 
 
 are no private bathrooms. Yet the Maury is usually 
 filled and I understand that it is paying big dividends. 
 
 The port of entry for Lima is the coast city of Callao, 
 which for all practical purposes has become the “down- 
 town” district of the capital, as many of the Limefios have 
 their places of business there. When Pizarro founded 
 the City of the Kings he selected a site far enough from 
 the sea to be safe from buccaneers and pirates, yet only 
 eight miles from a fairly good harbour on the west coast. 
 The first settlement, which was afterward destroyed by an 
 earthquake and a tidal wave, lay to the north of the pres- 
 ent city. Here, on the tower of the castle of San Felipe, 
 was the last place on the American continent over which 
 floated the flag of Spain, the royalist troops having made 
 their last stand here during the War of Independence. 
 
 Callao lies on a bay shaped like a great half-moon and 
 guarded by rocky islands. Part of the harbour is further 
 protected by a stone mole built out into the bay. Just 
 opposite Callao, lying parallel with the coast and less than 
 three miles away, is the island of San Lorenzo, which some 
 day, according to present plans, will be joined to the main- 
 land. The water between the southern end of this island 
 and the coast is shallow, and by building a breakwater 
 the two can be united to make a deep anchorage basin 
 entirely protected from the sea, and large enough to hold 
 any of the great fleets of the world. 
 
 Callao has a large dock at which steamers and sailing 
 vessels can discharge their cargoes, although many of the 
 ships do as mine did and anchor out in the bay, landing 
 their freight and passengers in smaller boats. As I went 
 ashore at Callao I counted forty sailing vessels, loaded 
 with lumber from Puget Sound, and with grain, rice, and 
 
 QI 
 
LANDS OF THE ANDES AND THE DESERT 
 
 other heavy cargo. There were also many steamers, some 
 Peruvian, some Chilean, and some from the United 
 States. I saw a British boat of twelve thousand tons 
 starting out for Europe, and a Japanese liner from the 
 Far East. Among the curious craft were three little 
 war vessels of the Peruvian navy and two submarines. 
 Each year about fifteen hundred steam and sailing vessels 
 call at Callao. It is the port of entry for many of the 
 imports into Peru and the outlet for the copper produced 
 in the famous Cerro de Pasco mines high up in the Andes. 
 
 On the dock | bargained with a cholo, or half-breed 
 Indian, to take my eight pieces of baggage to Lima. They 
 were loaded upon a mule cart and transferred to the 
 tramway, by which they were carried to the capital, and 
 thence by cart to my hotel. I rode to Lima by trolley, 
 first passing through one of the wide streets of Callao. 
 It was lined on both sides with trees, back of which stood 
 low, flat-roofed buildings, built in blocks and painted in all 
 the colours of the rainbow. Some of the streets were clean 
 and modern but many were dirty and smelly. Fora long 
 time a common practice was to put garbage on the roofs 
 and in the streets, where flocks of vultures acted as scav- 
 engers. These birds were protected by law, severe penal- 
 ties being imposed on anybody who killed one of them. 
 
 After leaving the city we passed through orchards, gar- 
 dens, vineyards, and fields of sugar cane and grain, sur- 
 rounded by mud walls as high as my waist. The fields 
 were irrigated by water from the Rimac River, and their 
 bright green was refreshing in contrast with the barren 
 mountains above. For much of the way we rode between 
 rows of willow trees from which branches are cut off every 
 year to make wicker baskets. 
 
 Q2 
 
CHAP TE Rw at 
 ON THE WORLD’S HIGHEST RAILROAD 
 
 S I dictate these notes to my secretary we are both 
 seated on an oil-burning engine on the very top 
 of the Andes. The air is so thin that I can 
 hardly talk, and even the roaring fire in the 
 
 furnace beneath us does not take the chill from our bones. 
 We are a short distance from Ticlio and near one of the 
 highest railroad passes of the world. We are higher in 
 the air than any mountain in the United States outside 
 Alaska. We are one hundred feet above the top of Mont 
 Blanc and two thousand feet higher than the sacred 
 peak of Fujiyama, in far-off Japan. If I could fly from 
 here in an airplane north to Pike’s Peak I would have to 
 drop three times the height of the Washington Monument 
 before I could land on the summit of that mountain, and 
 if I descended one thousand feet farther I would still be 
 far above the height of Mount Mitchell, the highest peak 
 in the Appalachians. Our actual altitude is 15,665 feet 
 above the sea, and all about us are mountains that rise 
 several thousand feet higher. Over there is Mount Meiggs 
 the altitude of which is more than seventeen thousand 
 feet, and not far away is another mountain of twenty thou- 
 sand feet elevation. 
 
 We seem to be in a great fortification on the roof of the 
 world. We are in a basin surrounded by gigantic walls 
 of blue, black, white, red, and gray rock. We are also in 
 
 he 
 
LANDS OF THE ANDES AND THE DESERT 
 
 a vast garden of glaciers. From where I am sitting I can 
 count a half-dozen mighty rivers of ice, some of them so 
 near that by standing up in the cab I could almost throw 
 a stone to them. ‘These glaciers are of enormous extent. 
 I can see one that seems to cover the whole top of the 
 mountain; and near it another has burst out of the rocks 
 and, like an icy shroud, has dropped itself down to the 
 valley. 
 
 A moment ago the sky was bright blue. Now the wind 
 has come up and the clouds hang low over the darkened 
 ice. On these mountain heights the sun of the tropics 
 fights with the cold of the highlands in an endless battle. 
 One can never be sure of the weather. It may be clear 
 for a week or it may snow day and night. In the winter 
 the mountain blasts are so fierce and the glare is so great 
 that the trainmen have to wear smoked glasses to keep 
 from becoming snow-blind. 
 
 This road is known as the Central Railway of Dent 
 It belongs to the government and is under the manage- 
 ment of the Peruvian Corporation, a British company that 
 operates more than half of the railways of the republic. It 
 runs from Callao on the Pacific to Oroya high up in the 
 mountains, a distance of one hundred and forty miles. 
 There the road turns south to Huancayo, seventy-eight 
 miles away. It is planned to extend that line on to 
 Cuzco, the ancient capital of the Incas, and already forty 
 or fifty miles of track have been laid beyond Huancayo. 
 From Ticlio, the highest point on the main line, a branch 
 nine miles long goes to the Morococha mines, crossing the 
 range at 16,805 feet, the highest point reached by any 
 standard-gauge railway in the world. 
 
 The Central Railway was suggested by a Peruvian, but 
 
 94 
 
With one of the largest and safest harbours on the west coast of Peru, 
 Callao has been the chief port of the republic ever since the days when the 
 treasure ships sailed from here for Spain laden with silver and gold bullion. 
 
The highest railroad in the world climbs up over the Andes by following 
 the course of the Rimac, using tunnels, switchbacks, and even turning aside 
 the river itself to reach the topmost point, 15,665 feet above sea level. 
 
ON THE WORLD’S HIGHEST RAILROAD 
 
 the man who laid it out and constructed the greater part of 
 it was Henry Meiggs, an American. Meiggs raised the 
 money to build it, and, in fact, he is entitled to most of the 
 credit for its construction. He began work on it in 1870, 
 and in 1876, when he died, it was completed as far as 
 Chicla, a point more than two and a half miles above the 
 sea. By that time the twenty-seven or twenty-eight 
 million dollars that he had raised for its construction had 
 all been spent and the work stopped. It was resumed 
 some years later, and in 1893 was completed to Oroya. 
 The extension to the rich valley of Huancayo was finished 
 about fifteen years later. 
 
 The road was originally planned to reach the rich 
 silver and copper mines of Cerro de Pasco, but it was not 
 until some years later, when the mines were bought by an 
 American syndicate, that a line was built from Oroya 
 northward along the high plateau of the Andes to that 
 mining centre. This railway is ninety miles long, and, 
 with the Oroya-Huancayo section, covers a part of the 
 Pan-American Railway route, which is planned some day 
 to span the entire ten thousand miles from New York to 
 Buenos Aires. 
 
 The Central Railway of Peru is considered by experts 
 the most wonderful piece of railroad engineering on earth. 
 It climbs mountain sides that rise almost straight up out 
 of the sea. As the crow flies, the distance from the 
 Morococha Pass to the ocean cannot, I should say, be 
 fifty miles, yet with all its windings, with its loops, twists, 
 and turns, its zigzags and its tunnels, and the other con- 
 tortions by which it climbs up the mountains, the rail 
 line is only about one hundred miles long. It makes the 
 whole distance and the great elevation without the rack 
 
 95 
 
LANDS OF THE ANDES AND THE DESERT 
 
 and pinion or cog systems used on other mountain rail- 
 ways, and with a grade of only about four percent. There 
 is not one inch of down grade from the sea to the top, and 
 there is no place where a train or a car, if left on the main 
 line, would not roll by gravity down to the ocean. As I 
 have said, the track is of standard gauge, and the rolling 
 stock used is largely of American manufacture. The 
 engines burn fuel oil, so that the journey throughout is 
 accomplished without dust or cinders. The cars are 
 equipped with an elaborate system of brakes, which as- 
 sures safety, and in the descent a pilot engine AES goes 
 in advance of the train. 
 
 Let me compare this line with some of the other famous 
 mountain railroads of the world. The Denver and Rio 
 Grande narrow gauge in Colorado reaches a level of 
 10,800 feet at Marshall Pass, but in doing so it starts at a 
 mile above the sea in the foot-hills of the Rockies, and 
 after going some hundreds of miles through the gorges 
 it has attained an altitude that is still a mile lower than 
 the highest rail on the Central. The highest point of the 
 Transandine road, which crosses from Chile to Argentina, 
 is not more than two miles above the sea. In Africa, the 
 Uganda road, which, beginning at Mombasa on the east 
 coast, goes over the divide to Lake Victoria, is several 
 thousand feet lower. Between breakfast and dinner the 
 Central Railway of Peru takes one from sea level to a 
 point higher than the top of any mountain in the United 
 States outside Alaska, and if your heart can stand the 
 strain and keep off the soroche, or mountain sickness, you 
 may ride in comfort all the way up. 
 
 The ranges crossed by the Central Railway form one 
 of the mightiest mountain systems on earth. The long 
 
 96 
 
 q 
 a 
 | 
 
ON THE WORLD’S HIGHEST RAILROAD 
 
 chain of the Andes walls the entire western side of this 
 continent. It begins at Cape Horn and the fiords of the 
 Strait of Magellan and stretches northward in a great 
 winding rampart for a distance of forty-five hundred miles, 
 where it drops down into the Panama Canal. Through- 
 out most of its length it has peaks three or four miles in 
 height, and its average elevation is more than twelve 
 thousand feet, or almost the height of Fujiyama. Mount 
 Aconcagua, in Chile, the tallest measured peak in South 
 America, is about twenty-three thousand feet high, and 
 Mount Misti, in southern Peru, is more than twenty 
 thousand feet above the sea. North of here, in Ecuador, 
 you will remember that we saw many volcanoes, including 
 Chimborazo, more than four miles in height; and to the 
 south in Bolivia is a plateau that has an average elevation 
 of practically thirteen thousand feet, with no drainage to 
 either the Atlantic or the Pacific. These great altitudes 
 are the most impressive on account of the steepness of the 
 slope of the range that runs along the coast. It begins 
 right at the sea, only a narrow strip of sand separat- 
 ing it from the ocean, and it jumps, as it were, into the 
 clouds. 
 
 The Central Railway follows the valley of the Rimac. 
 In places the road is high above the river, clinging to the 
 sides of the hills, again it is on the river level, and at one 
 point, where the space was not wide enough for both road 
 and river, the engineers made a tunnel through the moun- 
 tains and turned the stream out of its course in order to 
 use its bed for the track. There are sixty-five tunnels 
 and sixty-seven bridges, and there are sixteen switchbacks 
 located on the sides of mountains that the engines could 
 climb in no other way. 
 
 97 
 
LANDS OF THE ANDES AND THE DESERT 
 
 During the first part of the journey the train took me 
 through an irrigated valley. There were fields of alfalfa, 
 sugar cane, and other green crops on both sides of the 
 track, but the mountains towering above were as arid 
 as the Sahara. I remembered the difference between the 
 two sides of the Andes, and thought that if I could bore a 
 hole through the mountain wall I might come out into the 
 valley of the Amazon, where the waters swarm with 
 turtles and alligators, and the land is covered with a dense 
 jungle of palms, rubber trees, and all sorts of tropical 
 fruits. 
 
 Near the ocean on the western or arid side of the Andes 
 there is no green at all. The mighty rocks seem absolutely 
 bare. By looking closely, however, I found gray cacti 
 clinging to the rocks and silver-gray moss covering the 
 stones like a mantle. These plants are probably fed by 
 the dews. It was not until I reached Tamboraque, at an 
 altitude of almost two miles, that I found the first sprin- 
 kling of green, which grew fresher and more abundant 
 as we ascended. At two and a half miles above sea level 
 the rocks were covered with a thin grass, and where | am 
 now, at the beginning of the great plateau, there is plenty 
 of feed for llamas and sheep During the last three or 
 four hours we passed many wild flowers. At one place 
 I counted forty varieties, and from where I am sitting 
 I can see buttercups and great yellow dandelions. 
 
 As the train climbs the slopes the Rimac Valley narrows 
 and widens. In some places one could almost jump from 
 one side of it to the other and again it is so wide that it 
 would take a half hour to walk across it. All through the 
 valley are patches of crops. Near the ocean it is quite 
 wide and there one sees cattle and sheep. There are some 
 
 98 
 
Indian villages of rude thatched huts are perched on the mountain 
 sides along the line of the Central Railway. In the narrow valleys every 
 foot of land is cultivated or used for grazing a few sheep or cattle. 
 
Not far from the Viscas bridge, near the crest of the Great Divide, one 
 may toss a cork into each of two streams, one of which flows into the 
 Pacific, while the other crosses a continent and empties into the Atlantic, 
 
 — 
 
ON THE WORLD’S HIGHEST RAILROAD 
 
 large fields with mud walls about them, and also haciendas 
 with comfortable buildings. All the farms are irrigated. 
 As the train went farther into the mountains the fields 
 grew smaller and smaller; some were terraces where the 
 cultivated strips were often only three or four feet wide. 
 Nevertheless, these little farms extend far up the moun- 
 tains, which are so steep that a workman who fell out of a 
 field the other day rolled down fifty feet before he could 
 stop himself. Even higher than these cultivated patches 
 are the marks of other terraces that were used by the 
 Incas, who tilled a hundred acres where the modern 
 Peruvians till one. 
 
 All the way from the ocean to the top of the Andes 
 I passed towns and villages. Twenty-five miles from 
 Lima, at an altitude of three thousand feet, I stopped 
 at Chosica, a summer resort, where a score of huge chola 
 women, clad in short skirts and shawls and white Panama 
 hats, were on the station platform, selling oranges, toma- 
 toes, peaches, watermelons, and strawberries. I bought 
 SIX Oranges at three cents apiece, and paid a nickel for an 
 alligator pear that weighed a pound. 
 
 Higher still, we came to the Indian towns. There all 
 the houses were of one story, most of them being rude 
 stone huts with rough tiled roofs. The people do not 
 build their homes in the fields, where every foot of land is 
 needed for crops. Instead, they huddle together out on 
 the edges of the valleys or on the rocky places close to 
 rivers. They go out to work on the terraces and patches 
 of soil, and now and then I saw them driving over the 
 trails their llamas loaded with burdens. Here they were 
 herding sheep while standing up and spinning wool, and 
 there they were bent double in digging the soil. These 
 
 99 
 
LANDS OF THE ANDES AND THE DESERT 
 
 Indians are short and copper-coloured, and to me they 
 looked worked to death. 
 
 The train stopped at Matucana for dinner. There we 
 were served with plates of soup containing chunks of meat 
 as big as my fist and a half-dozen vegetables all stewed 
 together. We had also beefsteak and eggs and red straw- 
 berries fresh from the vines. 
 
 Here and there along the route were mining towns. 
 Much of the ore, which contains silver and copper, is 
 brought in on llamas, and I saw hundreds of those little 
 camel-like beasts trotting along with their heavy loads. 
 
 Thirteen thousand six hundred feet above the sea is 
 Casapalca, and the climb from there to Ticlio is more than 
 two thousand feet. Just below Ticlio is the Galera 
 tunnel, which goes through Mount Meiggs to the farther 
 slope. From here one can throw chips into waters that 
 flow to both oceans. | knew of this, and had prepared two 
 bottles, tightly corked, with messages in them. I put 
 one bottle in each stream and set them adrift. One 
 floated away down the eastern side of the Andes. It may 
 reach the Ucayali, one of the tributaries of the Amazon, 
 and go on its long voyage of three or four thousand miles 
 into the salt waters of the Atlantic. The other bobbed 
 along rapidly toward the Pacific. It will soon reach the 
 Rimac River, and if it escapes the rocks it will be at 
 Callao in something less than a hundred-mile journey. 
 
 From Ticlio it is only a short run to Oroya, where the 
 main line of the railway turns south to Huancayo, and 
 travellers going on eastward must continue their journey 
 by horse or muleback. An automobile road runs from 
 Oroya to the towns of Tarma and Merced, and from there 
 a trail drops down into the tropical valleys where there are 
 
 100 
 
 — : i 
 
ON THE WORLD’S HIGHEST RAILROAD 
 
 large coffee and sugar plantations. Between Tarma and 
 Merced the highway is strictly a “one-way” road. It is 
 cut out of the sides of the mountains and is so narrow that 
 two vehicles cannot pass; hence travel is eastbound one 
 day and westbound the next. 
 
 Oroya is not a great distance from the tributaries of the 
 Amazon River, and the day will probably come when this 
 road will form a part of a railway route across South 
 America. It has been estimated that the road could be 
 extended to the navigable Amazon system for something 
 like fifteen or twenty million dollars. Some claim that 
 the cost of pulling trains over the great ranges will make 
 this route impracticable for the movement of heavy goods 
 over the Andes. 
 
 There is no doubt, however, that East Andean Peru will 
 eventually have railway connection with the Pacific. 
 There are several passes much lower than that at Ticlio, 
 and there is one where the altitude is below that of Mexico 
 City. It can be reached by an extension from one of the 
 valleys of northern Peru, and the road built thence to the 
 Amazon. The distance from the Pacific by this route 
 would be only four hundred miles, or less than the trip 
 from Boston to Baltimore. Another plan is to extend 
 the Cerro de Pasco line to the Ucayali River, a distance 
 of a little more than two hundred miles. I have already 
 spoken of the possible extension of the railroads in Ecua- 
 dor to the Amazon Valley, and it will be readily seen that 
 if any of these projects are carried out, the vast region of 
 the eastern Andes will some time be accessible to us 
 through the Panama Canal. 
 
 In addition to one or more lines connecting the west 
 coast with the navigable rivers of eastern Peru, the railway 
 
 10! 
 
LANDS OF THE ANDES AND THE DESERT 
 
 development plans formulated by the government include 
 two longitudinal railways. One of them is to follow the 
 line of the coast, through the desert and the oases, and the 
 other to be high up on the plateau, running northward 
 from Cerro de Pasco and southward to meet the railway 
 that now reaches Cuzco from Arequipa. Much of the 
 government railway thus far constructed has been financed 
 by the income from the tobacco tax. | 
 
 Almost all of trans-Andean Peru lies within five hundred 
 miles of the Pacific Ocean. When the existing railroads 
 are extended as planned it can be reached from New York 
 in fifteen days. As it is now, it takes three weeks by ocean 
 and river steamer to get to Iquitos, the port for eastern 
 Peru, near the headwaters of the Amazon. 
 
 Iquitos is the capital of the great Peruvian province of 
 Loreto, which occupies most of Peru east of the Andes. 
 It is the commercial headquarters of the Putumayo rubber 
 region. Although more than twenty-three hundred miles 
 inland from the Atlantic, it is one of the chief rubber ports 
 of the world, and exports thousands of tons every year. 
 The Amazon here is three miles wide, and at the half-mil- 
 lion dollar floating wharf of Iquitos may be seen many 
 ocean-going vessels as well as smaller river craft of all 
 kinds. Next to rubber, the chief export is ivory nuts, 
 which, as in Ecuador, are brought in on rafts and small 
 boats over the network of streams. Many cedar logs also 
 are shipped from here, to be made into pencils and chests 
 and boxes in the United States. 
 
 Iquitos is a city of fifteen thousand people, and has 
 modern business buildings, houses of brick and concrete, 
 and four public schools. There is a comfortable three- 
 story hotel that is among the best in Peru, and although 
 
 102 
 
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From three things the Indian woman is virtually inseparable 
 her shawl, and her baby. She is equally attached to her skirts, which she 
 never changes, simply putting on new ones over the old as fast as she can 
 acquire them. 
 
 her hat, 
 
ON THE WORLD’S HIGHEST RAILROAD 
 
 the city is but a few degrees from the Equator, the water 
 and sanitation systems make it comparatively healthful 
 for foreigners. 
 
 Trans-Andean, or Amazonian Peru, as it might be 
 called, has an area equal to fifty states the size of Massa- 
 chusetts or ten as big as Ohio or Kentucky, and the region 
 has proportionately more good land than any of those 
 states. Although near the Equator, it has a climate that 
 varies from the temperate to the tropical. Coffee and 
 cacao can be grown in the mountains, while the lowlands 
 produce rubber, and there are vast tracts where sugar cane, 
 tobacco, and cotton can be raised. The country is also 
 rich in minerals, and much of the gold of the Incas came 
 from there. | 
 
 103 
 
CHAPTER chi 
 CERRO DE PASCO 
 
 WANT to give you some pictures of Cerro de Pasco, 
 
 the highest mining town of the world. It is situated 
 
 here on the top of the Andes on the very roof of South 
 
 America, at an altitude of fourteen thousand two 
 hundred feet above the sea. It is three or four thousand 
 feet above Leadville, and almost twice as high as Mexico 
 City. It is more than twelve hundred miles south of the 
 Panama Canal and something like three thousand miles 
 from the Strait of Magellan. 
 
 I came here from Oroya over the line built by the Cerro 
 de Pasco Copper Corporation, which owns the great 
 mines. The rails are made of American steel and the 
 ties are of Oregon pine. The track is as smooth as that 
 of the New York Central from Buffalo to Albany, and the 
 comfortable cars were built in the United States. The 
 bridges came from the American Bridge Company at 
 Pittsburgh, and the locomotives are Baldwins or Rogers. 
 The engineers and the conductors on the road are Ameri- 
 cans, but the firemen and the labourers are Indians and 
 cholos, that is, people of mixed Spanish and Quichua blood. 
 I am told that the road paid for itself within the first two 
 years after building, and that its traffic steadily grows. 
 
 Cerro de Pasco lies in a valley between two mighty 
 ranges of snow-capped mountains rich in minerals. It is 
 just about as far south of the Equator as Panama is north 
 
 104 
 
 eS _ Se ae eS 
 
CERRO DE PASCO 
 
 of it, but at this altitude of almost three miles the climate 
 is like that of southern Canada. There are frequent snow- 
 storms in the winter, when at night the thermometer goes 
 down almost to zero. In the summer it rains in the 
 afternoons, but the mornings are clear, and for about 
 six months of the year the sun shines all the day through. 
 
 The town has about fifteen thousand cholo and Indian 
 inhabitants, most of whom live in one-story houses made 
 of plastered adobe, and a small number of whites. 
 The buildings are in blocks, walling the streets, and 
 are painted in bright colours. One house may be a 
 brilliant green, the next blue, and the next red or 
 golden yellow or white. As I walked through the town, 
 I observed that the woodwork was freshly painted, and 
 the American mining official who was with me told me 
 that the law requires that the street front of every house 
 must be painted once every two years. If it is not, 
 the owner is fined. He said that the painting time had 
 Just passed, and therefore the city looked fresh. 
 
 The houses have roofs of tile or galvanized iron that 
 extend out over the sidewalks. There are no eaves- 
 troughs, and when it rains the water usually pours off the 
 roofs down the back of one’s neck. The sidewalks are 
 narrow, and the principal roadways are paved with 
 cobbles with a gutter of slabs about ten inches wide and 
 six inches deep running through the middle of the street. 
 The streets all slope to the centre, and the sewage runs 
 off through this gutter. 
 
 The most important buildings of Cerro de Pasco face 
 upon a plaza. As I went through it I saw about one 
 hundred and fifty llamas resting on the stones. Each 
 animal had a package of ore strapped to his back. As I 
 
 105 
 
LANDS OF THE ANDES AND THE DESERT 
 
 looked, some of the llamas got up. They rest much as 
 camels do, putting their knees under them and lying flat 
 on their bellies. Many of them were chewing their 
 cuds, and I could see their jaws moving back and forth, 
 showing their teeth. Some of the llamas were white, 
 others brown, and some were spotted like a calico pony, 
 with black, brown, yellow, and white. These beasts of 
 burden are as observing as a fox terrier, and continually 
 turn their heads this way and that for every new thing in 
 sight. Their wool looks like that of the Angora goat, but 
 is coarser. It is used chiefly by the natives, and is not 
 exported. | 
 
 Strolling up the main street, I passed the principal stores, 
 which are filled with goods from Europe and the United 
 States. I saw canned fruits from California, salmon 
 from Oregon, cotton cloths from Massachusetts, and 
 sewing machines of well-known American makes. There 
 were also many articles of native manufacture, such as 
 ponchos made from the hair of llamas and sheep, rude 
 sandals used by the Indians, and shoes so clumsy that 
 they could not have come from Massachusetts. Over 
 some of the doors | noticed tassels and fringes of tissue 
 paper, which I was told were the signs of saloons selling 
 chicha, the native drink. 
 
 The crowds in the streets were typical of highland 
 Peru. There were Peruvians of the upper classes dressed 
 as we are, scores of cholos, and Indian men and women who 
 had driven their llamas in from the country loaded with 
 vegetables and other native merchandise. There were 
 many cargadores, or porters, with great loads on their 
 backs, and Indian women and girls wearing huge hats 
 on their heads, shawls around their shoulders, and volumi- 
 
 106 
 
CERRO DE PASCO 
 
 nous skirts. I am told that neither the chola nor the 
 Indian woman ever changes her skirt. She puts one on 
 and keeps it there until it is worn out. As each grows 
 thinner, she adds another, until at last she reaches 
 enormous dimensions. She wears her shawl and hat in- 
 doors and out, and it is difficult to persuade a servant 
 girl to remove either while at her work. 
 
 The Indian men and boys wear coarse suits of clothes 
 that are made in the same sizes for children and grown-ups. 
 They have ponchos and hats but no shoes; some wear 
 sandals but many are barefooted. The streets swarm 
 with children, and nearly every woman and girl has a 
 child tied to her back. Sometimes the baby is on the 
 outside of a burden, and it bobs up and down as the 
 mother carries the heavy load over the road. She bends 
 half double as she goes along at a sort of dog-trot. 
 
 Few of the women are handsome, and they all look 
 dirty and rather repulsive. They start carrying burdens 
 while they are children, and I see girls no taller than my 
 waist with babies strapped to their backs. The men 
 carry enormous weights up hill and down. Their chief 
 strength is in their backs, and they have to get under a 
 load to carry it. At one place I saw eight of them moving 
 a piano. They did not raise it with their hands, but tied 
 ropes to its legs and then pulled on the ropes over their 
 shoulders until they were able to lift the instrument to 
 their backs. After that they trotted on up the hill. 
 
 The foreign colony of Cerro de Pasco is quite as in- 
 teresting as the native. Here, more than three thousand 
 miles south of the United States and almost three miles 
 above the sea, is an American industrial centre. I call 
 it American because it is run by American money; but, 
 
 107 
 
LANDS OF THE ANDES‘ AND THE’ DESERT 
 
 in fact, the salaried employees come from all over the world. 
 There are English, Australians, Germans, Austrians, 
 Irish, and Danes. There are graduates of Massachusetts 
 “Tech,” of McGill in Canada, and of the leading uni- 
 versities of Europe—in short, the experts of a half-dozen 
 different nations. Many of them have their families with 
 them, and | have yet to meet a man or a woman who is 
 not pleased with the conditions here. The Cerro de Pasco 
 Copper Corporation does everything it can to make life 
 agreeable, and the people live almost as well as at home. 
 
 Hotels with bathrooms and all modern conveniences 
 have been put up for the bachelors. The married em- 
 ployees have comfortable stone cottages and can buy 
 many of their supplies at the company store. There are 
 club-houses with libraries and reading rooms supplied with 
 the latest magazines and papers, and also bowling alleys, 
 billiard tables, and rooms for entertainments and dances. 
 There are tennis courts and baseball grounds where the 
 smelter employees sometimes play a game with a team 
 from the mines. However, the air is so thin that baseball 
 is indulged in only moderately, and tennis, for newcomers 
 at least, is always played in doubles. 
 
 The foreign colony publishes a creditable monthly 
 magazine, the Inca Chronicle, which has the distinction 
 of being printed nearer Heaven than any other periodical 
 onearth. There is a hospital here, with expert physicians 
 and trained nurses, and when the men are sick they are 
 well cared for or are sent ‘‘down the hill.”” The terms 
 “down the hill” and “up the hill” are used here in referring 
 to the journey to or from the sea-coast. 
 
 Most of the Americans and other foreigners—men, wo- 
 men, and children—seem in good health. There are, 
 
 108 
 
CERRO DE PASCO 
 
 however, some who cannot stand the thinness of the air 
 at this altitude, and many are afflicted with pneumonia 
 and have to be sent back post haste on special trains. 
 I know of employees who have come up three or four 
 different times, and, going down sick each time, have at 
 last had to give up and return to the States. On the 
 other hand, | have just been told of one Englishman who 
 had lived at this high altitude continuously for twenty- 
 three years. At the end of that time he won a lottery 
 prize of five thousand dollars, took a long leave of absence, 
 and went down to Lima intending to live in grand style 
 as long as his funds lasted. He had been so many years 
 in a rarefied atmosphere, however, that he could not stand 
 the low altitude of the capital, and was obliged to return 
 to Cerro de Pasco before he had time to get well started on 
 spending his money. 
 
 The soroche, or mountain sickness, seems to attack 
 everyone here when he first reaches an altitude of two 
 miles or more above the sea. Every foreigner I have met 
 has been more or less afflicted with it, although with some 
 it merely means a slight difficulty in breathing. Asa rule, 
 most people recover from it quickly, although it returns at 
 any over-exertion or imprudence. The first symptoms 
 of the illness are nausea and pains in the head. Then 
 comes vertigo and dimness of sight and hearing. Fainting 
 fits may follow, and the blood may flow from one’s eyes, 
 nose, and lips. Those who have weak lungs are liable 
 to have hemorrhages, and people with weak hearts be- 
 come unconscious. Soroche sometimes even causes death. 
 
 I had an attack of soroche during my first trip to South 
 America. As I came here yesterday over the Central 
 Railway, I could feel the air growing rarer. At ten 
 
 109 
 
LANDS OF THE ANDES AND THE DESERT 
 
 thousand feet my breath was so short I could not whistle, 
 and much of my dictation at fifteen thousand feet was 
 done in a whisper. After we passed the two-mile level 
 I found myself weighing each sentence to see whether 
 it was worth the effort required to utter it. At the 
 stations I walked very slowly, and when the train started 
 unexpectedly at Casapalca and I had to run to get on, 
 I panted for five minutes before I recovered. The blood 
 pounded in my ears and the top of my head felt as though 
 it were being pried up with a crowbar. 
 
 In the cars behind me were men and women holding 
 smelling bottles at their noses, and one Peruvian had a 
 bottle at his nose and a gun in his bag. Before I came 
 out of the train he told me he had two cures for the 
 soroche. ‘‘One is this smelling bottle,”’ he said, and asked 
 me to try it. 
 
 “But will it do the business?”’ said I. 
 
 “T don’t know,” he replied, “but if not, | have a sure cure 
 here,’ and he opened his bag and showed me the revolver. 
 
 The soroche attacks different individuals in different 
 ways. My secretary had a slight touch of it, but this soon 
 passed off and he thought he was proof against further 
 trouble. He walked six miles that day, and then spent an 
 hour in the bowling alleys at the club. At the same time 
 he ate with his usual zest, and the result is that he has 
 now a well-developed case of soroche. He is the colour 
 of cheese, he cannot take three steps without resting, and 
 he “‘loathes all manner of meat.’”’ A man who came up on 
 the train with me says that his head began to ache during 
 the night and his pulse jumped to one hundred and 
 twenty. A young mining engineer who came last week to 
 the Morococha copper property was met at the depot 
 
 110 
 
Cerro de Pasco was an important mining town when Manhattan Island 
 was mostly wilderness, but to-day it lives on the payroll of a great Amer- 
 ican corporation housed in a skyscraper of lower New York. 
 
Some of the smaller mines of Cerro de Pasco are still worked by In- 
 dians. These are mere holes in the ground, unequipped with machinery, 
 out of which men and boys carry the ore in sacks on their backs. 
 
CERRO DE PASCO 
 
 with horses and rode at a gallop to the mines. This 
 brought on such a severe attack that he was obliged to go 
 back to Lima and spend a while on the coast. When he 
 comes up again he will stop at Matucana, which has an 
 altitude of eight thousand feet, and then make the re- 
 mainder of the journey by easy stages. 
 
 I have talked with the doctors here as to the cause of 
 soroche. They say it comes from the thinness of the air. 
 One’s system is accustomed to a certain percentage of 
 oxygen with each breath he takes. You breathe at the 
 same rate here as at the coast, but you get less oxygen, 
 and as a result your blood becomes impure and there is a 
 loading up of waste matter throughout the body, causing 
 auto-intoxication, and if it continues long enough you 
 have soroche. 
 
 The atmospheric pressure here is much less than at the 
 seacoast. At Lima it is about fifteen pounds to the 
 square inch, and here it is less than nine pounds. Conse- 
 quently, it takes six minutes to soft-boil an egg, and you 
 may boil beans all day and not have them cooked through, 
 for in this atmosphere water passes off into vapour at a 
 lower temperature than it does near sea level. 
 
 Many of the wiseacres, when they first come to the 
 mountains, disregard what the doctors say. They do 
 not take the ordinary precautions, and the result is 
 usually a serious case of soroche, or even pneumonia. The 
 other day a visiting physician was told he must not go out 
 without his coat. He replied that his business was medi- 
 cine and he knew how to take care of himself. He then 
 straightway trotted about in the rain. He was stricken 
 down with pneumonia, and within four days he was 
 on his way back to the coast in a coffin, 
 
 Il 
 
CHAPTER XIII 
 AMERICAN INDUSTRY IN THE HEART OF PERU 
 
 HE story of the mines of Cerro de Pasco began 
 
 about three centuries ago. In the year 1630 an 
 
 Indian shepherd who had strayed far from his hut 
 
 with his llamas and sheep was obliged to camp out 
 overnight. When he awoke the next morning he found 
 the rocks under the ashes of his campfire specked with 
 globules of silver that had been melted by the heat. 
 That discovery led to the opening of mines by the Span- 
 iards, who drove the Indian peons into the workings and 
 flogged them when the output lagged behind. Later 
 the mines passed into the possession of cholos. At one 
 time, when the price of silver was at its highest, the de- 
 posits were exploited by capitalists who paid the miners 
 something like forty cents a day for twelve hours’ work, 
 with an ounce of coca leaves as an added inducement to 
 keep them on the job. 
 
 Although the Cerro de Pasco mines produced an average 
 of a million and a half ounces of silver a year from the 
 time of their discovery until 1900, their greatest value 
 to-day is in their copper. As the workings grew deeper, 
 the ore yielded more and more of that metal and less of 
 silver. Near the surface it often assayed one hundred 
 ounces of silver to the ton, but at the depth of the present 
 operations the silver content is less than ten ounces. 
 Nevertheless, Cerro de Pasco is still one of the two most 
 
 112 
 
 ; 
 : 
 i 
 
AMERICAN INDUSTRY IN PERU 
 
 important silver districts of Peru, and Peru ranks third 
 among the silver-producing countries of the world. Only 
 the United States and Mexico surpass it. 
 
 Although the most valuable deposits here are owned by 
 the Cerro de Pasco Copper Corporation, small holdings 
 are still worked by the Indians for both silver and copper. 
 The natives dig out the best ore with picks and bring it to 
 the surface on their backs, in rawhide sacks, one man 
 carrying from sixty to eighty pounds at a time. Some of 
 it is brought up on ladders from a depth of two hundred 
 feet or more. 
 
 The ground under Cerro de Pasco is honeycombed with 
 the diggings out of which the ore has been taken for genera- 
 tions. Here and there on the surface are piles of ore, 
 and everywhere are holes leading down into the native 
 mines. Some of them are so close to the houses that | 
 wonder that the babies toddling about do not fall in. 
 In places the ground has sunk, and as I rode through the 
 town I saw great pits, large enough to swallow the Vati- 
 can at Rome or our National Capitol at Washington. 
 If the houses were built of heavier materials it is probable 
 that the whole town would drop down into the excavations 
 beneath it. 
 
 It was the great copper value of the ore that first at- 
 tracted the attention of American capitalists to Cerro de 
 Pasco about a generation ago. A syndicate including such 
 men as J. B. Haggin, Henry C. Frick, the Vanderbilts, 
 the Hearst estate, and others, was formed to buy the most 
 valuable mines. No expense was spared in developing 
 the properties, the company spending tens of millions of 
 dollars to put them on a paying basis. This was ac- 
 complished in a few years, and their total mineral pro- 
 
 113 
 
LANDS OF THE ANDES AND THE DESERT 
 
 duction now reaches an annual value of more than forty 
 million dollars. { 
 
 The extent of the present operations of the Cerro de 
 Pasco Copper Corporation is almost inconceivable. Here 
 on the top of the Andes the company has built up one of 
 the greatest copper mining and smelting industries in the 
 world. I have already described its railway from Oroya 
 to Cerro de Pasco. It has also built a railway that runs 
 about twenty-five miles north of Cerro de Pasco to the coal 
 mines that supply the fuel for smelting the ore. At 
 Oroya it has a twenty-thousand-horse-power hydro- 
 electric plant that furnishes the power for its various 
 properties, and a new smelter that surpasses any on the 
 South American continent. At La Fundici6én, the site 
 of its old smelter, it operates enormous ovens for making 
 the coke used in smelting, and it has its own quarries of 
 limestone. It owns also several other copper mines at 
 Morococha, which is reached by a branch line from the 
 Peruvian Central. 
 
 The company employs from six to eight thousand In- 
 dians and cholos in the mines and the smelter. As a rule 
 they make good workmen. They are divided into two 
 eight-hour shifts, so arranged that the second stops at two 
 o'clock in the morning, thus enabling all the men to sleep 
 a part of the night. 
 
 The prosperity of Cerro de Pasco, and, indeed, of this 
 whole mining region, is dependent largely upon American 
 capital. The corporation spends thousands of dollars 
 a month in wages. The ores shipped to Callao and the 
 supplies for the mines furnish the bulk of the freight 
 business of the Central Railway. The company has great 
 warehouses that stock everything in the line of mining 
 
 114 
 
 EEE 
 
AMERICAN INDUSTRY IN PERU 
 
 and smelting machinery, as well as all sorts of supplies 
 for its employees, Near one of the shafts I saw a 
 lumber yard stacked high with Oregon pine, and was 
 told that it was cheaper to bring the timber over its long 
 ocean trip and then carry it up the Andes by railroad than 
 to get the eucalyptus that grows in eastern Peru not more 
 than two hundred miles from the smelter, but far from 
 any railway. 
 
 It is doubtful whether there is any other place in the 
 world where the copper deposits are of such enormous 
 extent as here at Cerro de Pasco. 
 
 “ You might compare the formations to your hand,” said 
 one of the superintendents in describing them to me. 
 “Let the palm represent the great central mass of copper 
 and your fingers the veins that extend out from it. On 
 one of the veins alone there is enough ore in sight to keep 
 us busy for ten years or more, and it is my opinion that 
 we have barely scratched the surface of the copper. In 
 the United States we consider a mine a good one if it will 
 yield one or two per cent. of copper to the ton. Here we 
 throw the ore away if it does not assay two per cent. 
 Our average is from eight to fourteen per cent. and we 
 have taken out some rock that has yielded forty per cent. 
 to the ton.”’ 
 
 On my visit to the mines I dropped down to the four- 
 hundred-foot level and then rode through the narrow 
 tunnels on one of the electric trains that carry the ore to 
 the shaft. There are five shafts going down into the 
 earth, one of them eight hundred feet deep. Tests have 
 been made showing that the copper extends even below 
 that level. There are about forty miles of tunnels, most 
 of them so small that I could hardly stand upright in 
 
 115 
 
LANDS OF THE ANDES AND THE DESERT 
 
 them, while from the centre of the track I could easily 
 reach the sides of the walls. Some of them are reenforced 
 with timber, but nearly everywhere the excavating is so 
 expertly done that the rock needs no additional support. 
 | As we went from chamber to chamber, we stopped at 
 times to watch the miners operating compressed air 
 drills and taking out the ore blasted loose from the rock 
 walls. Everywhere I was impressed by the efficient 
 methods employed, and I was particularly interested in 
 the way the value of ore specimens was determined with- 
 out a chemical assay. This is done by holding the ore 
 to the flame of an ordinary tallow candle. The copper 
 gives a green colour to the flame, by the intensity of which 
 the experts can tell just about the percentage of metal the 
 ore contains. The assistant manager made such a test 
 for me, which showed that the sample averaged about 
 twelve per cent. copper. In addition, the ore contains 
 enough silver and gold practically to pay the cost of min- 
 ing, making the value of the copper almost clear profit. 
 Until a few years ago the ore was sent to the smelter at 
 La Fundicién, not far from Cerro de Pasco. Before the 
 erection of that plant, no smelter had ever been built 
 at more than fourteen thousand feet above the sea, and 
 at first the experts said that furnaces could not be operated 
 at that altitude. They claimed that the thinness of the 
 air would make it almost impossible to get the amount of 
 oxygen needed for the blasts. Nevertheless, the syndi- 
 cate determined to try the experiment. The furnaces 
 were installed by the best engineers obtainable, but 
 still they would not work, and one mining expert after 
 another came here, threw up his hands in despair, and left. 
 For a time it looked as though this great mining venture, 
 116 
 
AMERICAN INDUSTRY IN PERU 
 
 which had already cost millions of dollars, would fail. 
 At last came an engineer from Mexico, who experimented 
 with the blasts until he finally was able to get satisfactory 
 results. The gigantic smelter was then completed and 
 successfully operated until it was abandoned in 1922. 
 
 In the meantime, a new and much larger smelter had 
 been built at Oroya at a cost of fifteen million dollars. The 
 altitude of that town is two thousand feet lower than that 
 of La Fundicién, and the heavier atmosphere makes it 
 possible to operate the blast furnaces and converters with 
 less difficulty. The Oroya smelter also has the advantage 
 of being nearer to the company’s Morococha mines and to 
 Callao, the chief port of the country. 
 
 The white employees of thesmelter live in the company’s 
 model village of Chulic, which has been built far enough 
 away to be free from the sulphur fumes. As in Cerro de 
 Pasco, there are modern club houses for single men, and a 
 hospital in charge of American physicians and nurses, 
 The guest house, or hotel, is unique in this part of the 
 world. It has an up-to-date garage, an attractive patio, 
 a glass-covered pergola, and modern bathrooms. . Even 
 the servants’ quarters are equipped with showers, and 
 though the Quichuas as a race are notoriously lax in the 
 matter of personal cleanliness, the ones employed here find 
 themselves looking for new jobs if they do not make fre- 
 quent use of their bathing facilities. Homes of adobe or 
 brick are furnished to the Indian employees, a low rent 
 being charged chiefly to keep the natives from thinking 
 the houses belong to them. 
 
 I wish | could take you through this great monument of 
 American industry and show you the stream of ore that 
 comes in over the railway and is fed to the fiery furnaces 
 
 117 
 
The ancient patio process of treating ore is still in use to some extent. 
 By this method, masses of ore are wetted down with water, and then 
 
 trodden by horses or mules driven round and round in the circular pits, 
 or patios. 
 
AMERICAN INDUSTRY IN PERU 
 
 Incas and later by the Spaniards. The old tunnels are 
 now being cleaned out and re-worked, and new workings 
 have been begun at still lower levels. 
 
 Not far from La Fundicién are great deposits of vana- 
 dium owned also by an American corporation. One of 
 the most valuable mines formerly belonged to an Italian, 
 who later invested his wealth in vast haciendas and fine 
 breeds of stock. Peru now furnishes seventy per cent. 
 of the world’s supply of vanadium. 
 
 119 
 
CHAPTER XIV 
 BY ROLLER COASTER DOWN THE ANDES 
 
 O-DAY I am again near sea level, and thankful 
 
 to be safely down from the land of the skies. 
 
 Yesterday I was on the roof of South America; 
 
 now I am back at Lima, only a step from the 
 ocean. The return trip furnished enough thrills to last 
 me a life-time, and it seems almost a miracle that | am 
 here to describe it. 
 
 Imagine, if you can, coasting down the side of the Andes 
 on the steepest railroad in the world. Think of being 
 now blinded in a blizzard and now pelted with hailstones 
 driven into your face with the force of a gale. Sometimes 
 the storm was so thick I could not see a stone’s throw 
 ahead ; again, we were coasting along under blue skies and 
 bright sunshine. One moment we hung to the edge of a 
 precipice; the next we were flying over spider-web bridges 
 of steel that spanned frightful chasms. We whirled about 
 curves in the midnight blackness of mountain tunnels 
 and burst again into the light of day only to shudder at 
 the vast depths below. 
 
 All this can give you but a faint idea of my descent from 
 the glacial snows of the Peruvian peaks, three miles high 
 in the air. It was a journey filled with dangers that were 
 terrifyingly real, and before I started, where the condi- 
 tions seemed ideal, I was required to sign a paper swearing 
 that my heirs would claim no damages in case I was 
 
 120 
 
BY ROLLER COASTER DOWN THE ANDES 
 
 killed. An hour later it seemed to me that the railroad 
 authorities were more sensible to require such a protec- 
 tion than I was to travel in such fashion. 
 
 The trip was made on the gravity car of the general 
 manager of the Central Railway of Peru. It was merely a 
 low platform mounted on wheels about two feet high. It 
 had no motive power, and was controlled only by two 
 brakes, one on each side at the front. On the platform 
 was a seat wide enough for three persons, and as we took 
 our places I sat in the middle, with my stenographer at 
 my left and one of the officials of the operating depart- 
 ment of the railway at my right. The brakes were manned 
 by a cholo. We had to run upon schedule time, for we 
 were on a single-track road and would have to pass both 
 east- and west-bound trains on the way. We were to get 
 our orders from the telegraph operators at the principal 
 stations. 
 
 We started at Ticlio, amid the glaciers at the very top 
 of the pass, and we could see clearly the great masses of 
 ice on the mountain-sides. Just above us was Mount 
 Meiggs, and all around were mighty peaks. The sun 
 was shining, there were no clouds, and | was told that we 
 should have no trouble in controlling the car, as the only 
 danger comes from rain or snow, which makes it difficult 
 for the wheels to hold to the rails. 
 
 We let go the brakes and fairly shot down the track. 
 We had hardly left Ticlio, however, before the sky changed 
 and the winds began to blow up the gorges. The air grew 
 cold, and within five minutes we were in the midst of a 
 snowstorm. A moment later the snow turned to hail. 
 The stones were as big as peas, and they bounced like 
 rubber as they fell. With the hail came thunder and 
 
 121 
 
LANDS OF THE ANDES AND THE DESERT 
 
 flashes of lightning. In the rare air our ears fairly 
 cracked with the sound, and the lightning made more 
 visible the dangers about us. 
 
 As we went on, the rails became white and the rocks 
 were hidden in snow. Our car was soon half full of hail, 
 and the tracks became more and more slippery. Then 
 the wind increased to a gale, and my stenographer, who 
 was taking his notes on wet paper, notwithstanding the 
 storm, cried out that his hat had blown off. Very fool- 
 ishly, we stopped the car and sent the cholo brakeman back 
 up the track. At this time we were only ten minutes 
 ahead of a train that was following us. We waited five 
 minutes, but the cholo did not return. Then my secretary 
 went back and recovered his hat about two hundred yards 
 from the car on the edge of a four-hundred-foot cliff. 
 The cholo had disappeared. We waited for him two 
 minutes longer, and then, hearing the whistle of the down- 
 coming train, we knew we should have to go on and 
 manage the car ourselves. My companions manned the 
 brakes on either side, and we began again to coast down 
 through the storm. I learned afterward that no trace 
 was ever found of the brakeman, and that he must have 
 fallen over the cliff in the blinding snowstorm. 
 
 The cold was piercing.’ The wind went through our 
 clothing and the great hailstones cut our faces. At times, 
 when the clouds were the blackest, we could see only a 
 few feet ahead, but could look down the sides of the cliff 
 to which the track clings and see the snow-clad walls far 
 below us. Now we would be flying into tunnels, which 
 were the safest places, for there the rails were dry and 
 the wheels did not slip when the brakes were put on. 
 Indeed, we almost prayed for the tunnels, and were glad 
 
 122 
 
BY ROLLER COASTER DOWN THE ANDES 
 
 when we dashed out of the blinding sleet into the dark- 
 ness. 
 
 Suddenly we saw ahead two trains standing on a siding 
 at one of the switchbacks. They were waiting for us, 
 and the engineers said another train coming up must pass 
 before we could go on. By that time we were chilled to 
 the bone, and our faces were blue with the sleet and the 
 cold. We climbed out of our car and into the cab of one 
 of the oil-burning engines. The heat of the boiler soon 
 thawed us out, and within a short time dried our clothes, 
 which had been wet by the snow. 
 
 We were still in the storm when we left the switchback. 
 The rails were covered with sleet and we could not be sure 
 of the track. At one place we passed a gang of labourers 
 working on the road-bed, and at another time narrowly 
 missed a drove of llamas crossing the track. As they saw 
 us rushing toward them, the animals began to run, leaping 
 along in kangaroo jumps, with their Indian drivers trotting 
 behind. At every hamlet along the way the dogs ran out 
 and barked at the car and snapped at us as we flew by. 
 The danger was that a dog might get in front of the car 
 and throw it off the track and down the sides of the moun- 
 tain. When it rains in the Andes, masses of earth and 
 rock fall down upon the track, but we were going too fast, 
 and the storm was too thick, to try to watch for slides. 
 
 By and by we passed Casapalca, where we dropped down 
 out of the storm. The sun came out again, the sky was 
 blue, and we could see for miles. The track dried, and 
 we coasted along at great speed through some of the most 
 wonderful scenery on earth. Now we rode for miles be- 
 tween walls of rock that extended upward for thousands 
 of feet, and now hung over gorges at the bottom of which, 
 
 123 
 
LANDS OF THE ANDES AND THE DESERT 
 
 a thousand feet below, rushed the foaming Rimac. Now 
 we entered a tunnel high up on the side of a cliff, and, 
 looking down, saw another tunnel almost directly below 
 us. We rushed out of one tunnel into the Infernillo, 
 where a slender bridge of iron joins two great walls of 
 rock. Above us through the narrow slit of the cafion was 
 the blue sky of Heaven, and below was the gorge that 
 these people call the Little Hell. The bridge there spans 
 a chasm two thousand feet deep, and we trembled at the 
 thought that there might be a train in the tunnel beyond. 
 
 The whole of this wonderful railroad seems blasted out 
 of the sides of the mountains. Here it hangs to the cliffs, 
 there it bores through the rocks, and again it zigzags back 
 and forth in great loops. Some of the tunnels are so close 
 together that they made me think of the road between 
 Monte Carlo and Nice, a trip on which has been described 
 as ‘‘riding through a flute and looking out of the holes.” 
 
 I wish I could show you the formations of the Andes. 
 They surpass in some of their wonders the Alps and the 
 Rockies, and I have seen nothing like them in the Hima- 
 layas. We have a little patch of four hundred acres in 
 Colorado in the foot-hills of the Rockies that we call the 
 Garden of the Gods. Not far from Cerro de Pasco, in the 
 heart of the Andes near the railway from Oroya, is a simi- 
 lar garden with hundreds of weird formations for every 
 one in Colorado. It lies at an altitude five hundred feet 
 higher than the top of Pike’s Peak, and is looked down 
 upon by mountain peaks from seventeen to twenty thou- 
 sand feet high. It is twenty miles long, and between three 
 and five miles wide, and its area is completely covered with 
 natural arches, walls, temples, and rocks of all shapes and 
 sizes. 
 
 124 
 
BY ROLLER COASTER DOWN THE ANDES 
 
 One of these rocks, called the King, is a gigantic figure 
 as tall as a house. Its head is poised upon a neck not 
 more than three feet in diameter but so long that it towers 
 high above all its surroundings. Another rock is known as 
 the Turtle; it is a gigantic block shaped like a tortoise, 
 and the natives believe that it upholds the world. A third 
 looks like a great steamboat perched on a pedestal, and a 
 fourth is a mighty tower. In this same region is the 
 Rock Forest, consisting of hundreds of acres of columns 
 standing out on the plain. At a distance they look like a 
 great wood that has been burned over. 
 
 And then there are castles, palaces, and fortifications. 
 With a little imagination you can find almost any kind of 
 architecture, or the model of any great structure. In 
 South Africa I have seen Table Rock, which hangs over 
 the harbour at Cape Town. There are table rocks of 
 marble here in the Andes that look as though they had 
 been cut by a sculptor. There are formations like those 
 of the Giant’s Causeway in Ireland, although they are not 
 of hexagonal shape, and in riding through the mountains 
 | have seen castles of the purest white marble, which in 
 their grandeur excel the ruins of those mighty works of 
 man on the Rhine. 
 
 These mountains have all the colours of the Grand 
 Cafion of the Colorado. Now the rocks are blazing white, 
 and now they remind one of the rusted marbles of the 
 Parthenon at Athens. Here they are brown, farther on 
 they are blue, red, or drab. Drab is the predominant 
 colour near the sea, where much of the formation is 
 limestone. Now the mountains are ragged and rough, 
 and rise in ruined cities. I saw some the colour of old 
 red sandstone that made me think of the fortifications 
 
 125 
 
LANDS OF THE ANDES AND THE DESERT 
 
 at Delhi in India. I saw others that were spired like 
 the cathedrals of Cologne and Milan. These spires are 
 as white as Carrara marble, and they glisten like snow 
 under the sun. Other rocks are dome-shaped, and still 
 others extend in great waves, showing the folds in the 
 earth and forming curving walls of wonderful beauty. 
 
 126 
 
At El Infernillo, “the Little Hell,’ the railroad dives into a tunnel 
 bored through the towering rock, emerges upon a bridge spanning a chasm 
 two thousand feet deep, and then plunges into another black hole in the 
 mountain side. 
 
The famous Garden of the Gods of Colorado is but a dooryard filled 
 with pebbles compared with the vast and weird formations of the Rock 
 Forest of the Andes. 
 
CHAPTER XV 
 AREQUIPA, CITY OF THE STARS 
 
 HAVE now come to Arequipa, the metropolis of 
 
 southern Peru. It is situated one hundred miles in- 
 
 land from Mollendo, which ranks next to Callao as a 
 
 commercial port. Nevertheless, it has such a poor 
 harbour that ships have to anchor far out from the shore, 
 and the swell is worse than that at Jaffa, which tossed 
 Jonah’s ship so that the sailors threw him out to the 
 whale. The Mollendo harbour is partially protected by a 
 small breakwater, but the ocean is often so rough that 
 passengers have to be lifted by steam cranes out of the 
 small boats that bring them to the dock from the steamer, 
 and goods have to be put on and off the boats in the same 
 way. The sea was tamer than usual when I came into 
 port, but my boat rose and fell eight or ten feet with each 
 wave, and | had to make a flying leap from one of the 
 seats to the steps that led to the custom house. There 
 has been some talk of transferring the port for Arequipa 
 from Mollendo to Matarani, eight miles to the north, 
 which has a good harbour. Such a move would also 
 shorten the railway route over the mountains. 
 
 I wish I could take you over the route of the journey I 
 made up the Andes from Mollendo to Arequipa. The 
 country 1s even more dreary and wild than that above 
 Lima. I rode for miles without seeing a blade of grass or 
 anything green. I saw shifting sand dunes and bluffs 
 
 137 
 
LANDS OF “(THE ANDESTAND THE DESERT 
 
 that had been ground so smooth by the wind-blown sand 
 that the strata could be plainly seen. Farther on the 
 sand had cut into the rock of the mountains, making 
 furrows in it like the wrinkles on an old woman’s face. 
 In many places the rocks have been ground to a powder. 
 These slopes get no rain whatever, and water for the 
 stations along the way, as well as for Mollendo, is piped 
 from Arequipa. | 
 
 As we went on, it seemed as though the skin of vegeta- 
 tion and life had been peeled from the earth, and that we 
 could see the great ball as it was before plant or animal 
 life had sprung into being. All around us was nothing but 
 rock, and there was not a bit of soil in sight. At the same 
 time, the scenery was magnificent, and the air was so clear 
 I could see for miles. The clouds painted spots of purple 
 velvet on the hills all through the afternoon, and toward 
 evening the sun tinted the mountains with delicate 
 shades of blue, pink, lavender, and mauve, until they 
 looked like a mighty picture sketched by the hands of the 
 gods on the canvas of the sky. As we started out, we 
 could see the spray dashing high up on the beach, and at 
 the close of our journey the moon was just rising over the 
 snow of the mountains above old Arequipa. The trip 
 made a panorama such as | have seen nowhere else, and 
 such as I venture can be seen in no other place. 
 
 Arequipa is built in an oasis made by the Chile River in 
 the arid Andes of this Pacific coast desert. It is walled 
 in by ragged dry mountains but bedded in a valley of 
 perpetual green. A legend regarding its origin relates 
 that a party of Quichua Indians under an Inca leader came 
 upon this beautiful little oasis after a long march through 
 the bare and dusty mountain slopes of the surrounding 
 
 128 
 
 ar aaa 
 
 4 
 
AREQUIPA, CITY OF THE STARS 
 
 desert. Upon their asking the Inca to be allowed to stay 
 on that fertile and peaceful spot, he replied, “Ari, que- 
 pat,’ which in the Quichua language means, “Yes, re- 
 main.” 
 
 Arequipa is about seventy-six hundred feet above the sea 
 or a mile and a half higher than Philadelphia. Some of 
 the mountains about it are four miles in height. Just 
 behind it is the great volcano, Mount Misti, which has a 
 crater a half mile in diameter. To the left of Misti is 
 Chachani, more than twenty thousand feet high, and be- 
 yond are Pichu-Pichu and other Andean giants. 
 
 Indeed, there is no city anywhere in South America more 
 beautifully located, and you will go far before you will find 
 one that is so fresh, so bright, and so quaint. The houses 
 of Arequipa look as though they had just come fresh from a 
 toy-shop of the giants. I bought my postage stamps 
 to-day in a building the colour of old rose. I ate my 
 breakfast in a restaurant painted sky blue, and next door 
 was a house the colour of strawberry ice cream. This 
 morning I visited the new market of Arequipa; its walls 
 are built of pink and white stone. The surrounding 
 buildings are of similar bright colours, and the whole seems 
 to fit in with the air of southern Peru. 
 
 But come with me into the market. This will show us 
 why the city of Arequipa has been built where it is. The 
 merchandise you see comes from the valley of the Chile 
 River, which contains about fifty square miles of culti- 
 vated land. This oasis valley produces grain, alfalfa, 
 and fruit, raises cattle and sheep, and makes Arequipa 
 an important trading centre. As we go through the 
 market we see everywhere evidences of the fertility of the 
 soil and the wonderful climate. Nearly every fruit that 
 
 129 
 
LANDS OF THE ANDES AND THE DESERT 
 
 can be raised in the United States is on sale here. There 
 are apricots, peaches, apples, and plums, and strawberries 
 as big as a walnut. There are oranges and lemons, 
 bananas and figs, and bushels of alligator pears. There 
 are green watermelons, some of which are as red inside. as 
 any that ever made a darky’s mouth water, and others 
 with flesh as yellow as gold, although the seeds are jet 
 black. In the vegetable stalls we find fully as great 
 a variety. It is now midwinter in the United States, 
 but here below the Equator it is summer, and we see 
 new potatoes and fresh green corn. There are bright 
 red tomatoes, white cauliflowers, and great quantities 
 of cabbages, as well as yuccas, sweet potatoes, and 
 yams. 
 
 Arequipa is the chief wool market of Peru. The leading 
 exporting houses of this city have their agents in all 
 parts of the Andean plateau, where they buy vast quanti- 
 ties of vicufia, alpaca, and sheep’s wool from the Indians 
 and hacendados. The wool is sent overland to Lake 
 Titicaca, and from there by rail to Arequipa. Some of it 
 is consumed in the woollen mills of Peru, but the bulk of the 
 product is sent to Europe and the United States. Besides 
 being a market town, Arequipa makes harness and sad- 
 dlery, boots and shoes, and it has large cotton, chocolate, 
 and flour mills. The Southern Railway of Peru has its 
 headquarters here, and also its shops, which employ 
 about five hundred men in building passenger and freight 
 cars, as well as making all the repairs on its rolling stock. 
 This line is one of the three chief gateways to La Paz, the 
 capital of Bolivia. 
 
 Travellers bound for La Paz and Cuzco often stop a day 
 or so in Arequipa in order to make a more gradual ascent 
 
 130 
 
Mollendo is the second port of Peru, but it has no harbour to speak of, 
 and vessels must lie in the open roadstead. _ It is the coast terminus of the 
 railroad to Arequipa, Cuzco, and Lake Titicaca. 
 
 “The country along the railroad from Mollendo is the dreariest and 
 wildest imaginable. It never gets a drop of rain, and it looks as though 
 the earth had been stripped of its skin of vegetation.” 
 
Lying in the valley of the Chile River, Arequipa serves a large agricul- 
 tural district and is Peru’s chief wool market. It is a stopping place for 
 
 travellers who wish to make a gradual ascent to the higher altitudes of the 
 Andes. 
 
AREQUIPA, CITY OF THE STARS 
 
 from the coast to the rarefied atmosphere of the high- 
 lands, and as this travel has increased since the opening 
 of the Panama Canal, there has been a marked improve- 
 ment in the hotel accommodations. In addition to a 
 fairly good hotel, there is a boarding house run by an 
 American woman that is famous all over the west coast 
 for its comfort and good food. Formerly the chief hotel 
 was kept by an Italian who quartered his guests on one 
 side of the plaza and fed them on the other side in a long, 
 low comedor, or dining room. 
 
 When I visited Arequipa in 1898 it was lighted by 
 kerosene, and I do not remember that it had a car line. 
 It has now an electric light plant run by water-power, and 
 also an excellent system of tramways that extend out 
 into the country. It is well equipped with telephones, 
 and long-distance messages can be sent at low rates. 
 
 I find Arequipa quite as interesting as Lima. It has a 
 great cathedral of white stone that covers an acre or so of 
 ground. It faces the plaza, occupying the whole of one 
 side of the square. The other three sides are lined with 
 stores as quaint as any I have ever seen in Europe. The 
 buildings are of only one story, and in front of them ex- 
 tend wide portales, or corridors, with huge columns separat- 
 ing them from the plaza. On the other side of the 
 corridors is a row of cave-like shops, lighted only from the 
 front and the roof. The stores are fifteen or twenty feet 
 wide and thirty or more feet deep, and with their arched 
 ceilings they look like vaults. The goods, which include 
 many articles made in the United States, are hung from 
 the ceilings and piled up on the floors. 
 
 Nearly all the houses of Arequipa have vaulted roofs, 
 which, on some of the one-story structures, extend up in 
 
 131 ¢ 
 
LANDS OF THE ANDES AND THE DESERT 
 
 oval domes or hoods. The city has had many serious 
 earthquakes, and for this reason the skyscraper will 
 never be known here. Even a five-story building would 
 be the talk of the town. 
 
 Arequipa is one of the oldest cities in America, dating 
 back almost to the days of Pizarro. It is a place of old 
 families, and the centre of culture for southern Peru, as 
 well as an ecclesiastical and political headquarters. There 
 are a university and several colleges here, and also a school 
 of arts and an agricultural institute. Moreover, this 
 city boasts of having the best hospital in South America, 
 although the climate is unusually healthful and the death 
 rate is low. 
 
 | doubt whether you will find many places that have 
 finer weather all the year around than Arequipa. The sky 
 is almost always blue, and the days are sunny from morn- 
 ing to night. Indeed, the belief that this region has more 
 clear weather than almost any other locality on earth 
 was responsible for the establishment here of the Harvard 
 University observatory. This is one of the most noted 
 astronomical stations of the world. It is situated on the 
 slope of Mount Misti, five hundred feet above Arequipa, 
 where the observers can have an unobstructed view of 
 the heavens. ; 
 
 The observatory is equipped with great telescopes, one 
 of which has a lens two feet in diameter, enabling the 
 scientists to take photographs on plates fourteen by 
 seventeen inches in size. The tube of that giant in- 
 strument is so delicately balanced that a child could 
 move it. The Harvard scientists have taken as many as 
 fifty photographs in a night and thousands in a year. 
 After being developed, the negatives are shipped to Cam- 
 
 132 
 
AREQUIPA CLIPY OF THE SPARS 
 
 bridge, where there are now more than one hundred 
 thousand of them available. 
 
 There is, I am told, nothing duplicated in the sky. 
 Each half of the world has its own stars and constellations, 
 and there are some here that we never see in the North. 
 One of them is the famous Southern Cross, but it seems 
 to me that its beauty has been greatly exaggerated. 
 There are only four stars in it, and they are so small that 
 one has to look hard to find them. It does not compare 
 with the Big Dipper. Many of the other stars are far 
 more brilliant than in the North. This is so of the 
 Milky Way and of most of the planets. I have been 
 on the Equator when the path of a planet on the still 
 waters of the ocean was almost as well marked as the 
 reflection of the moon; and in riding at night up the 
 Amazon River the stars seemed so close that | felt as 
 though I could almost reach out and grasp them. 
 
 The story of the establishment of this observatory 1s 
 interesting. It was near the end of the nineteenth cen- 
 tury when Uriah H. Borden died and left two hundred 
 thousand dollars to Harvard University, with the stipula- 
 tion that the money was to be used to build an observatory 
 at the best place on earth for the study of the stars. The 
 authorities tried Colorado and California, and then 
 came to South America. Their first work was done back 
 of Lima on what is now called Mount Harvard, but in 
 1891 they moved their station to Arequipa. The uni- 
 versity astronomers have been working here ever since. 
 In 1892 the scientists established a meteorological station 
 on Mount Chachani at an elevation of 16,650 feet. This 
 was moved the following year to the top of Mount Misti. 
 
 Mount Misti is 19,200 feet high, so that this weather 
 
 133 
 
LANDS OF THE ANDES AND THE DESERT 
 
 station is the loftiest of its kind in the world. It is higher 
 
 than any point in North America outside Alaska, and it is 
 fully a mile above the observatory on the top of Pike’s 
 Peak. ‘The site of the station is on the edge of the huge 
 crater, which at times sends clouds of sulphurous yellow 
 vapour a thousand feet into the air. At other times, I am 
 told, the volcano spits out hot water and steam. The 
 automatic instruments installed on the mountain will run 
 several months without rewinding. They keep a continu- 
 ous record of temperatures, rainfall, air pressure, humidity, 
 the direction and velocity of the winds, and of other con- 
 ditions of the atmosphere, and the scientists need only visit 
 the station at intervals to note the results. The machines 
 work with great regularity, but sometimes the mountain 
 is so covered with snow and at other times swept by such 
 gales that there is now and then an interruption in th 
 
 records. | 
 
 Although the station is only eleven miles in a straight 
 line from the observatory, it is forty miles distant by way 
 of the road built to the summit of the mountain. The 
 trip up to it is made on muleback, travellers spending the 
 night at a hut at the base of the peak. One of the first 
 huts erected on the trail stood at an altitude of more than 
 sixteen thousand feet. It was known as the “Inn of 
 the Water of Miracles,” because of an old legend that the 
 Lord appeared here and caused water to flow from the 
 ground. This spring, the Indians say, is the same one 
 that is still bubbling away near the hut. 
 
 Professor Bailey, who established the station, had great 
 difficulty in transporting his instruments to the mountain- 
 top. A large number of mules and Indians was needed to 
 carry the material. As they still do to-day, the Indians 
 
 134 
 
Because it has such a high percentage of cloudless days and nights, 
 Arequipa was chosen as the site of the Harvard Observatory. Above It, 
 on Mount Misti, is the world’s highest weather station. 
 
Juliaca is a town on the roof of the continent, more than two miles 
 
 high on the Peruvian plateau. The tops of the mountain ranges about it 
 are three miles and more above sea level. 
 
 —_—. -”--” 
 
AREQUIPA, CITY OF THE STARS 
 
 then regarded Misti with superstition, and when they 
 found an iron cross standing on the mountain-top they 
 fell down and worshipped. This cross is said to have 
 been set up in 1677 by a party of Spanish priests who had 
 gone there to offer prayers to Misti that the city of 
 Arequipa might be made free from earthquakes. The 
 Spaniards found at the summit of the mountain the re- 
 mains of stone structures that have now disappeared, and 
 it is believed that the crater was the scene of sacrificial 
 rites and ceremonies held by a people long before the time 
 of the Incas. 
 
 135 
 
CHAPTER XVI 
 FARMING IN THE LAND OF THE SKY 
 
 Y PRESENT destination is Cuzco, the ancient 
 Inca capital, far up in the Andes. By fast trains 
 it is possible to go all the way from Mollendo to 
 Cuzco within three days, but I am taking sev- 
 eral more for the journey in order that I may better see 
 the country and the people. From Arequipa I crossed 
 the pass of Crucero Alto, the highest on the route of the 
 Southern Railway of Peru, and then dropped down to 
 Juliaca, which has an altitude of less than thirteen thou- 
 sand feet. Juliaca is the junction where the Southern 
 Railway divides, one branch going southward to Puno 
 on Lake Titicaca. The other branch, and the one | took, 
 goes north over the great plateau to Cuzco. I am now at 
 Sicuani, a little town only one hundred miles or so from 
 Cuzco, and I shall go on to that famous city to-morrow. 
 Sicuani is east of the western range of the Andes, and it 
 was in a driving snowstorm that I slid over the moun- 
 tains from the Pacific slope to the plateau. The journey 
 from Arequipa to the top of the mountains is even more 
 marvellous than the first part of the trip over the desert 
 from Mollendo. JI wound my way around Mount Misti, 
 and higher still saw mountains covered with glaciers, some 
 of them of enormous extent. 
 The greater part of the way was through a region of 
 extinct volcanoes. The slope of Mount Misti is covered 
 i130 
 
 Sa i 
 
 . 
 
FARMING IN THE LAND OF THE SKY 
 
 with great blocks of black lava, and the mountains that 
 wall this high valley where I now am have Niagaras of 
 lava that seem to have frozen as they flowed down the 
 slopes from the craters above. In places I could look over 
 walls of such rock a thousand feet high, and above them, 
 on mountains that are more than four miles in height, 
 could see glaciers. At times these mountains rise up like 
 great white ramparts of irregular shape, and again they 
 extend in a saw-tooth formation as far as the eye can reach. 
 
 Everywhere along the railroad are irrigated valleys. 
 The streams are small, but even a little water makes the 
 desert a garden. Along the course of the Chile River is 
 a strip of green, and about Arequipa wheat, barley, corn, 
 and all the vegetables and fruits of the tropic and temper- 
 ate zones are raised. 
 
 The vegetation changes as one nears the top of the Andes. 
 At an altitude of two miles or more grass begins to sprinkle 
 the semi-arid hillsides, and as soon as we crossed the pass 
 and came down to the plateau we were in a region of sod 
 covered with tufts of wiry grass. The new sprouts of 
 this grass are eaten by cattle, but most of it 1s so coarse 
 that only the llamas will feed on it. The plateau is 
 covered with tens of thousands of cattle and millions of 
 sheep and alpacas. At every few miles are Indian villages, 
 and in places the plain is dotted with low mud huts roofed 
 with straw, each of which is the home of an Indian who 
 grazes his alpacas and llamas close by. Near every hut 
 is a small patch of potatoes, barley, or quinua. Quinua 
 is a plant something like pigweed, from the seeds of which 
 the Indians make a sort of mush. 
 
 The average altitude of this region is from twelve to 
 thirteen thousand feet above the sea, and some places are 
 
 137 
 
LANDS OF THE ANDES AND THE DESERT 
 
 more than fourteen thousand feet high. There are 
 millions of acres of land in the plateau with a climate in 
 which white men can live, and a land development scheme 
 has been inaugurated by the Peruvian Corporation, the 
 British company that operates many of the government 
 railways. This company sent to the United States for an 
 agricultural expert to determine what grasses and grains 
 are best adapted for cultivation on the plateau. I met 
 this man at Juliaca and went with him to some of the 
 experimental farms. He showed me a field of four or five 
 acres near the railroad planted to cereals and grasses of 
 various kinds. One plot of barley consisted of perhaps 
 fifty rows, each row grown from seed gathered from a 
 different part of the world. Some came from Smyrna, 
 some from Yugoslavia, some from Russia, and some from 
 the western highlands of the United States. Other rows 
 were from seed brought from Manchuria and the plateaus 
 of India and Tibet. All of these barleys were doing well, 
 and many of them looked better than the native Peruvian 
 grain. There seems to be no doubt that almost any kind 
 of hardy barley can be raised on the plateau, and that 
 these experiments will greatly contribute to farm progress 
 on the highlands of Peru. 
 
 The plateau was once part of the basin of Lake Titicaca, 
 and its soil is rich and almost free from stones. There are 
 millions of acres of it that have never been touched by the 
 plough; indeed, it is doubtful whether any of it has ever 
 been thoroughly cultivated. The Indians use ploughs 
 made of wood that cut the ground toa depth of only three 
 inches. They work bullocks as draft animals, and farm 
 the same way that their ancestors did generations ago. 
 Even so, they raise fairly good crops. 
 
 138 
 
FARMING IN THE LAND OF THE SKY 
 
 The most common farm implement used by the Indians 
 is a kind of foot plough called a facila in the Quichua 
 language. It consists of a wooden handle five or six feet 
 long shod with an iron point. On the left side, as the 
 Indian holds it, are two projections from the handle, one 
 for his foot and one for his hand, to aid in forcing it into 
 the earth. This primitive plough, though handled some- 
 what like a spade, is not used to turn over the ground but 
 only to loosen it. Two men always work together side 
 by side so that their ¢acllas lift up the same piece of sod. 
 A boy or woman works along with them, kneeling on the 
 ground and turning up the loosened earth. A similar 
 implement is found still in use in parts of Scotland and in 
 the Hebrides Islands. 
 
 We next went to the plots where experiments are being 
 made with hardy grasses. There I saw American timothy 
 and red clover sprouting through the brown soil. I saw 
 patches of Russian grasses growing luxuriantly, and also 
 wheat grasses from our western plains, as well as a member 
 of one of the families of blue grass that thrive on the high 
 plateau of the Rockies. 
 
 From the plateau the railroad drops down into the valley 
 in which Cuzco is located. This valley is a series of little 
 Gardens of Eden, and there are cultivated lands along 
 both sides of the Vilcanota River. The fields are in 
 terraces green with luxuriant crops, and the water is 
 carried out over them so that it falls from level to level. 
 In coming to Sicuani | saw many patches of barley, pota- 
 toes, and beans, and also hundreds of little fields of Indian 
 corn. In the upper altitudes this crop reaches to the 
 height of my knee, but where the lands are a little lower, 
 and consequently warmer, it grows as high as my shoulder. 
 
 139 
 
LANDS OF THE ANDES AND THE DESERT 
 
 I am told that in the valley near Cuzco, through which 
 I shall go to-morrow, the crops are still more advanced, 
 and that the barley, which is green in the highlands, is 
 there almost ready for harvest. The irrigated land of the 
 valley is exceedingly valuable and has all been taken up 
 by whites or cholos, who are exploiting it with Indian 
 labour. 
 
 The chief industry of the Peruvian plateau is stock-rais- 
 ing rather than farming. The climate at an altitude of 
 twelve thousand feet is warm during the day, and even 
 in the coldest of weather the thermometer does not drop 
 below zero at night. Therefore the sheep and cattle can 
 feed out-of-doors all the year round. When snow falls 
 the hot sun melts it in an hour or so. About the most 
 dangerous features of the weather are thunderstorms, 
 with their accompanying lightning, which often kills 
 people and sheep. The plateau has two seasons, dry and 
 wet. The wet season begins in September or October and 
 lasts until April or May. During that time it is usually 
 clear in the morning, with rain or snow in the afternoon. 
 The dry season, which is from May to September, is de- 
 lightfully clear. The sky is always blue, and the tropical 
 sun makes the weather much like Indian summer in the 
 Virginia mountains, which I believe is the very best 
 weather on earth. 
 
 On my trip over the Central Railway to Cerro de Pasco 
 I passed flock after flock of fat sheep with tails as big 
 around as my arm. To my eyes, there seemed to be 
 nothing for them to eat, but they manage to live and grow 
 fat on the moss and the thin, fuzzy grass. Some of the 
 large flocks are owned by rich capitalists. There is one 
 firm near Cerro de Pasco that has sixty thousand or more, 
 
 140 
 
FARMING IN THE LAND OF THE SKY 
 
 There are also hundreds of squatters, Indians or cholos, 
 each of whom raises a few sheep every year. I saw 
 watching over the flocks boys and girls of ten or twelve 
 years of age, who knitted or spun as they cared for the 
 sheep. 
 
 Some of the great haciendas of the high Andes yield large 
 incomes. There is one near La Fundicién that produces 
 tens of thousands of pounds of wool every year. It 
 belongs to a company in Lima and is managed by a 
 Scotchman who employs only Scotch shepherds. This 
 ranch has thirty-six thousand sheep, which are kept in 
 fenced fields. The manager is making many experiments 
 in introducing new blood into the flocks, and he is also 
 crossing Scotch collie dogs with the native dogs of Peru 
 to produce a breed especially suited to conditions on the 
 high Andes. 
 
 An Italian in this section is experimenting in bringing 
 in fancy breeds of cattle. He has a number of large 
 haciendas, and expects to supply the meat market of the 
 coast. This same man owns thousands of llamas and 
 donkeys and is said to have almost a monopoly on the 
 freight business about Cerro de Pasco. 
 
 I never tire of watching the llamas. They crowd the 
 streets of the villages, droves of them line the plazas of 
 every city and town, and | have often met long caravans 
 of them being driven across the plain. They are, in fact, 
 competing with the railroads as the common carriers of the 
 Andes. They transport grain, vegetables, hides, alcohol, 
 coca leaves, and goods of every description. Many of 
 them are used to convey the ore from the mines to the 
 smelters, and the farmers use them to take their produce 
 to the towns and railroads. 
 
 141 
 
LANDS OF THE ANDES AND THE DESERT 
 
 The llamas carry their burdens tied on their backs like a 
 saddle, and not in the panniers used with donkeys. There 
 is a tradition that a llama will carry just one hundred 
 pounds and that if one ounce more is added he will lie 
 down and no whipping or beating can make him go on. 
 This statement is ridiculous. The llama, if overburdened, 
 will surely lie down and refuse to move, but that he has 
 the intelligence to know when the hundred-pound load is 
 reached is one of the fictions of the modern Munchausens. 
 Indeed, there are very few llamas that can carry as much 
 as a hundred pounds, although there are some of the beasts 
 that will carry one hundred and twenty. The average 
 load is about seventy-five or eighty pounds. 
 
 The llamas are of different sizes, according to their ages 
 and the care they have received. When full-grown their 
 heads reach a height of six feet or more; but their long, 
 straight necks make them look taller. They have long 
 ears that stand up like those of a fox terrier. They have 
 full, round bodies, like that of a sheep, and comparatively 
 long legs. They look like miniature camels, and like the 
 camel, they can go for several days without food or water. 
 Many of the farms are remote from the towns or the rail- 
 roads, and a llama has often to make a journey of four or 
 five days or a week in carrying his load to its destination 
 and bringing another back. During this time I am told 
 that he eats practically nothing, and gets along without 
 water. The wool of the llama, as I have said, is coarse 
 and has no value in commerce, although it is used by the 
 Indians for spinning thread and making rough cloth. 
 The meat also is too coarse for the markets. 
 
 The alpacas are much smaller than the llamas, and do 
 not look so much like camels, having shorter necks. They 
 
 142 
 
Llamas are competitors of the railroads as common carriers of the 
 Andes. They are sure-footed beasts, adapted to the mountain trails, 
 and, like camels, can make long trips on but little food and water. 
 
In contrast to the bleak lava-coated mountains, the little green valleys 
 between seem like miniature Edens. The Indians irrigate their terraced 
 farms with water from the river, and get excellent results in crops. 
 
 = ey ae 
 
 > 
 
 4 
 , 
 
FARMING IN THE LAND OF THE SKY 
 
 are more delicate and are not used as beasts of burden, al- 
 though there are crosses between the alpaca and the 
 llama that serve as freight carriers. They are usually to 
 be seen in the llama trains and are often of a brownish 
 yellow colour. The alpacas one sees on the pastures— 
 and there are millions of them on the high Andes—are 
 white, black, or brown, and sometimes spotted. They 
 do not thrive anywhere below a mile above the sea, and 
 they are usually found at a height of two miles or more. 
 The grass they are accustomed to eat on the high plateau 
 is short and fine, and they eat it down so close to the 
 ground that the sand keeps their teeth worn down. In 
 the luxuriant grass of the lowlands their teeth often grow so 
 long that they cannot graze. 
 
 The wool of the alpaca is very fine and often more than 
 eight inches long; it brings about twice as much a pound as 
 sheep’s wool. Usually the animals are clipped every two 
 years, when the average fleece should weigh five pounds. 
 In some years nearly four million pounds of alpaca wool is 
 shipped to England for manufacture. Three fourths of 
 the entire supply of the world comes from Peru. 
 
 I have seen some vicufias during my travels through the 
 Andes. They are the wild half-sisters and half-brothers of 
 the llamas and alpacas, and are smaller than either. They 
 cannot be domesticated, but they will sometimes come 
 down from the mountains and mix with the flocks of 
 llamas, alpacas, and sheep on the plains. They are 
 often shot by the Indians and cholos, although this is 
 against the law. 
 
 The vicufia wool is finer than that of the alpaca, and it 
 brings a high price. There is so little of it, however, that 
 it is hardly worth mentioning, much of the so-called 
 
 143 
 
LANDS OF THE ANDES AND THE DESERT 
 
 vicufia cloth being really made of alpaca wool. The 
 yellow, woolly fur of the vicufia is as soft as a sealskin 
 coat, and for this reason the pelts are used to make the 
 rugs so highly prized by tourists. These rugs vary in 
 value according to the part of the animal from which 
 they come. A rug made from the necks or legs is much 
 more valuable than one from pieces taken from the 
 rest of the body. During a previous visit to South 
 America | bought a beautiful vicufia rug in La Paz for 
 about twenty dollars in gold. I am told that similar 
 ones now cost fifty dollars and more. 
 
 The vicufia has been crossed with the alpaca, producing 
 the animal known as the “‘paco-vicufia,” which can be 
 domesticated. Its wool is especially valuable, combining 
 the length of alpaca wool with the silkiness of the vicufia. 
 
CHAPTER XVII 
 THE ANCIENT CAPITAL OF THE INCAS 
 
 OME with me this morning for a stroll through 
 
 Cuzco, the ancient capital of the Incas, that 
 wonderful people who ruled most of western 
 
 South America until about four hundred years 
 
 ago. Like the reigning dynasties of old Japan and 
 Egypt, they believed themselves to be descended from the 
 gods, and they called themselves the children of the sun. 
 
 One tradition tells that the Incas sprang into existence 
 on one of the islands of Lake Titicaca. A prince and 
 princess of the race, Manco Ccapac and his wife, who 
 was also his sister, were given a golden rod by the sun 
 god and directed to go forth and civilize the savages who 
 then inhabited the high plateau of the Andes. They 
 were told to build a city wherever that rod should sink 
 into the earth. They travelled across the plateau over 
 much the same route by which I came on the railroad, 
 and when they reached this spot the golden rod fell and 
 disappeared into the ground. 
 
 They established their capital on the site of Cuzco, on 
 the slope of the mountain overlooking a beautiful and 
 fertile valley in the heart of the Andes. That was hun- 
 dreds of years before Columbus discovered America, and 
 the empire then founded was from four to six centuries 
 old when it was destroyed by the Spaniards. 
 
 The Incas first cultivated the valley of Cuzco, and 
 
 145 
 
LANDS OF THE ANDES AND THE DESERT 
 
 then gradually conquered the neighbouring regions until 
 their dominions extended northward far beyond Quito 
 and south of where the capital of Chile now stands. They 
 had subjects all along the eastern slopes of the Andes, and 
 the western limit of their rule was the mighty Pacific. 
 They governed a country as long as the distance between 
 the Arctic Ocean and the shores of Lake Erie and larger 
 than all the United States east of the Mississippi Valley. 
 Their subjects were numbered by the tens of millions. 
 
 The Incas built a road through their territory from Lake 
 Titicaca to Quito, the remains of which can still be found. 
 As there were no wheeled vehicles at that time, the high- 
 way was in many places not wide enough for the cart or 
 automobile of to-day, but it was nevertheless a difficult 
 piece of construction. In places it went up and down 
 steps cut into the steep mountain slopes, in others it 
 wound around obstacles, and many times it narrowed to a 
 mere path in which the Indians had to walk single file. 
 
 At the time they were overthrown by the Spaniards, 
 the Incas had divided the country into provinces, ruled 
 by viceroys and subordinate officials. They had not only 
 subdued the savages, but civilized them as well, making 
 them into farmers, mechanics, and artisans. In their 
 religion they recognized the sun as the lord of the world, 
 and their emperor as his representative on earth. One 
 of their prayers was somewhat as follows: 
 
 O conquering and ever-present Creator, Thou who gavest life and 
 strength to mankind, saying let this be a man, and let this bea woman; 
 
 Thou who vouchsafest that man shall live in health and peace; Thou 
 who dwelleth in the heights, in the storm clouds, and in the thunder: 
 
 hear us and have us in Thy keeping. Thou who art without equal 
 unto the ends of the earth, grant us eternal life and keep us free from 
 
 danger. 
 
 146 
 
Built by an even earlier race than the Incas, the great Sacsahuaman for- 
 tress was one of the last places defended against the invading Spaniards. 
 The latter used the walls as a source of building stone. 
 
“So skilfully did the Incas fit together the huge blocks of stone, without 
 the use of mortar or cement, that | could not thrust my knife blade in the 
 cracks between. Some of the stones weigh eight hundred tons.” 
 
THE ANCIENT CAPITAL OF THE INCAS 
 
 The Incas built temples to the sun, some of which were 
 plated with gold, and within which were images of the sun 
 god made of pure gold. The people believed in this re- 
 ligion and were pious and peaceful. They gave a part of 
 their time to work for their god, and a part for the sick and 
 the widows and orphans. They worked also for the govern- 
 ment, and, last of all, for themselves and their families. 
 
 The Incas irrigated the deserts, and the remains of their 
 aqueducts, built of stone slabs neatly fitted together, 
 can be seen to-day. Millions of acres were watered by 
 these works, which included one aqueduct that was five 
 hundred miles long. Their irrigating canals ran along the 
 sides of the mountains and also were cut through them in 
 tunnels. As I rode to Cuzco along the high plateau, | 
 saw thousands of acres of terraces, now gone to ruin and 
 almost a desert, that these people once made to blossom 
 like the rose. Such terraces are found on the sides of the 
 mountains above almost every valley of the Peruvian 
 plateau and along the west coast. They extended up the 
 slopes like so many steps, the earth being held back with 
 stone walls. 
 
 The Incas at that time were by far the most civilized 
 people of all South America, and they are believed by some 
 to have been more advanced than the Aztecs of Mexico. 
 They knew how to mine and work gold and silver, and 
 were skilful in the refining of copper and lead. I have 
 seen some of the tools they used in erecting their build- 
 ings. They knew how to temper an alloy of copper 
 and tin in such a way that the tools made of it had an 
 edge like a razor and could cut the hardest of stone. They 
 tamed the wild llamas and alpacas of the pampas. They 
 made the llamas their beasts of burden, and from the 
 
 147 
 
LANDS OF THE ANDES AND THE DESERT 
 
 wool of the alpaca and the vicufia they wove garments and 
 blankets. They were a nation of potters and shaped 
 beautiful vessels out of clay. They made also hats and 
 shoes and were skilled in the dyeing of fabrics. 
 
 Here at Cuzco and in other parts of Peru I have seen 
 animal figures made by the Incas. They are known as the 
 “Small Stone Llamas of Cuzco,” and are pieces of stone 
 shaped like llamas, with a hole in each one the size of a 
 thimble. They were used as sacrifices to Pachamama 
 (the Earth), as a payment for the pasture eaten by the 
 flocks. The holes were filled with wine or alcohol, and 
 the images buried in the ground where the sheep and 
 llamas grazed. A new figure was buried each year, the 
 old one being dug up and reinterred at a greater depth. 
 
 These Incas, whose ancestors date back almost to the 
 time of Christ, knew something of astronomy. They 
 observed the equinoxes and the eclipses of the moon and 
 the sun. They had a system of arithmetic and made cal- 
 culations by means of knots on strings of different colours. 
 They had musical instruments like some that their de- 
 scendants play upon to-day, and it is said that they had 
 songs of love-making and a drama. 
 
 It was while the Inca civilization was at its height that 
 Atahualpa, the ruler of the northern part of their territory, 
 was captured at Cajamarca and put to death by Pizarro. 
 The Spaniards later visited Cuzco and robbed it of its 
 treasures. They tore down the mighty temples and for- 
 tresses, erecting churches and other buildings on their 
 foundations, and tried in every way to destroy all vestiges 
 of the Inca Empire. From then until Peru won her in- 
 dependence in the war of 1821, almost three centuries 
 later, Cuzco was in the hands of the Spanish. 
 
 148 
 
THE ANCIENT CAPITAL OF THE INCAS 
 
 Ruins of the ancient buildings erected by the Incas 
 are still being found in this valley. In Cuzco itself are 
 the remains of structures of enormous extent. The 
 Temple of the Sun, for instance, which was known to the 
 Incas as the Coricancha, or “the place of gold,” covered 
 the whole square now occupied by the church and convent 
 of Santo Domingo. The old walls of that temple, which 
 in places extend twenty or thirty feet from the ground, 
 form the foundation for the church. I was taken through 
 the buildings by one of the fathers and shown how the 
 great blocks of stone had been fitted together so closely 
 without mortar or cement that the point of a needle 
 could not be pushed into the cracks. 
 
 The temple was straight on three sides, with a great 
 oval at the back. It was about twelve hundred feet long 
 and its walls were two stories high. They were sur- 
 rounded by a thick cornice or border of gold about eight 
 inches wide, and where the wall joined the roof there was 
 another broad golden band. The roof was covered with 
 gold, and the inner walls of the temple were plated with 
 it and engraved with designs of vegetables and vines. 
 Opposite the entrance to the temple was a mighty plate 
 of solid gold, heavily encrusted with emeralds and other 
 precious stones, representing a human face surrounded by 
 rays. It was the image of the sun worshipped by the 
 Incas. They considered gold sacred to the sun, and often 
 referred to it as the tears of their god. On both sides of the 
 image were the embalmed bodies of the Incas of the past, 
 each seated on a chair of solid gold. 
 
 Like the fire worshippers of Persia to-day the Incas 
 kept burning in the temple a sacred flame that was sup- 
 posed never to go out. This flame was tended by the 
 
 149 
 
LANDS OF THE ANDES AND THE DESERT 
 
 virgins of the sun, who had a vast convent not far away. 
 When the Spaniards conquered the Incas, they stripped 
 this temple of all its gold. They melted up the images 
 and vessels used for worship, and tore from the walls 
 the golden plates. I am told that there were temples 
 to the sun at many other places in Peru, and also temples 
 to the stars and the moon. According to tradition there 
 were also chapels to these heavenly bodies in the great 
 temple at Cuzco. 
 
 Leaving the Temple of the Sun, I strolled up the narrow 
 street to where the virgins of the sun had their quarters. 
 These young women, in addition to their religious duties, 
 are supposed to have formed a harem for the Incas. They 
 lived in enormous structures scattered over the empire 
 and some of their convents are said to have had a thousand 
 members. The one in Cuzco must have covered eight 
 acres. The walls, which still stand, surround the greater 
 part of a square, forming the foundations of many homes 
 built on the second story. Much of the first story has 
 been turned into stores. The granite walls have been cut 
 away and cave-like vaults made, in which all sorts of 
 industry goes on. I saw a saddler sewing at harness 
 in one cave in the wall, a shoemaker pegging away in a 
 second, and a carpenter sawing and planing in a third. 
 The blocks of this building are of great size and apparently 
 they will last for ages. 
 
 Other interesting remains are the walls of the palaces 
 in which the Incas lived. That of Pachacutec stood not 
 far from where the cathedral now is. The original walls 
 of the palace are still preserved to the height of the first 
 story. The remainder of the building was built by the 
 Spaniards, and to-day makes a fine residence for one of the 
 
 150 
 
One of the riddles of the City of the Sun is why the Incas cut great 
 stone seats in the rock overlooking the fort that guarded the capital. 
 Some believe that here were performed special rites to the rising sun. 
 
‘My secretary put his head through the hole in the torture stone, but 
 he refused to let me bend his legs over his back and thrust his feet 
 through the slot, as the Spaniards used to do with heretics.” 
 
THE ANCIENT CAPITAL OF THE INCAS 
 
 rich men of Cuzco. One wall of the building is perhaps 
 three hundred feet long, including the greater part of the 
 block. The stones are granite, of different sizes, beauti- 
 fully chiselled, and joined with unions so fine that it is 
 impossible to put a knife blade between them. One 
 great block about four feet square and weighing several 
 tons has twelve angles. I have heard that gold and 
 silver were sometimes placed between the joints as a 
 bedding material, but I saw no evidence of this in my 
 examination. Another legend says that the Incas knew 
 of a plant that, when crushed, softened the stone so that 
 it could be rubbed into the desired shape. 
 
 Some of the most remarkable buildings of ancient 
 Cuzco were the fortifications of Sacsahuaman, which 
 crowned the top of a hill just back of the city. This hill 
 rises precipitously to a height of seven or eight hundred 
 feet above the level of Cuzco. It is so steep that one has 
 to wind about to climb it. I rode upon horseback a part 
 of the way and then left my horse and climbed up the 
 walls of the fort on foot. On the lower slopes of the hill, 
 perhaps five hundred feet above Cuzco, and facing a 
 garden made in two terraces, stood the palace of Manco 
 Ccapac, the first great Inca ruler. This was directly 
 under the fortifications and commanded a magnificent view 
 of the city and valley. On the first terrace now stands a 
 church, erected in the days of the Inquisition, and outside 
 are some great stone instruments of torture, which were 
 used to bring the Indians and the heretics to the Christian 
 faith. Some of these stones had an opening shaped 
 like a keyhole, the round part of the hole being nearest 
 the ground, and the remainder in the form of a capital T. 
 The hole was just large enough so that a man’s head could 
 
 151 
 
LANDS OF THE ANDES AND THE DESERT 
 
 be squeezed through it, his neck lying on the stone. He 
 was put into this position face downward, and his legs were 
 then bent up over his back and his feet thrust through 
 the T part of the key. The torture was such that it 
 often caused death. I had my secretary get down and 
 put his head through the hole in one of the stones to 
 illustrate how it was done. He refused, however, when 
 I tried to induce him also to let me put his legs through 
 thei! 
 
 The palace of Manco Ccapac must have been a magni- 
 ficent home. Its garden-covered acres, the main part 
 standing upon a terrace twelve feet above the church, | 
 have described. This terrace is made of these wonderful 
 walls, into which are fitted sentinel boxes. Walking 
 through the garden, which is now filled with eucalyptus 
 trees and beautiful roses, I came to the ruins of the palace 
 itself. It was made of black granite, the blocks being very 
 thick at the bottom and lessening in size toward the top. 
 On the other side of the structure some of the stones have 
 been torn away, and I could see that the thick walls were 
 double, filled in with stones and mud. I took a sheet of 
 paper from my notebook and tried to fit it in between the 
 cracks, but found it impossible. Manco Ccapac’s palace 
 and its ground are now the property of a wealthy Italian 
 merchant of Cuzco. He has planted the garden with 
 flowers. and the trees that have grown up in it almost hide 
 the city below. 
 
 Leaving the palace and climbing up to the fort, I found 
 an enormous structure surrounding many acres and en- 
 closing the whole top of the hill. The walls of the forti- 
 fication are in terraces that rise one over the other. They 
 are made of enormous blocks of granite, some of which 
 
 152 
 
 — a 
 ; : 
 
THE ANCIENT CAPITAL OF THE INCAS 
 
 weigh many tons. There is no stone of the same nature 
 near by, and the blocks must have been brought from a 
 great distance. No one knows exactly where they came 
 from nor how they were carried up this precipitous hill, 
 which is almost a thousand feet above the plain. It is 
 supposed that roads were made for the purpose and that 
 hundreds of men had to work together to move a single 
 stone. The fort was built long before the time of Colum- 
 bus, and some of its walls are in perfect condition to-day. 
 Each section of the wall has a hole for drainage, and the 
 whole structure is almost as smoothly cut as the palaces. 
 I measured some stones that were fifteen feet high, and 
 riding on horseback close to the wall beside one great 
 block and standing in my stirrups, I was able to reach 
 only halfway up. That stone, I venture, weighed one 
 hundred tons. 
 
 From these fortifications I rode over the hills and plains 
 near by, which are covered with the remains of other Inca 
 structures. Much of the rock consists of mighty boulders, 
 some as big as a haystack, which were cut into all sorts of 
 shapes. One is known as the Inca throne. The original 
 granite was cut in ledges or steps rising to a low table 
 or bed, upon which the Inca is supposed to have lain on 
 a couch of furs or alpaca skins, with his officials sitting 
 cross-legged on each side of him. 
 
 Not far from this place is what is called the concert 
 hall or amusement ground of these ancient rulers. It is an 
 open-air court of several acres. On one side of it is a rocky 
 hill in which seats have been cut, and under it is a tunnel 
 supposed to have communicated with the Temple of the 
 Sun in Cuzco, perhaps three miles away. This tunnel 
 was closed up after some students of the Cuzco University 
 
 153 
 
LANDS OF THE ANDES AND THE DESERT 
 
 became lost inside it while hunting for treasures and 
 narrowly escaped death. 
 
 Another formation near the Inca amusement ground is 
 known as the rodadero. It consists of granite blocks that 
 look as though they had flowed in ridges down the moun- 
 tain. The rocks are as smooth as glass, and their slopes 
 are in waves much like those of a roller coaster. They are 
 grooved, and are so formed that one can seat himself at the 
 top in one of the grooves and have a toboggan slide of 
 hundreds of feet, rising and falling as he goes down to the 
 bottom. It is the greatest shoot-the-chute I have ever 
 seen, and if it could be lifted from the top of the Andes to 
 Coney Island it would surely make the fortune of the man 
 who owned it. 
 
 About sixty miles northwest of Cuzco are the ruins of 
 Machu-Picchu, which were discovered in 1911 by Professor 
 Hiram Bingham of Yale University, and which are said 
 to be more wonderful than those of Cuzco. It is believed 
 that those ruins mark the site of the lost city of Tampu 
 Tocco. One legend says that city, and not an island on 
 Lake Titicaca, was the place from which the Incas came 
 when they went out upon the plateau and founded their 
 vast empire. Machu-Picchu is situated on a mountain 
 top in one of the most inaccessible parts of the Andes, and 
 was evidently deserted by the Incas when they made 
 Cuzco their capital. There is no record of its ever having 
 been discovered by the Spaniards, which accounts for 
 the remarkable state of preservation of its temples and 
 fortifications. 
 
 Other Inca ruins near Cuzco have been found at Ollan- 
 taytambo and at Vitcos. The latter place was probably 
 the last stronghold of an Inca monarch. When Pizarro 
 
 154 
 
THE ANCIENT CAPITAL OF THE INCAS 
 
 captured Cuzco he appointed the son of a former king 
 as a figurehead ruler. This Inca rebelled against Spanish 
 domination, and, gathering together an army of loyal 
 Indians, he attacked Cuzco. His siege was unsuccessful, 
 and so he retreated to the mountains with his followers. 
 He lived at Vitcos for ten years, and at his death his two 
 sons governed this last remaining vestige of the Inca em- 
 pire for thirty-five years longer. 
 
 155 
 
CHAPTER XVIII 
 THE CUZCO OF TO-DAY 
 
 ODERN Cuzco is not one tenth the size of the 
 city that Pizarro plundered. It has now only 
 about twenty thousand inhabitants, including 
 Indians and whites and the half-breed offspring 
 
 of the two races. It is more like a city of old Spain 
 built during the days of Columbus than the magnificent 
 capital it was when the Incas ruled here. 
 
 The Spaniards made of Cuzco a town of one, two, and 
 three-story structures, built of stone or plastered adobe. 
 Its roofs of light-red tiles sparkle under the blue sky and 
 the bright sun of the Andes. The houses have gay- 
 coloured walls; they are close to the sidewalks, lining the 
 narrow, cobble-paved streets. 
 
 High above the houses rise the domes and the spires 
 of the great churches and convents built by the Spaniards 
 when they had grown rich by enslaving the Indians 
 and taking the vast hoards of silver and gold they found 
 in the city. Cuzco has a church for every thousand 
 inhabitants, and some of them are so magnificent that 
 they would attract attention in any city of Europe. In 
 the centre of the town is a beautiful plaza, the site of what 
 was once the chief square of the Inca capital. During 
 Spanish rule it was the scene of many acts of cruelty and 
 torture. It was here in 1571 that the boy Inca, Tupac 
 Amaru, was beheaded after being taken prisoner by the 
 
 156 
 
ary eULCOLO PTO AN 
 
 Spaniards. Following his capture he was instructed in 
 the Christian faith by two priests and later baptized. 
 On the day of his execution he was dressed in white robes 
 and led to this plaza, where hundreds of his subjects had 
 gathered. However, when the executioner brought out 
 his knife and prepared to strike, such a wail of horror and 
 protestation arose from both Indians and Spaniards that 
 the beheading was stopped. Messengers were sent to the 
 Viceroy of Peru at his Cuzco headquarters, asking for 
 mercy, but their intercession was of no avail, and the 
 execution was carried out. Afterward,: the viceroy 
 caused the head of Tupac to be set up on a pole in the 
 plaza, but when he learned that the Inca’s subjects came 
 there each night and knelt in silent adoration and worship, 
 he ordered it to be buried with the body. 
 
 The plaza does not now cover more than four or five 
 acres, but five churches face upon it, including the Cathe- 
 dral of Cuzco, which alone covers several acres. Across the 
 way is the great structure of La Compajiia, which was 
 built by the Jesuits as their chief house of worship. Ad- 
 joining is the magnificent old Jesuit convent, where the 
 monks worked and taught. When the government 
 drove the Jesuits out, the building was turned into a 
 university. The patio about which the holy fathers 
 strolled is now used as a tennis court, and as I passed by 
 I saw the students driving the balls back and forth over 
 the net. 
 
 Another great church is La Merced, through which I was 
 guided by a young priest. Its interior is a mass of carving, 
 including fluted stone columns and a ceiling panelled in 
 cedar. The Church of Santo Domingo stands on the 
 foundation of the old Temple of the Sun, as I have already 
 
 157 
 
LANDS OF THE ANDES AND THE DESERT 
 
 pointed out, and that of San Francisco has a choir famous 
 for its rich carving. The little chapel of San Blas has the 
 finest wood pulpit in the world. It was carved by the 
 descendants of the Incas, and is considered so unusual 
 that twenty-five thousand dollars was recently offered for 
 it. 
 
 The Cathedral of Cuzco is one of the finest of all the 
 Catholic churches in South America. It is particularly 
 noted for the beautiful tone of its bell, said to be due 
 to the large amount of gold it contains. Three hundred 
 pounds of the precious metal was given by one woman, by 
 whose name, Maria Angola, the bell is now known: The 
 cathedral is a vast museum of carvings plated with gold, 
 of wonderful paintings, some of them by old masters, and 
 of chapels with altars of solid silver and woodwork inlaid 
 with gold. Some of the paintings are forty feet high 
 and twenty feet wide, and there is one of the Last Supper 
 that measures about thirty by forty feet. A few are by 
 Murillo, one is by Van Dyck, and several are the work of 
 Domenichino. One of the altars was presented by 
 Charles V of Spain, and some of the paintings were given 
 by Philip II. 
 
 In one of the walls of the sacristy is a vault filled with 
 treasures, including gold, silver, and precious stones, 
 valued at more than a million dollars. In this vault is 
 the custodia, a box that contains the sacrament used at 
 the time of processions. This box weighs thirty-six 
 pounds and it was made of the solid gold plates taken from 
 the Temple of the Sun. The diamonds and emeralds 
 on it are worth even more than the gold itself. These 
 treasures are stored away in a closet with a door of wrought 
 iron so rude that it could be opened by any safe-breaker 
 
 158 
 
Many of the buildings of modern Cuzco are built upon the ancient Inca 
 structures. The latter are distinguishable by their sloping walls of cut 
 stone blocks beautifully fitted together. 
 
With its university and cathedral, Cuzco was for centuries a stronghold 
 of the religion and culture of the Spaniards, just as it had been the reli- 
 gious and political capital of the sun-worshipping Incas. 
 
He GUZCOROr TO-DAY 
 
 or ordinary burglar. It is, perhaps, the reverence of the 
 people and their fear of damnation that preserve the con- 
 tents of the vault from theft. 
 
 One of the treasures in the cathedral is a life-size 
 statue of Christ fastened to a wooden cross by great nails 
 of gold. The figure is decorated with jewels, and the 
 pedestal or car upon which the cross stands is plated with 
 silver and encrusted with diamonds. This image 1s 
 greatly revered in Cuzco. It is carried through the 
 streets on Good Monday, at which time the people kneel 
 down on the sidewalks before it and pray. They call it 
 the Lord of the Earthquakes and think that their city 
 is safe from seismic disturbances as long as the annual 
 procession takes place. This belief comes from a tradi- 
 tion that once when the statue was left in the church 
 beyond the hour usually set for the procession, the moun- 
 tains began to sway and an earthquake occurred. There- 
 upon the image was brought out and the earth ceased its 
 quaking. 
 
 As I stood in the cathedral, mass was being celebrated. 
 Two hundred women, dressed all in black, with black 
 shawls over their heads, knelt on the stone floor. Sprinkled 
 among them were patches of colour made by the Indian 
 men, who wore ponchos of red, blue, or yellow, and whose 
 bare feet were turned up to the roof as they muttered their 
 prayers. There were also Indian women in short skirts 
 and red shawls, each with a pack or a baby on her back. 
 
 There is no doubt about the religious nature of these 
 people of the high Andes. The Quichuas, who are the 
 descendants of the subjects of the Incas, are the chief 
 churchgoers of Peru. It is they who furnish the chief 
 support of the priesthood, and although in direst poverty, 
 
 159 
 
LANDS OF THE ANDES AND THE DESERT ~ 
 
 they give much of what they earn for the maintenance of 
 the Church. In travelling through the country I saw a 
 little wooden cross rising above the thatched roof of every 
 Indian hut, and the services at the cathedral here are at- 
 tended by more Indians than whites. Along with their 
 worship of Christ and the Virgin Mary they still retain 
 many of the ancient ceremonies and beliefs of the Incas. 
 They pray facing the sun, and they cross themselves and 
 offer a prayer when they approach or leave Cuzco, the 
 sacred city of their ancestors. 
 
 Crossing the plaza from the cathedral, I visited the 
 portales, or stores, where Indian goods are sold. They 
 occupy the ground floors of a block of two-story houses, 
 the upper stories of which extend out over the street and 
 are upheld by stone columns, forming an arcade. These 
 stores are like caves in the wall, and their doorways look 
 as though they were cut out with a cross-cut saw. I 
 arrived in Cuzco on a saint’s day, when the shops were 
 hidden behind thick slabs of wood that come together 
 like the folding doors of a barn and are fastened with 
 great wrought-iron padlocks centuries old. Single locks 
 weigh ten or twenty pounds, and they are so constructed 
 that one must use a half-dozen keys to open them. 
 
 All the storekeepers are women. They are fat cholas 
 who wear very full skirts and keep their shawls and hats on 
 while attending to business. Many of them do some man- 
 ufacturing in addition to their selling. Kneeling or sitting 
 on the floor, they make various garments with little hand 
 sewing machines that they rest on boxes or chairs. 
 
 From these shops I walked around the corner and up a 
 narrow street walled with stores that are larger but have 
 the same cave-like entrances. One block is called Coca 
 
 160 
 
AE CULCOI ORT ORD AY 
 
 Street, because every shop on each side of it has bales of 
 coca leaves among its wares. These leaves, which are the 
 source of our cocaine, are chewed for their narcotic 
 effect. I noticed that all of the Indians bought coca, and 
 that most of them had quids of these leaves in their cheeks 
 at the time. 
 
 Going on, I passed an ancient fountain where Jndian 
 house servants were filling their water jars. This foun- 
 tain represents a young girl with what looks like a chrysan- 
 themum over her head, on the top of whichisacross. The 
 figure is nude and out of the breasts pour two continuous 
 streams of water. 
 
 A little farther on I stopped to look at the market. 
 Half of the plaza where it is located is covered with long 
 galvanized iron sheds. Under the sheds are zinc coun- 
 ters upon which meat is spread out for sale, and farther 
 on are sheds for vegetables, where the Indian women sit 
 on the stones with their wares piled around them. Still 
 farther on are sheds for fruits, and in the open spaces out 
 in the sun llama droppings and charcoal are being sold as 
 fuel. There are other peddlers here and there, and 
 scattered about are cook shops, where the Quichua Indians 
 are eating soup and fried stuffs cooked on clay stoves or 
 sheet-iron plates. 
 
 I asked as to the prices of the various goods I saw 
 and learned that meat costs the same whether it comes 
 from a lamb or an old ram, and without regard to the cut. 
 Having no scales, the butcher women guess at the weight. 
 Neither are vegetables sold by measure, but in piles. The 
 usual price per pile is two and one half cents in our money, 
 the size varying in accordance with the article. Here isa 
 woman selling red peppers, for example. She has before 
 
 161 
 
LANDS OF THE ANDES AND THE DESERT 
 
 her a cloth covered with piles containing ten each. In the 
 next stall are handfuls of green beans, and beside them 
 cakes of native cheese the size of a biscuit, which can be 
 bought for a nickel. A little farther on a woman is selling 
 quinua and kernels of corn half as long as one’s finger. 
 The corn is of many colours and varieties. Some is as 
 black as my boots, some bright yellow, and the next pile 
 is dark red. Hominy grains as big as the end of my thumb 
 are sold wrapped in a cloth that looks like a dirty dish rag. 
 
 [ am interested in the potatoes. Peru is their natural 
 home, and the great-great-great-grandfathers of all our 
 potatoes were born on this high plateau of the. Andes. 
 The tubers are of all sizes; some are as big as my fist, 
 others no bigger than a thimble. They are equally varied 
 in colour—black, red, and yellow. I see also much chujio 
 being sold. Chujio looks like bits of bleached bone, but 
 is really potatoes that have been frozen and dried so that 
 they can be kept for years without spoiling. It is pre- 
 pared from a special variety of potatoes about the size of 
 a baseball. They are first soaked in water overnight. 
 Early in the morning, before the sun rises, they are taken 
 out and allowed to freeze. They are then covered with 
 straw to keep off the sun. The next night they are soaked 
 and frozen again. This process is continued from night 
 to night until the potatoes become soft, when the Indians 
 tread off the skins with their bare feet. The potatoes 
 are now as white as snow, and after being dried will keep 
 a long time. They have to be soaked before cooking 
 and are usually served in a soup or a stew. Sometimes 
 they are sliced and eaten as sandwiches with cheese be- 
 tween the slices. | have eaten chuvio made into stew, but 
 found it insipid. Perhaps it might have been more 
 
 162 
 
Under the portales facing the plaza where executions formerly took 
 place, are the cave-like stores where fat chola women sell all sorts of wares, 
 many of them native goods made on the spot. 
 
The streets of Cuzco, where one now sees stolid Indians and plodding 
 donkeys, have witnessed stirring scenes in the past, when the Spanish 
 conquerors practised barbaric cruelties to hold the fallen Incas in sub- 
 mission, 
 
THE GUZCOVOFR/1O-DAY 
 
 appetizing to me had I not seen so frequently how it was 
 prepared. 
 
 It is interesting to watch the market women. The 
 cholas wear straw hats and shawls, and skirts that reach 
 almost to the ankles. They have lighter complexions 
 than the full-blooded Indians. The latter women have 
 hats like pie pans, with upturned brims and low crowns. 
 They wear also shawls of red, blue, yellow, or black, and 
 embroidered waists and voluminous skirts that stand out 
 like those our girls wore in the days of wire petticoats. 
 They carry bundles on their backs and often babies on 
 the tops of the bundles. 
 
 There are hundreds of Indian men walking through the 
 market, buying and selling. They have flat round hats 
 with upturned brims, underneath which are bright- 
 coloured knit caps with ear flaps that hang down to their 
 necks. Some of the Indians are driving llamas loaded 
 with goods, and some carry on their shoulders great packs 
 containing vegetables and other products that they have 
 brought in from far away in the country. The whole 
 scene is one of bright colours, but it is not noisy, and the 
 people are apathetic and dull. They talk in low tones, 
 and they seem very timid. When I point my camera at 
 them the women hide their faces and the children howl and 
 go off on the run. 
 
 One of the odd sights of ae market, and also of the 
 streets throughout Cuzco, is the traffic and the way 
 freight is carried. Nearly everything comes in from the 
 country on donkeys, mules, or llamas, or on the backs of 
 men and women. There are not more than a half dozen 
 automobiles in the city, and most people go about on foot 
 or on horse- or mule-back. When I arrived in Cuzco on 
 
 163 
 
LANDS OF THE ANDES AND THE DESERT 
 
 a former visit to Peru, the station master had been in- 
 structed by the superintendent of the railroad to see 
 that I got to my hotel, and as | had a great deal 
 of baggage I asked him to hire a carriage. He replied 
 that there were no carriages in Cuzco, but that we could 
 take the street car, while my typewriter and trunks 
 could be carried on the backs of Indian cargadores. | 
 found the street car to be a long box resting on wheels, 
 with a team of four shaggy mules as the motive power. 
 There were a half dozen such cars, each with its separate 
 team, and they were so crowded that I was barely able 
 to get standing room. The cars ran only to the trains, 
 which arrived and departed three times a week, so that if 
 one could get a ride a day he was lucky. It was about a 
 mile and a half from the railroad depot to the main 
 plaza, and our mules went on the gallop. 
 
 My hotel is run on the European plan, and I am able to 
 get two good rooms at a reasonable rate. We take our meals 
 at a hotel that faces the great plaza and the cathedral. The 
 entrance to this house is a cave-like passageway through 
 evil-smelling and dirty courts, and it is only when I| reach 
 the dining room that I dare to cease holding my nose. 
 Once there, the accommodations are fair. The food is 
 Peruvian, but the eggs are fresh and the meats are good. 
 The landlord tries to please, and his price for three meals is 
 low. 
 
 Altogether, | am delighted with Cuzco. The sky is 
 blue, the sun is bright, and the surroundings full of in- 
 terest. On one hand are the quaintness of the present 
 city and the strange costumes of the Indians, and on the 
 other are the ruins of the Incas and the romance of a 
 civilization that has passed away. 
 
 164 
 
CHAPTERIEX TX 
 STORIES OF BURIED TREASURE 
 
 HAVE heard stories of buried treasure all along the 
 
 Andes from Panama to southern Peru. The Incas 
 
 had vast stores of gold and silver that for four cen- 
 
 turies white men have been attempting to recover. 
 Only a few weeks ago I met a party of Americans and 
 British in Cerro de Pasco who were prospecting for one of 
 these hoards. They had already spent thousands of dol- 
 lars, and were spending more every day. 
 
 I heard other stories at Urcos, a little mud town on the 
 railroad just south of Cuzco. It is high up in the Andes, 
 more than two miles above the sea, and not far from Lake 
 Urcos, in which: Inca treasures are said to be buried. 
 When the Spaniards under Pizarro had killed the Inca 
 king, Atahualpa, they marched upon Cuzco. The Indians 
 knew the Spaniards’ greed for precious metals, and they 
 took most of their treasures from the capital city and 
 buried them. According to tradition, they threw millions 
 of dollars’ worth of gold into this lake, among other things 
 the great golden chain that surrounded their main plaza. 
 This plaza was about five hundred feet long and several 
 hundred feet wide, so that the length of the chain was 
 probably nearly two thousand feet. It was made of pure 
 gold, wrought into links about a foot long and as large 
 around as my wrist. The links were so heavy that a man 
 could not lift more than one of them at a time, and hun- 
 
 165 
 
LANDS OF THE ANDES AND THE DESERT 
 
 dreds of Indians were required to carry the chain to the 
 lake. It is supposed to lie there to this day, although 
 many have searched for it in vain. The treasure hunters 
 have dived into the waters and have raked over the mud 
 near the shore. They have also used grappling hooks to 
 drag the bottom, which in places lies hundreds of feet 
 below the surface. At one time a syndicate, capitalized 
 at five million dollars, was organized to tunnel the moun- 
 tain-side and drain the lake in order to get at the gold. 
 The difficulties encountered were so many, however, that 
 the enterprise was abandoned. 
 
 All the ornaments and the utensils used in the religious 
 ceremonies of the Incas were made of gold or silver. In 
 the Temple of the Sun were golden ewers that held the 
 water used at the time of sacrifices; and there were twelve 
 silver jars kept filled with Indian corn. There was a 
 golden llama with golden fleece, and also golden birds 
 and golden flowers, all of life size. 
 
 The Spaniards found a vast amount of gold in the ceme- 
 teries of the Incas, the precious metal having been buried 
 with many of the monarchs. There is a record of one 
 Garcia Gutierrez paying to the Spanish crown one fifth 
 of the treasures he found in the graveyards at Trujillo, 
 which netted him more than six hundred and seventy- 
 seven thousand castellanos of gold. Gold and silver 
 plates have been found fastened to the heads of mummies 
 and skeletons dug up in the excavations at Tiahuanaco in 
 Bolivia. 
 
 The building of the great cathedral in Cuzco is said to 
 have been brought about by the discovery of Inca treasure. 
 According to the legend, it began with a miraculous dream 
 of the bishop, in which the Virgin Mary appeared before 
 
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 stone arch. 
 
Whether the Inca kings, or perhaps a race of giants, had this huge slide 
 carved out of the granite for the amusement of their children, or whether 
 it occurred naturally, no one knows, but it still furnishes sport for the 
 youths of Cuzco. 
 
STORIES OF BURIED TREASURE 
 
 him and told him that she wanted a cathedral in Cuzco. 
 She fixed the location on the ancient plaza of the Incas 
 and described the building as it now is. The bishop re- 
 plied that his people were poor, and that he could not 
 possibly raise the sum needed. Thereupon the Madonna 
 directed him to go to a place near Cuzco and dig. This 
 was duly reported to the people, who, as the story goes, 
 went with the bishop in a great procession to the spot 
 designated. They dug down into the earth and there 
 found a large store of gold. It was with this gold that 
 they began to build the cathedral, which is, as I have said, 
 one of the finest churches in the new world. 
 
 A second story of lost treasure relates to a Cuzco man 
 of Spanish descent whom the Lord blessed with numerous 
 children. It is the custom here that a godfather shall 
 look after and provide for his godchild; and so, as this 
 man was poor, he tried to add to his resources by having a 
 corps of good godfathers. As the infants were born, he 
 named each in honour of one of the distinguished citizens 
 of the town. The citizens, however, did not respond, and 
 the man grew poorer and poorer. At last he had nine 
 children, each of whom had a rich godfather, but there was 
 no help forthcoming. The father then vowed that he 
 would choose as the patron of his next child the first man 
 he met on the street after its birth. In due time the 
 stork came again, and the father, rushing out of the house, 
 saw a poor Indian driving a caravan of llamas into the 
 town. He stopped him and asked him to be godfather to 
 the child. The Indian objected, saying that he was poor 
 and not fit to be godfather to a white child. The man 
 then told him of his vow and finally persuaded the Indian 
 to accept the honour. 
 
 167 
 
LANDS OF THE ANDES AND THE DESERT 
 
 When the baby was baptized, the Indian appeared at 
 the ceremony as its godfather, and the next day came 
 back into Cuzco with a score of llamas loaded with wood. 
 He took the wood to the father of his godchild, saying that 
 he had brought what he could as a gift. He was thanked 
 and the wood was stored away in the court of the house. 
 Some time after that the bundles of sticks and roots were 
 opened, and inside each was found a bag of gold in nuggets 
 and dust. In the meantime, the Indian had disappeared 
 and could not be found. The-Spaniard took the gold and 
 built two large houses on the street called Triumph, 
 which the people of Cuzco will show you to-day. 
 
 Another treasure story is the tale of an Indian woman 
 one hundred years old. It relates toa great hoard of gold 
 that was hidden in the Andes by an Indian chief, who was 
 murdered on his way back to Cuzco. It had long been 
 searched for in vain by both foreigners and Peruvians. 
 Not long ago this old Indian woman, being about to die, 
 sent word to a ha endado of Spanish descent for whom she 
 had worked, asking him to hasten to her. He reached 
 her hut in the mountains just in time to get her last mes- 
 sage. This was that her maternal grandmother, who had 
 died eighty years before, had given her a word that would 
 indicate where the treasure lay. The word was an Indian 
 one meaning the Lake of the Two Stones. The old woman 
 was questioned, but she would tell nothing more, and that 
 night she died. The whole country was searched by 
 treasure hunters, all seeking the Lake of the Two Stones. 
 At last a narrow valley was discovered containing a lake 
 in which there were two tall rocks rising out of the water. 
 The lake was drained, and the treasure was found in a 
 chamber under the largest stone. The discovery was kept 
 
 108 
 
STORIES OF BURIED TREASURE 
 
 a secret from the officials for fear of confiscation, and so 
 no one knows how much gold was discovered. It is said 
 to have been of such great value that it made wealthy all 
 those who participated in finding it. 
 
 Still another Indian legend tells the story of a treasure 
 cave in a mountain near Cuenca in Ecuador. This cave 
 contains a mighty store of gold, but its entrance is closed 
 by a giant of granite under whose arm is a hole that is 
 open only on Good Friday. Then, and then only, the 
 giant raises his arm, and whoever is there at that time can 
 crawl in under it. As the story goes, the gold is in piles, 
 and only one pile is to be taken at atime. If aman takes 
 only the assigned quantity he will get away safely. But 
 if he is greedy and takes more he will be squeezed to death 
 by the arm of the giant as he goes out. The Indians have 
 great faith in this story, and many superstitious people 
 have looked for the cave, hoping to reach it in time for 
 Good Friday. 
 
 A fairly well-authenticated tradition refers to an Inca 
 named Ruminagui, who is said to have carried away the 
 gold and silver of Quito and buried it. This treasure was 
 taken from the palaces of Atahualpa and from the temples 
 and the convents of the virgins of the sun. It is said that 
 some of the gold was intended to be sent to Cajamarca for 
 Atahualpa’s ransom, but that Ruminagul, anticipating 
 the treachery of the Spaniards, buried the treasure onthe 
 way. News of what he had done came to the Spaniards, 
 and Sebastian de Benalcazar, one of the subordinate 
 officers under Pizarro, took one hundred and fifty men 
 and started for Quito. He searched along the route 
 followed by Ruminagui, but found nothing. 
 
 In the meantime, Ruminagui had dug traps in the trails 
 
 169 
 
LANDS OF THE ANDES AND THE DESERT 
 
 and made snares to destroy the enemy and their horses in 
 case he was followed. Also, in order to save them from 
 the Spaniards, he had set fire to Quito and killed the virgins 
 of the sun before Benalcazar appeared. He then climbed to 
 a high mountain behind the city, where he was finally 
 captured by Benalcazar. He was tortured to make him 
 tell where the golden hoard was secreted, but refused to 
 talk, even though finally put to death. 
 
 An Indian boy named Catuna, the son of one of the 
 Inca chiefs, who was with his father at the time this hoard 
 was secreted, was injured in one of the battles and left as 
 dead. Captain Suarez, a Spaniard, later discovered that 
 Catuna was still alive, and took the boy home with him. 
 Catuna’s injuries were so severe that his features were dis- 
 torted and he became a hunchback. Captain Suarez 
 taught him to read and write, and converted him to 
 Christianity. 
 
 Later, Suarez became unfortunate in his speculations, 
 and his house was about to be sold to satisfy his creditors. 
 Then Catuna said that he would produce enough gold to 
 pay off the debts if he were given some equipment for 
 smelting. He also made Suarez promise to say nothing 
 as to the source of any sudden wealth. This was agreed 
 to, and Catuna, working in a secret vault under the house, 
 supplied so much treasure that Suarez became a rich man. 
 He gave large sums to the Church, and when he died in 
 1550 he made Catuna his heir. When questioned as to 
 where the money came from, Catuna said that he had made 
 a compact with the evil one, to whom he had sold his 
 soul for this gold. This statement was credited, because 
 at that time the Indians were believed to have regular 
 intercourse with the devil. 
 
 170 
 
STORIES OF BURIED TREASURE 
 
 After Catuna’s death his home was searched and the 
 vault discovered. It contained a large quantity of gold in 
 ingots and bars, and also in vessels of gold that evidently 
 came from the Incas. The people, however, persisted in 
 believing that the story of the pact with the devil was 
 true, ‘‘and,”’ says Father Velasco, from whose letters this 
 story comes, “‘the truth would have never been discovered 
 if it had not been that Catuna’s confessor, a Franciscan 
 monk, had left a written account of the burial of Ata- 
 hualpa’s treasure, which had been told to him.” ? 
 
 I heard a story in Cuzco of an Indian girl who was in love 
 with a Spaniard, and who told him that she would make 
 him the richest man in Peru if he would marry her. He 
 promised that he would if she would prove that she could 
 do what she proposed. At her request, he went with her 
 one night into the mountains, where he was blindfolded and 
 led through ravine after ravine. They finally reached a 
 cave where the bandages were removed from his eyes, and 
 his sweetheart said: 
 
 “Behold! There is the gold that I am ready to give 
 you when we are married.” 
 
 The Spaniard looked down and saw a great pile of golden 
 bars and a collection of golden vessels curiously carved, 
 probably from the treasures of Atahualpa. He attempted. 
 to seize some of the largest pieces near him, but the girl 
 pulled him back, saying: 
 
 “Those things are sacred until we are wedded, and if 
 you attempt to touch any of them or take away any, my 
 friends who are here at hand will certainly kill you.” 
 
 The Spaniard, becoming frightened, threw down the gold 
 and submitted again to being blindfolded. Upon his 
 return to Cuzco he told the story to the authorities and 
 
 171 
 
LANDS OF THE ANDES AND THE DESERT 
 
 an order was issued for the arrest of the girl. The police 
 hastened to her hut, but were too late. The girl and her 
 family, hearing of the proposed arrest, had fled to the 
 mountains, and that was the last ever known of the 
 treasure. 
 
 There are records left by the Spaniards describing several 
 localities where they thought some of the Inca treasures 
 might be found. One such record is in the writings of 
 Valverde, who died in Spain. He was known to have 
 gone many times into the mountains of Ecuador and to 
 have brought out a great quantity of gold, the form of 
 which showed it to have been a part of the treasures of 
 Atahualpa. 
 
 Valverde left directions giving the route to where the 
 gold lay, and the King of Spain sent this description to 
 Ambato, a town now on the railroad between the coast 
 and Quito, ordering the officers there to search for the 
 treasure. The manuscript of the king’s letter, which | 
 understand is still preserved, tells the searcher to stand on 
 the mountain of Guapa, with his back to Ambato, and 
 look to the east. From there can be seen three mountains 
 in the form of a triangle surrounding an artificial lake, into 
 which the ancients, when they heard of the death of the 
 Inca king, threw the gold they had prepared for his ran- 
 som. The Spanish directions then tell one just how to 
 get there and the dangers he is liable to incur on the way. 
 He is supposed to reach a bog in which is gold that can be 
 washed out in a stream near by, and still farther on is said 
 to be a cave in which is a furnace where the Indians melted 
 their ores. Many have searched for this treasure, but it 
 has never been found. 
 
 A treasure hoard that really existed was found on the 
 
 172 
 
STORIES OF BURIED TREASURE 
 
 farm of a Spaniard who had built a wide and apparently 
 unnecessary adobe wall between two of his fields. Before 
 he died he left strict injunctions that the land on which 
 this wall was built was never to go out of the possession of 
 his family. Years passed, and the great-great-grandson 
 who had inherited this piece of land finally offered it for 
 sale in order to raise money to meet his debts. The 
 descendant of another branch of the family, remembering 
 the story of his ancestor’s last instructions, bought the 
 property and immediately put all his peons at work de- 
 molishing the wall, long an eyesore to the neighbourhood. 
 Under it were found bars of gold and silver amounting to 
 many times the value of the property. 
 
 The finding of treasure in old buildings led many people 
 to tear down their houses and devote much time and ex- 
 pense to searching for secret chambers and passages that 
 might conceal untold wealth. One man, who actually 
 discovered such a passage, found that it ended in a brick 
 wall, which he assumed to be the outside of a treasure 
 vault that had been closed up years before. Working in 
 great secrecy, he pried the bricks out one by one, and at. 
 last saw a large room filled with silver vases, candlesticks, 
 beautiful china, and linens exquisitely embroidered. In 
 his great excitement he failed entirely to notice that every- 
 thing was spick and span and in the finest condition, and 
 it was only when a woman entered through a hitherto un- 
 noticed door that he discovered that he had merely chis- 
 elled his way through the wall of his neighbour’s house 
 into his pantry. 
 
 173 
 
CHAPTER XX 
 SLAVES OF ALCOHOL AND COCAINE 
 
 T THE time of the Spanish conquest it is estimated 
 that there were between twenty and forty mil- 
 lions of semi-civilized Indians on the high plateau 
 of the Andes. There were the Chibchas in Colom- 
 bia, the Caras and Chancas in Ecuador, the Quichuas in 
 Peru, the Aymards in Bolivia, and farther south in Chile 
 the brave Araucanians. The Chibchas were skilled in weav- 
 ing and making pottery. They had learned to pave their 
 highways, and had developed their farming to a high degree 
 of productivity. They had weights and measures, and a 
 currency of gold disks. The Caras had attained an ad- 
 vanced civilization, with a military and a tribal organiza- 
 tion, and the Araucanians met in grand councils to make 
 laws and settle matters of public interest. The Aymaras, 
 the chief race of Bolivia, ranked in progress with the 
 Quichuas. To-day, the majority of the Quichuas are as 
 miserable and degraded as any human beings on earth. 
 Not one in a hundred can read or write. They are mere 
 hewers of wood and drawers of water, slaves to the coca 
 leaf and alcohol. They are a race from which active 
 mentality seems to have departed, and have shrunk in 
 numbers from eight millions in 1575 to a bare million and 
 a half. 
 I saw the Quichuas first in the high valleys of Ecuador, 
 and found them everywhere as I went through Peru. | 
 
 174 
 
Past oppression, combined with his addiction to alcohol and coca chew- 
 ing, has degraded the Indian of the plateau until he has become a dull, 
 apathetic being, desperately poor, and without curiosity, ambition, or hope. 
 
Like the aborigines of our own Southwest, the Indians of the Peruvian 
 plateau are capable pottery makers, although their sense of colour 1s 
 ereater than their understanding of drawing and decoration. 
 
 The Indian market women sit all day long on the cobble paving with 
 their wares heaped about them. Weights and measures are unknown to 
 them and they sell fruits and vegetables “by the pile.” 
 
SLAVES OF ALCOHOL AND COCAINE 
 
 have seen them toiling along the trails with enormous 
 loads on their backs, or driving their laden llamas and 
 donkeys to the markets of the cities. In the towns | 
 have watched them sitting on the stone pavements of the 
 plazas with their little stores of vegetables spread out 
 before them, or carrying barrels of water and other burdens 
 from house to house as the servants of the cholos and the 
 whites. 
 
 In my trips to South America I have not had time to 
 make an exhaustive study of the Quichuas, but I have 
 obtained much information about them from men who 
 have lived in these countries for years. I have talked 
 with plantation owners and mining operators, with teachers 
 and missionaries, and, in fact, with scores who employ 
 Indians or are otherwise interested in them. An extreme 
 view of their condition was given me by an American 
 mining official, who is a man of keen observation. He said: 
 
 “Most of the Quichuas of the plateau appear to lack 
 ordinary intelligence. If you tell one to fetch you a broom, 
 he will bring you a shovel. If you send him for a hatchet, 
 he will, as likely as not, return with a glass of water. If 
 you knock him down and make him go back, the shock 
 starts his brain working and he may then get what you 
 asked for.” 
 
 Another American, who has been here for many years, 
 tells me that the Indian boys are intelligent until they 
 reach the age of fifteen. They acquire the coca habit al- 
 most at birth, but they do not take to alcohol until they 
 begin to work independently of their parents and can 
 afford to buy liquor for themselves. From then on they 
 deteriorate, and they are on the down grade for the rest 
 of their lives. 
 
 175 
 
LANDS OF THE ANDES AND THE DESERT 
 
 I believe that the cause of the mental degradation of 
 the Quichua is due somewhat to oppression by the whites, 
 but more to the use of alcohol and coca. Coca has been 
 chewed by the Andean Indians since the days of the Incas, 
 when any feat of strength or endurance was attributed to 
 its use. In athletic contests the victor’s reward was a 
 coca pouch woven in brilliant colours, the handiwork of an 
 Indian maiden. Accompanying it was a small gourd con- 
 taining lime or ashes to enhance the flavour of the coca. 
 It was always a part of the equipment of the soldier on 
 the march, and distances between different parts of the 
 Inca Empire were often reckoned as so many handfuls of 
 coca, meaning the amount of leaves necessary to sustain a 
 man in making the trip. According to one writer of that 
 period, 
 
 Three leaves supply for six days’ march afford. 
 
 The Quitoita with this provision stor’d 
 Can pass the vast and cloudy Andes o’er. 
 
 Coca was used also as an offering to the sun and to make 
 smoke at sacrifices. One of the Inca ceremonies was to 
 throw it into a river and allow it to float downstream, 
 while parties of Indians kept pace with it on the banks for 
 days. So that a man could have it to chew in the next 
 world, pouches of it were usually buried with the dead. 
 
 Every farmer gives his Indian labourers a handful of 
 coca leaves each morning, and every mine owner has to 
 supply a certain amount in addition to the regular wages 
 paid. The full effect of the cocaine is obtained by rubbing 
 the leaves between the palms to remove the tiny branches, 
 chewing them into a ball, and then adding a small amount 
 of lime, which is sold in the markets in the form of little 
 cakes. The Indian not only chews coca, but he often 
 
 170 
 
 a 
 
SLAVES OF ALCOHOL AND COCAINE 
 
 brews from it a tea that he says he takes for his stomach’s 
 sake, but really for its effect as a stimulant. 
 
 Coca drives away hunger and makes one feel the cold 
 less. It enables one to breathe with greater ease in the 
 high altitudes of the Andes, and it is claimed that by using 
 it the Indians can work longer and endure more fatigue. 
 | am told that chewing it also keeps the teeth white, and it 
 is said that the Quichuas seldom suffer from toothache. 
 Whatever its temporary effect may be, coca also numbs 
 the brain, destroys the will, and dulls all forms of mental 
 activity. 
 
 Coca leaves come from a shrub that grows from four to 
 six feet in height. They are picked green, dried, and put 
 up in packages of twenty-five pounds each, which sell for 
 about two dollars and a half. I bought ten cents’ worth 
 at one of the stores of Cuzco. The woman who waited 
 upon me brought out a pair of old brass scales, balanced 
 on the end of a beam, and weighed out a full pound. [| 
 took it home and chewed some, but it had no perceptible 
 effect, probably because I had not the lime to go with it. 
 I then made some into a tea, which made me feel very re- 
 freshed. 
 
 As to alcohol, the extent to which it is used among the 
 Indians is beyond conception. Drunken men and women 
 by the score may be seen at any celebration, and in every 
 part of the country Indians with red faces and bleared eyes 
 go reeling along the roads. The women drink quite as 
 much as the men, and on holidays both sexes give them- 
 selves up to drunken carousals. 
 
 During my stay in Cuzco I went into some of the alcohol 
 stores, and was astounded at the vast quantities sold. 
 There was a wholesale and retail liquor establishment 
 
 177 
 
LANDS OF THE ANDES AND THE DESERT 
 
 just opposite my hotel. The storeroom facing the street 
 was walled with tanks, each twice as high as a man and as 
 large around as a boiler. I counted twelve such tanks 
 standing upon platforms against the wall of that room. 
 Each was marked as containing two thousand litres of 
 alcohol, and when I tapped upon them with my knife | 
 found they were full. That meant more than twenty- 
 four thousand quarts. Every tank had its faucet, and the 
 liquor was drawn out by the gallon, the litre, or the bottle. 
 
 The storekeeper seemed proud of his business, and told 
 me that he made a million and a half pounds of liquor 
 every year. He sells it tothe Indians for about ten dollars 
 a quintal, or one hundred pounds, and ships it to other 
 towns throughout the province. He told me that the 
 hacienda Pachacha, where the brandy is made, consists 
 of four great farms ninety miles from Cuzco, and requires 
 from eight hundred to one thousand Indian families to 
 work it. Going into a court, I saw the goatskins, contain- 
 ing one hundred pounds each, in which the liquor 1s brought 
 from the plantation. When I drank some it burned my 
 throat like liquid fire, and as I remarked upon its strength 
 the shopkeeper took a gauge and showed me that it was 
 fifty-three per cent. pure alcohol. 
 
 I saw other alcohol stores in Sicuani, and there are 
 scores of them in Arequipa and in almost all the towns of 
 the mountain districts. The Indian usually buys his 
 liquor by the bottle, the number of which is limited only 
 by the amount of money he has. 
 
 In addition to alcohol, the Indians—men, women, and 
 children—drink chicha, made from corn. It is for sale in 
 the stores, and may be obtained at wayside saloons every- 
 where in the mountains of Peru. The first step in the 
 
 178 
 
Market day in the mountain towns affords a colourful spectacle. The 
 Indians frequently travel thirty or forty miles for the occasion, although 
 their total sales or purchases may amount to no more than a few cents. 
 
The usual home of the plateau Indian is a rude hut of adobe or plastered 
 stone, containing practically no furniture. The chief work of the women, 
 cooking and weaving, is done out of doors. 
 
 Ownership of a few llamas gives the farmer means of getting his prod- 
 ucts to market, and also furnishes him coarse wool for making rough 
 cloth, while their droppings provide fuel in a land of almost no wood. 
 
SLAVES OF ALCOHOL AND COCAINE 
 
 manufacture of chicha is to put the kernels of ripe corn 
 into tanks in the earth. The corn is then sprinkled with 
 water and covered with straw. It is kept wet until it 
 swells and sprouts, after which it is taken out and boiled 
 foratime. The liquid begins to ferment in a day or two, 
 and is soon ready to drink. 
 
 I am told that the old-fashioned way of making chicha 
 still prevails in some villages. By that method the Indian 
 girls shell off the ripe grains and grind them between their 
 teeth, working their jaws until the saliva flows freely. 
 When chewed sufficiently the saliva-soaked meal 1s ejected 
 into a wooden trough. The spittle starts fermentation, 
 and after a short time the mush, with some water added, 
 has turned to a liquor with a high percentage of alcohol. 
 It is said that this is the most intoxicating form of chicha 
 known, and that its manufacture dates back to the days 
 of the Incas. Kava, the intoxicating drink of the Samoas, 
 is made in a similar way. 
 
 As I see how the Indians live and work on these cold 
 highlands of the Andes, I do not wonder that they are 
 driven to coca and alcohol. Their homes are huts made 
 of mud, so rude and squalid that in the United States they 
 would hardly be considered fit for a cow stable or a hog 
 pen. The typical dwelling is about eight or ten feet wide 
 and perhaps ten or fifteen feet long, and it is so low that 
 as an average-sized man stands outside it his head reaches 
 above where the sloping roof begins. It has walls of sod 
 or mud, and its roof is of straw tied to poles. It has no 
 windows, and the only door is a hole in the wall so low 
 that one has to stoop to goin. There is no furniture, al- 
 though some of the huts have a mud ledge at the back, 
 upon which the family sleeps at night. Usually, however, 
 
 179 
 
LANDS OF THE ANDES AND THE DESERT 
 
 grown-ups and children lie down on the ground on llama 
 skins and huddle together to keep warm. They sleep in 
 the same clothing they wear in the daytime, covering them- 
 selves with coarse blankets. Often the chickens and some- 
 times the hogs sleep in the hut with the family. The 
 Americans who employ large numbers of Indians at Cerro 
 de Pasco and furnish quarters for them at a low rent have 
 to order the hogs cleared out of the huts every few weeks. 
 
 Meals are cooked on a little clay stove in one corner of 
 the house. The fuel is the droppings of llamas and cattle, 
 peat, or the stunted vegetation of the pampas. There is 
 no chimney, and the smoke blackens the roof of the hut and 
 escapes through the door. The Indians exist on a limited 
 diet, consisting of mutton or llama meat and potatoes, bar- 
 ley, chuiio, or corn, which they soak and cook as a stew. 
 
 Most of the farms and the haciendas on the Andean 
 plateau are owned by the whites or the cholos. Some of the 
 estates are so large that one may ride all day across them 
 without reaching the boundaries. On all of them are large 
 numbers of Indians who lease patches of ground on such 
 terms as make them practically the slaves of the owners. 
 
 | have had a long talk with a hacendado who owns al- 
 most three hundred thousand acres of land near Cusipata, 
 in the province of Paucartambo. He spends only a part 
 of the summer there, and lives for the rest of the year in 
 Cuzco. He talked freely of conditions on his hacienda, 
 looking upon the practical enslavement of the Indians as 
 a matter of course. 
 
 ‘“Tand here is cheap,” he said. ‘The estate at Cusi- 
 pata cost me only about four cents an acre when I bought 
 it some years ago. Including the livestock, I paid only 
 twenty thousand. soles, or about ten thousand dollars, for 
 
 180 
 
“SLAVES OF ALCOHOL AND COCAINE 
 
 the property. The highest land, which runs up to sixteen 
 thousand feet above the sea, is suitable only for pasture. 
 I have big flocks of alpacas and llamas, and about eight 
 thousand sheep, as well as cattle and horses and donkeys. 
 I have also some land as low as ten thousand feet, upon 
 which barley, potatoes, quinua, and other crops can be 
 grown. 
 
 “The most important asset on the property, however, 
 is the Indians. It is valued, not according to its area, but 
 by the number of families of Indians who have homes 
 upon it and are therefore obliged to work for me. If it 
 were not for the Indians living on the estate, I could get 
 no one to work my land. Therefore, I hold them by 
 keeping them more or less in debt tome. | advance money 
 for the purchase of cattle, llamas, and alpacas, and for 
 feast days and marriages and funerals The only way 
 an Indian can get out of debt to me would be by finding 
 some other proprietor to assume his obligation. In that 
 case he could move, but he would be only going from one 
 master to another. 
 
 “Some of the Indians are in debt only enitey or forty 
 dollars, and others owe as much as three hundred dollars. 
 I loan them money according to the value of their stock, 
 being careful not to let them have more than the animals 
 would bring at forced sale. One of my Indians owns four 
 hundred alpacas, and some own sheep and cattle to a value 
 of three or four hundred and even a thousand dollars. 
 Such men work on the same conditions as the others, and 
 do not live any differently. 
 
 “According to my contracts, every Indian man has to 
 work for me five days of each week, which leaves only 
 Saturday and Sunday for himself, with the exception of 
 
 181 
 
LANDS OF THE ANDES AND THE DESERT 
 
 holidays and saints’ days. He receives no wages except 
 an ounce and a half of cocaa day. That is about a hand- 
 ful, and it costs only four cents a week per man. It is 
 also agreed that each of the three Indian villages on the 
 farm shall furnish me a man-servant, or pongo, and a 
 woman-servant to work in my house or for someone else if I 
 direct. The pongoes are changed from month to month, 
 and a new one is always on hand before the old one leaves. 
 
 “The Indians also agree not to trade with a stranger 
 without my permission, and to give me the first chance to 
 buy anything they sell. As a rule, they will not do busi- 
 ness with any one else under any circumstances, not even 
 if the prices offered were ten times what I pay. In return 
 for the use of pasture land, the Indians also give me ten 
 per cent. of the increase of their flocks and herds. At 
 certain times of the year all the sheep and the cattle must 
 be branded and counted in order that I may collect my 
 share of the stock. 
 
 “ My estate is fifty-four miles from Cuzco, and the In- 
 dians who own llamas must take the products to that town 
 or to anywhere else I may direct. For the trip to Cuzco 
 I pay them two dollars for 2750 pounds, and furnish their 
 food for the journey. It takes them about a week to go 
 to Cuzco and back, and they sleep at night on the road. 
 I allow the Indians to keep as many llamas as they please, 
 for every animal adds to the freight-carrying facilities of 
 my property.” 
 
 ‘But doesn’t this method of carrying crops to markets 
 so cheaply compete with the railroads?” I asked. 
 
 “Of course it does,’ replied the hacendado. ‘“‘Why 
 should I use the railroad to market my crops when I can 
 have my Indians do it for practically nothing? 1 would 
 
 182 
 
Every male citizen of Peru is entitled to go to the polls when a president 
 is being elected, but a large element of the population, especially in the 
 interior, 1s unqualified to pass such simple tests as we require of our 
 voters. 
 
Because of the great altitude of Lake Titicaca, only a few crops, such as 
 potatoes and barley, can be raised on its shores, and scarcely enough of 
 these to feed the scanty population. 
 
 —_ . 
 re 
 
 om 
 
SLAVES OF ALCOHOL AND COCAINE 
 
 not give a centavo to have a railroad go through my estate. 
 If it did, my family and I would be the only ones to use it. 
 If I send my goods to market on the backs of llamas, it 
 takes a little longer, but if the weight is short when they 
 reach their destination the Indian is responsible. Suppose 
 I ship a hundred pounds of barley to Cuzco by rail and it 
 arrives four pounds short. I could not get damages from 
 the railroad, but I could compel the Indian to make up the 
 deficit. He is responsible for everything he carries, and 
 if he should break a plate or a glass in the load of goods he 
 brings me he has to pay for it.” 
 
 “But how can you force the Indians to submit to such 
 treatment?” 
 
 “They have been used to it for generations and have 
 never known anything else. Besides, we can punish 
 them in various ways. For small offenses we can lock 
 them up in a barn for a couple of days on a water diet. 
 We can also whip them for stealing, provided we are 
 careful not to let the authorities hear of what we are doing, 
 or we can make them come to Cuzco to work as pongoes. 
 Sometimes the Indians are badly treated, and I know of an 
 instance on my own farm where an Indian was hanged to 
 the top of a eucalyptus tree by a rope tied under his arms, 
 and left there for two hours. If the overseer had been 
 found out, he would have gone to jail for two or three years. 
 Justice, however, 1s more in favour of the master than the 
 servant in this part of the world, and although the laws 
 to protect the Indian are fairly good, he has little chance in 
 the courts if one of the higher classes is the defendant.” 
 
 “But if the man works five days for you, how is he to 
 take care of his own crops and to watch his cattle and 
 sheep?” I asked. 
 
 183 
 
LANDS OF THE ANDES AND THE DESERT 
 
 “That is done by his wife and children,” was the reply. 
 “The children learn to herd sheep and cattle almost as 
 soon as they are able to walk, and the women hoe the crops. 
 The men help on Saturday and Sunday. All the Indian 
 women work, wives being selected as much for strength as 
 for beauty. They do their own weaving and make all the 
 clothes for the family. 
 
 “On my farm the men do not start working much before 
 eight o’clock. They take things easy, and at ten knock 
 off for a half hour’s rest during which they chew coca. 
 They then go back to work until one o’clock, when they 
 take an hour to eat the lunch that they bring with them. 
 At four o’clock they have another rest of a half hour for 
 coca chewing, and shortly after that they stop for the day 
 and go home. By the time it is dark they are asleep.” 
 
 In further conversation, this man told me something of 
 the Indian villages and how they are governed. He says 
 the estate owner controls the Indians almost entirely 
 through the village officials, who are selected anew each 
 year. Each town has a native alcalde, or mayor, who, as 
 a sign of authority, carries a cane as big around as a base- 
 ball bat, decorated with silver ornaments. Subordinate 
 to him are two other officers with smaller canes. It is 
 the business of these men to punish offenses, pass upon 
 disputes, and administer justice. In addition, each village 
 has a mandon, through whom the proprietor gives his 
 orders, and who is a kind of overseer. This office is greatly 
 coveted by the Indians. 
 
 | asked some questions as to education among these 
 people, and was told that sometimes the children attend the 
 public schools in the towns, but that practically none go 
 to school in the remote districts. It is difficult to establish 
 
 184 
 
 el i i 
 
 ee ee ee 
 
 a ae en ee 
 
SLAVES OF ALCOHOL AND COCAINE 
 
 a school on an estate far away from the railroad. It has 
 to be done through the minister of public instruction, who 
 has a representative in every province. This requires 
 money, time, trouble, and influence, and the majority 
 of the landholders are not interested. Most of them pre- 
 fer ignorant and submissive labourers to intelligent and 
 independent ones, saying that it is the educated Indian who 
 causes most of the trouble. One of the hacendados told 
 me that he found the men who had been in the army the 
 most difficult to control, and that he wanted his Indians 
 as workers and not as students. 
 
 There are many provinces, however, where the Indians 
 work only two or three days a week for the use of their 
 houses and lands, and in some they are also paid a small 
 wage for their labour. In other places they have small 
 farms of their own and raise stock and crops. Where 
 they have come in contact with better conditions, they 
 have often cast off entirely the yoke of centuries of op- 
 pression. A few of them are rich, and own mines and 
 estates. In Lima I met a wealthy Indian who has three 
 daughters graduating this year at one of the mission 
 schools. The girls have Indian features but are by no 
 means unattractive. Their father pays five thousand 
 dollars gold a year for the rent of his home in the Peruvian 
 capital, and he owns several automobiles. 
 
 In the cities wages have been raised and the lot of the 
 native labourer has been bettered by legislation, the women 
 and children especially benefitting by laws fixing the num- 
 ber of working hours a day. But in the interior, far 
 from railways and outside influences, the lot of the 
 Quichua Indian is little better than it was a hundred 
 years ago. 
 
 185 
 
CHAPTER XxXI 
 ON LAKE TITICACA 
 
 AKE a seat in the airplane of your imagination 
 
 and point its nose toward the sky. Guide yourself 
 
 straight upward until you are almost three miles 
 
 above the level of the sea. Then fly about four 
 thousand miles to the south, crossing the Gulf of Mexico 
 and the Caribbean Sea, and passing high above the peaks 
 of the Andes of Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru. Descend 
 only a few hundred feet, and you are on the shores of Lake 
 Titicaca, which lies between Peru and Bolivia. It is the 
 highest steam-navigated body of water on earth. 
 
 You are as far up in the air as the top of Fujiyama, 
 Japan, and about twice as high as Mount Mitchell. You 
 are on the shores of an inland sea about half as large as 
 Lake Erie, and not far from a snow-clad wall of extinct 
 volcanoes. Much of the high plateau that borders the 
 lake is thirteen thousand feet above sea level, and the 
 elevation of the lake itself is more than twelve thousand 
 feet. As I stand here on its shores at Guaqui, Bolivia, 
 I seem to be on the very roof of the world. 
 
 Guaqui is at the southern end of Lake Titicaca, not far 
 from where the Desaguadero River flows from Titicaca 
 into Lake Pampa Aullagas, or, as it is usually known, Lake 
 Poopo, about a hundred miles to the southeast. These 
 two lakes drain a large part of the Andean plateau. The 
 region has a plentiful rainfall, but most of the water comes 
 
 186 
 
 iret et i ea 
 
ONDLABRE OITICACA 
 
 from the melting snow and glacial ice of the mountains. 
 Lake Poopo is probably drained by subterranean channels, 
 for although it receives more than two hundred thousand 
 cubic feet of water a minute, it has been proved that only 
 two thousand feet flow out of it in that time. 
 
 One can get little idea of these lofty bodies of water 
 from the encyclopedias and geographies. They are shown 
 on the maps as oval in shape, and the usual descriptions 
 say that Lake Titicaca is from thirty to sixty miles wide 
 and one hundred and thirty miles long. Some authorities 
 state that it covers thirty-six hundred square miles, while 
 others put the area at more than five thousand square 
 miles. The truth is that the lake has never been carefully 
 surveyed. Its bays and arms are as many as the tentacles 
 of an octopus. The two peninsulas of Huata and Copaca- 
 bana stretch out from opposite shores and almost meet, 
 dividing the lake into the two sections called by the In- 
 dians Titicaca and Winamarca. 
 
 On the peninsula of Copacabana is located the shrine 
 of Our Lady of Copacabana. Visitors from all over Peru 
 and Bolivia come here throughout the year, although 
 August 2 and February 2 are considered the most im- 
 portant saints’ days. On those dates the pilgrims arrive 
 in a steady procession and include not only the Indians, 
 but a few wealthy whites as well. 
 
 Titicaca is so deep that in many parts of it bottom has 
 never been reached. In crossing to Guaqui, I went over 
 places nine hundred feet deep, and I was told that near 
 the Island of the Sun a depth of two thousand feet had 
 been found. When stopping at the island the boats have 
 to tie up to the rocks on shore, for at that point the lake 
 is too deep to use anchors. 
 
 187 
 
LANDS OF THE ANDES AND THE DESERT 
 
 | came to Lake Titicaca from Cuzco, riding for two 
 hundred miles over the plain, with mountains towering 
 a mile or more above me. The plateau is so far above the 
 sea that twenty-two Washington Monuments resting one 
 on top of the other would not equal its altitude. The latter 
 part of the trip was over a flat region that once formed 
 a portion of the lake bed, and I crossed many streams 
 that were winding their way down to this inland sea. As 
 I neared Lake Titicaca, the soil became richer, the culti- 
 vated patches increased, and the flocks ] saw were larger. 
 
 Puno, the Peruvian port of the lake, is a town of adobe 
 buildings roofed with galvanized iron and red tile. An 
 American windmill close to the station seemed to wave 
 its arms in welcome to me as I arrived. The train carried 
 me out on the pier to the steamer, on which I embarked 
 for my trip across the lake from Peru to Bolivia. The 
 boats leave Puno twice a week at about seven o’clock in the 
 evening. One steamer calls at points along the shore 
 of the lake, and the other makes a direct run, arriving at 
 Guaqui at nine or ten o’clock the next morning. The 
 four steamers in service are vessels of from nine hundred 
 and fifty to sixteen hundred tons. They have fairly good 
 accommodations for passengers, and my little stateroom 
 was well ventilated and comfortable. The captain and the 
 purser were Peruvians and the sailors Indians. 
 
 These lake boats were made in Europe and sent here 
 knocked down, the parts being brought over the railroad 
 from Mollendo to Puno, where they were assembled. The 
 first boat was put into service on Lake Titicaca before the 
 days of the railroad, and was carried up the mountains in 
 pieces on the backs of men and mules. 
 
 As we steamed away from the pier and out into the lake, 
 
 188 
 
ON LAKE TITICACA 
 
 I stayed on deck to watch the shifting landscape. The 
 skies above Titicaca were extraordinarily beautiful. The 
 clouds rose up from the shores like walls fitting into a vault 
 of heavenly blue, and our ship seemed to be shut off from 
 the rest of the world. The fleecy white masses were blown 
 this way and that by the winds, and the scenes changed 
 every moment. It rained just before sunset, and after- 
 ward a mighty rainbow spanned the lake. As I looked, 
 I thought of the vast treasure vaults of the Andes and 
 the gold that may really have been at the two ends of 
 that rainbow. A little later the blazing god of the Incas 
 dropped below the horizon, painting the sky with a hun- 
 dred tints. The gorgeous colours were reflected in the 
 waters of the lake, and we sailed through a haze of gold, 
 copper, and blue. 
 
 When I arose the next morning the air was so clear that 
 I could see for miles. The islands seemed to float upon 
 the water, looking like blue balloons rising from a sheet 
 of silver rather than the half-submerged summits of the 
 highest mountain chain on our hemisphere. One island 
 rose out of the lake like a gigantic mushroom of blue 
 velvet, and another looked like a huge whale with its head 
 and tail high above the water. 
 
 The sides of most of the islands in Lake Titicaca are 
 covered with Indian huts and patches of potatoes, quinua, 
 and barley. In places the hills are terraced to form great 
 steps above the curving shores. On many of the islands 
 are ruins of the old Inca civilization. I saw the Island of 
 the Sun, or as it is now called, Titicaca, where, according to 
 the legend, Manco Ccapac and his sister-wife were set 
 down upon earth. The rock where these two Incas landed 
 as they dropped from the sky was more sacred to the Incas 
 
 189 
 
LANDS OF THE ANDES AND THE DESERT 
 
 than Plymouth Rock is to us, and it is still pointed out by 
 the Indians. It is said to have been plated with gold and 
 kept covered with a veil, and the temples about it were 
 decorated with gold. Some authorities say that the name 
 “Titicaca”? comes from the Aymara word, “Inticarca,” 
 meaning cliff or rock of the sun. On this island, about two 
 hundred feet above the level of the lake, is a large spring 
 known as the ‘“‘bath of the Incas.” Leading from it to 
 the shore is a rough stone stairway along which the water 
 runs in a cascading stream bordered by flowers and a few 
 overhanging trees. 
 
 The Indians still look with reverence upon the Island 
 of the Sun. They once thought that a crop grown upon 
 it was blessed by their deity, and the grain raised there was 
 considered so precious that it sanctified and preserved all 
 others. Therefore, it was carried about over the country, 
 and small portions of it were put in the public storehouses. 
 It was said that a man whose granary contained even one 
 kernel of the sacred Titicaca Island grain would never 
 lack for food. The island is now the farm of a wealthy 
 Bolivian. 
 
 About six miles from the Island of the Sun is Coati, or 
 the Island of the Moon, which was supposed to have been 
 the wife of the sun. The Incas built there a great convent 
 for the vestal virgins. According to tradition, none could 
 be admitted to it except maidens of royal descent who 
 from their earliest youth had been trained for that service. 
 As the girls reached maturity they were obliged to take an 
 oath of perpetual seclusion. Some of the records say 
 that not even the emperor was admitted to see them, but 
 others allege that they were his secondary wives—in other 
 words, his concubines. 
 
 190 
 
Lying two miles above sea level Lake Titicaca is the highest steam navi- 
 gated body of water in the world. On two of its islands, sacred to the sun 
 and the moon, the Incas built temples and convents. 
 
; 
 ; 
 \ 
 ‘ 
 i 
 : 
 
 The native craft of Titicaca is the balsa made of bundles of reeds. 
 
 They are practically unsinkable, and when the rushes finally become water- 
 logged, the Indians cut fresh ones and build another boat. 
 
ON LAKE TITICACA 
 
 The ruins of the convent show the traces of many rooms 
 surrounding acourt. The building was erected high above 
 a series of terraces, the stones in the walls of which were 
 put together without cement. They areas perfectly joined 
 as those in the fortifications of Sacsahuaman or in the 
 temples of Cuzco. 
 
 In going back and forth between these islands and the 
 mainland the Indians use boats that are exactly the same 
 as those they had when the Spaniards conquered the 
 country. These boats, called balsas, are made of tall 
 reeds that grow in the lake near the shore. The Indians 
 cut off the reeds with a knife on the end of a long pole, and 
 bind them into rolls or bundles fifteen or twenty feet long. 
 These are then sewed or tied together with strings of 
 long grass and form the sides and bottoms of the boats. 
 
 The balsas are shaped likea canoe. They are beautifully 
 curved, and their sides are made so that they extend out 
 at the top to keep the water from splashing in. Many of 
 them are so large that donkeys, llamas, and mules are 
 ferried in them along the shore and even across the lake 
 from one side to the other. The boats are driven by sails 
 also made of reeds, or are pushed through the shallows by 
 poles from ten to twenty feet long. When in deep water 
 and there is no wind stirring, the Indians use the poles as 
 paddles. The balsas are practically unsinkable, which is 
 fortunate for their Indian passengers. Because of the 
 extreme coldness of the waters of the lake, these natives 
 almost never learn to swim. 
 
 The balsa reeds have a cellular pith, like the stem of the 
 banana. They are light when dry, but after they have 
 been in use about six months they become water-soaked. 
 The boats are then no longer safe, and are torn to pieces. 
 
 IQ! 
 
LANDS OF THE ANDES AND THE DESERT 
 
 The reeds are dried and put into further service as roofing 
 on the Indian huts. They are used also for making ropes 
 and baskets, and are almost as important to the Titicacans 
 as the bamboo is to the Chinese. 
 
 Many of the Indians spend almost all their time in their 
 balsas, carrying freight from place to place, or fishing in 
 the waters of the lake. Titicaca has two varieties of fish 
 that are especially good to eat. One swims in great 
 schools and is caught by the Indians in nets. ‘These fish 
 are cured in ovens built of little boulders gathered from 
 the shores of the lake. The stones are heated until red 
 hot and then piled up in alternate layers with the fish. 
 After the fish are thoroughly baked and dried, they are 
 sent to La Paz and other markets, being eaten chiefly by 
 the poorer classes. Fresh fish also are often seen in the 
 markets. 
 
 Titicaca has no fish game enough to attract sportsmen. 
 Several years ago a movement was started to stock the 
 lake with trout, whitefish, and salmon from the United 
 States, but it was finally decided that those varieties 
 would not thrive here. 
 
 It seems strange to think of fishing and hunting in these 
 bleak regions of the high Andes. Nevertheless, I am told 
 that millions of ducks nest near Titicaca and Poopo, and 
 I know I saw thousands from the deck of my steamer. 
 There were teal, snipe, mud hens, and several other varie- 
 ties of wild fowl, all so near that I could have shot them 
 with my revolver. One of the chief shooting grounds of 
 the country is at the mouth of the Desaguadero River, 
 and I am told that hunting parties of Americans from La 
 Paz often bring down hundreds of ducks in one trip. 
 
 Lake Titicaca is the halfway station on one of the high- 
 
 192 
 
ON LAKE TITICACA 
 
 roads of traffic from the Pacific to the capital of Bolivia. 
 On the wharves of Guaqui are piles of Oregon pine lumber, 
 and our lake steamer carried also American-made flour, 
 mining machinery, and rolls of paper for the dailies of La 
 Paz, together with the boiler of a railroad locomotive. 
 The purser of the boat tells me that there is always plenty 
 of cargo for the steamers, and that during his last trip he 
 took one hundred and twenty thousand pounds of tin 
 from Guaqui to Puno. Since the opening of the railway 
 from La Paz to the port of Arica on the Pacific coast, 
 more than half the freight into Bolivia has been carried 
 over that line. 
 
 193 
 
CHAPTER XXII 
 
 THE TIBET OF SOUTH AMERICA 
 
 HAVE come to a city that is the highest national 
 
 capital in the world and the commercial centre of a 
 
 region that can be compared only to Tibet in Asia. | 
 
 am almost two and a half miles above the sea, and 
 from my hotel window | can see the perpetual snows of 
 Mount Illimani, which towers about nine thousand feet 
 higher. Although one of the loftiest mountains of this 
 hemisphere, Illimani is not really a peak, but rather a 
 vast mountain mass that is impressive because of its 
 enormous height and bulk. It has four separate peaks, all 
 of which are eternally capped with white, giving this 
 Andean giant its name, which means “Snow Mountain.” 
 Among these peaks, at an altitude of almost sixteen 
 thousand feet, is a little lake, and on their slopes glaciers 
 are always slowly creeping downward. 
 
 When | first visited La Paz in 1898, I crossed the plains 
 between here and Lake Titicaca on a stage drawn by eight 
 mules. The teams were changed every three hours and 
 we made most of the forty-five-mile ride at a gallop. On 
 this trip I came to the Bolivian capital by rail, boarding 
 the train at Guaqui. That port is a town of mud and 
 galvanized iron buildings. It 1s scattered over a large 
 area, and looks somewhat like the desert towns I have 
 seen in Arizona and Nevada. I ate my dinner in the 
 Grand Hotel Guaqui, the meal beginning with chupe, a 
 
 194 
 
THE TIBET OF SOUTH AMERICA 
 
 greasy soup with vegetables and a great chunk of meat 
 floating in it. There was also fish from Lake Titicaca, 
 beefsteak, and a concoction of potatoes that contained so 
 much pepper that my mouth still burns when I think of it. 
 
 Leaving Guaqui, I rode in a comfortable train across a 
 region that is bare and bleak in the extreme, although it is 
 almost in the shadow of the great Sorata range, the 
 grandeur of which is beyond description. The trip takes 
 three hours, but at the end of that time | could still see no 
 sign of a city. Suddenly the train stopped at the very 
 brink of a great precipice, and there was La Paz spread out 
 far below me. 
 
 The city lies in a mighty hollow in the plateau away 
 up here on the roof of the world. Its site is shaped like 
 a giant letter U, three miles wide and about ten miles long. 
 This natural bowl is supposed to have been a depression in 
 the bed of the great inland sea that once covered the 
 plateau. Then, scientists say, the earth rose and the water 
 ran out at the crack through which the Chuquiyapu or La 
 Paz River now flows, leaving the great basin shut in by 
 its giant ramparts. Cultivated patches now extend far 
 up the sides of the basin, and at the bottom are the two- 
 and three-story houses roofed with red tiles and galvanized 
 iron, the great churches and public buildings, the wide 
 plazas and narrow streets, that make up the city of La 
 Paz. 
 
 I have climbed the walls of Jerusalem, and have tramped 
 for miles about the Great Wall of China. They were 
 made by man, and neither is more than fifty feet in height. 
 The walls of La Paz were made by God and are thirty 
 times higher. They extend upward from the city for a 
 distance three times the height of the Washington Monu- 
 
 195 
 
LANDS OF THE ANDES AND THE DESERT 
 
 ment, ending in a plateau that is more than thirteen thou- 
 sand feet above the level of the Pacific Ocean. 
 
 From the little station on the edge of the basin I rode 
 down the sides of the walls on an electric trolley, zigzagging 
 this way and that in great winding curves. Here the cars 
 flew around a loop, and there they cut a figure 8, while 
 farther on | could see a half-dozen different levels of track 
 above and below me. As I descended, the city seemed to 
 grow larger, and the houses, which had looked like toys 
 when viewed from above, became of normal size. I could 
 soon distinguish the streets and the buildings about the 
 great central plaza. At the same time I began to notice 
 the people, most of them dressed in the bright hues that 
 transform the thoroughfares of La Paz into a maze of 
 waving ribbons and make the city one of the most colour- 
 ful in South America. 
 
 La Paz was founded by the Spaniards in 1545 on the 
 site of a former Indian village where the natives had been 
 washing gold from the river for many years. It is now 
 the capital of a country that, since even before its national 
 existence, has been again and again in the throes of war- 
 fare with outside powers and the scene of internal revolu- 
 tions. It is only within recent years that the republic 
 has had freedom from disturbances long enough for it to 
 develop its great resources by modern means and to 
 establish railway connection with the outside world. 
 
 Bolivia was originally a part of the viceroyalty of Peru, 
 and later was under the rule of the government at Buenos 
 Aires. It owes its national independence in a large 
 measure to the George Washington of South America, 
 Simon Bolivar, for whom it was named when it declared 
 itself a republic. Bolivar was a Venezuelan who, during 
 
 196 
 
THE TIBET OF SOUTH AMERICA 
 
 a visit to the United States in 1809, was greatly impressed 
 
 - with our then new government, and returned to South 
 
 America determined to free his country from Spanish rule. 
 After ten years of alternate victory and defeat on his part 
 his efforts were finally successful, and in 1819 he was made 
 the first president of the new republic of Colombia, which 
 contained the former royal colonies of Venezuela and 
 New Granada. 
 
 In 1822 Bolivar was called to help the Peruvians in their 
 fight for independence, and two years afterward was 
 named dictator of Peru. Later the present republic of 
 Bolivia was formed. Fora long time Bolivar had absolute 
 control over Colombia, Peru, and Bolivia, and there has 
 never been any proof that he ever used any of the govern- 
 ment resources for his private gain, or that he was ever 
 insincere in his work for liberty in South America. How- 
 ever, dissatisfaction with his exercise of power arose, and 
 he was finally forced to resign, dying shortly thereafter. 
 
 Bolivia to-day is probably the third largest of the 
 South American republics. As its boundaries have never 
 been exactly determined, estimates of its area range 
 from five hundred thousand to more than seven hundred 
 thousand square miles. It is one fourth as large as the 
 main body of the United States and six times the size of 
 Great Britain and Ireland. The republic extends from 
 north to south as far as from Canada to the Gulf of Mexico, 
 and it is almost as wide as the distance from New York to 
 Detroit. Nevertheless, practically the only part of the 
 country known to the outside world is the plateau, which 
 is important chiefly for its minerals. It is a mighty 
 treasure vault containing vast deposits of tin, silver, 
 copper, tungsten, and bismuth. 
 
 197 
 
LANDS OF THE ANDES AND THE DESERT 
 
 As the rugged chain of the Andes comes down into 
 Bolivia from Peru, it divides into two great branches, be- 
 tween which lies this high table-land. Only ninety miles 
 inland from the Pacific, it has an average elevation of 
 more than thirteen thousand feet above the level of that 
 ocean. From north to south it is about four hundred 
 miles long and from east to west a hundred miles wide. 
 The Bolivian plateau is so large that eight states the size of 
 Massachusetts could be laid down upon it without touching 
 the slopes of the mighty peaks that skirt its edges. There 
 are large areas of flat country broken at intervals by 
 smaller ranges. Higher than the Peruvian plateau, this 
 table-land is also colder, and has practically no trees upon 
 it, although much of it is covered with scrubby bushes 
 and grass upon which alpacas and llamas feed. The winds 
 that sweep over it are extremely biting. Indeed, to pro- 
 tect my face from the intense cold | often have to wear 
 a sort of knitted helmet of alpaca wool, covering my whole 
 head except my eyes and mouth. | 
 
 Bordering the plateau on the east are the mountains of 
 the Cordillera Real, which contain some of the highest 
 peaks in the New World. It is walled in on the west 
 by the Cordillera Occidental, where Sajama, the monarch 
 of that range, and the snow-clad peaks of Pomarapi, 
 Parinacota, and Huallatiri all tower more than twenty 
 thousand feet into the sky. In fact, Bolivia has more high 
 mountains than any other country outside Asia. Within 
 its borders are more than a dozen that approximate four 
 miles in height, to say nothing of this great table-land, 
 twice as far up in the air as the plateaus of the Rockies. 
 
 At the edge of the plateau the land slopes steeply down- 
 ward, and many mountains that are capped by eternal 
 
 198 
 
La Paz is the world’s highest capital, and behind it is Illimani, one of 
 the loftiest mountains in all the Andes, 20,800 feet above the sea. The 
 city is the commercial centre of Bolivia, as well as the seat of govern- 
 ment. 
 
Sheltered within the walls of a rocky gorge fifteen hundred feet 
 deep, La Paz has succeeded in coaxing a few trees to grow on the Alameda, 
 one of the principal residential streets. 
 
THE TIBET OF SOUTH AMERICA 
 
 snows have at their feet all the fruits of the tropics. 
 Travelling on horse- or mule-back, one can descend between 
 daybreak and sunset from a glacial mountain pass fifteen 
 thousand feet high to a land of flourishing orange groves. 
 Indeed, dropping down a mile in this part of the world 
 brings climatic changes equivalent to those of a journey 
 two thousand miles to the north of the Equator or two 
 thousand miles to the south. 
 
 On the eastern slopes of the Cordillera Real, not far 
 from La Paz, is a district of fertile valleys known as the 
 Yungas. That region has a semi-tropical climate and a 
 heavy rainfall, and is covered with luxuriant vegetation, 
 including plantations of coca, coffee, corn, sisal, and 
 sugar cane. Most of the cane is used for the manufacture 
 of alcohol. There are groves of English walnuts, as well 
 as of oranges, bananas, peaches, apples, and pears. 
 Practically all the fruit of the La Paz markets comes from 
 the Yungas, being brought in on the backs of Indians or 
 on mules. On some days as many as five thousand mules 
 and burros go over the trail to the capital. A railway is 
 now being built from La Paz over one of the highest 
 mountain passes of the world and thence down into the 
 Yungas. It is one of a network of lines that are planned to 
 connect the plateau with the lowlands and the surrounding 
 republics. 
 
 Until recent years, Bolivia has been almost a hermit 
 country. Lying in the middle of the South American 
 continent, it is separated from the Pacific Ocean by the 
 mountains and the coastal desert, and from the Atlantic 
 by the almost unexplored regions east of the plateau. 
 It has no seaport, and until within the last generation it 
 had no railway connections with the rest of the continent. 
 
 199 
 
LANDS OF THE ANDES AND THE DESERT 
 
 Even to-day most of its fertile lands on the eastern slope 
 of the Andes are practically unknown. 
 
 Considering the extent of its productive area, ‘Bolivia 
 is one of the most thinly settled countries on earth. It 
 has an average of only three or four people to the square 
 mile. Its entire population is less than that of the city of 
 Chicago, and there are not as many whites living here as 
 in Columbus, Ohio. Most of the Bolivians are on the pla- 
 teau. In fact, eighty per cent. of them live two miles 
 above sea level, and as many as sixty per cent. have their 
 homes at an elevation of twelve thousand feet or higher. 
 The majority of the people are Indians, who work for the 
 whites and the mixed breeds. | 
 
 Bolivia has no large cities. La Paz has perhaps a 
 hundred thousand inhabitants, and Cochabamba, the next 
 largest town, has only about one third as many, notwith- 
 standing the fact that it is located in one of the most fertile 
 valleys of all South America. It is the chief distributing 
 point for all of eastern Bolivia, and has grown steadily in 
 importance since it has been reached by a railway. Sucre 
 has less than thirty thousand people, and the mining 
 centres of Potosf and Oruro still less. 
 
 Although it is a country almost without cities, Bolivia 
 has two capitals. The legal capital is Sucre, about three 
 hundred miles southeast of here, which 1s the seat of the 
 supreme court and of the archbishopric. It was at Sucre 
 that Bolivian independence from Spain was proclaimed in 
 1825. The city, which had been founded in 1536 as La 
 Plata, was then renamed in honour of General Sucre, the 
 first president of the republic. Sucre is the Boston of 
 Bolivia. It has more of an atmosphere of culture and 
 education and less of commercialism than the other towns 
 
 200 
 
———E—CSS—S— 
 
 THE TIBE I OR SOUTHVAMERICA 
 
 of the country. Its lower altitude gives it a pleasant 
 climate and makes it a favourite residence of wealthy 
 retired plantation and mine owners. Even in colonial 
 days many of the rich men of Potosi had their residences 
 here, and many features of the old Spanish architecture are 
 yet to be seen in its homes and public buildings. The 
 city still contains the former legislative and government 
 palaces, and has a university and many churches. The 
 Metropolitan Cathedral is probably the wealthiest in 
 Bolivia, its Virgin of Guadalupe being an image of solid 
 gold adorned with precious jewels, and said to be worth 
 more than a million dollars. 
 
 Later, the actual seat of government was changed to La 
 Paz, which is the chief commercial city of the country, and 
 more accessible to the rest of South America. It is here 
 that the president, the national officials, and the foreign 
 diplomats live, where congress meets, and where the real 
 work of the administration is done. 
 
 The President is the big man of Bolivia, and is at the 
 head of a government that in form is somewhat like that of 
 the United States. Besides the chief executive and his 
 cabinet, there are judicial and legislative branches, the 
 latter composed of a senate and a chamber of deputies, 
 nominally elected by the people. There are a number of 
 provinces and departments administered by prefects and 
 sub-prefects appointed by the federal government. The 
 capital of each department has its municipal council, 
 and the subdivisions have municipal boards. The ter- 
 ritories in the northern part of the republic and in the Gran 
 Chaco, on the border of Paraguay, are governed by dele- 
 gates. 
 
 201 
 
CHAPTER XXIII 
 SUNDAY IN LA PAZ 
 
 ET us go this morning for a stroll about La Paz, to 
 see how the Bolivians spend the Sabbath. Dur- 
 ing the week the city has a population of perhaps 
 one hundred thousand. On Sunday this num- 
 
 ber is increased by thousands of Aymara Indians from the 
 surrounding country. Whole families come en masse, 
 many travelling forty or fifty miles or more. They choose 
 Sunday as their one and only trading day of the week, 
 selling the products they have carried in on their backs, 
 and making all their purchases at that time. A visit to 
 the market will show us the real La Paz better than any- 
 thing else could do. 
 
 We leave our hotel on the plaza in the centre of the city 
 and walk past the police station and down the hillto Market 
 Street. The sidewalks are filled with buyers and sellers, 
 and we pick our way in and out among this mass of hu- 
 manity for three blocks before we reach a living cross of 
 all the hues of the rainbow. The Plaza San Francisco 
 and the intersecting streets are filled with people moving 
 to and fro, the whole making a kaleidoscopic picture such 
 as can be seen nowhere else on earth. 
 
 I have visited most of the great market places of the 
 world. [| have haggled over prices in Calcutta, Bombay, 
 and Benares. I have dickered with the Orientals in Cairo 
 and Tunis and with the Slavs at the great fair of Nijni 
 
 202 
 
SUNDAY IN LA PAZ 
 
 Novgorod on the Volga. I have seen the open-air markets 
 of Africa and the mighty bazaars of Siam and Burma, but 
 nowhere have I found so much colour and brightness as 
 right here in La Paz. It dazzles the eyes with a dozen 
 different hues to Cairo’s one, and the costumes of Calcutta 
 would seem plain and dull beside those we see here. 
 
 The Indians are dressed in the gayest of red, yellow, 
 purple, and green. Grown-ups and children have practi- 
 cally the same costume, and even the babies are clad like 
 their parents. The men and boys wear ponchos, em- 
 broidered vests, and pantaloons that reach halfway down 
 the calf and are slit up to the knees at the back. A piece 
 of white cotton is sewed inside the trouser legs, so that 
 they may be more easily rolled up when the Indian crosses 
 a stream. Many of the men are barefooted, and some 
 wear leather sandals tied on with strings. Practically all 
 of them have on little felt hats with round crowns, under 
 which are knit caps with earlaps. It is said that the 
 Aymara wears his cap day and night, throughout winter 
 and summer, taking it off only when it falls to pieces. 
 The Indian women wear hats like the men’s, and their 
 petticoats rival in gaudiness the ponchos and blankets we 
 See: 
 
 While most of the clothing of the Indians is made of 
 wool that has been spun and woven by the women and 
 children, much of the material for making ponchos has 
 come from Germany in recent years. Trade agents from 
 that country make a careful study of the wants of the 
 natives, and the manufactured goods, made with a knowl- 
 edge of the Aymara’s love for bright colours, find a ready 
 market. 
 
 What a lot of babies there are all about us! We have 
 
 203 
 
LANDS OF THE ANDES AND THE DESERT 
 
 to pick our way carefully to keep from stepping on them. 
 Some lie on the bare cobblestones and play with the mer- 
 chandise their mothers are selling. Others, too young to 
 crawl, are tied up in shawls on the backs of the women, 
 who go on with their business with apparent disregard of 
 their burdens. There is one peeping out of that red shawl 
 below us. Its face is as brown as a berry and its little 
 black eyes blink at us from under its yellow knitted cap, 
 the earlaps of which stick out like horns on each side of its 
 face. Another baby, a few months older, is being watched 
 by its father, and on the opposite side of the street we see 
 several taking their lunch at their mothers’ breasts. 
 Most of the babies are laughing, and only one or two 
 are crying. Some are pretty, some are ugly, and nearly 
 all are dirty and covered with vermin. We see several 
 whose heads are undergoing an inspection at the hands of 
 the mothers, who eat the product of their search. This 
 condition is not confined to the heads of babies; it is found 
 among both the Indians and the lower class cholos of all 
 ages. Men, women, and children take part in both the 
 hunt and the feast, the rule being that the hunter is en- 
 titled to all the game that he catches, no matter upon 
 whose preserves he is pursuing the chase. In this con- 
 nection I might tell how I carried my poor Spanish with 
 me from store to store in search of a fine-toothed comb, 
 but the experience is too recent and too painful to relate. 
 Mingled with the crowd is a large part of the white 
 population of the Bolivian capital, which has come out to 
 buy and see the sights. We pass women in black with 
 black crépe shawls wound tightly about their olive-skinned 
 faces. Formerly no Bolivian lady of social standing 
 would think of appearing in the market, but that condition 
 204 
 
SUNDAY IN LA PAZ 
 
 is changing, and we see many women dressed in Paris 
 models, who have evidently stopped at the markets on 
 their way home from church. Some are accompanied by 
 men who wear high black hats, black clothes, and black 
 gloves. 
 
 But let us go on with our walk. How quiet itis! There 
 is the hum of conversation and now and then the jangle of 
 bargaining, but though there are thousands here, we hear 
 scarcely a footfall. The bare feet and the leather sandals 
 of the Indians make hardly a sound as their owners pass 
 over the streets. In addition to the crowd on the cobble- 
 stone roadways are two long lines of women merchants 
 sitting on the sidewalks with their vegetables and other 
 products spread out before them. Here is a woman with 
 a little pile of potatoes and two or three artichokes. Close 
 by is another selling onions, and a little farther over a girl 
 has for sale green roasting ears, peas, and lettuce. On the 
 opposite side of the street is a woman who has flour in 
 bags that hold but a half pint, and farther on are peddlers 
 of fruit. Asin the markets of Peru, everything is sold by 
 the pile, and the piles are exceedingly small. There are 
 no weights and measures to tell the buyer how much he is 
 getting. A half-dozen little potatoes, a handful of flour, 
 or a tablespoonful of salt are the usual amounts sold, and 
 one person’s entire purchases for the day could be crowded 
 into a half peck basket. 
 
 Nevertheless, the variety of vegetables and fruits and 
 meats is large, and the quality is especially fine. Bolivia 
 has maize with kernels twice as large as any grown by our 
 farmers. Some, of a bright yellow colour, are as big as 
 my thumb nail. Others are white and so floury that they 
 can be mashed to a powder between two stones. Some 
 
 205 
 
LANDS OF THE ANDES AND THE DESERT 
 
 of the corn is a mulberry colour; other kinds are red, or 
 even jet black. 
 
 In addition to the red, white, and pink potatoes we 
 have already seen in Peru, Bolivia has a number of other 
 varieties. Some, of a grayish yellow colour, will grow on 
 the highest plateaus. They have an acid taste and must 
 be laid out in the sunshine a while before cooking. Others 
 are shaped like dahlia roots and taste somewhat like tur- 
 nips. Nearly every potato seller has chu#io among her 
 wares. It is made in much the same way as that I saw 
 in Peru. Along the Desaguadero River one may see sacks 
 of these potatoes, anchored by long strings to stakes driven 
 into the bank, soaking in the stream before being frozen. 
 The passage of a steamer near one of these submerged 
 sacks is always the signal for an Indian boy to scamper 
 down the bank to stand guard and see that the chuio is not 
 washed away by the waves or broken loose by being caught 
 in the paddle wheels of the boat. 
 
 Strolling onward we see quinua, wheat, barley, and oats, 
 all sold in almost infinitesimal quantities. Next are 
 oranges, apricots, and bananas, sweet and sour lemons, 
 and enormous white grapes. There are alligator pears 
 twice the size of those that are sold in our markets, as well 
 as tunas, the fruit of the cactus. One strange variety of 
 fruit, the chirimoya, looks like a mammoth bean pod. 
 It has a green skin and a pulp that when cold tastes like 
 finely flavoured ice-cream. One woman is selling coffee 
 beans fresh from the grove, and another is peddling sections 
 of sugar cane half as long as my arm. Most of these prod- 
 ucts have been brought by the Indians all the way from 
 the Yungas valleys. 
 
 Among the Indians are many cholos. The women are 
 
 206 
 
It is a forty-mile trip from La Paz to the glaciers of Mount Illimani, 
 though when viewed from the streets of the capital they seem to hang 
 over the city. 
 
 Although Bolivia is a land of the tropics, it is so cold on the high pla- 
 teau that instead of setting up business in a shady spot, the La Paz mar- 
 ket woman seeks a place in the blazing sun. 
 
The well situated chola cook of La Paz could hardly look the world in 
 the face on Sunday without her complete outfit of bright green skirt, 
 gorgeous fringed silk shawl, round derby-like hat, and white kid boots 
 with high heels. 
 
SUNDAY IN LA PAZ 
 
 known as cholas, and cholita is a semi-affectionate term for 
 
 a young girl. The cholo men dress much as we do, but the 
 women and girls cling to the same costumes of generations 
 ago. They delight in bright colours, and seem to have 
 robbed the gorgeous Andean sunsets for the gay hues of 
 their shawls and dresses: Hundreds of them wear skirts 
 of sea green or sky blue, and not a few have short dresses 
 of flaming red. They have shawls of the finest of silk, so 
 draped that they stand out over the skirts. The skirts 
 reach only to the calf of the leg, the plumpness of which ts 
 emphasized by high buttoned shoes of white, cream, or 
 blue kid. This fashionable footgear has high heels and is 
 tied at the top by a cord and tassel. 
 
 The girls wear straw hats that the Americans have most 
 appropriately dubbed “white enamelled derbies.”” These 
 have tiny black bands around the crown and bows on one 
 side. Sometimes the bands seem to be pasted on the hat, 
 and sometimes they are merely streaks of black paint. 
 As the cholita struts along the street on her high heels she 
 wears her hat rakishly tilted forward and walks with a 
 swing. She flirts her skirts to show her green or blue 
 stockings, but often she has no stockings at all, and what 
 looks like hose of rose-coloured silk is really an expanse of 
 bare leg. 3 
 
 The cholas are very proud of their admixture of white 
 blood. They consider themselves superior to their Indian 
 sisters, and look down upon the woman who wears a 
 blanket or sandals. They are more intelligent than the 
 Indians. Many of them own small stores and saloons and 
 carry on much of the retail business of the Bolivian capital. 
 Not a few are the sole support of their families, their 
 husbands often doing nothing but loaf about the streets of 
 | 207 
 
LANDS OF THE ANDES AND THE DESERT 
 
 La Paz, spending the pin money allowed them by their 
 wives. 
 
 Leaving the market and strolling onward, we are jostled 
 by donkey and llama trains, and by Indians as well. 
 Much of the freight of Bolivia is carried on the backs of 
 the natives. When I arrived here my trunks were taken 
 from the depot by Indian cargadores, or porters, who 
 charged me about fifty cents each for carrying two hundred 
 pounds a distance of more than a mile. 
 
 I saw an odd load yesterday. It was a limp bundle about 
 five and a half feet long and perhaps eighteen inches wide, 
 rolled up in a blanket and thrown over a mule so that the 
 ends hung down on each side of the animal’s back. Beside 
 it on another mule rode a policeman, while a crowd of 
 Indian women came wailing behind. The bundle was the 
 body of a woman who had been murdered a few days be- 
 fore for the fifty dollars that she was known to have saved, 
 and the policeman was bringing the corpse and the crim- 
 inals to La Paz. 
 
 Here comes a drove of llamas down a side street. Their 
 heads are in the air, and their ears stand up like those of a 
 fox terrier. They look this way and that, and seem sur- 
 prised at the strange things about them. Every animal 
 is marked or branded in a way that seems partly for identi- 
 fication and partly for ornamentation. Some are splotched 
 with red paint, others have notches or holes cut into their 
 ears, and many have their ears tied with gay ribbons and 
 strings. Each llama has a bag of freight tied on its back 
 with ropes that pass under its belly. They are loaded 
 with faqguia, or dried llama manure, which by nightfall 
 will be distributed among the kitchens of the city as fuel. 
 
 Practically all the cooking of La Paz is donewith this fuel. 
 
 208 
 
SUNDAY IN LA PAZ 
 
 Most of the coal used in the city has to be shipped in from 
 other countries. Coal is known to exist on the Copaca- 
 bana peninsula in Lake Titicaca, along the route of the 
 railway to Arica, and in other parts of the country, but 
 none of the Bolivian deposits has been developed to any 
 extent. Near La Paz, peat beds that cover twenty-five 
 hundred acres are being worked on a small scale. 
 
 The freight rates on coal are so high that it is too expen- 
 sive for ordinary use, and the result is that there is not a fur- 
 nace or hot-water heating plant in the whole city. Several 
 of the wealthy families use electricity for heating purposes, 
 and by paying an extra charge I can have an electric heater 
 in my hotel room until ten o’clock at night. 
 
 During the winter months of June, July, and August the 
 temperature in La Paz often varies fifty or sixty degrees 
 during twenty-four hours, and although one may be com- 
 fortable at noonday in the bright sunshine, after night- 
 fall many of the houses are decidedly chilly. The first 
 stove ever used in La Paz was brought here about thirty 
 years ago by the American minister to Bolivia, and was at 
 first regarded with awe and superstition by the Indians. 
 Even most of the whites at that time considered artificial 
 heat injurious, putting it in a class with moonlight, which 
 was to be avoided by all means. A journey begun ona 
 moonlight night was certain to end in misfortune, while not 
 even the most infatuated suitor, it is said, would think of 
 serenading his chosen one beneath a full moon. The 
 moonlight, he firmly believed, would bring on neuralgia if 
 it struck his face, and would cause baldness if his un- 
 covered head were exposed to it. 
 
 Llama manure is burned in small stoves, giving forth 
 but little smoke and no sparks, and can be safely used 
 
 209 
 
LANDS OF THE ANDES AND THE DESERT 
 
 by even the most stupid Indian. La Paz seldom has fires 
 that do any great damage, and, indeed, I am told that only 
 a few buildings have been burned down within the past 
 fifty years. Most of the structures are built of mud 
 bricks, with trimmings of stone, and it would be difficult 
 to set them on fire. Thatched roofs have been forbidden 
 by a city fire protection ordinance. 
 
 I can see great changes in La Paz since my last visit 
 here. The capital has sprung into new life, and it seems 
 to me more enterprising than Lima, although the latter is 
 almost twice as large. New buildings are going up, and 
 masons and carpenters are working everywhere. 
 
 The streets are full of traffic. When I was here before 
 there was not a public cab in the whole city, and you 
 could number the private carriages on your fingers and 
 toes. Now there are taxis and innumerable private 
 automobiles. There is also an electric car line that ex- 
 tends for about two miles down the valley to the suburb of 
 Obrajes. The streets are so narrow that the cars often 
 have to run at one side, and the trolley wire is attached to 
 the walls of the houses. 
 
 La Paz isa city of hills and valleys. The thoroughfares 
 parallel with the river are more or less level, but the cross 
 streets climb up and down, and the altitude is so great that 
 one unaccustomed to it can walk but a very few steps with- 
 out stopping to get his breath. Fat people especially are 
 most uncomfortable, and are wise to avoid exertion as 
 much as possible. I have been told here that cats cannot 
 stand the rarity of the atmosphere of La Paz, as they go 
 into convulsions and die. I was ready to accept this 
 statement as true, particularly as I could not remember 
 ever having seen a cat here—or of having my midnight 
 
 210 
 
 ae 
 
Taking a walk in La Paz means more than at home, for climbing the 
 steep streets in the thin air of twelve thousand feet altitude may cause the 
 stranger to suffer palpitation of the heart, headache, or nausea. 
 
High up above the Bolivian capital is the chief cemetery of the city. 
 It consists of a series of wall-like structures, divided into rows and tiers 
 of niches, in which the coffins are placed. 
 
SUNDAY IN LA PAZ 
 
 slumbers disturbed by feline yowlings. When I men- 
 tioned this fact one day to an American who has lived in 
 Bolivia for several years, he agreed that La Paz was seem- 
 ingly catless, but attributed the condition, not to the at- 
 mosphere, but to the natives’ taste for stewed cat as a 
 table delicacy. 
 
 The use of automobiles in La Paz has brought a demand 
 for better highways, and the rough cobbles of the more 
 level streets have been covered with crushed stone. On 
 the steep thoroughfares, however, the cobblestones afford 
 a foothold for the llamas and donkeys, as well as for the 
 human beasts of burden we see 
 
 Within the past two decades La Paz has practically 
 doubled in size. It has spread out to the edge of its basin 
 and has begun to extend down the valley. In the centre 
 of the city is the beautiful Plaza Murillo, filled with shrubs, 
 flowers, and trees. It was named for the Bolivian patriot 
 who was executed there by the Spaniards in 1810. Onone 
 side of this plaza is the Capitol, and on another side is the 
 executive mansion, where I called upon the President. 
 It is a handsome building, beautifully finished inside. I 
 went up a staircase of the purest white marble from the 
 quarries of the Desaguadero River, and the magnificent 
 parlour in which I was received was decorated with 
 statues and paintings. 
 
 Next to the President’s palace is the unfinished La Paz 
 cathedral, which is planned to seat twelve thousand people. 
 It has been in the course of construction since the founda- 
 tions were laid in 1843, parts of it having been torn down 
 and rebuilt again and again. Skilled craftsmen were 
 brought from Europe to instruct the Indian workmen in 
 cutting and polishing the stone used in the building, the 
 
 211 
 
LANDS OF THE ANDES AND THE DESERT 
 
 natives proving surprisingly apt pupils. The altar is 
 to be of native marble from the quarries not far from La 
 Paz. The cathedral is being put up by funds obtained 
 from a tax upon all the goods brought across Lake Titi- 
 caca, which is to be in force as long as the work of building 
 goes on. There are some unkind skeptics who allege that 
 the cathedral will never be completed, as the contractors 
 are desirous of continuing the receipts from these imports. 
 
 Although some of the older stores of La Paz are not un- 
 like those I saw in Cuzco, there are large business buildings 
 that would be a credit to any city of the same size in the 
 United States. Many of the stores that formerly were 
 mere caves in the walls have put in plate-glass windows, 
 ‘and are displaying modern merchandise. As the plateau 
 is chiefly a mining region and manufacturing is but little 
 developed, most of the necessities of life must be imported, 
 and consequently prices are high. | saw athletic goods for 
 sale, and Jearned that there are golf links on the heights 
 above La Paz. There are several tennis courts in the 
 city, and the first baseball game in Bolivia was played 
 here on July 4, 1920, between two teams recruited from 
 the American colony. 
 
 Homes of modern type are beginning to make their 
 appearance in La Paz, and bathrooms and up-to-date 
 plumbing are no longer the rarity they were a few years 
 ago. On the outskirts of the city are many fine residences, 
 some of them of the French villa and Swiss chalet type. 
 They are of two stories with very high ceilings, and are 
 made of brick covered with bright-coloured stucco. Other 
 residences are of Spanish architecture, surrounding patios 
 in which are fountains and trees and beautiful flowers. 
 Such buildings are found in the heart of the city, and from 
 
 212 
 
 4 
 = Pe ———— 
 
SUNDAY IN LA PAZ 
 
 the streets the passer-by can look in through the front doors 
 and catch a glimpse of the gardens within. In some houses 
 the patios are used as storehouses and stables for the 
 donkeys and the llamas that bring in the crops from the 
 country estates of their owners. Many of the business 
 buildings were once residences, and their patios are now 
 filled with packing boxes. 
 
 One thing that adds to the brightness of the Bolivian 
 capital is a law that requires every man to paint his house 
 front at least once a year. The annual painting season 
 was not long ago, and just now everything is spick and 
 span with gay colours. Another city provision is that 
 every one must each day sweep the streets in front of his 
 house. 
 
 213 
 
CHAPTER XXIV 
 
 THE FIRST CITY IN AMERICA 
 
 N THE high plateau of Bolivia, not far from 
 
 La Paz, are the remains of a prehistoric city 
 
 that scientists say is probably the oldest in all 
 
 America. It antedates Machu-Picchu in Peru 
 
 by thousands of years, its origin having been long forgotten 
 
 when the Inca Empire was founded. The time of its build- 
 
 ing has never been exactly fixed, but the pottery, relics of 
 
 gold and copper, and the skeletons of human beings taken 
 
 from its ruins lead to the supposition that it was in exist- 
 
 ence two thousand years or more before the first stones of 
 the pyramids were laid down in Egypt. 
 
 This ancient city is known as Tiahuanaco, and the ruins 
 are only a half mile from the Indian village of that name. 
 They are twelve miles from Lake Titicaca, but the remains 
 of stone piers indicate that when the city was built it was 
 directly on the shores of the lake. Most authorities say the 
 ruins are those of a mighty city, but others claim that 
 Tiahuanaco was merely a place of worship and a sanctuary. 
 It is true that at its present elevation this region is too cold 
 and bleak to support a large population. That fact has 
 led to the general belief that in the far-distant ages when 
 Tiahuanaco was built this part of the plateau had a much 
 lower altitude and consequently a warmer climate. 
 
 I stopped at Tiahuanaco on my way across the plateau 
 from Guaqui to La Paz. As at most of these plateau 
 
 214 
 
At the time of the Spanish conquest the Incas had forgotten, if they 
 ever knew, the origin of the buildings at Tiahuanaco, believed to be the 
 oldest ruins in the Americas, and more ancient than the pyramids in 
 
 Egypt. 
 
For centuries the ruins at Tiahuanaco have served as quarries, five 
 hundred trainloads of cut stone having been used for railroad bridges 
 alone. Here an Indian has put together an ancient doorway and built his 
 mud hut around it. 
 
THE FIRST CITY IN AMERICA 
 
 towns, I was besieged at the station by Indians and cholas 
 selling eggs, meat, and food, as well as by a horde of 
 children and grown-ups offering me souvenirs. Knowing 
 that visitors to Tiahuanaco are interested in the ruins 
 chiefly because of their great age, the natives try to sell 
 tourists ordinary pebbles and bits of stone—in fact, any 
 kind of article they can find—blandly stating that they 
 are ‘‘antiques’”’ thousands of years old. 
 
 The village consists of mud huts, many with doorways of 
 beautifully carved stone that has been brought from the 
 ruins and set into the walls. On some of the thatched 
 roofs are wooden crosses which, with the Indians, have 
 taken the place of the sun god symbol. The town has a 
 Catholic church built partly of beautifully cut stones 
 taken from the ruins of the ancient city. In front of itisa 
 cross on a pedestal made of such stones, and on each side 
 of the gateway that leads into the church are carved idols. 
 These also came from old Tiahuanaco, whose people wor- 
 shipped we know not what. 
 
 The ruins are scattered over a broad level plain, with 
 an area equal to about a dozen one-hundred-and-sixty- 
 acre farms. There is nothing to be seen on any side ex- 
 cept the mud huts of the Indians and the alpacas, llamas, 
 and sheep shepherded by Aymara women who spin or 
 knit as they watch their flocks. Between the fallen 
 pillars and blocks of stone a few scrawny pigs run grunting 
 and squealing. In the distance towers the high wall of 
 the Andes. 
 
 Most of the ruins of Tiahuanaco have been carried 
 away. Only the mighty pillars scattered here and there, 
 the carved stones from the old buildings, and the remains 
 of massive walls and terraced mounds indicate the wonders 
 
 215 
 
LANDS OF THE ANDES AND THE DESERT | 
 
 of the past. Some stones are half buried, and others rise 
 above the tufts of grass and the scanty shrubbery. Traces 
 can be seen of five great structures, which scientists know 
 as the fortress, the temple, the palace, the hall of justice, 
 and the sanctuary. The temple was a rectangle 455 feet 
 long and 388 feet wide. Its outlines are marked by mas- 
 sive blocks of red sandstone, some of which are still erect. 
 They evidently formed part of a rough wall that supported 
 a platform of earth rising eight feet above the surrounding 
 plain. On the eastern side of this platform was a lower 
 terrace along the edge of which were ten great stone 
 pilasters ranging from nine to fourteen feet in height and 
 from two to four feet wide. Nine of them are still stand- 
 ing to-day. The fortress, which also was built in terraces, 
 was even larger than the temple, measuring 620 feet long, 
 450 feet wide, and 50 feet high. 
 
 One of the most striking of the ruins is a great doorway 
 eighteen inches thick, seven feet high, and thirteen feet 
 long, cut out of trachyte, a light-coloured volcanic rock. 
 The opening through its centre is four and a half feet high 
 and almost three feet in width. Above it the stone is 
 covered with beautiful carvings that remind me of those 
 I have seen in the ancient temples of Egypt. Some of the 
 figures hold sceptres and some have crowns on their heads. 
 They have human bodies, feet, and hands, but often the 
 heads of condors. The central one, in especially high re- 
 lief, is supposed to have represented Pachacamac, be- 
 lieved by some of the Indians to have been the creator of 
 the universe. This doorway has been broken across the 
 top, either by earthquake or lightning. Visitors to 
 Tiahuanaco during the middle of the last century say that 
 it was lying on the ground, but later it was found to be 
 
 216 
 
 ae; 
 
 CO OD iS Ee ARIS BERL hs 8 
 
THE FIRST - CIpy IN AMERICA 
 
 standing upright again, although there is no record of who 
 raised it. Another doorway, not so large, has been 
 carried away from the ruins to a cemetery halfway be- 
 tween here and the village. 
 
 There are many other enormous stone blocks larger 
 than any | have seen elsewhere in the world outside 
 Cuzco or Egypt. I saw one thirty-six feet long and seven 
 feet wide, and another twenty-six feet long, sixteen feet 
 wide, and six feet thick. Some of the blocks are sandstone 
 and others trachyte, the latter beautifully carved and 
 polished. How they were transported here in the dim 
 prehistoric ages when Tiahuanaco was built probably will 
 always be a matter of conjecture, as to-day rocks of this 
 size are found only at long distances from here. 
 
 Among the most remarkable features of the ruins are 
 the stone idols that have been dug out of the ground and 
 stood upright. Some of these idols are of gigantic size. 
 Their bodies are so large around that I cannot encircle 
 them with my two arms, and they are more than eight 
 feet in height. The faces have thick lips, and the heads 
 are so cut that they would be a delight to our modern 
 Cubists. They are all angles, even to the eyes, the noses, 
 and the lips. Their features are now sadly mutilated, 
 however, due in great part to the idols being used as rifle 
 targets by Bolivian youths passing through here. 
 
 Many of the excavations at Tiahuanaco were made 
 known to the outside world by Ephraim George Squier, 
 who came to Peru more than a half century ago as a 
 special commissioner from the United States and described 
 these ruins in his book, ‘‘ Incidents of Travel in the Land 
 of the Incas.’”” When I was first in Bolivia, more than 
 twenty-five years ago, | went over Squier’s discoveries 
 
 Bly 
 
LANDS OF THE ANDES AND THE DESERT 
 
 with Professor Adolph Bandelier, who was then here for 
 the American Museum of Natural History, and who said 
 that Squier’s deductions as to the age of this city were in 
 the main correct. Squier was told by the Indians that 
 there were large vaults beneath the temple, and that an 
 underground passage led from here to Cuzco. He dug 
 under the foundations but foundneither vaults nor passage. 
 More recently, further discoveries were made by Dr. 
 Otto Buchtein, the director of the National Museum at 
 La Paz. He unearthed many interesting ruins not far 
 from the temple, and others elsewhere on the plain. 
 
 I have visited the National Museum at La Paz, which 
 now contains many of the objects found at Tiahuanaco. 
 Some of the smaller idols have been taken there, as well 
 as several other stone figures and numerous pieces of 
 pottery. The director of the museum believes that the 
 pottery dates back to eight thousand years ago, or to more 
 than six thousand years before Christ. If he is correct, 
 these are the oldest records of civilization now in exist- 
 ence. He tells me that he does not think that Tiahuanaco 
 was a city of the red race, but of a white race that in- 
 habited this part of the Andes in prehistoric times. In 
 this idea he is not alone. 
 
 Others have expressed the belief that the Bolivian 
 plateau was once inhabited by the ancient Pheenicians, 
 and that the gold of Ophir came from the Andes. The 
 Bible states that the ships were three years in making the 
 journey to the mines. In those ancient times it would 
 certainly have taken as much as three years for a ship to 
 pass out of the Mediterranean through the Strait of Gibral- 
 tar, cross the Atlantic Ocean to the west coast of this con- 
 tinent by way of the Strait of Magellan, and then return. 
 
 218 
 
THE FIRST CITY IN AMERICA 
 
 The verse referred to says they “brought back gold and 
 also almug trees, and ivory, apes, and_ peacocks.” 
 There is no ivory in South America and the peacock comes 
 from India. There are plenty of monkeys in the lowlands 
 of this continent, but as to the almug tree, I know it not. 
 
 The collection of pottery numbers thousands of pieces 
 and fills several rooms. The objects are of all sizes, from 
 vases that will hold three or four gallons to little cups not 
 as large as an eggshell. There are bowls and beautifully 
 shaped terra-cotta cups. Many of the latter are as fine as 
 porcelain and when tapped give forth a similar sound. 
 
 Some of the pottery resembles the Etruscan in its deco- 
 ration, while other pieces are covered with hieroglyphics 
 somewhat like Chinese or Japanese characters. The cups 
 and the bowls shaped like a cat seem to indicate an Egyp- 
 tian origin. They made me think of Bubastis, where the 
 people worshipped the cat in the days of the Pharaohs. 
 That ancient city was situated in the Land of Goshen, not 
 far from the present site of Zagazig, and on the main route 
 from the Holy Land to Egypt. Bubastis had many cat 
 goddesses, the greatest of which was a cat-headed woman. 
 It had a cemetery filled with the mummies of cats, many 
 of which had been incased in coverings of wood or bronze. 
 Among the cat-shaped pots of Tiahuanaco were found 
 skeletons of llamas and vases shaped like the head of the 
 condor, the great vulture-like eagle of the Andes. 
 
 The excavations at Tiahuanaco have also yielded up 
 many implements of stone, gold, copper, and bronze, 
 spoons of terra-cotta, knives of bone, and arrow points of 
 obsidian, a black, glossy, volcanic rock. Bone rings and 
 needles of various kinds have been found, as well as stone 
 pipes drilled out of a rock as hard as quartz. How the 
 
 219 
 
LANDS OF THE ANDES AND THE DESERT 
 
 people were able to drill the holes without steel or other 
 metal is unknown. All these things were found within 
 ten feet of the surface of the earth. The soil above them 
 was sand, indicating that the city of Tiahuanaco was for 
 a long time covered with water, which probably accounts 
 for the remarkable state of preservation of the relics. 
 
 Much of the pottery was found near human skeletons 
 and seemed to have been buried with the dead. There 
 were two pots beside the skull of a man or woman, and one 
 beside that of a child. On the foreheads of the skulls of 
 the women were plates of pure gold as thin as paper. 
 Each plate bears the image of a man, indicating, perhaps, 
 that the weaker sex worshipped the stronger eight thousand 
 years ago, regardless of how man’s acknowledged superior- 
 ity has since dwindled. The features of the image are 
 beautifully marked and look as though the gold leaf had 
 been pressed upon a die. 
 
 Although the Aymara Indians about Tiahuanaco are 
 supposed to be descended from a race much older than the 
 Incas, their skulls are not like those found in the excava- 
 tions. The skulls I saw in the museum are different from 
 any known to anthropologists. Of enormous size, they 
 indicate a race of giants. The foreheads slope back from 
 the eyes, reminding one of the Flathead Indians of North 
 America, the jawbones are heavy, and the teeth are still 
 almost perfect, though perhaps eighty centuries old. 
 
 The Aymaras have many stories and legends as to their 
 origin. One is that the first people on earth became so 
 wicked that the gods turned them into the stone idols of 
 Tiahuanaco. According to another Aymara tradition, the 
 world was created by the great god Pachacamac, who made 
 it beautiful to look upon and filled it with comforts. It 
 
 220 
 
THE FIRST CITY IN AMERICA 
 
 was ruled, however, by Khunu, who brought droughts and 
 cold and pestilences, until man could hardly exist and be- 
 came little more than a beast. Then Pachacamac fought 
 the evil Khunu. He sent rains to make the deserts bloom, 
 and brought forth the sun to warm the earth. But 
 Khunu was not yet vanquished. He added to the rains 
 until a flood occurred, during which the earth was in dark- 
 ness. 
 
 After that, according to the legend, the prayers of the 
 people were answered by Inti, the sun god, who rose from 
 his shrine in Lake Titicaca to flood the earth with warmth 
 and light. Another god, Ticcihuiracocha, aided him by 
 smoothing down the mountains, filling up the valleys 
 with fertile soil, and causing waters to flow from the rocks 
 and irrigate the land. Above all, he instilled in the 
 hearts and minds of the people the qualities of piety, 
 order, and industry. Realizing that gold and silver were 
 the cause of greed and corruption, he hid them in the 
 depths of the most inaccessible regions or in lofty moun- 
 tains. It was under this god that man was given a fresh 
 start and eventually achieved his present civilization. 
 
 These Indians of Tiahuanaco hold on feast days a sort 
 of war dance that rivals the ruins as an attraction for 
 most tourists. The men wear costumes of coloured cloth 
 and much bright tinsel, with headdresses of brilliant 
 feathers made in great fan shapes. Marching through 
 the town performing a sort of snake dance, they are 
 accompanied by a bedlam of noise produced by the 
 violent beating of drums and the playing of native flutes. 
 The celebration usually ends in a drunken carousal in 
 which chicha and alcohol flow freely. Similar carnivals, 
 I am told, are held at La Paz. 
 
 221 
 
LANDS OF THE ANDES AND THE DESERT 
 
 Another exhibit of much interest in the La Paz museum 
 is a large collection of mummies, discovered near the 
 Arica-La Paz railway when that line was being built. 
 They are supposed to be the mummies of the Chulpas, who 
 lived before the time of the Incas. Each is enclosed in a 
 basket or bag of fibre, with the head of the mummy pre- 
 truding from an opening in one end. The material out of 
 which the bag is made is like pineapple fibre, and not- 
 withstanding its great age it is firm and strong. The 
 threads are evenly twisted, and each bag is woven to the 
 exact size and shape of the mummy within. 
 
 The Chulpas were buried in a sitting posture, the legs 
 so doubled up that the knees were tucked under the chin 
 and the arms clasped back of the neck. I saw scores of 
 these mummies, and was allowed to carry some of them 
 outside to be photographed. One was that of a young 
 woman. It was at least fifteen hundred years old, but 
 the bones were sound and the teeth were as white as snow 
 and in far better condition than my own. I carried her 
 out of the darkness and put her down gently in the sunlight 
 on the steps beside me. As | did so, there came to my 
 mind the soliloquy of the hero in Tennyson’s “Vision of 
 Sin,” as he dances the tango with his skeleton partner: 
 
 You are bones, and what of thatP 
 Every face, however full, 
 
 Padded round with flesh and fat, 
 Is but modelled on a skull. 
 
 No, I cannot praise the fire 
 
 In your eye—nor yet your lip; 
 All the more do I admire 
 
 Joints of cunning workmanship. 
 
 222 
 
 as 5 ees 
 
Fifteen-hundred-year-old mummies have been found on the Bolivian 
 
 plateau. They are supposed to be the remains of Chulpa Indians, among 
 whom the dead were buried in a sitting posture, encased in sacks. 
 
The Indians say that the first people on earth became so wicked that 
 the gods turned them into stone figures, some of which are still standing 
 at Tiahuanaco. Their modern use as targets in rifle practice has not 
 improved their looks, 
 
 ae 
 
CHAPTER XXV 
 THE AYMARA INDIANS 
 
 N COMING to northern Bolivia from Peru, I have left 
 the land of the Quichua Indians for that of the Ay- 
 maras, who live about Lake Titicaca in the northern 
 part of the Bolivian plateau. They comprise the 
 
 chief Indian race of this republic, although the Quichuas 
 
 are found again in the southern part of the country. The 
 Aymaras are said to have been so powerful that they were 
 never subjugated by the Incas as were the other Indian na- 
 tions that inhabited the western part of South America. 
 Even after centuries under the white man’s rule they are 
 to-day more aggressive and independent than the humble 
 and submissive Quichuas. They are also larger in stat- 
 ure than the Peruvian Indians, most of them having an 
 extraordinary chest development that enables them to 
 breathe without difficulty in this rarefied atmosphere. 
 After the Spanish conquest the Aymaras were practically 
 enslaved, and many of them on the plateau are still in a 
 state of peonage. The Indian of Bolivia is so attached 
 to his bit of land that it has always been almost impossible 
 to make him leave when large tracts have been formed into 
 great estates. Rather than seek a home elsewhere, he 
 prefers to work for the white owner a certain number of 
 days a week in return for the right to stay on. He receives 
 no pay except the privilege of occupying a hut and culti- 
 vating a small piece of ground. Indeed, the Aymara cares 
 223 
 
LANDS OF THE ANDES AND THE DESERT 
 
 nothing for his country, his government, his wife or chil- 
 dren, and little for his own comfort, but he is genuinely 
 attached to his bit of land and his llamas or sheep. Un- 
 less his animals are commandeered by his employer or 
 the government, he refuses to sell them at any price, al- 
 though he will practically sell his children as servants. 
 
 An Englishwoman who has been living here for years 
 says that a system of child slavery still exists in both Peru 
 and Bolivia. Indeed, this woman tells me that she her- 
 self has bought boys and girls under twelve years of age. 
 At times she has given them a home out of pity and at 
 other times because she wished to use them as servants. 
 The system is similar to the custom of binding out children 
 to work for their board and clothes that was once common 
 in some parts of the United States. 
 
 When particularly in need of money, Indian parents offer 
 to sell a child as a servant for from five to ten dollars in 
 gold. A contract is then made in which the parents are 
 given the right to take the child back upon repayment of 
 this sum, but as it is practically an impossibility for the 
 Indian to obtain enough money to do so, the purchase of 
 the child usually means that one has its services until it 
 grows up. The law provides that it must be well treated 
 and taught to read and write. 
 
 Practically all the domestic labour of La Paz and other 
 cities of Bolivia is done by the Aymaras. The lowest 
 types are the pongoes, who carry burdens, bring the vege- 
 tables and meats from the market, and clean the pots and 
 pans. All kinds of drudgery falls to their lot, including 
 much work that servants of other classes refuse to do. 
 Indeed, though the rich man may afford twenty other 
 servants, he must still have his pongo. 
 
 224 
 
THE AYMARA INDIANS 
 
 Notwithstanding his hard life, the Indian servant 1s 
 attached to his master and will work for him for little or 
 nothing rather than for a foreigner who will pay good 
 wages. The Aymards make their masters grievances 
 their own, and are ready to fight for them on any occasion. 
 Feuds are often carried on between the Indians of neigh- 
 bouring farms, who engage in pitched battles with guns or 
 with slings, the ancient weapon of the Aymaras. Fights 
 over land are common even among the small property 
 owners. It is not unusual for one man to remove an- 
 other’s boundary marks and then drive in his sheep to 
 graze. This usually precipitates a bloody battle, all the 
 friends of each man being brought in as reinforcements. 
 
 These Indians do not like strangers, and | found them 
 particularly averse to having me photograph them or 
 their homes. These huts are usually in villages, but some 
 of them stand alone on the plateau and high up on the 
 mountain slopes. The houses and the home life of the 
 Aymaras are much like those of the Quichuas. Often 
 the cooking is done outside, and sometimes an oven is 
 built against the wall with a cover to protect it from the 
 wind and the snow. As in Peru, the women and children 
 may be seen spinning wool as they watch their flocks or 
 drive their llamas along the trails. Even the bags for 
 grain and potatoes are usually of homespun. 
 
 A favourite dish of the Aymards is a stew of dried mut- 
 ton called chalona. To make chalona, the carcass of the 
 sheep is sprinkled with water at night and left out of doors 
 to freeze, the process being repeated several times. It is 
 then hung up to dry, and soon becomes so tough and hard 
 that it will keep for months. When used it is cut into bits 
 and boiled a long time, often with vegetables and chuno, 
 
 225 
 
LANDS OF THE ANDES AND THE DESERT 
 
 About the same habits of drinking and coca chewing pre~ 
 vail among the Aymaras as among the Quichuas. How- 
 ever, it is said that these Indians are more intelligent than 
 those of Peru, and that the average mentality rises as one 
 goes on southward. When his mind has not been deadened 
 by alcohol or cocaine, the Aymara is like the Japanese in 
 his aptitude for learning new things. It is not uncommon 
 to find boys and girls who are equal to the whites in quick- 
 ness and mental alertness, and it is known that many of the 
 prominent men of La Paz have a strain of Aymara blood. 
 
 There is no doubt about the natural mechanical ability 
 of the Aymara. He is painter, carpenter, and mason in 
 La Paz. All the labour on the fine houses and public 
 buildings of the city has been done by him, and he often 
 exhibits considerable artistic ability in making exterior 
 decorations of mica mixed with lime and sand and then 
 burned in such a way that it has a finish like that of the 
 best plaster of Paris. The Indians make much of the 
 furniture used in La Paz and do a great deal of interior 
 woodwork in mahogany, rosewood, and black walnut. 
 They also operate the machinery in many of the factories 
 and mines of Bolivia. They seem to be industrious, and 
 their employers say that they are as good workers as the 
 cholos or whites. 
 
 Many of the best labourers and mechanics of the 
 country are Indians who, while serving in the army, 
 acquired such a taste for civilization that they have come 
 to the cities to work. When their military service is over, 
 most of them are not content to go back to the semi- 
 savage life of their villages. Those who do go carry with 
 them the seeds of civilization, which soon sprout into a 
 crop of new ideas and customs. 
 
 226 
 
 ale 
 
: 
 
 The bulk of the people on the northern part of the Bolivian plateau are 
 Aymards, somewhat superior to the Quichuas of Peru. They do the 
 hard work of the country, and many of them become skilled artisans. 
 
| 
 
 ' 
 ' 
 i 
 Hy 
 
 The Indians work cheerfully enough for the land owners, but insist on 
 frequent stops for rest, talk, and coca chewing. Though they have a 
 
 reputation for sourness and sullenness, a white man is absolutely safe alone 
 among them. 
 
THE AYMARA INDIANS 
 
 The reorganization of the Bolivian army several years 
 ago made military service compulsory for every youth be- 
 tween the ages of nineteen and twenty-one. As the army 
 is not large enough to take in every man, however, lots 
 are drawn annually to see who will serve. Thousands of 
 Indians from every part of the republic are brought to the 
 military barracks and schools, where they are drilled by 
 German officers. They make fine-looking soldiers and are 
 said to have good fighting qualities, being particularly 
 noted for their great powers of endurance. In addition 
 to being taught to obey, they learn to read and write and 
 to do simple sums. Soldiers are always on guard at the 
 President’s palace and the capitol, and I frequently see 
 them marching through the streets of La Paz. They serve 
 on the local police force, which is a good one. 
 
 An institution that is doing much toward the civilization 
 of Bolivia’s Indians is the industrial mission school that 
 has been founded on the shores of Lake Titicaca. The 
 school is supported by funds donated by an Italian, one 
 Antonio Chuiotto, who became an ardent Christian while 
 in Los Angeles. As a young man he had left Italy and 
 settled in California, where he made money in the milling 
 industry and then emigrated to Argentina. There he be- 
 came interested in bettering the condition of the Indians 
 of South America, and when he knew he had not much 
 longer to live he decided to leave his money to the Argen- 
 tinians for that purpose. However, the laws of that re- 
 public presented certain legal difficulties in the accomplish- 
 ment of this purpose, and he thereupon came to Bolivia 
 to carry out his scheme. 
 
 Chuiotto’s estate, consisting of about thirty-five thou- 
 sand dollars, was used to purchase five hundred acres of 
 
 227 
 
LANDS OF THE ANDES AND THE DESERT 
 
 level land on the shores of Lake Titicaca, about forty-five 
 miles from La Paz. There were about two hundred and 
 fifty Indians living on it, who, according to custom, went 
 with the property. They were allowed to retain the little 
 patches of ground that their ancestors cultivated from 
 generation to generation, and given the use of pasture for 
 their flocks of sheep and llamas. In return, they work for 
 the mission about two days of each week. 
 
 The manager of the farm says that at first the Indians 
 would have nothing to do with the missionaries. They 
 had been told that they would be worked to death and 
 cheated out of all their property. However, once they 
 learned to trust the Americans, a great desire for education 
 sprang up among them and a school was established and is 
 attended by both children and grown-ups. The children 
 have to work for their parents most of the day, and so 
 their school hours are from seven to nine in the morning, 
 but they are so anxious to learn that they usually are on 
 hand before the teachers are awake. 
 
 New plants and grasses have been introduced at the 
 farm, and experiments are being made with grains to see 
 if better crops cannot be raised on the plateau. The 
 trustees expect to improve the breeds of sheep and to bring 
 in goats and American cattle. The manager says he had 
 great difficulty at first in persuading the Aymaras to try 
 anything new, particularly the modern American plough. 
 They were shown that our ploughs could go twice as deep 
 as theirs, but they were not entirely converted until they 
 saw that the land ploughed in the new way raised better 
 crops than ever before. 
 
 The manager tells me that many of these Indians stil! 
 believe in witchcraft and that although they are sup- 
 
 228 
 
THE AYMARA INDIANS 
 
 posedly Christians, they reverence spirits and the mani- 
 festations of the forces of nature. During a drought they 
 worship streams and springs, and in cold weather they 
 pray to the stars and the moon that their crops may not 
 be ruined by frost. They think that death is caused by a 
 spell cast over the deceased. When a man dies his rel- 
 atives and friends are anxious that the witches shall not 
 continue to pursue his soul. Not long ago, the family of a 
 man who had just died came to the overseer of the school 
 farm and asked him to make a cross on a piece of paper and 
 below that to write: “‘I have died because | am bewitched 
 by my enemies, and I here pray to the Lord that I may be 
 free from them in the future.”’ This paper was put into 
 the hands of the dead man and buried with him. 
 
 Another United States school in Bolivia that has accom- 
 plished much for the Indians is the American Institute at 
 La Paz. It is supported largely by the Methodist Episco- 
 pal Church, but the Bolivian government considers it 
 of such benefit that it makes an annual appropriation for 
 it and encourages it in every possible way. The school 
 was founded by Methodist missionaries in 1907 at the 
 request of the Bolivian government, and 1s non-sectarian 
 in its teaching. When it was first opened it had one 
 hundred and twenty boys in attendance, and since then 
 the number has grown to three hundred or more. The 
 buildings of the Institute are crowded, and there are more 
 applicants than can be admitted. The boys are of all 
 classes, from the sons of wealthy farmers and miners to 
 those of Indian burden bearers. They may enter the 
 school at any age and stay through the equivalent of a 
 high-school course. Many of the graduates become clerks 
 and private secretaries, and others continue their studies in 
 
 229 
 
LANDS OF THE ANDES AND THE DESERT | 
 
 the colleges of law or medicine in one of the Bolivian uni- 
 versities. The students come from all parts of Bolivia and 
 even from Chile and Peru. Not a few of them have to 
 travel a month by mule, stage coach, and train to reach La 
 Paz. 
 
 During my stay here I have visited this institute and 
 talked with its teachers, who are graduates of the best 
 universities and colleges in the United States. It is 
 modelled after our boys’ boarding schools, and has all the 
 features that make school life pleasant. To some extent 
 it has taken the part of a Young Men’s Christian Associa- 
 tion in the encouragement of games and the development 
 of athletics. It has a literary society, school publications, 
 and a Boy Scout organization that puts on football 
 matches and track meets. I have before me the pro- 
 gramme, printed in Spanish, of a recent tournament. The 
 contestants were in three classes, the first of which was for 
 former pupils and students about fifteen years of age. The 
 second class included boys between eleven and fifteen years, 
 and a third class was for boys under eleven. At the end 
 of the meet prizes of gold, silver, and bronze medals were 
 presented by the United States Minister to Bolivia. 
 
 The Methodist Church has established also a secondary 
 school at Cochabamba, in the heart of Bolivia, about three 
 hundred miles from La Paz. That school receives the 
 same support from the government as the one at La Paz. 
 
 The elementary public schools of Bolivia are managed 
 chiefly by the municipalities. Attendance in them is 
 nominally compulsory, but they have almost no Indian 
 pupils. Last year these schools numbered only about five 
 hundred, with not more than sixty thousand students. 
 The republic has about forty schools for higher education, 
 
 230 
 
 ——— 
 
Some notable experiments are being made in providing schools for the 
 Indian children of the Bolivian highlands. The Methodists of the United 
 States have been especially successful, and their work 1s now supported 
 
 in part by the government. 
 
The Aymards have preserved their ancient dances, compared with 
 which the ceremonials of the Indians of our Southwest are said to be tame 
 affairs. On these occasions they wear elaborate headdresses and false faces. 
 
 Comparatively few Indians possess any land of their own. Most of 
 them are tenants or labourers on some large estate, the value of which is 
 estimated largely by the number of Indian families living on it. 
 
THE AYMARA INDIANS 
 
 including high schools for girls at La Paz, Sucre, Santa 
 Cruz, and Trinidad; there are universities at Sucre and La 
 Paz, and schools of mines at Oruro and Potosi. La Paz 
 has a commercial school with classes for men and women, 
 and also schools of engineering, mining, and agriculture. 
 
 In the past Bolivia has relied almost entirely on minerals 
 as the source of its wealth. Now the development of 
 agriculture is receiving more and more attention from the 
 government, and in 1922 a law was passed prohibiting the 
 opening of a public school where there is not enough 
 ground for a school garden. This law provides for an 
 agricultural course in the normal schools that prepare 
 teachers to work among the Indians. The State also gives 
 a certain amount each year for the support of the educa- 
 tional programme of the Catholic Church, which has mis- 
 sions throughout eastern Bolivia. 
 
 231 
 
CHAPTER XXVI 
 FROM LA PAZ TO ORURO 
 
 HAVE come from La Paz to Oruro, the centre of the 
 
 greatest tin-producing region in all the Americas. 
 
 To reach it I rode for eight hours across the bare, 
 
 stony plateau on the La Paz-Antofagasta railway. 
 We passed many Indian villages, and now and then saw 
 scattered homes here and there on the plain. About Lake 
 Titicaca, the huts of the natives were rectangular in shape, 
 but these were round and many of them had mud instead 
 of thatched roofs. Each farm settlement contained sev- 
 eral such homes, surrounded by corrals for the cattle. 
 
 At one station I noticed hundreds of llamas, which had 
 come in loaded with bundles of a kind of evergreen shrub 
 that is used for fuel on the plateau. The bushes are 
 grubbed out from the mountainsides and carried to the sta- 
 tions on the backs of men and women as well as on llamas. 
 
 Among the picturesque crowds around the stations at 
 two or three of these plateau villages I caught glimpses of 
 the Callahuaya, or travelling witch doctors of the Andes. 
 A member of this profession is recognized at a glance by 
 his distinctive costume, which consists of black breeches, 
 a red and white poncho, a bright-coloured sash, and a 
 broad sombrero hat. On his breast he wears a huge silver 
 cross, and slung across one shoulder is a wallet containing 
 aromatic gums, barks, herbs, charms, and figures like the 
 small stone llamas I saw at Cuzco. 
 
 232 
 
FROM LA PAZ TO ORURO 
 
 The Callahuaya travel in groups, often staying away 
 from home for as long as five years. They go from place 
 to place, stopping awhile in each town, where they serve 
 as a combination of witch doctor, veterinary, lawyer, and 
 general counsellor for all who seek their advice. During 
 these ramblings the women are always left at home. I[n- 
 deed, it is not unusual for a man about to be gone for a 
 long time to insure his wife a home by bestowing her upon 
 a bachelor friend. It is also customary for the husband, 
 upon his return, to adopt any children born to his wife 
 during his absence. 
 
 Farther on | rode for miles through a flooded region, 
 where heavy rains that had fallen the night before had 
 covered the pampa with water. In some places it looked 
 like a great lake; in others the waters had subsided, leav- 
 ing a sort of alluvial deposit. Parts of the plateau were 
 dry and with almost no vegetation. Other parts were 
 alkaline, and the white sands almost blinded my eyes. 
 The mountains are farther away than on the Peruvian 
 plateau, and although the altitude is almost two and one 
 half miles, one does not seem to be at such a great elevation. 
 
 Except for the massive snow-covered top of I|limani, 
 which was within plain sight as I left La Paz, the country 
 as seen from the car windows was bleak and monotonous. 
 Later, I had also a fine view of the extinct volcano of 
 Sajama. An Indian legend says that that mountain was 
 once the summit of the flat-topped Mount Chacaltaya, 
 and that it was knocked off by a stone from the sling of 
 a giant and hurled to its present location. The “‘stone,” 
 the legend says, still exists as a hillock on the plain near 
 the town of Viacha, which we reached about an hour after 
 leaving the Alto above La Paz. 
 
 233 
 
LANDS OF THE ANDES AND THE DESERT 
 
 Oruro derives its name from the Uru-Uru Indians, who 
 lived on the shores of Titicaca when that lake covered the 
 entire region between here and its present shores. It lies 
 on the plateau at an altitude of more than twelve thousand 
 feet, and as a whole is windy, dusty, and unattractive. 
 The streets are filled with sand blown about by the sharp 
 winds that sweep over the plateau, and the few trees and 
 shrubs are stunted and dry. Rising behind the city is a 
 background of desert hills honeycombed with mine open- 
 ings. 
 
 Many of the houses of Oruro are one-story adobe build- 
 ings, but it has some good stores and hotels, and there 
 are a movie theatre and clubs established by the foreign 
 population. The city now has about twenty thousand 
 inhabitants, but is said to have had four times as many in 
 colonial days when silver mining was at its height in the 
 hills about the town. Silver is still mined here, but the 
 chief mineral product of the region is tin. 
 
 I came to Oruro in a comfortable train, in company with 
 English, Australian, and American commercial travellers, 
 wealthy Bolivians, and miners and tourists from the 
 United States. The trip was far different from the one 
 I made over the same route years ago. That was long be- 
 fore the railway was built, and I rode for three days behind 
 mule teams that went at a gallop all the way. A stage 
 then ran twice a week from La Paz to Oruro. The 
 coaches, which were the most dilapidated rattletraps that 
 ever ran upon wheels, had six seats inside and one on top 
 with the driver. It was the place on the driver’s seat that 
 I coveted, but I found at the stage office that it was already 
 reserved and that the whole inside had been taken by a 
 rich Bolivian and his family. All the space in the next 
 
 234 
 
 eee 
 
FROM LA PAZ TO ORURO 
 
 stage, three days later, was also sold out, and for a time it 
 seemed that I should have to go on muleback or hire a 
 private conveyance, which would have cost one hundred 
 and fifty dollars. 
 
 At that moment a friend, adviser, and guide in ways 
 Bolivian advised me to try to get a seat on the mail coach. 
 I learned that there was always room for one passenger on 
 it, and that this seat had not been taken, so I lost no time 
 in handing out the twenty dollars for my fare. 
 
 All baggage had to be ready by noon of the day before 
 we started. It took three Indians to carry mine to the 
 station, and La Paz gazed in wonder as the men trotted 
 through the streets with their loads. At the stage office a 
 second dilemma arose. Only two hundred pounds of 
 luggage were allowed. If a passenger had more it was sup- 
 posed to follow him on the next stage, although the chances 
 were that it would be forgotten for weeks. My trunks 
 tipped the beam of the American scales on which they 
 were weighed at just three hundred and seventy pounds, 
 and it took much persuasion, monetary as well as verbal, 
 before the officials consented to let me take the entire 
 amount with me. At last I was told that it could be done, 
 and was handed a bill for extra charges that amounted to 
 a sum greater than my fare. 
 
 I am not more than ordinarily conceited, but | must 
 confess that I felt rather proud that not only myself but 
 my baggage as well were to be carried over the country 
 with the Bolivian government mails. I had visions of a 
 gorgeous red Concord vehicle with uniformed postmen, 
 and it was with conscious pride that I told my friends at 
 La.Paz how I was going to travel. I noticed that some 
 of.them smiled, and that others looked at me more in pity 
 
 235 
 
LANDS OF THE ANDES AND THE DESERT 
 
 than in admiration. At the time I attributed this to 
 jealousy, envy, or ignorance. Soon enough | thought 
 differently. 
 
 I had my first sight of the mail coach at six o’clock on 
 the morning of my departure. It was a mere baggage 
 wagon, and the only seat on it was the one with the driver. 
 The bed of the vehicle was so far up in the air that I could 
 almost walk under it without stooping. The wagon box 
 was not more than six inches deep, and I could not see 
 how a ton and a half of mail and trunks could be put into 
 it. I had my baggage hurried out, and it went in at the 
 bottom. The other pieces were piled on top until the 
 wagon looked more like a load of hay coming to the barn 
 in harvest time than the government mail. A rawhide 
 rope was bound round and round the whole, which was 
 then covered with canvas to protect it from a possible rain- 
 storm. 
 
 By this time the mules were in their places and I was told 
 to climb to my seat beside the driver. It was at least seven 
 or eight feet above the ground, and without a sign of a 
 cushion of any kind. I finally improvised some with my 
 blankets, and was not uncomfortable. My chief grievance 
 was the lack of cover when it rained and snowed, as it did 
 several times during the trip. My only protection then 
 was my waterproof and my knitted hood. 
 
 The “‘liveried’’ coachmen of my imagination were 
 cholos. They had no consideration whatever for the mules, 
 and their treatment of them was so cruel that I several 
 times protested, useless though it was. In the first place, 
 the harness was twisted until there was not a tug that was 
 straight and not a collar that fitted. Asa result the necks 
 of the animals were raw and sore, and this condition be- 
 
 236 
 
FROM LA PAZ TO ORURO 
 
 came worse as we went on the gallop over the road. | 
 remember one little yellow mule that, even before he was 
 put into harness, had lost two patches of skin, each as 
 big as the palm of my hand, from the front of his shoulders. 
 I objected to taking him, as there were other and better 
 mules in the corral, but he was hitched up, nevertheless, 
 and was given one of the hardest placesin the team. This 
 was next to the wagon and directly under the driver. 
 
 We started off at a gallop, but the little beast soon 
 slackened his pace. Then the torture began. The driver 
 cut at him with a whip that drew blood everywhere it 
 touched. We had not gone five miles before the mule’s 
 back was bleeding in a half-dozen different spots, and | 
 could see that his collar was red with blood from the 
 raw places on his neck. From time to time I noticed that 
 the driver, when he found that his whipping and whistling 
 failed to hurry the mules, took a heavy tug with an iron 
 chain and ring at one end and rattled it. This rarely 
 failed to frighten the animals into increased speed, but 
 if they did not respond, the driver swung it about his head 
 and brought it down with a terrible thud upon the little 
 mule’s back. We changed animals every fifteen or 
 twenty miles, and there was hardly a team that was not 
 scarred and bloody in a short time. 
 
 During the trip I had plenty of opportunity to learn 
 what the country hotels of Bolivia were like in those days. 
 The stations where we stopped to eat and sleep were more 
 like stables than inns. None of the rooms had windows, 
 and the floors were of mud or stone. In some, the beds 
 were ledges of sun-dried bricks upon which a mattress had 
 been laid. The only light I had was the candle | brought 
 with me, and my candle holder was a spot of melted grease 
 
 237 
 
LANDS OF THE ANDES AND THE DESERT 
 
 that I dropped on the table or a chair before setting the 
 candle down. There were always several beds in a room, 
 and I had natives for room mates every night. Before I 
 retired the hotel keeper would come in and collect a 
 dollar for the use of the bed and a dollar for dinner. 
 
 We started at five every morning, and at half-past four 
 I was up and ready for a cup of tea, which, with a couple 
 of biscuits, comprised the breakfast served in such places. 
 Lunch, which was our real breakfast, was eaten at eleven-‘or 
 twelve o'clock, and was more like a dinner. It began with 
 a vegetable soup and was followed by two or three stewed 
 dishes, all of which fairly swam in grease. Dinner was 
 much the same. | 
 
 Such were the accommodations on one of the most 
 travelled roads of the country. Conditions of the mule 
 trails were far worse. Prospectors when off the beaten 
 tracks frequently were unable to procure food or shelter 
 of any kind. This condition exists even to-day in parts 
 of interior Bolivia, as many of the Indians will not allow 
 strangers to come into their huts if they can possibly pre- 
 vent it. Money seems to be no inducement to them, and 
 the only way to get a night’s shelter in such cases is to go 
 in and take possession of the best part of the hut. If there 
 is anything at hand that is eatable, take it and give the 
 Indian some money for it. If you ask to buy it he will 
 refuse, and even if he has plenty he will say he has 
 nothing. The chances are that next morning, when you 
 pay him for your night’s lodging, he will not be displeased, 
 but he will offer you nothing and will sell as little as he can. 
 
 Twenty-five years ago there were almost no good roads 
 in Bolivia. The highways through the mountains were 
 nothing but mule trails, often cut along the sides of preci- 
 
 238 
 
The town of Oruro is the centre of a mining district that produces a 
 
 large portion of the tin supply of the world, ranking second only to Malaya. 
 The Bolivian ore leads the world in its high percentage of pure metal. 
 
The natural plumpness of the chola becomes corpulency when she wears 
 twenty or more skirts. Besides upholding the family prestige in dress, 
 
 the chola is usually its business manager also, and often the owner of a 
 market stall or beer shop. 
 
FROM LA PAZ TO ORURO 
 
 pices so that one rode within an inch or so of destruction. 
 Indeed, the road over which I travelled was then the best 
 one in Bolivia. The dried-up basin of the great inland sea 
 that once covered the plateau formed a natural road-bed. 
 In some places it was as flat as a floor for miles, and in 
 others there was a gradual slope, but not enough to impede 
 the galloping of the mules. We went through long 
 stretches of land where there were great piles of stones 
 scattered over the fields, and in several places I saw Indian 
 women going along picking up stones and carrying them 
 in the front of their skirts. They are used also to make 
 walls between the fields, and there are so many of them 
 that the walls and the piles usually cover as much ground 
 as the cleared area. 
 
 The La Paz-Oruro road was one of the few routes on 
 which freight was transported by wagon. On most trails 
 it was carried on the Andean beasts of burden or on the 
 backs of men and women. We met no other vehicles on 
 the road, although we passed droves of animals loaded 
 with all kinds of freight. There were scores of donkeys 
 carrying bundles of coca leaves on their backs to supply 
 the towns farther south. Llamas loaded with silver ore 
 stalked proudly along with cocked ears, and there were 
 many trains of mules. Each train was managed by one 
 or two Indians, who walked with or behind the animals, 
 never riding them so far as I could see. All the prospec- 
 tors used mules for travelling over the country, and all 
 supplies for the mines had to be carried through the moun- 
 tains in that way. Before the railways were built, mining 
 machinery to be used in Bolivia had to be made in sections, 
 no piece of which could be larger or heavier than a mule 
 could carry on its back. 
 
 239 
 
CHAPTER XXVII 
 THE GREAT TIN MINES 
 
 HE mighty treasure vaults of the Bolivian plateau 
 
 are now furnishing more than one fourth of all the 
 
 tin used on earth, and some day will undoubtedly 
 
 lead the world in the production of that metal. 
 Although practically no attention was given to Bolivia’s 
 tin until about a generation ago, its production already 
 ranks next to that of Malaya, whence comes forty per cent. 
 of the world’s supply. The output of Bolivia is greater 
 than that of Australia, of Cornwall in England, or of the 
 little East Indian islands of Banka and Billiton, which 
 are the other important sources of tin. Moreover, no 
 other tin mines produce ore containing as high a percentage 
 of metal as those of Bolivia. Five-hundred-pound pieces 
 of ore found here often contain seventy per cent. of pure 
 tin, and one block that weighed a ton contained more than 
 twelve hundred pounds of tin. 
 
 Tin is found almost everywhere in the mountains 
 of Bolivia, from La Paz to the Argentine border. It is 
 mined on the high slopes about Lake Titicaca, and in the 
 Cordillera Real and its numerous spurs. It was dug out 
 of the earth by the Indians before the Spanish conquest, 
 but mining by modern methods did not begin until 1895. 
 The ore is found at high altitudes, and one company has 
 its operating offices fourteen thousand five hundred feet 
 above sea level. 
 
 240 
 
 erie <--- 
 
THE GREAT TIN MINES 
 
 Here at Oruro are tin mines out of which the metal has 
 been taken for generations. One of them is approached 
 by a tunnel that starts near the heart of the city, and | 
 walked less than a half mile before I came to its workings. 
 The ore lies in veins between layers of rock like the meat of 
 a mighty stone sandwich, and no one yet knows how deep 
 into the earth this metallic filling extends. After it is 
 blasted out and carried to the surface, Indian women 
 break the great chunks of rock into small pieces, and sort 
 out the ones that contain tin. The ore looks like that of 
 silver or lead, and is so dull in colour that it is hard to 
 realize that the tin in it may one day be glittering on a new 
 dishpan or wash boiler. 
 
 [ stopped to watch the women as they sat on the ground 
 breaking up the ore with heavy steel hammers. Their 
 grimy feet and calves were bare under their voluminous 
 skirts, and all of them were dirty and frowsy beyond de- 
 scription. Nearly all were chewing coca. They work from 
 daylight to dark for less than a dollar of United States 
 money. As they are paid according to the amount of ore 
 they break and sort, it was with difficulty that I persuaded 
 them to stop long enough to be photographed. 
 
 I learned that the mining company that owns this moun- 
 tain of minerals employs several hundred women and an 
 even larger number of men. The wages are low, but until 
 1922, when there was a strike for higher pay, the mine 
 owners had never had to contend with labour troubles. 
 
 When I visited the Oruro mines twenty-five years ago, 
 I found them using llama manure as fuel. Quantities of it 
 were brought in from all over the country, four tons being 
 required to run a forty-horse-power engine twenty-four 
 hours. This company has now installed the most modern 
 
 241 
 
LANDS OF THE ANDES AND THE DESERT 
 
 machinery, and burns both oil and anthracite coal under 
 its boilers, although some of the mines far from the railways 
 still use for fuel lama manure, dried shrubs, or the peat- 
 like moss that grows on the plateau. 
 
 In the past the ore was mined in the most wasteful 
 manner. Only that containing from forty to fifty per 
 cent. of tin was processed; the lower grades were rejected 
 because, with the methods then used, they did not yield 
 enough metal to pay for the labour necessary to treat 
 them. Now, with modern machinery and improved proc- 
 esses, much of this discarded ore is being worked over at a 
 profit. 
 
 After the ore is broken and sorted, it is sent to the re- 
 duction works, which remove many of the impurities, turn- 
 ing it into what are called tin concentrates. In that form 
 it 1s packed into bags for export to the smelters of England, 
 Germany, and the United States. Because of the high 
 price of coal, there are almost no smelters in Bolivia. | 
 am told that a small one is operating at Potosi, using char- 
 coal as fuel. In 1920 an American electrical company 
 began a survey of the country to determine how much 
 water-power could be made available for mining properties. 
 
 Before the opening of the Panama Canal, Bolivia sent 
 most of its tin ore through the Strait of Magellan to Eng- 
 land, where it was smelted and refined. Now practically 
 all the ore goes through the Canal and, though Great 
 Britain is still the largest buyer of Bolivian tin, much of it 
 is sent directly to the smelters of New Jersey and Long 
 Island. The tin exports are increasing every year, the 
 amount shipped in 1922 having been almost double that of 
 1921. United States investments in Bolivian tin mines 
 have grown steadily, and in 1924 a new mining company, 
 
 242 
 
 a 
 
Because of the excessive cost of coal in Bolivia, tin ore is only partially 
 reduced before it is shipped in sacks to the smelters and refineries of Eng- 
 land, Germany, and the United States. 
 
For centuries the mining methods in Bolivia were both crude and 
 wasteful, and only the richest of the ores were saved. This shows the 
 primitive method of crushing the rock by grinding it under a stone. 
 
 On the line of the Antofagasta-Bolivia railroad, over which silver and 
 tin ores are carried down the mountains to the sea, are famous borax 
 lakes from which come a large part of the commercial product. 
 
THE GREAT TIN MINES 
 
 composed mostly of American stockholders, was incor- 
 porated with a capital of fifteen million dollars. More 
 American mining machinery was sold in Bolivia in 1923 
 than in any preceding year. 
 
 There are scores of valuable tin mines in the region 
 about Oruro, and many of them are large producers. The 
 Salvadora, near Uncia, which is one of the largest 
 American-owned properties in the Republic, often fur- 
 nishes twenty-five per cent. of Bolivia’s total tin exports. 
 The Llallagua, which is owned also by American capitalists, 
 is located in the same mountain as the Salvadora and 
 rivals it in production. It has reduction works with a 
 capacity of six hundred tons of concentrates a day. 
 Much of its output is sent to the United States. 
 
 The Salvadora formerly belonged to Simon I. Patifio, 
 the “tin king” of Bolivia, who not many years ago was 
 working for wages of a few dollars a month. He is said to 
 have Indian blood in his veins, and no one supposed he 
 would ever be more than a common labourer. When he be- 
 came possessed of the idea that the tin content of the silver 
 ore could be profitably extracted, his employers had no 
 faith whatsoever in such a project. He went ahead, how- 
 ever, and secured options on many of the old ore dumps and 
 on several mines. In some way he managed to obtain a 
 small capital and, with the few Indians he could hire at low 
 wages, started to work one of the old mines. After a hard 
 struggle, he finally struck a rich vein and almost over- 
 night jumped from poverty to extravagant riches. 
 
 Patifio became a multimillionaire, and took a large part 
 in promoting other projects for the development of his 
 country. He bought haciendas and mines in different 
 sections of the republic, and built a railroad from Macha- 
 
 243 | 
 
LANDS OF THE ANDES AND THE DESERT 
 
 camarca on the Antofagasta line to Uncia, sixty-four 
 miles away. He equipped his mines with the most 
 modern machinery, including gravity cableways for carry- 
 ing the ore to the reduction works. He spends most of 
 his time in Paris, leaving his properties in the hands of his 
 manager. 
 
 I have heard of other romances of fortunes made from 
 the tin of these Bolivian highlands. A German mechanic 
 named Kemp, who opened a mine when tin was selling 
 for eleven hundred dollars a ton, sold the property to a 
 Chilean syndicate, which paid him one hundred thousand 
 dollars in cash and an equal amount in shares in the mine. 
 Kemp knew little of the value of money, and he supposed 
 that what he had would last him for ever. He went off to 
 Europe, where he spent right and left, and within less 
 than two years his fortune was gone. He then came back 
 to Chile, expecting to get another hundred thousand dol- 
 lars by the sale of his stock. 
 
 In the meantime, the price of tin had fallen, and the 
 shares that Kemp owned were worth only sixteen cents 
 each instead of five dollars. Thinking he had been tricked, 
 he threatened the operating company with a suit in the 
 courts. ‘The officials replied that there was then no money 
 in mining and that he could have the property back as a 
 gift. He took it, and for a time almost starved. He did 
 not realize enough profit even to pay his Indian labourers. 
 Then the price of tin rose, he organized a new company, 
 and his stock was soon worth more than one hundred 
 and twenty-five thousand dollars. 
 
 Another mine near Oruro, the San José, was discovered 
 by a Scotchman named Andrew Penny, who came out 
 here years ago as a mechanic. He afterward married an 
 
 244 
 
THE GREAT TIN MINES 
 
 Indian girl, with whom he was living when his mine began 
 to produce tin in paying quantities. The output con- 
 tinued to increase, and Penny became wealthy, but did not 
 live long to enjoy his riches. He died shortly after he had 
 invested some of his money in an estate in Scotland. 
 By the Bolivian law, his property in this country was in- 
 herited by his wife and his adopted son, who was a half- 
 breed. The Indian widow, however, was not satisfied, 
 and decided to go to Scotland and see if she could not 
 obtain possession of the estate there. The courts ruled 
 against her and she returned to Bolivia without the 
 property, but with a second husband, who was none other 
 than her Scotch lawyer. He had not been able to win her 
 case for her, but he did win the lady herself—including 
 her millions. 
 
 New tin mines that may some day rival the Salvadora 
 and Llallagua mines were opened up not long ago in the 
 Quimsa Cruz range between La Paz and Oruro. Unlike 
 those of other parts of Bolivia, these deposits contain no 
 silver, and so received no attention when tin mining was 
 begun on a large scale in the old silver mines. Six of these 
 mines were acquired by the Guggenheim interests. They 
 are located at altitudes ranging from sixteen to eighteen 
 thousand feet above the sea. 
 
 The Guggenheims have built an automobile road from 
 Eucalyptus on the La Paz-Oruro line down into a valley 
 sixty miles to the eastward. The terminus of the road is 
 in an almost tropical region, which has become a popular 
 resort for the mining officials and their families. At the 
 same time, its fruits and vegetables can be quickly trans- 
 ported to the mining camps two miles higher in the air. 
 
 Prospecting for tin is going on in many parts of Bolivia, 
 
 245 
 
LANDS OF THE ANDES AND THE DESERT 
 
 and the new railroads now building will open up highly 
 mineralized territories that will increase the production of 
 that metal. Although most of the tin ore now mined here 
 is in the form of quartz, prospectors have discovered in 
 one of the rivers deposits of stream tin in nuggets and 
 lumps that range from the size of an egg to that of my 
 two fists or larger. These deposits are said to contain 
 fifty-three per cent. of oxide of tin. 
 
 About two hundred and thirty miles southeast of Oruro 
 is Potosi, which for hundreds of years was famous as the 
 greatest silver-mining centre of South America and one 
 of the chief sources of that metal in the whole world. 
 First worked about fifty years after Columbus discovered 
 the New World, during Spanish rule the mines of - Potosi 
 produced more than three thousand million dollars’ 
 worth of silver, and it is estimated that their total output 
 up to the present time has been worth four thousand 
 millions. For nearly three hundred years their average 
 yield was at the rate of a million dollars’ worth of silver a 
 month. 
 
 When New York was still but a village, Potosi was a 
 
 city of one hundred and fifty thousand people, with 
 countless palaces and churches built by the Spaniards. 
 Many of them are standing to-day, the churches and 
 monasteries especially being rich in relics and carvings. 
 Here was established also the first coinage mint in South 
 America. The machinery in it was made entirely of wood, 
 most of which was carried from the Argentine on the 
 backs of Indians. On the hills above Potosi were thirty- 
 two artificial lakes, which supplied water for the mines and 
 the city. One of the lakes was three miles in circum- 
 ference and thirty feet deep. 
 246 | 
 
 Oi Jae 
 
2 NT 
 
 For one hundred years, when silver mining was at its height, Potosi 
 was one of the largest cities in the Western Hemisphere, and Spaniards 
 
 grown wealthy from the great mines built fine houses, some of which 
 still stand. 
 
The great peak back of Potosf is honeycombed with mine workings, said 
 to number more than seven thousand. In the four hundred years since 
 
 mining began here, the mountain has produced more silver than any 
 other equal area in the world. 
 
THE GREAT TIN MINES 
 
 Potosi is one of the highest cities in Bolivia, lying on the 
 plateau at an altitude of 13,612 feet. Behind it, rising 
 two thousand feet higher, is a great conical peak, the 
 Cerro, which has produced more silver than any other 
 area of its size in the world. That mountain is said to 
 have thousands of abandoned silver mines scattered 
 over it, and its sides are still honeycombed with pro- 
 ductive workings, although silver has dropped from the 
 high place it once held in the wealth of this country. 
 
 The decline in Bolivian silver mining was due to the 
 exhaustion of the more readily accessible veins, the lack 
 of operating capital, and the development of rich mines in 
 other parts of the world, with the consequent fall in the 
 price of the metal. In recent years the industry has 
 revived somewhat. Many of the old tailings have been 
 worked at a profit, but practically all the silver now 
 mined is a by-product of tin. 
 
 In Cerro de Pasco, the silver and the gold mixed with 
 the copper practically pay the operating expenses, and the 
 value of the copper is almost clear gain. This same condi- 
 tion exists in connection with the tin mining at Potosi, 
 which is paid for by the silver. The deposits have 
 always shown great values in tin, which formerly, through 
 the miners’ ignorance, was separated from the silver 
 and washed away in the streams. 
 
 Other old and famous silver mines are those of Huan- 
 chaca, which were worked by the natives even before the 
 Spaniards came. More than nine million pounds of pure 
 silver have been taken from them, and the mileage of their 
 underground workings is said to be greater than that of 
 any other silver mine in the world. 
 
 Bolivia is known to the outside world chiefly for its 
 
 247 
 
LANDS OF THE ANDES AND THE DESERT 
 
 ‘tin and silver, but it is also an important source of copper. 
 Except for the Lake Superior region in the United States, 
 it is the only country where this metal is found in the 
 earth in a pure form. Sometimes copper occurs here 
 mixed with sandstone; it is found also in huge masses 
 called charquis, and in great sheets or plates covering 
 many square feet. I saw one such plate as large as the 
 top of an ordinary dining table. 
 
 The copper-producing area centres in Corocoro, a town 
 
 of fifteen thousand inhabitants, mostly Indians, situated 
 in a group of low hills six miles from the main line of the 
 railway from La Paz to the port of Arica. A spur has 
 been built out to that railway, over which the copper is 
 taken to Arica for export to the United States and Great 
 Britain. The chief mining company now operating is an 
 Anglo-French corporation whose mines produce about 
 eight thousand tons of pure copper a year. A Chilean 
 company has an output about one third as large. 
 
 As to gold, Bolivia produced more than two thousand 
 million dollars’ worth of that metal between 1540 and 
 1750, but it is now mined only in small quantities, amount- 
 ing in all to less than a half million dollars’ worth a year. 
 It has been found in the sands near La Paz since the Inca 
 reign, and many years ago a nugget as large as the palm 
 of my hand was picked up in that region. Near the same 
 spot another nugget, weighing thirty-three pounds and 
 worth nine thousand dollars, was found in the days of the 
 Spaniards. The Chuquiaquillo mine near La Paz pro- 
 duced one hundred and twenty-five million dollars’ worth 
 lof gold in the eighteenth century. 
 
 For centuries the Indians have been washing gold from 
 ‘the headwaters of the Beni, and the gravel of that stream 
 
 248 
 
THE GREAT TIN MINES 
 
 shows colour all the way down to the Amazon, into which 
 it flows. It is believed that a great part of the gold of the 
 Incas came from there. Some gold is being found in the 
 River Quisere, which flows over a bed of quartz upon 
 which is an alluvial deposit containing gold that can be 
 recovered by dredges. English and American miners 
 have long been prospecting in eastern Bolivia. They 
 have found that many of the rivers contain gold, but, 
 because of their swift currents and underlying beds of 
 slate and granite, can be worked only with modern 
 machinery. Until better means of transportation are 
 provided, there is no practical way to take mining and 
 ore-reducing machinery into the interior. 
 
 Another great store of mineral wealth in Bolivia is its 
 petroleum. The oil oozes out of the ground in many 
 places in the eastern part of the country, and for genera- 
 tions has been used by the Indians for lighting and heating. 
 In recent years a number of companies have been formed 
 for its exploitation. Concessions have been granted to 
 Americans to develop some of the oil deposits, and in 
 1921 the Standard Oil Company purchased outright a 
 tract of eight million acres. The centre of production 
 at present is near Santa Cruz, although wells are being 
 drilled as far south as the Argentine border. The na- 
 tional petroleum law provides that the government 
 shall receive a royalty of eleven per cent. of all the oil 
 produced. 
 
 The chief difficulty will be in getting the oil to a market. 
 The distance across country to the Atlantic seaboard in a 
 straight line is considerably more than a thousand miles, 
 and sending the oil by that route would necessitate pump- 
 ing it over the high plateau of Brazil. If a pipe-line 
 
 249 
 
LANDS OF THE ANDES AND THE DESERT 
 
 should be run from the lower end of the field down to 
 Asunci6n in Paraguay, and thence through the Parana 
 Valley to Buenos Aires, the distance would be almost 
 twice as great, but the slope would be gradual and unin- 
 terrupted all the way to the sea. Such a pipe-line would 
 pass through Argentina, where the oil would command 
 a ready market for both fuel and lighting. 
 
 Bolivia now controls the world market for bismuth, a 
 metal that is used principally in medicines and cosmetics. 
 A single company, which has its headquarters in Geneva, 
 Switzerland, controls the entire output. During the World 
 War Bolivia was also the world’s chief source of tungsten, 
 the metal that has taken the place of carbon for ee 
 the filaments of electric light bulbs. 
 
 For a long time the mining laws of Bolivia were such 
 that a prospector could not protect his claims and es- 
 tablish clear titles to them. Shyster lawyers and others 
 made a practice of laying claim to every mine supposed 
 to be of value and of contesting its title as soon as it ‘was 
 registered. During a former visit to Bolivia a mining 
 expert said to me: 
 
 ‘| might go to the heart of the backwoods in the eastern 
 part of this country and stake out a mine a hundred miles 
 from where any white man has ever been before, yet I 
 venture that within two days after that mine was a 
 
 matter of record there would be a half-dozen applications. 
 filed, disputing my title and swearing that the contestant 
 
 had proof that he owned it. This is particularly true of 
 any mine that is supposed to be a good prospect, although 
 
 titles are often contested after the mine has been profit- 
 
 ably worked for a long time.”’ 
 
 Such conditions have now been almost entirely remedied, 
 
 250 
 
THE GREAT TIN MINES 
 
 and since the World War the mining industry in Bolivia 
 has been on a sound basis and has grown steadily. The 
 use of modern machinery is increasing, new areas are being 
 prospected, and the mining companies are doing their 
 utmost to provide their staffs and miners with living 
 conditions as pleasant as are possible on the high plateau. 
 The greater part of the mineral wealth of the republic 1s 
 thought to be still under the ground, awaiting better 
 means of transportation and sufficient foreign capital 
 for its development. 
 
 251 
 
CHAPTER XXVIII 
 DOWNSPOUTS OF THE PLATEAU 
 
 OLIVIA is one of the most shut-in and inaccessible 
 countries of the world. Like the neighbouring 
 republic of Paraguay, it has no seacoast, but 
 while Paraguay has the navigable Paran4 and 
 Paraguay rivers, the Bolivian plateau, which contains 
 the mineral wealth of the country, has no rivers whatever 
 that flow into either ocean. Moreover, only twenty-five 
 years ago its capital city had no railway connection with 
 the surrounding countries. There were not three hundred 
 miles of track in the entire republic when I made my first 
 trip here, and to-day the total mileage is only fourteen 
 hundred miles, or less than enough to reach from New 
 York to Omaha. 
 
 During the past several weeks I have been travelling 
 over the routes of the three railways that, like mighty 
 ladders, climb from the Pacific Ocean to the lofty Bolivian 
 plateau. The most northerly of these gigantic ladders 
 is the Southern Railway of Peru, which brought me from 
 Mollendo to Lake Titicaca, and thence to the Bolivian 
 capital. That line, which is nearly as long as the distance 
 
 from New York to Cleveland, for a long time furnished 
 
 the most important route into Bolivia. Its gradual 
 climb up the Andes, the variety of scenery, and the trip 
 it offers across Lake Titicaca continue to make it the one 
 most favoured by travellers. 
 
 252 
 
DOWNSPOUTS OF THE PLATEAU 
 
 As a freight route the Mollendo line has been super- 
 seded by Bolivia’s other two outlets to the Pacific. One 
 of them is from the Chilean port of Arica, the terminus of 
 the newest, shortest, and steepest railroad from the coast 
 to La Paz. The other is the Bolivian and Antofagasta 
 Railway, which climbs up the mountains from Anto- 
 fagasta, and then winds its way northward along the 
 plateau to the Bolivian capital. 
 
 This republic is still at the beginning of its railroad 
 development, a fact that is not surprising when one 
 considers the formation of the country. The lines on the 
 plateau were comparatively easy to construct, but every 
 route down to the sea has had to cross mountain passes 
 thirteen or fourteen thousand feet high. Labour is 
 scarce on the plateau, and the altitude is so great that 
 workers brought in from other countries cannot stand the 
 thinness of the air. On the western slopes of the moun- 
 tains much of the road-bed was practically cut out of the 
 rock. In the lower regions east of the plateau the heavy 
 rainfall causes innumerable washouts and slides, necessi- 
 tating expensive reinforcing along every stretch of track. 
 One authority says that the railways already built here 
 have cost an average of fifty thousand dollars a mile. 
 
 The beginning of modern railroad development in 
 Bolivia followed the transfer to Brazil of the Acre Terri- 
 tory near the head-waters of the Amazon. In return, 
 the Bolivian government was paid ten million dollars, 
 with which it decided to build railways. Later, other 
 money was borrowed to continue the work of construc- 
 tion. 
 
 ' In the meantime the development of the airplane has 
 furnished a new means of transportation in this land 
 
 253 
 
LANDS OF THE ANDES AND THE DESERT 
 
 of vast mountain ranges and few railroads and highways. 
 A school of aviation has been established in La Paz, and 
 Bolivia in the not far distant future will no doubt have a 
 system of air routes similar to that of Colombia. In 
 1920 an American aviator employed as a government 
 flying instructor flew over IJlimani at an elevation of more 
 than twenty-five thousand feet. The Bolivian army 
 officer accompanying him fainted from the effects of the 
 high altitude. 
 
 Perhaps the most important railway of the republic is 
 the Antofagasta and Bolivian. That line is about seven 
 hundred miles long, and the trip over it takes forty-three 
 hours. There are two trains a week each way, equipped 
 with sleepers and dining cars. From Antofagasta, the 
 chief port of northern Chile, one goes over the nitrate 
 fields and across the Chilean desert to the Bolivian 
 frontier. During the first two hundred and twenty-three 
 miles the train reaches an altitude of thirteen thousand 
 feet. It drops about eight hundred feet to a great borax 
 lake, and then begins to climb over the mountains to the 
 Bolivian plateau. Oruro is reached the next morning, and 
 La Paz about eight hours later. 
 
 The Antofagasta road is one of the famous scenic routes 
 of the world, and geologically and geographically it is one 
 of the most interesting. Parts of the plateau, which was 
 the bed of the great inland sea that once covered this 
 region, are as flat as a floor. The road goes for miles 
 over stretches of sand, and | am told that sea shells and 
 traces of fossilized fish have been found here. Part of the 
 route is past volcanoes and mountains of lava of the most 
 unusual formations. The road is also important com- 
 mercially, being the great down-the-mountain chute for 
 
 254 
 
Bolivia suffers from lack of means of communication. Building of both 
 railroads and highways proceeds slowly in the mountain regions, and 
 transport by pack animals has become far more expensive than formerly. 
 
While the best trains from Bolivia to the Pacific coast are equipped with 
 
 dining cars, the bulk of the native passengers depend on the outdoor re- 
 freshment stands at the stations en route. 
 
 The ancient Indians of the Andean plateau built only with stone, chiefly 
 because they had practically no wood. Their descendants today use 
 primitive tools and methods in cutting and shaping timber. 
 
DOWNSPOUTS OF THE PLATEAU 
 
 most of the tin and silver ore of the Bolivian plateau, as 
 well as for the nitrate, the borax, and the copper of Chile. 
 
 The first section of the La Paz-Antofagasta line, which 
 was also the first railway in Bolivia, was the narrow- 
 gauge road built from the town of Uyuni to the coast as 
 an outlet for the Huanchaca silver mines. It was opened 
 to traffic in 1889, and three years later was extended north 
 to Oruro. After that, its construction remained practi- 
 cally at a standstill for twenty years. When the Acre 
 Territory was conceded to Brazil, plans were made for the 
 extension of the road. New York bankers undertook its 
 completion to the capital, as well as the construction of 
 several branch lines. That was in 1906, and seven years 
 later the extension to La Paz was opened to traffic. In 
 the meantime, the controlling interest of the road had been 
 sold to an English company. 
 
 In 1917 a branch line was completed from Oruro one 
 hundred and twenty-five miles eastward to Cochabamba, 
 the chief distributing point for the rich agricultural regions 
 of eastern Bolivia. It crosses the divide of Cuesta 
 Colorada and descends into the lower altitude by a series 
 of switchbacks over one of the most beautiful scenic routes 
 on the continent. Surveys have already been made for 
 the purpose of extending that line three hundred miles 
 farther to Santa Cruz. Eventually it will undoubtedly 
 be built eastward another four hundred miles to Puerto 
 Suarez, from where steamers go down the Paraguay 
 River to the Atlantic. 
 
 Another branch of the Antofagasta and Bolivia Railway 
 has been built from the main line to the silver and tin 
 mining town of Potosi. The station of Condor on that 
 spur ranks with Ticlio on the Peruvian Central as one of 
 
 255 
 
LANDS OF THE ANDES AND THE DESERT 
 
 the highest points on this continent reached by railway. 
 An extension of that line to Sucre, the old capital, is now 
 under way, and its completion will undoubtedly lead to 
 the reopening of many abandoned colonial mines along 
 the route. In the meantime, freight and passengers are 
 carried by automobile between Sucre and the end of the 
 line. 
 
 Probably the most important railway under construc- 
 tion is that extending southward from Uyuni on the La 
 Paz-Antofagasta line and northward from Villazon on the 
 Argentine frontier. When the two sectors are united, 
 Bolivia will have completed her share of the proposed Pan- 
 American route from New York to Buenos Aires. The 
 only countries that have already finished their allotments 
 toward that great line of the future are Chile, Uruguay, 
 and Argentina. The latter country now has railway 
 service from Buenos Aires to La Quiaca, which is just 
 across the border from Villazon. On the Bolivian branch 
 there is a gap of only fifty miles or so, over which freight 
 and passengers are now carried by motor truck from May 
 to November, and by mule stage the remainder of the 
 year. 
 
 The completion of this sector of the Pan-American will 
 give through railway connection between La Paz and 
 Buenos Aires, and will open a back door, as it were, forthe 
 commerce of Bolivia. It will form the last link in South 
 America’s second transcontinental railroad, the other 
 Atlantic-to-Pacific route now in operation being the 
 Transandine Railway from Santiago to Buenos Aires. 
 That line is so far south that traffic is often snowbound in 
 winter. The Bolivian-Argentine route will be near enough 
 to the Equator to be free from heavy snows. It will offer 
 
 256 
 
 ( 
 Al 
 
 i 
 
DOWNSPOUTS OF THE PLATEAU 
 
 a shorter journey to the Argentine for travellers from 
 Peru and Ecuador, and will make the cattle, the wheat, 
 and the dairy products of Argentina and Uruguay quickly 
 available on the high plateau. Buenos Aires will then 
 be only three and a half days from La Paz. It will be four 
 hundred and fifty miles nearer New York by way of that 
 railway and the Panama Canal than it is now by the all- 
 water Atlantic route. | 
 
 While the project for railway connection with the At- 
 lantic was still in its earliest stages, Bolivia acquired an- 
 other outlet to the Pacific. This was the La Paz-Arica 
 line, which was built by Chile as an outcome of the long 
 controversy over the ownership of the strip of coast land 
 formerly controlled by Bolivia. 
 
 Bolivia originally owned the Chilean province of Anto- 
 fagasta between its present boundary and the sea. In 
 that province, which is rich in nitrate, is not only the 
 city of the same name, but three other important ports as 
 well. In 1866, and again in 1874, arrangements were 
 made between Bolivia and Chile for the joint possession of 
 the nitrate fields, but their control continued to be a sub- 
 ject of dispute between the two countries. In 1879, with 
 Chile’s seizure of the port of Antofagasta and her declara- 
 tion of war against Bolivia and her ally, Peru, hostilities 
 were begun. 
 
 The Treaty of Ancén, which ended the fighting, was 
 signed in 1883. By its terms, Chile took possession of the 
 Peruvian province of Tarapaca, while the provinces of 
 Tacna and Arica, farther north, were to be occupied by 
 Chile for ten years, at the end of which time a plebiscite 
 was to be taken to determine their ownership. That 
 plebiscite was postponed from time to time for various 
 
 \ 257 
 
LANDS OF THE ANDES AND THE DESERT 
 
 reasons, and when Chile finally agreed to hold it Peru main- 
 tained that Tacna and Arica had been under Chilean in- 
 fluence and government too many years for such a method 
 of deciding the issue to be still fair. No settlement agree- 
 able to both countries could be arrived at, and it remained 
 for the United States, in 1922, to make an effort to bring 
 Peru and Chile to an amicable agreement. Our govern- 
 ment invited the two republics to send representatives to 
 Washington for a conference, at the completion of which, 
 if necessary, the President of the United States will act as 
 arbiter. 
 
 In the meantime, although Chile had obtained possession 
 of Tacna-Arica and Tarapaca, those provinces were cut off 
 from the rest of the republic by Antofagasta, still claimed 
 by Bolivia. Bolivia’s possession of her one remaining 
 strip of seacoast did not last long, however, and the year 
 after the Treaty of Ancén saw that province under the 
 provisional control of Chile. In 1901 Bolivia relinquished 
 all claims to Antofagasta, in return for which Chile agreed 
 to build a railway from Arica to La Paz, and to turn over 
 the Bolivian section to this country at the end of fifteen 
 years. 
 
 The line was opened to traffic in 1913 under the control 
 of the Chilean State Railways. Well-equipped passenger 
 trains cover the distance of two hundred and seventy-nine 
 miles in twenty-two hours, or less than half the time re- 
 quired to go from La Paz to either Antofagasta or Mol- 
 lendo. The route is so short, however, that the quick 
 transition from the coast to the plateau frequently causes 
 soroche, and therefore most passengers prefer a longer and 
 more gradual ascent up the mountains. 
 
 The Arica line is most valuable to Bolivia as a freight 
 
 258 
 
Motor roads have proved especially beneficial in connecting the cold 
 barren plateau with the tropical valleys below, thus making the food prod- 
 ucts of the latter readily available to the people living on the heights. 
 
The Indians who inhabit the great basin drained by the headwaters of 
 the Amazon are expert raftsmen. The density of the tropical forests 
 makes the streams the chief arteries of travel and communication. 
 
DOWNSPOUTS OF THE PLATEAU 
 
 carrier. In fact, the freight traffic is so great that it is 
 often congested, especially at some of the steep grades, 
 where trains are divided and a few cars taken up ata time. 
 In a recent year the road handled sixty-one per cent. of all 
 the imports into Bolivia, as compared with thirty-seven 
 per cent. coming through Mollendo and two per cent. 
 through Antofagasta. | 
 Arica is important not only as a port, but also as a 
 Strategic point on the west coast. It is located in an 
 oasis in the desert, and could easily be made the base of 
 naval operations in case of war. In the War of the 
 Pacific in 1879-1884, the Peruvians made their last stand 
 here on the top of the famous “Morro,” a high, precipi- 
 tous cliff rising up from the sea. | 
 The harbour of Arica is protected by an island and bya 
 reef connected with the mainland. It is the chief copper- 
 exporting port for Bolivia. Much of that metal goes to 
 Tacoma, Washington, and the total amount taken by the 
 United States is increasing yearly. As the line is far to the 
 north of the centre of the tin and silver mining district, 
 most of those metals are exported through Antofagasta. 
 Because of the transshipment necessary at Lake Titicaca, 
 very few Bolivian exports go out through Mollendo. 
 Minerals comprise fully ninety per cent. of Bolivia’s 
 exports, and practically all of them go through Arica or 
 Antofagasta. Rubber, another important product, is 
 exported largely through Brazil. Other exports of con- 
 siderable value are coca, coffee, hides, and quinine, some 
 of which go out of the country by way of Argentina. A 
 certain amount of ore also is shipped by that route. 
 About half of all the exports of Bolivia are taken by 
 Great Britain. I find the commercial houses of that 
 
 259 
 
LANDS OF THE ANDES AND THE DESERT 
 
 country in all the cities and see British manufactured 
 goods everywhere. British capital also financed much of 
 the industrial and railway development of the republic. 
 I am told, however, that for a long time Great Britain had 
 neither commercial nor diplomatic representatives in this 
 country. Relations between the two governments were 
 broken off in the 60’s as a result, it is said, of an indignity 
 to which the British minister was subjected at La Paz. 
 Bolivia was then under the rule of the dictator Melgarejo, 
 who demanded that particular homage be paid to his 
 mistress by the guests at one of his official receptions. 
 This the minister refused to do. Melgarejo was furious 
 and the next day caused the offending diplomat to be tied 
 to the back of a mule facing the animal’s tail and driven 
 about the plaza of La Paz. 
 
 _ When the minister returned to England and reported his 
 ignominious treatment at the hands of Melgarejo, Queen 
 Victoria in great indignation demanded a map so that she 
 could see where Bolivia was. Then, as the story goes, 
 when she learned that the location of La Paz made re- 
 dress impossible by means of a British warship, she 
 
 seized a pen and crossed the country off the map, ex- 
 
 claiming: 
 
 “As far as England is concerned, Bolivia no longer 
 
 exists!” 
 
 It was forty years or so before England again sent an 
 
 official representative here. 
 
 Another story of this same Melgarejo is that when the 
 Franco-Prussian War was declared he decided to offer the 
 services of his army to France. His soldiers were mobil- 
 ized and started on the march. As they left La Paz 
 behind them, one of the generals of the army, though trem- 
 
 260 * 
 
 A. 
 
DOWNSPOUTS OF THE PLATEAU 
 
 bling at his presumption in daring to question his com- 
 mander, mustered up his courage and ventured to ask 
 what arrangements had been made for crossing the ocean. 
 
 “Ocean! shouted Melgarejo. ‘What ocean?’ 
 
 Needless to say, when he had been enlightened on a few 
 facts of elementary geography, his army’s destination was 
 changed to La Paz instead of France. 
 
 Next to Great Britain, Bolivia’s best customer for its 
 exports is the United States. We take more than forty 
 per cent. of all that it sells, and at the same time lead in fur- 
 nishing its imports. The principal articles it buys from 
 us are mining machinery, cotton goods, sacks for shipping 
 ore, and food-stuffs. Ina recent year wheat flour was the 
 chief commodity imported; much of it came from the 
 United States and the rest from Chile. 
 
 Because of the high cost of coal and the lack of developed 
 water-power, together with the limited supply of raw 
 materials on the plateau, there is little manufacturing in 
 Bolivia. However, the business man who attempts to sell 
 large quantities of expensive manufactured goods here is 
 wasting his time. The Indians comprise more than half 
 the entire population of the country, and their wants will 
 be strictly limited for years to come. Most of them know 
 nothing about luxury articles, and could not afford them if 
 they did. Some cholos, it is true, spend their money freely 
 on showy jewellery, toilet articles, and gaudy wearing 
 apparel, and, when they can, buy brass bedsteads and 
 other furniture of what they consider a highly ornamental 
 type. Although the wealthy Bolivians have homes as 
 beautifully furnished as can be found anywhere, and pay 
 more attention to dress than we do, they number a very 
 small proportion of the entire population. Indeed, a 
 
 261 
 
LANDS OF THE ANDES AND THE DESERT 
 
 survey made a few years ago disclosed the fact that there 
 were not more than a hundred Bolivian families with an 
 income exceeding ten thousand dollars a year. 
 
 Foreign commercial firms in the past have often made 
 the mistake of sending representatives to the plateau to 
 sell merchandise adapted for use in warm countries. A 
 story is told of one salesman who came into Bolivia with 
 huge sample cases packed with all kinds of tropical goods 
 such as he had been selling in Brazil. When he reached 
 the high plateau, imagine his consternation at finding a 
 climate so cold that he was uncomfortable even after he 
 had put on his heaviest clothing. Being obliged to eat 
 in his overcoat was the last straw, and he took the next 
 train back to the coast. Only when it was too late for the 
 knowledge to be of any use to him did he learn that he 
 could have gone over the mountains and down to Cocha- 
 bamba and found a market for all his goods. 
 
 As in Peru, the firm of W. R. Grace and Company has 
 been long a power in Bolivia. It helped to negotiate the 
 first great railroad loan for the country, and through it 
 vame large importations of American machinery, rails, 
 and rolling stock. It was also largely responsible for 
 bringing in the American engineers who laid out the 
 lines and superintended the construction. The firm now 
 has sales agencies in every part of the republic, and its 
 La Paz establishment is the biggest wholesale house in 
 Bolivia. 
 
 During my stay here I have had a talk with the local 
 director of this American company. He was born in 
 Bolivia, and thoroughly understands the people and their 
 needs. He is also well posted as to our American in- 
 terests, having had some experience in the United States 
 
 262 
 
Backwoods Bolivia contains more than half the area of the republic, is 
 six times as big as Illinois, and although now undeveloped is potentially one 
 of the richest agricultural and forest regions in the world. 
 
The coca leaf, which the Indians chew for its narcotic effect, grows on 
 the eastern slopes of the Andean range. Its culture is much like that 
 of tea, which can also be raised here. 
 
DOWNSPOUTS OF THE PLATEAU 
 
 in a diplomatic capacity. I asked him particularly about 
 credit in Bolivia, to which he replied: 
 
 “The Bolivian merchants pay for what they order, and 
 there is no trouble in making collections. The national 
 credit is also good, and has been ever since the first loan 
 made in New York for financing our railroads. Before 
 that time it was almost impossible for us to get money 
 from Europe. When I went to London to borrow a mil- 
 lion dollars to build a railroad from Lake Titicaca to 
 La Paz, | could not get any one to listen to me. After 
 the New York loan was made, the financial powers of 
 Europe began to wake up. They decided that if the 
 credit of Bolivia was good enough for the Americans it 
 ought to be good enough for them, and since then we have 
 had no trouble in borrowing.” 
 
 263 
 
CHAPTER XXIX 
 THE BACKWOODS OF BOLIVIA 
 
 AST of the Andes is a Bolivia that seems almost 
 another world when compared with the high 
 plateau and mountain regions over which I have 
 been travelling. It is the backwoods of the re- 
 
 public, inhabited chiefly by savages, and is almost an 
 unknown land. Nevertheless, it contains more than half 
 the area of the whole country, and is said to be one of the 
 richest regions in the world. 
 
 Trans-Andean Bolivia is one tenth as big as the United 
 States. It is equal to six states the size of Illinois, and 
 is much larger than either Germany or France. It con- 
 sists of fertile plains that slope from the mountains toward 
 the east, south, and north, gradually falling to a general 
 level where the highest points are only about sixteen 
 hundred feet above the sea. The plain loses itself at the 
 north in the Amazon Valley, and at the east and south in 
 the valleys of the Paraguay and the Parana. 
 
 The region is, in fact, a continuation of the great cattle 
 lands of Argentina, Paraguay, and Brazil, and it may 
 eventually furnish a part of the meat supply of the conti- 
 nent. Along the banks of the Pilcomayo River near 
 Paraguay roam thousands of wild cattle, descendants of 
 the stray animals that wandered from the early ranches 
 of northern Argentina. There are wild cattle also in 
 northern Bolivia not far from a tract of five million acres 
 
 264 
 
THE BACKWOODS OF BOLIVIA 
 
 taken up by a Brazilian land and cattle company. That 
 tract has the finest of pasture, and is already stocked with 
 hundreds of thousands of beef cattle. A short extension 
 of the Brazilian railways would reach the Bolivian pasture 
 lands and bring them much nearer the Atlantic seaboard 
 than are our cattle lands west of the Mississippi, from 
 where we have shipped vast quantities of meat to Europe. 
 
 The eastern section of the republic is agriculturally, 
 by far the best part of Bolivia, and may some day support 
 a great population. It is well watered by tributaries of 
 the Amazon and the Paranda, and has sufficient rainfall for 
 crops. The region is one of the largest blocks of good un- 
 developed land in the world, much of it reserabling the 
 prairies of Illinois and Iowa of fifty years ago. The cli- 
 mate is exceptionally healthful. 
 
 Much of eastern Bolivia is still inaccessible and cannot 
 be opened up to colonization until it is tapped by railways. 
 There is now no way to reach these fertile backwoods 
 except on foot or on muleback, and there are no practical 
 means for marketing farm products. Nevertheless, col- 
 onists and land promoters are anticipating the railways 
 that will be built before many years, and more and more 
 land is being taken up by settlers. In 1923, for example, 
 a tract of forty-seven thousand acres not far from the rail- 
 way that is to connect Buenos Aires and La Paz was 
 leased for ninety-nine years by a former congressman of 
 the United States. 
 
 In the southeastern corner of the republic much of the 
 land is a part of the region known as the Gran Chaco, 
 which extends into Paraguay and Argentina. In con- 
 trast with the well-watered region about the Amazon head- 
 waters, it is almost riverless, and will never be important 
 
 265 
 
LANDS OF THE ANDES AND THE DESERT 
 
 agriculturally, Farther west and higher up, however, 
 are grassy rolling plains that are beginning to be stocked 
 with herds of domestic cattle. Cheese is still the only 
 dairy product of any importance, but in some places 
 water-power has been utilized for the manufacture of ice 
 for butter making. This district is not far from the 
 modern farms and villages of northern Argentina, and 
 promises some day to be quite as important. 
 
 [ have already spoken of the projected line from Cocha- 
 bamba to Santa Cruz, which lies in the heart of the oil 
 country, and which will eventually be a great railroad 
 centre. The city is also the centre of the republic geo- 
 graphically. It is now connected with the rail-head at 
 Cochabamba by mule trail and motor road. There are 
 also roads leading from it south to the railway at La 
 Quiaca on the Argentine border, and to Puerto Suarez on 
 the Paraguay River. The first automobile driven over the 
 latter road made the trip in less than five days of actual 
 travelling, although ox carts take from thirty to forty 
 days when the road is in its best condition. In the wet 
 season the government mail carrier rides over the route 
 on the backs of bullocks. 
 
 Although some of the roads of eastern Bolivia are used 
 by motor trucks and automobiles during the dry season, 
 most of them are mere trails that can be followed only on 
 muleback, or at best by the native ox carts. The carts 
 are made entirely of wood and usually proceed through the 
 country accompanied by the rasping creaks of their un- 
 greased wooden axles. During recent years some four- 
 wheeled wagons of foreign manufacture have been brought 
 in. 
 
 East of Cochabamba some of the land is irrigated and 
 
 266 
 
THE BACKWOODS OF BOLIVIA. 
 
 produces large crops of alfalfa, maize, grapes, vegetables, 
 and wheat. Some of the best seed of the United States 
 and Argentina has been imported to encourage the pro- 
 duction of wheat in Bolivia. The Indians of this region 
 have an unusual method of threshing their crop. Two or 
 three native musicianssit on the top of a stack of grain play- 
 ing their weird melodies on reed pipes, while several mules 
 are driven round and round at the base of the stack. 
 Bundles of wheat are thrown down in front of the animals, 
 which trample out the grain with their hoofs. Other In- 
 dians form a circle surrounding the stack, with ropes 
 stretched between them to keep the mules from running 
 away. 
 
 In the same region can be grown cacao and tobacco, and 
 also Indian corn. Indeed, eastern Bolivia promises to be 
 one of the great corn countries of the future. As many as 
 twenty-seven different varieties are grown, some with 
 grains not bigger than those of pop-corn, while the kernels 
 of others are as large as the end of my thumb. 
 
 Eastern Bolivia may also be one of the cotton lands of 
 the future. Farmers who have experimented with seed 
 from America and Egypt find that cotton can be grown 
 up to an altitude of eight or nine thousand feet above the 
 sea. Indeed, some good cotton is being raised both here 
 and in Peru in the depressions of the high plateau and on 
 the slopes that lead down into the valleys. When I 
 asked the governor of the Peruvian department of Cuzco 
 about the agricultural development of the Andean region, 
 he brought out some cotton bolls grown on his own farm. 
 The lint was comparatively short, but was beautifully 
 white and silky. That cotton was planted in January and 
 was ready for picking in August. 
 
 267 
 
LANDS OF THE ANDES AND THE DESERT 
 
 The governor said that tea also grew well there, and 
 that he believed the mountainsides bordering the valley of 
 Cuzco might some day be covered with tea plantations. 
 So far, tea bushes have been cultivated only on a small 
 scale, the seed having been imported from Japan and 
 ‘China. The plants are easily raised, and, as the labour 
 needed costs only a few dollars a month, it is thought that 
 the business can be made a profitable one. 
 
 One of the reasons for the tea experiments has been the 
 hope that it might take the place of coca, which, owing 
 to the fluctuation in the price of cocaine, often yields prac- 
 tically no profits. Coca is raised on vast tracts in Peru 
 and Bolivia, thriving particularly in the temperate alti- 
 tudes of the Yungas. It is set out in terraces, and begins 
 to bear the second year after sprouting. The leaves are 
 then stripped from the shrub, dried and pressed into bales 
 of fifty pounds each, and sent on muleback to La Paz. 
 \Most of the coca of Bolivia is sold to the natives, although 
 considerable quantities are exported to Argentina and 
 Chile, and some to England. 
 
 Another medicinal product of this part of Bolivia is 
 quinine, which is made from the bark of the cinchona tree. 
 Quinine is often called Peruvian bark, as the first used in 
 [Europe came from Peru. For a long time Bolivia and 
 'Peru had a monopoly on quinine productton, and in order 
 to hold it they forbade the sending of cinchona seeds out 
 of the country. However, some were taken to Ceylon and 
 other parts of India, where plantations were started, and 
 within a few years the Indian quinine was competing with 
 that of South America. Later still the seeds were carried 
 to Java, which is now producing most of the quinine of the 
 world. 
 
 268 
 
THE BACKWOODS OF BOLIVIA 
 
 With the development of the plantation product, the' 
 Bolivian bark was unable to hold its former place in the 
 world market, and the fall in prices brought financial ruin 
 to many Bolivians. The bark at one time was so cheap 
 that it did not pay to cut it and carry it to the markets. 
 Although the industry has now revived somewhat here, it 
 still yields only a small profit. 
 
 The great forests in which the cinchona trees are found 
 cover about one fifth of trans-Andean Bolivia, and contain 
 timber as good as any in South America. The cabinet 
 woods include ebony, walnut, mahogany, cedar, and 
 quebracho. Some of it is so hard it will turn the edge of an 
 ax, and most of it takes a beautiful polish. Many varieties 
 are so heavy that the logs will not float. 
 
 The forest regions contain so many rubber trees that 
 Bolivia ranks next to Brazil in the total production of 
 South America. The rubber comes from two varieties 
 of trees. One has to be cut down to yield its latex, or sap, 
 while the other is tapped. The usual procedure is to tap 
 the trees for a certain number of years and then let them 
 remain idle for a like period. The trees grow wild on 
 millions of acres in northern Bolivia across the border from 
 the great rubber lands of Brazil, and when the region 
 is opened up by railroads the annual yield of the country 
 will be increased many times. Even now rubber ranks 
 next to minerals among Bolivia’s exports, although the 
 fact that the country has no seaport has caused much of 
 its product in the past to be marketed as Par4 rubber, from 
 the Brazilian port through which most of it is exported. 
 
 I have heard many stories about the Indians and the 
 wild animals of the vast unexplored backwoods country 
 that slopes down to the Amazon Valley. In crossing 
 
 269 
 
LANDS OF THE ANDES AND THE DESERT 
 Lake Titicaca, I travelled with an American railroad 
 contractor engaged on one of the lines now under con- 
 struction. He had been taking a vacation of two or three 
 months, and had just returned from a gold-prospecting 
 tour along the Madre de Dios, one of the tributaries of the 
 Amazon. Travelling on foot, he followed the course of 
 that river through lands known only to the Indians. 
 Starting from Cuzco with a guide, an interpreter, and eight 
 Indians, he crossed mountains more than sixteen thousand 
 feet high, making his way from their glaciers and perpetual 
 snows down into a tropical jungle less than a half mile 
 above sea level. 
 
 As we sat in the rude hotel at Guaqui, my companion 
 told me something of the animal life he had seen. He said 
 that the country swarms with game, including wild 
 turkeys. Their meat is excellent and tastes like that of 
 our wild turkey. In the woods are droves of peccaries, or 
 wild hogs, and also tapirs and jaguars. The jaguars came 
 around the camp at night, and were seen now and then 
 as the party made its way through the forest. 
 
 As much of the journey was along the banks of the river, 
 all that was necessary whenever a fish dinner was wanted 
 was to explode a dynamite cap in the water. A moment 
 later the surface would be covered with dead fish, some as 
 long as a man’s arm, and of a delicious flavour. Besides 
 their various finny inhabitants, these streams are alive 
 with alligators. These reptiles are dangerous, and the 
 natives will not go into the waters they infest. 
 
 Most of the Indians of backwoods Bolivia are not 
 friendly to foreigners. Their chief weapons are bows and 
 arrows, but they do not seem to have any knowledge of 
 the use of poison on the latter. ‘The members of one of the 
 
 270 
 
The peoples of the upper Amazon basin are still very primitive, and 
 have had little contact with whites. Here they are making a wedding 
 ceremony binding by smashing one stone upon another. 
 
Some of the trans-Andean tribes live chiefly upon game, which they 
 hunt with bows and arrows. At times they paint their faces and engage 
 in ceremonial dances and orgies of drinking a fermented liquor. 
 
THE BACKWOODS OF BOLIVIA 
 
 tribes, the Yuracarés, live in family groups. The boys 
 marry at sixteen and the girls at fourteen. If the first 
 child born to a couple is a girl, it is allowed to starve to 
 death. They seem to have no gods or objects of worship, 
 but at frequent intervals they hold a ceremony in which 
 they decorate themselves with gay costumes, paint their 
 faces with blue or black spots, and indulge in songs and 
 dances. 
 
 The gayety of the celebration is usually increased by 
 liberal drinks of an intoxicating liquor made from the 
 yucca plant. In making it, they peel and cook the roots of 
 that vegetable and then chew them as corn is chewed in the 
 preparation of chicha. The saliva-soaked mixture, when 
 thinned with water, soon starts to ferment. 
 
 Missions have been established to civilize the Yuracarés 
 but with no great success. These Indians are compara- 
 tively tractable, and learn to cultivate the soil and follow 
 the white man’s customs, but a family is liable at any time 
 to run off and revert to the savage mode of living. It is 
 said that salt is one of the chief factors in keeping the 
 Indians at the missions. If they stay long enough to be- 
 come accustomed to its use, they cannot withstand their 
 craving for it when they return to the wilds. 
 
 Another tribe of eastern Bolivia is that of the warlike 
 Sirionés. Their food is largely game, and they hunt with 
 bows and arrows so powerful that they have to use both 
 hands and feet to shoot them. Farther south are the 
 peaceful Chiriguanos, who paint their faces and bodies 
 with gaudy colours, and wear plugs or buttons in their lips. 
 None of these lowland Indians wear as many clothes as do 
 the Quichuas and Aymaras of the cold plateau, and they 
 are generally more cleanly. They bathe frequently in the 
 
 271 
 
LANDS OF THE ANDES AND THE DESERT 
 
 streams, and wash their garments by pounding them be- 
 tween stones. 
 
 At present, these wild tribes have but little contact 
 with the white man, and for the most part are still free to 
 live as they please. Their descendants, however, will 
 undoubtedly see all their country opened up by the forces 
 of our money-making civilization and the heart of the 
 South American continent yielding up food and other prod- 
 ucts for the satisfaction of the wants of mankind. The 
 great progress already made in the more developed por- 
 tions of these countries in the years between my trips here 
 is only an indication of the even greater things to come. 
 
 272 
 
INDEX 
 
Pa 4 
 
 aia’ tur 
 
 « eRe atl iN ra Iemerees 
 
 & 
 ean 
 
 atl yar 
 rey: he ANI Nee 
 Mure nin 
 
 Or aie ay 
 
 hl) iy 
 
 My ‘ ue 
 in , a \ a a 
 ‘i Meeny FAY 
 
 irae aia Na ee AA ag 
 ae tat has Aah RM eae hs ae 
 ae ih Hen ib ehh Ais ty Ane ; anes a 
 
 a 
 
 Too cy, 1 
 , ee 4 
 
 ey Ais A) i 
 A ituoag t 444 ' 
 met Wacpuel pati wie 
 Bont he Bie Ais oH) oH Mee ; 
 Wuatby oa wh PAT Oy =| 
 ese ih ty oy, Nei 
 
 PaUaEY 
 
 He seirateal va 
 
 I; fe Maia ‘ 
 
INDEX 
 
 Agricultural Association of Ecuador, 
 organization of, 40. 
 
 Agricultural experiments on the high 
 Andes, 138. 
 
 Agriculture, in Bolivia, 260. 
 
 Aguarunas, warlike Indians of Ecua- 
 dor, 59. 
 
 Airplanes, development of mail and 
 passenger traffic, 2; service between 
 Barranquilla, Girardot, and Bogota, 
 12; rates for passengers and mail, 
 13; Colombian War Department 
 establishes national school of avia- 
 tion, 13; newspaper delivery service 
 inaugurated by El Telégrafo at 
 Guayaquil, 29; air routes being 
 developed in Bolivia, 253. 
 
 Alcohol, natives become slaves to, 174 
 et seq.; how sold, 177. 
 
 Alpacas, and their wool, 143; domesti- 
 cated by the Incas, 147. 
 
 Amazon, proposed railway from Oro- 
 ya, Peru, to tributaries of, 101. 
 
 American goods, in Peru, 89, 106. 
 
 American Institute at La Paz, of great 
 service to the Indian, 229. 
 
 Andes, wonderful formations of the, 
 124. 
 
 Antioquia province, chief gold region 
 of Colombia, 18. 
 
 Antofagasta, formerly Bolivian ter- 
 ritory, 257. 
 
 Antofagasta and Bolivian Railway, 
 
 ‘ one of the famous scenic routes of 
 the world, 254. 
 
 Arequipa, metropolis of 
 Peru, 127 et seq. 
 
 Argentina, comparative size, 3. 
 
 Arica, important port and strategic 
 point, 259. 
 
 Astronomical observatory of Harvard 
 University at Arequipa, 132. 
 
 Astronomy, of the Incas, 148. 
 
 Atahualpa, Inca king, killed by 
 Pizarro, 71, 148. 
 
 southern 
 
 Automobiles, in Guayaquil, 25. 
 
 Aymara Indians, their legends of the 
 Creation, and the Flood, 220; their 
 ancient history and present con- 
 dition, 223 et seq. 
 
 Bailey, Professor, establishes meteor- 
 ological station on Mount Misti, in 
 Peru, 134. 
 
 Bananas, production of and value of 
 foreign trade in, of Colombia, 15. 
 Bandelier, Professor Adolph,  re- 
 searches in ruins of Tiahuanaco, 218. 
 Barranca Bermeja, oil refinery estab- 
 lished at, by American corporation, 
 
 21; 
 
 Barranquilla, distance from New 
 York, 11. 
 
 Beni River, Bolivia, much gold washed 
 from, 248. 
 
 Bingham, Professor Hiram, discovers 
 ruins of Mechu-Picchu, 154. 
 
 Bismuth, the world market controlled 
 by Bolivia, 250. 
 
 Blow-gun, favourite weapon of Ecua- 
 dor Indians, 57. 
 
 Boats, formed of reeds, used on Lake 
 Titicaca, 191. . 
 
 Bodegas, a town built in the water, 35. 
 
 Bogota, beauty of the airplane route 
 to, 13; history of city and points of 
 interest, 14. 
 
 Bolivar, Simon, the Emancipator, 196. 
 
 Bolivia, comparative size, 3; the Tibet 
 of South America, 184 ef seq.; at- 
 tains independence, 196; its size 
 
 - and resources, 197; The President 
 and government branches, 201; a 
 ride on the government mail coach, 
 235; the great tin mines, 240 ef seq.; 
 weakness of her mining laws, 250; 
 extent of the railroad system, 252; 
 extent of trade with Great Britain, 
 259, with United States, 261; credit 
 of merchants excellent in Europe 
 
 279 
 
INDEX 
 
 and the United States, 263; the 
 rich lands in the backwoods of the 
 republic, 264 et seq. 
 
 Borden, Uriah H., donor of astronomi- 
 cal observatory at Arequipa to 
 Harvard University, 133. 
 
 Bows and arrows, the chief weapons of 
 Bolivian Indians, 270. 
 
 Brazil, comparative size, 3. 
 
 Bubonic plague, prevalent in Guaya- 
 rte 29, until city cleaned up by 
 
 eneral Gorgas, 31. 
 
 Bucay, railroad town in Ecuador, 46. 
 
 Buenaventura, chief Pacific port of 
 Colombia, 11. 
 
 Bull-fighting, in Lima, 76. 
 
 Buried treasure of the Incas, stories of, 
 165 ef seq. 
 
 Caamafio Tenguel Estate, largest 
 cacao plantation in Ecuador, 41. 
 Cachibos, cannibal Indians in Peru, 
 
 58. 
 
 Cacao, its production, and export, 39. 
 
 Cajamarca, Peru, ancient city of the 
 Incas, 71. 
 
 Cali, metropolis of Cauca Valley, 
 Colombia, 12. 
 
 Callao, Peru, port of entry for Lima, 
 
 , Qi. 
 Canar, Ecuador, silver deposits at, 
 
 34- 
 
 Cannibalism, among Indians of the 
 Andes, 58. 
 
 Casapalca, station on Central Rail- 
 way of Peru, too. 
 
 Cathedral of Cuzco, one of the finest 
 in South America, 157, 158; story 
 of its building, 166. 
 
 Catholicism, principal religion in 
 Ecuador, 49. 
 
 Cats, a rarity in La Paz, 210. 
 
 Cattle, on the Peruvian plateau, 140, 
 in Trans-Andean Bolivia, 264. | 
 Cauca River Valley, one of the most 
 beautiful and productive regions of 
 
 South America, 11. 
 
 Central Railway of Peru, highest rail- 
 road in the world, 93 et seg.; gravity 
 car trip down the Andes, 121. 
 
 Cerro de Pasco, mining town on the 
 top of the Andes, 104, et seq. 
 
 Cerro de Pasco Copper Corporation, 
 an American syndicate, 104, 113. 
 
 Cerro de Pasco silver and copper 
 
 mines, 95, 112, ef seg.; copper prac- 
 tically a by-product, 247. 
 
 Chachani, Mount, near Arequipa, 
 Peru, 129, meteorological station 
 formerly on, 133. 
 
 Chagres fever, prevalence at Guaya- 
 quil, 30. 
 
 Chalona, dried mutton preserved 
 through a freezing process, 225. 
 
 Chibchas, once a highly developed 
 race now slaves to alcohol and the 
 coca leaf, 174. 
 
 Chicha, the native intoxicant, 178. 
 
 Chicken yards on the roofs, a custom 
 in Lima, Peru, 78. 
 
 Child “‘slavery,”’ in Peru and Bolivia, 
 224. 
 
 Chile, comparative size, 3, wars with 
 Bolivia and Peru for possession of 
 nitrate fields, 257. 
 
 Chilean State Railways, line opened 
 up from Arica to La Paz, 258. 
 
 Chimborazo, Mount, overlooking 
 Guayaquil, 25; sulphur deposits of, 
 34 
 
 Chirimoya, a strange fruit in the La 
 Paz markets, 206 
 
 Chocolate, introduced into Europe 
 by Cortés, 41 
 
 Cholas, the, of La Paz, 207 
 
 Chorillos, Bay of, summer resort of 
 Lima, Peru, 79 
 
 Chosica, winter resort of Lima, Peru, 
 79; summer resort, 99 
 
 Chuiotto, Antonio, founds industrial 
 mission school for Bolivian Indians, 
 
 227 
 
 Chulic, modern village of the Cerro 
 de Pasco Copper Corporation, 117 
 
 Chulpas, mummies of the, in La Paz 
 museum, 222 
 
 Chuiio, frozen and dried potatoes, 162; 
 in the La Paz markets, 206 
 
 Chuquiaquillo gold mine, near La 
 Paz, production of, 248 
 
 Churches of Cuzco, great number of, 
 156, 157 
 
 Coal, abundant in Colombia, 24 
 
 Coasting down the Andes by rail, 120 
 
 Coati, or Island of the Moon, in Lake 
 Titicaca, 190 
 
 Coca, the source of cocaine, 161; the 
 curse of the present-day Indian, 
 174 et seq.; its use by the Incas, 176; 
 how marketed and used, 177; an 
 
 276 
 
INDEX 
 
 important export of Bolivia, 259; 
 great tracts devoted to culture, in 
 Bolivia, and Peru, 268 
 
 Cochabamba, largest town, next to La 
 Paz, in Bolivia, 200 
 
 Cocoa, possibilities in Colombia, 15 
 
 Coffee, chief crop of Colombia, 15; 
 important export of Ecuador, 42; 
 an important product of Bolivia, 
 
 259 
 
 Colombia, size, topography and cli- 
 mate, 9; relative distances from the 
 United States, 10; establishes mod- 
 ern fiscal system with American 
 treaty payments, 10; early settle- 
 ment, 14; agricultural resources, 14; 
 great need of railways, 16; most 
 of country’s freight transported on 
 river systems, 16; chief gold- 
 producing country of the Spanish 
 possessions, 18; second country in 
 the world in production of platinum, 
 20; development of rich petroleum 
 fields, 21; produces world’s supply 
 of emeralds under State monopoly, 
 
 22 
 
 Copacabana, shrine of Our Lady of, 
 at Lake Titicaca, 187 
 
 Copper, chief mines of Bolivia, 248; 
 Bolivian product chiefly exported 
 through Arica, 259 
 
 Corn, with kernels of immense size, in 
 Peru and Bolivia, 85, 162, 205, 267; 
 possibilities of great production in 
 Bolivia, 267 
 
 Corocoro, centre of copper-producing 
 section, Bolivia, 248 
 
 Cotopaxi, highest active volcano, 25 
 
 Cotton, grown in Colombia, 15; large 
 crops of in oasis of Peruvian desert, 
 66; of fine grade, 68; possibilities of 
 great production in Bolivia, 267 
 
 Crucero Alto, highest pass on South- 
 ern Railway of Peru, 136 
 
 Cuzco, the ancient capital of the 
 Incas, 145 et seq.; the city of to-day, 
 156 et seq. 
 
 De Ulloa, Antonio, makes early report 
 of platinum discoveries in Colombia, 
 
 20 
 Desaguadero River, outlet of Lake 
 Titicaca, 186 
 Desert of Peru, location and extent, 
 _ 64 at seq. 
 
 Duck shooting on Lake Titicaca, 192; 
 Duran, terminal of Guayaquil and 
 Quito Railroad, 46 
 
 PARP iaes of the Indians of the Andes, 
 
 Ecuador, comparative size, 3; trade 
 with the United States, 28; size and 
 topography, 32; minerals, 33; form 
 of government, 50 
 
 Education, of the natives in Peru, 184; 
 in Bolivia, 230 
 
 El Telégrafo, inaugurates newspaper 
 delivery by airplane from Guaya- 
 quil, 29 
 
 Emeralds, practically aH of world’s 
 supply produced in Colombia, 21 
 
 Eten, Peru, passengers landed under 
 difficulties at, 71 
 
 Farm implements, of the Peruvian 
 Indians, 138 
 
 Farming on the Andean plateaus, 136 
 et seq. 
 
 Fire worship of the Incas, 149 
 
 Fish, varieties in Lima markets, 86 
 
 Frick, Henry C., interested in Cerro 
 de Pasco Copper Corporation, 113 
 
 Fruits and vegetables, of the Lima 
 markets, 85; in great variety at 
 Arequipa, Peru, 130; in La Paz 
 markets, 206 
 
 Fuel, scarcity of, in Bolivia, 208 
 
 Galapagos Islands, strangest in the 
 world, 51; of strategic importance, 
 
 53 
 
 Galera Tunnel, on Central Railway of 
 Peru, 100 
 
 German army aviators, in the air- 
 plane service between Colombian 
 cities, 12 
 
 German trade in Peru, reéstablish- 
 ment of, 89 
 
 Gold, the rich mines of Colombia ante- 
 date Spanish conquest, 18; rich 
 deposits in Peru, 103, 118; stories 
 of the buried treasure of the Incas, 
 165 et seg.; production of Bolivian 
 mines, 248 
 
 Golf, at La Paz, 212 
 
 Gorgas, Colonel William C., in co- . 
 operation with Rockefeller Foun- 
 dation cleans up Guayaquil, 31 
 
 Grace, W. R., & Co., chief American 
 
 277 
 
INDEX 
 
 business firm on South American 
 west coast, 90; a power in Bolivia, 
 202. 
 
 Guaqui, on Lake Titicaca, 186, 194. 
 
 Guatavita, sacred lake of the gold 
 offerings, 19. 
 
 Guayaquil, the city and its people, 25; 
 as a commercial port, 28; city 
 known as “‘the pest hole of the 
 Pacific,” 29, until cleaned up by 
 General Gorgas, 31. 
 
 Guayaquil and Quito Railroad, a 
 journey over, 46; difficulties in road 
 building, 47. 
 
 Guayas, largest river on western side 
 of South America, 27. 
 
 Guggenheim tin properties, in Bolivia, 
 245. 
 
 Guinea pigs, as food in Lima, 86. 
 
 Gutiérrez, Garcfa, treasure found by, 
 166. 
 
 Haciendas of the Andean plateau, 180. 
 Haggin, J. B., interested in Cerro de 
 Pasco Copper Corporation, 113. 
 Harman, Archer, builder of Guaya- 
 
 quil and Quito Railroad, 47. 
 
 Harvard University astronomical ob- 
 servatory at Arequipa, 132. 
 
 Hides, an important export of Bolivia, 
 259. 
 
 Horse-racing, a rival of bull-fighting in 
 Lima, 76. 
 
 Hotels, of Peru, go. 
 
 Huachipairis, curious Indian tribe in 
 Peru, 59. 
 
 Huallatiri, Mount, snow-clad peak of 
 Bolivia, 198. 
 
 Huancavelica, Peru, mercury mines 
 at, 118. 
 
 Huancayo, end of Central Railway 
 of Peru, 95, 100. 
 
 Huanchaca_ silver mines, Bolivia, 
 worked before Spanish Conquest, 
 247. 
 
 Huigra, railroad town in Ecuador, 46. 
 
 Huts, of the native Indians, 179. 
 
 Illimani, Mount, or “Snow Mountain,” 
 194. 
 
 Inca Chronicle, monthly magazine 
 published at Cerro de Pasco, Peru, 
 108. 
 
 ayer a Company, gold mines of, 
 118. 
 
 Incas, ancient civilization of the, 145. 
 
 Indians, of Ecuador, religious belief 
 and customs, 59; their life on the 
 haciendas in practical peonage, 181; 
 of eastern Bolivia, 270. 
 
 Industrial mission school, of great 
 help to Bolivian Indians, 227. 
 
 Investments, of Americans in South 
 American bonds, 4. 
 
 Ipecac, important export of Colombia, 
 15. 
 
 Iquitos, Peru, one of the chief rubber 
 ports of the world, 102. 
 
 Irrigation, in Rimac Valley, Peru, 99; 
 along Vilcanota River in Peru, 139; 
 ancient irrigating canals of the 
 Incas, 147, in Bolivia, 266. 
 
 Island of the Moon, or Coati, in Lake 
 Titicaca, 1go. 
 
 Island of the Sun, in Lake Titicaca, 
 189. 
 
 Ivory nuts, an important export of 
 Ecuador, 43; of Peru, 102. 
 
 Jequetepeque Valley, Peru, site of 
 ancient civilization at, 74. 
 
 Jivaro Indians, and their custom of 
 curing heads, 54 et seq. 
 
 Juliaca, station at fork of Southern 
 Railway of Peru, 136. 
 
 Labour, condition of the native, 181 
 et seq. 
 
 Lake Pampa Aullagas, or Lake Poopo, 
 186, 187. 
 
 Lake Titicaca, oil wells at, 69; highest 
 steam-navigated body of water, 186 
 et seq. 
 
 Lake Urcos, buried treasure of, 165. 
 
 La Paz, commercial centre of Bolivia, 
 194; Sunday the great market day, 
 202; the American Institute and 
 its good work, 229; school of avia- 
 tion established at, 254. 
 
 La Paz Cathedral, in course of erec- 
 tion for eighty years, 211. 
 
 La Paz-Antofagasta railway, trip 
 over, to Oruro, 233. 
 
 Lima, the capital of Peru, 75 et 
 seq.; the shops and markets, 84 et 
 seq. 
 
 Liquor, a curse to the modern native, 
 174 et seq. 
 
 Llallagua tin mine, Bolivia, produc- 
 tion of 243. 
 
 278 
 
 ~ a 
 
INDEX 
 
 Llamas, domesticated by the Incas, 
 147; beast of burden of the Andes, 
 100, 105, 141, 208. 
 
 Llama manure, chief fuel of La Paz 
 208, 209; as fuel for the tin mines at 
 Oruro, 241. 
 
 Lobitos oil fields, in Peru, 69. 
 
 Machu-Picchu, ruins of ancient Inca 
 city, 154. 
 
 Malaria, continuously prevalent in 
 Guayaquil, 29, until eradicated by 
 General Gorgas, 31. 
 
 Manco Ccapac, the first great Inca 
 ruler, 145; his palace at Cuzco, 151, 
 152; the sacred rock of, in Lake 
 Titicaca, 189. 
 
 Markets and shops, of Lima, 84 ef 
 seq.; of Cuzco, 161; of La Paz, 202. 
 
 Matarani, proposed as new port of 
 entry for Arequipa, Peru, 127. 
 
 Matucana, station on Central Railway 
 of Peru, 100. 
 
 Meals, on shipboard, 8. 
 
 Meiggs, Henry, builder of steel pier at 
 Pacasmayo, 71; of Central Railway 
 of Peru, 95. 
 
 Melgarejo, former dictator of Bolivia, 
 cause of severance of diplomatic 
 relations with Great Britain, 260. 
 
 Mercury mines, at MHuancavelica, 
 Peru, 118. 
 
 Meteorological station, removed from 
 Mt. Chachani to Mt. Misti, 133. 
 Methodist Episcopal Church, estab- 
 lishes American Institute at La Paz, 
 229, secondary school at Cocha- 
 
 bamba, 230. 
 
 Metropolitan Cathedral, Sucre, wealth- 
 iest in Bolivia, 201. 
 
 Military service compulsory in Bolivia, 
 
 227. 
 
 Misti, Mount, great volcano near 
 Arequipa, 129; Harvard University 
 astronomical observatory on, 132; 
 meteorological station removed to, 
 133; height of, 133; slope covered 
 with lava, 136. 
 
 Mollendo, port of entry for Arequipa, 
 Peru, 127. 
 
 Morococha mines, at the top of the 
 Andes, 94. 
 
 Mosquitoes, responsible for malaria 
 and yellow fever epidemics at 
 Guayaquil, 31. 
 
 Mummies, of ancient races of Peru, 
 73; in La Paz museum, 222. 
 
 Muzo, emerald mines at, worked 
 under Colombian government mon- 
 opoly, 22. 
 
 Oases, irrigated, in the Peruvian 
 desert, 66. 
 
 Oil, development of industry in 
 Colombia, 21; Santa Elena of 
 
 fields, Ecuador, 34; wells and re- 
 fineries in Peru, 69; the deposits in 
 Bolivia, 249. 
 
 Oil-burning locomotives on Ecuador 
 railway, 46; on Central Railway of 
 Peru, 96. 
 
 Ollantaytambo, Inca ruins of, 154. 
 
 “One-way”’ highways in the Andes, 
 101. 
 
 Oroya, on Central Railway of Peru, 
 100. 
 
 Oruro, trip to from La Paz, 232; an 
 unattractive city, 234; the great 
 tin mines at, 241. 
 
 Our Lady of Copacabana, shrine of 
 at Lake Titicaca, 187. 
 
 Pacasmayo, Peru, has steel pier and 
 railroad, 71. 
 
 Paco-vicufia, cross between the al- 
 paca and vicufia, 144. 
 
 Paintings, in Cathedral of Cuzco, 158. 
 
 Paita, in the desert section of Peru, 67, 
 
 Pampa Aullagas, or Lake Poopo, 186. 
 
 Panama, attains independence from 
 Colombia, 10; great yellow fever 
 epidemic of 1905, 30. 
 
 Panama hats, production in Colombia, 
 15; sold by the natives at Guaya- 
 quil, 27; made in Ecuador Colom- 
 bia, and Peru, not Panama, 70; how 
 made, 71. 
 
 Pan-American railway route, amount 
 completed, 256. 
 
 Papayas, in Guayaquil markets, 27. 
 
 _ Paraguay, comparative size, 3. 
 
 Parana, potentially the world’s richest 
 bread basket, 4. 
 
 Parinacota, Mount, snow-clad peak of 
 Bolivia, 198. 
 
 Patifio, Simon lI., 
 Bolivia, 243. 
 
 Peddlers, women and men, of Peru, 87. 
 
 Penny, Andrew, made fortune in 
 Bolivian tin mine, 244. 
 
 “tin king” of 
 
 279 
 
INDEX 
 
 Peonage, in Ecuador, 62; on Andean 
 haciendas, 181. 
 
 Pepper, use in food of Peruvians, 86. 
 
 Peru, comparative size and topo- 
 graphy, 64; the great desert district, 
 65; the president, cabinet, and 
 legislative branches, 83. 
 
 Peruvian Corporation, plans to de- 
 velop agricultural resources of 
 Andean plateau, 138. 
 
 Petroleum, principal fields of Colom- 
 bia, 21; Santa Elena oil fields, in 
 Ecuador, 34; wells and refineries 
 in Peru, 69; deposits in Bolivia, 
 249. | , 
 
 Pichincha, active volcano near Quito, 
 
 47. 
 Piura Valley, rich desert oasis in Peru, 
 
 ye 
 
 Pizarro, lands in Ecuador on way to 
 conquer Peru, 26; his bones on 
 exhibit in Cathedral at Lima, 80. 
 
 Platinum, large deposits of, in Colom- 
 bia, 20. 
 
 Pneumonia, danger of, in high alti- 
 tudes, 111. 
 
 Poisoned arrows, used by Indians of 
 Ecuador, 57, 58; unknown to those 
 of Bolivia, 270. 
 
 Pomarapi, Mount, snow-clad peak of 
 Bolivia, 198. 
 
 Potatoes, largely used in Peruvian 
 menu, 86; Peru the natural home 
 of, 162; red, white, and pink, in 
 Bolivia, 206. 
 
 Potosi, the great silver-mining centre 
 of Bolivia, 246. 
 
 Pottery, of the ancient Incas, 148. 
 
 Puno, on Lake Titicaca, 188. 
 
 Quichuas, chief church-goers of Peru, 
 159; once a highly developed race, 
 now slaves to alcohol and the coca 
 leaf, 174. 
 
 Quinine, an important export of 
 Bolivia, 259; yields only small 
 profit, 268 
 
 Quisere River, Bolivia, gold being 
 found in, 249. 
 
 Quito, airplane service to and from 
 Guayaquil, 29; capital of Ecuador, 
 45, 47- 
 
 Radio towers, on San Crist6bal hill 
 overlooking Lima, 75. 
 
 Railroad, the highest, in the world, 
 93 et seq. 
 
 Railroads, tracks submerged by sand 
 in Peruvian desert, 67; their devel- 
 opment in Bolivia, 252 ef seq. 
 
 Reeds, used for making boats, ropes, 
 and baskets by Lake Titicaca 
 Indians, 191. 
 
 Religion, more freedom in worship 
 in Peru, 82; of the people of the 
 
 Andes, 159. 
 
 Religious beliefs of Indians of the 
 Andes, 59. 
 
 Revolutions, frequently occurring in 
 Ecuador, 51. 
 
 Rimac River, glacial stream flowing 
 through Lima, 76. 
 
 Rimac Valley, agriculture in, 98. 
 
 Rock Forest, a wonderful formation 
 in the Andes, 125. 
 
 Rockefeller Foundation, codperates 
 with Colonel Gorgas in cleaning up 
 Guayaquil, 31. 
 
 Rodadero, the, toboggan slide of the 
 Incas, 154. 
 
 Roller coaster trip down the Andes, 
 
 120. 
 
 Rubber, grown in Colombia, 15; im- 
 portant export of Ecuador, 42; of 
 Peru, 102, 103; of Bolivia, 259; 
 extent of the wild forests, 269. 
 
 Ruins, of ancient Inca buildings, 149 
 et seqg.; of ancient peoples, in Peru, 
 
 73- 
 Ruminagui, buries Inca treasure of 
 
 Quito, 169. 
 
 Sacsahuaman, ancient fortifications of, 
 at Cuzco, 151, 152. 
 
 Sajama, Mount, high peak of Bolivia, 
 198; Indian legend of, 233. 
 
 Salaverry, Peru, important sugar ex- 
 porting town, 73. 
 
 Salt, its effect on civilization of the 
 Bolivian Indians, 271. 
 
 Salvadora tin mine, Bolivia, produc- 
 tion of, 243. 
 
 iui) Cristébal, hill overlooking Lima, 
 
 Sant Lorenzo, island of, Peru, 75, 91. 
 
 Santa Cruz, centre of production of 
 Bolivian oil fields, 249; prospects 
 for great future, 266. 
 
 Sea food, of the Lima markets, 86. 
 
 Sheep, on the Peruvian plateau, 140. 
 
 280 
 
INDEX 
 
 Shops and markets of Lima, 84 ef seq. 
 
 Sicuani, town on Southern Railway of 
 Peru, 136. 
 
 Silver mining, in Bolivia, 246. 
 
 Sironés, warlike tribe of Indians in 
 eastern Bolivia, 271. 
 
 Soroche, or mountain sickness, 96, 1009, 
 
 258. 
 
 Southern Railway of Peru, head- 
 quarters at Arequipa, 130. 
 
 Squier, Ephraim George, researches 
 in ruins of Tiahuanaco, 218. 
 
 Standard Oil Company, purchases 
 huge tract in Bolivian oil fields, 
 249. 
 
 Stock raising, on the Peruvian plateau, 
 140. 
 
 Stone masonry, remarkable, of the 
 Incas, 151, 152. 
 
 Sucre, legal capital of Bolivia, 200. 
 
 Sugar, large crops of in Peru, 66. 
 
 Talara, petroleum shipping port of 
 Peru, 69. 
 
 Tamboraque, the beginning of vege- 
 tation, on arid Andes, 
 
 eee es of culture in Bolivia, 
 
 268. 
 Temple of the Sun, Aztec structure at 
 Cuzco, 149; the treasures of, 166. 
 Tenguel, a cacao town in Ecuador, 
 
 41. 
 
 Tiahuanaco, ruins of the oldest city 
 in the Americas, 214 ef seq. 
 
 Ticlio, highest point on world’s highest 
 tailroad, 94, 100; coasting down the 
 Andes from, 121. 
 
 Tin, the great mines of Bolivia, 240 
 et seq. 
 
 Titicaca Island, or Island of the Sun, 
 
 189. 
 
 Titicaca, Lake, oil wells at, 69; high- 
 ae steam-navigated body of water, 
 186. 
 
 Tonka bean, production of in Colom- 
 bia and uses of, 15. 
 
 Torture stones of the Inquisition, 151. 
 
 Transportation in Ecuador, difficul- 
 ties and high cost, 45, 50. 
 
 Treaty of Anc6n, giving Peruvian 
 territory to Chile, 257. 
 
 Trujillo, Peru, founded by Pizarro, 73. 
 
 Tumbez oil wells, in Peru, 69. 
 
 Tungsten, Bolivia the greatest source 
 of, 250. 
 
 Tupac Amaru, Inca beheaded at 
 Cuzco by Spaniards, 156. 
 
 Urbina, highest station on Ecuador 
 railroad, 47. 
 Urcos, stories of treasure buried at, 
 
 165. 
 
 Valverde, manuscript of, describing 
 hiding place of Atahualpa’s treasure, 
 172. 
 
 Vanadium mines, in Peru, 119. 
 
 Vegetable ivory, an important export 
 of Ecuador, 43. 
 
 Vegetables and fruits of the Lima 
 markets, 85; in great variety at 
 Arequipa, Peru, 130; in La Paz 
 markets, 206. 
 
 Vicufias and their valuable wool, 143. 
 
 Vilcanota River, Peru, irrigated farms 
 along, 139. 
 
 Vitcos, Inca ruins at, 154. 
 
 Water, supplied by peddlers in Peru, 
 
 7. 
 
 West Coast Leader, an American news- 
 paper enterprise in Lima, go. 
 
 Wild animal life of eastern Bolivia, 
 
 270. 
 
 Witch doctors, travelling, of the 
 Andes, 232. 
 
 Women, more freedom for, in Peru, 
 82; as peddlers, in Peru, 87; the 
 Indian, of Peru, 107; in the Oruro 
 tin mines, 241. 
 
 Wool, Arequipa the chief market of 
 Peru, 130; from the high Andes, 
 
 141. 
 
 Yellow fever, for centuries continually 
 present in Guayaquil, 29; eradicated 
 by General Gorgas, 31. 
 
 Yumbos, peaceable Indians of Ecuador, 
 
 iyi) 
 Yungas, the, a district of fertile 
 
 valleys in Bolivia, 199. 
 Yuracarés, customs of, 
 Bolivia, 271. 
 
 in eastern 
 
 Zaruma gold mines, Ecuador, 34. 
 Zarritos, Peru, oil refinery at, 69. 
 
 281 
 
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