v> , *,,' < * T^ETVER^T YALE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY ALONG THE ANDES AND DOWN THE AMAZON I Jf OGEBgEQN . OF CoSPTJS CbLRISTI IN THE PLAZA DE ARMAS, CtJZCO. THE ChTJRCH AT THE LEFT IS THE CATHEDRAL, FOLLOWING THE CONQUISTADORES ALONG THE ANDES AND DOWN THE AMAZON BY H. J. MOZANS, A.M., Ph.D. AUTHOR OF "DP THE ORINOCO AND DOWN THE MAGDALENa" WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY COLONEL THEODORE ROOSEVELT ILLUSTRATED NEW YORK AND LONDON D. APPLET ON AND COMPANY 1911 COPYRIGHT, 1911, BY D. APPLETON AND COMPANY Published June, 1911 \ — . Published in the United States of America TO MY FRIEND OF MANY YEARS CHAELBS M. SCHWAB IN TOKEN OF ADMIRATION AND AFFECTION "The exploits of the conquistadores of America were so stupendous, so fabulous, that no epic could do them justice, no narrative, however faith ful, complete or masterly, could portray the reality. It is necessary to have been born and to have lived a long time in America and to know the Andes, the deserts, the forests, the rivers, the morasses, the coasts, the climates, of this part of the world, where everything is colossal; to compare the formid able obstacles, which still exist, with the far greater ones overcome by the Spaniards, in order to form an adequate idea of the prodigious daring, hero ism and inflexibility of the conquistadores. All the impetuosity of the con queror of the Moor, the indomitable tenacity of the Arragonese, the patient and silent constancy of the Castilian, who fought and died with a jest on his lips, the vehement curiosity and passion of the Andalusian, the cold and calculating perseverance of the Catalonian and the Basque, were exhibited in that struggle of a handful of Titans engaged in the conquest of a world of exuberant heat and life, force and majesty, riches and population, novelty and marvels. ... In that epoch all was great, the good and the bad, iniquity and virtue, force and resistance, but the greatness of force was in man1 while that of resistance was in nature." Jos6 M. Samper, Ensayo sobre las Revoluoiones, Cap. I. Vll INTRODUCTION This book is, in a sense, the sequel of a book by the same author entitled Following the Conquistadores up the Orinoco and down the Magdalena. Shortly after returning from this trip along the Orinoco and the Magdalena, Doctor Mozans called upon me, and we soon grew to be great friends. He is a devoted student of Dante, and I am one of the innumerable laymen who greatly admire Dante without having even the slightest pretensions to having studied him. I think that the intimacy of Doctor Mozans and myself was largely due to his find ing out the interest I had taken in translating, so to speak, Dante's political terminology into that of the present day, — for Dante wrote with a lack of self-consciousness which we could not nowadays achieve, and so, in perfect good faith, and I may add with entire propriety, illustrated the fundamental vices and virtues by plac ing in hell and purgatory the local Italian political leaders of the thirteenth century side by side with the mightiest figures of the elder world, the world of Greece and Rome at their zenith. I had remarked to Doctor Mozans that this attitude, which added so enormously to the power of Dante, was one which we were now too self-conscious to follow; that, whereas it seemed perfectly nat ural to Dante to typify the same fierce and stubborn soul qualities both in the person of Farinata and in the person of Capanius, and to appeal to a Florentine faction fight as he did to the memory of the stupendous wars which made Rome imperial, it would now be quite impossible for us to avoid feeling, and therefore conveying, a sense of incongruity if we coupled a feast of Lucullus with some equally tasteless banquet by a member of the Four Hundred, or spoke in the same breath of Clodii* and Isaiah Rynders or John Morrissey. The acquaintance thus begun went on, and when I was about to leave the "White House, Doctor Mozans proposed that I should make a South American trip with him, instead of my proposed trip to Africa. I should have been exceedingly pleased to have done both ; but as my trip was to be taken primarily as a naturalist in- ix INTRODUCTION terested in the great game, I thought it best not to change my point of destination — and the comments Doctor Mozans makes upon the rarity and shyness of all large animals in the tropical forests of South America show that I was wise. But Doctor Mozans would have been an ideal traveling companion. His trip was one of absorbing interest, and it is told so delightfully that I do not now recall any similar book dealing with South America so well worth reading. Doctor Mozans has every qualification for making just such a journey as he made, and then for writing about it. He is an extraordinarily hardy man, this gentle, quiet traveler. He has that sweetness of nature which inspires in others the same good feeling he himself evinces towards them ; he loves rivers and forests, moun tains and plains, and broad highways and dim wood trails ; and he has a wide and intimate acquaintance with science, with history, and, above all, with literature. This volume supplements his pre vious volume, giving his journey across the Andes from the "West Coast and his voyage down the Amazon; so that he has seen all that is most characteristic, and to the traveler most attractive, in tropical America, from the barren Andean plateaus, filled with the ruins of a dead civilization almost as ancient and interesting as that of Egypt or Mesopotamia, to the hot, steamy, water-soaked forests which cover the middle and the northeast of the Southern continent. "We are fortunate in having a man like Doctor Mozans traveling in the lands to the south of us. He speaks with just admiration of the great work done by Secretary Root, when, in an American warship, he circled the Southern continent, representing our country as an ambassador whose work was of highest moment. But Doctor Mozans himself also really acted as such an ambassador ; and his sympathy with, and appreciation of, the people whom he met — a sympathy and appreciation evident in page after page of his book — earned for him thoughtful and unwearied kindness in return, and admirably fitted him, while on his journey, to in terpret our nation to those among whom he traveled, and now admirably fit him to interpret them in return to us. Taste in books is highly individual, and long experience shown me that I sometimes greatly like books for which most of friends care not at all; but it does seem to me that it would difficult for any man to rise from reading Doctor Mozan's be without feeling, not only that he has passed a delightful time, V x INTRODUCTION also that he has profited greatly by the vivid picture presented to him of our neighbors to the south and their marvelous country. As Americans, his studies of these neighbors of ours are of peculiar value to us. Moreover, Doctor Mozans' literary tastes and in par ticular his great fondness for the poetry of many different tongues stand him in good stead. It is pleasant to travel in company with one who knows books as well as men and manners, and who yet cares also for all that is beautiful and terrible and grand in Nature. German, Italian, Spanish, English — there is hardly a favorite poet, writing in any language, whose words do not naturally rise to Doctor Mozans' mind as he comes to some particular scene which he thinks that some particular passage in some of his beloved authors aptly illustrates ; and his quotations from the South Amer ican poets are not only apt in themselves, but illuminative to those among us who do not realize how very far South American civiliza tion has gone along certain lines where our own progress has been by no means well marked. In particular, the translations that the author gives us of some of the simple Indian ballads make us wish that we could have these ballads all set forth in popular form ; while Doctor Mozans* humorous appreciation of the excesses into which the poetic habit sometimes misleads his South American friends completely reassures us as to his coolness of judgment. We are far from realizing all that of recent years has been ac complished in South America. "We are now fairly well acquainted with the great material advances that have been made in Chile and the Argentine, with the growth along cosmopolitan lines of cities like Buenos Ayres and Rio de Janiero. But Doctor Mozans quite incidentally makes us understand the charm of the older and more typical Spanish-American cities, and brings to the attention of our people the extraordinary quantity of serious work in scholar ship which has been achieved in the universities of these cities during the centuries immediately past ; and he also shows how the forces of modern life are now vivifying this charming social, ancient life, which has so long been held back and perverted into [wrong channels. The book ought to make our people understand pud appreciate far better than at present the South American na tions which he visited, and the high and fine qualities of whose [peoples he sketches so vividly. Nor is it only in describing the scholars and gentlefolk of these Icountries and their achievements in the past, and the courteous, xi INTRODUCTION kindly-natured Indian or semi-Indian peasantry, that Doctor Mozans tells us much that we ought to know. He also brings vividly to our minds facts about the natural scenery which are new to most of us. I confess that, as an ardent admirer of the Grand Canyon, it was rather a shock to me to have Doctor Mozans speak of it as inferior to the extraordinary gorge of the Maranon, the headwaters of the Amazon. It does not seem to me that any thing on this earth can be grander than the Grand Canyon ! But at any rate I earnestly hope that the railroad Doctor Mozans advo cates will speedily be built, and the wonderful gorge he describes be opened to the vision of less hardy travelers than he is. In closing, I can only repeat again that this is a delightful book from every standpoint. It is an especially delightful book for Americans because throughout it Doctor Mozans shows that he is so thoroughly good an American, so imbued with what is best in our National spirit, and with the thoughts and aspirations of our great est statesmen and writers, and indeed of all who have expressed the soul of our people. He is peculiarly fit to interpret for us our neighbors to the south; and he describes them with a sympathy, insight and understanding granted to but few. Moreover, his feat was a really noteworthy feat, and it is told with vividness, com bined with modesty, and an evident entire truthfulness; and we should be equally attentive to what he sets forth as our accomplish ments — for example, in digging the Isthmian Canal and bringing order to Cuba — and to his allusions to our shortcomings, as shown by our ignorance and lack of appreciation of the great continent south of us, and our failure to try to bring it and its people into closer relations with us. Sagamore Hill, April 20, 1911. xu FOREWORD In his DisaOurs Preliminaire to the French translation of Paz Soldan 's Geografia del Peru, M. Arsene Moqueron declares that in France little was known of Peruvian history, except what was con tained in Marmontel 's ponderous romance, Les Incas. Manuel Fuentes, in his charming work on Lima, makes a similar observa tion regarding the ignorance prevailing in Europe — and, he might have added, in the United States as well — regarding the manners and customs of the people of Peru. "What these two writers af firmed of Peru, might have been asserted, with even greater truth, of Bolivia and Ecuador. Nearly half a century has elapsed since Fuentes and Moqueron wrote, and, although our knowledge of the coast cities and capi tals of these countries has been considerably increased since their time, their declarations still remain substantially true for the in terior of the countries mentioned and particularly for that portion of them which lies to the east of the Andes. Indeed, one can truthfully say that certain sections of this immense territory, extending from the llanos of Colombia to the Gran Chaco in Pa raguay, are less known to-day than they were two and even three centuries ago. This seems almost incredible, but a reference to the numerous works of the early missionaries, some of which have been but recently published, while others are still in manuscript, would amply verify this seemingly paradoxical assertion. "When one reads these old chronicles, which have so long lain forgotten in the archives of Spain and South America, one is forced to. recognize the fact that many chapters of the history of our sister continent must be entirely rewritten, if we would have an adequate presentation of numerous important events that have, until these later years, been entirely unknown. One can also see in these old records a vast amount of raw material for possible poems and romances, as well as histories, which are merely await ing the advent of future Longfellows, Chateaubriands, Parkmans, Prescotts, Irvings and Quintanas to evolve from it imperishable creations of literary art. And when one crosses the lofty mountains and traverses the xiii FOREWORD impenetrable forests that witnessed the marvelous exploits of the conquistadores, and recalls in detail the amazing deeds of prowess of the Pizarros, the Orellanas, the Quesadas, the Bellacazars, which have cast such a glamour over the Spanish name and nation, one seems to be carried back to the days of chivalry, or to the times when Iberian valor — quidlibet audendi potestas — was engaged in its long and heroic struggle with the infidel Moor. Nor is this all. When one studies on the ground what has been accomplished for civilization, by the descendants of the conquista dores; when one contemplates their universities and other institu tions of learning; when one scans the long list of names of those who have achieved distinction in science, art, literature, economics, jurisprudence ; when one notes the progress that is now being made in commerce and in the development of the inexhaustible resources of forest, field and mine; when one watches shipload after ship load of immigrants eagerly hastening to the land of promise under the Southern Cross, one can realize, as never before, that South America, in spite of countless retarding influences, has been stead ily working out its destiny and progressing towards a great and brilliant future. But, what above all else impresses the traveler, is what Mr. Root, on the occasion of his visit to the southern con tinent, happily designated as "the laboratory of life, where Eng lish, German, Italian, French, and Spanish and American were all being welded together to make a new type. ' ' In this great laboratory we can see the same process at work that for the last century and more has been operating with such splendid results in the United States. Here, notwithstanding the constant influx of millions of immigrants of divers nationalities, all have conformed to the Anglo-Saxon mold and the outcome is the Anglo-American type, with all the sterling characteristics of its component elements. In our sister continent, it is the Latin mold into which the divers elements are compounded and from which issues the Neo-Latin variety of man known as the Spanish- American, as distinct and as characteristic as the Anglo-American of the United States. That the immigrants from Spain, France and Italy should con form to this Neo-Latin mold was to be expected, but one would have credited the English, the Irish, the Slavs, the Germans with greater powers of resistance. All, however, without exception, are, through life's mysterious processes, being rapidly amalga- xiv FOREWORD mated, and absorbed by the dominant type. This is specially re markable in southern Brazil, "where the German population is so dense that Pan-German apostles have often claimed them as free colonies of Deutschthum, but the colonists adapt themselves to local life and soon speak the language of the country." These facts show the fatuity of those who regard the Iberian race as degenerate or moribund. The truth is that the Spaniards and their nearest of kin, the Portuguese, notwithstanding their being so long "the apparent sport of malicious and inconstant fortune," contain within themselves the promise and the potency of a renascence that will soon surprise the world. Never before in their long and marvelous history have they been more progres sive or more powerful. Never were their sonorous tongues so widely spoken, or by a larger number of people than at present. Never did they rank higher or approach nearer towards universal use among the great languages of the world. Omitting the peoples and tongues of China, and of Russia which is more than half Asiatic, the Spanish race and tongue to-day are surpassed in point of numbers, distribution and future promise only by the Anglo-Saxon. To the great Iberian race belongs the whole of the western hemisphere from the northern frontier of Mexico to the straits of Magellan. This, with its possessions in Europe, Asia, and Africa, constitutes more than one-fourth of the earth's surface. No other race since the fall of Rome, except the Anglo-Saxon, has achieved more in conquest and colonization or has contributed more to the advancement of civilization and culture. A composite race, like the Anglo-Saxon, and possessing some of the strongest elements of the English people, it is a race of inexhaustible vitality and possesses a boundless field for future expansion and development. Great as has been its past and mighty and manifold as have been its influence and achievements in every sphere of activity, its future will be still greater. Indeed, the Neo-Latin race, now ad vancing with such marvelous strides, bids fair soon to become a close rival of the noble Anglo-American race in the great republic of the north. In the following pages, as in my work, Following the Conquista dores up the Orinoco and down the Magdalena, I have endeavored not only to give a picture of the country and the people as I saw them, but also to summarize their hopes, aspirations and prospects. xv FOREWORD I have also briefly discussed certain topics that present themselves to every traveler in the land of the Incas, especially when he con templates the wonderful monuments which are scattered over the length and breadth of this vast territory— monuments which have elicited the admiration of every beholder since the days of the conquest. In doing this, I have drawn freely on the works of the early chroniclers, many of whom are still practically unknown to English readers, and have given, when the narrative seemed to require it, the conclusions of the latest and most competent inves tigators regarding the subjects under discussion. And that the reader, if so minded, may be able to control my statements, or that he may know where to find further and au thentic information on any of the various topics treated, I have, in footnotes and in the bibliography at the end of the volume, given the sources of my information and the authorities which, in controverted questions, I have considered the most trustworthy. In traversing a field so full of interesting subjects, and so rich in literary and other monuments, as is the once famous empire of the Children of the Sun, this method of procedure seemed advis able, if not necessary, at least in the interest of that rapidly grow ing class of readers, who desire full and accurate information respecting what is historically, if not in other respects, the most fascinating part of South America. I would be ungrateful if I failed to thank publicly those who contributed so materially towards making my journey to the southern continent so enjoyable and so profitable. Chief among these, whose uniform kindness and courtesy I can never forget, were His Excellency, Dr. Jose Pardo, President of Peru; his ac complished brother, Don Juan Pardo, president of the Peruvian Chamber of Deputies; F. A. Pezet, Peruvian minister to Central America; the prefects and governors, who gave me such generous hospitality on my way across the Andes from the Pacific to the Amazon; Senores Ballivian and Hope, the amiable ministers of the Bolivian Cabinet; and Mr. W. Eyre, manager of the Peruvian Corporation, and Mr. E. G. Townsend, general superintendent of the Railways of the South of Peru. To these and to many others in Ecuador, Bolivia, Peru and Brazil, to whom I am under lasting obligations, I hereby tender the fullest acknowledgments of a grate ful heart. xvi CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE I. Pleasant Days in Panama 1 II. On the Great South Sea 28 III. From Sultry Coastland to Chilly Paramo . . 49 IV. A Land of Volcanoes 73 V. Quito Bonito 93 VI. A Rainless Coast 109 VII. Wonders of Sea and Mountain 125 VIII. La Villa Hermosa 138 IX. The Cradle of the Incas 149 X. In Aymaraland 166 XI. The Baalbec of the New World 189 XII. The Home of the Quichuas 198 XIII. The Rome of South America 216 XIV. The City of the Kings 242 XV. The Realm of the Great Chimu 265 XVI. In the Footsteps of Pizarro and Orsua .... 288 XVII. Theatre of a Great Tragedy 314 XVIII. In the Heart of the Andes 347 XIX. A Peruvian Paradise 379 XX. Tramping Through a Tropical Forest .... 398 XXI. Drifting in a Dugout 422 XXII. Battle-Grounds and Achievements of the Con quistadores of the Cross 438 XXIII. Romance of the Amazon 463 XXIV. Sailing Under the Line 488 XXV. Homeward Bound 513 BIBLIOGRAPHY 529 INDEX 535 xvii LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS FACING PAGE Procession of Corpus Christi in the Plaza de Armas, Cuzco Frontispiece Roosevelt Avenue, Cristobal-Colon 24 City of Panama 24 Peon's home in the tropical belt of Ecuador 62 Indian village in the highlands of Ecuador 62 Astronomical Observatory, Quito 80 Summit of Chimborazo as seen from the plateau 80 Mountain town on Oroya Railroad, showing andenes 128 Fishermen on Lake Titicaca, near Puno 154 Celebration of a festival at Copacabana , . . 154 A troop of llamas 174 La Paz, with Illimani to the right 174 Megalithic ruins of Tiahuanaco, Bolivia 190 Portal of the Pre-Incaic ruins of Tiahuanaco, Bolivia 190 Pulpit in the Church of San Bias, Cuzco, made by an Indian artificer 238 Threshing and winnowing wheat in the Valley of Cuzco 238 The Cathedral of Lima 246 The City of the Kings 246 Pre-Incaic ruins of Cuelap, near Chachapoyas 272 Ruins of the Great Chimu 272 A tambo in the Andes 296 Scene on our trail in the Andes 296 House of Atahualpa's ransom, Cajamarca 334 Indian women on the Paranapura 334 A camp in the forest between Moyobamba and Balsapuerto. . 402 xix LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS FACING PAGE Fording a river in the Montana 402 A river scene on the Rio Negro at Manaos 498 Forest view along the Amazon 516 Botanical Garden, Para. 516 Note. — For some of the photographs used in illustrating this book I am indebted to the courtesy of my good friends, Mr. Lee McLung and Professor Isaiah Bowman. For others I am under obligations to Mrs. T. H. Spottiswoode, a young Englishwoman, who, with her husband, crossed the continent of South America by way of the Amazon and the Cajamarca route, and who suc ceeded in taking a. large number of most valuable photographs of the places visited. XX Route Followed by the Authoe. ALONG THE ANDES AND DOWN THE AMAZON CHAPTER I PLEASANT DAYS IN PANAMA To the traveler and the historian no part of the New World is more replete with interest than the narrow strip of land which is laved by the waters of the Caribbean on the north and those of the Gulf of Panama on the south. No part is richer in historical associations, none has witnessed more heroic deeds of valor or more brilliant achievements, and none has contributed more fascinating pages to the annals of discovery and daring emprise. The great Admiral of the Ocean Sea beat up and down its coast in his futile search for that mythical strait which was to afford him a short route to the Land of Spices. Even some of the names which the Isthmus still bears are reminders of his visit to this part of the world. Rodrigo de Bastidas, "Spain's noblest and best con quistador," was also here on a similar quest as were like wise, there is reason to believe, Alonzo de Ojeda, Amerigo Vespucci and Juan de la Cosa. They, too, were looking for the fabled passageway to India. A few years later they were followed by Vasco Nunez de Balboa, the illustrious discoverer of the great South Sea. Starting from Santa Maria de la Antigua, on the Gulf of Darien, he skirted the coast until he reached a point near Cape Tiburon, whence he pushed his way through the almost impervious forests to what is now 1 ALONG THE ANDES AND DOWN THE AMAZON known as the Gulf of San Miguel. By a most happy chance he crossed the Isthmus at its narrowest, albeit not at its lowest part, and along the line on -which, centuries later, was located what is known as the Caledonian Canal route. In Balboa's valiant band was Francisco Pizarro, who, in place of his ill-fated chief, was destined to be one of the great makers of history in the discovery and conquest of the land of the Incas. Contrary to what is frequently stated, the route chosen by Balboa on his way to the South Sea was nearly a hundred miles distant from the Panama railroad. And the eminence from which he got his first view of the Pacific was not, as some writers assert, El Cerro Gigante, mid way between Colon and Panama, but some elevated point in the Cordillera, probably the great massif of Pirri, northeast of San Miguel Bay. The first port of note, on the Caribbean side of the Isthmus, was Nombre de Dios, which, because of the im mense treasures that were at times collected there in transit to Spain, was called the Treasure House of the World. This place, on account of its insalubrity, was subsequently abandoned. To-day not a trace of it is visible. Porto Bello replaced it as a port and until the foundation of Aspinwall — now known as Colon — it was one of the most important ports on the Caribbean, for here was garnered all the gold, silver and pearls that had been brought from the mines of Peru and the islands of the South Sea. For a long time there was a paved road between Porto Bello and Panama and during the halcyon days of Span ish rule, the value of the traffic that passed over it was immense. Some times, however, a portion of the mer chandise was shipped a part of the way by the Chagres River. These were the routes taken by Drake and Morgan during their memorable raids. They were, in fact, the only routes available for freight and passengers until the completion of the Panama railroad in 1855. 2 PLEASANT DAYS IN PANAMA It was during the veranito — the short summer that fol lows St. John's day, which occurs the 24th of June, — that I first set foot on the soil of Colon. The sun was approaching the zenith of a cloudless sky; the tempera ture was high, but far from being as oppressive as I had been led to expect. Indeed, in the shade, thanks to the grateful breeze from the sea, it was quite comfortable. The streets of the city were crowded near the wharf with people, mostly negroes and Chinamen, but, while there was considerable noise and bustle, there was no disorder. I lost no time in having my luggage transferred to the leading hotel, where I found excellent quarters and whence I soon sallied forth to study the city and its en virons. Colon is quite a modern town, counting barely three score years since its foundation. It is the Caribbean terminus of the Panama railroad, and is by far the most important part of the young republic. Steamers call there from all parts of the world, and the volume of cargo discharged and taken on is astonishing. If the amount of traffic is now so great what will it be, one instinctively asks, when the canal is completed and opened to the com merce of all nations? The houses of Colon are very unlike those of other Spanish-American towns. They are mostly frame and galvanized-iron structures, and remind one of those everywhere visible in the Trans-Missouri region. Many of them are the merest shacks, while others, especially those occupied by the officers of the Panama Canal, are models of comfort and good taste. The doors and win dows and even the porches of these are provided with metal screens so as to prevent the ingress of mosquitoes and other insects. In such houses, particularly in those near the seashore, one can enjoy the balmy, equable tem perature of the tropics and, at the same time, be free from the annoyances inevitable in dwellings that are not similarly protected. 3 ALONG THE ANDES AND DOWN THE AMAZON The city stands on the low, flat island of Manzanillo, which is about a mile long and three-quarters of a mile broad. So low indeed, is it — "nowhere more than four feet above mean sea level" — that sewage is almost im possible. This, in one of the rainiest spots of the world, where good drainage is so necessary, and in an atmos phere of extraordinary humidity, is a serious drawback. It certainly justifies the opinion that this important port should be transferred to a higher level, or that the city itself should be elevated by earth brought down from the neighboring highland. Strange, however, as it may seem, there are some who prefer Colon as a place of residence to Panama. It is somewhat cooler and enjoys almost constantly the ines timable advantage of the trade-winds. Nor is it entirely devoid of beauty. Its rows of lofty and graceful palm trees, especially those in the more aris tocratic quarters, are particularly attractive and give to the place a distinction it would not otherwise possess. Its setting, too, enhances the beauty of the place. The swelling hills and the Quebrancha Mountains in the back ground and the jutting headlands at each side of the city make it, as seen from the deck of an incoming steamer, a picture of rare loveliness. Since the advent of the American health officers a mar velous improvement has been noted in the sanitary con dition of Colon, as well as elsewhere along the route of the canal. Before their arrival, it fully deserved its reputation of being one of the worst plague spots in the world. For generations yellow fever had been practi cally endemic there, while malarial and pernicious fevers were prevalent in their most malignant forms. Consid ering the low, swampy island on which the city is built, the squalid huts, reeking with filth, of many of its in habitants, the unsanitary conditions that so long pre- vailed here, the humid, pestilential atmosphere -which ever enveloped it, it is small wonder that the mortality of PLEASANT DAYS IN PANAMA the place was so great as has been reported, and that the voyager studiously avoided this port as he would the plague itself. After two days spent in studying conditions in Colon, we — a Boston press agent and I — started out to take a look at the work that is being done on the great canal. This every true American, who visits the Isthmus, deems a duty and every intelligent one finds a genuine pleasure. Aside from its being the most stupendous feat of en gineering ever attempted, it is a work in which all Amer icans have a justifiable patriotic pride, and one to whose successful completion at an early day they look forward with the deepest interest. I shall never forget the surprise of some fellow- travelers when they learned the amount they had to pay for their tickets and baggage to Panama. "Exorbi tant," said one; "Extortion," exclaimed another; "No wonder," declared a third, "that the company has been able to declare such handsome dividends." The prices reminded me of the local rates one had to pay on certain of our Rocky Mountain roads a quarter of a century ago. But high as they were, they were much lower than the prices demanded two decades ago. Then a ticket from Colon to Panama, a distance of forty-seven miles, cost twenty-five dollars in gold and personal baggage was charged for at the rate of thirteen cents a pound. And time was when the freight rate for these forty-seven miles was equal to one-half the amount paid for it from New York to Valparaiso, a distance of nearly five thou sand miles. Immediately after leaving Colon the train crosses an embankment, when the passenger finds himself on Tierra Firme — the Firm Land of the early Spanish writers. To the right is an extensive mangrove swamp, the de spair of the early engineers of the Panama railroad. The difficulties they had to encounter here in their pre liminary survey, as well as in the subsequent work of 5 ALONG THE ANDES AND DOWN THE AMAZON construction, were enormous and taxed their ingenuity and grit to the utmost. It is doubtful whether any stretch of railroad in the world has presented greater obstacles and been attended with greater suffering and loss of life than have the six miles in the pestilential swamp between Colon and Gatun. The same difficulties and dangers were encountered by the French in digging the canal through this miasmatic, death-dealing morass. The countless graves in the ad joining cemetery of Mount Hope testify to the frightful mortality caused by plagues which at times seemed to render the continuation of the work impossible. Pierc ing the Alps and tunneling the crests of the Rocky Moun tain ranges were easy in comparison with track-laying and canal-digging on the Isthmus of Panama before the adoption of the hygienic measures now in force in the Canal Zone. For a greater part of the way up the northern slope of the Isthmus the Chagres River * is almost continually in view. During the dry season it is a shallow, tranquil stream, from one to two hundred feet wide, but, during the rainy period, it is a tumultuous river that often over leaps its banks and carries everything before it. It is said that in 1878 the floods were so high that the railroad was in places covered with eighteen feet of water. This fact will give an idea of some of the problems confronting our engineers in devising means for controlling this ter rible water-course during the season of rain and floods. On both sides of the road for a greater part of the dis tance to Panama the vegetation is as profuse and as dense as can be seen anywhere in the tropics. Palms, bamboos, cedars, mahoganies, cottonwoods, ferns and heliconias, all matted together by vines and creepers of every kind, are most conspicuous. At places the jungle almost touches the rails, and so rapid is the growth of herb and tree that i Formerly called by the Spaniards Rio Lagartos, on account of the large number of crocodiles found in it. PLEASANT DAYS IN PANAMA the road would be covered with a compact mass of vege tation in less than six months unless measures were adopted to keep it cleared. Jorge Juan and Antonio de Ulloa, writing of the scenery along this route, declare that " Nothing can ex ceed the prospects which the rivers of this country ex hibit. The most fertile imagination of a painter can never equal the magnificence of the rural landscapes here drawn by the pencil of Nature. The groves which shade the plains, and extend their branches to the river, the various dimensions of the trees, which cover, the emi nences, the texture of their leaves, the figure of their fruits, and the various colors they exhibit, form a most delightful scene, which is greatly heightened by the in finite variety of creatures with which it is diversified." 1 The early explorers and Buccaneers tell of how they had to cut their way through the dense and tangled for ests of the Isthmus by swords and machetes, and how it required weeks for them to make a journey that could otherwise have been accomplished in so many days. Balboa, on his way to the South Sea, at the time of its discovery, spent twenty days, according to Oviedo, in crossing the Isthmus at its narrowest part, and Morgan and his band, under more favorable conditions, almost perished from starvation in making their way from Chagres to Panama. From the traveler who visits the tropics for the first time, the ranchos or huts of the Indians and mestizos will claim special attention. They are usually of wattled bamboo, thatched with grass or with palm or oleander leaves, and of the simplest possible character. Judging, however, from the number of children always seen about these humble dwellings, there is no race suicide in this part of the world. One will see many beautiful flowers along the way, but the one that will possess the most interest for the lovers 1 A Voyage to South America. Vol. I, Book III, Chap. I. Dublin, 1758. 7 ALONG THE ANDES AND DOWN THE AMAZON of floral beauty is the exquisite orchid of the species Peristeri elata, known as La Flor del Espiritu Santo— the Flower of the Holy Ghost. It is also known as the dove-plant, from the resemblance of its strangely-formed column1 to a beautiful white dove. The wax-like wings are sometimes spotted with purple, but whether white or spotted, the "dove" is always an object of rarest delicacy and interest. This remarkable orchid, whose habitat is in the Isthmus, flowers from June to September, and its racemes produce flowers for six or seven weeks after opening. The stems of this stately, highly-ornamental plant are from three to five feet high and its wax-like, sweetly-scented flowers are two inches in diameter. It was introduced to the florists of the United States and Europe from Panama in 1826, but the cultivated plant never equals the gorgeous exhibitions of it one may see in the propitious soil and atmosphere of Panama. Although we saw many birds of divers species, espe cially parrots, parrakeets, macaws and humming birds, we did not see a single wild quadruped of any kind, and still less did we observe monkeys ' chattering in the tree tops that more fortunate travelers than ourselves would have one believe can be seen at any time from the windows of the passing train. I recalled what a school-fellow from the Pacific coast had told me about the numbers he had seen on the way from Panama to Aspinwall, and how I had envied him his opportunity of enjoying such sights. But that was long ago, — before the completion of the Union Pacific railroad. I had to be satisfied with Lionel Wafer's account of them, for he found them, he assures us, in great droves, some white but most of them black, some "with beards, others beardless, but "all extraordinary fat in the dry Season when the Fruits are Ripe. They are," he informs us, "a very waggish kind of Monkey, and plaid a thousand antick Tricks as we i The name given to the consolidated stamens and pistils which in most blossoms, are separate organs. 8 PLEASANT DAYS IN PANAMA march 'd at any time through the Woods, skipping from Bough to Bough, with the young ones hanging at the old ones Back, making Faces at us and chattering. To pass from top to top of high Trees whose Branches are a little too far asunder for their Leaping they will sometimes hang down by one another's Tails in a Chain; and swing ing in that manner the lowermost catches hold of a Bough of another Tree, and draws up the rest of them."1 These monkeys were almost as clever as some he says he saw on the coast of Peru, "who lived partly upon oysters, which they got out of the Sea at low Water. Their way was to take up an oyster and lay it upon a Stone, and with another Stone Keep beating of it till they had broke the Shell in pieces. ' ' 2 Near the point where the railroad leaves the Chagres is a town, inhabited chiefly by negroes and Chinamen, that bears the peculiar name of Matachin, a contraction of two Spanish words mata chino, meaning, "Kill China man." It is so called because of an outbreak of yellow fever here in 1887, which carried off no fewer than two thousand Chinamen. These were mostly employes on the canal under the French company. Large numbers of Chinese laborers were also engaged in the construction of the railroad and so many of them fell victims to the ravages of yellow and pernicious fevers that, it is as serted, a Chinaman lies under every sleeper of the road from Colon to Panama. A short distance from Matachin, on the left bank of the Chagres, on the Gold Road and a short distance from the present railway, is the hamlet of Cruces — formerly Venta Cruz — famous in the annals of pirates and Buc- i 'New Voyage and Description of the Isthmus of America. Second edition, pp. 84-85. London, 1704. Compare my Following the Conquistadores up the Orinoco and Down the Magdalena, pp. 151, 152, New York, 1910; also Jorge Juan and Antonio de Ulloa, ut. sup. Vol. I, Book III, Chap. I, for similar accounts of monkey bridges. 2 Ibid., p. 156. 9 ALONG THE ANDES AND DOWN THE AMAZON caneers. It was here that Drake captured three recuas —mule trains— "one of fifty mules, the other two of seventy each, every one of which carried three hundred pounds of silver; which, in all, amounted to near thirty tons."1 It was subsequently visited by Morgan on his way to the city of Panama. After capturing the fort of San Lorenzo, that guarded the mouth of the Chagres, he and his men started up the river in canoes and flatboats, and after untold sufferings, arrived at Venta Cruz in a starv ing condition. They had counted on securing the neces sary provisions en route, and for this reason, took with them only enough to last the first day. But the wily Spaniards had abandoned their settlements and strong holds along the way and had left behind them no food of any kind. At one place Morgan's men found a few leather bags and they fell upon these "like hungry dogs quarreling for a bone. They fought and wrangled for the scraps of leather and ate them greedily, with frequent gulps of water." It took them seven days to make the journey from Chagres to Venta Cruz, but when they ar rived at the latter place, "all sweating and panting," exhausted by hunger and fatigue, instead of finding the store of provisions they expected there, they discovered that the town had been emptied of everything that could assuage the pangs of hunger and then fired by the re treating Spaniards. We stopped at several places on the way to view the work being done on the canal, but the spot at which we tarried longest was Culebra. Here is where the famous cut is being made, not through the "mighty mountain wall of the Andes," as is sometimes stated, but through a low hill composed of clay and soft, friable rock, which, even before the first shovelful of earth was removed, was i Referring to this expedition of Drake— "The master thief of the unknown world"— Hakluyt writes: "The march was so sore as never Englishmen marched before.'' 10 PLEASANT DAYS IN PANAMA less than three hundred feet above sea level. The length of the cut, extending from Obispo to Pedro Miguel, is less than eight miles, but one soon realizes, when viewing the army of men at work, and seeing the giant steam shovels in operation, that the undertaking is of colossal propor tions and one worthy of a race of Titans. Contrary to what is often imagined, the canal is not being dug in the narrowest part of the Isthmus. The dis tance from the embouchure of the Rio Chepo on the Pacific to the Nercalegua in the bay of San Bias on the Atlantic, is three miles less than that from Colon to Panama. Neither is the route of the canal located along the lowest level obtainable. The watershed of Guys- coyol, between Lake Nicaragua and the Pacific Ocean, is only forty-six meters above sea level, while that of the present canal route at Culebra, before any work was done on it, was nearly twice as high, being eighty-seven and a half meters. The San Bias route which, on account of its lesser length, was at one time thought of in connec tion with an inter-ocean canal, is fully a thousand feet above sea level, with an intervening massif nearly ten miles long.1 For this and many other reasons that need not be recounted here, the Colon-Panama route was finally chosen in preference to any of the many others that had been considered at various times before the work of construction was actually begun. I wish to emphasize the word many in this connection, for it is a fact that nearly a score of different routes have been selected since the idea was first conceived of connect ing the Atlantic with the Pacific by a navigable water way. Nor is the project of recent origin, as is sometimes thought, but one that dates back almost to the time of the discovery of Tierra Firme. It has been well said that "Columbus was the first one to propose a water highway from Europe to Asia, west- i Armand Reclus, Panama et Darien, Chap. VII, Paris, 1881. 11 ALONG THE ANDES AND DOWN THE AMAZON ward, by way of the Atlantic. It was such a highway that he sought and not the new world which he actually found." In a certain sense, therefore, "Columbus was the practical founder of the enterprise, which, after four centuries of delay, President Roosevelt has undertaken to complete. Nevertheless, the error of his conceptions and of his conclusions in no way detracts from the glory of Columbus. He went to seek a new road to a known continent. Instead, he found two hitherto unknown con tinents, and to their colonized inhabitants in after-cen turies he left the lesser work of creating by artifice the water highway which he had sought, but which he sought in vain, because Nature had failed to create it." 1 Although all the voyages of the illustrious Genoese had for their object the discovery of a direct western route to Asia, the fourth and last one was particularly remark able for the supreme effort he made to disclose the "Secret of the Strait." He coasted along the shores of what is now known as Central America and the Isthmus of Panama from Gracias a Dios to the Gulf of Darien, "passing from cape to cape and from bay to inlet, gazing upon the marvels of the New World, trafficking with the bronzed Indians and bartering curious wares for barba rous gold," seeking at every point for that mythical passage which he was sure must exist, and which, if found, would put into his possession all the fabled treas ures of the Isles of Spices and of the Golden Chersone- sus. He entered the bay of Porto Bello and thence pro ceeded to Nombre de Dios, both places celebrated as the one-time chief ports on the Caribbean for the rich mer chandise of Peru. He anchored in the bay of Limon, on which Colon and Cristobal, both of which places are named after him, are now built, and furled his sails in the Chagres River at, perhaps, the very spot where it meets the great canal at Gatun. iW. F. Johnson, Four Centuries of the Panama Canal, pp. 1 and 17, New York, 1906. 12 PLEASANT DAYS IN PANAMA What Columbus failed to achieve, other explorers en deavored to carry to a successful issue. Among these was Gil Gonzales Davila, who, in imitation of Balboa's feat, carried the materials for his exploring caravels across the Isthmus. He was the discoverer of Lake Nicaragua, which, according to Indian legends, once united the "Northern with the Southern" Sea. There were also Alvarez de Pineda, Juan de Grijalva, and Her nando de Soto, the discoverer of the Mississippi, who ex plored the Mexican coast in the eager quest for "the shorter route to Cathay." Hernando Cortez, the famous conqueror of Mexico, after the fall of the empire of Montezuma, likewise en gaged in the search for the Strait by the direct command of Charles V. What value this strenuous conquistador attached to the discovery of the eagerly-sought passage is evinced from the following words in a letter to his sovereign written in 1524: — "If the Strait is found, I shall hold it to be the greatest service I have yet rendered. It would make the King of Spain master of so many lands that he might call himself Lord of the whole world." France gave Giovanni da Verrazzano and Japques Car- tier the same commission and they explored the Atlantic coast as far north as Labrador. Hendrik Hudson was seeking the Strait when he ascended the river that bears his name. In his day, it was thought that the North American continent was no wider in the latitude of the Hudson's mouth than it was at Panama. Cartier was in quest of the Strait when .he sailed up the St. Lawrence, as was also La Salle. The latter 's feudal domain, near Montreal, retains to this day the name "La Chine" — China — which, Parkman tells us, was given in derision of the futile attempt to find the way to eastern Asia.1 Magellan, it is true, did discover a strait leading from the Atlantic to the Pacific, but it was so remote from the i La Salle and the Discovery of the Great West, Vol. I, p. 29, Boston, 1S97. 13 ALONG THE ANDES AND DOWN THE AMAZON world's great centers of traffic that it did not satisfy the urgent demands of ever-expanding commerce. As soon as the Spanish explorers had satisfied them selves that there was no natural waterway between the two great oceans, they began to talk of creating an artificial one. This was a long time before the voyages of Hudson and a longer time still before Davis and Frobisher and Baffin went in quest of the Northwest Passage. The first to propose an interoceanic canal was appar ently Hernando Cortes, and he went so far as to have the Isthmus of Tehauntepec surveyed with a view to the construction of such a waterway. He was followed in this ambitious scheme by his cousin, Alvaro de Saavedra Ceron, who, having been with Balboa on his journey to the South Sea, and was therefore familiar with the nar rowness and low elevation of the Isthmus along the path traversed by them, had, Galvano informs us, "meant to have opened the land of Castilla de Oro and New Spain from sea to sea." x Shortly after Cortes had written the above-mentioned letter to his sovereign, Gomara and Galvano, referring to the importance of an artificial canal and of its superior ity over the routes by the Strait of Magellan, the Cape of Good Hope and the problematic Northwest Passage, indicated four routes which they deemed feasible. And, strange as it may appear, these were the very routes that have been so much discussed in our own day — namely, those of Tehuantepec, Nicaragua, Darien and Panama. Of this stupendous enterprise, of which he took a most optimistic view, Gomara writes: — "There are mountains, but there are also hands. Give me the resolve and the task will be accomplished. If determination is not lack ing, means will not fail; the Indies, to which the way is to be made, will furnish them. To a King of Spain, i The Discoveries of the World, p. 180, printed by the Hakluyt Society, 1852. 14 PLEASANT DAYS IN PANAMA seeking the wealth of Indian commerce, that which is pos sible is also easy. ' ' 1 Charles V was specially insistent about the great un dertaking, and, with a view of determining the most practicable route, had surveys made in various parts of Costa Firms, as the Panama isthmus was then called, among which was a survey of the valley of the Chagres along practically the same route that has been adopted by our American engineers. Philip II at first held the same views as his father about the importance of the canal, but he soon changed his policy. He was discouraged by the unfavorable re ports received from his engineers, and the rapidly rising power of the English at sea made him fear that he would not be able to control it if constructed. Finally, like the historian Acosta, he apparently concluded that "it would be contrary to the Divine Will to unite two oceans which the Creator of the World had separated, and that to at tempt so impious a deed would surely provoke some appalling catastrophe.2 Accordingly, he not only aban doned all schemes for a canal, but he forbade the making of them, decreed that no canal should be constructed, and imposed, it is said, the penalty of death upon any one who should make known, or should attempt to seek a bet ter route across the Isthmus than the overland trail from Porto Bello to Panama; especially interdicting attempts on the Mandigua or Atrato River. ' ' 3 i Historia General de las Indias, p. 222, of Biblioteca de Autores Espafioles, Tom. XXII, Madrid, 1877. 2 "I believe there is no humaine power able to beat and breake downe those strong and impenetrable mountaines, which God hath placed betwixt the two seas, and hath made them most hard rockes, to withstand the furie of two seas. And although it were possible to men, yet in my opinion they should feare punishment from heaven in seeking to correct the workes which the Creator by his great providence hath ordained and disposed in the fram ing of this universall world." The Natural and Moral History of the Indies, translated by Edward Grimston, Book III, Chap. X, London, 1604. 8 Johnson, op. cit., pp. 33 and 34, Scruggs, The Colombiam, and Venezuelan Republics, pp. 13 et seq., Boston, 1905; and Forbes Lindsay, Panama, the Isthmus and the Canal, Philadelphia, 1906. 15 ALONG THE ANDES AND DOWN THE AMAZOIN Little more was said or done about an Isthmian water way until the latter part of the seventeenth century. It was then that Lionel Wafer, who had accompanied the freebooter, Captain Sharpe, across the Isthmus, near the route that had been followed by Balboa, returned to Eng land and reported that "in that part of the Isthmus there was no mountain range at all. There were only detached hills, among which were broad low valleys, extending across the narrow Isthmus from sea to sea." A canny Scott, William Patterson, the founder of the Bank of England, learning of this, conceived the idea of establishing a colony on the Isthmus of Darien, which should secure for Great Britain "the Keys of the Uni verse, enabling their possessors to give laws to both oceans, and to become the arbiters of the commercial world." His views regarding the control of the Isthmus were identical with those of Cortes and expressed in al most the same words. His colony was a failure, but the names Puerto Escoces and Caledonian Bay, on which the colony was established, still remain on the maps, and the Caledonian Canal Route, which he personally surveyed, attests to his eagerness in securing for his country the inestimable benefits that would accrue from the control of a waterway from the Atlantic to the Pacific. After the collapse of Patterson's schemes, nothing of moment regarding an interoceanic canal was accom plished until Humboldt, early in the nineteenth century, directed anew the world's attention to the prime impor tance of the enterprise which, he declared, was "calcu lated to immortalize a government occupied with the true interests of humanity. ' ' 1 The investigations of Humboldt regarding the Isthmian canal had immense interest for everyone but for none more than for his illustrious countryman, the poet Goethe, whose forecast regarding the connection of the i Essai Politique sur le Royaume de la Nouvelle Espagne, Tom. I, p. 260, Paris, 1811. 16 PLEASANT DAYS IN PANAMA United States with the great work was truly prophetic. In his Conversations with Eckermann and Soret in February, 1827, he expresses himself in the following re markable manner: — "So much, however, is certain, that if they succeed in cutting such a canal that ships of any burden and size can be navigated through it from the Mexican Gulf to the Pacific Ocean, innumerable benefits will result to the whole human race, civilized and uncivilized. But I should wonder if the United States were to let an oppor tunity escape of getting such a work into their hands. It may be foreseen that this young State, with its decided predilection for the West, will in thirty or forty years, have occupied, and peopled the large tract of land beyond the Rocky Mountains. It may, furthermore, be foreseen that along the whole coast of the Pacific Ocean, where Nature has already formed the most capacious harbors, important commercial towns will gradually arise, for the furtherance of a great intercourse between China and the East Indies and the United States. In such a case it would be not only desirable but almost necessary that a more rapid communication should be maintained between the eastern and western shores of North America, both by merchant ships and men of war, than has hith erto been possible with the tedious, disagreeable and ex pensive voyage around Cape Horn. I therefore repeat that it is absolutely indispensable for the United States to effect a passage from the Mexican Gulf to the Pacific Ocean ; and I am certain that they will do it. " J One would think that the immortal bard was speaking at the time when the Oregon was making her wonderful voyage around the Horn and not three-quarters of a cen tury earlier. This was one of the great undertakings he wished to see realized before his death. "It would," he declared, "well be worth the trouble to last some fifty years more for the very purpose." 2 i P. 222, The Bohn edition, 1892. 2 Ibid. 17 ALONG THE ANDES AND DOWN THE AMAZON But it is not my intention to give an epitome of the history of the Panama Canal. That has frequently been done by others.1 I merely wish to call attention to the less known and more interesting features connected with this colossal enterprise. From the time of Humboldt and Goethe, in its gradual evolution from a mere idea to an accomplished fact, the question of the canal was taken up with renewed interest and with a more determined purpose by statesmen and engineers. It became the subject-matter of international politics and protracted diplomacy. During all this time the face of the great American Republic was set toward the Isthmus, and, after long years of discussion and numberless surveys and the making and abrogating of many treaties, the United States finally stepped in to complete the work that Goethe, in the early part of the preceding century, had declared was indispensable to its fullest commercial and military efficiency. The vast army of men so intelligently directed and so admirably cared for, working so effectively and so en thusiastically from Colon to Panama assures the early com pletion of this the greatest engineering feat of the ages. "When do you expect to finish the canal?" I asked a young American engineer operating one of the large steam shovels employed in excavating Culebra cut. "If Roosevelt were in charge here, the work would be com pleted in six years. You can't imagine what ginger he put into the boys when he was here. He is the man to make the dirt fly. We should like to see him come down here to boss the job." "You bet your life we would," chimed in a sturdy ex-Rough Rider, standing hard by, "Teddy is the boy to make things move, I tell you. I served under him in Cuba and I know what I am talking about. If this old ditch is ever finished, it will be be cause he took it in hand. Nobody else would ever have '- Especially by Forbes Lindsay, whose latest work, Panama and the Card To-day, gives a graphic account of this stupendous undertaking 18 PLEASANT DAYS IN PANAMA had the nerve to undertake the work when there was so much opposition to it. That Frenchman, De Lesseps, was able to build the Suez Canal, but he had to throw up his hands when he tackled Panama. It was too much for him. It took a big, wide, go-ahead American with a 'Big Stick' to do the trick. We are all proud of him, and, if we had our way about it, the canal, when finished, would be called Roosevelt Canal. Taft is a good fellow and Goethals is a good fellow, and they have both done splendid work on the canal, but, say what you will, Teddy is the daddy of them all. He knows how to do things and he does them. And wherever you run across him you will be sure to find him going some." There is no doubt about it, Roosevelt's influence has been a powerful factor in guaranteeing the success of the Panama enterprise, and his spirit, it was evident, per vaded the ranks of the thirty-five thousand men that were at the time of our visit striving with irresistible energy and unabated enthusiasm to finish at the earliest possible date the most stupendous work ever undertaken by man — a work before which the pyramids of Egypt, marvelous as they are, fade into insignificance. When the work shall be completed, the dream of Columbus will be a reality and the Strait, that so many ardent explorers sought for so eagerly, will be no longer a secret. The direct route to Cathay and the Island of Spices will be opened to the traders of the world and the mariner on the storm-swept Atlantic will at last be able to direct the prow of his vessel toward Balboa's Mar del Sur, not far from where it first met the ecstatic gaze of the ill-fated conquistador, and say with Tennyson's Ulysses : "My purpose holds To sail beyond the sunset, and the baths Of all the western stars," 19 ALONG THE ANDES AND DOWN THE AMAZON There is apparently but one thing that may interfere with the successful operation of the canal after its com pletion — earthquakes. There is, however, but little to be apprehended from this source, as the danger, although possible, seems remote. It is true that the canal is in the belt of seismic disturbances, but, outside of the compara tively slight shocks of 1854 and 1882, there is no record of any serious earth-tremor during the last four cen turies. As an evidence of the freedom of the Isthmus from the heavy shocks, the natives point to the large tower, yet standing, of the Cathedral of Old Panama, which is still in an admirable state of preservation. A better evidence probably of the exemption of Panama from earthquakes, as compared with the neighboring re public of Costa Rica, is the fact that during the years 1901 and 1903 there was not a single shock at Panama, whereas, in San Jose there were one hundred and fifty, more than thirty of which were quite severe. Humboldt speculated on the possible results in the cur rents of the ocean which would follow the construction of a tide-level canal. "We cannot doubt," he writes, "that if the Isthmus of Panama were once burst, by some simi lar catastrophe to that which opened the columns of Her cules, the current of rotation, instead of ascending toward the Gulf of Mexico and issuing through the Bahama Channel, would follow the same parallel from the coast of Paria to the Philippine Islands. The effect of this opening or new strait, would extend much beyond the Banks of New Foundland, and would either occasion the disappearance or diminish the celerity of the Gulf Stream. ' ' x No results would follow the construction of a lock canal, and it is highly improbable that any change in iOp. cit., Tom. I, pp. 245-246. Acosta, ut. sup., referring to the prophet "to joyne one sea to the other" writes "some would say it were a meanes to drowne the land, one sea being lower than another." 20 PLEASANT DAYS IN PANAMA ocean currents would be effected through a tide-level channel, unless it were as wide as the one depicted on the map of Waldseemiiller, who was unaware of the existence of an isthmus connecting the northern continent of the New World with the southern. Much as we were interested in examining the huge un dertaking that was to separate two continents, which had been united since the late Miocene, there was another work of a different character, but of supreme importance, that has been conducted on the Isthmus, which elicited our keenest attention and commanded unbounded admira tion for the marvelous — apparently impossible — results that have been achieved in a few short years and that, too, in the face of what seemed to be unsurmountable ob stacles. I refer to the extraordinary work that has been accom plished by Colonel Gorgas and his energetic associates in extirpating malaria and yellow fever from the Canal Zone, and in eliminating from it those other recurrent plagues which, prior to the arrival of the American sani tary officers, had so decimated the ranks of the employes on the canal and railway. No better illustration could be given of the achievements of sanitary science than the change that has been effected by the introduction here of modern prophylactic methods in fighting against virulent diseases that had been endemic from time imme morial. The American government realized from the outset that, next to the digging of the canal, the most important task confronting it was the proper sanitation of the Canal Zone. The canal was to be built for all time and should therefore be in a salubrious territory. Epidemic diseases and their causes should be eradicated at once, so as to ob- Viate that frightful life-toll that had hitherto been claimed imong the ranks of the railway and canal employes *m the Isthmus. President Roosevelt, in his address to the 3anal Commission — as they were about to enter upon their 21 ALONG THE ANDES AND DOWN THE AMAZON duties in the spring of 1904,— emphasized the importance of this part of their work in the following words: — "There is one matter to which I ask your special atten tion — the question of sanitation and hygiene. You will take measures to secure the best medical experts for this purpose whom you can obtain, and you will, of course, make the contractors submit as implicitly as your own employes to all the rules and regulations of the medical department under you. ' ' Before Colonel Gorgas entered upon his campaign against the Anapholes and the Stegomya — the malarial and yellow fever mosquitoes — the unsanitary condition of Panama was expressed in the following lines: "For dangers uncounted are clustering there, The pestilence stalks uncontrolled. Strange poisons are borne on the soft languid air And lurk in each leaf's fragrant fold." It suffices to recall the frightful loss of life among the California gold-hunters, between the year 1849 and the completion of our first transcontinental railroad ; to allude to the time when the death rate among the employes of the French Company rose to four hundred out of a thousand, and to realize the pestilential condition of the Isthmus from the mouth of the Chagres to the Bay of Panama, to have some conception of the magnitude of the task that confronted the American sanitary officers when they assumed charge of the Canal Zone, July 1, 1904. The undertaking was enough to appall the stoutest heart, but Colonel Gorgas and his aids were nothing daunted, They were fresh from their triumphs in Havana, and had absolute confidence in the efficacy of their methods. A year later, so intelligent and well-directed had been their efforts, so thorough their work, even to the minutest de tails, that victory was in sight. Three months later yellow fever had been completely stamped out of the Canal Zone and the death rate among employes had been reduced 22 PLEASANT DAYS IN PANAMA to eleven per thousand, which is far below that of the larger cities of the United States and Europe. This was, indeed, a marvelous showing, but when certain swamps shall have been filled in; when wide stretches of grass and jungle shall have been cut and burned ; when the drainage and sewage systems, now under construction, shall have been completed, and when other precautionary measures, now in force, shall have had time to exhibit re sults, then there is every reason to believe that the death rate shall be lower even than it is at present, and but little, if at all, above that of the most sanitary of our northern cities.1 i According to the Annual Report of the Isthmian Canal Commission for the Fiscal Year ending June 30th, 1909, the death rate of the total popula tion in the Canal Zone, including the cities of Colon and Panama, was 22.04 per thousand. The death rate of the wives and children of employes from the United States was only 7.38 per thousand, while the death rate from disease of the white employes from the United States was reduced to the astonishingly low figure of 3.70 per thousand. The mortality of the negro employes was 11.98 per thousand, as against a mortality of one hundred and twenty-seven years before. When one remembers that the rate of mortality in the larger cities of the United States and Europe ranges from eighteen to twenty-eight per thousand, and is in the leading cities of Asia and Africa, nearly twice as great, the significance of the above figures becomes apparent. Indeed, the marvelous achievement of Colonel Gorgas and his staff in trans forming the Panama zone from one of the greatest plague spots in the world into one of the most salubrious of localities, is little short of miraculous. In a recent address before the sixtieth annual session of the American Medical Association, Colonel Gorgas expressed himself as follows: I believe that the debility from which the white man has suffered in the past at Panama and in other tropical countries is due to malaria prin cipally, and that if he protects himself from this infection he will remain as vigorous and strong as if he were living in a temperate climate. As a rea son for this belief, I would cite the health conditions of the Americans at Panama. We have about 8,000 white Americans there, living under the same condi tions that exist at home among men doing the same character of work. They are exposed to the weather fully as much as they are at home, a large proportion of them being exposed for eight hours daily to the tropical sun and rains. Notwithstanding this, the figures quoted show that their general health remains fully as good as it was in the United States. The only difference between ourselves and the whites formerly in Panama is that we have succeeded in protecting ourselves entirely from yellow fever and also, to a considerable extent, from malaria. Yellow fever has a great 23 ALONG THE ANDES AND DOWN THE AMAZON During my week's sojourn in Panama I was not even once annoyed by mosquitoes, and succeeded in finding one in my bedroom only after a protracted search. Naturally, it was quite harmless, even if it had bitten me, for, as there had been no cases of yellow fever in the Isthmus for several years, it could not have been infected and could not, con sequently, have inoculated any one with the yellow fever microbe. So salubrious, indeed, is now the climate of Panama, and so delightful during the dry season, that there is. a likeli hood of its soon becoming a popular resort for tourists, especially for those who wish to escape the rigors of our northern winter. I know of no place that has a more uni form temperature. Not even that of Barbados, which is justly famous, is so mild or equable. The average annual temperature is about 80° F., and the average highest and lowest temperatures are not more than four or five degrees above or below this figure. It is a singular fact that cases of sunstroke are almost unknown in the city of Panama, and there is no record there of the thermometer ever reaching 100° F. And this in a spot only one degree from the thermal equator ! Con trast this with the elevated temperatures recorded in many of our cities in the United States where the mercury fre quently mounts several degrees above 100° F. While the humidity on the Isthmus is very great, it is never so excessive as it is sometimes in New York and Washington. But the Isthmians suffer from it during a longer time than we do in the north. It is the long-con- effect on the death rate of a non-immune population, but it is not a notice-' able cause of debility. On the other hand, malaria is a disease which may- affect the individual for years, and in a locality like Panama is responsilj for a widespread condition of debility throughout the population. It is neither difficult nor expensive for a white man going to the tropifl to protect himself from malaria. It is only necessary that he should screen his house well, drain and clear off the brush within one hundred yards of his> residence. These measures are much less expensive than those he must take in the temperate zones to protect himself from cold. 24 Roosevelt Avenue, Cristobal-Colon. City of Panama. PLEASANT DAYS IN PANAMA tinued humidity, like the long-continued high temperature, that renders the climate debilitating and uncomfortable, but notwithstanding these drawbacks I have met many who prefer the uniform climate of Panama to our variable, ca pricious climate of the north. The rainfall on the Isthmus, especially on the Caribbean side, is extremely heavy. At Colon it averages twelve feet a year, — an enormous amount.1 I shall never forget my first night at Colon, for it was signalized by the heaviest downpour I ever witnessed. The water literally came down in sheets so thick that one could see but a short dis tance. It seemed as if the flood-gates of heaven had been opened and as if another Noachian deluge was imminent. It is this heavy rainfall, combined with the great num ber of rainy days — the average number annually at Bohio being two hundred and forty-six — that makes work on the canal so difficult and renders progress at times so slow. To the traveler from the north, every spot on the Isthmus is interesting, but the place that is most fascinating and where he will be disposed to linger longest, both on ac count of its acknowledged charm as well as on account of its many historic associations, is undoubtedly the city of Panama. It is a typical Spanish city, built on a rocky peninsula, and has many large and beautiful stone structures, which contrast strongly with the wooden and galvanized iron buildings of the American port of Colon. Its churches, notably its large and beautiful cathedral, — one of the most imposing in Latin America — are sure to claim attention. Then there is the old sea wall, against which dash the breakers of the Pacific, which now affords the most delight ful promenade in the city. It is almost all that remains of the massive walls that at one time girdled the city and made it practically impregnable. The cost of the complete iThe mean annual rainfall at New York is 42 inches, Montreal 36 inches, Madrid 10 inches. 25 ALONG THE ANDES AND DOWN THE AMAZON walls and fortifications, when labor was almost gratuitous, was $11,000,000, and they constituted, after those of Car tagena, the strongest and most costly defenses of any city in the New World. The walls, still standing, are in places from thirty to forty feet high and sixty feet broad, and, being of solid masonry, are still in a good state of preser vation. The view from this elevated promenade is one of ex ceeding beauty. On one side are the red-tiled roofs and pearl-covered towers of the city, with its delightful parks and masses of feathery palm fronds ; on the other the em erald shores and the broad sapphire expanse of the South ern Sea, dotted with the verdant isles of Naos, Perico, Ta- boga and Flamenco, which emerge from the placid ocean like the peaks of a lost Atlantis. In the streets of Panama one will meet with represen tations of every race and nation. Many are transients, others are engaged in business. I was surprised at the large number of Chinese merchants in the city and their evident success in mercantile pursuits. "The Chinese," one of them proudly assured me, "are the best merchants in the world and can successfully meet competition any where." In Panama and Colon they seem to have the Jion's share of the business and some of their larger stores are well worth visiting. But it is the refined and cultured women, the courteous and hospitable men of the old Spanish families, some of them descendants of the conquistadores, who make the deep est impression on the visitor to the charming and restful metropolis of the young republic. Many of them have been educated in Europe, or in the United States and are, consequently, well informed and of broad sympathies, One who has been privileged to enjoy their hospitality and friendship will ever cherish the memory of his asso ciation with such delightful, noble people. Time was when Panama was probably the richest and most important city on the western hemisphere. It was 26 PLEASANT DAYS IN PANAMA the seat of a royal audience and. the metropolis through which passed the countless millions of treasure from "Golden Peru" to imperial Spain. Its bay was filled with well-freighted galleons from every port, and its merchant princes lived a life of oriental ease and luxury. If Panama achieved such distinction when the commerce of the New World was yet in its infancy and was controlled almost entirely by the mother country, what may we not predict of it when the great waterway, now rapidly near- ing completion, shall be opened to the merchantmen of all nations; when the once famous city shall again, but under more favorable circumstances, be on one of the world's greatest highways of commerce, and when, in lieu of the solitary banner of Castilla and Leon, she shall see her placid harbor gay with the flags of every clime, and pulsating with deep-laden argosies from every land? Then, indeed, will she witness the fulfillment of the great designs of Columbus and Cortes in favor of humanity and have ever at her gates a glorious monument to the energy and power and patriot ism of the greatest of the world's commonwealths. 27 CHAPTER II ON THE GREAT SOUTH SEA After a delightful and instructive week spent on the Isthmus, I prepared to start for Guayaquil, the chief sea port of Ecuador. The steamer was scheduled to leave promptly at noon, and all passengers were requested to be aboard about an hour before that time. A special train conveyed us from Panama to La Boca — now called Balboa — where a splendid steel wharf has been constructed and where several large ocean vessels may safely and con veniently moor at the same time. The Pacific entrance to the canal is at this point. In marked contrast with the mean range of the tide — a little more than a foot — at Colon, the range at Panama is twenty feet. For a long time it was supposed that the Pacific Ocean was from ten to twenty feet higher than the Caribbean Sea, but it is now known that both bodies of water are at the same level. The view of the city of Panama from the deck of the steamer, as she glides southward through the placid waters of the bay is one of exceeding loveliness. Eeposing at the foot of Ancon Hill and garlanded by emerald green ver dure, it possesses throughout the year all the charm of Palermo in May or October. About six miles to the south of the city is all that remains of Panama Viejo — Old Panama — which was ravaged and burned by that ruthless Welsh Buccaneer, Sir Henry Mor gan, in 1671. Aside from an arch of a bridge and the foundations of some of the more notable buildings, now con cealed by a dense network of shrub and vine, and over spread by a thick-matted forest, almost all that now re mains of this former "Gate of the Western World" is the 28 ON THE GREAT SOUTH SEA massive and picturesque old tower of the Cathedral of St. Anastasius. Old Panama was founded in 1518 by Pedrarias Davila — that Furor Dei — Scourge of God — as he was called, on ac count of his cruelties, on the site recommended by Balboa, and was the oldest European city on the mainland of the New World. The word Panama is of Indian origin and signifies "abounding in fish." On the seashore hard by were "quantities of very small mussels," and it is said that these mussel beds determined the site of the future metrop olis "because the Spaniards felt themselves safe from hun ger on account of these mussels." For a long time Old Panama was, after Cartagena, the chief city of South America. It was celebrated as the "glorious city of Panama," as "the grandest metropolis in the South Seas, ' ' as the peer of Venice when the painted city of the doges was yet "the incomparable Queene" of the Adriatic. It was from this city that the conquista dores set forth on their marvelous careers of discovery and conquest. It was from here that the Pizarros and Al- magro and Bellacazar sailed to Golden Peru. To the har bor of Panama came the rich galleons laden with the gold and silver from the land of the Incas and with the pearls from the islands of the South Sea. It was then "the greatest mart for gold and silver in the whole world. ' ' And ' ' as the city grew in wealth, so it grew in magnificence, in the costliness of its buildings, in the extravagance of its luxuries and in that languid sensu. ousness which saps life in the tropics." Its merchant princes lived like oriental satraps in stone houses of Moor ish design, finished in carved aromatic woods and decked with the most beautiful tapestries and works of art that money could command. And as they appeared in public, in lace-decked attire or brocaded silk, with their retinue of slaves, they may well have outshone the gorgeously dressed Venetians who, in days long passed, strutted before an ad miring crowd in the famed old Bialto. 29 ALONG THE ANDES AND DOWN THE AMAZON Old Panama was the western terminus of the famous Gold Road, the camino real, over which long lines of mule trains carried countless millions of treasure to Venta Cruz, Puerto Bello and Nombre de Dios, on the way from Peru to Spain. Over this road traveled Drake and Morgan and other freebooters of lesser note. The old harbor, too, has witnessed as stirring scenes as did the Gold Road, for here took place some of the most daring exploits of certain of the Buccaneers, notably that of Sawkins, Coxon and Ringrose in their capture of the famous old galleon, La Santisima Trinidad. The harbor "that saw all this," says Treves, "is now an utter solitude, silent and forgotten, a sea-refuge hidden in a mysterious forest, a place of shadows, haunted only by pelicans and sea birds, and where none but the ghosts of ships come in on the rising tide."1 Verily, sic transit gloria mundi. Some forty or fifty miles southeast of Panama, we passed the famous group of Pearl Islands which attracted so much attention at the time of their discovery by Balboa, and which were for a long time so prolific a source of rev enue for the Spanish crown. From the view-point of many of his countrymen, Balboa's most important achieve ment in crossing the Isthmus of Panama was not in discov ering the boundless expanse of the South Sea — an achieve ment second only to that of Columbus — but in making known that group of islands which, next to the mines of Peru, contributed most to the coffers of the Spanish mon arch. Pearls were then so common that the Indians used them for adorning the paddles of their canoes. The chief of Ter- arequi — the largest of the Pearl Islands — gave to Gaspar Morales, who visited the place two years after Balboa's dis covery — a basketful of pearls that weighed one hundred and ten marks — nearly nine hundred ounces — for which he received in exchange glass beads, mirrors, hawk-bells and similar articles of little value. In addition to this he prom- i Cradle of the Deep, p. 339, London, 1908. 30 ON THE GREAT SOUTH SEA ised to send to the Spanish monarch thenceforth an annual tribute of one hundred marks of pearls. Some of these pearls were as large as filberts and of exceeding beauty of form and luster, while others found in the same fisheries a short time subsequently at once took place among the largest and most perfect of the world's gems. Oviedo, in the quaint translation of Eden, refers to the pearls of Terarequi and of the adjoining islands as follows : "Lykewise pearles are found and gathered in the South Sea cauled Mare del Sur. And the pearles of this Sea" and the Caribbean Sea "are verye bygge. Yet not so bigge as they of the Uande of pearles cauled de las perlas or Margarita, which the Indians caul Terareque, lying in the goulfe of Saincte Michael where greater pearles are founde and of greater price then in any other coaste of the Northe Sea, in Cumana, or in any other parte. I speake this as a trewe testimonie of syght having been longe in that South Sea, and makynge curious inquisition to bee certenly in formed of all that perteyneth to the fysshynge of pearles. From this Ilande of Terarequi, there was brought a pearle of the fasshyon of a peare, wayunge XXXI. carattes, which Petrus Arias had amonge a thousande and so many poundes weight of other pearles which hee had when captayne Gas- par Morales (before Petrus Arias) passed to the saide ilande in the yeare 1515, which pearle was of great price. From the said Ilande also, came a great and verye rounde pearle, which I brought oute of the sea. This was as bigge as a smaule pellet of a stone bowe and of the weight of .XXVI. Carattes. I bought it in the citie of Panama in the sea of Sur : and paide for it syxe hundreth and syxtie tymes the weyght thereof of good gold, and had it thre yeares in my custodie : and after my returne into Spaine, soulde it to the earle of Nansao, Marquesse of Zenete, great chamber- leyne to yowre maiestie, who gave it to the Marquesse his wyfe, the lady Mentia of Mendosza. I thyncke verely that this pearl was the greatest, fayrest and roundest that hath byn seene in those partes. For yowre maiestie owght 31 ALONG THE ANDES AND DOWN THE AMAZON to understande that in the coaste of the sea of Sur, there are founde a hundreth great pearles rounde after the fasshyon of a peare, to one, that is perfectly rounde and greate. This Ilande of Terarequi, which the Christeans caule the Ilande of pearles, and others caule the Hande of flowres, is founde in the eyght degree of the southe syde of the firme lande in the provynce of Golden Castyle or Beragua. ' ' J The pearling industry in these waters was an important one until the middle of the eighteenth century, and the size and orient of the pearls obtained rivaled those of Ceylon, After this date pearling gradually declined, although sev eral ineffective attempts have been made to revive the in dustry. The fisherman, however, is still occasionally re warded by the finding of a large and valuable pearl. A few years before my visit a native boy, aged fifteen, found a pearl for which he received $1,760, and for which an offer of thirty thousand francs was subsequently refused in Paris. Another pearl, worth $2,400, had been found, so we were informed, quite near the steamer anchorage at Panama. A few leagues east from the Pearl Archipelago, is San Miguel Bay. This place had a special interest for us, as it was in the waters of the north shore of this bay that Bal boa, sword in hand, formally took possession of the South Sea for the crown of Castile. Leaving the Caribbean at some point between Cape Tiburon and Caledonian Bay, he cut his way through the dense forests and savage jungles that impeded his march until at last on the memorable 25th of September, 1513, 1 The First Three English Books on America, p. 214, edited by Edward Arber, London, 1895. The historian Acosta, who went to Peru in 1570, writing of the vast quantity of pearls found in these islands and elsewhere in the New World, says, "At the first pearles were in so great estimation, as none but royall persons were suffered to weare them, but at this day there is such abundance as that the negresses themselves do weare chaines thereof." Op. cit., Bool IV, Chap. XV. 32 ON THE GREAT SOUTH SEA "With eagle eyes He stared at the Pacific, — and all his men Look'd at each other with a wild surmise, — Silent upon a peak in Darien. ' ' *¦ As the vast expanse of waters, on which Balboa's ecstatic gaze was then riveted, was south of the point where he stood and south of his point of departure from the Northern Sea, as the Atlantic was then called, the discoverer called it Mar del Sur — Sea of the South — a name it long retained. Magellan, in 1520, after escaping from the sudden and vio lent tempests, to which he was exposed during the passage of the strait which now bears his name, called the southern part of the ocean, discovered by Balboa, the Pacific. "Well was it named the Pacific," writes Pigafetta, who accom panied Magellan on this voyage, "for during this time" — three months and twenty days, that they were on this ocean — "we met with no storm." 2 So elated was Balboa over his epoch-making discovery that he, says Peter Martyr, "with no lesse manlye corage than Hanniball of Carthage shewed his souldiers Italye and the promontories of the Alps, exhorted his men to lyft up their hartes, and to behoulde the land even now under theyre feete and the sea before theyre eyes, whiche shoulde bee unto them a full and iust rewarde of theyre great la- boures and trauayles now ouerpassed. When he had sayde these woordes, he commanded them to raise certeine heapes of stones in the steede of alters for a token of possession. Then descendynge from the toppes of the mountaynes, least such as might come after hym shoulde argue hym of lyinge and falshod, he wrote the Kynge of Castelles name here and there on the barkes of the trees bothe on the ryght iBy inadvertence, Keats, in the beautiful sonnet from which the above verses are taken, credits Cortes, instead of Balboa, with the discovery of the Pacific. 2 The First Voyage of Magellan, translated from the accounts of Antonio Pigafetta by Lord Stanley of Alderley for the Hakluyt Society, p. 65, Lon don, 1874. Pigafetta, on his map, calls the South Sea Mare Paoifico. 33 ALONG THE ANDES AND DOWN THE AMAZON hande and on the lefte; and raysed heapes of stones all the way that he went, untyll he came to the region of the nexte Kynge towarde the south whose name was Chiapes." J This was taking possession of the South Sea from a dis tance. The act of taking possession on arriving at the north shore of the Gulf of San Miguel was accompanied with much greater formality and ceremony. And so typ ical is it of similar performances of the conquistadores that I transcribe from Oviedo his account of the manner in which Balboa and his companions claimed for his sov ereigns the Sea of the South, all islands in it and all lands bordering on it in what part of the world soever. Armed with his sword and shield and bearing aloft a banner on which were painted an image of the Blessed Virgin and the Divine Child and the arms of Castile and Leon, Balboa, followed by his associates, entered the water until it rose above his knees, when in a loud voice he said : "Long live the high and mighty monarchs, Don Ferdi nand and Donna Juana, sovereigns of Castile, of Leon and of Aragon in whose name and for the royal crown of Cas tile, I take real and corporal and actual possession of these seas and lands and coasts and ports and islands of the South and all thereunto annexed; and of the kingdoms and prov inces which do or may appertain to them in whatever man ner or by whatever right or title, ancient or modern, in times past, present or to come, without any contradiction; and if other prince or captain, Christian or infidel, or of any law, sect or condition whatsoever, shall pretend any right to these lands and seas, I am ready and prepared to maintain and defend them in the name of the Castilian sovereigns, present and future, whose is the empire and dominion over these Indias, islands and terra firma, north ern and southern, with all their seas, both at the arctic and antarctic poles, on either side of the equinoctial line, whether within or without the tropics of Cancer and Cap- i Eden, Op. cit., p. 139. 34 ON THE GREAT SOUTH SEA ricorn, both now and in all times, as long as the world en dures, and until the final judgment of all mankind." x After this swelling proclamation by their leader, his fol lowers expressed themselves in a similar manner and then the notary, who always accompanied such expeditions, was ordered to make on the spot, an exact record of what had been said and done, which was duly signed and authenti cated by all present. There was, the reader may say, something Quixotic in such proceedings, but be that as it may, the Spanish ex plorer precluded by this means the possibility on the part of any one who came after him to "argue hym of lyinge and falshod. " So long as we were in the Gulf of Panama, the Sea of the South was tranquillity itself and almost mirror-like in ap pearance. We then had ocular evidence of the appropriate ness of the name of the Bay of Calms, which has been given to these waters. The sea could not be more placid in the Doldrums. But after we attained the high sea, beyond the limits of the Gulf of Panama, the ocean became so rough that few were disposed to see anything pacific about it. It was not at any time so tempestuous as I had frequently found it in higher latitudes, but the motion of the steamer was so violent that many of the passengers were compelled to take to their berths. Although we never encountered any of the furious tem pests which "lash the sea into fury," or saw any of the "boiling surges" which Prescott tells us threatened with destruction the flimsy barks of Pizarro and his companions, we never ceased to marvel at the daring of that adventur ous band, who, braving the dangers of an unknown sea, set forth to conquer the powerful empire of the Incas. As an exhibition of tireless energy, continuity of purpose in face of apparently insuperable obstacles, and triumphant i Historia General y Natural de las Indias Islas y Tierra Firme del Mar [Oceano, por El Capitan Gonzalo Fernandez de Oviedo y Valdez, Lib. XXIX, Cap. Ill, Madrid, 1853. 35 ALONG THE ANDES AND DOWN THE AMAZON achievement after untold suffering and dangers innumer able, the expedition of Pizarro quite eclipses everything of the kind recorded in the annals of conquest in any part of the world. It was not only with known dangers — wind, rain, light ning, tempestuous seas, formidable gales — that they had to contend. They had had experience of all these on the Atlantic. It was rather with unknown dangers which were in many respects greater than any which they had ever en countered elsewhere. There were dangers from fever- laden jungles, miasmatic swamps, savage Indians, clouds of pestiferous insects, that left them no rest day or night. There were dangers from famine and strange diseases that prostrated and carried off the strongest of their num ber in a few hours. There was danger from the breeze which, in that part of the world, blows toward the north for the greater part of the year and makes sailing against it, for the long distances the Spaniards had to travel, a matter of extreme difficulty. And there was, too, danger from the sea-current — now known as the Humboldt cur rent — that greatly impeded progress and often imperiled the safety of vessels and crews. This immense and power ful current was as new to them as was the Gulf Stream to Columbus, and caused them as much anxiety and trouble. The philosophers of the time, ignorant of its cause, attrib uted it, as they did many other natural phenomena, to the influence of the primum mobile, but knew not what pro vision to make against its incessant action in the broad ex panse where it was so dominant. We could have wished to visit — or at least get a glimpse of — the islands of Gorgona and Gallo, but they were much nearer the coast than the course taken by our steamer, These, especially the latter, are famous landmarks in the earlier expeditions of Pizarro and his adventurous fol lowers. It was on this island, little more than a barren rock, that Pizarro announced to his timid and discouraged com- 36 on The great south sea panions in arms his determination to continue the prose cution of his enterprise after it had been pronounced by all to be a forlorn hope. "Drawing his sword," Montesinos tells us, "he traced a line with it on the sand from east to west, then, turning to ward the south, 'Friends and comrades!' he said, 'on that side are toil, hunger, nakedness, the drenching storm, de sertion and death; on this side, ease and pleasure. There lies Peru with its riches; here Panama and its poverty. Choose, each man, what best becomes a brave Castilian. For my part I go to the south, ' ' and so saying, he stepped across the line. He was followed by his brave pilot Ruiz, a Greek cavalier named Pedro de Candia, and eleven oth ers, who, Montesinos continues, "thus, in the face of diffi culties unexampled in history, with death rather than riches for their reward, preferred it all to abandoning their honor, and stood firm by their leader as an example to all future ages." x Commenting on this soul-stirring episode in the career of the intrepid conquistador, Prescott well interprets the sentiments of the reader in the following eloquent para graph : — "There is something striking to the imagination in the spectacle of these few brave spirits thus consecrating them selves to a daring enterprise, which seemed as far above their strength as any recorded in the fabulous annals of knight-errantry. A handful of men, without food, without clothing, almost without arms, without knowledge of the land to which they were bound, without vessel to transport them, were here left on a lonely rock on the ocean with the avowed purpose of carrying on a crusade against a power ful empire, staking their lives on its success. What is there in the legends of chivalry that surpasses it? This was the crisis in Pizarro 's fate. There are moments in the lives of men, which, as they are seized or neglected, lAnales del Peru, Tom. I, p. 61, publicados por Victor M. Maurtua, del Instituto Historieo del Peru, Madrid, 1906. 37 ALONG THE ANDES AND DOWN THE AMAZON decide their future destiny. Had Pizarro faltered from his strong purpose, and yielded to the occasion, now so tempt ingly presented, for extricating himself and his broken band from their desperate position, his name would have been buried with his fortunes, and the conquest of Peru would have been left for other and more successful adven turers. But his constancy was equal to the occasion and his conduct here proved him competent to the peril ous post he had assumed, and inspired others with a confidence in him which was the best assurance of success." 1 About two days after leaving Panama, we crossed the equator. Neptune, however, and his retinue did not ap pear to baptize those who crossed the line for the first time. Many of the passengers had never been in the trop ics before, and for them the passing from one hemisphere into another was an extraordinary event. But, although all carefully noted the exact moment when they entered the southern half of the world, I do not think many of them were so impressed by the fact as were Spix and Martius in the early part of the last century, when on their way to Brazil. "This moment," they declared, "was the most solemn and sacred in our lives." But there was a special reason for such profound emotion in their case, They were then drawing nigh to Brazil, the land where they immortalized themselves by their researches and ex plorations, which so greatly extended the domain of natural knowledge. In this moment of crossing the equinoctial line, "We saw," they continue, "the longings of earlier years accomplished — and with pure joy and enthusiastic anticipation, we indulged in the foretaste of a new world so rich in the wonders of nature. ' ' 2 I must confess, however, that I experienced similar feel ings when I found myself crossing the boundary that sepa rates the northern from the southern half of our planet. I i The Conquest of Peru, Book I, Chap. IV. 2 Travels in Brazil in the Years 1817-20, Vol. I, p. 117, London, 1824. 38 ON THE GREAT SOUTH SEA had from my boyhood dreamed of just this moment and had for many long decades cherished the hope that I might one day have an opportunity of visiting the lands of the Incas and the Aymaras and of gazing on the sublime scen ery of the Andes and the superb exhibitions of plant life on the Amazon and its tributaries. The dream was now about to be realized, and the longings of a lifetime were soon to be satisfied. The crossing of the equinoctial brought with it not only a change in the earth's surface, but also a change in the aspect of the heavens. The moment we crossed the line, Polaris, that had been our guiding star in journeyings in numerable, dropped below the horizon and was not again seen until long months afterwards. New stars and new constellations replaced those we had left behind and made us feel that we had suddenly been made spectators of a new heaven and a new earth. The spectacle afforded by the setting sun the evening we crossed the line was gorgeous beyond description. The western horizon was fringed with tenuous, flocculent clouds, which soon blazed with all the colors of the rainbow. Bril liant, almost blinding at first, they gradually assumed the subdued hues of early autumn leaves. There were delicate tints of green and gold, red and brown, purple and prim rose. Anon, as the descending sun touched the ocean wave, multicolored, luminous rays shot forth fanwise and suf fused the translucent azure of the celestial vault with won drous jewel lights as of vaporized ruby and topaz and sapphire. Rarely, indeed, in our northern zones, outside the magic color displays of the Aurora Borealis, does one witness such splendor of rose and scarlet, such glowing of nacre and gleaming of opaline fire, as it was our privi lege to behold on that memorable evening in the South Sea. The sun-god seemed loathe to depart from the world that he had illumined and beautified, for scarcely had he dropped below the ocean's edge, when he flashed through the skies, even to the zenith, swift coruscations as if to 39 ALONG THE ANDES AND DOWN THE AMAZON show by this glorious pageantry that he was triumphant even in exile.1 Never before was I so impressed by the solemnities of sea and sky, as in the equatorial Pacific; never before was I so fascinated by the witchery of the infinite, as when contemplating the deep, shoreless ocean and the blue, cloud less heavens in the favored clime of the Southern Cross. What tenderness of tint in the soft rose light of dawn, what caresses of color in the sunset's crimson glow! During the daytime what delicate color dances on the emerald waves, and what splendor of translucent azure in the firma ment above! And at night, what sublime beauty in the starry canopy with its millions of suns in unfathomable space ! Here Nature seems to revel in the unveiled magnificence of her ever-varying moods. Whether one contemplates her when the breath of dawn sows with ripples the quick silver sea, or when the ocean shifts color with each suc ceeding swell and exhibits transformations of tint for every form and motion of wave, or when the waters of the deep, under a dark sky, phosphoresce and sparkle with animated billows, or when the gathering gloom is thrilled by twin kling constellations overhead, she is ever an object of awe, of inexpressible loveliness beyond the power of poet or 1 The statement, frequently made, even by travelers in the tropics, that there is no twilight in the equatorial zone is quite erroneous. When Cole ridge, in The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, sings "The sun's rim dips; the stars rush out: At one stride comes the dark;" we make allowance for poetical license, but when a scientific explorer, like Crevaux tells us in his Voyages dans VAm4rique du Sud, p. 104, that U voile de la nuit va se lever presque aussi rapidment qu'un rideau de the&tn — the veil of night rises almost as quickly as a drop-curtain — he not only exaggerates but misleads. It is true that at the equator, where the sun descends vertically instead of obliquely below the horizon as it does in tem perate and polar zones, that the transition from day to night and vice versa is more rapid than it is with us in midsummer, but it is only about a third shorter than our twilight at the equinoxes. 40 ON THE GREAT SOUTH SEA painter to portray, beyond their power even fully to com prehend. Old Xenophanes must have been enthralled by the magic spell of such bright blue skies, as one sees in the tropics, when he declared that the infinite blue is God. And Hermes must have been permeated with the wondrous, gladdening, vivifying rays of an equatorial sun when he asserted that ' ' The sun is laughter ; for it is he who maketh joyous the thoughts of men and gladdeneth the infinite world." How often, while gazing at the multiform changes wrought on the face of the tranquil Pacific, when breathed upon by the gentlest of zephyrs, how often, when watching the ceaseless play of light and color in the curling wavelets and admiring the inexpressible beauty and luminosity of every swell and ripple, have I not recalled that exquisite picture of .ZEschylus — the many-twinkling smiles of Ocean ttovtuov Se KV/juxnov ayy/piO/iov ycAacr/wi. ' ' And how often, too, have I not heard ringing in my ears the words of Lafcadio Hearn's superb apostrophe to the sea: — "Thou primordial Sea, the awfulness of whose antiquity hath stricken all mythology dumb ; thou most wrinkled, liv ing Sea, the millions of whose years outnumber the multi tude of thy hoary motions ; — thou omniform and most mys terious Sea, mother of the monsters and the gods, — whence thine eternal youth? Still do thy waters hold the infinite thrill of that Spirit which brooded over thy face in the be ginning ! — still is thy quickening breath an elixir unto them that flee to thee for life, — like the breath of young girls, like the breath of children, prescribed for the senescent by magicians of old, — prescribed unto weazened elders in the books of the Wizards. ' ' x Aside from the marvel afforded by the magnificent sun- i Chita: A Memory of Lost Island, p. 162, New York, 1889. 41 ALONG THE ANDES AND DOWN THE AMAZON set just noted, there was another revelation of a different character awaiting most of the passengers on the boat, especially for those who had come from the north. They had fancied, on leaving their homes that they would have to endure intense heat in the tropics, particularly in the neighborhood of the equator. Pleasant, therefore, was their surprise when, the second day after leaving the Gulf of Panama, they found that the atmosphere, far from being hot and sweltering, was cool and refreshing. And so cool indeed was it after sunset here that the women called for their wraps, and after crossing the equinoctial, I saw many of them at nightfall using their furs and lap- robes. This seems incredible, but such is the tempering influence of the Humboldt current, that carries northward the glacial waters of antarctic seas, that the temperature of the Pacific, along the west coast of South America, is far lower than is ordinarily supposed, and much below the temperature of the ocean in corresponding latitudes in other parts of the world.1 How different was the region of the equator, as we found it during this voyage, from what it was conceived to be by the philosophers of old! According to Aristotle and Pliny, whose teachings had defenders even among the learned men of Salamanca, who had been delegated to examine the plans of Columbus for a westward passage to India, the torrid or burning zone, at least that part of it directly under the equator, was uninhabitable and unpro ductive, and, by reason of the excessive heat which was supposed to prevail there, impassable.2 i Francisco de Xeres, the secretary of Francisco Pizarro, informs us that the Spaniards, while sailing in these waters on their way to Peru, "suffered great hardships from hunger and cold" — pasando grandes trabajos, hamirei y frios. Eistoriadores Primitivos de Indias, Coleccion Dirigida 6 Illustrada por D. Enrique de Vedia, Tom. II, p. 321, Madrid, 1906. 2 The historian Acosta, who went to Peru in 1570, narrating his experience when crossing the equator, writes as follows : "Having read what Poets and Philosophers write of the burning zone I perswaded my selfe, that commits to the Equinoctiall, I should not indure the violent heate, but it fell out otherwise; for when I passed, which was when the sun was there for Zenitti 42 ON THE GREAT SOUTH SEA If the southern hemisphere was habitable, as Aristotle believed, it was forever inaccessible from the north tem perate regions of the globe. "In this central region, where the sun runs his course, the earth," Pliny declares, "is burnt up as with fire." Fish and whales, it was averred, could not exist in the tropical ocean. Only marine sala manders, if there were such creatures, could find a home in its superheated waters. And yet, strange coincidence! in the immediate vicinity of the equinoctial line, we saw a whale, one of those mon sters of the deep that the poet Spenser has so felicitously described by a single adjective — "sea-shouldering." We saw also great schools of flying-fish, those strange repre sentatives of the finny tribe, that would contest with the birds the domain of the atmosphere. The Spaniards call them Golondrinas — swallows — and their peculiar gliding motion in the air really does remind one of the flight of swallows. To us they seemed more like miniature aero planes, as they flitted hither and thither, skimming and scudding the waves in their effort to escape their pursuing enemy. Their power of flight is due not to wings but to highly developed pectoral fins, which enable them to dart through the air for two hundred yards or more. But the most remarkable fact about their flight is that they do not flap their fins, as the bird does its wings, but warp them when they wish to change their direction, precisely as an aviator warps the planes of his flying machine. Aviators might being entered into Aries, in the moneth of March, I felt so great cold, as I was forced to go into the sunne to warme me; what could I else do then, but laugh at Aristotles Meteors and his Philosophie seeing that in that place and at that season, whenas all should be scorched with heat, according to his rules, I, and all my companions were a eolde?" Op. cit., Book II, Chap. IX. The denial of the Aristotelian dogma that "the middle zone of the earth is so scorched by the sun as to be destitute of moisture and totally un inhabitable" was one of the grounds on which the charge of scepticism and atheism was preferred against Sir Walter Raleigh. And this, too, a century after the discovery of America! 43 ALONG THE ANDES AND DOWN THE AMAZON do well to study the flight of these singular fishes, as well as the flight of birds, in their efforts to obtain success in the conquest of the air. The evening before we landed at Guayaquil, we passed the little island of Santa Clara, also known as La Amor- tajada—ihe Enshrouded Woman l — because of its fancied resemblance, when observed from a distance, and at the proper angle, to a corpse wrapped in a winding sheet. We first saw it under the subdued rays of the setting sun, and so striking was the resemblance to a shrouded figure that the appropriateness of the name La Amortajada was at once manifest. As first seen, it was, on account of the color and barren ness of the island, almost snow-white, but, as the sun sank into the ocean, it was tinged with a soft crimson hue, which gradually shaded into a lovely seal-brown. Just as the figure, as we thought, was about to be veiled in darkness, a brilliant light flashed from its bosom, to the surprise of every beholder. It came from the lighthouse stationed on the island, and gave to La Amortajada, from where we were viewing it, the appearance of holding in her hands some object of strange refulgence. Memory then wafted me from Santa Clara dead to Santa Clara living, when, in her cloistered home in Assisi; long centuries ago, she put to flight the infidel, as he was about to invade the sa cred precincts of her convent home. The Saracens had made themselves masters of Assisi and were on the point of forcing an entrance into the cloister occupied by the saint and the members of her religious family. She was then confined to bed by illness, but no sooner was she ap prised of the imminent danger to which they were all exposed, than, endowed with the faith that moves moun tains, she had the monstrance containing the consecrated host brought to her. Then she bade her frightened nuns to carry her to the door that was on the point of yielding i It is likewise called Isla del Muerto — Dead Man's Island — from its re semblance to a gigantic floating corpse. 44 ON THE GREAT SOUTH SEA to the assault of the infuriated mob. There, holding aloft the sacred receptacle of the Blessed Eucharist, she said, "Do not, 0 Lord, deliver to beasts the souls confiding in Thee, and preserve Thy servants whom Thou hast re deemed by Thy precious blood." This prayer being fin ished, a voice was heard, saying — "I will always protect you." "So startled were the Saracens," the saint's biog rapher continues, "that they at once betook themselves to flight, while those who had already mounted the walls, were stricken with blindness and fell headlong to the ground." * Without inquiring why Pizarro, who discovered the island, called it Santa Clara, its name seemed to me, under the circumstances just recounted, the most suitable that could have been selected. The conquistadores were often singularly happy in the names they gave the places they discovered, but never more so than in the case of this little island, dedicated to the sainted virgin of Umbria. Before the arrival of the Spaniards, the island, which was inhabited, had been used by the Indians of the neigh boring island of Puna as a place of burial. By them it was regarded as a sacred place, and at stated times they here offered great sacrifices to certain stone idols having heads, human in form, but sharply pointed. It was here, too, that the Spaniards, judging by the many objects of gold, silver and rich textile fabrics which they found, learned that they were near the land of their long and eager quest — the famed land of golden Peru. After leaving Santa Clara, our steamer was headed for the island of Puna, near the mouth of the river Guayas. This island also, as well as those of Gallo, Gorgona and Santa Clara, occupies an important page in the annals of the Peruvian conquest. It was here that Pizarro waited 'several months for reinforcements from Panama, before starting on his famous expedition into the interior of Peru. It was here that he had his first encounters with 'the subjects of the Incas. It was here, when his position 1 iBreviarum Romanum, for Aug. 12th. 45 ALONG THE ANDES AND DOWN THE AMAZON had become dangerous and almost untenable, that he was joined by Hernando de Soto, the renowned conquistador, who afterwards immortalized himself by the discovery of the Mississippi, which was to be both his grave and his monument. By the timely arrival of De Soto and his gal lant band, Pizarro was able to extricate himself from his perilous situation and to prosecute that memorable cam paign, which so shortly afterwards ended in the capture and death of Atahualpa. And it was here, some historians assert, that the chaplain of Pizarro 's army, the much abused Fray Vicente de Valverde, the first bishop of Peru, lost his life at the hands of the warlike Indians to whom he had come to preach the gospel of peace.1 From Puna, near which we anchored for some hours, waiting for the visit of the health officers, who came after considerable delay, we proceeded up the river to Ecuador's chief seaport, Guayaquil. From these officials we learned of an attempt that had been made the day before, to assas sinate General Alfaro, the president of the republic. They said that the whole country had been placed under martial law, and that a revolution was inevitable. Many of the passengers, mostly Ecuadorians, bound for Quito, were so alarmed by this information, that, they did not consider it safe to disembark, and accordingly remained on the ves sel and went to Lima to await there the cessation of hostilities. Several of us, however, who had passed through similar uprisings in other parts of South America, did not regard the situation as sufficiently serious to justify an abandonment of our plans, and we, accordingly pre-' i Cf. Tesoros Verdaderos de las Yndias en la Historia de la Gran Provmk de San Juan Bautista del Peru, de la Orden de Predicadores por el Maestro F. G. Juan Melendez, Tom. I, Lib. II, Cap. VII, Roma, 1681, 3 vols. Fray Reginaldo de Lizarraga, in his interesting Description y Poblacion dt las Indias, which was written while the death of Valverde was yet fresh in the memory of the inhabitants of Guayaquil, although it remained unpub lished until 1907, tells us that the bishop was not only massacred but eaten by the Indians, and that in his day the neighboring tribes reproached the authors of the prelate's death with being bishop-eaters — perros lampma. Rivista Historica, p. 280, Lima, 1907. 46 ON THE GREAT SOUTH SEA pared to continue our journey to Quito, the capital of Ecuador. The scenery along the Guayas is like that which char acterizes the Magdalena, the Orinoco and other tropical rivers. The vegetation is rank and profuse. The oozy soil, near the banks of the river, is covered with tall grasses, reeds and heliconias, while in the higher grounds, further afield, one discerns giant trees, draped with a close network of those creepers and parasites that are so conspicuous in every tropical forest. But the Cordilleras, as we saw them from the deck of our steamer, on the broad waters of the Guayas! They were stupendous, overpowering in their magnitude and majesty. Never before, in any part of the world, had I beheld so imposing an exhibition of mountain grandeur. The colossal peaks, rising through successive masses of vari-colored, cirro-stratus and cirro-cumulus clouds, which changed their form and position with every passing breeze, seemed literally to pierce the sky. I had marveled at simi lar magnifying effects produced by shifting clouds and the incessant variations in light and shade and perspective, when approaching the Coast Range, near La Guayra, but, although the optical illusions observed there were extraor dinary, they were in no wise comparable with those wit nessed as we neared the port of Guayaquil. In the foreground, extending seemingly to the water's edge, were the foothills; although they were in reality not more than a few thousand feet high at most, yet their summits appeared to be nearer the blue empyrean than does the icy crown of Mount Blanc when viewed 5from the vale of Chamouni. Only the magic pen of Olmedo, the gifted poet of Guayaquil, has ever adequately "put in words the overpowering impression made on the be holder, when he first fixes his astonished gaze on "Los Andes ... las enormes estupendas Moles, sentadas sobre bases de oro, 47 ALONG THE ANDES AND DOWN THE AMAZON Que ven las tempestades a su planta Brillar, rugir, romperse, disiparse. ' ' J But our contemplation of the sublime spectacle before us was suddenly interrupted by the sharp, shrill whistle of the steamer, and the discordant clanking of the anchor-chain passing through the hawse-pipe. We had happily completed the first stadium of our trans-equatorial voyage and were now safely moored in the placid waters of the broad har bor of Guayaquil. 1 "The Andes — the enormous, stupendous masses, set on foundations of gold, Which behold the tempests at their feet gleam, roar, disperse, vanish." 48 CHAPTER III FROM SULTRY COASTLAND TO CHILLY PARAMO Our first view of Guayaquil was, in its way, almost as im pressive as our first view of the Andes from the island of Puna. As seen under the subdued rays of the rising sun, it was a vision of oriental splendor, not unlike a distant view of Cairo or Damascus. The large, white structures along the Guayas and the imposing churches, also white, whose towers, by a peculiar optical illusion, appeared much loftier than they really were, seemed to be like modern Athens, wrought of Pentelican marble. The city, as thus seen, was a fit companion picture to that of the cloud- piercing Cordilleras at whose foot it so gracefully reposed, and we were quite disposed to exclaim with the Guayaquil poet, Padre Aguirre: "Guayaquil, ciudad hermosa, De la America guirnalda, De tierra bella esmeralda, De la mar perla preciosa. ' ' x In the harbor were several steamers and sailing vessels from many parts of the world, but the most picturesque features were the peculiar craft, everywhere visible, of the Indians and mestizos. These were balsas, of the same type as those that so surprised Pizarro 's pilot, Ruiz, and his companions on their first arrival in these parts, and certain kinds of rafts that serve the same purpose as a Chinese house-boat.2 All these were loaded with fruits i "Guayaquil, city beautiful, America's garland, beauteous emerald of earth, precious pearl of the sea.'' z The historian Zarate thus described these balsas: "They are made of 49 ALONG THE ANDES AND DOWN THE AMAZON and other products of the rich lands bordering the Guayas and its affluents. And so great was the abundance of these products offered for sale that it was difficult to imagine where purchasers could be found for half of them. There were bananas of many varieties, juicy pineapples of rarest fragrance, papayas resembling muskmelons in size and ap pearance, and countless other fruits grateful to the palate, that are found only in the tropics. The vision beautiful vanishes as soon as one disem barks. The marble palaces prove to be merely white washed structures of plastered bamboo, and the edifices that seemed so majestic from a distance dwindle into rude shops and unpretentious shacks. Outside of the Malecon that parallels the course of the river, there are few streets to claim the visitor's attention, and still fewer where he will care to promenade a second time. The Cathedral, some of the churches, and the hospital will repay a visit, as will some of the larger business houses along the Male- con. In most respects Guayaquil is like all other Spanish- American cities. It is laid out in the same gridiron fashion, and the manners and customs of its inhabitants are essentially the same as those of the inhabitants of other parts of Latin America. The peculiar bamboo houses are admirably adapted to the soft low ground — only a few feet above the water at high tide — on which the city is built, and are as nearly earthquake-proof as are our steel structures of the north. Some of them are highly ornate in appearance, and all of them are specially designed for the comfort of those who live where summer never dies. long light poles fastened across two other poles. Those on the top are always an odd number, generally five and sometimes seven or nine, where the rower sits, the center poles being longer than the others. The shape of the balsa is like that of a hand stretched out, with the length of the fingers diminishing from the center. On the top some boards are fixed to prevent the men from getting wet. There are balsas which will hold fifty men and three horses. They are navigated with a sail and oars." Histork del Descubrimiento y Conquista del Peru, Lib. I, Cap. VI. 50 PROM SULTRY COASTLAND TO CHILLY PARAMO Some months before going to Guayaquil, I had met in Venezuela a commercial agent from New York who had spent twenty years traveling through the various countries of South America, and he said to me on parting: "What ever you do, keep away from Guayaquil. It is the worst pest-hole in creation. A foreigner takes his life in his hands by going there and a sojourn of only a few days in it is sure to be followed by an attack of yellow fever or bubonic plague. If you should be fortunate enough to escape these, you are sure to encounter a revolution or an earthquake." This was a gloomy forecast, but we had become quite accustomed to such prophets of evil and determined to con tinue our journey, as it had been planned, despite all that might be said to dissuade us from our purpose. We had, too, become quite accustomed to revolutions, as we had passed through three of them during the pre ceding three months and had suffered nothing in person or property by such experiences. In fact, we came to re gard them like unto the wars of the Saxon Heptarchy of which Milton writes, "They are not more worthy of being recorded than the skirmishes of crows and kites." As to earthquakes, those of a destructive character, even in the regions of greatest seismic disturbances in South America, are few in number, and are no more to be ap prehended by the traveler than are those of Sicily or Calabria. And no one, I think, would be deterred from visiting these interesting countries through fear of a pos sible earthquake during his sojourn there. I had fre quently visited various parts of the world where earth tremors are most violent and had never been even re motely exposed to danger from instability of the earth's surface. Indeed, I had often wished to experience the sensation caused by a severe shock, and to have an op portunity of observing the effects due to vibration of the earth's crust. In such a frame of mind I should then have 51 ALONG THE ANDES AND DOWN THE AMAZON welcomed a genuine earthquake, rather than have tried to escape it. As our good fortune would have it, we landed in Guaya quil in July, the coolest and most salubrious month of the year. At no time did we suffer from the heat, even when under the rays of the midday sun. And more surprising still, after all we had been told, we were never annoyed by mosquitoes or other insects. We never once had occa sion to use a mosquito bar in our bedrooms, and our hotel was as clean and comfortable as one could desire. Of course, we were in Guayaquil during the most favorable part of the year. There is no doubt that during most of the year, as conditions were at the time of our visit, the traveler was more or less exposed to yellow fever. For generations it had been practically endemic and had been specially malignant in the case of foreigners, who were not immune. As to the native inhabitants, they seemed to have little fear of the disease, and ordinarily but few vic tims were claimed from their ranks. Most of them being immune, they were slow to awake to the necessity of doing anything to stamp out the plague, even after they had learned of the signal success of Colonel Gorgas in the work of sanitation in Panama. But what the citizens as a whole had so long been in different about, the merchants were at last forced to take into account. The quarantine regulations along the Pacific coast — especially at Panama — were becoming so strict, that the municipal authorities of Guayaquil, as well as the federal government at Quito, were compelled to adopt the same sanitary measures that had eliminated all infectious diseases from the Canal Zone, and had made this strip of land as salubrious as it had before been pestiferous. Guayaquil counts about forty thousand inhabitants, and is practically the only port of Ecuador, for Esmeraldas, San Lorenzo and Rio Verde are almost negligible as ports of call for foreign commerce. It is through the port of 52 PROM SULTRY COASTLAND TO CHILLY PARAMO Guayaquil that practically all traffic passes to and from the capital of the republic and the pther cities of Ecuador. It was, therefore, imperative that the nation's leading port of entry should have removed from it the stigma which had so long attached to it of being a place where pestilence stalked through the streets every day in the year. Knowing the cause of yellow fever and malaria one per ceives no more reason why it should exist in Guayaquil than in New York or Boston. Both diseases can be eradi cated here as well as in Havana or Colon, and their recur rence can be prevented, if the means now available are employed. "From our experience in Cuba," writes Colonel Gorgas, "several useful lessons may be deduced. We find that the native in the tropics, with the same sanitary precautions that are taken in the temperate zones, can be just as healthy and have just as small a death rate as the inhabitants of the temperate zone; that to bring this about no elaborate machinery of any kind is needed; that it can be attained by any community, no matter how poor, if they are willing to spend sufficient labor in cleaning and observing well- known rules with regard to disease ; that the North- Amer ican Anglo-Saxon can lead just as healthy a life and just as long in the tropics as in the United States. ' ' 1 At the conclusion of his report Colonel Gorgas declares : "I look forward in the future to a time when yellow fever will have entirely disappeared as a disease to which man kind is subject, for I believe that when the yellow fever parasite has once become extinct it can no more return than the dodo or other species of animal that has disap peared from the earth." What is here said of yellow fever may likewise be as serted of smallpox, bubonic plague 2 and other infectious i Civil Report of Brigadier-General Leonard Wood, Military Governor of Cuba. January 1st to May 20th, 1902, Vol. I, Part III. Report of Colonel Gorgas. 2 If rats, which are now recognized as the most active agents in the spread of bubonic plague, are still as numerous in Guayaquil as they were two 53 ALONG THE ANDES AND DOWN THE AMAZON diseases. They can be eliminated from Guayaquil as well as from other places where they had long been epidemic. The difficulties in the way of putting Guayaquil in a thor oughly sanitary condition are far less than they were in the Canal Zone and the measures to be adopted will be much less expensive. The first step towards the sanita tion of the city has already been taken by acting in coop eration with the quarantine staff of Panama, and, if the present programme be carried out, it is a question of only a short time until Ecuador's leading entrepot shall be as sanitary as any port on our Gulf coast. Then, and not until then, will Guayaquil be able to take advan tage of her splendid natural position as a great com mercial emporium, and be prepared, especially after the opening of the Panama Canal, for a development of her trade relations with other countries that will far exceed the fondest dreams of her most ardent patriots. Guayaquil had a special interest for me because founded by two of the most famous of the conquistadores, Bella- cazar and Orellana. The former had located it in 1535, a year after the foundation of Quito, at the mouth of the Babacoyas River, a tributary of the Guayas. In 1537 it was, by order of Francisco Pizarro, transferred by Orella na to the foot of the Cerro of Santa Ana, just adjoining the site it now occupies. After Quito and Porto Viejo, centuries ago, the first step necessary towards the elimination of this dread disease will be a, vigorous campaign against those dangerous rodents. Jorge Juan and Antonio Ullao in their description of this place write as follows: "Another terrible inconvenience attending the houses here, are the numbers of pericotes, or rats, every building being so infested with them, that when night comes on they quit their holes and make such a noise in running along the ceiling and in clambering up and down the sides of the rooms and canopies of the beds, as to disturb persons not accustomed to them. They are so little afraid of the human species, that, if a candle be set down without being in a lantern, they immediately carry it off; but as this might be attended with the most melancholy consequences, care is taken that their imprudence is seldom put to the trial, tho they are remarkably vigilant in taking advan tage of the least neglect." Op. cit., Book IV, Chap. VI. 54 PROM SULTRY COASTLAND TO CHILLY PARAMO founded a few months after Quito, Guayaquil is the oldest city in Ecuador.1 From the beginning it was a place of recognized im portance. For a long time it was specially noted for its dock and ship yards. Many of the largest ships that plowed the Pacific during colonial times were constructed at this port. It was because of this fact, no less than on account of its size and wealth, that it was frequently vis ited and plundered by pirates and buccaneers, Dutch and French as well as English. Dampier called here in 1684 but, although he declared he did not enter the town, Sr. Roca, a Guayaquil writer, avers that he sacked and burnt it. It belonged to the viceroyalty of Peru until Bolivar, in 1824 annexed it to the first republic of Colombia, then composed of the present republics of Venezuela, Colombia and Ecuador.2 On account of the inflammable character of the buildings, the city has frequently suffered from disastrous confla grations. So great, indeed, is the danger from fire and so inadequate is the protection against it that the rate of in surance here is almost prohibitive. The lack of appliances for controlling fire, as well as the lack of proper sanita tion, have tended, probably more than anything else, to retard the progress and prosperity of the city, but these two drawbacks are finally in a fair way towards elimination, and Guayaquil, humanly speaking, has a brilliant future before it. After spending two delightful days in and around Guayaquil, I« prepared to continue my journey to Quito, the capital of the republic. Until a few years before my arrival in the country, this journey was long and arduous and few had the courage to undertake it, unless it was i Strange as it may appear, Guayaquil, although the westernmost city of South America, is on the same meridian as the easternmost point of Florida — three thousand miles east of San Francisco. 2 The name Ecuador, the Spanish for Equator, was given to the republic because of its location on the equinoctial line. It dates only from the time of its separation from Colombia in 1830. 55 ALONG THE ANDES AND DOWN THE AMAZON absolutely necessary. The road, for the greater part of the distance up the western slope of the Andes, was but a mere mountain trail — bad enough in the dry season, but during the rainy season nearly or quite impassable. Nevertheless, this was the road that had served the pur pose of traffic between the coast and the capital during nearly four centuries. There was, as a consequence, but little communication between Guayaquil and the interior of the country, and there were many men whose homes were on the plateau, prominent in business and in public life, who had never seen the ocean. To traverse the distance from Guayaquil to Quito- two hundred and sixty miles — required about ten days when the weather was favorable, and an indefinite time during the rainy season. The journey from tidewater to the capital of Colombia, before the recent completion of the railroad from the Magdalena to the capital, was try ing enough, but the greater part of it could be made on river boats. Only two or three days on horseback were necessary to make the trip from Honda to Bogota, and the inns on the way, while not all that could be desired, were endurable. But the old Camino real, connecting the coast with the plateau of Ecuador, offered no comforts or con veniences for the traveler. For a greater part of the dis tance, the tambos where he passed the night were wretched huts which were filthy beyond description. Even in the larger towns on the highlands, the inns were unworthy of the name. The traveler was, indeed, fortunate if he ar rived at the end of his journey alive and well. We often wondered, while traveling in Colombia, how it was pos sible for such a large and cultured capital as Bogota to exist in the heart of the Cordilleras, when it had been for centuries so completely cut off from the rest of the world. But the wonder is intensified in the case of Quito, whose isolation was far more complete. The first one to ameliorate this extraordinary condition of affairs was Garcia Moreno, who was the president of 56 FROM SULTRY COASTLAND TO CHILLY PARAMO Ecuador at the time of his tragic death in 1875. This he did by the construction of a splendid highway from Quito to Sibambe, which, had he lived, he would have completed to Guayaquil. This illustrious and enterprising ruler was also the first to begin the construction of the railroad that now con nects the capital with the Guayas River. Had he lived, he would undoubtedly have had the glory of seeing it com pleted under his administration. As it was, little of con sequence was accomplished during the three decades fol lowing the great statesman's death. Lack of credit at home and abroad, internal dissension and internecine strife prevented any successful attempt to continue the gigantic undertaking until a generation later. "From 1873 to 1894," writes Major John A. Harman, chief engineer of the Guayaquil and Quito Railway Company, "no less than twelve formal contracts were made between the govern ment and private firms or parties, both Ecuadorian and foreign, for the construction of a railway which should connect the coast with the interior plateau; and in addi tion, the government employed engineers and caused many extensive and expensive surveys to be made for its own account, especially between Chimbo and Sibambe ; but every effort resulted in failure and financial disaster until 1898, when the government, during the administration of Gen eral Eloy Alfaro, entered into a contract with Mr. Archer Harman of New York for the rehabilitation of the old railway and ferry, and for the construction of the line [from Chimbo to Quito." Finally, after untold difficulties, engineering, financial jand political, had been surmounted, the road was com- [Pleted and the first train entered Quito June 28, 1908, ,|two generations after it had been first projected, and (thirty-seven years after it had been begun under Garcia Moreno. The total cost of the road was thirty-eight mil lion sucres — nineteen million dollars in gold — an average ujost of seventy-three thousand dollars a mile. ° 57 ALONG THE ANDES AND DOWN THE AMAZON Had I not traveled across the Cordilleras of Colombia on mule-back, I should, in spite of all its forbidding fea tures, have elected the old Camino real in preference to the railroad, to go to Quito. But having familiarized my self with the old-time methods of travel and become ac quainted with the manners and customs of the inhabitants along the primitive roads of the interior, there was noth ing to be gained by the long and irksome ride over the old trail from the lowlands to the Andean plateau. I, accord ingly, arranged t^o take the train from Duran — a small town across the river from Guayaquil — where is the south ern terminus of the railway. Immediately after I had purchased my ticket for Quito, and before stepping on the ferry-boat that was to take me to Duran, I heard a military officer tell the ticket agent in a low tone of voice not to sell tickets to any one, unless he could show a passport duly signed by the chief of police. This order seemed ominous, although, at the moment, I did not grasp its full significance. I became aware of it, how ever, before my arrival at Quito and in a way that was far from agreeable. I had heard, before disembarking at Guayaquil, that the day before our arrival at that place an attempt had been made to assassinate the president of the republic, but had paid no attention to the report. I noticed, however, that several Ecuadorians who were bound for Quito, suddenly changed their itinerary and remained on the steamer. 1 subsequently learned that they considered it safer to go to Lima, until the storm should blow over, than go to Quito. I had reason later to suspect that some of these men were in sympathy with the would-be assassins, and that they were greatly disappointed at the miscarriage of plans in which they were so deeply interested. They were revolutionists returning from abroad and had been count ing on a change of government, which they expected im mediately to follow the death of the chief executive, Alfaro, however, escaped the machinations of his enemied 58 PROM SULTRY COASTLAND TO CHILLY PARAMO and during my stay in Guayaquil the police were busy in arresting the conspirators, and in ferreting out their friends and sympathizers. Marshal law was immediately proclaimed anew — it had been in force throughout the re public during the preceding three months in consequence of other attempts against the administration — and no one was permitted to travel in any part of the country, unless provided with a special passport from the chief of police. All travelers were treated as suspects and were kept under constant surveillance. At first, I was unaware of what might be in store for me and continued my journey as if nothing had happened. About an hour after leaving Guayaquil, I was comfort ably seated in a car of the American type, attached to a mixed freight and passenger train that was bound for Riobamba — one of the most important towns of the plateau. Among the passengers were several Americans, most of them employes on the railroad, and two German natural ists, who were starting on a tour of exploration among the Cordilleras. Besides these passengers, there was another, a young American who had been in business in Guayaquil, and who had recently established there a steam laundry of the most approved American type. The venture had proved successful and he was now starting out to extend his business on the plateau and especially in Quito. "Are you going to establish other steam laundries in the interior ? " I asked. His answer amazed me. ' ' No, ' ' he said, "fuel costs too much on the plateau. Besides, it is not necessary. What I purpose doing, is to make arrange ments to have the people of Quito and of the larger towns along the railway, send their soiled linen to me at Guaya- jquil. I have calculated that I can thus do their laundry (Work better, more expeditiously and more economically — j including carriage to and from Guayaquil, than they can jhave it done at home. You see, the methods of the washer women of Ecuador are very primitive and destructive, and (iare anything but satisfactory. Besides, during the rainy 59 ALONG THE ANDES AND DOWN THE AMAZON season, one may be obliged to wait for weeks for the return of one's linen, for the laundresses have no means of drying it except in the sun, which, during the rainy season, may not appear sufficiently long for weeks at a time." I then recalled my experience with the Indian washer woman on the Meta, when I had to take my linen while it was still wet and unironed, although it had been in her hands for more than a week. And I could then sympa thize with the frequent disappointments and tribulations, during the rainy season, of the spruce Quitonian hidalgos, who so affect immaculate, well-laundered shirt bosoms whenever they appear in public. The two German Naturforschern were thoughtful, ener getic young men who displayed the greatest enthusiasm in their work and seemed determined to keep up the splendid scientific prestige established by their illustrious country man, Alexander von Humboldt. Truth to tell, it is to the learned and energetic sons of the Vaterland that we are indebted for most of our authentic information respecting the physical condition of Ecuador. Three of these, Reiss, Stiibel and Wolf, have especially signalized themselves hy their researches in the geology and mineralogy of the country and to them more than to all others, we owe most of the precious data we now possess regarding the moun tains and volcanoes of Ecuador. The first two devoted four years to their explorations among the Cordilleras of Ecuador, and many more in studying the mountains and antiquities of Colombia and Peru, while the latter gave twenty years of unremitting work to Ecuador alone. His masterly Geografia y Geologia del Ecuador is a monument of careful work and conscientious observation and is by far the best authority on the subject we now possess, while the Reisen in Sud-America by Reiss and Stiibel, espe cially the part entitled Das Hochgebirge der RepubB Ecuador, is a classic of its kind, and a mine of accurate information regarding the wonderful mountain system of which it treats. One can safely say that no more thorough 60 PROM SULTRY COASTLAND TO CHILLY PARAMO or conscientious work has yet appeared on the subject, and it is likely to remain the final word on many of the ques tions to which the world of science has long been waiting an answer.1 The first fifty miles of the railroad passes over a level plain of remarkable fertility. Where the land has been cleared, one finds large cacaotales and sugar-cane planta tions besides many extensive tracts devoted to the cultiva tion of rice. The soil for rice is here as favorable as any in China or India, and rice should eventually become one of the greatest staples of the republic. For a long time but little cane was cultivated, and that was chiefly for the manufacture of aguardiente. Now, however, there are several extensive plantations in the lowlands provided with ingenios — sugar-mills — of the most approved design and efficiency, and, in addition to the sugar furnished for home consumption, there is a constantly increasing output avail able for exportation. The sugar industry, however, is yet in its infancy. There are here vast tracts of the best cane land in the world awaiting the advent of the capital neces sary for its proper development. When that is forthcom ing, the sugar industry of Ecuador should prove one of the most flourishing in the republic and one of its chief sources of revenue. Thus far the most valuable and abundant agricultural product of the country, the one that for decades past has served as a barometer of the nation's commercial standing, has been cacao — the prized Theobroma of Linnaeus — which supplies the chocolate of commerce. Notwithstanding the claims of Mexico and Venezuela to the contrary, the ipeople of Ecuador maintain that their cacao is the best in the world. There is certainly a great demand for it in [foreign markets, and the demand is constantly increasing. |/| i Mention should also be made of the recent work of Dr. Hans Meyer, .ntitled In den Hoch-Anden von Ecuador, mit Bilder-Atlas, Berlin, 1907. It a the most interesting and most authoritative work on the glaciology of the Ecuadorian Andes that has yet appeared. ' 61 ALONG THE ANDES AND DOWN THE AMAZON But, as in the case of sugar-cane, only a small fraction of the land, so admirably adapted for the production of caeao, is actually under cultivation. It, too, is awaiting the ad vent of capital, and when this arrives, Ecuador will have in its cacaotales a far more valuable asset than it possesses to-day. The Ecuadorian cacao is exported in large quantities and its uses are daily becoming more varied and extensive. How differently it is now regarded from what it was by Benzoni, when he visited the New World, shortly after its discovery! In his estimation cacao was fit only for pigs, The historian, Acosta, does not seem to have had a much higher opinion of the Indian beverage. ' ' The chief use of this Cacao," he writes, "is in a drinke which they call Chocolate, whereof they make great accompt in that country, foolishly, and without reason, for it is loathsome to such as are not acquainted with it, having a skimme or froth that is very unpleasant to taste, if they be not very well conceited thereof. ' ' 1 In marked contrast with these views is that now enter tained of cacao by countless thousands in every part of the civilized world. With many it is as a "lucent syrup, tinct with cinnamon," or, as Linnaeus named it, it is a ver itable Theobroma — food of the gods. Everywhere- it is recognized as one of our most wholesome and popultr beverages, and in some places it is rapidly replacing" tea and coffee. According to the Bureau of Statistics, the cacao importations into the United States alone now aver age more than a million dollars a month, and the amoii§t required to meet the ever-increasing demand is daily he- coming greater. It is certainly a remarkable fact that the value of the cacao imported into the United States has more than quadrupled during the last decade, while; that of coffee has actually decreased during this period, and that of tea has increased only about ten per cent. i The Natural and Moral History of the Indies, translated by EdWard Grimston, 1604, Book IV, Chap. XXII, printed for the Hakluyt Society, 1880, 62 Peon's Home in the Tropical Belt op Ecuador. Indian Village in the Highlands op Ecuador. Grinding Meal. PROM SULTRY COASTLAND TO CHILLY PARAMO Most of the habitations of the natives in the lowlands are of the most primitive character. Like the dwellings of the people along the Orinoco and the Meta, they are little more than thatched sheds, designed to protect their inmates from sun and rain. There is, however, one marked difference. The houses in the Orinoco basin are of but one story, while those in the valleys of the Guayas and the Yaguachi have two stories. This is rendered necessary by the inundation during the rainy season, when the land is flooded to a depth of several feet, and the country presents the appearance of a vast inland sea. The dwellings of the people then resemble those occupied by the Indians of Lake Maracaibo,1 or those of the Lake Dwellers of prehistoric Switzerland. The railroad, after it begins to wind its way up the lofty steeps of the Cordilleras, is essentially the same as other mountain railways. It is remarkable, however, for its steep grades — being in some sections almost six per cent. — and for its sharp curves. In some places, owing to the depth of the narrow gorges through which the track passes, and the precipitous heights which the locomotive had to scale, the engineers were obliged to have recourse ;o switchbacks, in order to enable the engine to lift the ;rain up the dizzy declivity of the mountain while pro gressing in a horizontal direction but a very short dis- ance. The construction of this part of the road presented many md apparently insuperable difficulties and involved the olution of several new problems in railway engineering. ndeed, there were many engineers who declared that it ras impossible to build a road under the conditions re- uired, and insisted that the attempt would result in failure nd in national bankruptcy. Great and daring as have been the many feats of engi- i It was because the Indian village of Maracaibo reminded him of Venice, at Vespucius, its discoverer, called it Venezuela — little Venice — whence the signation of the republic of that name. 63 ALONG THE ANDES AND DOWN THE AMAZON neering which have distinguished railway construction in the United States, we have nothing in our country that made so many demands on skill and courage and pertinacity as did the stretch of road from Chimbo to the crest of the Andes, Here, within the short distance of sixteen leagues, the train is lifted up a sheer vertical height of two miles— from the sultry lowlands to the chilly paramo — from the foot to the shoulder of giant Chimborazo. Traversing this short distance is like going from the equatorial to the Arctic regions. One sees defiling before him in rapid succession the fauna and flora of every zone, and notices a corresponding change in the appearance and dwellings of the inhabitants. In the lowlands the houses are thatched sheds, in the high plateaus they are structures of adobe or stone, designed to protect their inmates from the frigid blasts of the snow-capped Andes. The inhabitants of the Andean plateau may, in the words of Gomara, be described as "paynefull men who tyll the grounde diligently wherein they take great pleasure: and haule therefore great plentie of breade of Maizium." They are also "wytty and of gentyl behavoure. Cunnynge also in artes, faythful in promes, and of manners not greatly to be discommended." I was not, however, ahle to verify his distinction between serranos — mountaineers— and the people of the lowlands of whom he writes as follows : "Among them there is this dyfference, that such as lyve in the mountaynes are whyte and for the most parte lyke unto the men of owre regions. But they that dwell abowt the ryver (as though they tooke theyr coloure thereof) are blackysshe or purple of the coloure of fine iren or Steele. This also chaunceth to many of them, that theyr fiete and legges are lyke the legs and fiete of the foule cauled the oystereche." 1 It was here that we came across the first llamas that we i The first Three English Books on America, translated by Richard Mel, and edited by Edward Arber. P. 343-344, London, 1895. 64 FROM SULTRY COASTLAND TO CHILLY PARAMO saw in South America. These were the Peruvian sheep that so elicited the admiration of the Spaniards on their arrival in Peru. Of these interesting and useful animals the author just quoted observes : "There are sheepe of suche byggenesse that they com pare them to younge. camels or asses as sum say. Theyr woolle is very fine : and nearest unto the fynenesse of sylke. They use them insteade of horses." 1 Useful as they are, however, there are comparatively few llamas in Ecuador. The majority of the people seem to prefer horses, mules, or burros, and as a consequence, the raising of llamas has been greatly neglected. The fav orite habitat of these "Indian sheep" — ovejas y carneros del Peru — as the Spaniards also called them, is Peru and Bolivia, where they are found in immense numbers. At all the stations at which we stopped en route, we found a large number of women, who had eatables for sale. In the lowlands we were offered fruits of every variety at a trifling price. On the plateau, in lieu of fruits, there was a liberal supply of roast chicken, hard-boiled eggs, and Chocllo, the Quichua word for ears of boiled green maize. As the Indians prepared it, we found it as palatable as it it nutritious, and judging by the demand for it among the passengers, it is a most popular article of food in Ecuador. One bright, young Indian woman disposed of several bas- ketfuls in a few minutes, and her purchasers were by no means confined to the natives of the country. In marked contrast with the low prices of fruits in the coast lands, were the high prices for provisions on the plateau. Eggs sold for six cents a piece and a roast chicken brought its lucky owner a dollar, the price that would be asked for it in a Paris restaurant. We were, however, glad to get at any price, something to eat ; for we were hungry, and, our train being behind time, we foresaw that we should not be able to reach Biobamba until long after nightfall. And we were cold, very cold. We were then passing 1 i Ibid. 65 ALONG THE ANDES AND DOWN THE AMAZON over the arenal, that bleak, sandy plain at the base of Chimborazo about which so much has been said and writ ten by travelers. Coming in such a short time from the steaming lowlands to the dry and frigid paramo we felt keenly the great difference of temperature. Besides, we had been in the heated lands of the tropics for months previously and had become sensitive to the slightest changes of the thermometer. The sudden change, then, from the home of the royal and the cocoa palm to the deso late region of ichu grass was like an immediate trans fer from the land of perennial summer to the rigorous latitude of the Arctic circle. And yet we were less than two degrees from the equator, But we were two miles above the Pacific, ice was forming on the surface of the little rivulet that was starting sea wards, and there was a sharp, piercing wind that pene trated to the marrow of our bones. At times the boreal blast changed into a gale and enveloped us in clouds of fine dust and sand. It was then like being caught in a Nevada sand-cloud in midwinter. What added to our discomfort and rendered us helpless against the elements, was the fact that our car had no glass windows so that we could shield ourselves against the wind by closing them. There were only slat shutters which gave wind and sand almost as free a sweep through the car as they had outside. When we inquired the rea son for the absence of window panes, we were informed that it was on account of the falling stones in the deep gorges through which we had passed in ascending the mountain. Glass had been used, it seems, for a while, but there had been so many cases of breakage from falling stones that, in order to lessen the danger to the passengers, its use was discontinued.1 We had then, nolens volens, to i According to information recently received, all passenger coaches, at least those used on the uplands, are now provided with suitable windows for the protection of passengers. When connection by rail shall have been made with the coal fields, that are about forty miles from the main line, some provision, it is hoped, will be made for heating the cars while passing ove! 66 FROM SULTRY COASTLAND TO CHILLY PARAMO sit and shiver for several hours, at the end of which we were half frozen and impregnated with sand and volcanic dust. It was fortunate for us — I mean my American and German companions and myself — that we had heavy over coats, or we should have felt more keenly the chilly blasts and the enormous apparent change in temperature since our departure from the lowlands. But our experience with the frost and wind of the elevated region — with ' ' The wind that sings to himself as he makes stride Lonely and terrible on the Andean height," was not something unusual. It was the experience of most travelers since the time of the conquest. The Italian explorer, Osculati, who visited these parts sixty years ago, declares that the wind was so strong and the cold so great that for a while he was unable to pro ceed on his journey.1 But to realize how terrible have sometimes been the suf ferings of those who have crossed the Cordillera in the neighborhood of Chimborazo, we have but to read of the accounts of the campaigns of the conquistadores in this cold and desolate tableland, especially of that of Pedro de Alvarado on his way from the coast to Biobamba. As a story of human endurance amid unheard-of trials, and of protracted agony of body and mind, it is almost unique in the annals of adventure and warfare. The nearest ap proach to it is, probably, the recital of the anguish and misery endured by the followers of Federmann and Quesada during their long marches through the swampy forests and over the precipitous sierras of New Granada. Many of the Spanish historians describe this famous journey across the Andes, but the most spirited record is that of Herrera, who, in writing of it, has, in the words of the colder sections of the plateau. The coal used by the company at the time of my visit to Ecuador was brought from Australia and was quite expensive. i Esplorazione delle Regioni Equatoriali, p. 24, Milano, 1850. 67 ALONG THE ANDES AND DOWN THE AMAZON Prescott, "borrowed the pen of Livy describing the Alpine march of Hannibal." Many of Alvarado's troopers "were frozen stiff in their saddles," while the track of the hapless army through the snowy passes was dismally marked by "the dead bodies of men, or by those, less fortunate, who were left to die alone in the wilderness. As for the horses, their carcasses were not suffered long to cumber the ground, as they were quickly seized and devoured half raw by the starving sol diers, who, like the famished condors, now hovering in troops above their heads, greedily banqueted on the most offensive offal to satisfy the gnawings of hunger. "To add to their distress, the air was filled for several days with thick clouds of earthy particles and cinders which blinded the men and made respiration exceedingly difficult. This phenomenon, it seems probable, was caused by an eruption of the distant Cotopaxi, the most beautiful and the most terrible of the American volcanoes. . . , Alvarado's followers, unacquainted with the cause of the phenomenon as they wandered over tracts buried in snow — the sight of which was strange to them — in an atmos phere laden with ashes, became bewildered by this con fusion of the elements which Nature seemed to have con trived purposely for their destruction. Some of the men were soldiers of Cortes, steeled by the many and painful marches and many a sharp encounter with the Aztecs. But this war of the elements, they now confessed, was mightier than all. "At length, Alvarado, after sufferings which even the most hardy probably could have endured but a few days longer, emerged from the snowy pass and came on the ele vated tableland, which spreads out more than nine thou sand feet above the ocean, in the neighborhood of Rio- bamba. But, one-fourth of his gallant army had been left to feed the condor in the wilderness, besides the greater part, at least two thousand, of his Indian auxiliaries. A great number of his horses, too, had perished; and the men 68 PROM SULTRY COASTLAND TO CHILLY PARAMO and horses that escaped were all of them more or less in jured by the cold and the extremity of suffering. Such was the terrible passage of the Puertos Nevados, which I have only briefly noticed as an episode to the Peruvian con quest, but the account of which, in all its details, though it occupied but a few weeks in duration, would give one a bet ter idea of the difficulties encountered by the Spanish cav aliers than volumes of ordinary narrative. ' ' 1 Although we had been gradually approaching Chimbo razo from the time we had left Guayaquil, we were unable to enjoy a good view of it until we had actually arrived quite near to it. The sun had set nearly an hour before, and the full moon was shining with unwonted brightness. Suddenly the heavy dark clouds, that had enshrouded the mountain, cleared away and there against the starlit sky stood the snow-capped summit of the famous ' ' Giant of the Andes, ' ' long reputed to be the highest peak on the surface of the globe.2 I must confess, however, that inspiring as the sight was, my first view of the famous summit from the upland, was disappointing. I was not so much impressed by its height or its grandeur as I had been when I caught my first glimpse of it from the harbor of Guayaquil. It did not even appear so lofty as a part of the range near the coast. As a matter of fact, some of the highest peaks near Guayaquil have an altitude of twelve thousand feet above sea level, while the summit of Chimborazo, from where I first saw it on the lofty Andean plateau, was less than ten thousand feet above me. Then it stood alone with nothing to compare it with, whereas the mountains near the coast i Prescott's Conquest of Peru, Book III, Chap. VII. One of the most pathetic episodes of this terrific passage across the sierra was the tragic death of a Spanish soldier, who was accompanied by his wife and two daughters. He might have escaped alive, but, unwilling to abandon those who were unable to proceed further, all four succumbed to the cold together. Herrera, Historia de las Indias Occidentales, Dec. V, Lib. VI. 2 Mrs. Elizabeth Barrett Browning in her Aurora Leigh writes: "I learnt by how many feet Mount Chimborazo outsoars Himmeleh." 69 ALONG THE ANDES AND DOWN THE AMAZON were surrounded by lower peaks and banded by peculiar stratified clouds that had the effect of greatly exaggerating their apparent altitude. Until the time of Humboldt, the summit of Chimborazo was considered inaccessible. Accompanied by M. Bon- pland, this eminent explorer in 1802 made an attempt to scale its untrodden heights, but was forced to desist from his undertaking when within little more than one thousand feet of his goal. In 1831 the distinguished French savant, J. B. Boussin- gault, accompanied by Colonel Hall, an American, es sayed twice to achieve success where the great German ex plorer had failed, but he, too, was compelled to relinquish his enterprise, but not until he had approached four hun dred feet nearer the eagerly-sought summit than had his distinguished predecessor. The glory of being the first to report victory, where others had met with defeat, was reserved for the English Alpestrian, Edward Whymper, who, in 1880, succeeded in twice planting his colors on the loftiest peak of the loftiest summit of the Ecuadorian Andes. The plain of Biobamba has been the theater of many notable events recorded in the annals of Ecuador. On the ridge of Tiocajas, towards the south, several decisive bat tles have been fought. It was here that the great Inca conqueror, Tupac- Yupanqui, routed Hualcopo Duchisela, the fourteenth Shiri of Quito, and subsequently took pos session of the whole country as far as Mocha. It was on the same spot that his illustrious son, the Inca Huayna Capac, conquered the son of Hualcopo, Cacha-Duchisela, a quarter of a century later. It was here that the armies of Huascar and Itahualpa, the sons of Huayna Capac, met in stubborn and bloody conflict and prepared the way for the conquest of their country by the Spaniards, whose cara vels were at that very moment coasting along the shores of the Inca empire. It was on Tiocajas, too, that the noted conquistador, Sebastian Bellacazar, in 1534, after many 70 FROM SULTRY COASTLAND TO CHILLY PARAMO bloody combats, won a decisive victory over Ruminahui, which made him undisputed master of the Kingdom of Quito. This same plain of Riobamba also witnessed a meeting of three conquistadores that was almost as unforeseen and as dramatic in its leading features as was the extraor dinary coming together of Quesada, Federmann and Bel- lacazar on the tableland of Cundinamarca.1 Curiously enough, the daring, ambitious, irrepressible Bellacazar took a prominent part in both of these unex pected meetings. He had been appointed by his chief, Francisco Pizarro, as governor of San Miguel de Piura, but, learning that there were great treasures of gold and silver in Quito, rivaling in amount those that had been found in Cuzco — he left his post without the knowledge of his superior and headed an expedition to the land of the Shiris. About the same time, Pedro de Alvarado, who had been an officer under Cortes, but was then governor of Guate mala, was fitting out, by order of the King of Spain, a fleet that was to sail under his command to the Isles of Spices. But, Alvarado, hearing of the vast riches of Peru and learn ing that the unexplored country of Quito was equally rich in gold and silver, determined, in spite of the orders of the king to proceed to the Spice Islands, to start at once for Quito. After crossing the Cordilleras, as above described, he learned, to his surprise, that he had been preceded by Bellacazar. While these events were occurring, Pizarro 's associate, Almagro, who was then near Cuzco, receiving information of the arrival of Alvarado in Quito, which was claimed by Pizarro, started post-haste for Piura, in order to get rein forcements from Bellacazar, preparatory to marching against Alvarado. But Bellacazar was gone, and his ene mies, wishing to injure him, told Almagro that he had left i See Following the Conquistadores up the Orinoco and down the Magda lena. Chap. X. 71 ALONG THE ANDES AND DOWN THE AMAZON to join Alvarado. This grieved and amazed Almagro be yond expression, but he saw there was no time to be lost. He accordingly proceeded, with the force at his disposal, to Quito — the country, not the city of Quito — to punish Bellacazar for abandoning his post and to frustrate the designs of the intruder, Alvarado. In a short time, considering the distance to be traversed and the difficulties of the journey, he arrived near the pres ent city of Riobamba, where, after numerous preliminary negotiations through their respective agents, the three chieftains agreed to meet in conference and adjust their differences without resort to arms. The controversy was long and spirited. Claims and counter-claims were pre sented, and it frequently seemed that bloodshed was inev itable. Finally, diplomacy triumphed and Alvarado agreed to waive all his alleged rights and turn over his ships and munitions of war to Almagro, in consideration of the sum of one hundred and twenty thousand castellanos, and leave Pizarro undisputed master of all the territory in question, Thus was amicably adjusted on two memorable occasions, claims and disputes that seriously threatened to jeopardize the very existence of the Spaniards in the enemy's country just as the conquistadores were on the point of establish ing their monarch's power on a basis that was to endure until the War of Independence in the first quarter of the nineteenth century. 72 CHAPTER IV A LAND OF VOLCANOES The first place of importance on the Ecuadorian table land which we visited was Riobamba, not the old town founded by the Puruha Indians and subsequently occupied by the Spanish conquerors, but the next town founded on a new site after the destruction of the old one by the terrible earthquake in 1797. It counts about twelve thousand in habitants and possesses several important ecclesiastical and educational institutions. It is also the birthplace of several of Ecuador's most noted sons, for here were born Maldonato the scientist, Orosco the poet, Velasco the his torian and several others scarcely less celebrated. When W. B. Stevenson visited this place early in the last century he was not favorably impressed with its possibil ities as a future commercial center. He could not then, of course, foresee that it would be the first city of the plateau to be connected with the coast by rail and the consequent impetus that this connection would give to trade and man ufacture in a place that had so long been almost dormant. Even at the time of our visit, which was but shortly after \he railroad had been extended to it, Riobamba was begin ning to manifest a degree of business activity that quite surprised the older inhabitants. What first attracted our attention was the hotels. From what we had been told, there was not a single one in the place where the traveler could stop with any degree of com fort. Imagine our agreeable surprise, then, in finding sev eral hotels that were quite satisfactory. Ours was a com modious two-story building — most of the buildings have but one story — where wje found every reasonable provision 73 ALONG THE ANDES AND DOWN THE AMAZON made for the entertainment of its guests. This was one of the first results of the advent of the railway. The em ployes of the road, and commercial travelers had created a demand for better lodgings than had previously existed, and the demand had been met without delay. Another evidence of progress was a large electric power- plant, recently established, which is operated by water, and designed to supply light to the city and furnish power for flour mills and other manufactories. As a result of the erection of these flour mills and the increased acreage devoted to the cultivation of wheat and other cereals, it is confidently hoped that the agricultural lands of the plateau will soon be able to supply the coast country with the flour needed, which has hitherto been imported from Chile and the United States. The view from Riobamba is most fascinating, and fully justifies Boussingault's statement that "it exhibits the most singular diorama in the world." From few other points in the republic may one gaze upon volcanoes and mountain peaks that are so majestic and imposing. In the west Chimborazo and Carihuairazo raise their lofty summits above the clouds, while, towards the east, are the colossal masses of El Altar, Cubillin, Tunguragua and others scarcely less prominent. El Altar looks somewhat like an altar, whence its name. In Quichua it is called Capac-Urcu,1 the father of moun tains, because, according to Indian tradition, it was for merly higher than Chimborazo. Its summit was then, it is said, in the form of a cone, but owing to some convulsion of Nature it was, a few years before the arrival of the Spaniards, reduced to its present condition. So impressed was the German savant, Dr. Stiibel, by its beauty and grandeur that he did not hesitate to pronounce it ' ' the mas terpiece of volcanic creations." Tunguragua, which rivals Chimborazo in size and sub- i Also called the Cerro de Collanes, from the Aymara word signifying sub lime, grandiose. 74 A LAND OP VOLCANOES limity, is a volcano which, although quite irregular in its activity, has been noted for its terrific eruptions from time immemorial. Its summit has the form of a perfect cone and is covered with a mantle of eternal snow. Passing from its base to its crater is like traversing from the equa tor to the pole. Its lower slopes on the eastern declivity are covered with the luxuriant vegetation of the tropics, while its crest is the home of glaciers of vast extent and thickness. During a notable eruption in 1777 many towns and villages were destroyed, while during an eruption in 1886 the ashes that were belched forth were carried as far as Guayaquil. A deluge of water and avalanches of mud, resulting from the melted ice and snow, inundated the val leys at its foot, and the Pastaza, an affluent of the Amazon, was cumbered with the debris carried down the mountain's slope by the raging flood. Thirty miles southeast of El Altar is the active volcano of Sangai, pronounced by Villavicencio to be "the most frightful volcano in the world" — "el mas horror oso del globo." 1 Its eruptions, according to the natives, alternate with those of Cotopaxi. When one is in action the other is in repose, each in turn becoming a safety valve to the common focus of disturbance. At one time its explosions resemble the discharge of musketry, at another it is like the report of a broadside from a man-of-war, while occasion ally, large masses of incandescent rock are exploded in the air, producing a terrific sound like that of the largest bombs. So loud, indeed, are the detonations that they are audible as far as the coast, and the ashes are carried to the ; waters of the Pacific. , So great is the mass of ash and cinders ejected from this ,volcano that it would, Reclus assures us, equal that of sev eral mountains. "The surrounding country is covered to a great depth with a grayish dust, and moving dunes of volcanic sand, more than a hundred meters in thickness, 'ire carried along by the action of the wind. At times the ^ i Geografia de la Republica del Ecuador, p. 51, New York, 1858. 75 ALONG THE ANDES AND DOWN THE AMAZON tempest, sweeping over the rock, reveals the escarpements of mica-schist which form the primitive skeleton of the Cordillera." 1 For years at a time, Dr. Reiss informs us, it pours forth immense streams of lava towards the east, and their onward course is not arrested until they reach the virgin forests that incline towards the basin of the Amazon. And during several years in succession the Mayas Indians are witnesses of the illumination due to the reflection of light from the rivers of molten lava. While in eruption, Villavicencio tells us, Sangai presents the aspect of an enormous pharos, more sublime than that which surmounts the environs of Naples, but it is a beacon that serves no purpose, for while the one illumines the civilization and commerce of old and lovely Italy, the other wastes its beams on solitude and barbarism.2 It seems probable that the disastrous earthquake which destroyed the old city of Riobamba in 1797, had its origin in Sangai. So complete and sudden was this visitation that few of the twenty thousand inhabitants of the city were able to escape, and Stevenson was fully justified in declaring that "perhaps no remains of these awful convul sions of Nature are more awful than those of Riobamba." ' ' The face of the country was entirely changed, so much so that after the shock, the surviving inhabitants, and those of the neighboring provinces, could not tell where their houses formerly stood, or where their friends had formerly lived; mountains rose where cultivated valleys had ex isted; the rivers disappeared or changed their course, and plains usurped the situation of mountains and ravines."3 Even more remarkable in many respects than the dis aster just noted, was the extraordinary disappearance, in 1640, of the village of Cacha in the immediate vicinity of i Nouvelle GGographie Universelle, Vol. XVIII, p. 422, Paris, 1893. 2 Op. cit., p. 52. s A Historical and Descriptive Narrative of Twenty Years' Residence in South America, Vol. II, p. 268, by W. B. Stevenson, London, 1826. 76 A LAND OP VOLCANOES Riobamba, in which, it is said, five thousand people lost their lives. According to information available, it was not due either to an earthquake or to volcanic action, but to a sudden landslide or depression of the earth's surface. "The catastrophe," writes Dr. T. Wolf, "it appears, took place in silence, though rapidly; for even in the immediate neighborhood, neither earthquake was felt nor noise heard. A proof of this is, that the priest, having a short time be fore gone out with the sacristan to administer the sacra ment to an Indian who lived some little distance from the village, was, on his return, much astonished not to find even the site where Cacha had previously stood." 1 Of all the travelers who have recorded their impressions of the marvelous views obtainable from Riobamba, no one has given a more truthful pen-picture of what he saw than the distinguished French savant, J. B. Boussingault, who expresses himself as follows: "This vast amphitheater of snow, limiting the horizon of Riobamba on all sides, is a continual subject of varied ob servations. It is interesting to consider the aspect of these glaciers at different hours of the day and to see their ap parent height change at every moment, owing to atmos pheric refraction. With what interest does not one behold the production, in so limited a space, of all the great phe nomena of meteorology ! Here it is one of those immense, long clouds, that Saussure has so aptly defined as parasitic clouds, which fastens itself about the middle of a cone of trachyte and so adheres to it that the wind has no power over it. Presently, lightning flashes and thunder rolls in the midst of this vapory mass, hail and rain flood the moun tain's base, while its snowy summit, untouched by the storm, is rendered dazzling in the sunshine. Farther on it is a lofty peak of resplendent ice. 'Clearly outlined against the azure sky one may distinguish its entire con tour. The atmosphere is remarkably pure, yet this icy i Quoted by A. Simson, in his Travels in the Wilds of Ecuador, p. 21, Lon don, 1886. 77 ALONG THE ANDES AND DOWN THE AMAZON peak is covered with a cloud, apparently coming out, smoke like, from its bosom. This cloud, turning into a light va por, soon passes away. Again it reappears and again it passes away. This intermittent formation of clouds is a very frequent phenomenon on snow-capped mountain peaks. It is observed especially during calm weather, al ways a few hours after the sun's culmination. Under such conditions, glaciers may be compared to condensers launched toward the elevated regions of the atmosphere to dry up the air by cooling it off and thus bring down on the earth's surface the rain which was contained therein in the state of vapor. ' ' J As we were passing through Riobamba early one morn ing, we were surprised at seeing the large number of In dians engaged in besoming the streets. They seemed to he as particular about their work as are the good housewives of certain Dutch towns, who are not content with sweeping the streets but must needs scrub them as well. The train we were to take for Ambato was scheduled to leave at six o 'clock in the morning. But there was one de lay after another so that we were detained at the depot several hours. We then began to realize what it was to be in a country that is under martial law. The attempt on the life of the president a few days previously had thrown the whole country into a ferment of excitement, and the government was taking every possible precaution to pre vent an anticipated revolution. All suspects and strangers were kept under surveillance, and we did not escape the watchful eyes of police and secret service men. But so far we had not been molested. Others, however, were less fortunate. We saw several arrested, who were suspected of being implicated in the conspiracy, and, judging by the manner in which we were scrutinized by several govern ment officials, we felt that we might at any moment he called upon to give an account of ourselves. But our time had not yet come. After our train had been held for the i Viajes Cientificos d los Andes Ecuatoriales, p. 207, Paris, 1849. 78 A LAND OP VOLCANOES arrival of a company of soldiers, that was to be trans ferred to another part of the country, we finally got started and found ourselves circling around the arid Meseta of Riobamba and headed towards Chimborazo. To us, com ing from the lowlands, it was bitter cold, but the natives seemed to be quite comfortable, although but slightly clad. What added more than anything else to our discomfort was the chilly sand-blasts that swept through our window- less car and at times almost blinded us. It was a Sahara sand-storm and a Siberian blast unpleasantly wedded. Happily, there were so many things to claim our atten tion that we managed to endure the trials imposed by cold and wind. Chief among these was Chimborazo, which we were gradually approaching and along whose base we were to travel almost until we reached Ambato. The clouds, that so often conceal it from view, had lifted and we could behold it in all its impressive grandeur and sublimity. Owing to the clear atmosphere, the snow-capped apex of this colossus of Ecuador seemed much nearer than it was in reality. I then recalled the ambition that I had long entertained, after reading of the futile efforts of Hum boldt and others, to scale its summit and plant the Amer ican flag on its loftiest peak. Indeed, after climbing Popocatepetl I had actually made all arrangements to essay the ascent of Chimborazo and Cotopaxi, but, at the last moment, something intervened to prevent me from carrying my long-cherished plans into effect. Now, that I was passing over the foothills of these two grand peaks, I felt anew the regret I had experienced long years before in not being able to gratify my desire of ex ploring these — to me — alluring heights. But while the ar dor of youth still remained, I realized that I was a quar ter of a century older, and wisdom counseled prudence and renunciation. Besides, cui bono? I said to myself while gazing wistfully at the glistening summit of the giant of the ,Andes and still dreaming of the possibility of attaining its dizzy crest. Others have been there and explored its broad 79 ALONG THE ANDES AND DOWN THE AMAZON glacier fields and all that is visible of its once enormous crater and lava streams which, during prehistoric times, coursed down trie precipitous sides. I could, even if suc cessful, add but little to the sum of human knowledge by repeating the feat of Whymper and his brave Swiss Alpes- trians, and, such being the case, there was little left but idle curiosity to compensate for the fatigue and danger that would necessarily be incident to such an undertaking, I accordingly satisfied myself by reading Bolivar's Delirio, penned after contemplating what he happily calls "el atda- ya del universo" — "the watch tower of the universe." I have, however, reason to remember Chimborazo with out having essayed to reach its summit. But the memory to which I refer is not a pleasant one. We had reached the eastern base of the mountain, at a point nearly twelve thou sand feet above sea level, shortly after nightfall, and, while rounding a sharp curve with a heavy gradient, the locomo tive and a part of the train got derailed. Just then it be gan to rain and hail. This was followed by sleet and a piercing wind from which our open car afforded no pro tection. There was no means of heating the car, and the cold gradually became more and more intense and the tem pest more violent. We thought at first that the engine and cars could soon be gotten back to the track. They were, but no sooner was an attempt made to move forward, than the locomotive was again off the rails. We were in the worst possible place for such an accident to occur.- Time and again the engine was restored to the track, but each time the throttle was opened it glided off the rails. Hour after hour passed away, but all attempts to get started again were futile. The conductor and engineer resorted to every means at their command to overcome the diffici|ty that confronted them, but in vain. The trainmen labored like Trojans but to no purpose. Meantime the passemJB at least those of us who had come from the coast, were suffering from the damp, cold and penetrating wind from the snow fields just above us. I was well provided witl 80 fc«'T__ IB Astronomical Observatory, Quito. Summit of Chimborazo as Seen from the Plateau. A LAND OP VOLCANOES heavy clothing and wraps, but these were insufficient to shield me from the arctic blast that raged without inter mission during the entire night. After putting on a light and a heavy overcoat I wrapped around myself a heavy Scotch blanket that had kept me warm in the coldest of northern latitudes. But still I shivered, and my teeth chat tered as never before. Never had I suffered so much from the cold in the severest rigors of a subarctic climate. I thought surely that I should have pneumonia before morn ing. How the other passengers — most of them with very light clothing — survived that night of horror will always be a mystery to me. Most of them, I know, tried to keep warm by copious draughts of aguardiente — a crude kind of brandy made from sugar-cane — and the majority were soon stupid from the effects of the poisonous extract. Finally, the morning dawned and the employes of the road were still devising ways and means to get started, but all their efforts were still fruitless. "What is the mat ter?" I asked a large, robust Jamaican negro, a brakeman. "What am de matter?" he said, in an agonizing voice. "My good Lawd, de train hab jumped de track, dat am what's de matter." And the poor fellow, suffering from hunger and fatigue, and half frozen, and no longer able to restrain his pent-up feelings, burst into loud sobs and cried like a child. Finally, however, after laboring for twelve mortal hours, the trainmen succeeded — how, I do not know — in getting the train back on the rails and in releasing us from what was to me one of the most trying experiences of my life. I was then quite satisfied to leave Chimborazo alone on his storm-swept paramo, and was in no further mood to read delirios or odes about the "Giant of the Andes" or the "Watchtower of the Universe." I should just then have been glad to have had a little of that unbearable heat which Aristotle and Pliny affirmed always to prevail near the equator. 81 ALONG THE ANDES AND DOWN THE AMAZON Our first stopping-place after leaving Riobamba — I do not refer to our unavoidable detention at the foot of Chim borazo — was Ambato. This is a town of about eight thou sand inhabitants, and is celebrated for its fairs, which at tract more people than any others in the republic. It has several times been destroyed by earthquakes, but each time it has been rebuilt and is now one of the most prosperous places on the plateau. What specially invited our atten tion was the large number of orchards devoted to the culti vation of fruits of the temperate zone — among them ap ples, peaches, pears and apricots. Indeed, so far as the production of fruits goes, the Ambato valley is perhaps the most fertile tract on the tableland between Cuenca and Ibarra. We probably made a special note of this particular fea ture of Ambato because it is in such marked contrast with the general appearance of the plateau between Riobamba and Latacunga. A great part of the land between these two places, when not an arid, barren plain, is a dismal heath or a cheerless moorland. Not more than half of it is available for cultivation, and even this part, aside from some favored valleys, is far from being fertile. It produces barely enough to support the present sparse population, If there were a marked increase in the number of inhab itants, it would be necessary to seek for means of subsist ence beyond the plateau, or adopt quite different methods of agriculture from those which have obtained since the time of the conquest. Except in a few of the better con ducted haciendas, one still sees everywhere the same prim itive methods of agriculture that were introduced by the Spaniards three and a half centuries ago. With the advent of railroads, however, and cheaper transportation, there is no doubt that old methods of tillage will soon give way to modern principles of husbandry, and that the sim ple implements that have so long been almost exclusively employed will soon be replaced by the better types of farm ing machinery of foreign manufacture. When this time 82 A LAND OP VOLCANOES shall arrive, — and it should be in the very near future, — the manufacturers of the United States should be the first to avail themselves of the opportunity of creating a new market for their products and for the latest mechanical cre ations of Yankee genius. The chief agricultural products of the inter-Andean plateau are wheat, barley, maize and potatoes. The latter two are the chief sustenance of the poorer classes. Roast corn — mote — and potato soup — locro — are to the serrano — mountaineer — what boiled and roast plantains are to the inhabitants of the lowlands — their staff of life. Extensive tracts are also devoted to the cultivation of alfalfa. Before the completion of the railway between the coast and the capital, this was, in some respects, even more important than corn or wheat, for without a liberal supply of yerba — provender — it was impossible to keep up the large and numerous mule trains that were necessary for transporting merchandise between Guayaquil and the towns of the interior. Even to the casual traveler among the Cordilleras, as every one who has had any experience in Andean lands knows, yerba is the most essential item of a successful trip, and the one that is first called for at the end of the day's journey. The rider may dispense with bread and locro, for this can be replaced by eggs and toasted corn, or he can, if need be, make shift with the lat ter alone, but his mount must have his daily allowance of yerba or progress is impossible. The plateau between Riobamba and Quito is monotonous and desolate in the extreme. For a part of the distance it is as arid as Arizona and as treeless as the tableland of Mexico. But few trees are visible. Along the banks of rivers and streams there is an occasional willow or wild cherry, but nothing that approaches a forest. Excepting the American aloe, one sees little more than certain species of cactus, euphorbia and eupatorium together with a spe cies of tall grass called sigsig. 83 ALONG THE ANDES AND DOWN THE AMAZON The aloe — Agave Americana — is called C 'abulia by the Ecuadorians, and is used by them, as by the Mexicans, for a great variety of purposes. It serves as an enclosure around houses and gardens and as a hedge along the road, The broad leaves supply the poorer people with thatch for their huts, while the tall flower stalks are employed for building purposes. There are two reasons for this notable absence of vege tation on the part of the plateau in question, for it is gen erally admitted that it was not in its present condition at the time of the arrival of the Spaniards. One reason is that the forest growth has been destroyed by the owners of the land and that they never made any provision to re place it. Another reason — and probably the chief one— is the character of the soil. This is largely of volcanic or igin — a porous pumice which favors rapid evaporation as well as speedy absorption — and a compact tufa which per mits rain to flow away as soon as it falls. In both cases the land is rendered arid and unproductive. Only im proved methods of cultivating the soil and the creation anew of extensive forest tracts can, as the Ecuadorian botanist, Sr. L. Sodiro, pertinently observes, give back fer tility to large stretches of territory that are now little bet ter than desert wastes.1 On our arrival at Latacnnga, a town of about twelve thou sand inhabitants, we were met by a number of soldiers who required us to give an account of ourselves. They desired to know whence we came, whither we were going, and what was our occupation and nationality. We supplied them with this information, but they were not satisfied, and told us they would have to take us to the police station. We ac cordingly started towards the town, which is some distance from the railway, and the guard accompanied us. There were, however, quite a number in our party — most of them Ecuadorians — but in separate conveyances. When we finally reached the town, going directly, as we supposed, to i Apuntes sobre la Vegetation Ecuatoriana, p. 26, Quito, 1874. 84 A LAND OP VOLCANOES the prefecture of police, the Ecuadorians suddenly dashed off into various side-streets, and the guards, unwilling to lose sight of them, started after them post-haste, appar ently forgetting us altogether. Finding ourselves thus un expectedly at liberty, we quietly proceeded to our hotel to await developments, but, strange to say, we were not again molested during the day that we remained in the place. The police and military had, evidently, more important matters to occupy their attention than two wandering Gringos. Latacunga is a dreary, melancholy place — just such a place as one would avoid — if he is inclined to homesickness. Besides this, we found it exceedingly cold. It is nearly ten thousand feet above sea level, and at the time of our visit, there was a stiff breeze blowing from the direction of snow-capped Cotopaxi, and this also tended to reduce the temperature. Most of the houses are built of pumice stone, and this likewise contributes to the cheerless aspect of the place. Like many other towns in Ecuador, it has suffered frequently from earthquakes and from its prox imity to Cotopaxi, which is only six leagues to the east. It was destroyed four times between 1698 and 1797. For this reason the houses are of but one story with very thick walls, so as to offer the greatest possible resistance to seis mic disturbances. The first recorded eruption of Cotopaxi took place in 1534, at the time of the arrival of the Spaniards, and proved, as a certain writer has observed, "very favorable to the enterprise" of the conquistadores. "For the In- sdians, possessed with truth of a prediction of their priests Ithat on the bursting of the volcano they would be deprived iof their country and reduced under the government of an unknown prince, were so struck with the concurrence of (the bursting of the volcano, and the invasion of a foreign Jtarmy, that the spirit, which universally began to show itself fa the preparations everywhere made for a vigorous re sistance, entirely left them, and the whole province ™'> i Psalm CIII, 32. 2 According to Reiss and Stiibel the mean altitude for the line of perpetual •*now for the western Cordillera is 4,742 meters; for the eastern Cordillera l!'t is 4,564 meters, which would give a general average of 4,653 meters, about Wive hundred feet lower than the summit of Mont Blanc. 97 ALONG THE ANDES AND DOWN THE AMAZON is there such a magnificent galaxy of sky-piercing moun tain peaks and volcanoes. From the summit of one of these mountains one may count sixteen snow-capped peaks, all but two of which are volcanoes either active, dormant or extinct. Besides these there are dozens of mountains of lower altitude, all, however, contributing to round out the grandest and most inspiring mountain panorama in all the world. This lofty ridge of Tiupullo, without referring to what occurred during the conquest of the country by the Incas of Peru, has been the silent witness of many events inter esting alike to the historian and to the student of science. It was crossed by the conquistador, Sebastian Bellacazar, when, after his victory over Ruminahui, he continued his course northward to take possession of the ancient capital of the Shiris, before starting on his memorable journey in quest of El Dorado in far-off Cundinamarca. It saw Gon zalo Pizarro and his gallant band before they started east ward for the Land of Canela, where they hoped to find treasures of cinnamon that would rival those of Java an ^p^ZlajS^xfe j h'j&B^Sp ' S^P t >• "^^^M^SR '^^'^ :^ ^^ ^ &¦<**¦ "" .-,-"' 'v ¦.'; 'i^™ ^ \ ,1 ^ "' " *if-< -.*¦¦ ->"¦— ¦•••*¦¦ A Troop of Llamas. La Paz, with Illimani to the Right. IN AYMARALAND then demands as much space for freedom of movement as did formerly the wearer of an Elizabethan farthingale. It is this peculiarity of the dress of many of the people of La Paz — of the Aymaras as well as of the mestizos — that gives so much color to the city and reminds one at every turn of the bright colors witnessed in Tunis and Cairo. But in La Paz the colors are much more varied and more brilliant than those of the Orient, and, although such combinations as predominate might seem disagree able, the general effect is rather grateful to the eye and harmonizes perfectly with the environment. While walking one evening in the Aymara quarter of La Paz — for I was now in the heart of Aymaraland, which I had for long years so eagerly desired to visit — I was struck by a soft and plaintive melody sung by a graceful Indian youth before the window of his dusky young quer- ida. I at once suspected that it was an Aymara serenade and so it was. I there and then determined to get a copy of the words that were sung, which I give herewith, to gether with a translation. They show that tender senti ment is as strongly developed among the Aymaras as among more cultured peoples. If the contention of certain Bolivian philologists be true, viz. : that Aymara is the language which was spoken by Adam,1 the verses here reproduced should have a spe cial interest for the reader, for it is not often that he or she has an opportunity of examining a specimen of the lan guage used by the father of mankind in those sweet inter views with the mother of the human race, as reported by Milton in his Paradise Lost. The words sung by the ardent serenader to his tawny love were as follows: "Khallallquiri urpilita Muanamamp sipitiri, iLa Lengua de Adan y el hombre de Tiahuanaco, por el abate Isaac Esco- bari, La Paz, 1888. 175 ALONG THE ANDES AND DOWN THE AMAZON Llaquipair untucuru. UStanamamp laikasiri. Haipphu sartir thayanaca Koikotajh aparapita, Chica aruma wuariranaca Kochoj isthayarapita. ' ' * ("Thou art my fluttering dovelet; Thy love hath me bewitched. Thy glance, thou lovely birdlet, Hath caught me in a magic net. Evening zephyr, bring my darling All my sighs and laments ; Wild nightwind, bear to her earlet All my heart-born entreaties.") I never tired watching the llamas that, with their Ay mara masters, meet one at every step in La Paz. They too, like the dresses of the people, are of many colors — white, brown, black and piebald. Someone has described a llama as an animal with the legs of a deer, the body of a sheep, and the neck and the head of a camel of which in the words of Buff on, il semble etre un beau diminutif. They are, how ever, much more gentle and docile than a camel, and far more beautiful. As they stand before one with their long and graceful necks and their liquid, inquiring eyes, one can understand why the Aymara is so fond of them, even aside from their value as beasts of burden and as sources of food and clothing. Anyone could make a pet of a llama, espe cially a young one, while no one but an Arab could ever love the ugly, ungainly camel. The favorite habitat of the llama is the highlands of Bo livia and Peru. They are also found in Chile and Ecuador, but in comparatively small numbers. They are remark able as being, with the alpaca, dog and cuy — a small guinea- pig — the only domestic animals found in South America at the time of the conquest. With the alpaca and the vicuna, they supplied the Incas and their subjects with food and 176 IN AYMARALAND clothing, and served, at the same time, as the only beasts of burden then available. Horses, cattle, sheep and other domestic animals were unknown in this part of the world until their introduction by the Spaniards. Unlike the camel, the llama does not thrive in a hot cli mate. But like its distant relatives of Asia and Africa, it can live a long time without water. A camel may live a week or more without drinking, but Buffon tells us that a llama, "owing to the great abundance of saliva, which keeps the mouth continually moist," may live even longer. The load carried by the llama does not usually exceed seventy-five pounds. If he is overloaded, he files a protest by lying down, and will not rise until his burden is light ened. The distance he travels is not ordinarily more than ten or twelve miles a day. His chief nourishment along the way is the clumps of ichu grass found everywhere in the Andean plateau, as well as in the more elevated puna or Despoblado — unpeopled region — of Bolivia and Peru. The Aymaras and Quichuas are as much attached to their llamas as are the Arabs to their horses and camels. And well they may be, for without these beautiful animals their lot, although already sufficiently trying, would be almost unbearable. Great, however, as was my interest in the llamas them selves, that I saw in La Paz, it was but secondary to that excited by a certain article of freight which droves of them brought in from the eastern slope of the Andes. This par ticular article was the coca leaf, which is one of the most valuable of Bolivian products. The greater portion of this precious commodity comes from the province of Yungas in the department of La Paz, and much of this is brought to the capital, where it finds a ready market. It is from this coca leaf that the remarkable alkaloid, cocaine, is extracted. But although the wonderful phys iological effects of coca have been known by the Indians from time immemorial, it is only recently that its value in medicine and surgery has become generally recognized. 177 ALONG THE ANDES AND DOWN THE AMAZON Cocaine, it is true, was extracted from coca leaves by the German chemist Niemann as far back as 1860, but the drug made its way slowly, and even to-day there are many who regard it as more harmful than beneficial. Cocaine, however, is only one of the constituents of the coca leaf, and there is good reason to believe that it is not the most important. Certainly, if all the wonderful ac counts that the people of the Andean regions give of it be true, we have yet much to learn about the properties of the leaf of the "divine plant," as it was known among the Incas. When the first Spaniards arrived in Peru, they heard such extraordinary stories from the Indians about the vir tues of coca, that they were disposed to regard their use of the leaf as connected with some of their superstitious or idolatrous practices, and several attempts were accord ingly made by the Spanish authorities to abolish its use altogether. The belief of the natives that coca gave them strength was denounced as una ilusion del demonio— an illusion of the devil — and the use of coca was conse quently tabooed by the Spaniards as beneath the notice of any one but an ignorant savage. But, notwithstanding all the denunciations hurled against the use of coca, the cultivation of the plant received greater attention from year to year, until Garcilaso de la Vega was able to write, "This plant has been, and is the principal wealth of Peru for those who are engaged in its trade." And in spite of the strenuous opposition that still prevailed against the use of coca in many quarters, keen observers and broad-minded ecclesiastics like Padre Bias Valera and Padre Jose de Acosta had the courage to rise in its defense as a medicinal agent, and declared that it would be as rea sonable to prohibit the use of maize, fruit, vegetables and water as to prohibit coca, because all these things, as well as coca, had been used in sacrificial worship by ancient idolaters and modern wizards and diviners. Acosta writes as follows : ' ' Their use, ' ' that of the In- 178 IN AYMARALAND dians, "is to carry it in their mouths, chawing it and suck ing out the juice, but they swallow it not. They say it gives them great courage and is very pleasing unto them. Many grave men hold this as a superstition and a mere imagination; for my part, and to speake the truth, I per- swade not myself e that it is an imagination; but contrari wise, I thinke it works and gives force and courage to the Indians, for we see the effects, which cannot be attributed to imagination, as to go some daies without meate, but only a handful of coca, and other like effects." x The Spaniards, however, soon found a more convincing argument of the efficacy of coca as used by the natives. They discovered that the Indian's capacity for work was greatly increased by the use of coca ; that the leaf was not only a stimulant but a nutritious refreshment to them; that if they wished to get the best work out of those en gaged in the mines and on the plantations, it was necessary to make them a regular allowance of their favorite leaf. So great was its consumption by the Indians employed in the mines of Peru in the latter part of the sixteenth cen tury that Acosta informs us that "the trafficke of coca in Potosi doth yearley mount to above half a million dollars, for that they use foure scoure and tenne, or foure scoure and fifteen thousand baskets every yeare. In the yeare one thousand and five hundred eighty-three, they spent a hundred thousand. ' ' 2 Since that time the coca industry has increased until to-day the annual production of Bolivia alone amounts to seven million pounds. Only a small proportion of this is exported, the greater part of it being consumed by the In dian and mestizo laborers of the republic. To the Indian of the Andean lands from Chile to Colombia, coca is what be tel is to the Hindu and what tobacco is to the rest of man kind. And it is more. Not only is it a narcotic and a sed ative, but it is meat and drink to myriads of the toiling *0p. cit., Book IV, Chap. XXII. [ 2Ut. sup. 179 ALONG THE ANDES AND DOWN THE AMAZON inhabitants of what was once the great empire of the In cas. A part of every Indian's apparel is his chuspa, or coca- bag, which he carries over his shoulder, suspended at his side. In this bag he carries, in addition to coca leaves, a certain amount of unslacked lime, or carbonate of potash, prepared by burning the quinoa plant. This is called llipta, which, apart from its chemical action on the coca leaves, gives to them a relish which the Indian finds agree able. Three or four times a day the Indian suspends labor for about a quarter of an hour, for his acullicar * — mastication of coca. With him it takes the place of a smoke with us, but the benefits accruing from it, when the leaf is not used to excess, are immensely greater. "Each man," Tschudi informs us, "consumes, on the average, between an ounce and an ounce and a half per day, and on festival days about double that quantity." 2 The amount of work done by an Indian in Bolivia or Peru is in proportion to the coca he consumes. The more coca, the more work, and vice versa". More singular still is the fact that coca is used by the Indian cargueros — burden bearers — as a measure of dis tance. A chew — acullico — lasts him about forty minutes, during which time he travels three kilometers on level ground and two kilometers up hill. The distance which he travels with this chew is called a cocada. Eight or ten minutes after taking a number of leaves of his favorite plant into his mouth, he experiences new vigor, or as he expresses it, he is armado. His average load is four arro- bas — one hundred pounds — and the usual distance he trav els each day, according to his mode of reckoning, is from six to eight cocadas.3 iThis is the term employed in Bolivia and southern Peru; in northern Peru the operation is called chacchar. 2 Travels in Peru, p. 315, New York, 1854. a Compare El Peru, Tom. 1, p. 69 et seq., por Antonio Raimondi, Limft. 1874. 180 IN AYMARALAND The endurance of the Indian, and the feats he is capable of performing, when he has a liberal supply of coca, are truly astonishing, and would seem incredible, if they had not been verified by travelers and men of science whose testimony is unquestionable. Dr. Jose M. Valdez y Pal- acios, a Brazilian traveler, writing of this matter, declares that an Indian with a handful of roasted corn and his usual supply of coca leaf — fohla sagrada — as he terms it, will travel a hundred miles afoot and keep pace with a mule or a horse.1 Dr. Spruce tells us that the Indian with a chew of coca in his cheek will travel two or three days without food or a desire to sleep. Stevenson assures us that the chasquis, or runners, who carry letters from Lima, travel upwards of a hundred leagues without any other nourish ment than coca, thus keeping up the best traditions of their predecessors in the days of the Incas. According to Mon tesinos, Huayna Capac was able, through these fleet- footed chasquis, to eat fish that had been caught in the Pacific the day before, although three hundred miles distant. Tschudi relates that he had a cholo employed in very la borious digging and that during "five days and nights he never tasted any food, and took only two hours of sleep nightly. But at intervals of two and a half or three hours he regularly masticated about half an ounce of coca leaves and he kept an acullico continually in his mouth. I was constantly beside him, and therefore, I had the opportunity of closely observing him. The work for which I engaged him being finished, he accompanied me on a two days' jour ney of twenty-three leagues, across the level heights. Though on foot, he kept up with the pace of my mule, and halted only for the chacchar. On leaving me, he declared that he would willingly engage himself for the same amount of work, and that he would go through it without food, if I would but allow him a sufficient supply of coca. The vil- i Viagem da Cidade do Cuzco a de Belem da.grao Para, pe los rios.Vilca- mayu, Veayali e Amazonas, Rio Janeiro, 1844-46. 181 ALONG THE ANDES AND DOWN THE AMAZ.uin lage priest assured me that this man was sixty-two years of age, and that he had never known him to be ill in his life." l From my own experience with the Indians in my employ in the Andean regions, I have no doubt that the coca leaf, as used by them, contains a powerful nutritive principle* It is quite impossible, on any other assumption, to explain the long journeys I have known them to make and their long-continued toil with little or nothing to sustain them but a quid of coca leaves. Belying on his own observations, and on those of others, whose testimony is above suspicion, Tschudi concluded that "The coca plant must be considered as a great blessing" to the Indian who, without it, "would be incapable of going through the labor he now performs. Setting aside all ex travagant and visionary notions on the subject, I am clearly of the opinion that the moderate use of coca is not merely innocuous, but that it may be very conducive to health. In support of this conclusion, I may refer to the numerous examples of longevity among Indians, who, al most from the age of boyhood, have been in the habit of masticating coca three times a day, and who, in the course of their lives, have consumed no less than two thousand and seven hundred pounds, yet, nevertheless, enjoy perfect health.2 Such being the marvelous properties of the divine plant of the Incas, it is not surprising that the Indians consider it a panacea for all ills, and that some of them entertain the belief, as Poeppig informs us,3 that if a dying man can iOp. cit., pp. 316-317. 2 Op. cit., p. 316. Dr. Tschudi, in the estimate here given, alludes to in dividuals who attained the great age of one hundred and thirty years, which he claims is not singular. "Supposing these Indians to have begun to masti cate coca at the age of ten years, and calculate their daily consumption at a minimum of one ounce, the result is the consumption of twenty-seven hun dred weight in one hundred and twenty years." s Reise in Chile, Peru und auf dem Amazonenstrom wiihrend der Jalwe 1827-32, Vol. II, p. 252, Leipzig, 1836. 182 IN AYMARALAND appreciate the taste of coca leaves pressed to his lips, his soul will enter paradise. Indeed, all that the Indian or the man of science might say of the wonderful virtues of coca has been embodied by the poet Cowley in the following verses from his fifth Book of Plants: "Each leaf is fruit, and such substantial fare, No fruit beside to rival it will dare. "Our Viracocha first this coca sent, Endowed with leaves of wondrous nourishment, Whose juice suce'd in, and to the stomach tak'n, Long hunger long, and labor can sustain; From which our faint and weary bodies find More succor, more they cheer the drooping mind, Than can your Bacchus and your Ceres join'd." I have enlarged somewhat on the marvels of coca not only on account of the interest that attaches to the plant and its past history, but also because I think it is desirable that people outside of the Andean lands should know more about it than they do at present. If some of our government chemists, who are interested in pure foods and drugs, would devise means of transporting coca leaves from South America, so that we of the north might have them with all their virtues unchanged, they would render a distinct serv ice to the cause of humanity, and would, at the same time, furnish a harmless substitute for that dangerous alkaloid, cocaine, whose ravages are rapidly becoming as widespread as those of opium and morphine. Aside from its coca, one of the most interesting things in Bolivia is the famous silver mountain of Potosi. The republic is celebrated for its mines of gold, silver, tin and other metals, but in no mineral region in the world has "Nature ever offered to the avidity of man such mines of riches as those of Potosi," that pretiosa margarita de la Naturaleza, which, it has been estimated, has produced 183 ALONG THE ANDES AND DOWN THE AMAZON from two to four billions of dollars. According to Hum boldt, the amount of silver yielded by the Cerro del Potosi, during the first eleven years after the discovery of ore in it, that is, from 1545 to 1556, amounted to more than six hundred million dollars. And the same authority also de clares in his Essai Politique sur la Nouvelle Espagne that this mountain, then in the viceroyalty of Peru, "has yielded from two to three times more silver than all the collected mines of Mexico. ' ' * Although it may never be possible to find another Cerro del Potosi in South America, it is, nevertheless, certain that there are untold fortunes awaiting the prospector in Bolivia and Peru. The mines of Cerro de Pasco, Hual- gayoc, and Pulacayo, from which many hundred million dollars ' worth of the precious metals have been taken, give some idea of the immense treasures still awaiting the en terprising miners of the future. "The abundance of sil ver in the chain of the Andes," Humboldt well observes, "is in general such that when we reflect on the number of mineral depositories, which remain untouched, or which have been very superficially wrought, we are tempted to be lieve that Europeans ' ' — and he might have added, the peo ple of the United States — "have yet scarcely begun to en joy the inexhaustible fund of wealth contained in the New World." While I was examining a splendid edition of Don Quixote in a large and well-stocked book-store of La Paz, I was re minded of a fact, not generally known, respecting a coun try that is usually regarded as illiterate. This is to the effect that the immortal Miguel de Cervantes, in a memorial to Philip II, in May, 1590, begged for an appointment to one of the vacant offices in the Indies, among which was that of corregidor of La Paz.2 If he had obtained the verge i Lib. IV, Chap. XL In his Nouvelle G6ographie Vniverselle, Vol. XVIII, p. 678, Reclus declares that the twelfth part of all the precious metals in circulation in the world since the discovery of America came from Potosi. 2 In his memorial Cervantes prayed the monarch "le hiciese merced de un 184 IN AYMARALAND of office so eagerly desired, would Bolivia now pride her self on being the cradle of El Ingenioso Hidalgo de la Man- cha? Although La Paz is quite isolated from the rest of the world, one will find here all that culture and refinement which prevail in other parts of Latin America. Every where I went, I had abundant evidence of this, but particu larly at a banquet which my host, who was hospitality and courtesy personified, was kind enough to give in my honor. A number of the most distinguished people of the city were present, among whom were a goodly proportion of ladies. I found them not only refined and cultured, but highly edu cated and fully abreast with the intellectual movement of the world. Their sympathies were broad and they dis played an intelligent interest in literature and science, that would have done credit to the polished habitues of a Paris salon. "Their dispositions," writes an English traveler of the last century, "like those of the South American la dies *in general, have been justly defined as being a happy medium between French vivacity and English reserve. Their faces are handsome and their figures good; their carriage, like Spain's dark-glancing daughters, from whom they descend, is easy, genteel and graceful, without any of that air maniere, so much studied by the French ladies, or any of that want of grace so conspicuous in our own." : While listening to a debate in the Bolivian senate, I was strongly confirmed in the view, I have long entertained, re garding the separation of Upper from Lower Peru — that it was a grave political mistake. Bolivar's union of Vene zuela, New Granada and Ecuador, was, in my opinion, as oficio en las Indias de los tres 6 cuatro que al present* estan vacos, que es el uno la contadaria del Nuevo Reino de Granada 6 la gobernacion de la provincia de Socunusco, en- Guatemala, 6 contador de las galeras de Carta gena 6 corregidor de la ciudad de la Paz." Navarrete Vida de Cervantes, p. 313. 1 Travels in Various Parts of Peru, Including a Year's Residence in Potosi, , by Edmond Temple, Vol. I, p. 407, London, 1830. 185 ALONG THE ANDES AND DOWN THE AMAZ1UJN I have stated elsewhere,1 for the best interests of these three countries, and it is to be hoped that the day is not far distant when Greater Colombia can be reconstructed and placed on an enduring foundation. But, making a new re public of Upper Peru, which was named after the Liberator, was, I cannot help thinking it, detrimental to both Bolivia and Peru. If they were united, as it seems they should be, and could enjoy the blessings of wise and enterprising rulers, like those who, during recent years, have guided the destinies of Peru, they would, in virtue of their geograph ical position and their boundless natural resources, be second to no commonwealth in South America. As it is, Bolivia has no seaport of her own, and can have no commu nication with foreign nations, except through the adjacent republics. Her territory, owing to the encroachments of her neighbors, is much smaller than it was in Bolivar's time, and there is reason to believe that it is only a question of time until, like Poland, it shall be partitioned by the con tiguous republics, whose covetous eyes are ever fixed on the inexhaustible treasures within her boundaries. There are many far-seeing and patriotic men in both Bolivia and Peru who would gladly forestall such a fate, but private interests and petty jealousies in the two countries which should always have remained one and inseparable, have so far retarded the much-desired reunion. In an interview with President Montes, I told him of my intention of crossing the continent by way of the Amazon, and one of its tributaries. He immediately, to my surprise, became intensely interested in the project. He spoke most appreciatively of the work of American explorers in Bo livia, especially of Gibbon, Church and Heath, and most entertainingly of his own travels in distant parts of the re public. "And then, graciously turning the conversation to my own travels, he finally said: "I hope you will decide to make your way to the Amazon by one of our Bolivian riv- i Following the Conquistadores up the Orinoco and down the Magdalena, Chap. XI. 186 IN AYMARALAND ers. There are many of them, as you know, and I am sure you would enjoy a trip down one of them. The fauna and the flora and the various Indian tribes, which you will see on your way, will, I am convinced, have a special interest for you." And then he proceeded to map out an itinerary for me. "If you wish," he continued, "to follow in the footsteps of your countryman, Gibbon, who was here more than fifty years ago, you can go to Cochabamba, a few days' journey southeast of here, whence you can reach the Madeira either by the Beni or the Mamore. Or if you desire to prolong your journey somewhat, you can visit the interesting old town of Santa Cruz de la Sierra, which was founded more than three and a half centuries ago, and where, by the way, there is a university as well as in Cochabamba. From this place you can reach the Mamore by way of the Bio Negro. Once on the Mamore you will have easy sailing to the Falls of the Madeira, above San Antonio. Here you will be at home, for, as you are aware, your countrymen are now en gaged in constructing a railway around the falls and rap ids, which road is to put Bolivia into direct communication with the Amazon, and give an outlet to the many products of this hitherto undeveloped part of our country. It is singular, but it is true, that it was Lieutenant Gibbon who suggested, more than half a century ago, the railroad his countrymen are now building, and which we hope soon to see in successful operation. Then a trip from the United States to Bolivia or the reverse, far from being a painful journey, as it is at present, will be a delightful excursion, — a great part of it through the most interesting part of South America. "Now, Sr. Doctor," concluded the President, "if, after reflection, you think you would like to go to the Amazon by any of its Bolivian affluents, you may count on me to do anything in my power to make your journey pleasant and profitable." I thanked the President for his very kind offer, but 187 ALONG THE ANDES AND DOWN THE AMAZON begged time for reflection. To make the trip indicated, and under such very favorable conditions, was certainly very tempting. If I had not restrained myself and taken time to consider the matter, I should certainly then and there have arranged for my return home by way of the Mamore and the Madeira. After more mature delibera tion, however, I determined to adhere to my original plan and follow, as closely as possible, in the footsteps of the conquistadores. None of them had traveled by the Ma more or Beni or Madeira, and as a matter of sentiment, if for no other reason, I lost no time in getting back to the great highways of the Spanish conquerors, and to lands which their deeds of high emprise have made forever mem orable. Still I did not wholly abandon the idea of making the journey so kindly outlined by President Montes. It was simply deferred — to be part of a contemplated trip through the heart of South America from Caracas to Buenos Aires by way of the Apure, Orinoco, Cassiquiare, Bio Negro, Madeira, Pilcomayo and Parana rivers. This project, first conceived at the mouth of the Meta, had grown more fascinating the more I thought of it, until at last it became a fixed purpose to be, Deo volente, sooner or later realized.1 i See Following the Conquistadores up the Orinoco and down the Magdalena, p. 142. 188 CHAPTER XI THE BAALBEC OF THE NEW WOBLD The morning after my interview with President Montes I was on my way to the celebrated ruins of Tiahuanaco — in many respects the most extraordinary ruins in the New World. Thanks to the courtesy of the traffic manager of the La Paz railroad, a delightful party was gotten together, among whom was the minister of public works, who, hav ing the ruins under his direction, was thoroughly familiar with them. He kindly offered to be our cicerone, in which role he proved most competent and entertaining. When we arrived at the depot, there was a special train waiting for us, and, on entering our car we found, to our great sur prise and pleasure, that preparations had been made to serve an early luncheon, while we were on our way to Lake Titicaca. A delicious luncheon it was; but more delight ful far was the spirit of good fellowship that dominated every member of the party, and the constant delicate at tentions of our host, who apparently had no thought but the comfort and pleasure of his guests. We arrived at the village of Tiahuanaco shortly before noon, and at once proceeded to the ruins, which are but a short half mile to the southward. They are on a broad and arid plain, one hundred and thirty-five feet above Lake Titicaca, from whose southern shore they are twelve miles distant. The area occupied by them is about a square mile where, in addition to a number of shapeless mounds of earth, there are remarkable traces of five different stone structures, which writers, for the purpose of classification, have agreed to call the fortress, the palace, the temple, the sanctuary and the hall of justice. The materials used in 189 ALONG THE ANDES AND DOWN THE AMAZON their construction are trachyte, basalt and red sandstone. The fortress, to judge from its present condition, originally resembled a Mexican teocalli or the pyramid of Sak- karah in Egypt, and must, when first erected, have pre sented a very imposing appearance. It is a great terraced mound of earth, supported by stone walls, is fifty feet high, six hundred and twenty feet long and four hundred and fifty in width. It is, however, in a very dilapidated con dition owing to the depredations of treasure-seekers and to its being for centuries used as a quarry, whence material was obtained for buildings in the neighboring towns for the railroad and even for structures in La Paz. The temple is in the form of a rectangle, three hundred and eighty-eight by four hundred and forty-five feet. It has been very appropriately called the American Stonehenge, to which, at least in some of its monoliths, it bears a strik ing resemblance. The other three edifices, especially the hall of justice, are likewise remarkable for the area they occupy and for the cyclopean masses of stone that still re main to attest the extraordinary character of their con struction. It is these wonderful megaliths, rivaling anything found in Italy, Greece, or Asia Minor, that have excited the astonishment of travelers since the time of the conquest The platform, for instance, of the hall of justice is paved with immense slabs, some of which are twenty-five feet long, fourteen feet broad and nearly seven feet thick. ' But the most remarkable feature in these cyclopean structures is the great monolithic gateway of very hard trachyf| ornamented with numerous well-executed sculptures,vap- parently of a symbolical character. This is more than thirteen feet long, seven feet above ground and eighfife inches thick. ?™ Some of the stones are in a rough and unhewn condition, but most of them are cut and fashioned in the most're- markable manner. Squier, in referring to this feature of these extraordinary ruins, writes as follows: — "Kemove 190 Megalithic Ruins of Tiahuanaco, Bolivia Portal of the Pre-Incaic Ruins of Tiahuanaco, Bolivia. THE BAALBEC OF THE NEW WORLD the superstructures of the best built edifices of our cities, and few, if any, would expose foundations laid with equal care, and none of them stones cut with such accuracy. And I may say, once for all, carefully weighing my words, that in no part of the world have I seen stones cut with such mathematical precision and admirable skill as in Peru, and in no part of Peru are there any to surpass those which are scattered over the plain of Tiahuanaco." J "The ruins of Tiahuanaco," continues the same writer, "have been regarded by all students of American antiqui ties as in many respects the most interesting, important and at the same time most enigmatical of any on the con tinent. They have excited the wonder and admiration alike of the earliest and latest travelers, most of whom, vanquished in their attempts to penetrate the mystery of their origin, have been content to assign them an antiquity beyond that of the other monuments of America, and to regard them as the solitary remains of a civilization that disappeared before that of the Incas began, and con temporaneous with that of Egypt and the East. Unique, yet perfect in type and harmonious in style, they appear to be the work of a people who were thorough masters of an architecture which had no infancy, passed through no period of growth and of which we find no other examples. Tradition, which mumbles more or less intelligibly of the origin of many other American monuments, is dumb con cerning these."2 When the conquistadores asked the Indians regarding the origin of these wonderful ruins, they were told that "they were made in a single night by invisible hands" ; that "they existed before the advent of Manco Capac and his sister-wife, Mama Ocllo;" that Tiahuanaco was the abode 1 Peru, Incidents of Travel and Exploration in the Land of the Incas, p. 279, London, 1877. The reader, who is interested in the subject, can verify this very positive statement by consulting the splendidly illustrated volume, entitled Die Ruinenstattte von Tiahuanaco im Hochlande des Alten Peru, von A. Stiibel und M. Vhle, Leipzig, 1892. 2 Op. cit., p. 274. 191 ALONG THE ANDES AND DOWN THE AMAZON of Pachacamac, the Creator of the Universe, and hence "the superb edifices, so worthy of admiration in that place" ; that here "the Creator began to raise up the people and nations that are in that region"; that "here he gave to mankind the languages they were to speak, and to the birds the songs they were to sing;" that here he created, as stated in the preceding chapter, the sun, moon, and stars, after which he ordered them to go to the island of Titicaca and thence to rise to heaven. They declared, furthermore, that the statues at Tiahuan aco, which were far more numerous at the time of the conquest, than at present, were men and women whom the Creator had changed into stones for disobedience and re bellion.1 Others, however, attributed to them a different origin. They said that the people of Tiahuanaco were en gaged in drinking and dancing when Tonapa Uiracocha, the Apostle of St. Thomas, "came to preach to them, and they did not listen to him. Then, out of pure anger, he denounced them in the language of the land ; and when he departed from that place, all the people who were dancing were turned into stones as may be seen to this day. ' ' 2 The ruins of Tiahuanaco made a deep impression on the early Spanish writers, especially Acosta, Cieza de Leon and Garcilaso de la Vega. Acosta says he measured one of the great stones and found it to be thirty-eight feet long, eighteen broad and six deep. Its weight, therefore, must have been about seven hundred tons. What most im pressed Cieza was the fact that "in all this district there are no quarries whence the numerous stones can have been brought, the carrying of which must have required many people." This same fact has equally impressed all subsequent in vestigators. So far as is known, there is no sandstone similar to that occurring in the ruins to be found nearer than fifteen miles, while the nearest place at which i Molina, op. cit., p. 6. 2 Salcamayhua, op. cit., p. 73. 192 THE BAALBEC OP THE NEW WORLD trachyte and basalt can be procured is Copocabana, which, in a straight line across the lake, is forty miles distant. How were the immense monoliths used in these struc tures transported such distances'? A similar question has for centuries been awaiting an answer regarding the megalithic monuments of Egypt. How were the immense sarcophagi of the pyramids, and the giant obelisks of Luxor and Heliopolis, transported from the quarries of the Upper Nile to the positions they now occupy? Cieza expressed it as his belief that the ruins of Tiahuanaco are "the most ancient in all Peru." He also anticipated the conclusions of modern research by record ing the opinion that "these edifices, from what now ap pears, were not completed. ' ' x They are not, therefore, strictly speaking, ruins at all, but the remains of vast struc tures on which, for some reason or other, work was abandoned before they were half finished, as were some of the edifices at Baalbec. But when, the reader will ask, — as every visitor asks, — was work begun on the foundations of these astonishing structures'? By whom? For what purpose? With what tools were the exceedingly hard masses of trachyte and basalt fashioned into the perfect forms we now behold? Why were such structures projected on this lofty, bleak, inhospitable plateau? And why, after so much was ac complished, was the work left uncompleted? No satisfactory answer can be given to any of these questions. Notwithstanding the exhaustive researches of many of the most competent of modern archaeologists, their conclusions are as yet nothing more than mere con jectures. I shall, therefore, in a few words, reply to the above questions in the words of those who have made a special study of Peruvian antiquities and whose opinions, consequently, may be accepted as the last word on "The ruins of a race extinct." 1 Op. cit., Cap. CV. Cf. Monumentos Prehistoricos de Tiahuanaco, published by M. V. Ballivian, La Paz, Bolivia, 1910. 193 ALONG THE ANDES AND DOWN THE AMAZON Max Uhle, the curator of the archaeological museum in Lima, and a recognized authority on Peruvian antiquities, contends that chronology in Peru is "determined by cul tural periods, which develop, flourish and decay the same as man. In Peru he finds five of these cultural periods, and assumes them to have the same duration — an average of about five hundred years — as have the cultural periods of Hallstadt, La Tene and Egypt. Accepting these premises as established, his conclusion is as follows : ' ' The development of Peruvian civilization, accepting the average five successive periods, would result in a stratifi cation of cultures representing between two and three thou sand years. About the year 1000 B. C, at the time when Solomon built his temple, the early Americans in Peru reared their mighty structures to the glory of a creator god. Civilization in America would, beyond all doubt, have worked itself up to a high plane at some time, and might have accomplished alone a peculiar but certainly a brilliant development without the intervention of European civili zation. ' ' x This conclusion seems to accord in an extraordinary manner with the catalogue of the one hundred and one Peruvian monarchs, as given by Montesinos in his Memorias Peruanas. According to this writer, who went to Peru a hundred years after the conquest, and devoted fifteen years to travel in the viceroyalty, the empire of the Incas dates back to 4004 B. C, about five hundred years after the Biblical deluge. This was in keeping with his views that Peru was the Ophir of Solomon and that Amer ica was peopled from Armenia. If such be the antiquity of the Inca empire, the western world, of which it formed a part, is wrongly called the new, for . . . "This clime was old When first the Spaniard came in search of gold." i Harper's Magazine, Vol. 107, pp. 780-786, 1903. See in this connec tion his interesting work, Pachacamac, Philadelphia, 1903. Major Leonard Darwin, president of the Royal Geographical Society, in • 194 THE BAALBEO OP THE NEW WORLD As to the builders of Tiahuanaco, M. L'Angrand, after a careful study of the ruins on the Bolivian plateau, and a comparison of them with the monuments of Mexico, Cen tral America and Yucatan, concludes that they came from the north. He contends that the theogonies and civiliza tions of the people of the south, if not identical with those of the north, were so nearly alike as to prove unity of origin. The same may be said of the symbols, revealed by the sculptures of Tiahuanaco, when compared with those employed at Palenque, Uxmal, Ococingo and Xochicalco. Such being the case, he feels warranted in concluding that "The people who raised the monuments of Tiahuanaco were a branch of the great western Toltec family of Nahuatl or California origin." x This view is favored by Humboldt, Tschudi, Middendorf and many others, but there are polygenists like Agassiz, Morton, and others, who maintain that the American In dian is autocthonous and, therefore, ethnologically in dependent of the races of the Old World. It is not my purpose, however, to open up the vexed question of the unity of the human species, farther than to observe that there is as yet no conclusive evidence against the tradi- recent discussion regarding the age of the ruins of Tiahuanaco, expressed himself as follows: "Judging by the age now generally assigned to the pyramids of Egypt, it would not be an outrageous supposition to suggest that these megalithic remains may be 4,000 years old." The Geographical Journal, p. 392, London, Oct., 1910. i Lettre sur les Antiquites de Tiaguanaco et VOrigine Presumable de la plus Antienne Civilization du Haut-Perou, p. 44, Paris, 1866. Cf. also, Inwards, R., Temple of the Andes, London, 1884, and Fouilles Archtologiques i Tiahuanaco, Paris, 1908, par G. Courty et Adrien de Mortillet. Sir Clements Markham in his latest work, The Incas of Peru, asserts that "The builders may best be described as a megalithic people in a megalithic age, an age when cyclopean stones were transported, and cyclopean edifices raised." Answering the question as to the direction whence these megalithic people came, he quotes a tradition recorded by the old Spanish chroniclers, which points to the south, to Charcas and to countries below the southern tropics, as the sources of the population of the ancient megalithic empire, which "extended its sway over the Andean regions from Tucuman to Chachapoyas, with Tiahuanaco, for want of the real name, as its center of rule and of thought," pp. 29, 31, 36, New York, 1910. 195 ALONG THE ANDES AND DOWN THE AMAZON tional view of the descent of all mankind from a single pair. Such being the case the inference is that the build ers of Tiahuanaco were originally from the Old World, whether from Europe or Asia is yet to be determined. As to the purpose of these structures and the reason for locating them on an elevated, arid, chilly plateau, where it is difficult to secure subsistence for a large population, nothing is known. Any opinion given on the subject would be idle guesswork. The same may be said regarding the discontinuance of work on the buildings before their com pletion. Begarding the tools employed in cutting the stone used in these structures we are in almost complete igno rance. There is no evidence whatever that the builders had tools of iron or steel, and it is difficult to understand how the hard stones entering into the construction of these immense edifices could have been fashioned so per fectly by such primitive tools as those made from quartz, or from such a soft material as champi, which was a kind of bronze. Truth to tell, everything about Tiahuanaco is, as yet, veiled in impenetrable mystery. We know no more about the originators of the mammoth structures of Tiahuanaco than we do about the Mound Builders of our own country, or about the rude sculptors of the colossal statues found on Easter Island. And we know absolutely nothing about their history, religion and language. As I wandered, years ago, among the cyclopean ruins of Tiryns and Mycenae, accompanied by an ardent friend of old Hellas, my companion continually gave expression to his surprise by repeating the two words, "Wonderful! Wonderful!" While exploring the monuments of Tia huanaco, overwhelmed with astonishment at the magni tude of everything around me, and lost in the mystery which enveloped this city of departed greatness, I found myself at every turn — I recollect it well — giving vent to my strong, emotion by the frequent repetition of the words ' ' Stupendous ! Stupendous ! ' ' 196 THE BAALBEC OF THE NEW WORLD And these words, which spontaneously come to the lips of every visitor to this famous spot, but feebly articulate one's feelings of amazement and awe when contemplating the monuments of Tiahuanaco, which, as Desjardins has truthfully remarked, "by reason of their character of re ligious grandeur and solitary majesty, are comparable only with those of Karnak, Abu-Simbel and Luxor." Commenting on the ignorance, that in his time, prevailed regarding everything pertaining to Tiahuanaco, Cieza de Leon, the Herodotus of Peru, and "The Prince of Amer ican Chroniclers," as Jimenez de la Espada calls him, ex presses himself as follows: "Seeing that all these things are hidden from us we may well say, 'Blessed be the in vention of letters!' by virtue of which the memory of events endures for many ages, and their fame flies through the universe. We are not ignorant of what we desire to know, when we hold letters in our hands. But in this new world of the Indies, as they knew nothing of letters, we are in a state of blindness concerning many things." J But it is. probably Lord Houghton who best voices the thoughts of the spectator at Tiahuanaco in his poem on Pelasgian and Cyclopean Walls, which begins as follows : "Ye cliffs of masonry, enormous piles, Which no rude censure of familiar time Nor record of our puny race defiles, In dateless mystery ye stand sublime, Memorials of an age of which we see Only types in things that once were ye." iTJt. sup. 197 CHAPTER XII THE HOME OF THE QUICHUAS The second morning after leaving Tiahuanaco, we were again in Puno on our way to Cuzco, the famous capital of the Inca empire and justly called the Borne of South America. Scarcely had I disembarked from the steamer, which had brought me from Guaqui, when I was cordially greeted by the division superintendent of the Southern Bailway of Peru, who informed me that, in compliance with instruc tions from the general manager, he had a special train in readiness to take me to Checacupe, the then end of the line that was building to Cuzco. "I have also," he said, "ordered breakfast for you, as I am sure you must have an appetite after your sail in the cool, crisp air of Lake Titicaca." Then, giving the train conductor in structions to have everything in readiness, as soon as I should be ready to start, he accompanied me to a cozy dining-room near by, where a splendid breakfast was served. While there, I met two young men from Yale University — one a student and the other a member of the faculty. They had just come from Bolivia, and, like myself, were on their way to Cuzco. As soon as I learned this, I in vited them to accompany me in my special train — an in vitation they were as glad to accept as I was to extend. As events proved, it was a providential meeting for all three of us, for they were congenial traveling companions, and contributed much to the pleasure of the journey while we were together. After being the recipient of numerous delicate attentions 198 THE HOME OP THE QUICHUAS from the courteous superintendent and his obliging assist ants, I was finally able to board the train with my young countrymen, and, while the railway officials were yet bid ding us God-speed, we were on our way to the City of the Sun, and following the same course as had been taken by Manco Capac and Mama Ocllo nearly a thousand years be fore. To one who loves the romance of history and is fond of legendary lore, the narrow strip of territory extending from Tiahuanaco to Cuzco has an interest and a charm not possessed by any other region in the New World. In it are found the most remarkable monuments of South Amer ica, and about them are gathered the most cherished tradi tions of the two most remarkable indigenous peoples of the southern continent. We have learned something regarding the marvelous ruins of Titicaca, Coati and Tiahuanaco, but there are others equally worthy of attentive study, all the way from the northern shore of Lake Titicaca to Ollantaytambo in the lovely valley of Yucay, the most beau tiful, probably, in all Peru. Two of the most interesting places in the southern part of the belt between Lake Titicaca and the valley of Cuzco, are Lake Umayo, about ten miles towards the west of the railroad, and Azangaro, nearly the same distance towards the east. Lake Umayo is celebrated for the large number of ruins around it and especially for the wonderful necropolis of Sillustani, where are found some of the most imposing and best preserved monuments in the Collao.1 Here are hundreds of them, sometimes standing alone and some times in groups. They are called chulpas, are circular in form, and are usually constructed of large blocks of trachyte or basalt. Some of them are of very elaborate workmanship and measure sixteen feet in diameter and forty feet in height. They remind one of certain Pelasgic iThe name given to the country surrounding Lake Titicaca, formerly inhabited by people called Collas. 199 ALONG THE ANDES AND DOWN THE AMAZON towers in Italy, and the domes surmounting them are not unlike the topes and dagobas of India and Ceylon. According to Squier, these very remarkable monuments are Aymara tombs and have a great antiquity.1 Near these chulpas are other ancient remains so like the sun circles, or Druidical circles, of England and Northern Europe, that they would almost seem to have had a similar origin. The town of Azangaro is famous for the decorations of its church and for a portion of an old house called Sondor- huasi, that dates back to the time of the Incas. The im portance of this house, from an antiquarian point of view, is due to the fact that it still retains its original thatched roof, — the only one now remaining in Peru, — of ichu grass — stipa ichu — which was doubtless the roofing material of the rich Inca palaces of Peru. It seems incredible that such a roof should endure for centuries, as this one has, but there it stands, unless recently removed, as an instance of the adaptation of most perishable material for age-long use, and as a solitary specimen of that astonishing work manship which has, in so many other respects, distinguished the structures and the enterprises of the Incas. Aside from the interest which attaches to Azangaro, on account of its church and Sondor-huasi, it is celebrated in Peru as being, par excellence, the city of hidden treasure. Tradition has it that when the Indians were transporting gold and silver to Cajamarca for the ransom of Atahualpa they received news of his death on their arrival at Sicuani, and that, in compliance with orders from Inca Manco, then at Cuzco, to conceal the treasure, they buried it somewhere near Azangaro. Its value is usually estimated at seven million dolla.rs. Besides this immense treasure, it is said that fifteen mule-loads of church plate were brought here i Bandelier contends that these chulpas were not tombs, but storehouses. See his article on The Aboriginal Ruins of Sillustani, Peru, in the American Anthropologist, January-March, 1905. Von Tschudi and others considered them to be dwelling places and parts of fortresses. 200 THE HOME OF THE QUICHUAS in 1781 by Diego Tupac Amaru, and hidden somewhere in the town, or in its immediate vicinity. Some of the In dians are credited with knowing where the treasures are buried, but if so, they are unwilling to divulge the secret. Many attempts have been made to locate them, but so far, without result. Antiquities, however, are not the only objects to claim the attention of the traveler on the way from Puno to Cuzco. There are first of all the people, mostly Aymara and Quichua Indians. All along the road one will see numerous towns and villages, and many extensive haciendas, on which range immense herds of cattle and flocks of alpaca sheep. This is, indeed, the favorite home of these latter animals. The sheep and the cattle are often in the care of pretty little shepherdesses and vaqueras — cow-girls — who, in spite of their desolate surroundings, seem to be pictures of health and contentment. One of these graceful vaqueras, seated on a rock han dling a distaff or playing the pincullu — Indian flute — while watching the grazing kine, would be an ideal subject for the brush of a Millet, a Mauve or a Poggenbeek. Of such an Andean maiden, in her gay-colored dress, in the glow of youthful vigor and beauty, one could truly say : "La vi tan fermosa Que apenas creyera Que fuese vaquera De la Pinojosa." So cold is the climate of this elevated tableland that the soil yields but little for the support of its inhabitants, ex cept barley, quinoa, oca, a certain variety of bean, and potatoes. In sheltered places maize is grown, but it is a very inferior product. Many of the vegetables of our northern zone might be cultivated here, but the Indians in this part of the world are as averse to innovations as are the inhabitants of Syria or Mesopotamia. The cab bage and similar vegetables would flourish here, but 201 ALONG THE ANDES AND DOWN THE AMAZON they are rarely seen, at least in the gardens of the In dians. The principal article of food among the natives of the highlands of Peru and Bolivia is the potato. In order to preserve it, and render it more palatable than it usually is in its natural state, it is frozen and dried, in which con dition it is known as chuno. Boiled with vegetables and fragments of meat and fish, and seasoned with salt and aji — red pepper — it constitutes chupe — the staff of life of the serranos — mountaineers. At times, it is the only kind of food obtainable among the poorer classes of the inhab itants. Surprise is sometimes manifested that these peo ple should be able to subsist on such a diet, with little or no change from one year's end to the other, but there is nothing more remarkable about it than the unvarying rice diet of the Chinese coolie, or the never-changing macaroni of the Neapolitan lazzarone. After the train leaves Puno, there is a gradual ascent until it reaches La Baya, fourteen thousand feet above sea level, on the summit of a knot, or ridge, which connects the eastern with the western Cordillera. Here is the water shed between the closed basin of Lake Titicaca and the incomparably greater basin of the Amazon. Here, too, is the dividing line between the Aymaras and the Quichuas. And so marked is it that one immediately recognizes it by the difference in the costumes of the peo ple, especially those of the women. Here the uncu, a gar ment secured by two tupus — pins with a spoon-like head— and the curiously-shaped headgear of the Aymara woman give place to the short woolen skirt, the bright-colored llicla, or mantle, secured over the shoulders with one tupu, and the gayly-beribboned montero — a black broad-brimmed hat — of her Quichua sister. But what interested me more than anything else at La Baya was the black water tarn that is the source of the Bio Vilcamayo, which, under the successive names of Yucay, Urubamba and Ucayali, constitutes the parent 202 THE HOME OP THE QUICHUAS stream of the mighty Amazon. I know this claim is usually made for the Maranon, whose source is Lauri- cocha, but many authorities, and I believe their number is increasing, incline to the belief that the Amazon has its birth in this modest lakelet which is fed by the glaciers of the overshadowing ranges of Vilcanota and Santa Bosa. Without, however, entering into a discussion of the case, which would be more or less futile, it will suffice to state that my companions and I agreed, at least for the time being, to consider the claims of the Vilcamayo as well founded. The train was accordingly stopped at this point to give us an opportunity of examining the head waters of the world's greatest river, and of taking a few photo graphs of the spot where they well forth to the earth's surface. At this same point we have not only the fountain head of the Amazon, but also that of the Bio de Pucara, which empties its waters into Lake Titicaca. A slight breeze, that was then blowing, seemed to determine the flow of water in one direction rather than in the other, and one of our photographs was taken at the exact spot whence the waters start in opposite directions — part towards the south and part towards the north. I had witnessed similar places in other parts of the Cordilleras, but none of them impressed me so much as this one, four thousand miles from the mouth of the great river which here has its start ing point in its wonderful course across the continent. Had I not wished to visit other parts of Peru rendered famous by the conquistadores, I think I should have de cided there and then to explore the Amazon from its birth place, La Baya, to the broad embouchure where it greets the deep blue waters of the Atlantic. The temptation to make the trip was great, indeed, and it required a special exercise of will-power to resist it. When in Quito I had been tempted to follow Orellana down the Napo, but that journey had been made so many hundreds of times, since the Spanish adventurer's memo- 203 ALONG THE ANDES AND DOWN THE AMAZON rable exploit, by the zealous missionaries who evangelized the natives from Quito to the Amazon, as well as by recent explorers who have left us an account of their wanderings, that I did not find it difficult to forego a trip that, under other circumstances, would have appealed to me very strongly. How I was almost persuaded by the president of Bolivia to journey to the Amazon by the way of the Mamore and Madeira, I have already recounted. There, moreover, was the same objection to reaching the Amazon by the Vilcamayo and the Ucayali as by the Mamore and the Madeira. None of these rivers had been witnesses of the deeds of prowess of the conquistadores, as had some of the other tributaries of the Amazon, and this fact, aside from any other consideration, sufficed to reconcile me to what would otherwise have been a very great sacrifice. The scenery along the Vilcamayo is, in certain stretches, wild and picturesque in the extreme. In places it rivals, if it does not surpass, anything seen in Switzerland or in the Tyrol. The lofty snow-capped range to the east, with its broad glacier fields high up in cloudland, and its im mense terminal morains far below the line of perpetual snow, are sure to command the attention of the most casual observer. For the lover of mountains, however, and for the student of physical and geological phenomena, where Nature operates, on so stupendous a scale, there is an added interest that never flags. Here one can witness the glaciers corroding and planing down, slowly but surely, those giant Cordilleras produced by Titanic agencies axras ago and watch how the detritus, formed by the grinding ice-rivers above, is carried to the lowlands thousands of miles distant to fertilize and build up what is yet in many respects but an unfinished continent. The sun was beginning to gild the crest of the western Cordillera when we reached Checacupe, the terminus of the line at the time of our visit. In some way or other it had become known that a special train was coming, and a large crowd had gathered at the depot, in which, con- 204 THE HOME OP THE QUICHUAS spicuous by their peculiar somber dress, consisting of black trousers, dark-colored ponchos, and broad-brimmed, black felt hats and usutas, or sandals of llama-skin, were a number of Indian alcaldes, each with his staff of office. This staff resembles a long cane, and has a brass or silver head and ferule and a number of rings around it, one for each year the owner has held office. The Indian is very proud of this staff and always carries it with him when he appears in public. My companions tried to purchase a couple of them from the alcaldes present, but they soon discovered that there are some things that money cannot buy — among them the Indian's much-prized insignia of office. I had scarcely stepped from the train when I was most cordially greeted by Mr. Mc , the chief engineer of the railroad, who told me that he had come to claim me as his guest while I was in Checacupe. "Mr. T ," he said, "telegraphed me this morning from La Paz that you were coming; and I cannot tell you how glad I am to meet you. I am an American myself — from Missouri — and I am al ways pleased to see any one of my countrymen, who so rarely visit this little frequented part of the world, but I am specially glad to welcome a friend of Mr. T and Mr. A ," from whom I bore a letter of introduction. "They are the salt of the earth, — both of them." Shortly after reaching Mr. Mc 's home, dinner was served, during which I was entertained by my genial host with an account of the work on the railroad which, it was hoped, would soon be completed to Cuzco. "I now have fifteen hundred Indians on the pay-roll," he said, in answer to my request for information regard ing the men in his employ, "and I expect to have three thousand next week. All able-bodied Indians in this part of the country are obliged by the government to work on the road from fifteen to thirty days. For their service they receive fifty cents a day in silver — the equivalent of about half that sum in gold. If it were not for this com- 205 ALONG THE ANDES AND DOWN THE AMAZON pulsory service, it would be difficult for us to find the laborers necessary for our work. Those who voluntarily continue in our employment, after their term of enforced service has expired — only about ten per cent, of them do so — receive an increase in salary, for they are, as a rule, better workmen than the others. These are paid from sixty to seventy-five cents a day in silver. Each peon re moves about three cubic yards of earth a day, about one- third or one-fourth the amount that could be disposed of by one of our American workmen. The cost per yard, however, is less here than in the United States by reason of the much lower daily wage. The Indian supplies his own provisions, which consist chiefly of chuno and coca leaves." The mention of coca leaves as an aliment led me to ask my host, who was a man of unusual intelligence and in formation, how he explained the trepanning as performed by the ancient Peruvians who were ignorant of the use of iron and steel, and who, consequently, must have employed the most primitive instruments for this delicate and pain ful operation, when the use of anaesthetics was unknown. "I am not so sure," replied my host, "that the Chil dren of the Sun were ignorant of anaesthetics. And as suming that they used an anaesthetic of some kind, which to me seems beyond doubt, a sharp piece of flint or obsid: ian might have sufficed for their rude attempts at surgery. "A remarkable case, bearing on this subject, came under my observation only a few days ago. It is, indeed, so re markable that it seems incredible, and, had I not been my self an eyewitness of the case, I should hesitate to believe it. "One of our peons was run over by a car and had his foot amputated. He was immediately taken to the depot to await the company's surgeon, who came without delay. But when he arrived the Indian was gone. After search ing for him, he was found in the plaza near by, apparently as apathetic, so far as pain was concerned, as if nothing 206 THE HOME OP THE QUICHUAS had happened. He had tied a rag around his ankle to stanch the flow of blood, and had made his way unaided and alone from the depot to the plaza of the town, near which we were then working. He declared that he expe rienced no pain whatever, a statement that astonished all of us beyond measure. "On investigation we learned that he was a coquero — a habitual user of coca — and we then inferred that, in con sequence of this habitual, if not excessive use of this anaesthetic, his sensory nerves had become insensible to pain. If our conclusion, and it seems justified, was cor rect, it serves to explain how trepanning might have been performed in the time of the Incas with a total absence of pain on the part of the patient. I can vouch for the truth of the incident I have narrated. I leave it to specialists in surgery to draw their own conclusions. As for myself, I am convinced that the coca leaf among the ancient Peru vians served the same purpose as the various anaesthetics which are now employed in modern surgery." I refer to this remarkable incident, as I heard it from the lips of my host, for it seems to clear up a difficulty that has long confronted writers who have discussed the question of prehistoric trepanning in Peru. The conclu sion seems warranted, but this is not the place to do more than call attention to the incident in question. Relata refero.1 1 For an elaborate discussion of this curious subject the reader is referred to a contribution entitled Primitive Trephining in Peru in the Sixteenth Annual Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, 1894-1895, by Manuel Antonio Mufiiz, M.D., and W. J. McGee. From an examination of a trephined skull taken from an Inca cemetery, Dr. Paul Broca, the noted anthropologist, concluded that "there was in Peru, before the European epoch, an advanced surgery." In an interesting paper by A. Bandelier entitled Ueber Trepanieren unter den heutigen Indianern BoKvias, and read before the International Congress of Americanists at Stuttgart in 1904, the author declares that trephining is still practiced in Bolivia by the Callahuayas — Medicine Men — among the Aymaras, and that there is reason to believe that it is still practiced by the Quichuas of Peru. The operation is performed with the rudest kind of instru ments — a penknife, a chisel or a piece of obsidian. So far I have been 207 ALONG THE ANDES AND DOWN THE AMAZON Although Checacupe is only a small mountain town of about fifteen hundred inhabitants, and in no wise different from other towns on the plateau, it, nevertheless, possessed a special interest for me because of its history. It was here that the ill-fated Tupac Amaru — the heroic Inca chief— in 1781 made his last effort to redress the grievances of his people, and it was near this place that he was be trayed into the hands of the Spaniards, who put him and his family and sympathizers to a cruel and ignominious death. The Inca's execution sounded the death knell of the hopes and aspirations of his countrymen, but his death was not in vain. In consequence of his attempt to ameliorate the condition of his race, and the constant menace that existed of a similar uprising in other parts of the viceroyalty, new laws were enacted looking to the re lief of the Indians, who had in many places been treated as serfs, who had no rights that anyone was obliged to re spect. But the iniquitous deed was committed and Tupac Amaru's betrayal and execution will forever remain a foul blot on the annals of the colonial government of Peru. The distance from Checacupe to Cuzco is sixty-three miles, but, thanks to the splendid road between the two places, and the good mules placed at our disposition, we were able to traverse this distance in one day. The road— carretera it is called here — was constructed some years ago by an enterprising Irishman, and is one of the best in Peru. A number of American stage-coaches were, at the time of our visit, used for the transportation of pas sengers, while several traction engines and cars were em ployed for carrying freight. These vehicles, however, have been discarded since the completion of the railroad which, for a part of the distance, follows the course of the carretera. unable td find any account of trephining in the early chroniclers. That they should have passed over in silence an operation that was as. common as it was remarkable seems extraordinary. 208 THE HOME OP THE QUICHUAS Through the kindness of my host, our journey from Checacupe to the old Inca capital was made in a comfort able surrey from Cincinnati. It may be imagination, but the fact that we were able to make the trip in a vehicle from the land of the Stars and Stripes seemed to enhance the pleasure of a day that for all of our party will ever be memorable. The weather was ideal, and the country through which we passed, with all its marvelous scenery, its interesting traditions and historical associations, was such that we at times felt that we were in a land of romance and enchant ment. There is, indeed, no stretch of territory in the New World that possesses for the student and the historian so many objects of interest, so much to arrest one's attention at every turn, as the narrow belt between Tiahuanaco and Cuzco. And the nearer one approaches the famous old capital of the Children of the Sun the more one feels under the spell of the past glories of the great empire of Tahuantin-suyo.1 When we left Checacupe, which was shortly after sun rise, the atmosphere was so chilly that, in order to keep warm, we were obliged not only to wear overcoats, but also to use heavy lap-robes in addition. It was not, however, long before the beneficent lord of the day took the frost out of the air and then it became as balmy and delightful as a May morning in the Italian Biviera. It was not then difficult to understand why the Incas of old worshiped the sun and why they acknowledged him as their chiefest bene factor. It was, as Markham well expresses it, because "Yuti, the Sun, was to them the soul of the universe, the fountain whence flowed the blessings they enjoyed, the ripener of their harvests, the cheering watcher of their labors, the producer of their beautiful flowers, and the 1 This word in Quichua signifies the four parts of the world, and was used , to designate the empire of the Incas. In Aymara the same word means, the region of the four Andes, which constituted the boundaries of the Inca empire. 209 ALONG THE ANDES AND DOWN THE AMAZON progenitor of their beloved Inca. " 1 It was for the same reason that prompted the people of the coast land to wor ship Mamacocha — Mother Sea — for it was the prolific ocean that supplied them with food, as it was the fostering sun that made vegetation and life possible on the high lands. This idea is expressed in characteristic Indian fashion in the reply sent by the Chinchas to the demand that they yield obedience to the Inca Pachacutec, child of the Sun. Their answer was, "That they neither wanted the Inca for their lord, nor the sun for their god ; that they already possessed a lord to serve, and gods to worship; that their common god was the sea, which anyone could see was a greater thing than the sun, for that it yielded them plenty of fish, while the sun did them no good at all, but rather annoyed them by its excessive heat; that their land was warm and had no need of the sun, whilst those in the sierra, where the country is cold, might all worship it, as they needed its heat. As for a king, they said they had one sprung from a family of their own land, and that they did not want a stranger, even if he was a child of the sun, for they had no need either of the sun or of his children." 2 After a delightful drive through a most interesting country we arrived at Urcos, where we purposed taking luncheon. Scarcely had we reached the town when our attention was arrested by unusual sounds in our immediate vicinity. Presently a procession of boisterous men and boys defiled from a side street and came directly towards us. "The men with kettle drums entered the gate, Dub-rub-a-dub, dub — the trumpeters followed, Tantara, tantara — then all the boys hollo 'd. ' ' There was a fiesta — feast day — in the place and every one, young and old, was bent on having a pleasant time, i Cuzco and Lima, p. 118, London, 1855. 2 Garcilaso de la Vega, Commentaries Reales, Lib. VI, Cap. XVII. 210 THE HOME OP THE QUICHUAS with the usual accompaniments of music, singing and dancing. While we were looking for a place where we might get something to eat — there was no hotel or restaurant visible — a little Indian boy came running up to me to inform me that luncheon was awaiting us in a house that we had just passed. He had evidently been on the lookout for us, and as soon as we stopped, he made haste to deliver his mes sage. He then conducted us to the home of his mother, who kept a modest but neat little inn, and there to our great surprise, we found a splendid repast ready on the table. "I thought," said the good woman, "that you would wish to proceed to Cuzco without delay, so I deemed it best to have luncheon served for you immediately on your arrival. ' ' "But how did you know we were coming?" I inquired. "Oh!" she answered, "Mr. Mc telegraphed from Checacupe this morning that you would be here, and re quested me to have a good luncheon in readiness for you as soon as you came. ' ' That explained it. Good Mr. Mc had not forgotten us after we left his hospitable roof, but with the most thoughtful kindness, was looking out for our welfare even while we were en route. Like his friends and associates in Lima, Arequipa, Puno and elsewhere in Peru, his ^pleasure seemed to be centered for the time being in the (Comfort and pleasure of his guest. j.; Although our stay in Urcos was very brief, it was long enough to give us a view of the only object of interest in the place. This is the celebrated lake — 'apparently the jrater of a long-extinct volcano — about which so many egends have been woven. One of these is that the Indians hrew much of the treasure of Cuzco into this lake when hey learned that the Spaniards were approaching. .^mong other things was the colossal chain of gold which luayna Capac had ordered to be made to commemorate he birth of his son, Huascar. According to Garcilaso, 211 ALONG THE ANDES AND DOWN THE AMAZON this chain was long enough to encircle the great square of Cuzco, which was four hundred feet long and three hun dred feet wide.1 Zarate, referring to this famous chain, writes as follows: — "When his son was born, Guaynacava" — Huayna Capac — "ordered a cable of gold to be made, so thick, according to the accounts of many Indians now living, that two hun dred Orejones who held it, were scarcely able to raise it. In memory of this famous jewel, they called that son Huasca, which in their language means a chain."2 "This chain," writes Cieza de Leon, "was of such size that it weighed according to what the Indians assert for a cer tainty, more than four thousand hundredweights of gold."3 Small wonder is it that efforts were made shortly after the conquest to secure this vast treasure. As early as 1557, Garcilaso tells us, a company of twelve or thirteen Spaniards, inhabitants of Cuzco, was formed to drain the lake and get possession of the chain and other objects of great value reputed to be at its bottom. They actually dug a tunnel a hundred feet in length, but they were pre vented from going further by a hard rock of flint, not, how ever, until after they had spent many ducats of their wealth. Other attempts since that time have been made to secure the coveted prize, but without result. If some of our trea sure-seekers from the United States were to go to Urcos properly equipped with diamond drills and high explosives, it would not be difficult to empty the waters of the lake into the adjoining river Yucay, but even if this were done, would they find anything to reward them for their trouble! Quien sabe? The stretch of territory between Checacupe and Cuzco is i Op. cit., Lib. IX, Chap. I. 2 Historia del Descubrimiento y Conquista de la Provincia del Peru y * las Guerras con las cosas naturales que senalademente, alii se hallm, y 5" sucessos que ha habido, por Augustin de Carate, Lib. I, Cap. XI, Anvers, 1550. 3 Op. cit. 212 THE HOME OP THE QUICHUAS probably the most densely populated part of the tableland of Peru, as it is certainly the most interesting to the his torian, the archaeologist and the lover of wild nature. One always has within view deep ravines, impetuous rivers, lofty and picturesque mountains. At every turn there are Inca monuments of some kind or other. Here are the re mains of bridges or old forts; there of tambos and sanc tuaries, while in another place are the scattered ruins of what was once a flourishing town or of a favorite resort of the Children of the Sun. All along the road one meets groups of men and women in their peculiar attire, which, although bizarre in the ex treme, and almost as remarkable for its extraordinary combination of colors as is the dress of the Aymaras of La Paz, seems to become them, especially the women, as much as do their picturesque garments become the peas ants of the Sabine hills. They gather from their aerie like homes in the mountain in a way that bewilders one. How they can travel up and down the narrow, precipitous paths, which lead to towns and villages thousands of feet above the Vilcamayu,1 not to speak of how it is possible for them to live in such chilly, desolate altitudes, is a mys- i Speaking of the Hacienda of Antisana, 13,306 feet high, near Quito, Hum boldt declares it to be "without doubt one of the highest inhabited spots on the earth." In the highlands of Peru there are not only haciendas but towns and villages that are several thousand feet higher than this place, especially near the headwaters of the Rio Azangaro and of the tributaries of the Vil camayo. One of the largest and most interesting of these towns is Yanaoca, which is a thousand feet above the Hacienda of Antisana and more than six thousand feet above the Great St. Bernard. It is large enough to have two churches and a market, that on feast days is frequented by all the villagers for leagues around. It is especially interesting from the fact that the Inca Indians living here, having little or no contact with the Spaniards, have retained their primitive manners and customs and the original purity of their language. Even the city of Potosi in Bolivia, that formerly bore the proud title of Villa Imperial and was at one time the largest city in the New World, has a higher altitude than the Hacienda de Antisana of which Humboldt speaks. iKeane, in his Compendium of Geography and Travel, says it is "absolutely (the highest abode of man in the southern continent." This, however, is un true, as the above-mentioned Peruvian towns are higher. 213 ALONG THE ANDES AND DOWN THE AMAZON tery. They nearly always travel afoot. Only rarely will one be seen mounted on a burro or a mula. Frequently, too, one meets with processions of the ever- graceful, inquisitive, coquettish llamas, the heads of whose leaders, especially on feast days, are gayly decorated with bright-colored ribbons. Unlike mules and cattle, they will not crowd a horseman on a narrow road, but always get out of the way even when they may be exposing themselves to danger by so doing. Sometimes they will take fright and then they will scamper back over the road whence they came with the fleetness of a gazelle. We had a very amusing case of this kind on our way to Cuzco. We were passing along a section of road cut into the mountain side, above a deep and precipitous ravine called Infiemillo — little hell — when we encountered a drove of llamas in charge of a goodly number of Indians. The Indians scrambled up the bank to the right while most of the llamas managed to find standing room on the declivity to our left, nearer the tumultuous river below. One young llama, however, finding itself slipping down towards the roaring torrent beneath, got thoroughly frightened, and after extricating itself from its dangerous position, started back homewards with the swiftness of the wind. His owner, a fine athletic young fellow, immediately followed in pursuit, and then we had a splendid illustration of the speed and endurance of which the Quichua runner is capable. I had seen fleet runners in Egypt and Greece, but never did I meet anywhere one to compare with this nimble-footed son of the Andes. I was then quite pre pared to believe the wonderful stories that the early chroniclers tell us regarding the great distances traversed by the Inca chasquis — couriers — in a short space of time, and to accept as true, Cieza de Leon's statement that "one of them can do more in a day than a mounted messenger could do in three. ' ' J When we reached San Jeronimo, a small town a few 1 The Second part of the Chronicle of Peru, Chap. XXI. 214 THE HOME OP THE QUICHUAS miles south of Cuzco, we were courteously accosted by a young man who spoke perfect English. If our surprise in Urcos was great, when we learned that luncheon was pre pared for us, it was now much greater. "I am Sr. P ," said the young man, introducing him self, "and have just come from Cuzco to greet you and to put myself at your disposition during your sojourn in our city. I received a telegram this morning from Checa cupe, from my good friend, Mr. Mc , announcing your arrival and begging me to show you every attention pos sible. I need not tell you that it is a genuine pleasure for me to comply with his request, and I trust you will fully enjoy every hour of your stay in our midst. I am a son of Cuzco, and shall be glad to act as your cicerone to all points of interest in and around the old capital of the Incas." It would be quite impossible to express our surprise and pleasure at the unexpected greeting of this charming Cuzqueno, and still more impossible to voice our feeling of gratitude for the more than kindly interest and courtesy of our princely host in Checacupe. After our surprise at this agreeable meeting had partly subsided, one of my Yale friends asked Mr. P where he had become such a master of English. "I spent several years in the United States," he replied, "and made my studies in the University of Princeton. You see, I am something of an American myself. Can you wonder now that I am delighted to see you?" "What an extraordinary meeting!" another of our party remarked. "Here in this far-off land of the Children of the Sun, four graduates, hitherto unknown to one another, of three American universities, come together in the most unexpected manner. Surely this must be a good omen. What does it portend?" "That," someone answered, "we are, for one thing, to see Cuzco under the most favorable auspices. ' ' And such was the case, as the sequel proved. 215 CHAPTER XIII THE EOME OF SOUTH AMEEICA The illustrious Peruvian historian, Garcilaso de la Vega, descended through his mother, the nusta Chimpa Ocllo,1 from the blood royal of the Incas, describing his native city, Cuzco, writes as follows: "Cuzco, with regard to the Inca empire, was another Borne, and the one city may well be compared with the other, as they resemble each other in several things. The first and principal re semblance is that both were founded by their first kings. The second is that both obliged many and divers nations to submit to their sway. The third is the numerous good and excellent laws that were promulgated from both for the public good. The fourth is the number of great and excellent men they produced and formed by their good civil and military institutions. In these things Borne had the advantage over Cuzco, not in having more great men, but in having educated them to more purpose through the invention of letters, by which also their deeds were im mortalized, and through which they became not less illus trious for arts than excellent in the use of arms, the one rivaling the other ; the one achieving deeds in peace and war, the other writing of their achievements for the honor of their country, and for a perpetual memorial of their deeds."2 i Her father was Hualpa Tupac, a brother of Inca Huayna Capac, and a son of Tupac Inca Yupanqui, two of the most distinguished of the distin guished line of Inca rulers. 2 Gommentarios Reales, Lib. VII, Cap. VIII. Bolivar's accomplished secretary, Col. D. F. O'Leary, who visited Cuzco during the War of Independence, likewise compares the capital of the Incas to that of the Caesars. "Ouzco," he writes, "interests me highly. Its history, 216 THE ROME OP SOUTH AMERICA If the learned and patriotic historiographer of the Incas could return to his birthplace to-day, he would find still other resemblances between the City of the Sun and the Capital of the Seven Hills, founded by Bomulus. For, as on the Tiber we find a legendary Borne, a Borne of the Kings, a Borne of the republic, a Borne of the Caesars, and a Borne of the Popes, so likewise on the Huatanay we find a pre-Incaic, cyclopean Cuzco, a Cuzco of the Incas, a Cuzco of the Spaniards, and a Cuzco of the Peruvian re public. And in Cuzco, as in Borne, it is these peculiar characteristics of the different epochs, so clearly marked that they are at once recognizable, that give to the old Inca capital the peculiar cachet of a city eternal. For years after the conquest, Cuzco was the su perior of Lima, and even during the later colonial period the capital of the Incas was the acknowledged rival of the capital of the viceroys. Notaries were required, under severe penalties, to write at the head of all public docu ments, "En la gran ciudad, del Cuzco, cabeza de estos reinos y provincias del Peru en las Indias" — "In the great city of Cuzco, head of these Kingdoms and provinces of Peru in the Indies. ' ' x Even so late as the seventeenth and eight eenth centuries it was, next to Lima, the city of the greatest social importance in the viceroyalty. And here, too, were the same ambitions for social distinction and political pre ferment as in Lima, and the same petty jealousies and dis putes between the civil and the ecclesiastical officials about rights and privileges and precedence at public func tions. its fables, its ruins are enchanting. This city may, with truth, be called the Rome of America. The immense fortress on the north is the capitol. The temple of the sun is its Coliseum, Manco Capac was its Romulus, Vira- cocha its Augustus, Huascar its Pompey, and Atahualpa its Caesar. The Pizarros, Almagros, Valdivias and Toledos are the Huns, Goths and Chris tians who have destroyed it. Tupac Amaru is its Belisarius, who gave it a day of hope. Pumaeagua is its Rienzi and last patriot." General Miller's Memoirs, Vol. II, p. 194, London, 1828. i Apuntes Historicos del Peru y Noticias Cronologicas del Cuzco, p. 183, por Manuel de Mendiburu, Lima, 1902, and Anales del Cuzco 1600-1750, Lima, 1901. 217 ALONG THE ANDES AND DOWN THE AMAZON The largest and most imposing structure of modern Cuzco is the Cathedral of the Assumption. It was ninety years in building and was considered by the people of Cuzco the most beautiful church in the world. It occu pies the site of the palace of Viracocha, the eighth Inca, and the galpon, or great hall in which the Spaniards had their barracks, when they took possession of the city. So well constructed is it and so thick are its walls that it withstood the destructive earthquake of 1650, which caused such havoc in other parts of the city. The erection of the cathedral was authorized by a bull of Paul III in 1536. Its first bishop was the Dominican Fray Vicente Val verde, the noted chaplain of Francisco Pizarro,1 whose diocese embraced the whole of Peru and the provinces of Quito and Chile as well. The cathedral is indeed a splendid structure and in the western hemisphere is surpassed only by the noble cathe drals of Lima and the city of Mexico. It is particularly remarkable for its sculptures in wood, which ornament the interior, the work of Indian artists in which they ex hibited wonderful talent and skill. At the time of my visit the interior of the building was being renovated at great expense, and, when the work shall be completed, the good people of Cuzco will, I doubt not, declare, as did their predecessors long ago, that their cathedral is the most beautiful in the world. So far as the interior is concerned, it will certainly be one of the most beau tiful. Among the other beautiful churches are La Compania and La Merced. In this latter church are the remains i There are many conflicting reports about the death of this noted ec clesiastic. According to Mendiburu he died a natural death, presumably in Cuzco, after governing his diocese three and a half years. Others say that he was put to death by the Indians of the island of Puno in the gulf of Guayaquil, while he was trying to evangelize them. At the end of the Dominican martyrology, among those who are Vitce sanctitate insignes com memoration is made of Frater Vincentius Valverdius, Episcopus Cuzcom> in Provincia Peruana ab Indis interfectus. 218 THE ROME OP SOUTH AMERICA of Almagro and of Juan and Gonsalvo Pizarro, the half- brothers of the conqueror of Peru. Of special interest to every visitor is the Church of San Domingo, which occupies the site of the famous temple of the Sun. Indeed, parts of the walls and foundation of the old Inca structure enter into the construction of the Christian place of worship. It stands in the lower part of the city, in the section known as Curicancha, or Place of Gold. If but a tithe of what the old chroniclers tell us of the riches and splendor of the temple of the Sun be true, it deserved to be classed among the world's great est wonders. Cieza de Leon declares that he had seen only two buildings in Spain in which the masonry was comparable with that in this edifice, which he avers "was one of the richest temples in the world." "All the four walls of the temple," writes Garcilaso, "were covered from roof to floor with plates and slabs of gold. In the side, where we should place the altar, they placed a figure of the Sun, made of a plate of gold of a thickness double that of the other plates which covered the walls. The figure was made with a circular face and rays of fire issuing from it, all of one piece, just as the sun is represented by painters. It was so large as to occupy one side of the temple from one wall to the other.1 i After the Spaniards entered Cuzco, this figure of the Sun, it has hitherto been supposed, fell to the lot of a noble Knight, named Mancio Suerra de Leguisamo, who gambled it away in a single night. This is the origin of the saying, Juega el sol antes que amanezca — He plays away the sun before dawn. According, however, to Lizarraga, op. cit., p. 348, the image of the sun in question was not the great one on the wall of the temple, but a smaller one graven on a golden plate, which covered a stone receptacle into which offerings of chicha were poured at the festival of Raymi. The large image was never found, for it was concealed with other treasures of the Incas before the arrival of the Spaniards in Cuzco. It is due, however, to the memory of this great gamester — gran jugador — as Lizarraga calls him, to state that although he lived many years after this event and held im portant offices in the municipality of Cuzco, he never touched a card again. He is the same conquistador mentioned in chapter X in connection with the honesty of the Indians before the arrival of Europeans. 219 ALONG THE ANDES AND DOWN THE AMAZON In comparing the Inca with the Boman capital, Garci laso might have added that Cuzco resembled Bome in the richness and magnitude of its temples and palaces, and in the untold treasures of gold and silver which flowed into it from all parts of Tahuantin-suyo. So enormous was the amount of these two metals in Cuzco, before the arrival of the Spaniards, that it seems incredible. For this reason many modern writers are disposed to re gard the accounts of the early Spanish historians dealing with this subject as greatly exaggerated. I have briefly referred to the riches of the temple of the Sun. Gomara writes as follows of the riches of the palaces of the Incas: "All the service of their house, table and kitchen, was of gold and silver, or at least of silver and copper. The Inca had in his chamber hollow statues of gold which appeared like giants, and others nat urally imitated from animals, birds and trees ; from plants produced by the land, and from such fish as are yielded by the waters of the Kingdom. He also had ropes, bas kets and hampers of gold and silver, and piles of golden sticks to imitate fuel prepared for burning. In short, there was nothing that his territory produced that he had not got imitated in gold. ' ' 1 Cieza de Leon, describing the magnificence of one of the solemn harvest festivals celebrated in the plaza of the capital, declares: "We hold it to be very certain that neither in Jerusalem, nor in Bome nor in Persia, nor in any other part of the world, by any state or king of this earth, was such wealth of gold and silver and precious stones collected together as in this square of Cuzco when this festival and others like it were celebrated. ' ' 2 Garcilaso, Zarate and other early historians expressed themselves in the same strain. In his latter years, when residing in Spain, Garcilaso seemed to realize that the accounts that had been published regarding the vast riches 1 Historia General de las Indias, Cap. CXX. 2 The Second Part of the Chroniole of Peru, Chap. XXX. 220 THE ROME OP SOUTH AMERICA of Cuzco savored of Oriental tales, and wrote as follows : "This is not hard for those to believe who have since seen so much gold and silver arrive here from that land. In the year 1595 alone, within the space of eight months, thirty-five millions of gold and silver crossed the bar of San Lucar in three cargoes. ' ' J Making due allowance for exaggeration on the part of the early chroniclers regarding the treasures of gold and silver possessed by the Incas, and basing our deductions on indisputable facts, there can be no doubt that the wealth amassed in Cuzco was enormous. For generations, prob ably for centuries, a constant stream of the precious metals flowed into the capital from every part of the empire where it could be found. They were so highly valued that they were exacted as tributes from those who lived in mineral- bearing districts. Besides, this, the mere fact that the Incas desired these metals for their personal adornment, or for beautifying and enriching the palaces and temples of Cuzco, was sufficient reason to prompt every loyal sub ject in the empire to gratify his ruler's desire and to con tribute towards the splendor of the ceremonies connected with the worship of the Sun. But this was not all. "To add to the grandeur of their capital, a law was made that neither gold nor silver, that once entered Cuzco, should ever leave it again, on pain of death to be inflicted on the transgressor. Owing to this law, the quantity that entered being great, while none went out, there was such store that if, when the Spaniards entered, they had not committed other tricks and had not so soon executed their cruelty in putting Atahualpa to death, I know not how many ships would have been re quired to bring such treasure to Spain as is now lost in the bowels of the earth, and will remain so, because those who buried it are now dead. ' ' 2 None of this treasure was drawn on in time of war, for the "provinces supplied all the men, arms and provisions 1 Op. cit., Lib. VI, Cap. II. 2 Cieza de Leon, ut. sup., pp. 40, 41. 221 ALONG THE ANDES AND DOWN THE AMAZON that were necessary." For this reason Cieza continues: "I am not therefore astonished at these things, nor even if the whole city of Cuzco and its temples had been built of pure gold. That which brings necessity upon princes and prevents them from accumulating riches is war. We have a clear example of this in the expenditure of the Emperor, from the year in which he was crowned to the present time. For, having received more silver and gold than the kings of Spain ever had, from the King Don Bodrigo to himself, none of them were in such necessity as his Majesty. Yet, if he had no wars, and his residence was in Spain, in truth, what with his dues and with the treasure from the Indies, all Spain would be as full of riches as Peru was in the time of its kings. ' ' J The accomplished soldier-annalist may, occasionally, have overestimated the wealth of the Incas ; but the amount of treasure collected for Atahualpa's ransom, not to speak of what has been found since in the huacas of the Great Chimu and elsewhere, proves conclusively that it was truly colossal. There is, however, good reason to believe that the treasure secured by the invaders was but a small frac tion of the original amount, for the Indians, we are in formed, buried most of their treasures "as soon as they saw how the Spaniards thirsted for them," not wish ing that things, "which had been dedicated to the services of their kings, should ever be used by others." The In dians, according to Cieza, declared that the tens of millions secured by the Spaniards were, in comparison with that which was concealed, but as "a drop taken out of a great vase of water. ' ' It would be idle to speculate on the probable value of the precious metals collected in Cuzco, when the Spanish brigantines first touched the shores of Peru; but after making reasonable reductions in the estimates of early chroniclers, one would seem warranted in concluding that the wealth of gold and silver then gathered in its temples i Ibid. 222 THE ROME OP SOUTH AMERICA and palaces equaled, if it did not surpass, the sum total in the Boman treasury in the palmiest days of the empire of the Caesars. About a block from the spot occupied by the temple of the Sun are the remains of the palace of the Virgins of the Sun. This building was originally about eight hun dred feet long and two hundred feet wide, and was, in the time of the Incas, occupied by virgins of royal lineage. This edifice did not possess the rich adornment of the tem ple of the Sun, nor the delicate finish of the temple of the Boman vestals, but it did exhibit, as its ruins to-day at test, all the vast strength of those imposing structures which were once the glories of Thebes and Memphis. Parts of the walls are still in a splendid state of preser vation, and are not only the most conspicuous remains of ancient Cuzco, but they are among the best existing illus-^ trations of the style of work that characterized Inca archi tecture. The stones are massive and the joints are so perfect that, as has well been observed, "if the faces of the stones were dressed down smooth they could hardly be dis cerned. ' ' This former home of the Virgins of the Sun, so venerated in the time of the Incas, is now the convent of the religious of Santa Catalina, whose virtues and good works have won for them the admiration of all who know them. Among objects of minor importance, but of special in terest to the visitor and the lover of antiquities, are the houses occupied by some of the most distinguished of the conquistadores. The haughty cavaliers "soon established themselves in the Imperial palaces, built on them second stories with broad trellised balconies, and carved their armorial bearings over lintels and gateways." In conse quence of these changes, the old Inca capital soon assumed the Moorish aspect of Granada or Cordova, a feature it still retains. Not the least interesting edifice is the home of Garcilaso de la Vega, to which every student of history is sure to 223 ALONG THE ANDES AND DOWN THE AMAZON make a pilgrimage. Then there is the remarkable pulpit in the Church of San Bias. It is ten feet in diameter and thirty feet high and is constructed of wood carved in the most artistic manner imaginable. So delicate, indeed, is the workmanship, even in the minutest details, that it might well be called wooden filagree. There are several hundred figures and heads of saints and angels in this ad mirable piece of work, and each one is a masterpiece of the woodcarver's art. I do not think there is any similar work in Belgium — so celebrated for its artistic productions in wood — that surpasses it, and few, if any, pulpits that equal it for beauty of design and perfection of finish. The old Inca gold and silversmiths were justly celebrated for their skill in working in the precious metals, but this admirable pulpit of San Bias shows that the artificers in wood were not inferior in point of skill, to the craftsmen in gold. An Englishman, some years ago, offered fifty thousand soles for this superb work of art, but his offer was declined. I am sure if our munificent and enthusiastic Maecenas of art, Mr. J. P. Morgan, were to see this really unique masterpiece, he would not rest until he counted it among the other treasures that have made his collections so famous. Cuzco, as Bome, is a composite city. It is made up of ancient monuments and modern structures, or of buildings which are a combination of the old and the new. Many of the private dwellings of Cuzco, as has been stated, are built on the foundations of the old Inca palaces. In some cases a greater part of the walls of the older, edi fices are retained. Some of these walls, as those, for in stance, of the palace of the Inca Bocca, are cyclopean in character, and many of the polygonal stones here seen weigh several tons. One of them is La piedra famosa de doce angulos — the famous stone of twelve corners — which attracts as much attention to-day as it did at the time of the conquest. In other cases the stones are rectangular blocks of various sizes laid in regular courses but fitted so 224 THE ROME OP SOUTH AMERICA accurately that the statement of the old chroniclers that it is impossible to introduce the thinnest knife blade or finest needle between them, is literally true. Squier is right when he declares that ' ' The world has nothing to show in the way of stone cutting to surpass the skill and accuracy displayed in the Inca structures of Cuzco. All modern work of the kind there — and there are some fine examples of skill — looks rude and barbarous in comparison. ' ' x The wonders, however, of the old capital of the Incas are not confined to its temples and palaces. Equally mar velous and deserving of attention is the stupendous for tress, or citadel, of Sacsahuaman, which overtowers it on the north. It is on a bold headland, or mountain spur, whose summit is nearly eight hundred feet above the main plaza of the city. Almost midway up the precipitous sides of this hill, near the Church of San Cristobal, are the reputed remains of the palace of Manco Capac, the founder of Cuzco, which are now the property of an Italian merchant. The conquistadores justly classed the citadel of Sacsa huaman as the eighth wonder of the world. By some it was considered even superior to any of the seven wonders of antiquity. And so great are the stones composing its walls — one of them weighing nearly four hundred tons — that it was thought impossible to place them in the position they now occupy without the aid of the devil.2 For a description of this extraordinary fortress I must refer the reader to Garcilaso and Cieza,3 who have given iOp. cit., p. 435. 2 "Thus it is," writes Garcilaso, "that the work is put down to enchant ment, due to the great familiarity these people had with devils." Op. cit., Lib. VII,' Cap. XXVIII. 3 Among modern writers who have written about Cuzco and its monuments the most reliable are Squier, Markham, and Middendorf. Regarding such works as Paul Marcoy's Voyage d Travers L'Ame'rique de Sud, one can say with the noted traveler and geographer Professor Antonio Raimondi, that they "should be looked upon as the product of a vivid imagination rather than truthful composition." "It is to be lamented that so able a writer, and one who has had the opportunity of visiting unexplored regions, has em- 225 ALONG THE ANDES AND DOWN THE AMAZON a detailed account of it. I may state, however, that it is about twelve hundred feet in length by about seven hun dred in breadth. The headland on which it stands is a metamorphic rock of complex composition. The walls, three in number — not two, as Prescott states — that consti tute the defenses on the north side, are nearly a third of a mile in length and are, for the most part, composed of a cherty limestone, which was obtained from quarries about three-quarters of a mile away and not, as Garcilaso as serts, from beyond the Yucay, fifteen leagues distant. It is not surprising that the early chroniclers regarded the fortress as the work of demons, for portions of it, as Garcilaso phrases it, are "composed of rocks rather than stones." Some of the stones are from fourteen to fifteen feet high and ten to twelve broad and of great thickness- far larger than any found in any of the Pelasgic remains of Italy or Greece. And the joints, while not so perfect as they are represented to be by the old chroniclers, are nevertheless, in spite of earthquakes and the long-contin ued action of the elements, equal, if not superior, to any seen in our modern fortifications. But more wonderful than the huge rocks found in the fortress is the military skill exhibited in the construction of the walls and in the employment of salients that would do credit to a Vauban. Fergusson, in his masterly work on architecture, expresses himself on this feature of Sac- sahuaman as follows: The stones ' ' are arranged with a degree of skill nowhere else to be met with in any work of fortification anterior to the invention of gunpowder. To use a modern term, it is a fortification en tenaille; the reentering angles are generally the right angles, so contrived that every part is ployed his talents in a work of such a class as his Scenes et Paysages dwt les Andes, deviating so much from the truth, when he could by faithfully describing countries so new as Peru, have interested the reader much more than by fantastic stories." Journal of the Royal Geographical Society of London, Vol. XXXVII, p. 118. 226 THE ROME OF SOUTH AMERICA seen, and as perfectly flanked as is the best European forti fications of the present day. "It is not a little singular that this perfection should have been reached by a rude people in Southern America, while it escaped the Greeks and Eomans and the mediaeval engineers. The true method of its attainment was never discovered in Europe, until it was forced on the attention of military men by the discovery of gunpowder. Here it is used by a people who never had — so far as we know — an external war, but who, nevertheless, have designed the most perfectly planned fortress ever known."1 The citadel of Sacsahuaman, according to the majority of the early Spanish chroniclers, was the result of the com bined efforts of the Incas Yupanqui, Huayna Capac and Huascar, the last three Incas who ruled before the advent of the Spaniards. It was fifty years in building, and twenty — some say thirty thousand — Indians were em ployed in the gigantic undertaking. How the builders of this colossal structure were able to transport such immense masses of stone and place them in position, or how they were able to dress and fit them with such marvelous pre cision, with the primitive tools at their command, I shall not inquire. They had no draught animals, no machinery that we know of, and had no knowledge of iron or steel. And yet, notwithstanding all this, they were able to con struct "one of the most imposing monuments in America or in the world" — a monument that, as an exhibition of engineering skill and daring, can take rank with the pyra mids of Gizeh, and which, humanly speaking, will endure as long as the mammoth creation of Cheops. Garcilaso complained that the conquistadores disman tled the citadel "to build the private houses they now have in Cuzco. In order to save the cost, delay and trou ble which the Indians expend on preparing dressed stones for building, the Spaniards pulled down all the ma- i History of Architecture in All Countries, Vol. II, pp. 780, 781, Londion, 1867. 227 ALONG THE ANDES AND DOWN THE AMAZON sonry walls within the circle of the fortress, and there is not a house in the city which has not been partly built with those stones, at least among those that the Spaniards have erected. ' ' x Sacsahuaman was thus to Cuzco what the Coli seum was to Bome — the quarry whence to draw building material for edifices of a later age. Notwithstanding the opinion of Spanish chroniclers and of those who have followed them that Sacsahuaman is due entirely to the Incas, recent research seems to demonstrate that certain parts of the fortress, especially the cyclopean sections of the walls, belong to a much earlier date. The natives living near the southern shore of Lake Titicaca, Garcilaso informs us, declared that the edifices of Tia- huanco "were built before the time of the Incas, and that the Incas built the fortress of Cuzco in imitation of them. ' ' 2 Whether this be true or not, it is incredible that the extraordinary monuments found throughout the length and breadth of the Peruvian empire could have been the work of the thirteen Incas, from Manco Capac to Huascar inclusive. It is still more incredible that a people sunk in the lowest depths of savagery could, in a few centuries, have made such progress towards civilization as did the Children of the Sun. To have developed architecture to such a degree of perfection as is evinced in the ruins of Tiahuanaco and Cuzco and Pisac and Ollantaytambo ; to have achieved so much in agriculture, irrigation, the do mestic arts and legislation, is conclusive evidence of a much longer cultural period than that of the Inca dynasty as described by Garcilaso and his school. It is more likely that there were several cultural periods and several dy nasties long anterior to that founded by Manco Capac. According to Montesinos, the ancestors of the Peruvians came to South America thousands of years before the first of the Incas set out to teach the savage tribes, among whom he appeared, the arts of civilized life. But, until recently, i Op. cit., Lib. VII, Cap. XXIX. 2 Op. cit., Lib. Ill, Cap. I. 228 THE ROME OP SOUTH AMERICA this writer has been regarded with suspicion, and his long list of a hundred and one rulers from Ophir, the grandson of the patriarch Noah, to Huascar, has been treated as a figment of the imagination. He is now, however, considered by scholars with more favor, and, while few are prepared to give full credence to his history of Peru, as traced out in his Memorias Antiguas, all rec ognize the utter inadequacy of Garcilaso 's story of the Incas to account for the advanced social, political and eco nomic status of the Peruvians at the time of the conquest.1 If Montesinos demands too much time for the evolution of Peruvian civilization, Garcilaso certainly allows too little. To suppose that the culture, the religion, the military and social organization of Peru, at the time of Huayna Capec, was the result of three or four centuries of Inca rule, would be to suppose what has never once oc curred in any other part of the world. It would be tanta mount to admitting that Charlemagne was the creator of modern civilization, independently of what had been ac complished ages before by Eome, Greece, Egypt, Judea and Assyria. It would be equivalent to asserting that the people of ancient Peru were incomparably more highly en dowed than the Greek or the Italian or the Hindu. For the development of a perfect and harmonious lan guage like the Quichua, which is still spoken from Santiago del Estero to Quito, and from the Pacific to the Ucayali ; 2 1 Sr. Vicente F. Lopez, in his learned works, Les Races Aryennes du Perou, p. 412, after referring to "the fictitious and conventional genealogy of the Incas," as given by Garcilaso and other historians of the stamp of Rollin, who set more store by pet theories than popular legends and traditions, speaks of Montesinos as an exact and well-informed chronicler — "Un chron- iqueur exact et bien inform^." This is quite different from the opinion of Prescott, who declares that the painstaking author of the Memorias and the Anales is an "indifferent authority for anything." 2 Quichua is still spoken by more than two million people, and corresponds, in a measure, to the Tupi-Guarani — lingoa geral — which is spoken in Brazil, Paraguay and a, part of Argentina. According to the Vocabulario Poliglota Incaico, p. V, Lima, 1905, published by the Franciscan missionaries of the colleges of Propaganda Fide of Peru, "four-fifths of the inhabitants of Peru 229 ALONG THE ANDES AND DOWN THE AMAZON and the evolution of music and poetry, like that which ob tained wherever Quichua was spoken; and the creation of a system of civil and military administration, like that of the Incas, would, in the Old World, have required not three or four centuries, as Garcilaso would have us be lieve, but a period of time more nearly approaching three or four thousand years. To contend that less time would have been needed in the New World, where conditions were less favorable than in the Old, is to go counter to all the teachings of history and archaeology, and make claims that cannot be substantiated by what we know of the progress of our race in other parts of the world.1 Garcilaso, in his description of the imperial city of speak the Quichua language, and of these only a relatively small fraction speak Spanish also, while very many do not even understand it." iMarkham, after discussing the list of Kings of the Pirua and Amauta dynasties given by Montesinos, concludes: "It may be that the Pirua and Amauta dynasties may possibly represent the sovereigns of the megalithic empire. Its decline and fall were followed by centuries of barbarism, so that the people had almost forgotten its existence, while the tribes of the Callao were probably of another race, descendants of the invaders. As the Bible and the literature and art of Greece and Rome were preserved through cen turies of barbarism by the monasteries, so the religion and civilization of the megalithic empire were preserved through centuries of barbarism by the Amautas of Tampu-tocco. In one case the dark period was succeeded by the age of the Renaissance, in the other by the enlightened rule of the Incas." The Incas of Peru, pp. 46-47. Cf. also, El Peru Antiguo y los Modernos Sociologos, Lima, 1908, by Victor Andres Belaunde, who holds that "The Incas systematized tribal and social organizations which had existed from remote antiquity, and did not create them," and the German sociologist Cunow, who, in his Organization of the Empire of the Incas, contends that there existed in Peru from the earliest times "separate groups — ayllus — organized on the same base as the village communities of India and the German mark," and that the communism of the Children of the Sun was not a system con ceived by the Incas and brought into practice by means of conquests and clever alliances. "Similar views are held by the Belgian sociologist, William de Greef, by the distinguished Peruvian writer, Don Jose de la Riva Aguero, and by Don Bautista Saavedra, a Bolivian. Belaunde is, therefore, right in declaring that "this hypothesis has caused a complete revolution in the manner of considering the rule of the Incas," and shows the necessity of re vising the conclusions of Robertson, Prescott and other writers on Peruvian civilization, who have assumed that "the whole fabric was originated and matured by the Incas, and constructed, as it were, out of chaos." 230 THE ROME OP SOUTH AMERICA Cuzco, writes: "It was the misfortune of my country that, although it produced sons who were distinguished as warriors, and others who were learned and able in study ing the arts of peace ; yet, owing to the want of letters, no memorial was preserved of their noble deeds and mem orable sayings. ' ' x This statement of the Inca historian long remained un questioned. It was averred that the only means the Pe ruvian amautas — wise men — had of preserving traditions, was certain knotted cords — quipus — which, to say the least, were most inefficient instruments for recording and transmitting knowledge. Sarmiento, however, tells us positively that the annals of the Inca empire "were painted on great boards and deposited in the temple of the Sun, in a great hall. There such boards adorned with gold, were kept as in our libraries, and learned persons were ap pointed who were well versed in the art of understand ing and declaring their contents. No one was allowed to enter where these boards were kept, except the Inca and the historians, without a special order from the Inca." 2 From the vague information we have about these an nals, they were preserved in a kind of picture writing not unlike that which obtained among the Aztecs. If, how ever, we are to credit Montesinos, alphabetic characters were employed as early as the reign of the third Pyr-hua, Huayna Cavi. The amautas taught reading and writing and used dried plantain leaves in lieu of paper.3 The use of letters continued until the time of Pacha- iOp. cit., Lib. VII, Cap. VIII. 2 History of the Incas, p. 42, trans, by Clements R. Markham, and printed for the Hakluyt Society, Cambridge, 1907. Molina, op. cit., p. 4, also informs us that "They had the life of each one of the Incas, with the lands they conquered, painted with figures on certain boards, and also their origin." 8 "Cuando este principe reinaba, habia letras y hombres doctos en ellas, que Hainan amautas, y estos ensefiaban a leer y escribir; la principal ciencia era la astrologia; a lo que he podido alcanzar, escribian en hoyas de pla- tanos; secabanlas y luego escribian en ellas," Memorias Antiguas Historiales y Politicas del Peru, p. 23, por el Licenciado D. Fernando Montesinos, edited by M. Jimenez de la Espada, Madrid, 1882. 231 ALONG THE ANDES AND DOWN THE AMAZON cuti VI, who reigned three thousand years after the Del uge, when there ensued for Peru a period corresponding to the Dark Ages in Europe, when science and letters under went a temporary eclipse. Five hundred years later, the same writer tells us, Tupac Cauri, the seventy-eighth ruler, proscribed the use of paper and alphabetical characters in writing and, under penalty of death, replaced them by the quipus.1 The statements of Montesinos, Monlina and similar con firmatory evidence that might be adduced, seem to indicate that, contrary to the generally received opinion, the pred ecessors of the Incas had a written language, and that the Incas themselves had likewise a written language, or something that was very nearly its equivalent.2 But, be this as it may, it is certain that with or without a system of writing, the chronicles of the Incas were care fully kept and handed down from generation to generation. It is certain also that they had quite an extensive litera ture, most of which unfortunately has been lost or de stroyed. The greater part of what remains is composed of songs, elegiac poems and a drama called Ollantay, which has appeared in many editions and has been translated into several languages. It has also been made the libretto of an opera which has met with a very favorable reception. As a sample of the soft, rich and beautiful language of the Incas still spoken by a great part of the people of Peru, I subjoin a harvest song from the drama of Ollan tay, which is still sung by the Indians when traveling or i "Tupac Cauri, mand6 por ley, que, so pena de la vida, ninguno tratase de quilcas, que eran pergaminos y ciertas hojas de arboles en que escribian, ni usasen de ninguna manera de letras. . . . Y asi, desde este tiempo, usaron de hilos y quipos." Ibid., 86. 2 As late as the eighteenth century, it is averred, some plantain-leaf manuscripts with hieroglyphs and other characters were found among the Panos Indians on the banks of the Ucayli. These, according to their owners, contained the history of their ancestors. May not these manuscripts have been carefully preserved remnants of some of the records to which Montesinos refers? And if so, may we not hope that other similar manuscripts may eventually be discovered by the explorer in Andean lands? 232 THE ROME OP SOUTH AMERICA when collecting the harvest. It is addressed to a little finch called the Tuya, warning it against its ravages in the corn fields. I have frequently heard it sung by the plaintive voices of the Quichuas in the uplands of Peru and each succeeding time with increased pleasure. It is as follows : HARVEST SONG From, the drama of Ollantay. "0 bird, forbear to eat The crops of my princess. Do not thus rob The maize which is her food. Tuyallay, Tuyallay. "The fruit is white, And the leaves are tender, As yet they are delicate; I fear your perching on them. Tuyallay, Tuyallay. "Your wings shall be cut, Your nails shall be torn, And you shall be taken, And closely encaged. Tuyallay, Tuyallay. "This shall be done to you, When you eat a grain; This shall be done to you, When a grain is lost. Tuyallay, Tuyallay." "Ama pisco micupchu Nustallaipa chacranta Manan hina tucuichu Hillacunan saranta. Tuyallay, Tuyallay. "Panaccaymi rurumi Ancha cconi munispa Nucmunaccmi uccumi Llullunacmi raphinpas, Tuyallay, Tuyallay. "Phurantatac mascariy Cuchusaccmi silluta Pupasccayquim ccantapas Happiscayquin ccantapas. Tuyallay, Tuyallay. "Hinasccatan ricunqui Hue rurunta chapchacctin Hinac taccmi ricunqui Hac llallapas chincacctin. Tuyallay, Tuyallay." This little song, however, gives but a faint idea of the merits of the drama, taken as a whole. To be appreci ated, it should be read as translated and commented by Tschudi or Markham or Zegarra, when, by reason of cer tain peculiarities of form, one will be reminded more than once of the lyrical dramas of JEschylus. 233 ALONG THE ANDES AND DOWN THE AMAZON The very existence of such a work, so replete with tragic power and beauty of expression, is the best possible evi dence of the literary ability of the haravaecs — poets — who graced the courts of the Incas. It shows with what success literature was cultivated by the Children of the Sun, and supports the statements made by Montesinos of the exist ence, at an early period, of a higher degree of civilization among the dynasty of the Peruvians than anything that ever obtained during the dynasty of the Incas, as we know it from the pages of Garcilaso de la Vega. I call special attention to the language and literature of the Quichuas because I am convinced that neither the one nor the other has yet received the attention it deserves. The language has usually been classed with the hundred other polysynthetic tongues of South America, while both the literary remains and the literature have either been ignored or put on the same plane as the crude legends and folklore of the nomadic tribes of the Argentine pampas and the Amazonian forests. Nothing could be wider from the truth, for if the agglu tinative language of the Quichuas lacks the copious vocab ulary of some of our inflectional tongues, it is not, there fore, devoid of richness and harmony and the capacity of expressing the most delicate shades of thought. For this reason, if for no other, it is deserving of more attention than it has received from philologists. A careful study of Quichua and the closely allied tongues will, I feel sure, contribute much toward the solution of the long-discussed question regarding the origin of the ancient Peruvians, and will help materially toward estab lishing their connection with certain, as yet unknown, peoples of the Old World. No field of research in the Western Hemisphere promises more important results than the erstwhile empire of the Incas. What is practically a virgin soil waits the shovel and the pick of the investiga tor. A beginning, it is true, has been made by Tschudi, Rivero, Stiibel, TJhle and others, but so far the ground has 234 { { { THE ROME OP SOUTH AMERICA been barely grazed. The works of Lopez and Pablon show what we may expect from a comparative study of Quichua, while the existence of the drama of Ollontay should be an incentive to a systematic search for other and similar works of a bygone age, which there is reason to believe are still in existence. The treasures that are every year rewarding the labors of the zealous students in the lands of the Nile and the Euphrates, are an indication of what we may expect be neath the long-neglected ruins of the palaces and huacas of Tahuantin — suyu. Hitherto the excavations conducted among them have been mostly for buried treasures, and little thought has been given to the immense archaeological value of the strange objects that have been brought to light. In every part of Peru there are monuments covered with strange inscriptions awaiting the discovery of the key that shall enable the student to decipher their meaning. From the little that has already been accomplished, we are jus tified in hoping that the day is not far distant when their phonetic value shall be made known. Then, perhaps, we shall have the alphabet which Montesinos tells us was used by the Pyr — Huas, and then, too, shall we be in a fair way towards having something like a history of those early races that first peopled the lofty tablelands between the eastern and western Cordilleras. The world had to wait four thousand years before the accidental finding of the Rosetta stone furnished Cham- pollion with the key to the hieroglyphics in which was writ ten the fascinating story of the Pharaohs. It had to wait an equally long time until a Rawlinston deciphered the curious inscription on the great rock of Beheston, and dis closed the meaning of those bizarre cuneiform characters which held within their mystic grasp the records of Nin eveh and Babylon, and many ill-understood episodes in the history of the children of Israel. The Moabite stone, found near the Dead Sea a few decades ago, precious 235 ALONG THE ANDES AND DOWN THE AMAZON papyri recently discovered in the Nile island of Elephan tine, and above all the Hittite inscriptions on the Tel-el- Armana tablets found in Egypt, in 1887, establishing the existence of an empire which was before regarded as myth ical, should demonstrate what patient and well-directed research will accomplish, and what great results are often obtained from the finding of apparently trivial objects. One may not predict what treasures are awaiting the trained archaeologist among the long-neglected monuments of Peru, but there can be no doubt that they will well re pay him for all the time and labor that he may expend in securing them. If the land of the Incas could but interest the activities of an organization like the Palestine Explo ration Fund, it is reasonably certain that results would soon be forthcoming that would surprise the most enthu siastic Americanist and delight the hearts of those few ar dent explorers who have deserved so well of Peru and every lovef of prehistoric lore. Thanks to the numerous and systematic explorations that have been made in the City of the Seven Hills, the late historian Mommsen knew more of the Bome of Bomulus and Augustus than did Cicero or Livy: And it is not too much to hope that in the not distant future the historian of Peru will be able to tell us many things regarding the Incas and their pred ecessors about which the learned Inca Garcilaso never dreamed. » While engrossed with these and similar reflections sug gested by the storied past of the Children of the Sun, and by the cyclopean walls whose massive monoliths challenged our admiration at every step, we were gradually wending our way towards the southern side of Sacsahuaman which overlooks the famous valley of Cuzco. Here a truly magnificent picture greeted our enchanted gaze. At the foot of the sheer, precipitous mountain side was Cuzco, a city that was once to the subjects of the Incas what Mecca is to every true Mohammedan. It was to them, as its name implies, the navel of the world, as 236 THE ROME OP SOUTH AMERICA was Delphi to the Greeks. It was to them what the Capital on the Tiber was to the Boman — Urbs — the city par excel lence; what Jerusalem was to the Crusader, the city of the heart's desire. All who were brought under the dominion of the Incas "were taught," as Polo de Ondegardo informs us, "that Cuzco was the abode and home of the gods. Throughout that city there was not a fountain, nor a path way, nor a wall which they did not say contained some mystery."1 Nor was this all. Garcilaso assures us that "One of the principal idols of the kings Incas and their vassals was the imperial city of Cuzco, which the Indians worshipped as a sacred thing, both because it was founded by the first Inca, Manco Capac, and on account of the innumerable victories which have been won by its citizens. It was also venerated as the court and home of the Incas. This veneration was so great that it was shown in even very small things. For if two Indians of equal rank met each other in the road, one coming from and the other going to Cuzco, he who was coming from the city was accosted by the other as a superior, because he had been at Cuzco, and this respect was shown with more solemnity if the traveler was a resident, and still more if he was a native of the capital. The same feeling prevailed as regards seeds and pulses, or anything else. Whatever came from Cuzco, although in reality not superior, was preferred solely for that reason." 2 And how beautiful it still is in spite of all the vicissitudes through which it has passed! Although the temple of the Sun and the house of the virgins consecrated to its service have long been stripped of their glories ; although but little remains of the palaces of the Incas, except the foundation and an occasional wall, the picture of the city, as viewed from Sacsahuaman, is one of rarest loveliness. If the 1 Que aquella ciudad de Cuzco era casa y morada de dioses, y casi no habia en toda ella fuente ni pozo ni pared que no dijesen que tenia misterio. Relaeio. 2 Op. cit., Lib. Ill, Cap. IX. 237 ALONG THE ANDES AND DOWN THE AMAZON stately edifices of the Incas are no more, there are, in their stead, some of the most ornate and imposing structures in the New World. There are the superb churches and im pressive convents, testifying to the faith and the zeal of people who profess another faith and owe allegiance to another ruler. Nowhere else, to my thinking, is there a city that presents a picture so charming and at the same time so imposing as Cuzco, as seen from the heights of its ruined citadel. Not Sparta, as seen from a crumbling watch-tower of long deserted Mistra ; not Athens, as viewed from the beauteous temple of the Parthenon; not Bome, as it meets the view of the spectator on the summit of the Janiculum. Each of these noted places, considered as a panorama, has its beauties and attractions, but none of them has the advan tage of location, the majestic and picturesque surroundings of Cuzco. Situated at the head of a salubrious and pro ductive bdlson — a pocket-like valley — and surrounded on all sides, except where a narrow canon affords egress to the waters of the Huatanay, by the mighty barriers of the Cordilleras, it is a picture that for beauty of location and artistic setting cannot be duplicated, much less surpassed. What must the city have been in the days of Huayna Capac, the Augustus of the Incan empire, when its palaces and temples were yet standing and adorned with their untold treasures of silver and gold! What must it have been when Sacsahuaman, fresh from the hands of its build ers, towered aloft like a Gibraltar or an Ehrenbreitstein— typical of the power of the Incas — the palladium of the Children of the Sun, and the terror of their enemies ; when Huayna Capac returning from a victorious campaign held military maneuvers on this rock, with, as an old chronicler informs us, "fifty thousand men all armed with gold and silver"! Not so imposing, it is true, as the Rome of the Caesars, with its superb structures of polished marble, when some victorious general, enjoying the honors of a triumph, en- 238 Pulpit in the Church of San Blas, Cuzco, made by an indian artificer. Threshing and Winnowing Wheat in the Valley of Cuzco. THE ROME OP SOUTH AMERICA tered the imperial city surrounded by the trophies of con quest, amid the joyous acclamations of myriads of grateful people. But it was imposing enough and gorgeous enough to strike with awe even those of the conquistadores who were familiar with the wealth and the splendor of the noblest capitals of Europe. I do not for a moment credit the story, so long accepted as true, that the population of Cuzco in the time of the Incas amounted to two hundred thousand or more. It was undoubtedly much less than this — probably much less than one-half this number. Still less credible is the state ment of Salcamayhua that Huascar had three million men in his army, and that the forces of his enemy counted half that number.1 In area the Inca empire was greater than that of Charlemagne, and as extensive as that of Caesar Augustus, but it is doubtful, notwithstanding what is usually asserted to the contrary, whether the population of this territory was ever as great before the conquest as it is to-day. The extravagant statements so often made, regarding the teeming millions within the dominions of the Children of the Sun before the arrival of the Spaniards — millions that, we are asked to believe, were almost exter minated by the cruelty of their conquerors — will not bear serious investigation. For, outside of Cuzco, Quito, Chimu and Cajamarca there were no great centers of population, and even in these places the number of inhabitants has been greatly exaggerated. In a country like the empire of the Incas, where there was so much arid and unpro ductive land, in spite of the extensive tracts under irriga tion, and where none of our domestic animals existed, the means of subsistence were not only necessarily limited, but they were also totally inadequate to meet the demands of the dense population — ten millions and more — about which certain writers have waxed so eloquent. And no more worthy of credence are certain stories of Inca prowess and conquest with which some of the early 'Op. cit., p. 115. 239 ALONG THE ANDES AND DOWN THE AMAZON writers delight to regale their readers — stories that are more worthy of the pages of Orlando Furioso than of sober history. Yet there are certain well-attested facts in the campaigns of Huayna Capac and Tupac Yupanqui, while crossing the lofty crests of the Andes in Quito and Chile, which fairly rival any similar achievements by Hannibal or Napoleon, and show that these two Incas had military genius of the highest order. When one contemplates the splendid location of Cuzco, and considers what the Incas were able to achieve from this city as a base, one marvels why the Spaniards did not retain it as the capital of the viceroyalty instead of trans ferring it to Lima. The location is far more beautiful than that of either Quito or Bogota — although both of these cities are remarkable for the beauty of their sites — while it is more readily accessible than either of these capitals, and nearer to the great highways of the world's com merce. Among the descendants of the Children of the Sun there is an instinctive feeling, born probably of age long desire, that the capital of their Incas is one day to regain its pristine ascendency. This may seem like a hope based on the stuff that dreams are made of, but is it? The greatest drawback to the development of Cuzco, the chief reason why the seat of the viceroyalty was trans ferred from it to Lima, was the lack of means of com munication with the rest of the world. With the recent completion of the railroad to the city, this drawback has been removed. When now it shall be put into direct com munication with the capital and the cities on the plateau to the north, by means of the railroad now rapidly ap proaching completion; when, furthermore, it shall be con nected by projected branches with the Ucayali and the Madre de Dios, as it will be soon; then will Cuzco be on the highroad of progress, and then will she once more regain partly, if not entirely, that supremacy which was 240 THE ROME OP SOUTH AMERICA hers from the time of Manco Capac to that of Francisco Pizarro.1 The reason is manifest. She is to-day, as she was in the time of the Incas, in the most densely populated section of Peru. She is in the center of a territory of vast riches and untold possibilities. The eastern slope of the Andes — the Montana — has scarcely been touched, and yet it is the most fertile and the most promising part of the republic. In a few years more she will be in a position to develop and. control an extensive trade in the upper Amazon basin. She will also be on the great pan- American railway that is to connect Buenos Ayres with New York. When that day comes, and it is not far distant, the dream of the long-expectant, long-suffering Quichua Indians will be realized, and the old Inca capital will again be the happy home of tens of thousands, who are still as loyal to the memory of their departed rulers as they were in the trying days of the viceroy, Don Francisco Toledo, who ordered the execution of their revered Inca Tupac Amaru.2 Then, too, will the noble old city of the Sun be animated by a new life, and enter upon a new era of prosperity, even as did the languishing city of the Popes after the return of Gregory XI from Avignon. i The present population of Cuzco is less than twenty thousand, although it has been, even in recent times, much greater. 2 When Toledo appeared before Philip II, after his return to Spain, it is reported that the monarch said to him: "Go hence to your own house. You were not sent to Peru to kill kings, but to serve them." Idos a vuestra casa, que yo os envie a servir reyes; y vos fuiste a matar reyes. 241 CHAPTER XIV THE CITY OF THE KINGS Our original plan, after leaving Cuzco, was to return to Lima by way of Abancay, Ayacucho and Oroya. This would have meant a journey of several hundred miles on horseback, but it would have enabled us to see many places on the plateau that are celebrated in the annals of Peru, many places of great archaeological interest and many places, too, that were rendered famous by the exploits of the conquistadores on their way from Cajamarca to the capital of the Incas. Preeminently noteworthy among the towns along this route is Ayacucho, near which was fought the decisive battle that secured Peruvian independence. There is also Jauja, which, for a short time before the foundation of Lima, was the provisional capital of Peru. Both Jauja and Ayacucho, not to mention many other towns of greater or lesser importance, are on the line of the projected pan- American railroad. Work on the section between Oroya and Cuzco is being pushed forward as rapidly as possible and when completed, the traveler will be able to make the journey between Lima and the old Inca capital in a small fraction of the time now required. Much, however, as we desired to follow our original itinerary, we were prevented from doing so by pressing engagements in Lima. Our only alternative, therefore, was to return by the way we came. We saw little of interest on the return trip, that we had not seen before, but we had everywhere renewed experi ences of that charming hospitality which had so impressed us on our way from the Pacific to Cuzco. At San 242 THE CITY OP THE KINGS Jeronimo, where we bade adieu to our scholarly cicerone, Sr. P ; at Checacupe, where Mr. Mc? entertained us a second time in his usual cordial manner ; at Arequipa, where Sr. T and his friends gave us what was almost tantamount to the freedom of the city, we were made to forget entirely that we were strangers in a strange land. Our every wish was anticipated and our every want divined in a way that amazed us beyond expression. It really seemed as if our good friends had nothing to engage their attention but our comfort and pleasure. What particu larly impressed us was the quiet, gracious manner in which everything was done. We were treated as life-long friends, or as members of the family, rather than as guests, and it was, consequently, most natural for us at once to feel at home and at our ease. How could it be otherwise among a people to whom hospitality is a traditional char acteristic and entertainment a cherished art as well as a positive virtue? Much as we regretted leaving the capital of the Incas, we were delighted to be again in the capital of the viceroys. It is in many respects the most attractive city in South America, and has a fascination about it that is entirely absent from larger cities like Buenos Aires or Bio Janeiro. True, it cannot boast of the picturesque location of Caracas or Bogota, Quito or Cuzco, but there is a glamour about it that renders it quite unique among the capitals of the southern continent. No sooner is the visitor within its gates than he feels himself under the spell of its storied past and enchanting environment. And well he may. For a while Lima was the capital of nearly all of South America, except Brazil, and the viceroy of Peru was the ruler of a more extensive territory than any monarch in Europe. It is true that he was sub servient to the kings of Spain, to whom he owed his ap pointment, but owing to the distance of Lima from the mother country and the difficulty of communication when steam navigation and the telegraph were unknown, the 243 ALONG THE ANDES AND DOWN THE AMAZON viceroy of Peru had practically all the power of an inde pendent potentate. Even after Quito, New Granada and Venezuela were placed under separate governments, the sway of the viceroy of Peru extended from Guayaquil to Cape Horn, and from the impetuous Rimac to the broad embouchure of the Bio de la Plata. It was on account of the immense extent of Peru, and his desire to be where he could more readily communicate with Europe, that Pizarro selected Lima as the capital rather than Cuzco or Jauja. Both of these being so high up on the tableland and difficult of access, were unsuited for the great political and commercial metropolis the con queror had in his mind's eye when he sought a location for the capital of the greatest of Spain's dependencies. The site on the river Bimac, near an Indian village, met his requirements as did no other spot. It was at the base of the Cordillera, on a fertile plain and but two leagues from the ocean, where there was one of the best harbors on the coast. Unlike Quito and Bogata, it was accessible to Spanish merchantmen and could easily be made a dis tributing center for merchandise coming from or destined for the Old World. Having once decided on the location of the capital, Pizarro lost no time in laying its foundations. This was formally done the eighteenth of January, 1535. And as the founder had always entertained a great devotion towards The Three Holy Kings and as their feast day, the Epiphany, had occurred but twelve days before, he decided to call the new foundation La Ciudad de los Reyes — the City of the Kings. This name, however, was not long used, except in official documents. It soon gave place to Lima, from Limac, the name of the neighboring Indian village, as well as the name of the river which flowed by it.1 On - Limac is a corruption of the Quichua word Rimac, the participle of the verb rimani, to speak. The village was so called because of the sound pro duced by the swiftly flowing water over its steep rocky bed, or, as others declare, because of an idol in the village which was consulted as an oracle. 244 THE CITY OP THE KINGS the escutcheon, which Charles V permitted the newly founded capital to use, the city was designated La muy noble, insigne y muy leal Ciudad de los Reyes del Peru — the very noble, notable and very loyal city of the Kings of Peru. Before the erection of a single house was permitted, Pizarro had a plan of the city drawn on paper. And in making this plan he had in view not the small number — only sixty-nine — of those who were then prepared to make their homes there, but the future greatness of ' ' The Empire City of the New World." Moreover, as the city had to be in God and for God and in His name — en Dios y por Dios y en su nombre — to use Pizarro 's own words, work was first begun on the church, which was named Nuestra Senora de La Asuncion.1 The first stone and the first pieces of timber in the new struc ture were put in place by the hands of the Adelantado himself, who wished, like the other conquistadores, to em phasize his zeal for religion and his devotion to La San- tisima Virgen, Madre de Dios. In planning the City of the Kings, Pizarro made the squares large and the streets unusually wide. This latter feature at once attracts the attention of the visitor, as it is in such marked contrast with so many other American cities founded about the same time. Charles Dickens would doubtless find the same fault with it as he did with Philadelphia; for Lima, like the City of Brotherly Love, could also, on account of the regularity of its streets, be called "The Gridiron City." And like Washington, it might also bear the name of "City of Magnificent Dis tances." 1 Pizarro gave it this name because he had a special devotion to our Lady of the Assumption, and wished . to have the first cathedral in Peru named in her honor. As, however, the first episcopal see was established in Cuzco and not in Lima, as the conqueror had anticipated, the title of Nuestra Senora de la Asuncion was transferred to the cathedral of Cuzco, while the first church in Lima was, on the occasion of its erection into a cathedral in 1543, dedicated under the invocation of St. John the Evangelist. 245 ALONG THE ANDES AND DOWN THE AMAZON The most attractive and animated part of Lima is un doubtedly the Plaza Mayor, around which are grouped the cathedral, the government and municipal palaces and other imposing structures. Here towards evening are gathered the beauty and the fashion of the capital, and one is sure to find les demieres creations of the Parisian modiste a few weeks after they make their appearance on the boule vards of the French capital. The beautiful toilets of the Limanian ladies are probably one of the reasons why the City of the Kings has long been known as the Paris of South America, for it requires no great stretch of the imagination, when witnessing the beautifully gowned senoritas driving along the Calle de la Union, or in the Paseo Colon, to fancy oneself a spectator of the brilliant turnouts of the Champs Elysees or of the Bois de Boulogne. One could then easily believe that there was a reason for at least the first part of the old saying that "Lima is the heaven of women, the purgatory of men, and the hell of burros. ' ' x In the morning, when the women, in their sable dress and mantilla — which have long replaced the famous saya y manto — are seen going to or returning from church, the city seems like an immense convent. But on the occasion of great national or church celebrations, and especially during the carnival season, "Lima is no more than a city of Andalusia transplanted to the New World, with all the extravagances of the romantic, artistic and audacious spirit of old Seville, Malaga and Cordova." Then the entire atmosphere is redolent of the past, and the heavily-barred windows and miradores — Moorish balconies — carry one back to the gay and splendid festivities of viceroyal mag nificence. The most remarkable and most imposing buildinglin the city, and the one that first claims the attention of the vis itor, is the cathedral. It occupies the site of the church : In Heylin's Cosmographie, 1654, England is called "The paradise of women, the purgatory of servants, and the hell of horses." 246 The Cathedral of Lima. Copyright by Underwood & Underwood. The City of the Kings. THE CITY OP THE KINGS built by Pizarro nearly four centuries ago. It is copied to a certain extent after the famous cathedral of Seville, which was formerly regarded as one of the wonders of the world. Although the Lima temple has not the splendid Giralda that adds such beauty to its wonderful prototype, it is, nevertheless, after the cathedral of the City of Mexico, the most magnificent place of worship in the Western Hemisphere. The interior decorations of the cathedral are in keeping with its exterior grandeur. Among these are its richly adorned altars and its ornate choir of artistically carved cedar and mahogany. There is also a large pipe organ made in Belgium and said to be the best in South America. Among the many oil paintings is a valuable portrait of St. Veronica by Murillo, bequeathed to the church by a former archbishop, Mgr. Luna-Pizarro. The most interesting object to one who visits the cathe dral for the first time is the remains of its founder, Fran cisco Pizarro. For many generations they were preserved in the crypt, in which some of the viceroys were interred, and which has also been used as a burial place for the arch bishops. Here also repose the remains of his daughter, Francisca, by Inez Nusta, niece of the illustrious Inca Huayna Capac.1 All that is mortal of the illustrious con quistador now reposes in one of the side chapels of the 1 "Di6 Dona Francisca Pizarro oinco mil pesos oro, por estar sepultado en ella el Marques D. Francisco Pizarro, su padre" — DoBa Francisca Pizarro gave five thousand dollars in gold because her father, D. Francisco Pizarro, was buried in it. Thus writes Padre Bernabfi Cobo, whose precious work, Historia de la fundacion de Lima, written in 1639, remained in manuscript until 1882, when it was published with annotations by the distinguished Peruvian scholar, Manuel Gonzalez de la Rosa. The same work, together with Padre Cobo's valuable Historia del Nuevo Mundo, was published in Seville in 1892 by the eminent Americanist, Marcos Jimenez de la Espada. I refer especially to Padre Cobo's work on Lima, because many erroneous notions have obtained regarding the City of the Kings, but more particularly because many modern writers have expressed doubts about the burial of Pizarro in the cathedral. Padre Cobo's testimony can be accepted as con clusive. 247 ALONG THE ANDES AND DOWN THE AMAZON cathedral and may be seen by obtaining the necessary permission. While contemplating the moldering remains,1 partially concealed by dusty tatters, of the daring and invincible conqueror, I recalled the words of Southey, who writes of Pizarro: "A greater name The list of Glory boasts not. Toil and Pain, Famine and hostile elements, and Hosts Embattled, failed to check him on his course, Not to be wearied, not to be deterred, Not to be overcome. A mighty realm He overran, And wealth and power and fame were his rewards." And yet, strange is it not? there is not a single statue to the memory of Pizarro in the whole of Peru. There are many noble monuments in Lima erected in honor of those who have deserved well of their country or of human ity. There are monuments commemorating the deeds and the prowess of Columbus, Bolivar, San Martin, Grau and Bolognesi, but not a single block of marble or a single plate of bronze to record the exploits of the first ruler of i Lima, writes the noted Peruvian writer, Sr. E. Larrabure y Unanue, may feel proud to be in possession of the rich treasure of these remains, for "They personify an entire epopee. They recall a series of events which seem rather to belong to the domain of fable than to that of history; from his terrible conflicts with the Indians and with nature across the isthmus of Panama when he cut his way to the South Sea and had his brigantines transported on the shoulders of his men from one ocean to the other, until the heroic resolution taken by the famous thirteen — los trece de la fwnw— on the island of Gallo; the discoveries and explorations from Tumbez to Cajamarca; the march of Hernando and a few soldiers to the coveted temple of Pachacamac; the sanguinary scene which accompanied the captivity of Atahualpa and the downfall of the empire, and, as the catastrophe, the in testine wars which caused to fall beneath its knife the two brothers, as they were called in the good times of their intimacy; Pizarro, astute and dom inant; Almagro, trustful and generous; but both victims of their own audacity and their lack of education." Monografias Historico-Americanas, ?¦ 354, Lima, 1893. 248 THE CITY OP THE KINGS Peru — of the one who is justly regarded as among the most eminent of the conquistadores. "Why is it?" I asked a distinguished government official in Lima, ''that you have no statue or monument of any kind to the memory of Pizarro? You have erected them in honor of others less known and less distinguished for their achievements?" "It is difficult to answer that question," was the reply. "The only reason I can assign is that the viceroys and grandees of Spain were unwilling to honor in any signal manner one of such low birth as Pizarro. An ignorant swineherd, born out of wedlock, a soldier of fortune unable to write his own name, did not appeal to them as one worthy of special distinction. Then again, his cruelty towards the Indians, greatly exaggerated, I think, and his judicial murder of Atahualpa may have made them hesi tate to glorify him as a hero or as a benefactor of his race. Personally," continued my informant, "I should like to see a monument to Pizarro in one of the plazas of the capital he founded, and I know there are many of my opinion. "The conqueror of Peru had his faults, no doubt, but many of them should be attributed to the age in which he lived rather than to any innate depravity or moral delin quency of the man himself. Say what you will, the achieve ments of the man rank him among the most notable characters of all time, and his name will be ever insep arably associated with some of the most brilliant exploits recorded in tjie annals of conquest. There are hundreds of shafts and statues in Europe erected to the memory of men who have not a tithe of the claim to distinction that Pizarro has, and I hope the day will soon come when my country will give formal recognition — tardy though it be — to one of the greatest military and administrative geniuses of his own or of any age." My informant was right. We may not like the con queror of Atahualpa, but we must admire him. After an 249 ALONG THE ANDES AND DOWN THE AMAZON unfortunate infancy and an obscure adolescence, during which he had none of the advantages of home training or scholastic instruction; after an early manhood spent among a profligate soldiery in a desperate struggle against fortune, the impecunious adventurer becomes the master of a more extensive empire than that of his puissant sov ereign in Europe. An iron will and a rare prudence in the hazards of war and the ventures of business enterprise always secured for him the laurels of victory and the guerdon of success. He was never defeated and never taken by surprise. Everywhere he went in Peru he left imperishable monuments of his passage. In less than seven years he founded the cities of Piura, Trujillo, Jauja, Huamanga, Huanucco, La Plata, Arequipa and Lima. In addition to this, he contributed materially towards the betterment of Tumbez, Puerto Viejo, Cajamarca and Cuzco. He laid the foundations of commerce and art, industry and agriculture, and made special provision for the moral and religious development of his subjects. No adventurer ever conquered a more extensive territory, or achieved so much with so little. No one ever gave greater riches to the land of his birth, no one spent less on himself, or more in furthering the best interests of a conquered coun try. And, although he had command of almost limitless resources and was able to reward his lieutenants with pos sessions richer than those of princes, no one was ever more loyal to Spain or deserved better of Peru. What such a man might have become, had his childhood and youth been different, and had he enjoyed the advan tages of education and culture, is idle to speculate. As it was, he became, by the sheer force of genius and daring, one of the greatest and most successful commanders in history. Had he possessed, in addition to genius and dar ing, the accomplishments of a Cortes or a Ximenes de Quesada, it is not too much to assert that he would now take rank with such transcendent leaders as Caesar and Bonaparte. 250 THE CITY OP THE KINGS Yet, notwithstanding all his limitations, the fact still remains that Francisco Pizarro was one of Spain's most distinguished sons, and one of Peru's greatest benefactors, and as such his memory is deservmg of far greater honor than it has yet received. As the conqueror of the greatest empire in the New World, as the founder of the beautiful City of the Kings, he is entitled to the noblest and the most conspicuous monument in the capital of the republic. But whether Peru ever honors the illustrious conquistador in this manner or not, it matters little, so far as his fame is concerned, for he holds a place among the immortals from which he can never be dislodged. In the words of a gifted Peruvian poetisa, "Pundo ciudades y dejo memorias, Que eternas quedaran en las historias. ' ' 1 A short distance from the cathedral is the admirable church of La Merced. It is notable not only because it is one of the most beautiful structures in the city, but also because its foundation is due to Hernando Pizarro, the brother of the conqueror. One of the greatest ecclesi astical functions of the year is celebrated in this church on the twenty-fourth of September, the feast of Nuestra Senora de la Merced, the patroness of the arms of Peru. The president of the republic and his cabinet and all the representatives of the government are pres ent at this celebration, and the church then presents a scene of splendor that is rarely witnessed elsewhere i "He founded cities and left a record that will endure as long as history's eternal page." After this work was ready for the press I was glad to find that in 1892, on the occasion of the removal of Pizarro's remains to the chapel in which they now repose, His Grace, Manuel Tovar, the archbishop of Lima, expressed himself on this subject as follows: "God grant that at no distant day we may all — sons of this land and Btrangers who visit our shores — be able to salute with admiration and respect in the Plaza Mayor of the Peruvian metropolis the glorious statue of the conqueror of Peru and the founder of Lima." Ilustration Espaiiola y Amer icana, Aug. 22, 1892. 251 ALONG THE ANDES AND DOWN THE AMAZON outside of the great basilica of St. Peter's in the Eternal City. Bivaling the church of Merced and the cathedral in beauty and grandeur are the stately and massive churches of San Francisco, San Augustin and San Domingo — three edifices that would command admiration in Bome or Paris, so famed for their places of worship. San Domingo is celebrated as being the last resting- place of Santa Bosa, who was in 1670 declared by Clement X to be the Patrona Universal y Principal de America, Filipinas e Indias — patroness of all the Americas and the Philippine Islands and the Indies, — and who is, as the Boman breviary beautifully expresses it, Primus America Meridionalis flos sanctitatis — the first flower of sanctity of South America.1 Her altar, adorned with an exquisite marble image of the saint, donated by one of the popes, is one of the most charming works of art in the city. It is always decked with fresh, sweet-scented roses, and at all hours of the day one will find crowds of people, young and old, kneeling in silent prayer around this favorite shrine. Although the people of Lima never tire of sounding the praises of their sweet little Santa Bosa,2 they do not forget another one of their saints to whom the church in Peru is deeply indebted. This is Santo Toribio, the second i Santa Rosa was the first but not the only saint, as is usually asserted, of South America. Lima alone claims four others who were either born in Peru or who chose it as the field of their apostolic labors and sanctified them selves on its soil. These are St. Francis Solano, a Friar Minor, the apostle of Tucuman; St. Toribio, Blessed Martin Porres, A Franciscan Tertiary; and Blessed John, Massias, a Dominican lay-brother, who was born and died in Lima. Blessed Marianna de Jesus, known as the Lily of Quito, whose life in many respects resembled that of Santa Rosa, should also be classed as a Peruvian saint, for the province of Quito was long a part of Peru. 2 As an evidence of the extraordinary popularity of Santa Rosa, it suffices to observe that at the celebration of her tercentenary in Lima in 1886 it was found that the number of works in various languages treating of her life and virtues amounted to nearly three hundred. For so modern a saint, and one whose life was so hidden, this is truly astonishing. 252 THE CITY OP THE KINGS archbishop of Peru. He was born in Spain, it is true, but the Peruvians claim him as their own. Like the great bishop of Chiapas, Las Casas, he was remarkable for his labors in behalf of the Indians, among whom his name is still held in benediction in all parts of Peru. His biographers tell us that during the twenty-five years he ruled the archdiocese of Lima, the saintly prelate spent eighteen in visiting his flock and that the distance he trav eled during this time was nearly twenty-five thousand miles. When we are told that much of his traveling was done afoot, in wild and distant parts of the country, among inhospitable and almost inaccessible mountains, where at times it was impossible to find either food, drink or shelter, and in the extremes of heat and cold, we can form some conception of the strenuous character of his missionary career and of the magnitude of his labors. During these visits to the bleak and arid puna and to the sultry montana beyond the Cordilleras, he confirmed no fewer than a million souls,1 most of them Indians, who had been evangelized by zealous missionaries who had pre ceded him. Indeed the greatest part of his time was de voted to these humble and scattered sheep of his flock, and he left nothing undone to secure them in the rights that were theirs as children of a common Father. He was their acknowledged protector, and much of the legis lation that had its origin in the various councils and synods convened during his administration, had in view the wel fare of these longsuffering victims of injustice and oppres sion. He was a Charles Borremeo in administrative capac ity, and a Francis Xavier in missionary activity. He was in very truth a man of God, and most deserving the epithet "Apostle of Peru."2 But Lima is not only remarkable for its churches and 1 Pope Benedict XIV, De Canonizatione Sanctorum, Lib. Ill, Cap. XXXIV. 2 MwabiUs Vita et MiribiUora Acta Ven. Servi Dei Turibii Alphonsi Mogro- besti, Limanensis Archiprossulis, a Cipriano Herrera, Romae, 1670, and Vie de Saint Turibe, par Dom Berengier, Paris, 1S72. 253 ALONG THE ANDES AND DOWN THE AMAZON saints, it is also distinguished for its schools and scholars. Here is found the oldest university of the New World, that of San Marcos. It was established in 1551 — "fifty-six years before the English settlers landed in Jamestown; fifty-eight years before Hudson sailed into the bay of New York, and sixty-nine years before the Mayflower touched the shores of New England." By virtue of the charter, it enjoyed all the honors and privileges of the University of Salamanca, one of the most noted seats of learning in Europe. It proudly points to a countless number of its alumni who have won international distinction in science, letters, theology, medicine and jurisprudence. Lima was also the first city in the New World to have periodicals like our modern newspaper. She had them, indeed, when but few cities in Europe could boast of such "Expeditious messengers of intelligence." The list of works that came from the Lima press in the seventeenth century exceeded four hundred, all of which are now ex tremely rare and highly prized by bibliophiles. For generations Lima was the center of learning and culture in South America. Indeed, during the whole of the colonial period it was, as has been well expressed, la cabeza y el corazon — the head and the heart — of the south ern continent. The literary productions of her sons and daughters, who followed the schools of Seville and Anda lusia, were of a high order of merit, and in many instances compared favorably with the masterpieces of the mother country.1 But the literary output of Peru was not confined to the City of the Kings. Literature was cultivated in other parts of the viceroyalty, notably in Cuzco and Arequipa, and with such success as to deserve the unstinted praise of Cervantes and Lope de Vega. Even in obscure corners of i Special mention should here be made of that admirable religious epic, the Cristiada of the Dominican, Fray Diego de Ojeda. Of parts of this mas terpiece no less an authority than the distinguished Spanish author, Quintana, writes that they are equal to the most sublime passages of Homer, Dante or Milton. 254 THE CITY OP THE KINGS the Andes it had its votaries. The most remarkable in stance of this is in the person of a woman, supposed to have been Dona Maria de Alvarado, a descendant of the conquistador, Captain Gomez de Alvarado. This "Fenix rara a dulces muses inclinada" is known by her poetical name Amarilis, which she used in her celebrated metrical correspondence with Lope de Vega, who appears under the name of Belardo. Judging by the specimens of her work that have come down to us, this remarkable woman deserves to rank among the first poets of the viceroyal regime, and the productions of her muse are quite equal to those that have ever come from the pen of any of her sex in Latin America. It is not my purpose, however, to tell what Lima — much less what Peru — has achieved in literature and science; what her schools and colleges have done for the intellectual advancement of her sons and daughters. That of itself would require a large volume. Suffice it to say that it was for a long time regarded as the Athens of South America, and was actually known by this name during the greater part of the viceroyalty. But, after Peru separated from Spain and wars and civil dissensions multiplied, the City of the Kings lost her proud supremacy in letters and sci ence, and the title, she had so long borne with such distinc tion, was claimed by the capital of Colombia. Since the War of Independence, the Athens of South America has been in Bogata, but there is reason to believe that it will soon be once more on the banks of the Bimac. All indications point in this direction, notwithstanding the literary and scientific work that is being done in Bogata, Buenos Aires and Santiago de Chile. For not since Peru became a republic has Lima manifested such intellectual activity as she has exhibited during the past few years. She has made notable advances in every branch of research, and her learned societies, especially the Athenaeum, the 255 ALONG THE ANDES AND DOWN THE AMAZON Historical Institute and the Geographical Society are doing work that is recognized the world over as of permanent value. This is evinced, to give but two illustrations, by the Boletin del la Sociedad Geografica de Lima and La Revista Historica, the organ of the Instituto Historico del Peru. Aside from her numerous educational institutions and learned societies the best evidence of the new intellectual life that pervades the capital of Peru is seen in her splendid National Museum and in the National Public Library. Although the Museum was completed but a few years ago, it already contains in its spacious halls many collec tions of supreme interest to the student. Of special value are the treasures in the departments of history and archae ology. My attention was particularly claimed by the ob jects taken from the prehistoric cemeteries of Ancon and Pachacamac,1 both places but a short distance from Lima. Owing to the absence of rain in these localities the objects buried with the dead, even the most delicate textile fabrics, are in a wonderful state of preservation. Indeed, some of the articles of clothing and adornment are as well pre served as any similar fabrics found in the tombs of Egypt, Their colors, too, are as bright as when first applied, al though the objects in question all belong to pre-Columbian times.2 Frequently, as I passed in review these curious relics of a prehistoric past, my mind reverted to the great museum of Bulak on the banks of the Nile. Here, too, i The reader who may be interested in the remains that have been found in Pachacamac and Ancon, is referred to Max Uhle's work, PachacamM, Philadelphia, 1903, and to the two sumptuous volumes by Reiss and Stiibel, entitled Das Totenfeld von Ancon, Berlin, 1880, 1887. 2 Wiener fancies that he has discovered in the various designs which enrich the textures found in the Huacas — tombs — of Peru evidence of a written lan guage. In his work, Pe"rou et Bolivie, p. 760, he says explicitly, Nous fimons notre pens4e sur le papier, le Peruvien I'inscrivait sur le tissu. I must confesi that I have never been able to detect in the bizarre figures of old Peruvian tissues any more evidence of a written language than may be found in a piece of calico or organdy. 256 THE CITY OP THE KINGS are collected the remains and the cerements of a race who, like the Incas and their predecessors, have left monuments as imperishable as they are mysterious. Indeed, the monu ments, especially some of the specimens of architecture, of the ancient Peruvians, forcibly remind one of certain structures in the one-time land of the Pharaohs. Not with out reason, then, has Peru been called the Egypt of the New World. And as I wandered through this noble insti tution, noting the scientific value of the rare collections gathered within its halls, I said to myself — "Here is the beginning of an American Bulak, a museum that will do for the history of Incaic and pre-Incaic Peru what the museum in Cairo has accomplished for the history of the Egypt of the sphinx and pyramid builders. Peru is singularly rich in the remains of its aboriginal inhabitants. They are found in all parts of the country, from its northern frontier to Lake Titicaca, and from the Pacific to the Montana. Some of these have already found a place in the National Museum, but there are still myriads of others scattered throughout the republic awaiting the advent of the intelligent collector and their final transfer to the capital of the nation. Much has already been taken from the ruins and cemeteries of Chimu, Ancon, Cuzco and Pachacamac, but much more is awaiting the pick and the spade of the archasologist. The investigations of Beiss and Stiibel in Ancon, of Max Uhle in Pachacamac, and of Bandelier in the islands of Coati and Titicaca, show what rare treasures are in reserve for the explorer in this still little-known land, and the success which has attended their labors should stimulate others to walk in their footsteps. [Peruvian archaeology is still in its infancy, and for that very reason there is no more promising field in the world (than Peru for those who are interested in studying the (remains of tribes long since extinct, or of people who have uplayed such an important role in South America as the ^Children of the Sun. The government of Peru realizes the importance of all 257 ALONG THE ANDES AND DOWN THE AMAZON work that will in any way contribute towards filling up the many lacunae which still exist in the history of the country. For this reason it is specially favorable towards research of all kinds by whomsoever undertaken, and for this reason also it is eager to make the collections in the National Museum as complete as possible. If the present plans are carried out, there is no doubt that this institution will eventually be the most important of its kind in the New World — a veritable Bulak for the American Egypt— and that it will be of the utmost assistance in enabling future scholars to solve certain problems in ethnology and anthropology that have hitherto baffled all the efforts of the keenest investigators. Quite as important for history as the museum for archae ology is the well-equipped Public Library which, if not the largest, is certainly the most valuable in South America. Unfortunately it does not now possess all the inestimable treasures it contained three decades ago. Then it counted fifty thousand printed volumes and eight thousand manu scripts. Among the printed volumes was every work that had been issued from the press of Peru since 1584. Many of these were as rare as they were valuable, while most of the manuscripts were absolutely unique. There were also the productions of nearly all the chroniclers of Spanish America, some of which it would have been difficult, if not impossible, to duplicate. Then Peru witnessed that terrible invasion from the south euphemistically called the War of the Pacific— a war of spoliation and conquest without parallel in the New World — a war unprovoked by Peru, but signalized on the part of the invader by acts of barbaric atrocity that were a disgrace to a nation calling itself civilized. In January, 1881, the Chilean troops entered Lima. "No one," wrote Don Bicardo Palma, in his protest against the wanton and barbarous acts of destruction of the in vading army, "could have supposed, without an insult to the government of Chile, a government that pretends to 258 THE CITY OP THE KINGS civilization and culture, that this government would seize as plunder of war the appliances of the university, the museum of the school of medicine, the instruments of the school of mines, the national archives, and objects belong ing to other institutions of a purely scientific, literary or artistic character." Yet, during their occupation of Lima, the Chileans did not hesitate "to invest war with a barbarous character foreign to the lights of the age, to the usages of honorable belligerents, and to the universally recognized principles of right." The library and the university of San Marcos were converted by the soulless Vandals into barracks. The books, writes MarkEam, "were either sold as waste paper, thrown into the street, or stolen. The pictures and everything of value in the exhibition building, the labora tory and appurtenances of the school of medicine, all the models and appliances for teaching in the schools of art, sciences and trade, and public monuments, were destroyed, or carried off. The benches of the lecture rooms were cut up to make packing cases for the plunder." J In this crime against civilization, in this outrage per petrated on a sister republic, Omar and Alaric were out done in deeds of desolation and savagery. No wonder the United States minister felt called upon to report them as "violations of the rules of civilized warfare, which call for an earnest protest on behalf of all civilized nations." Thanks, however, to a number of public- spirited Peru vians, who occupied themselves during the Vandalic occu pation of their fair capital in collecting, as far as possible, the scattered treasures of their ravaged library, enough of the books and manuscripts — about eight thousand all told — were recovered to form the nucleus of a new library, which was begun as soon as the enemy withdrew from the city. And, realizing the appalling loss that letters and sci ence had sustained in Lima, through the ruthless soldiery of Chile, the United States and Spain, Argentina and il History of Peru, pp. 417, 432, 471, Chicago, 1892. 259 ALONG THE ANDES AND DOWN THE AMAZON Ecuador promptly came forward with generous donations of books to replace those that had been destroyed or stolen. Thanks to these and other gifts from various sources, public and private, the library of Lima has again on its shelves almost as many volumes as it had before the arrival of the destructive invader. It and the museum constitute two of the richest storehouses of books and specimens in the whole of South America, the two depositaries of lit erary and scientific appliances whither the historian and archaeologist will first turn for material in their respective lines of research. Nothing, indeed, impressed me more while looking over the rare books and manuscripts of Lima than the splendid opportunity here offered the man of letters and the his torian, of working among materials that are practically unknown and yet of the greatest value. Among the manu scripts are gems of prose and verse sufficient for a large anthology, while among the published works are many con nected with the early history of Peru, that are of such exceeding rarity as to be found in but few libraries and to be quite beyond the purse of anyone but a millionaire booklover. It was while reveling among these treasures that I saw how a dream, which I had long fondly cherished, and which I am sure many students of Peruvian history have like wise equally cherished, could eventually be realized. And if my Limanian friends will permit an ardent admirer of their chivalrous and cultured city to express his whole thought, I will say that my dream had reference to the publication of the rare historical works in their library in such form as to render them available for the increasing multitude of students throughout the world who desire positive knowledge at first hand regarding the history and antiquities of the great empire of the Incas. Who are more competent than the directors of the library and museum, and the members of the historical and geo graphical societies of Lima to annotate and edit these 260 THE CITY OP THE KINGS works? Who are so well qualified to give critical esti mates of the true values of the various early chronicles'? Who are so familiar with the manners and customs of the Quichua and Ayamara Indians, and so familiar with their language, — a knowledge of which is so essential in dealing with many details of history, geography and ethnology? And for whom should such an undertaking be more a labor of love than for those who have most faithfully preserved the traditions of the Children of the Sun, and in whose veins courses the blood of the most distinguished of the conquistadores as well as of the most illustrious of Spanish grandees 1 What Americanists have long desired, and what they now desire more than ever, is a critical, well-annotated Coleccion de los Historiadores del Peru, something in the style of the works on Peru edited by Clements B. Mark- ham for the Hakluyt Society. Similar collections have been published by some of the other South American repub lics, and several attempts have been made, by the scholars of Spain and Peru, to inaugurate the work in question. Las Memorias de los Vireyes, the Documentos Historicos of Sr. Ordriozola, as well as the works edited by M. Gon zalez de la Bosa, M. Jimenez de la Espada and Bicardo Palma have made a beginning. It remains for the scholars of Peru to complete the work begun when times and con ditions were not as auspicious as they are at present. In addition to a complete collection of the early chron iclers and historians there should, me judice, be new edi tions of the works of Arriaga, Calancha and Melendez, which throw such a flood of light on the manners and cus toms of the Indians, their rites and superstitions. Each of these works, as well as all the others in the collection, should, in order to be of the greatest service to the stu dent, be enriched with copious notes and an elaborate index, which, as Holmes truly observes, is what "every book worth printing is entitled to." I emphasize the im portance of these things because of their absence from |; 261 ALONG THE ANDES AND DOWN THE AMAZON many otherwise valuable books published on Spanish Amer ica. I have, for instance, in my library the complete worts of the recent editions of Peter Martyr, Las Casas and Oviedo y Valdez, not to mention other similar productions on American history, but not one of them has either index or annotations of any kind. The consequence is that the reader, unless thoroughly familiar with their contents, is obliged to lose much valuable time whenever he consults them — a loss that would be obviated if the books were properly indexed and annotated. I refer especially to the necessity of illustrative notes, because of the many changes in the names of places since the time of the conquest, and of the different ways of writing the same names, as well as of the various and con tradictory statements sometimes observed of different authors regarding localities and events. Giving the reader the advantage of the researches of such investigators as Baimondi, Mendiburu and Paz Soldan, the study of Peru vian history would be invested with all the interest and charm of a romance, and the story of the land of the Incas, which has always had an interest possessed by that of no other country in South America, would then have a fasci nation that would be irresistible. I have dwelt somewhat at length on the literary and scientific features of Lima because they appealed to me more than any other. I have also wished to voice the senti ments of many others who, I know, entertain the same views as I do regarding the matter in question, and at the same time speak a word in behalf of the future Irvinga and Prescotts who, in the days to come, shall transmute the dry records of the early chroniclers into imperishable masterpieces of literature. I would not, however, have the reader infer that I was indifferent to the many other attractions of this fair capital, or that I did not appreciate them at their full value. Nothing is farther from my pur pose. Lima is to-day, as truly as it was in the time of the vice- 262 THE CITY OP THE KINGS roys, La Perla del Pacifico. The beauty, the grace and the talent of her daughters still retain the same supremacy as they did when they inspired the songs of the poet who frequented the teriulias and academias of the viceregal court, and it is not rare to meet a fair Limanian of whom one can truthfully say, in the words of Calderon, that ' ' she is crowned with beauty and laureled with knowledge": "Se corono de hermosura, Se laureo de entendimiento. " The culture, generosity and nobility of her sons is in keep ing with the best traditions of the mother country and exhibit that peculiar Spanish cachet which is the distinctive mark of the best and truest Americanism in the lands of Pizarro, Quesada and Cortes.1 The visitor will not now find that display and luxury which in other days characterized the City of the Kings. The streets are no longer paved with silver ingots nor adorned with silver arches, as when the Count de Lemos and the Duke de Palata entered the capital as the repre sentatives of the sovereigns of Spain. But, notwithstand ing the absence of these things, there is everywhere evi dence of wealth and comfort. And were one not informed of the fact, one would find it difficult to believe the city had passed through the horrors of the disastrous Chilean i Jorge Juan and Antonio de Ulloa, op. cit., Tom. II, lib. I, Cap. V, found, as does the traveler to-day, the personal charms of the women of Lima "heightened by those of the mind, clear and comprehensive intellect, an easi ness of behaviour, so well tempered, that while it invites love, it commands reBpect. The charms of their conversation are beyond expression, their ideas just, their expressions pure, their manners inimitably graceful. These are the allurements by which great numbers of Europeans, forgetting the fair prospects they have at home, are induced to marry and settle here." Another traveler, writing of the men of Peru, declares, and with truth, that they "have fallen heirs to the courtly grace and admirable savoir faire, which made the Knights of Santiago and Alcantara famous among the first gentlemen of Europe four centuries ago, and which, descending to their children and children's children, have become characteristic of Spanish- speaking people all over the world." 263 ALONG THE ANDES AND DOWN THE AMAZON occupation but a few decades ago. On every side one ob serves surprising indications of material progress and prosperity. The population, which now counts one hun dred and fifty thousand souls, is rapidly increasing, and large and stately structures, worthy of any capital in the world, are being erected in every part of the city. Among these are banks, mercantile and manufacturing establish ments, which represent an immense expenditure for build ings and equipment. Foreign investors, having entire confidence in the power and stability of the government, have large interests here as well as in other parts of the republic, and the number of capitalists in Europe and the United States who are seeking investments in the "golden land of Peru" is constantly augmenting. English, Ger mans, French, Italians are quite numerous here, and all of them do an extensive business. Our own country is splen didly represented by W. B. Grace and Company, and by a number of successful mining syndicates; but the United States is far from occupying her proper place here in the world of commerce and industrial enterprise. There are countless openings here for wide-awake business men, and fame and fortune await those who know how to take advan tage of the rare opportunities that are now offered in the marts of commerce, in the mines of the sierra and in the forest-clad regions of the upper Amazon basin. When one notes the energy and enterprise of its citizens, and observes the remarkable progress they are making along every line of human endeavor, one can easily predict, without the slightest fear of erring, that the erstwhile City of the Kings will ere long have recovered all her former prestige as an emporium of commerce, and that she will again deserve, as in days gone by, the proud title of Reina del Pacifico — Queen of the Pacific. 264 CHAPTER XV THE EEALM OF THE GBEAT CHIMU The time had at last arrived for starting on my long journey across the Andes and down the Amazon. And, although I had all along felt that I should prefer to go by way of Cajamarca and Moyabamba, my itinerary from Lima to Para had not yet been definitely determined. Many of my Peruvian friends, among them prominent government officials, strongly recommended the recently opened Pichis and Pachitea route. This would be much shorter and easier than any other, and could, compared with the other routes, be traversed with the minimum of fatigue and discomfort. The only arduous part of it would be a few days7 travel on horseback between Oroya, the terminus of the railroad, and Puerto Bermudes, the head of navigation on the Pichis river. Arrived at this point, one could go by steamer to Iquitos on the Amazon, where one would find vessels going directly to Europe and the United States. This has for some years been the popular route, and the one usually chosen by the employes of the government who are engaged in the Department of Loreto, which comprises the northeastern part of the republic. President Pardo, who was kind enough to take an interest in my projected journey across the continent, likewise favored the Pichis route. And then with a kindness I can never forget he said, "Two new launches, built specially for service on the Pichis and Ucayali rivers, have recently arrived in Iquitos and will, in a few days, make their maiden trips to Puerto Bermudes. I should be delighted to put one of these at your disposition and do anything 265 ALONG THE ANDES AND DOWN THE AMAZLUN else in my power that will enable you to make the journey to the Amazon with the maximum of pleasure and profit. The way by Cajamarca is long and difficult, and implies a journey of nearly a month on horseback, in addition to a week's tramp through the almost trackless montana, where there is not a single habitation of any kind." As in La Paz, when a similar courteous offer was made me by the president of Bolivia, I begged for time to con sider the matter. I had so set my heart on seeing Caja marca, so famous in the annals of the conquest, that I did not wish to think of a route that would preclude the fruition of this desire. The fact that the journey by way of Caja marca would be much longer and more arduous, far from deterring me from undertaking it, was rather an additional incentive to my making it. I had come to study the people of the country rather than dark and uninhabited forests, like those bordering the banks of the Ucayali, and I was, therefore, disinclined to allow the matter of ease and com fort to be the deciding factors regarding my itinerary. Besides this, there was the old sentimental objection against the Pichis route. It was off the line of travel of the conquistadores, and was otherwise entirely devoid of historic and romantic interest. The day after my interview, I attended a banquet given at the National Club by the president of the Peruvian Corporation. Among those present were two retired gov ernment officials, who had rendered distinguished service to the republic in the cities of Trujillo and Chacahpoyas. Our host, who had, on various occasions during my travels in Peru, extended me special courtesies, which I shall always gratefully remember, and who was aware of my intention to start for the Amazon in a few days, asked these gentlemen what they thought of the Cajamarca route as compared with the one by way of Puerto Bermudes. "If," said the former prefect of Chachapoyas, "one wishes to get off the beaten track, and see the Peru of colonial times, where the manners and customs of the 266 THE REALM OP THE GREAT CHIMTJ people are still as they were in the time of the viceroys, one should by all means visit the country between Caja marca and Moyobamba. To me it is the most interesting part of Peru. The people are hospitable, and the scenery in the sierra is grand beyond description. To one who is not afraid to rough it a little, the route to Iquitos, by way of Cajamarca and the Huallaga, is incomparably more interesting than the one by way of the rivers Pichis and Yucayali." The ex-prefect of Trujillo cordially endorsed this opin ion. "The Cajamarca route," he said, "aside from being the historic route across Peru to the Amazon, offers many other attractive features not mentioned by my Chachapoyas friend. Not the least of these are the fertile valley of Chicama and the little-known ruins of Cuelap, east of the Maranon. But the place most deserving of a visit is the site of the ancient capital of The Great Chimu. The ruins found here are unique, and in many respects as imposing as any in the republic. No one interested in prehistoric archaeology should leave Peru without paying a visit to this spot." The matter was then discussed by other members of the party with the result that I then definitely announced that I should immediately prepare to start for Trujillo, whence I should journey to the Amazon in the footsteps of Pedro de Orsua and Lope de Aguirre in their memorable quest of Omagua and Dorado. "Who is going with you?" inquired Sr. V , with undisguised concern. I replied that I purposed traveling alone, unless I should fall in with someone on the way. "That will never do," he said. "The journey is too long and trying to make alone. The risk, in case of sickness or accident, in traveling unaccompanied through such a long stretch of sparsely settled country, as that between the Pacific and the Amazon, is too great to justify your making the trip alone. We must find someone to go with you." 267 ALONG THE ANDES AND DOWN THE AMAZON The following day, as I was walking along the Calle de Mercaderes, I met Sr. V , whose face was wreathed in smiles. "You are," he exclaimed, "the very one I am looking for. I have just been to see His Excellency, the President, regarding your journey to the Amazon, and he agrees with me that you should not go alone. He has, accordingly, given instructions that you be furnished with a military escort from Trujillo to Iquitos. This is not because of any danger to be apprehended from the Indians, or from others on the way, but that you may be able to enjoy your trip free from all unnecessary cares and labor. Your escort will look after your saddle and pack animals, take care of your tent, where you may use it, do your cook ing, where desired, and make every other possible pro vision for your comfort during your journey. You will also have letters from His Excellency to all the prefects ' en route, who will be requested to give you special atten tion while traveling in their respective departments." The reader can imagine my surprise on learning this arrangement so kindly made in my behalf. Since my arrival in Peru I had been the recipient of favors of all kinds whithersoever I went, but this last one, so spon taneous and so unexpected, coming from the chief execu tive of the nation, and those who were nearest to him, was the culmination of all the delicate attentions and con siderate acts that had so signalized my journeyings in the land of the Incas. I shall never forget my last day in Lima. I had taken leave of the many kind friends who had made my sojourn in their fair city so delightful, and who had contributed i "Peru is divided politically into twenty-two large territorial circum scriptions which, under the name of Departments and Littoral Provinces, are subject to the authority of a prefect who receives his instructions directly from the secretary of the interior. These circumscriptions are sub divided into one hundred and one provinces, which are in charge of sub- prefects; finally the provinces are subdivided into eight hundred and one districts, which are directly under the authority of governors." Peru in 1906, p. 93, by Alexander Garland, Lima, 1907. 268 THE REALM OP THE GREAT CHIMU so much towards rendering the journey I was entering upon both pleasant and profitable. Beturning to my hotel to give instructions about my baggage, I found to my amazement that it had been greatly increased during my short absence. There was a fine Panama hat and a case of exquisite Bordeaux from a prominent member of the Chamber of Deputies. There was a beautiful silver goblet and a small medicine case from a well-known miner. There were water-proof sleeping-bags, blankets, umbrellas, pho tographic appliances, books and other similar articles, selected by thoughtful friends with a view to the pleasure and comfort they would afford the departing traveler in his long journey across the continent. Never was I more deeply touched than when I saw before me these manifes tations of good will. And yet should I say that I was surprised? Had not all my previous experience in this hospitable land been but a series of similar acts of kindly foresight and unfailing generosity? The day after departing from Lima, which I confess I left with a heavy heart, I found myself at Salaverry, the port of Trujillo. As I left the steamer I overheard the captain remarking to one of the passengers, "That frail man will never reach Para. Only a hardy cholo should undertake such a journey. I will wager ten to one that he will die on the way." This aside was not intended for my ear, but it was no more calculated to discourage than the last words of a fellow passenger, a friend of mine, who was greatly opposed to my journey and who did not hesi tate to pronounce it extremely hazardous, if not foolhardy. Seeing that his premonitions were of no avail, he bade me good-by, repeating, half in earnest and half in jest, Dante's well-known words: "Lasciate ogni speranza, voi qu' entrate."1 The first one to greet me on my arrival at Salaverry . was Sr. V , the prefect of Trujillo, a brother of his 1 "All hope abandon, ye who enter here." 269 ALONG THE ANDES AND DOWN THE AMAZON predecessor in office, and of the one who had so interested himself in securing for me a military escort. "I received a telegram yesterday from my brother, an nouncing your coming," said the prefect after the usual greetings were exchanged, "and I have come to claim you as my guest during your sojourn in our city. You have come just in time for the great funciones that are to take place here on the occasion of the first visit of our new fleet. It is due to-morrow, and for the next few days there will be a series of entertainments of all kinds at which you are cordially invited to be present." Trujillo is one of the many cities founded by Francisco Pizarro, and is named after the birthplace of the conqueror.1 For a long time it was known as one of the most aristo cratic cities in Peru and even to-day it counts many fam ilies that claim descent from the conquistadores or from distinguished Spanish grandees. But most of its former glory has departed and its population is reduced to about eight thousand souls. Yet, notwithstanding its decline, it is a place well worth visiting, not only on account of the attractions of the city itself, but more particularly on account of the famous ruins in its immediate vicinity. I have always deemed it a privilege that I was able to take part in the ¦ festivities that were coincident with my i In his Lima Fundada,1 which would long ago have been forgotten were it not for its value as history, the poet Peralta Barnuevo, whom one of his admirers declares was the sweetest voice Parnassus ever knew, refers to the foundation of Trujillo by the conqueror of Peru as follows: "Como padron de su famosa cuna De la ilustre Trujillo por memoria, Ciudad, a quien apenas habra alguna, Que puede competir su eterna gloria; En la planta que mas juzg6 oportuna, Otra erige del tiempo, alta victoria; Pues solo el que al modelo di6 tal nombre, Copia le pudo hacer de tal renombre." i Por el Dr. D. Pedro de Peralta Barnuevo Rocha y Benavides, Canto VIII, Strophe 38 (Lima, 1732), en la Colection de Documentos Literarios del Peru, Colectados y Areglados por D. Manuel de Odriozola, Lima, 1863. 270 THE REALM OP THE GREAT CHIMU visit to Trujillo. I was thus able to observe at its best the ardent and noble character of the Peruvian when his emotions are stirred by patriotism and memories of bril liant achievements. For several days after the arrival of the Grau and the Bolognesi — the latest additions to the Peruvian fleet — the people of Trujillo were delirious with joy and excitement. All work was suspended and nothing was thought of but balls, speeches, banquets and general merry-making. The streets and houses were gay with flags and bunting during the day, and illumined by fireworks and multicolored Chinese lanterns at night. There were excursions to the country-places of rich haciendados, receptions on the bright, armored cruisers in the roadstead, and rejoicings in every town and village of the department. At the grand ball given in honor of the heroic Admiral Carbajal and his officers, there was a blaze of color and a display of elegant toilets which revealed better than words could tell, the mystery and the potency of a Peruvian woman's toca- dor. Handsome young cavaliers in brilliant uniforms and charming young senoritas, aglow with the enthusiasm in spired by the occasion, presented a picture that once seen can never be forgotten. Those who were unable to attend the public balls and receptions were not, therefore, excluded from the general rejoicing. Everywhere, as one walked along the streets, were to be heard the soft music of the guitar and the mandolin, and, in scores of richly decorated salas, minuets, fandangos and mariquitas were in full swing, to the accom paniment of the castanet and the vihuela. Everywhere abounded buoyant gladness and patriotic ex ultation — feelings expressed by a recital of the glories of the country's past and a forecast of her greatness in the future. "Trujillo," the visitors were reminded, "was the first city in Peru that proclaimed emancipation from Span ish rule, for which reason the department, of which she is now the capital, was called Libertad — Liberty." And 271 ALONG THE ANDES AND DOWN THE AMAZON time and again Admiral Carbajal, the Farragut of the Pe ruvian navy, and the then representative of the nation's forces on the sea, was assured, in words that came straight from the heart, that the patriotic people of Libertad would ever be found loyal to the best traditions of their fathers in all that concerned their country's honor and aggrandize ment. Much, however, as I was interested in all that I heard and saw during this triduum of rejoicing, and greatly as I was charmed by the hospitality and refinement of the good people of Trujillo, I cannot forget the pleasure I derived from a visit to the noted ruins of the city's environs, which, even in their decay, testify to the former existence here of a rich and powerful race about whom little is known except that their last ruler was named Chimu Canchu — The Great Chimu; that his dominions extended from Tumbez to Huacho, a distance of nearly six hundred miles ; and that more than a century before the advent of the Span iards, he was himself forced to become a vassal of the victorious Inca Pachacutec, "the Beformer of the World." El Gran Chimu, as the Spaniards called the former capital of the Chimu chiefs, was probably the largest and most populous pre-Columbian city in the New World. Judging from the ruins scattered over the valley of the Bio Moche, it must have covered an area about twelve miles in length and five miles in breadth, and been the. home of fully a hundred thousand inhabitants. It is comparable to Memphis in extent, and to the ruins of Nineveh and Babylon in the number and magnitude of its temples and palaces. Notwithstanding the long centuries that have elapsed since the city was abandoned, many of the ruins are still in an admirable state of preservation, and, it is possible to determine with comparative ease the plans and the probable uses of many of the structures. ' ¦>'• What most excites the wonder of the visitor is the beauty and delicacy of the arabesques and stucco-work which ornament many of the larger edifices. So artistic 272 Pre-Incaic Ruins of Cuelap, near Chachapoyas. Ruins of the Great Chimu. THE REALM OP THE GREAT CHIMU are some of them that they remind one of similar decora tions in the Alhambra and in the Alcazar of Seville. Many of them were painted, and in some instances the colors are yet remarkably bright. That these adobe structures should have endured for so many centuries and that the arabesques should persist in all their pristine beauty and freshness, is easily under stood when one recollects that it rarely rains here and that, when it does rain, the precipitation is but slight. Al though the Spaniards called this place El Gran Chimu, its original name, and the one by which it is still usually known in these parts, is Chan-Chan, in the Chimu lan guage, "sun-sun," presumably so-called on account of the never-failing intensity of solar radiation. But more remarkable far than the decorations of the buildings are the objects which have been and still are found in the huacas, or burial places in and about Chan- Chan. The custom prevailed among the Chimus, as among many other American tribes, of burying with their dead not only the garments and ornaments used by them during life, but also every object of daily use. The clothes in which the bodies were wrapped were usually woven in patterns and figures of various colors, besides which many of them were adorned with feathers or with small plates of silver and gold in the form of birds and fish. Among the objects found deposited with the dead are mats and work-baskets containing balls of thread, spin dles, toys of various kinds, finger-rings, bracelets, neck laces, pins and earrings. There are also headdresses made of the many colored feathers of the macaw, splendid pieces of tapestry and embroidery beautifully figured, and dyed with colors of exceeding brightness, and richly em broidered mantles adorned with a tasteful combination of designs and colors that are truly surprising. Most of these objects were found buried with women. Deposited with the men, in addition to the garments they wore, were vari- 273 ALONG THE ANDES AND DOWN THE AMAZON ous kinds of weapons, many of them of copper, such as knives, lance-heads, axes and star-shaped club-heads. The huacas are particularly rich in pottery. Indeed, more specimens of ceramic ware have been taken from the ruins of Chan-Chan than from any other spot in Peru. Thousands of specimens have been sent to the museums of Europe and the United States, and, without counting those in the public museums of South America, there are many thousands in the possession of private collectors. Even a few days before my arrival in Trujillo, a friend of mine purchased in one lot more than a thousand speci mens for a foreign museum. How many are still in the huacas hereabout, awaiting the future explorer, cannot be estimated, but the number must be enormous. The pottery of the Chimus is as remarkable for the va riety of its designs as for the artistic skill displayed in its workmanship. In it one will find imitations of every bird, fish, mammal, shell and fruit, with which the makers were acquainted. The human figure also occurs quite fre quently. Some of the heads and faces are so well molded that they seem to be portraits, while others are so gro tesque that their execution would do credit to the most skillful caricaturist. There are also groups of figures, men, women and children — portraying war dances, har vest scenes, games and domestic occupations of different kinds. These are of special value, as they enable the ar chaeologist to form some conjecture regarding the manners, customs and religious beliefs of the ancient inhabitants of this part of Peru. Athough some of the pottery is in no wise superior to that found in many other parts of the country, one occa sionally comes across specimens of a very high order of excellence. In some instances the workmanship is so ar tistic, and the scenes are so well depicted, that one is re minded of similar productions of the potter's art in an cient Greece and Etruria.1 1 After writing the foregoing paragraph, I was glad to find it corroborated 274 THE REALM OP THE GREAT CHIMU Interesting, however, as are the crumbling edifices of Chan-Chan and the countless objects that have been yielded by its extensive huacas, that which has made- the old city, for centuries past, a center of attraction for the people of Trujillo, and for other parts of Peru as well, is the wide spread belief that it contains concealed treasure of fab ulous value. And there is reason for this belief, as the following story, which reads like a chapter from the Arab ian Nights, will show. In the year 1550, a cacique of Mansiche, — a pueblo adjoining Trujillo, — Don Antonio Chayhuac, who had re ceived the waters of baptism and was a legitimate descend ant of The Great Chimu, made known to the Spaniards a huaca near the palace of Chimu Canchu, on condition that a part of the treasures that might be found there should be used for the benefit of the Indians under his jurisdiction. In consequence of this information, Garcia Gutierrez de Toledo discovered, in the huaca which has since borne his name, treasures that rivaled those of Monte Cristo. According to Feyjoo de Sosa, the amount of gold reported by the discoverer amounted to about three-quar ters of a million dollars; but he observes that there was a tradition that the amount secured was greatly in excess of this sum — "fue excesivamente mayor el caudal que el que corresponde a los quintos." 1 Middendorf estimates Toledo's find at a million dollars more than the amount given by Feyjoo, while Hutchin son's calculations, based on the accounts found among the by Mr. F. Hewitt Myring, who declares that some of the ceramic specimens found in Chimu "are so very beautiful that experts on the subject of pottery say that nothing finer has been seen from the days of ancient Greece to the present. This pottery proved, by its modelling and drawing, that long before we had any knowledge of art in Europe, in that country now called Peru, there existed an artistic, sensitive race, who wore elaborate clothing, who were well governed and were law-abiding; Peru, which to-day is to many of us a, terra incognita, was one of the most civilized parts of the earth." The Geographical Journal, p. 395, London, Oct., 1910. 1 Relation Descriptiva de la Ciudad i Provincia de Trujillo del Peru, por El Dr. D. Miguel Feyjoo, Madrid, 1763. 275 ALONG THE ANDES AND DOWN THE AMAZON municipal records of Trujillo, make the sum total of the treasure found by Toledo almost four and a half million dollars in gold.1 Unfortunately for the cacique of Mansiehe and his peo ple, the Spaniards failed to keep their contract and the Indians got nothing of this colossal pile of gold that had been collected by their forefathers. In the hope of secur ing something, the wily chief then told the Spaniards that he knew where there was concealed a similar, but much larger, treasure. So far, he declared, they had found only the peje chico — the little fish.2 There was still, he averred, the peje grande — the big fish — which represented an amount of gold incomparably greater than that furnished by the peje chico. Whether the Indian's story was true or merely a ruse to secure a part of the treasure to which he was entitled, the Spaniards made haste to secure the good will of the cacique, and the information he pretended to be able to give. They accordingly made up for the benefit of him self and his people a collection amounting to more than forty thousand * dollars. He then pointed out the place where he said the treasure was buried. Search for the peje grande was then begun without de lay. The large huacas were honeycombed by excavators, but with little result — except possibly in the case of one Escobar Corchuelo, who, according to Calancha, secured no less than six hundred thousand dollars — until the latter part of the last century. Then a Chilian, Colonel La Bosa by name, described as "the most enthusiastic and persistent treasure hunter of Trujillo, where rummaging i Two Years in Peru, Vol. II, Chap. XXVI. In a note to his translation of Cieza de Leon's first part of the Chronicle of Peru, p. 243, Clements R. Markham makes the amount of treasure taken from the huacas of The Great Chimu in the years 1566 and 1592 equal to £1,724,220 — nearly $9,000,000 of our money. 2 The fish was an object of adoration among the Chimus, and, hence, the frequent occurrence among the ruins of Chan-Chan of objects of fish-like form. 276 THE REALM OF THE GREAT CHIMU for tapadas, or treasures, has been a passion" since the time of Toledo, began a quest for the fabulous "big fish" with all eagerness and fond anticipation of a gambler at Monte Carlo. In the beginning he was rewarded by dis covering gold objects of various kinds, that netted him about thirty thousand dollars. The search for the peje grande now became a mania with him and he devoted the greater part of the remaining years of his long life to ex cavating huacas, but with no result except the loss of all the money he had gained by his first stroke of good luck, and the posthumous honor of having one of the huacas, in which he labored, named La Bosa. It is now three and a half centuries since the cacique of Mansiche announced the existence of the peje grande, and yet, notwithstanding all the fruitless attempts that have been made to find it, and the fortunes that have been squandered in excavations which yield nothing but a few trinkets and a countless number of skeletons, the quest for this legendary treasure still continues with the same feverish activity as it did in the days of Toledo and La Rosa. Thousands have implicit faith in its existence, but where is it? That is what thousands of others, through long generations, have been trying to determine; what still others are trying to find out to-day. Even at the time of my visit some of the leading citizens of Trujillo had a crowd of excavators at work among the ruins of Chan- Chan, and, to hear them talk, one would think that the elu sive "big fish" was finally within their grasp. Here, prob ably, more than anywhere else in the wide world, does one realize the truth of Pope's words, "Hope springs eternal in the human breast." Does the long-sought-for treasure really exist, or did the astute Don Antonio Chayhuac, knowing the cupidity of the Spaniards, invent the story in order to lure them into pay ing him the sum stipulated in the contract they had so shamefully repudiated? Who can tell? The story of the 277 ALONG THE ANDES AND DOWN THE AMAZON peje grande may be like the one regarding the massive gold chain cast into the lake of Urcos, like the stories of untold treasures in Lake Titicaca, in the caves on the lofty flanks of Illimani, in the underground chambers of Cuzco, in the obscure recesses of the mountains of Ecuador. But whether true or false, it is highly improbable that there shall in the near future be any abatement in the faith and ardor which have ever characterized the treasure hunters of South America since the time of the conquest. As I stood on the summit of one of the large teocali-like mounds that tower above the surrounding ruins, and sur veyed the silent scene of desolation before me, my mind was besieged by the same host of questions that had so frequently assailed it while in the presence of other noted monuments of prehistoric Peru. I was standing, so I was told, on the very site of the palace of The Great Chimu, and had before me the evidence of a semi-civilization that probably long antedated that of the Children of the Sun. And, the Chimus, be it said, were as powerful and as much feared on the coast as were the Incas on the plateau, and their capital was, in the temporal order, as noted as was Pachacamac — the old Peruvian Delphi — in the spiritual. Within a stone's throw from me were the remains of ace- quias and reservoirs, by means of which, what is now a bar ren desert was converted into fertile fields and verdant gardens that supplied teeming myriads with the means of subsistence. The crumbling adobe structures below me were then hives of industry wherein were produced those textile fabrics, those objects of ceramic art, those orna ments of the goldsmith's skill, that reflect such credit on Chimu craftsmanship, and suggest so many puzzling prob lems to the archseblogist and the ethnologist. Here men lived and loved for long centuries, many of them appar ently enjoying a life of comparative affluence and luxury. But what a contrast there is between the present and the past! "Let the reader imagine himself, for a mo ment withdrawn from the sounds and motions of the living 278 THE REALM OP THE GREAT CHIMU world and sent forth into this wild and wasted plain. The earth yields and crumbles beneath his foot, tread he never so lightly, for its substance is white, hollow and carious, like the dusty wreck of the bones of men. . . . Hillocks of mouldering earth heave around him, as if the dead be neath were struggling in their sleep." Not a sound is heard except the dull stroke of the huaquero' s pick, as he feverishly continues among the mouldering remains of a departed race the eager search for gold that was begun by his ancestors four centuries ago. No living thing is visible except a frightened fox, as he escapes from his sepulchral burrow and scampers across the arid waste to another covert nearer the ocean's shore. And as the crim son sun slowly sinks beneath the distant Pacific wave "a dull poisonous haze stretches level along the desert, veil ing its spectral wrecks in massy ruins, on whose rents the red light rests, like dying fire on defiled altars." As we contemplate this weird scene of utter desolation and view the impressive ruins of the proud capital of The Great Chimu, and strive to correlate it with the romance of forgotten grandeur, the wonder and pathos of the un known past, and endeavor to form a mental picture of its departed glory, "We feel that Babel's tower could scarce surpass In rude, wild majesty, this wondrous mass; That far Chaldea's sons or Egypt's kings, Sent their bold genius here on spirit wings. Por strange, between each nation, seems the tie Of kindred creeds, of arts and modes gone by." Who were the mysterious people who left behind them such imposing ruins and such evidence of material and in dustrial progress? Whence did they come? When did they reach this spot on the Bainless Coast? And, if they came from the Old World, how were they able to cross the broad waters that separate the Eastern from the Western Hemisphere? These are fundamental questions, I know, 279 ALONG THE ANDES AND DOWN THE AMAZON but they are questions that always press for an answer when one is in the presence of those stupendous ruins that cumber the ground from the smiling valley of Anahuac to the bleak plateau of Bolivia. The attempt to answer any one of them is like essaying to solve the long-debated prob lem regarding the original inhabitants of America, a prob lem which no less an authority than the Marquis de Nadaillac declares to be "a profound mystery and probably forever insoluble. ' ' * If, in seeking an answer to the above questions, we were to confine our investigations to the Chimus alone, we could go back little farther than the concluding years of the reign of their last monarch, and could learn little more than what Garcilaso tells us about their conquest by the Incas, and what Calancha and Arriaga have to say about their cus toms and superstitions. The historian Balboa, it is true, refers to a tradition according to which the Chi mus were descended from a people that came by sea on rafts from the north.2 But aside from this vague and limited information, all else is mere conjecture, and not withstanding the progress of archaeology in Peru in recent years, our ignorance respecting this extraordinary people is almost as profound to-day as it was in the days of Pi zarro. If, then, we could not go farther afield than the realms of The Great Chimu for answers to the ques tions proposed, we might well subscribe to the conclusion of Nadaillac, and declare with the poet, "Primeval race! their story who shall show? They built, they reigned, they died — is all we know. ' ' Fortunately, since the distinguished Marquis declared that "Le probleme des premiers habitants de I' Amerique 1 Les Prem iers Hommes et Les Temps Prihistoriques , Tom. II, p. 95, Paris, 1881. 2 Histoire du Perou, Chap. VII, par Miguel Cavello Balboa, published by H. Ternaux — Compans, Paris, 1840. 280 THE REALM OP THE GREAT CHIMU reste un mystere profond et probablement a jamais insol uble," the progress of research along various lines and especially in comparative philology, has given us reason to hope that men of science shall eventually be able to pene trate the mystery that has so long enveloped the origin of the early inhabitants of Peru, and that, by so doing, they shall at the same time pave the way for the solution of nu merous other problems regarding the American aborigi nes, which have engaged the attention of investigators ever since Columbus gave a new world to Castile and Leon. It is not my purpose to weary the reader by a disquisi tion on topics that have been so often treated ex professo by men who have spent long years on the problem which Nadaillac pronounces insoluble, but a few words regarding some of the opinions that have been held and the trend of contemporary thought concerning this most interesting question seem to be required to complete what has already been stated respecting the monuments and peoples of the most fascinating part of South America. It may be premised that a certain school of polygenists cut the Gordian knot by the bold assertion that the Ameri can race, like the nobles of Athens, is autocthonous, having sprung directly from the earth, and is therefore without any relation to the races of the Old World. Such is the contention of Morton, Nott and Gliddon, not to mention others who hold the same view.1 But so far this theory, although not without supporters, still stands in the same category as the finding of a Scotch jury, "Not proven." The reader who desires information on the traditional view of the subject will find it admirably presented in M. de Quatej^fages' masterly work, The Unity of the Human Species. 1 Crania Americana, or a Comparative View of the Skulls of Various Aboriginal Nations of North and South America, Philadelphia, 1839; Types of Mankind, Chaps. IX and X, Philadelphia, 1854, and The Races of Men and their Geographical Distribution, New York, 1848. See also, L'Homme Americain, par Alcide d'Orbigny, Paris, 1839. 281 ALONG THE ANDES AND DOWN THE AMAZON The number of books that have been written in defense of the various theories which have been evolved regarding the origin of the Indians would fill a large library, but most of these theories have long since been consigned to the limbo of fantastic hypotheses. Montesinos, as we have already seen, tells us that Peru was first peopled by a colony from Armenia under the leadership of Ophir, the grandson of the patriarch Noah. Scarcely less curious is the view of the Dominican, Fray Gregorio Garcia, who resided for a number of years in Peru, and who, as early as 1607, published a ponderous folio entitled 0 rig en de los Indios del Nuevo Mundo e Indias Occidentales, in which he devotes many chapters to the theory that America was populated by the lost tribes of Israel.1 Those who hold this view base their opinion on the apocryphal narrative of Esdras, and pretend that when the Israelites were vanquished and led into captivity by Salmanasar, King of Assyria, ten tribes were separated from the others and betook themselves to unknown and dis tant regions. After journeying a year and a half and crossing a large body of water, they finally reached the land of Anian, which we are asked to believe was the part of the world now known as America. The most remarkable thing about this seemingly prepos terous theory is its extraordinary vitality and the number of eminent supporters it has counted even in recent times. Among these is Lord Kingsborough, who, in his magnifi cent work, Antiquities of Mexico, embracing nine volumes in elephant folio, has spent a princely fortune to prove that it is to the lost tribes of Israel that the New World owes its first civilization. The noted explorer, the Abbe Brasseur de Bourbourg, expresses his astonishment at the Jewish and Egyptian types he frequently noted among the Indians of Mexico and Central America. i Cf . Origen de los Indios del Peru, Mejico, Santa F6 y Chile, por el Dr. Diego Andres Rocha, Oidor de la Real Audiencia de Lima, de la CoUccion de Libros Raros y Curiosos que Tratan de America, Madrid, 1891. 282 THE REALM OP THE GREAT CHIMU Among these peoples, he assures us, "the general char acter of the most ancient stock exhibits many features possessed by the races of ancient Palestine and Egypt. Here one observes the profile of the Jew, the Arab and the Algerian exactly like the types engraved on the monuments of Nineveh and Thebes. There is also a similarity of dress, manners and customs. ' ' 1 M. Castelnau, in his great work on South America, Ex pedition dans les Parties Centrales de I' Amerique du Sud,2 tells of a Jew whom he met at Santarem, on the banks of the Amazon, who declared that, in the idioms which are spoken in the adjacent regions, there may be found more than fifty words closely resembling Hebrew words. Other travelers and writers have also spoken of the existence of Indians in the Cordilleras of Jewish origin, basing their conclusions not only on the language spoken by them but also on their various religious rites and customs which, we are assured, can be accounted for only on the assump tion that these Indians are really of the seed of Abra ham.3 Aside from what may be said of certain religious rites of divers Indian tribes, it may be confidently affirmed that there is no more truth in the purported finding of Hebrew words in the languages and dialects spoken in the Cordil leras and the basin of the Amazon, than there is in the be lief, which so long obtained, that the peculiar language 1 Histoires des Nations Civilizees du Mexique et del' AmSnque Centrale durant les Siecles ant6rieur A Christophe Colomb, par 1' Abbe1 Brasseur de Bourbourg, Vol. II, p. 180, Paris, 1857. 2 Tom. IV, p. 267, Paris, 1851. • The Hope of Israel, by Manasseh Ben Israel, Amsterdam, 1650, reprinted for the Jewish Historical Society of England, London, 1901. Soledad Acosta de Samper contends that the Jews seen in Antioquia in the first half of the seventeenth century were some of the race that had been driven from Spain about the year 150O, and who had peopled this part of New Granada before the arrival of the Spaniards in Tierra Firme. Memorias Presentadas en Congresos Internationales que se reunieron en Espana durante las Fiestas del IV Centenario del Desoubrimiento de America en 1892. Chartres, 1892. 283 ALONG THE ANDES AND DOWN THE AMAZON spoken by the inhabitants of Eten — a small town north of Trujillo, and formerly within the dominions of The Great Chimu — is a dialect of the Chinese.1 But, notwithstanding all the errors into which explor ers and savants have fallen through hasty conclusions drawn from fancied resemblances between the languages of the New and Old Worlds, it seems now that the first satisfactory answer to be received regarding the long vexed question of the origin of the American aborigines is to come from comparative philology. And it looks also as if the honor of solving this age-old problem is to redound in great measure, if not entirely, to South American philolo gists. The first of these to attract the attention of scholars out side of his own country was Vicente Fidel Lopez, of Monte video, who in his remarkable work, Les Races Aryans du Perou, endeavors to establish a connection between the Quichua language and the language of central Asia, and so successfully has he defended this thesis that there are not a few who are disposed to accept his conclusion as de finitive. It is in substance as follows: — The languages, the theogonies, the legends, the arts, the industries, the science of the Aryans and the Quichuas prove the unity of the two races, who have for ages peopled and civilized the two great continents of which our world is formed.2 A second student who has long been engaged in the same line of research is a Peruvian, Pablo Padron, of Lima. In his monumental work, which is to embrace thirteen oc tavo volumes, several of which are already published, he undertakes "to demonstrate the Sumero- As Syrian origin of the Kichua languages, which are still spoken by the in- i Raimondi dismisses this ill-founded belief in the following words: "De todas mis investigaciones resulta, que es absolutamente falso que los Chinos hablan en su lengua con los habitantes de Eten, y que se comprendan mu- tuamente Chinos y Etanos," El Peru, Tom. I, p. 329. 2 P. 341. 284 THE REALM OF THE GREAT CHIMU digenes of this country and Bolivia."1 How successful this industrious and enthusiastic investigator will be in his self-imposed task, remains to be seen. He appears to be very sanguine regarding the result of his researches, and if his labors should be crowned with success, the scholars of the world will be only too glad to accord him all the honor that such a signal achievement shall merit. But even after a connection shall have been established between the language of the Incas and the language of the ancient rulers of Mesopotamia, there will be other inter esting problems to solve, although not of such transcend ent importance as that of the origin of the languages of the American aborigines. For the proof of a linguistic nexus between the languages of America and Asia will con tribute much towards a complete demonstration of the unity of the various races of mankind, and will, at the same time, signalize a most notable advance in the science of an thropology. When the first representatives of the human family ap peared in Peru, it is impossible even to conjecture. But that it was many long ages ago, and probably long before the Christian era, appears beyond doubt. Leaving to oth ers to determine the value of the speculations of Ameghino and Lehman-Nitsche respecting the early appearance of man in Argentina,2 and reserving for the future the task of deciding the relationship between Homo pampceus of South America and Homo primigenius of Europe, who, we are asked to believe, walked the earth with the megalonyx and the palseotherium, and confining ourselves solely to the evidence of man's existence within the present bounda ries of Peru, we are warranted in placing the advent of man in the land of the Incas at a date long anterior to that 1 Nuevos Estudios sobre las Lenguas Americanas-Origen del Kechua y del Aimara, Tom. I, p. 1, Leipzig, 1907. 2 Notas preliminares sobre el Tetraprothomo argentinus in the Anales del Museo national de Buenos Ayres, Tom. XVI, pp. 107, 242, 1907, and Nouvelles reclierches sur la formation pwmpe'enne et V homme fossile de la Republique Argentine in the Revista del Museo de la Plata, Tom. XIV, pp. 193, 488. 285 ALONG THE ANDES AND DOWN THE AMAZOJN given by Garcilaso for the appearance of Manco Capac and his sister-wife on the shores of Lake Titicaca. A study of the ruins on the Andean plateau and along the Peruvian coast land affords incontestable evidence of the existence of several waves of migration. This fact,, which has only recently received due recognition from men of science, is of itself sufficient to prove that the antiquity of our race in Peru is far greater than has hitherto been imagined.1 The argument for man's antiquity, based on the monu ments everywhere found in Peru, is confirmed by the ex istence of domesticated plants and animals. De Candolle, referring to the age of cultivated plants, expresses himself as follows: "Men have not discovered and cultivated within the last two thousand years a single species which can rival maize, rice, the sweet potato, the breadfruit, the date, cereals, millets, sorghums, the ba nana, soy. These date from three, four or five thousand years, perhaps even in some cases, six thousand years."2 When one remembers that some of the most important of these species are indigenous to America, the force of the argument in question will be manifest. Among the domestic animals of the ancient Peruvians were the llama, the alpaca, the allko or dog, a species of guinea-pig, called the cuy, and a species of duck. Of these the llama and the alpaca are not known to exist in the wild state, and this fact, conjoined with the great variety ex hibited in the colors of their fleeces, points to a very long period of domestication. And their ability to domesticate so many animals, it may be remarked, is not only an evi dence of the antiquity of the aborigines of Peru, but also a test of their capacity for civilization. "The inferiority of the African, as compared with the Hindu, is demon strated by the latter having domesticated the elephant, and made it the useful and hard-working companion of 1 See Dr. Uhle's Pachacamac, p. 45 et seq. 2 The Origin of Cultivated Plants, p. 457, New York, 1885. 286 THE REALM OP THE GREAT CHIMU man; while the former, during the thousands of years he has inhabited the African continent, has never achieved any such result, and has merely destroyed the elephant for the sake of the ivory." x How the original inhabitants of South America were able to traverse the long distances which separated the Old from the New World is not our province to decide. That has been a matter of discussion since the discovery of Amer ica, and we are still destitute of positive knowledge re garding the subject. Without, however, assuming the ex istence of an Atlantis connecting Europe with the Antilles, or a strip of land bridging the Atlantic between Africa and Brazil, or a series of contiguous islands stretching across the Pacific, we can find in any one of a dozen theo ries, that have at divers times been propounded by various investigators, a plausible, if not satisfactory, explanation of the manner in which the inhabitants of the Old World were, in ages long past, able, to reach the distant shores of the New.2 Future investigators will doubtless clear up many difficulties still investing this interesting problem, and they may even be able to prove to a reasonable cer tainty the existence of several lines of migration followed by prehistoric man on his way from the Eastern to the Western Hemisphere. Until such certainty is forthcoming, we shall be content with that probability which is the guide of science as well as the guide of life. 1Markham, in the introduction to The Travels of Pedro de Cieza de Leon, p. XXIV, London, 1864. 2 For the lovers of the curious, it may be stated that there are not wanting those who incline to the belief that the original home of our race was in the New, and not in the Old World, and who would see in Homo pampaeus the common ancestor of mankind. Even Columbus was disposed to lo cate the Garden of Eden, somewhere in the continent, watered by the great Orinoco. Following the Conquistadores up the Orinoco and Down the Mag dalena, Chap. II. In this connection one may recall the theory of Brasseur de Bourbourg, who makes America the cradle of our race. According to this theory, the Old World was peopled from the New and it was from America that Egypt and Syria received their domestic animals, their arts, their industries, their hieroglyphics, and even their religious rites. 287 CHAPTEE XVI IN THE FOOTSTEPS OF PIZABEO AND OBSUA In his Historia del Peru, which constitutes the third part of his unpublished work entitled Miscellanea Austral, Mi guel Cavello Balboa, one of the early chroniclers of the New World, writes as follows: "When Pizarro arrived in the valley of Chimu he was greatly astonished at the grandeur and the beauty of the edifices which had been constructed by the ancient kings of this country. It was in this valley that Pizarro, in 1535, founded the city of Trujillo. From Chimu the Spaniards directed their course towards Caxamarca, where Atahualpa had been for fifteen or twenty days." 1 This statement regarding the route of the conquista dores during their march from Tumbez to Cajamarca does not, I know, accord with what other historians tell us re garding Pizarro 's itinerary from the coast to the Andean plateau, and is quite at variance with the opinion expressed by Baimondi in his work, El Peru.2 So diverse, however, are the opinions that have been entertained respecting the actual route of the Spaniards on their way up the western flank of the Cordillera, and so great is the uncertainty which still prevails concerning it, that no one is yet war ranted in accepting any one opinion to the exclusion of all others. And until we have more information on the sub ject, we may believe with Balboa that Pizarro and his gal lant band really did go as far south as the capital of The Great Chimu, before advancing towards Cajamarca, which i In Voyages Relations et Mimoires OriginoMx, p. 313, publies par Ternaux- Compans, Paris, 1840. 2 Tom. II, p. 19 et seq. 288 IN THE FOOTSTEPS OP PIZARRO AND ORSUA then enjoyed the honor of being a kind of second capital of the great Inca empire. It was early in the morning that I left Trujillo and the kind and hospitable people who had made my stay in the City of Liberty so delightful. My next objective point was Casa Grande, the center of the most extensive and most productive sugar plantation in Peru. I was accompanied by the superintendent of the railroad, who was kind enough to put a special train at my disposition, and the manager of the hacienda, whose guest I was to be during my sojourn in Casa Grande. The former was a genial and wide-awake American, from Wisconsin, and the latter a young and en terprising German, Mr. G , who is recognized as one of Hhe most progressive business men in the republic. Both of them were eager to have me see the famous Chi- cama valley, part of which has been noted since the con quest for its marvelous fertility — and they left nothing undone that would conduce to my convenience and pleasure. To both of them I am indebted for some of the most delightful days spent in the department of Libertad, and I shall always remember their courtesy and kindness with profound gratitude. On our way to Casa Grande, which is but an hour by rail from Trujillo, I had an opportunity of inspecting the re mains of the wonderful acequias that formerly watered the lands of The Great Chimu and that converted an arid desert into fertile fields and gardens adequate to furnish subsist ence to the teeming thousands who dwelt in and around the great metropolis that stood on the site now occupied by the crumbling ruins of Chan-Chan. If we are to credit Montesinos, it was by severing these acequias that the vic torious Inca Tupac Yupanqui was able to get possession of Chimu and force its inhabitants to acknowledge the su premacy of the Children of the Sun.1 Quite near the road between Trujillo and Casa Grande are the remains of the great mamposteria — reservoir — 1 Memorias Antiguas del Peru, Cap. XXVII. 289 ALONG THE ANDES AND DOWN THE AMAZON used by the' Chimus to irrigate their lands and supply their capital with water. It was an immense work, and, as a feat of engineering, must deeply impress every one who examines its massive retaining wall. It is estimated that it was capable of containing nearly two billion cubic feet of water, and it would compare favorably with any similar work ever executed in the land of the Incas. I was intensely interested in Casa Grande, as it shows what irrigation can accomplish on the rainless coast of Peru. Prior to 1873 this section of the Chicama valley had long been a barren desert, and the land was deemed to be of little or no value for cultivation. No one then dreamed that it would, in the near future, contain the largest and most prosperous sugar plantation in Peru. But shortly before this time, Herr Ludwig Albrecht, a keen, enterprising son of the Fatherland, like so many of his countrymen who have achieved distinction in commerce and industry in South America, made a visit to this part of the republic. Finding evidence that the valley had at one time been under cultivation, and desirous of learning how vegetation could have been supported in such a rainless region, he determined to discover the irrigating canal that must have supplied the necessary water for such an ex tensive territory. He soon came across traces of it, and, continuing his search, he was finally rewarded by finding the point in the river where its waters had entered the long-neglected and long-forgotten canal. He then pro ceeded without delay to buy up immense tracts of land along the line of the old acequia, and was, fortunately for himself, able to make his purchases at a nominal price. Having secured all the land he desired, he restored the canal, which probably dated from the time of the Chimus, to its pristine condition, and almost before his neighbors were aware of his purpose, he had a large part of the long- abandoned valley of Chicama blooming as a rose in June. To-day the plantation, which was begun a few decades ago under such peculiar circumstances, is not only the larg- 290 IN THE FOOTSTEPS OF PIZARRO AND ORSUA est in Peru, but also — considering that the sugar mills and the plantation belong to the same company — the larg est in the world. Together with the other haciendas in the valley, it produces more sugar than the entire island of Puerto Bico, and the output is of such excellent quality that it finds a ready market. Most of the first grade goes to Chile, while the third and fourth grades are shipped to England, where the better kind is used in the produc tion of porter, and the poorer kind is employed in the manufacture of cigars. The climate of the Chicama valley reminds one of Homer's Elysium, which was located in the western part of the earth near Ocean — a place where there is neither snow nor cold nor rain, and which is "always fanned by the delightful breezes of Zephyrus, " or of Olympus, as pic tured in the Odyssey, ". . . Which never storms Disturb,1 rains drench, or snow invades, but calm The expanse and cloudless shines with purest day." Owing to this warm and equable climate, and the fer tility of the soil, the cane in this favored region is ready for cutting only nineteen months after it is planted. This is much less time than is usually required for maturity elsewhere. Then the quantity of sugar in the cane is very great compared with that obtained from cane in many other parts of the world. The amount of sugar in the juice runs as high as twenty per cent., while the proportion of sugar to the weight of the cane varies from eleven and a half to twelve and a half per cent. The cane is cut every nineteen months and the yield in sugar averages six tons to the acre. The actual cost of the best quality of sugar, when the sea son is favorable, does not exceed one dollar gold per hun dred pounds. In the cultivation of the cane, and in its conversion into 1 So light are the variations of air-pressure in this part of Peru that the changes indicated by the barometer are little more than nominal. 291 ALONG THE ANDES AND DOWN THE AMAZON sugar, all the latest and most approved methods are em ployed. The machinery is thoroughly up-to-date, and in charge of experts and chemists who have reduced every phase of the sugar-making industry to a system that can not be surpassed. The total population of Casa Grande, and its dependent haciendas, is eleven thousand, nearly one-fourth of which is engaged in the mills or on the plantations. The daily wage of the employes varies from fifty cents to $1.20 in addition to which each one is provided with free lodging, and receives a daily allowance of one pound of meat and a pound and a half of rice. The Sociedad Agricola, Casa Grande — so this corporation is called — provides nine schools for the free education of the children of its em ployes. The two schools in the town of Casa Grande, which I visited, are in the hands of excellent teachers and the success of their work is manifest as soon as one enters the class-rooms. These two schools, it may be observed, are named Coronel Bolognesi and Almirante Grau, in memory of two of Peru's favorite heroes. The company has two doctors on its pay-roll, who devote all their time gratuitously to the care of the workmen and their families. Shortly before my arrival, the inhabitants were threatened with the bubonic plague, but thanks to the prophylactic measures adopted, which were in keeping with the latest advances of medical science, the threatened ravages of the much-dreaded malady were avoided, although the number of victims claimed by the plague at points not far distant, where such precautions had not been taken, was as large as its devastations were frightful. At first sight there seems to be something Utopian about the management of the affairs of the company, especially in its dealings with its employes. But such is not the case. Everything betokens the hard common sense of the Ger man proprietors and managers whose efforts in building up their enormous business have been crowned with such sig nal success. There is, indeed, something patriarchal in 292 IN THE FOOTSTEPS OP PIZARRO AND ORSUA the relation between the manager of Casa Grande and the families living on the vast estate under his direction. Or probably it would be truer to say that this relationship is something like that which, in times long past, obtained between the Inca and his subjects. Be that as it may, all those who are connected with the company, especially the peons and their families, are well cared for, as one soon learns who visits the people in their homes. All seem con tented and happy. There are no strikes and none of those clashes between capital and labor that are so frequent in the United States and Europe. The rule governing the workmen, while engaged in the large factory at Casa Grande, may be summed up in the words over the main portal — Tace, ora et labora — observe silence, pray and work. The dividends of the company for years past have amounted to twelve per cent. ; but, if the trust, which is in contemplation, can be formed, it is confidently asserted that the fortunate stockholders will receive fully thirty-five or forty per cent, annually on their investment. I have dwelt somewhat at length on Casa Grande because it is a striking object lesson of what can be accomplished in a few years by well-directed effort and intelligent en terprise. In what, only a generation ago, was but a soli tary waste of parched earth and hills of sand there is now a smiling oasis and one of the most flourishing communi ties in the entire republic. While contemplating the transformation that has been ef fected by the genius and energy of one man within the space of a few years, and observing the traces of the agricultural achievements of the indigenous races before the conquest — traces seen in ruined acequias, reservoirs and andenes still existing on plain and mountain side — I found it easy to believe the accounts, often pronounced incredible, re garding the teeming population that formerly made their homes in what is now a desert coast-land or an arid plateau, and it was no longer difficult to conceive how 293 ALONG THE ANDES AND DOWN THIS ama/jlu-n the capital of the Chimus could number a hundred thou sand souls.1 No better illustration could be found in Peru or else where of the benefits accruing from the reclamation of neglected territory or from the conservation of national resources. I do not mean by this to say that Casa Grande is the only place where irrigation has been successfully introduced in Peru. Far from it. Hundreds of thousands of acres are now irrigated in the valleys of Nasca, Chira, Lomas, Bimac and in other parts of the coast-land. And the remarkable fact is that much of this land has been re claimed by restoring the old canals of the Incas and other indigenous tribes. But the amount of land so far brought under cultivation is but a small part of that which is susceptible of irriga tion. According to investigations made by experts of the United States Geological Survey and Beclamation Service, there are nearly three million acres of land along the coastal region of Peru, that is now a barren desert, which can be converted into productive farms and gardens by means of irrigation canals, or simply by restoring the acequias that were built by the Peruvian indigene cen turies ago, some of which, surprising as it may seem, are yet in a comparatively good state of preservation. In no country in the world, not in Mexico nor in Egypt nor in Mesopotamia, where the watering of the soil re ceived such careful attention, was irrigation carried to such a state of perfection as in the land of the Incas, and in no part of the globe, not even in China or Japan, was there i According to Garland, op. cit., pp. 82-83, the present population of Peru is about three and a half million inhabitants. Of these, fifty per cent, are Indians, fifteen per cent, whites, mostly of Spanish origin, two and a half per cent, negroes, one per cent. Chinese and Japanese and thirty-one and a half per cent, mestizos, chiefly of Indian and Spanish descent. P. Eicardo Cappa, his Historia del Peru, Lib. I, Appendice III, estimates the population of the Inca Empire under Huascar at four millions, at most. He agrees, however, with Humboldt, that in "speaking of the population existing in America before the conquest is like speaking of the populations of ancient Egypt, Persia, Greece and Latium." 294 UN THE FOOTSTEPS OF PIZARRO AND ORSUA ever a greater husbanding of the national resources than there was throughout the length and breadth of the vast dominions of the Children of the Sun. The people in the United States, especially those who live in the Bocky Moun tain region, have much to learn from them, and the sooner they profit by the lessons taught by the Peruvians of long ago the sooner will they see the vast wilderness of sand and sage-brush that extends from the Columbia to the Bio Grande transformed into broad grain fields and extensive orchards of untold value and productiveness. I spent two days in and about Casa Grande and enjoyed every moment of the time. When I prepared to depart, the charming and hospitable family of my good host gently expostulated with me for making my visit so brief. "We had hoped, when you arrived," one of them was kind enough to say, "that you would give us an opportunity of getting acquainted with you, but the first greetings are scarcely over when you make haste to leave us." They all insisted that I should make them a longer visit the next time I came to Peru, and on my agreeing to do so, they all joined in a cordial adios; hasta otra vista — Good-by; until we meet again. "Le pondre a Ud en Cajamarca" — "I will deliver you at Cajamarca," said the good-natured prefect of Trujillo, as he bade me farewell, ' ' and I have no doubt that the prefect of Cajamarca will see to your safe arrival in Chacha poyas." The escort he had selected for me — a gallant young lieu tenant and a private — were promptly on hand at Casa Grande at the hour set for my departure. They had brought the necessary pack-mules for my baggage, and the saddle horses that they themselves were to ride. My own mount, which was provided by my ever-thoughtful and gen erous host, was a splendid, white mule that was used to traveling in the sierras, and exceptionally sure-footed, even along the steepest and most dangerous paths. He was, without question, one of the most intelligent beasts of his 295 ALONG THE ANDES AND DOWN THE AMAZON much-abused race I ever saw, and was so gentle that a child could have ridden him in safety. Like a favorite white mule I once had in Egypt, he could keep up a fine, easy, ambling gait for hours at a time, and seemed to be as fresh and vigorous at the end of the day's journey as he was in the morning after a good night's rest. I was indebted to my kind host of Casa Grande for many favors, but for none more than for the splendid animal that car ried me up the steep declivities of the western Cordillera. Although I took leave of his family at Casa Grande, Mr. G insisted on accompanying me to Sausal, a flourish ing town about twenty miles distant, but which is likewise a part of the company's property. Here his administra- dor, being advised of our arrival, had a delightful luncheon prepared for us, to which every one did full justice. Thence we went together to Jaguey, some fifteen miles further, where we arrived at two o 'clock in the afternoon. Here it was that the noble, whole-souled Mr. G bade us a God speed, in words so touching that I felt I was leaving a life long friend. I had now gotten away from steamers and railroads. Before me was a long journey of nearly a month on mule- back over a mountain trail, and most of it through a very sparsely settled country. But this, far from being a de terrent factor, appealed to me as one of the most attractive features of the trip. I was now about to gratify another wish of my youth — a visit to Cajamarca and a ride from the Pacific to the Amazon. "I shall have to rough it somewhat," I said to myself, "but then I shall be off the beaten track, and shall come in contact with people who have not been spoiled by strangers and tourists. I shall be able to commune with Nature in her most beautiful and sublime manifestations and shall have an opportunity of studying such marvels of sky and mountain and forest as may be seen in but few regions of the globe. With such surroundings, I shall not miss the comforts and luxuries of our modern metropolises." 296 A Tambo in the Andes. .yea*"!9; Scene on Otjr Trail in the Andes. P*E*r" M: IN THE FOOTSTEPS OF PIZARRO AND ORSUA Our objective point for the day was Cascas, a small town about ten leagues distant in the foothills of the Cordilleras. Our path was through an arid district where the chief vegetation was composed of a few scrubby trees here and there, and a large number of representatives of the cactus family. The most notable among these were certain cerei, whose immense size and long, candelabra-like branches re mind one of the giant cactus of Arizona. After traveling about four hours, we found ourselves on an elevated projection from the Cordillera, when, lo ! there suddenly appeared before us one of the most perfect and brilliant rainbows I had ever witnessed. "Esto es buen pronostico" — "This is a good omen," said the young officer of Spanish descent who was with me. "You are going," he said, addressing me, "to have a safe and pleasant jour ney." But his companion, an Indian from the Lake Titicaca basin, was not so enthusiastic about this beautiful appari tion in the heavens. What was the reason? Was he in different to such a gorgeous spectacle, or did he secretly entertain the view of his Indian ancestors respecting this, to them, mysterious phenomenon. Among the Aymaras the rainbow — Kurmi — is regarded as a fetish — achachila — and in some places the Indian mothers forbid their children to gaze at it, lest it kill them. To the old Quichua Indians the rainbow — cuychu — was something sacred — huaca — both because of the beauty of its colors and because they knew that this beauty was de rived from the sun. For this reason, Garcilaso informs us, the Inca kings adopted it for their arms and for their device. But, like the Aymaras, the Children of the Sun had a certain dread of the rainbow, for, "owing to the veneration they felt for it when they saw it in the air, they shut their mouths, and put their hands over them, for they said if they exposed their teeth they would loosen and decay."1 1 Garcilaso, Commentaries Reales, Cap. XXI. 297 ALONG THE ANDES AND DOWN THE AMAZUJN Padre Cobo tells us that the subjects of the Incas con sidered it an evil omen — presaging death or some dire calamity — when they saw the beautiful but mysterious cuychu whose appearance always inspired them with awe. ' ' They revered it so highly that they dared not look at it, or if they did, they would not presume to point the finger at it, believing they would die, if they should do so. The place where the bow appeared to touch the earth they hold to be something frightful, believing that there was there some huaca, or other thing to be feared or reverenced." 1 Did my Indian companion inherit any of these beliefs from his ancestors in Collasuyu'? I suspect that he did, but, although he was usually quite talkative, he chose to be non-communicative on this particular subject. Probably he thought it unworthy of a soldier to acknowledge fear of what is still, as in the days of the Incas, an object of superstitious dread among many of his race. A short distance from where we first saw the rainbow, we faced towards the west to take a last view of the Pacific. The day following it would be out of sight, and we should not again have an opportunity of admiring its vast and tranquil expanse. Never shall I forget the gorgeous picture that burst upon my ravished vision at that moment. If "heaven's ethereal bow," spanning with its bright arch the glittering peaks of the Cordilleras had before been a source of in effable delight, the glory of the setting sun, now slowly sinking beneath the ocean wave, that trembled as it glowed, was like a vision of the enraptured Dante as he journeyed through Paradise. I had witnessed many wonderful sunsets in various parts of the world, but never one that was comparable to this in color and effulgence. I recalled one seen from a moun tain in Greece and another viewed from a hill in Judea, that, at the time, I thought could not be rivaled. The snn- i Historia del Nuevo Mundo, Lib. XIII, Cap. XXXVIII, publicada poi primera vezpor D. Jimenez de la Esnada, Sevilla, 1893. 298 IN THE FOOTSTEPS OF PIZARRO AND ORSUA set enjoyed shortly after crossing the equator and described in a preceding chapter, I considered, while gazing at it, as absolutely matchless. But my last view of the great South Sea will always be associated in my mind with the most magnificent exhibition of light and cloud effects that it seems possible to conceive — an experience that may not befall even the most fortunate more than once in a lifetime. The clouds in question were those of the highest region of cloudland, — the region of the cirrus, "that exclusively characterized by white, filmy, multitudinous and quiet clouds arranged in bars, or streaks or flakes." TEe effects produced on the clouds of the lower regions of the atmosphere are often marvelous. "But it is a widely different thing when Nature herself takes a color fit, and does something extraordinary, something really to exhibit her power. She has a thousand ways and means of rising above herself, but incomparably the noblest mani festations of her capability of color are in the sunsets in the high clouds. I speak especially of the moment before the sun sinks, when his light turns pure rose-color, and when the light falls upon a zenith covered with countless cloud- forms of inconceivable delicacy, threads and flakes of vapor, which would in common daylight be pure snow-white, and which give, therefore, fair field to the tone of light. There is then no limit to the multitude, and no check to the in tensity of the hues assumed. The whole sky from the zenith to the horizon becomes one molten, mantling sea of color and fire ; every black bar turns into massy gold, every ripple and wave into unsullied, shadowless crimson, and purple, and scarlet, and colors for which there are no words in language and no ideas in the mind, — things which can only be conceived while they are visible, — the intense hollow blue of the upper sky melting through it all, — show ing here deep, and pure, and lightless ; there, modulated by the filmy, formless body of the transparent vapor, till it is lost imperceptibly in its crimson and gold." 1 lRuskin, Modern Painters, Part II, Sec. II, Chap. II. 299 ALONG THE ANDES AND DOWN THE AMAZON When one recalls the notions formerly entertained by the subjects of the Incas regarding the beneficent action and potent influence of the sun, and recollects the militant character of their victorious conquerors, can one, in pres ence of such a sunset as that just described, be surprised that the Children of the Sun should address to their father petitions like the following? ' ' 0 Sun ! Thou who art in peace and safety, shine upon us, keep us from sickness, and keep us in health and safety. "0 Sun! Thou who hast said, let there be Cuzcos and Tampus, grant that these thy children may conquer all other people. We beseech thee that thy children, the Incas, may be conquerors always, for this thou hast created them." We turned reluctantly from the contemplation of this magnificent spectacle and pressed onwards towards Cascas, which was still several leagues distant. There was no moon to illumine our path and the prospect of traveling along a narrow trail near deep ravines, and on steep moun tain sides, when we had to trust solely to the instinct of our mules to preserve us from danger and accident, was far from reassuring. We had been told by our arriero that we should arrive at Cascas by six o'clock, but it was now past that time and the shades of night were falling fast and thick. We then realized as we had been so often forced to realize in the Cordilleras of Colombia, that one can rarely trust one's arriero when there is question of time or distance. Bis ideas on both these subjects are usually as vague as they are untrustworthy. For if one inquire the distance to a certain place, no two arriero s will give the same answer. One reason for this is doubtless because they have no fixed standard of measurement. In Peru, as in other Spanish- American countries, the unit of distance for the traveler is the legua — league. But the league, as used in Andean lands, is a most elastic term, and 300 UN THE FOOTSTEPS OP PIZARRO AND ORSUA varies greatly according to places and circumstances. In Peru it varies from four thousand meters to the geographic league, which is more than a third longer. On a level plain it is usually estimated at five kilometers, while in the sier ras it is but four kilometers. Indeed, as ordinarily reckoned, the league is rather a measure of time than of distance. Thus in la Costa — the coast-land — a good horse is sup posed to average two leagues of five kilometers each, per hour. This is the equivalent of six miles. In the interior of the country the same animal will not make more than two leagues of four kilometers each. A mule at the or dinary pace — paso llano de camino — requires an hour and a half to traverse this distance. Ordinarily, however, the traveler who is accompanied by pack-mules cannot expect to cover more than one league an hour, which means two and a half miles where the country is broken and three miles where it is level. We always considered ourselves fortunate if we could average three miles an hour. It was sometimes considerably more, but frequently much less. Peruvians ordinarily divide their country into three dis tinct regions, la Costa, la Sierra and la Montana. La Costa embraces a strip of territory extending from the Pacific to a line on the western versant of the Maratime Cordillera, fifteen hundred meters above sea level. The Sierra comprises the region between fifteen hundred and thirty-five hundred meters in altitude. It corresponds to the tierras templadas — temperate lands — of Colombia and Mexico. Here the white race finds a congenial home and the vegetation of our northern clime has a propitious habitat. Montana in Spanish signifies "mountain," but in Peru and Colombia, by a strange misuse of language, it means' "forest," and is used to designate all the little- known country from the eastern versant of the Andes to the boundaries of Bolivia and Ecuador and to the selvas of Brazil. The region above forty-five hundred meters is known as the puna and corresponds to the paramo of 301 ALONG THE ANDES AND DOWN THE AMAZON Colombia. It is the narrow zone of winds and snow-storms, where the Indian shepherd watches his hardy flocks and where the traveler must often struggle to avoid succumbing to the arctic blasts that frequently prevail in these in hospitable regions. In addition to these three zones the general appellation of Cordillera — which, however, has no connection with the special term "Cordillera" employed to designate the western chain of the Peruvian mountains — is often applied to the snow-capped peaks and Alpine heights which are never scaled except by some daring ex plorer or professional mountain climber. Writing of the varied territory of Peru, Baimondi, the distinguished Italian geographer and naturalist, who has contributed so much to our knowledge of this interesting republic, declares that, "it possesses, in the sandy wastes of the Costa, the arid deserts of Africa ; in the broad Punas, the monotonous steppes of Asia ; in the elevated summits of the Cordillera, the frigid regions of the poles, and in the dense forests of the Montana the active and luxuriant vege tation of the tropics. ' ' 1 It was nearly ten o 'clock at night when we reached Cas cas, tired, hungry and thirsty. The greater part of our journey had been through an uninhabited desert and we were not only unable to secure food of any kind, but unable to obtain even a drink of water. At one place we passed a small hut, where an Indian woman had some fresh chicha for sale, but, although my companions were glad to find here their favorite beverage, I must confess that I should much have preferred a draught of pure water. We went directly to the governor's house, who cordially invited us to be his guests for the night. After doing full justice to a frugal repast consisting of boiled eggs, bread and cheese and some good coffee, we lost no time in seeking much needed repose. Early the next morning we were on our way to Contu- maza. The day's experiences, and the scenery along the i Op. cit., Tom. I, p. 6. 302 UN THE FOOTSTEPS OF PIZARRO AND ORSUA route, were little more than a repetition of those of the preceding afternoon. With the exception of a few wooded valleys, there was the same barren waste, relieved by an occasional agave or cactus, the same absence of human habitations and industrial activity. Now and then, it is true, we met a solitary wanderer astride a patient mule bound for some village in the dim distance, or a silent In dian going to or from the nearest market town. Otherwise the events of the day could be expressed in two phrases, frequently in the mouth of our arriero — cuesta arriba and cuesta abajo — up and down the ever-rising spurs of the Cordillera. While traversing these treeless areas, especially along the water courses, where extensive forests at one time existed, and where forestry is still possible, we were reminded of the wise provisions made by the Incas for the preserva tion of their moyas — woodlands — and which commanded, shortly after the conquest, the unqualified admiration of such a keen observer and accomplished statesman as Polo de Ondegardo. In his report on the part of the adminis tration of the Incas, which concerns forest conservancy, he declares that "the greatest benefit that his Majesty could confer on the Indians, next to their conversion, would be to confirm the same order established by the Incas ; for to frame new laws would be an infinite labor. ' ' x This obser vation is as true to-day as when it was first penned by the distinguished licentiate three and a half centuries ago. So effectually concealed at the bottom of a deep gorge that one cannot see it until one is actually standing on the brink of the overhanging precipice, lies the picturesque little town of Contumaza, the capital of a sub-prefecture. Here we arrived a few hours before sunset, and were made welcome by the hospitable sub-prefect— a man under thirty years of age — and his estimable spouse, who had already 1 Narratives of the Rites and Laws of the Incas, p. 165, translated from the original Spanish manuscripts by C. R. Markham, and printed for the Hakluyt Society, London, 1873. 303 ALONG THE ANDES AND DOWN THE AMAZON presented her lord with ten bright and healthy children. These good people, it was manifest, were not believers in race suicide, and the same may be said of the Peruvians generally. Everywhere one will see large families among the poor as well as among the rich. How the poorer classes manage to eke out an existence with so many depending on them was often a matter of surprise to me. But during all my journeyings in Peru, I found but few beggars and, although there were often evidences of extreme poverty, I found far less suffering among the indigent than I have fre quently witnessed in the crowded cities of Europe. Contrasting the women of Peru with his own country women, the English traveler, Enoch, expressed himself as follows : ' ' The deeply religious practices of the women of Spanish- America inculcate a' strong sense of refinement; vulgar women, such as the Anglo-Saxon type produces, are unknown in Spanish-America. The upper class is refined and proud ; the lower, modest and respectful. Also the con dition known as 'race suicide' obtains no foothold in these communities, nor is it likely to do so whilst the women re main influenced by this (the Catholic) religion." 1 Our short stay in Contumaza, although brief, was, thanks to the exceeding kindness of the sub-prefect and his estimable family, in every way most delightful. As they bade me farewell they all asked me to make their house my i The Andes and the Amazon, p. 157, London, 1908. Similar statements regarding the Peruvian women are made by Hutchinson and Stevenson, both of whom spent many years in South America and had an opportunity of becoming acquainted with the greater part of the continent. The latter, in his work, A Historical and Descriptive Narrative of Twenty Years' Residence in South America, Vol. I, p. 390, does not hesitate to assert that "Chastity is more common and infidelity more uncommon among the Peruvians than in most countries of the Old World." The opinions of Stevenson and Hutchinson, who occupied high official posi tions in various parts of Spanish- America, and were, therefore, able to secure exact information respecting the moral condition of the people with whom they lived so many years, should silence the slanderous reports put in circu lation long ago, and still repeated, by such writers as Baxley and Dabadie as a result of their hasty visits to the countries which they so grossly misrepre sent. 304 IN THE FOOTSTEPS OP PIZARRO AND ORSUA home the next time I should visit their town. "Aqui," said the father, "esta su casa con toda franqueza." When we left Contumaza, our arriero assured us that we should reach the hacienda of Namas — where we pur posed passing the night — by sunset, at latest. But, al though we made as good speed as the mountain trail would permit, we soon discovered that the distance to this point had been greatly underestimated. We did not get our desayuno — breakfast — until long after midday, but when we did get it we felt more than repaid for the delay. It was at a small hacienda, called Chanta, where dwelt a kindly half-caste family. Immediately after our arrival, the mistress of the house requested her eldest son to kill a brace of spring chickens and a fat lamb for us. These were no sooner brought in than the mother and daughters proceeded to the preparation of our repast. While they were thus occupied, I discovered that the father of the family was prostrate with malaria, and through lack of the necessary medicines, had been quite ill for several weeks. I then shared with him the contents of my medi cine case, and was delighted to find that I had just the remedies that his malady required. Considering the circumstances, our desayuno was quite a sumptuous affair, and I could not but admire the skill of the cooks in serving us so delightful a repast in so short a time with culinary utensils so simple as those at their command. I cannot, however, say that I was surprised, for I frequently on the Orinoco and the Meta had had ocular demonstration of what the Indian or half-caste housewife is capable of accomplishing on short notice, with the most primitive appliances and with nothing but three stones in lieu of a stove. When I came to pay the mother for our breakfast, she would not accept a penny. I insisted, but still she would take nothing. ' ' Why not ? " I asked. ' ' I prefer to pay you for your hospitality. ' ' "You have already more than paid me," she said. "You have given my poor sick husband 305 ALONG THE ANDES AND DOWN THE AMAZON the medicine he so much needed, and that is far more to us than money. ' 'Dios guarde dUdy feliz viaje ' ' — ' ' May God protect you and may you have a happy journey." And thus, for a trifling act of kindness, we had the gratitude of these humble folk in the desert and the blessing of the mother to cheer us on the long journey still before us. After a brisk ride of a couple of hours we came in sight of Namas, gleaming through such clear atmosphere that it seemed not more than a gunshot from where we stood. But it was on the flank of a mountain on the eastern side of a deep valley or rather a profound canon — at the bottom of which nestled the quaint and tranquil little town of Magdalena. "Mucha bajada" — "a steep descent," ejaculated our arriero, as we proceeded to descend the narrow, zigzag trail that led down the precipitous mountain side. He was right. There was a drop of more than three thousand feet from the spot where we then were to the impetuous waters of the Bio Magdalena, that coursed along the dark, abysmal depths below. So deep is this rocky gorge that it reminds one forcibly of the Grand Canon of the Colorado, and so early in the day does the sun disappear from the view of the inhabitants of the Magdalena valley that the western declivity of the mountain is here known by the expressive epithet, Quitasol — the sun-obscurer. The descent of the bajada was long and tedious and ex tremely trying to both mount and rider. For, paradoxical as it may appear at first sight to one who is not familiar with traveling in a broken country, the descent of a moun tain, especially if it be very precipitous, is much more arduous to beast and rider than the ascent. As we slowly wended our way down the steep, rugged path in the rapidly- gathering gloom, I recalled Virgil's words, "Facilis descensus Averni, Sed revocare gradum superasque evadere ad auras Hoc opus, hie labor est, ' ' 306 IN THE FOOTSTEPS OF PIZARRO AND ORSUA and compared them with a sentence of Poe's in The Pur loined Letter. "It is all very well," writes the author of The Raven, "to talk about the facilis descensus Averni, but in all kinds of climbing, as Catalani said of singing, it is far more easy to get up than to get down." This state ment is particularly true of mountain climbing, when one is on the back of a struggling horse or half-exhausted mule. Before we reached the rickety bridge that crosses the Rio Magdalena we were enveloped in Cimmerian darkness. We could not even see our mule's ears, much less the path that was to take us to our destination. Then again, as it had happened so often before, while traveling in the Cor dilleras, I was obliged to trust myself to the peculiar in stinct of my faithful animal, who seemed to keep to the path as if guided by a sixth sense. After crossing the river, we soon arrived at the town of Magdalena, but instead of stopping there, as my arriero wished, I determined to push on to Namas, as had been planned on our departure from Contumaza. The under taking, however, was far greater than I had anticipated. For Namas, that early in the afternoon had seemed so near to us, was still nearly two leagues distant and high upon the mountain side. Even after we had emerged from the canon, through which the river flows, the impenetrable darkness still per sisted. The sky was now so obscured by clouds that not a single star was visible. But I had confidence in my mule and was satisfied that he would keep to the path. He was sure-footed and never stumbled and why should I be anxious ? On the contrary, why should I not enjoy this part of the journey as well as any other part? And, notwithstanding apparent drawbacks, I did enjoy it, and enjoyed it immensely. I enjoyed the silence and the solitude, the balmy atmosphere and the delicious zephyrs that played about my tired frame. And I enjoyed the thousands of fireflies that winked and darkled on every 307 ALONG THE ANDES AND DOWN THE AMAZON side and reminded one of the Elves of Light that, accord ing to the Edda, have their home in the Alfheim. What was even more remarkable about these luminous in sects than their vast number, was the intensity of the light they emitted and the length of time their luminosity per sisted. They seemed even brighter than the West Indian Cucujo — Pyrophorus noctilucus — of which Peter Martyr writes that they shine so brightly, that when the inhab itants "goo any iourneys in the nyght, the beare summe of these woormes made fast abowt theyre fiete and heade, in such sorte that he that shoulde see them a farre and igno rant of the things, woulde bee greatly astonished thereat." 1 Indeed, if we are to credit Bernal Diaz, it was these phosphorescent beetles that materially contributed to the victory of Cortes over Narvaez. For "these wandering fires, seen in the darkness of the night, were converted by the excited imaginations of the besieged, into an army with matchlocks." 2 This is not a solitary instance of the Cocujo as a military auxiliary, for we are told that they once caused the retreat of the British troops as they were preparing to attack the Spaniards. "When Sir John Cavendish, and Sir Robert Dudley," so the story runs, "first landed in the West In dies, and saw at night an innumerable number of lights moving about, they fancied that the Spaniards were ap proaching with an overwhelming force, and hastily re- embarked before their imaginary foe." These extraordinary occurrences, in which the firefly played such a prominent role, are even more remarkable than the salvation of Bome by cackling geese, or the defeat of an army of nine thousand men under Penn and Ven- ables, in their attack on Santo Domingo, in 1692, by a large number of clattering land crabs, which were mistaken by i Eden, The First Three English Books on America, p. 241, edited by Ed ward Arber, London, 1895. 2 Verdadera Historia de los Sucesos de la Conquista de la Nueva Espana, Cap. CXXII. 308 IN THE FOOTSTEPS OF PIZARRO AND ORSUA the English for advancing Spanish lancers, "whose galling onset they had experienced the day before. ' ' While admiring the coruscations of these strange insects, which hold within their frail organisms the secret which men of science have so long essayed to discover — the pro duction of light with no appreciable loss of energy — and musing on the great changes in the world's events, that are sometimes occasioned by the most insignificant agents, I was slowly but surely approaching the goal of the day's journeying. At the long last, after being twelve hours in the saddle, we sighted a faint light some distance ahead of us, which we soon recognized was not from a firefly but from a lamp or a candle in our hoteUto — little hotel — in Namas. I was too exhausted to partake of a dinner that the kindly patron proceeded forthwith to prepare for us. Leaving my valiant mule to the arriero, with instructions to give him an extra supply of alfalfa, I took a cup of chocolate and a piece of bread, and then threw myself on a tidy little cot in a cozy room and was soon in the land of dreams. When I awoke the following morning, shortly before sun rise, I felt quite refreshed, and was soon ready to continue my journey. Just then my young lieutenant approached me with a salute to apologize for something which I did not know had occurred. He had dropped behind me on the road the night before, and as he had not arrived before I retired to rest, I took it for granted that he would reach the hotel shortly after I did. But such was not the case, as I then learned with great surprise. "Pardon, Senor, for not reporting here last night. But it was simply impossible for me to do so. My mule gave out when we reached Magdalena, and positively refused to carry me a step further. And I was so rendido — worn out — that I was quite unable to walk the long distance up the mountain to Namas. For this reason I was forced to spend the night in Magdalena, whence I have just come. Both my mule and I still feel the effects of yesterday's long 309 ALONG THE ANDES AND DOWN THE AMAZON ride, but I think I feel it more than the mule. It was a terrific journey and I did not understand how you, with your delicate physique, were able to endure such an arduous journey." I was then confirmed in a belief that my previous experience in the Cordillera had taught me — viz. : that the race is not always to the physically strong, nor to the pos sessors of health and youth. I was nearly old enough to be the young officer's grandfather and was far from having either his health or his strength. And yet he had less endurance than I had. The reason of this, I am in clined to believe, from many observations subsequently made, was that I ate less food than my companions and ate only what I was able to digest, while some of them, I have reason to believe, overloaded their stomachs and suffered the consequences, without knowing the cause. Overeating is always bad, but especially so in high altitudes, and par ticularly when one is unaccustomed to them. We had not proceeded far on our way, after leaving Namas, when our arriero sidled up to me and said, "Mucha cuesta— -mucha — mucha," by which laconic expression he wished me to understand that we had before us a long and a very steep climb. We did not have to wait long before verifying his statement. So steep, indeed, was our path at times that our mules had to stop frequently for a brief rest. Besides, as we were rapidly approaching the cumbre — crest of the Cordillera — they began to feel the effects of the rarer atmosphere, and progress was proportionally slower. In marked contrast with the arid and desolate country through which we had passed since our departure from the Chicama valley were the fertile and verdant lands which now burst upon our view. Flocks and herds were quite numerous and comfortable human habitations, occupied mostly by Indians and mestizos, were frequently passed. On approaching one of these dwellings, our attention was suddenly arrested by music and singing. Turning towards the direction whence the sounds proceeded, we saw a large 310 UN THE FOOTSTEPS OF PIZARRO AND ORSUA number of men and women, young and old, dancing the casua and singing a harvest song similar to those which we had heard in the valley of Cuzco. Horses and mules, on a specially prepared area, were tramping the wheat to separate the grain from the straw, and the dancers formed a ring around the musicians and singers. After each verse of the song, which was sung by a singer in the center of the circle, the dancers repeated the refrain and with apparently increasing emphasis and delight. Even the dogs — and there were many of them — seemed to enjoy the celebration, for they were running and jumping, barking and wagging their tails and mingling with the merrymakers, as if their manifestations of delight were an essential part of the trilla — harvest-festivities. They certainly contributed not a little to the interest of the scene, and enhanced at the same time the peculiar local color of the picture. Nearer the cumbre, on a broad plateau, covered by large flocks of sheep and herds of cattle, were two rock forma tions that were so peculiar that I took several photographs of them. They are known as Las Monjas — the Nuns — and los Frailejones — the Big Monks — and are immense, curi ously-fashioned masses of trachyte and porphyry that seemed to have been ejected from the bowels of the earth, indicating, in the most striking manner, the action, in times gone by, of truly titanic forces in this part of the Cor dilleras. It was on this plateau that Pizarro and his gallant band camped the night before their arrival at Cajamarca. And so great was the cold in this place, according to Xeres, the secretary of the conqueror, that the horses of the cavalry could scarcely move. Even lower down on the mountain side, the temperature, he assures us, was so low that some of the horses were frost-bitten. These experiences interested me greatly, as they were in such marked contrast with my own, for nowhere on my way from the coast to the cumbre had I found even chill enough in the atmosphere to cause me to change the light 311 ALONG THE ANDES AND DOWN THE AMAZON clothing that I had worn in the warm lowlands. Neverthe less, when I crossed this part of the western Cordillera, it should have been colder than when the Spaniards passed this way, which was at the end of the winter season, whereas my visit was more than a month earlier. I know that certain writers have harrowing stories to narrate regarding the rigors of the climate about Caja marca. Wiener, for instance, tells us that the only way he could make his mules, which were unaccustomed to snow, cross the crest of the mountains in these parts, was to ak tach lassos to their noses and have other mules, familiar with these snowy heights, drag them across the arctic belt that here occasioned . them such dismay. This author, in the same chapter, asks his readers to believe that the water courses of the Andes, during the rainy season, rise from twenty to thirty meters in a few hours ! x When he wrote this about the snow-clad summit of the mountain, he must have had before him The Travels of Cieza de Leon, who declares that the mountainous region of Peru, extending the whole length of the Cordillera of the Andes, is so intensely cold that "its summits are cov ered with eternal snow, so that, in no way, can people live in this region, owing to the snow and the cold, and also be cause there are no provisions, all things being destroyed by the snow and the wind, which never ceases to blow."2 The fact is that the crest of the Cordillera in the neighbor hood of Cajamarca is nearly a mile below the line of per petual snow, and the vegetation is of such a character as to indicate that snow rarely, if ever, falls. All statements to the contrary notwithstanding, the climate of Cajamarca is quite mild and temperate, reminding one somewhat of that of Bogota or Quito, where the inhabitants claim an eternal spring. Indeed, Humboldt does not hesitate to declare that the climate of Cajamarca "is much more mild and agreeable than that of either of these cities." Xeres informs us that the Governor, as he calls Pizarro, i Op. cit., pp. 117, 121. 2 part I, Cap. XXXVI. 312 IN THE FOOTSTEPS OP PIZARRO AND ORSUA "arrived at this town of Caxamalca1 on Friday, the 15th of November, 1532, at the hour of Vespers. ' ' 2 With his ar rival was sounded the knell of the great Inca empire, and the day following Atahualpa was his prisoner. With a handful of men — less than two hundred— the dauntless con quistador had, in a few hours, overcome and dispersed an army of from thirty to fifty thousand trained Inca veterans, and the untutored swineherd of Estremadura was the un crowned King of Peru. It was just three hundred and seventy years later, to the very hour, that, following in the footsteps of the conquista dores, I entered the city so famous in the story of the Chil dren of the Sun. And so preoccupied was I with thoughts evoked by my environment, that I was almost unconscious of what was going on about me, and arrived at Cajamarca with little more than a glimpse of the splendors of valley and mountain which make of this old Inca metropolis one of the most charming pictures to be seen anywhere in the entire region of the Cordilleras. i Now usually written Cajamarca. Garcilaso more correctly calls it Casa- marca, derived from the Quichua words Casa — frost — and marca — pueblo, or region. The name would seem to indicate that the temperature was orig inally lower here than it is at present. 2 Op. cit., p. 44. 313 CHAPTER XVII THEATRE OF A GBEAT TBAGEDY Never shall I forget the impression made on me by my first view of Cajamarca. We were slowly descending from the elevated cumbre, which constitutes the watershed be tween the territory which drains into the Pacific and the vast area that is tributary to the upper Amazon. Sud denly, on rounding a mass of porphyritic rock, which stood before us, there burst upon us, like a vision, one of the most beautiful prospects it is possible for the imagina tion to conceive. Before us was the splendid valley of Cajamarca, about a hundred square miles in extent, partitioned off into well- kept gardens teeming with fruit trees, picturesque hacien das, whitened with flocks and verdant pastures of luzerne, on which were browsing sleek and contented kine. In the foreground was the city surrounded by avenues of willows and quinuar trees, and reflecting from the tiled roofs of its houses and churches the rays of the sun which was rapidly approaching the crest of the lofty Cordillera. It was, in deed, a beautiful picture — such as one may see only in the tablelands of the Andes. What unerring judgment the Indians of South America displayed in selecting sites for their towns and cities ! And how they always chose the most beautiful locations, as well as those that were most valuable from a strategical point of view ! So true were their instincts in this respect that the Spaniards nearly always selected the same places for their homes as had, long before their arrival, been the fa vored dwelling places of the aborigines. This is particu larly true of the Andean region — along the coast as well 314 THEATRE OF A GREAT TRAGEDY as in the elevated plateau. The capitals of Venezuela, Co lombia, Ecuador, Bolivia and Peru were founded on or near the sites of Indian towns and villages. The same may be said of Cuzco, Arequipa, Trujillo and Cajamarca. And who will say that the Spaniards were not wise in thus accepting the judgment of the natives? They certainly could not have made better selections. As I stood on the top of La Silla, the lofty peak that tow ers above the valley of Caracas, I thought the location of the capital of Venezuela was absolutely unrivaled. When I subsequently visited Bogota and Quito, I was disposed to award to these charming cities the palm for beauty of site and picturesqueness of environment. But, when, some months later, I was able, from the famous heights of Sac sahuaman, to survey the valley of Cuzco, walled in by snow capped mountains, and to contemplate the glories of the former capital of the Incas, I felt that I then had before me a picture that of its kind, was peerless, unique. And so I think to-day. But as I now recall the locations and sur roundings of the various cities it was my privilege to visit in South America, I think I am safe in ranking Cajamarca next to Cuzco ; for the former, like the latter, combines in rarest fashion all the loveliness of fertile valley with the sublimity of the encircling Cordilleras. But attractive as is the city itself, its inhabitants, I hasten to say it, are more attractive. And what shall I say of their hospitality? I had scarcely alighted from my mule before the hotel where I purposed stopping, when I found myself the recipient of all kinds of delicate attentions from the pre fect and others to whom I had letters of introduction. One gentleman, Mr. L , the leading citizen of Caja marca, insisted on my remaining with him, and before I had time to thank him for his proffered courtesy, he had ordered my baggage to be transferred to his residence. Here I had not only all the comforts of home, but also, what I valued much more, the advantages accruing from associ ating with cultured and refined people. 315 ALONG THE ANDES AND DOWN THE AMAZON What pleasant recollections I have of Mr. L and his charming family! How kind and sympathetic they all were ; and how eager they were to have me enjoy my visit to their mountain home ! Nothing was left undone that could contribute to my comfort or entertainment. All vied with one another in showing their guest every possible considera tion, and in contributing towards making him realize that, although just arrived, he was not a stranger, that in Peru, at least, one could be ' ' Hospes ubique novus, nulla perjgrinus in urbe. ' ' 1 The day was usually spent in visiting the places of in terest in and about the city, while the evenings were devoted to musical and other entertainments provided by my ever- kind and thoughtful hosts. The music on both piano and violin was of an exceptionally high order of merit. But what surprised me was the preference manifested by all the performers for German music. Wagner and Liszt seemed to be the favorites, although there were frequent selections from Mozart, Haydn and Beethoven. The way in which some of the sonatas of the German composers were exe cuted surprised me beyond measure ; for I certainly never expected to hear such exquisite music in this distant corner of the Cordilleras. "But how," I asked my host, "did you get your piano here, having no rail- or wagon-roads from the coast?" "It was," he replied, "brought on the backs of Indians, for there was no other way of transporting it. I employed about forty of them and they carried it by relays, so that the task was not so difficult for them as one might sup pose." He then, in response to my questions, told me many things about the Indians and cholos, that will, I think, sur prise many people who have been accustomed to regard Indians and half-breeds, wherever found, as utterly worth- 1 "Everywhere a guest, nowhere a stranger." 316 THEATRE OF A GREAT TRAGEDY less and untrustworthy. Mr. L , besides being heavily interested in the celebrated silver mines of Hualgayoc, does an extensive wholesale business in merchandise of all kinds, and his operations extend from the Pacific to the Huallaga. His experience with Indians and cholos is, therefore, worth recording, and I take pleasure in doing it, as it is in keep ing with my own observations on these much misrepre sented members of the human family. "During the past twenty years, I have," declared Mr. L , ' ' shipped millions of dollars ' worth of silver to the coast by mules in charge of Indians and cholos and so far I have never lost a dollar. I supply goods to nearly five hundred retailers, whose purchases range from five to twenty thousand soles, and carry them on my books from six months to a year. The amount of merchandise cred ited to these people is scarcely ever less than a million soles, and I can truthfully say that I have rarely lost anything through the dishonesty of my customers." I then recalled what I had seen at Guaqui illustrative of the honesty and reliability of the Indians, and what the early chroniclers tell us about the absence of locks and keys in the houses of the Children of the Sun. How different is all this from the idea entertained by certain people in the United States, who do not hesitate to declare that all In dians are absolutely depraved and untrustworthy. Before departing from Lima I was assured that I should find in the neighborhood of Cajamarca long sections of the old Inca roads in an excellent state of preservation. I, ac cordingly, looked forward to the inspection of these re mains of pre-Columbian times with eager anticipation. Cieza de Leon, commenting on these roads, about which so much has been written since his time, expresses himself as follows: "One of the things which I admired most, in contemplating and noting down the affairs of this kingdom, was to think how and in what manner they could have made such grand and admirable roads as we now see, and what a number of 317 ALONG THE ANDES AND DOWN THE AMAZON men would suffice for their construction and with what tools and instruments they can .have leveled the mountains and broken through the rocks to make them so broad and good as they are. For it seems to me that if the Emperor should desire to give orders for another royal road to be made like that which goes from Quito to Cuzco, or the other from Cuzco to Chile, with all his power I believe that he could not get it done; nor could any force of men achieve such results unless there were also the perfect order by means of which the commands of the Incas were carried into execution. For if the road to be made was fifty leagues long, or one hundred or two hundred, and though the ground was of the most rugged character, it would be done with diligent care. But their roads were much longer, some of them extending for over one thousand one hundred leagues along such dizzy and frightful abysses that, looking down, the sight failed one. In some places, to secure the regular width, it was necessary to hew a path out of the living rock ; all of which was done with fire and their picks. In other places, the ascents were so steep and high that steps had to be cut from below to enable the ascent to be made with wider spaces at intervals for resting-places. In other parts there were great heaps of snow, which were more to be feared, and not at one spot only, but often re curring. Where these snows obstructed the way, and where there were forests of trees and loose clods of earth, the road was leveled and paved with stones when necessary. ' ' * This road, according to Gomara, was twenty-five feet wide, "cut in some places from the living rock, and in others made of stone and lime, and went in a direct line, without turning aside for hills or mountains, or even lakes, — a work, which all agree, exceeded the pyramids of Egypt, and the i The Second Part of the Chronicle of Peru, Chap. XV. Cf. Chap. LXIII of the same work, wherein the author assures us that the road from Cuzco to Quito "was finished in less time than it is possible for us to imagine, for the Incas were no longer in ordering it than were their subjects in finish ing it." 318 THEATRE OF A GREAT TRAGEDY paved ways of the Bomans, and indeed, all other ancient works." 1 In addition to this road in the sierra, there was, we are told, another and a longer road along the coast. This high way, Zarate informs us, was almost forty feet wide, with very large adobe walls from one end to the other. The same writer tells us that Huayna Capac, the conqueror of Quito, went from Cuzco to Quito "by one road and returned by the other, being covered and shaded all the way by over hanging branches and flowers of sweet odor." 2 On these and similar accounts by the early chroniclers have been based those pompous descriptions of the ancient Peruvian highways in which so many modern writers have given free rein to their exuberant fancy and which, prob ably, the majority of their readers have accepted as vera cious statements of fact. But what are the facts in the case? Was there any foun dation for the glowing accounts of these roads which, ac cording to Hernando Pizarro, surpassed anything in Chris tendom, and which, another enthusiastic Spaniard avers, should be ranked "amongst the greatest wonders of the world!" What is the present condition of these famous highways, that were constructed to defy the elements, — "made of free-stone slabs" and "covered with a cement or a mixture of lime and bitumen, ' ' — which were pronounced by the conquistadores to be "beyond comparison greater than the monuments of Egypt or the structures of Bome." Were these roads as durable as reported, were they "so nicely constructed that a carriage might have rolled over them as securely as on any of the great roads of Europe ? ' ' Was the road on the plateau, as we are assured by a modern writer, who accepted as literally true the statements of the historians of the conquest, "conducted over pathless sierras 1 Historiadores Primitivos de Indios, Tom. I, p. 277, in Biblioteca de Autores Espanoles, Madrid, 1877. 2 Historia del Descumbrimiento y Conquista de la Provintia del Peru, Lib. I, Cap. X, Tom. II of Historiadores Primitivos de Indias. 319 ALONG THE ANDES AND DOWN THE AMAZON buried in snow; through galleries cut for leagues through the living rock ? ' ' Were ' ' ravines of hideous depth filled up with solid masonry, ' ' and is it true that ' ' all the difficulties that beset a wild and mountainous region and which might appal the most courageous modern engineer of modern times, were encountered and successfully over come?"1 I shall first give briefly the results of my own observa tions regarding the famed roads of the Incas, and then en deavor to explain how the fairy stories of the early chroni clers have been accepted as historic facts by the histori ans of succeeding ages. While in Ecuador, as the reader may recollect,2 1 made a special effort to discover some vestiges of the northern section of the road that was said to have connected Cuzco with Quito. Not only was I entirely unsuccessful in my quest, but I could not find a single person who could give me any satisfactory information regarding it. If it ever ex isted, it should not, it seems, be so difficult to find at least some traces of it still. The remains of ancient roads in the neighborhood of Biobamba and Quito, that are some times attributed to the Incas, are most probably due to the Spaniards, or are vestiges of roads that were built by the natives of Quito before their conquest by the Children of the Sun. During my travels on the Andean plateau between La Paz and Cuzco, I thought I should surely find something which would answer to the descriptions given of the great highway that is said to have connected the Inca capital with the Titicaca basin. Here I met with no more success than in Ecuador. I saw certain roads on the west shore of Lake Titicaca, that are said by some to have been the work of the Incas ; but of this there is apparently no cer tainty. They may have been constructed by the Spaniards or by the Aymaras. At any rate, they were far from being i Prescott, The Conquest of Peru, Lib. I, Chap. II. 2 See Chap. V, p. 96. 320 THEATRE OP A GREAT TRAGEDY the magnificent highways which the rulers of Cuzco are said to have built through the territory of Colla-suyu. As I journeyed down the valley of the Vilcanota and through the great bolson of Cuzco, I was always on the alert to discover, if possible, traces of roads that were cer tainly of Inca origin, but the result of my observations was far from what I had anticipated. I found vestiges here and there of roads that were undoubtedly of great an tiquity, but they may have been pre-Incaic, and the work of the builders of the Pelasgian structures found in Cuzco and in other parts of Peru. But whether they were due to the Incas or to their predecessors, or to the Spaniards, they gave no evidence of ever having been at all compara ble with the splendid highways that once connected the capital of the Caesars with the various parts of the great Roman empire. Even in and around the city of Cuzco, the streets and roads were at best nothing more than or dinary cobblestone thoroughfares, and are probably in nearly as good condition to-day as they were in the time of the Incas. They are certainly far from being the smooth, macadamized highways, or the roads constructed of care fully cut slabs of free-stone and porphyry that are said, once upon a time, to have existed in the sparsely settled and inhospitable northern regions of Tahuantin-suyu. My last hope of finding remains of the Inca roads, that would even remotely justify the extravagant accounts given them by writers from the time of the conquest down to our own, lay in Cajamarca. Before leaving Lima I was shown a photograph recently made of what I was assured was a section of the old highway between Cuzco and Quito —a picture which represented a broad, well-paved way, that might, indeed, bear some semblance to the smooth, well-swept causeway over which Atahualpa and his army marched on his way from the warm baths of Pultamarca J to the plaza of Cajamarca on the memorable afternoon of Saturday, November 16, 1532. 1 Still known as Banos del Inca — baths of the Inca. 321 ALONG THE ANDES AND DOWN THE AMAZOJN Here again I was doomed to disappointment. The roads round about Cajamarca are no better than, if as good as, those seen in various other parts of the great Andean pla teau. And, although I made special and persistent inquiry of the best-informed people in the city, I could not find one who was prepared to identify a single vestige of road that was of undoubted Inca origin. I then found myself, much against my will, forced to abandon all my preconceived notions regarding the marvels and magnificence of the great Inca highways, the graphic accounts of which have so long fascinated thousands of readers in all parts of the world. I discovered, for the first time, that I had, perhaps, been cherishing an illusion when I expected to find in Peru anything that would warrant the extravagant statements of Cieza, Zarate, Gomara and oth ers regarding what has been so long pointed to by many as one of the greatest evidences of Inca power and Inca civilization. Had I expected too much, or had I been deceived by the Spanish chroniclers and by those who have so closely followed them as authorities for the last four centu ries? I had not, it is true, visited all the territory through which these much vaunted roads passed, but I had traveled several thousand miles along the routes which they are said to have traversed, and had explored those sections of the countries where vestiges of them should be best preserved, and I had found nothing anywhere to justify the state ments, so often repeated, that the roads in question were, at the time of the conquest, equal, if not superior, to those great Boman highways which have for two thousand years evoked the admiration and the praise of the engineers of the world. So great was my disillusion that at first I hesitated to formulate an opinion that must needs be at variance with the generally-accepted view of historians and travelers who have descanted so eloquently on the glories of Inca rule 322 THEATRE OP A GREAT TRAGEDY and Inca enlightenment. But why hesitate to speak the truth, if one's conclusions are justified? I have already quoted the opinion of the learned Ger man explorer, Dr. Beiss, who has, probably, more carefully explored the region of the Andes than any man who ever lived. This careful and conscientious investigator, in re ferring to the remains of the Inca road near the boundary between Peru and Ecuador, which Humboldt had so highly praised, does not hesitate to declare, "I do not understand how they can have been compared to the most beautiful highways of the Romans. ' ' x As to the section of the Inca road between Cuzco and Oroya, which I did not have an opportunity of inspecting, Petrocokino writes: "A few loads of granite setts shot into a road and left to settle would fairly describe the pres ent condition of this famous highway." 2 Bandelier, who is so well and favorably known for his archaeological researches in Peru and elsewhere in Span ish-America, confirms my own observations in the most pos itive manner. "Boads of ancient make," he writes, "ex ist in various places, but they are not after a general plan, and not connected. These roads, or wide trails, I have seen often in the course of eleven years' explorations, and have found them to be ways of communication between neighboring tribes, made by these tribes previous to Inca sway. Bitter are the complaints of the early Spaniards when they describe their first march to Cuzco over the ab sence of trails, even in the vicinity of that settlement." 3 !In his Views of Nature, p. 393, Bohn edition, Humboldt expresses him self as follows: "None of the Roman roads, which I have seen in Italy, in the south of France and in Spain, appeared to me more imposing than this work of the ancient Peruvians." I rather suspect that, had he not been deterred by. the reverence, which all his countrymen entertain for the illus trious author of the Cosmos, Dr. Reiss would have been less guarded in his judgment. 'Along the Andes, p. 45, London, 1903. 3 Harper's Magazine, Vol. CX, pp. 636-637. Larrabure y Unanue, holds a similar view as to the antiquity of the roads in question. "Manco Capac and his descendants," he writes, "must have found roads alreadv made, correspond- 323 ALONG THE ANDES AND DOWN THE AMAZON This statement of the eminent explorer is quite different from that which Wiener makes regarding the network of macadamized roads whose existence through the length and breadth of the Inca empire, he will have it, admits of no doubt whatever.1 What Bandelier says concerning roads being made by certain tribes previous to Inca sway may, I think, be re garded as unquestionable. This would apply particularly to the vestiges of roads along the coast near Trujillo in the territory formerly inhabited by the enterprising and powerful Chimus. It would likewise hold good for the region around Cajamarca, and that part of the An dean tableland which is included between Biobamba and Quito.2 Zarate would have us believe that during the reign of a single Inca — Huayna Capac, the conqueror of the country now known as Ecuador — two roads were begun and com pleted and that each of these was five hundred leagues in length, "very broad and smooth, and so level, when finished, that a carriage might have gone over it." And we are furthermore asked to believe that all this was ac complished by a people who had no knowledge of explo sives of any kind and who were even ignorant of the use of iron; that both these stupendous undertakings were car ing to earlier civilizations, and they but re-established them little by little and repaired them in " proportion as they advanced in their conquests and extended their frontiers." Op. cit., p. 149. i "Ce reseau — tel qu' il resulte des itineraires des conquistadores connus par les historiagraphes de la conquete — est done une reconstitution qui a tous les caracteres d' une certitude absolue." Op. cit., p. 556. 2 Gomara admits this for the mountain road between Cuzco and Quito, for he says, "Guainacapa" — Huayna Capac — "lo alarg6 y restauro, y no lo hizo, como algunos dicen; que cosa vieja es, y que, no la pudiera acabar en su vida" — "Guaincapa extended and restored it, but did not build it, as some say, for it is something old, and he could not have completed it during his lifetime." Op. cit., p. 277. As Quito did not come under the dominion of the Incas until the reign of Huyana Capac, it is clear, from Gomara's testi mony, that at least the northern part of the Cuzco-Quito highway was not the work, as is usually supposed, of the Children of the Sun, but of the earlier inhabitants of the conquered country. 324 THEATRE OP A GREAT TRAGEDY ried to a successful issue while the Inca monarch was en gaged in subjugating the powerful and well-organized tribes of the north and by a population which, we have reason to believe, was no more numerous in the regions traversed by the roads in question than it is at present. To construct two such roads as those described between Cuzco and Quito would, even to-day, exhaust many times over the resources of the Peruvian government and baffle our most expert en gineers with all the appliances of modern science and Yan kee invention. The descriptions of the Inca roads must, I cannot help thinking, be classed among those exaggerations which so often characterize the accounts of battles between the Incas and the conquistadores, in which the chronicler is made to exalt the glories of Spanish valor by recording events that did not and could not have occurred. The exaggerations may also be due to the fact that the mountain trails which they found among the sierras were incomparably better than the narrow and precarious paths with which they had been familiar in the wild, forest-clad regions of Darien and Castilla del Oro. Still another reason, aside from exaggeration, may be found in the fact, too often ignored, that the public high ways, even in Europe, were, at the time of the conquest, far from being what they are to-day. In Spain good roads, even between the largest cities, were quite exceptional. Usually they were so bad as to evoke the historical ex clamation, 0 dura tellus Hispanice! Such being the case, the Peruvian roads may have appeared to many of the Spanish chroniclers, who had little knowledge of good roads in the mother country, as really deserving of the praise they bestowed upon them. But, compared with the Appian "Way or the Via 2Em£lia, over which rolled the chariots of the Boman conquerors, or with the splendid roads in Europe and America, that are now the delight of the automobilist, the Inca highways, on which so much rhetoric has been wasted, were, in the sierras, little, if any, better than moun- 325 ALONG THE ANDES AND DOWN THE AMAZON tain trails. Along the coast and outside of the towns they were probably nothing more than desert paths like those which, not many decades ago, passed through the Llanos Estacados of western Texas. The fact that such slight vestiges of them now remain proves conclusively that they were far from being the matchless works depicted by chron icler and explorer, and incomparably inferior to the noble Via Sacra that terminated in Eleusis, or the magnificent causeway over which the pilgrims of nearly three thousand years ago journeyed up the flanks of Parnassus on their way to the shrine of the Delphic Apollo. It is said that the Inca roads were destroyed by the ele ments and the Spaniards. If they were ever what they have been represented to be,1 they would surely make as good a showing to-day — which they certainly do not — as does the road, still imposing in its ruins, which led up a steep mountain slope to the most famous oracle of ancient Greece. That this tradition, or fiction rather, concerning the roads of the Incas as works deserving to be classed among the wonders of the world, and that, too, in a country in which there were no beasts of draught or burden, except the llama, and no wheeled vehicles of any kind, should have been able to survive so long, is to me one of the most won derful things in connection with the history of Peru. It shows how limited is still our knowledge of this interesting land, and the necessity there is of a more thorough study of its archaeological remains and early history, especially that bearing on the divers waves of migration which have passed over this part of South America, leaving everywhere traces of their passage and often, too, leaving behind them *Las Casas, for instance, who, relying on his informants who had been in Peru, describes the roads as "Cosa admirable y divina," and declares that the one in the sierra, which, he tells us extended from Pasto, in New Granada, to the Strait of Magellan, was so well constructed as to resist the destruc tive effects of the elements for all time — "que ni por nieves ni por aguas puede jamas derrumbarse," Apologetica Historia de las Indios, p. 662, *» Nueva Biblioteca de Autores Espanoles, Madrid, 1909. 326 THEATRE OP A GREAT TRAGEDY monuments like those of Chan-Chan, Pachacamac and Tia huanaco, which equal, if they do not surpass, anything still standing to perpetuate the memory of the Children of the Sun. When such an exhaustive investigation shall have been made, we shall doubtless discover that much of what has long been attributed to the Incas should be credited to their predecessors or contemporaries, and that among the many works for which the Incas have received exclu sive credit, not the least of them will be those famous high ways which have been such a favorite theme for writers on Peru since the time of the conquistadores. As we were returning from our futile attempt to locate the section of the road, which I had been so positively as sured could be found in the immediate vicinity of the city, we came to the Church of San Francisco, said to be built on the site formerly occupied by the temple of the Sun. The reader in this connection will recollect that what still remains of the great temple of the Sun in Cuzco is now a part of the Church of San Domingo. "Let us call on the Franciscans while we are here," said one of the party. ' ' They are charming people and are do ing noble work, not only in the city here but also in the towns and villages for miles around. The people, and espe cially the Indians, almost idolize them, for they are sure to see these good padres among them whenever they are in trouble or when their ministrations are required. The recording angel only knows the good these devoted sons of St. Francis have accomplished among the poor of the Cor dilleras. Their name is held in benediction by all who have come under their gentle and benign influence, and deserv edly so." The good religious received us most cordially and showed us everything of interest in their church and monastery. One could see at a glance that they were true to their pro fession — men of zeal, abnegation and of the broadest char ity for their fellow-men, of whatever faith or calling. They were, indeed, worthy disciples of the Poverello of Assisi, 327 ALONG THE ANDES AND DOWN THE AMAZ,uin and we left them ready and willing to believe all the good things we had heard of them. But a short distance from San Francisco is the site which tradition says was occupied by the convent of the Virgins of the Sun. The student of Peruvian history is aware that there was a temple of the Sun in all the important towns of the Inca empire, and wherever there was such a place of worship there was also an accla-huasi — a house of women engaged in service connected with the worship of the Sun. As in Cuzco the Accla-huasi — the abode of fifteen hun dred Virgins of the Sun, all of the blood royal — is now the convent of Santa Catalina, so here on the reputed site of the Virgins of the Sun, there is a similar institution. For here the Sisters of Charity, those noble daughters of St. Vincent de Paul, who are ever found where there is dis tress to be relieved, or suffering to be allayed, have a school, an hospital and an orphan asylum, all of which are conducted on the same principles that have rendered their institutions so famous in every part of the globe. Here we found the same devotion to duty, the same self-sacrifice that characterize the labors of their sisters in the isolated Llanos of Colombia or among the children of the forest on the banks of the Napo; the same zeal for the work of the Master, the same ardent charity for the poor and the unfortunate as take their associates in religion through the snows of Athabasca, or into the jungles of equatorial Africa, or renders them happy in the pest-laden atmos phere of the leper colony of Molokai. "How," I asked the mother superior, remembering the long and painful journey from the coast to the crest of the Cordillera, "how were you ever able to reach this out- of-the-way place in the mountains?" "To tell the truth," replied the humble religious, "I hardly know how we got here. None of us had ever been in the saddle before, but somehow or other we all managed to keep on our mules and arrive here without a mishap 328 THEATRE OF A GREAT TRAGEDY of any kind. I suppose also," she said smiling, "we were able to realize, as others have realized, the truth of the old saying: 'Quien se guarda, Dios le guarda' — 'God helps those who help themselves.' " "And where did you stop at night, when there were no hotels to be found?" "We were always given hospitality by the people along the road. They everywhere — God bless them! — vied with one another as to who should have the honor of entertain ing las hermanitas — the little sisters, as they called us — and although their homes were often very humble, and they had but little to give us, their extreme kindness and their manifest delight at having the sisters in their midst, made us forget all the little inconveniences and discom forts of our surroundings." These same sisters, I may here add, were, at the time of my visit, contemplating the establishment of a house in Chachapoyas, in the heart of the Sierra to the east of the Maranon. The length and arduous character of the jour ney to that distant point had no terrors for them. They were ready to depart on a moment's notice, whenever obedience called them. "'Que mujeres tan heroicas!' — 'what heroic women,' " exclaimed one of our party in admiration of all he had seen and heard. " 'De veras, son heroinas,' " responded another, " 'y angeles de pureza y caridad' — 'they are indeed heroines and angels of purity and charity. ' How different is their vocation from that of the so-called Virgins of the Sun, who formerly had their home on or near this spot!" He was right. And, ungracious as it may seem, it is safe to say that as many errors have been current regard ing the "Virgins of the Sun" as have so long prevailed concerning the roads of the Inca. The initial mistake about their true character arose from the misleading name monasterios — convents — given their habitations by the Spaniards at the time of the conquest. 329 ALONG THE ANDES AND DOWN THE AMAZON Calling the houses "convents" and the inmates monjas — nuns — governed by abadesas and, maestras de novicias— abbesses and mistresses of novices 1 — from a fancied re semblance to institutions with which they were familiar in the mother country, they unconsciously gave currency to an error in the minds of many that still persists and in spite of all that has been written to the contrary. Had they used the Quichua name, aclla-cuna — chosen ones — applied to these women and employed the term accla-huasi — house of the chosen ones — to designate their place of abode, the misapprehension that has so long obtained re garding their true character would, probably, never have occurred. Then again, the error once started on its course, was perpetuated by Garcilaso, who unduly lauded the lives of the aclla-cuna and their strict observance of claustral rules, which, he declares, were never violated either by those within or those without the sacred precincts of the cloister. But he is practically alone in this view for the concurrent testimony of most of the early chroniclers discloses quite a different story. Xeres, for instance, tells us that on their way to Ca jamarca, the soldiers of Pizarro, at the entrance of the village of Caxas, found "certain Indians hung up by the feet," and this, they were informed, was because "Ataba- lipa — Atahualpa — had ordered them to be killed, because one of them entered the house of the women," who were aclla-cuna.2 i Garcilaso, op. cit., Lib. IV, Cap. I-III. 2 Op. cit., p. 28. Aclla-cuna, it may here be remarked, is the plural of aclla. The suffix cuna indicates the plural of the noun to which it is added. Acllas — the Spanish form of the plural — is usually employed. By a curious slip of the pen, Ficke writes "an aclla-cuna." The name given to the religieuses of the various Catholic sisterhoods by the Quichua Indians of the present time is Dios-pa aecla-cuna — the chosen ones of God. Those who desire further information regarding this interesting, but little-understood, subject of the character and occupation of the aclla-cuna— and the uses of women and children as tribute among the Incas, may consult 330 THEATRE OF A GREAT TRAGEDY An incident of much greater import, bearing on this matter, is recorded by Salcamayhua. In his Account of the Antiquities of Peru, he tells us how Huascar Inca ' ' or dered the acllas of all four classes to be brought into the open square of Cuzco in the middle of all the curacas and the whole army and to be forced to gratify the basest passions of a brutal soldiery. ' ' x Other similar instances are recorded, but the two just adduced show how far from the truth Garcilaso is who, when speaking of the penalties incurred by those who vio lated the law governing the accla-huasi, assures us that that law "was never put into execution, because no man ever transgressed it." 2 The fact is, as we learn from the statements of those "who saw Indian society in Peru while in its primitive condition," the aclla-cuna and mamaconas — outside of those who were of the blood royal — fiustas — were nothing more than "a tribute in women exacted by the Cuzco tribe," and "chastity on their part was only relative, not absolute. The buildings in which such women were kept were neither more nor less than storehouses sheltering a tribute of women."3 Hernando Pizarro, in a letter to the royal audience of Santo Domingo well calls them "houses of imprisoned women with guards at the doors." That the reader may see at a glance how the aclla-cuna were recruited and what were their occupations and the with profit The Second Part of the Chronicle of Cieza de Leon, Cap. XVIII; History of the Incas, Chap. LII, by Pedro Sarmiento; Ramos, Historia de Copacabana y de su Milagrosa Vvrgen y compendiada por Fray Rafael Sans, La Paz, 1860; Relation del Descubrimiento y Conquista de los Reinos del Peru, p. 266, por Pedro Pizarro in Coleccion de Dooumentos ineditos para la Historia de Espana, Vol. V. Discarding all euphemistic paraphrase, Fiske, in his work, "The Discovery of America," Vol. II, p. 345, declares that the acllas "were concubines of the Inca." Their consent to becoming inmates of the accla-huasi was never asked, and if they entered it or remained in it vol untarily, it was usually for the same reason that a Georgian or Circassian beauty becomes a willing odalisk in the seraglio of the Grand Turk. !0p cit., p. 112. 2 Op. cit., Lib. IV, Cap. III. sBandelier, The Islands of Titicaca and Koati, p. 254. 331 ALONG THE ANDES AND DOWN THE AMAZOJN purposes they served, I will transcribe a passage from the accomplished statesman, Polo de Ondegardo, who went to Peru with President Gasca, and who, for a time, was cor- regidor of Cuzco. In his report on the Lineage of the Incas and How They Extended Their Conquests, he writes as follows : — "There was another kind of contribution in the time of the Incas, which was as heavy and onerous as all the others. In every province they had a house called Aclla-huasi which means, 'the house of the chosen ones,' where the following order was kept: There was a governor in each province whose sole duty was to attend to the business of these houses, whose title was Apu-panaca. His jurisdic tion extended over one hunu, which means ten thousand In dians, and he had power to select all the girls who appeared to him to be of promising dispositions, at the ages of eight or nine years, without any limit as to the number chosen. They were put into this house in company with a hundred Mama-cunas, 1 who resided there, where they were taught all the accomplishments proper for women, such as to sew, to weave, to make the drinks used by the Indians; and their work, in the month of February at the Feast of Baymy was taken to the city of Cuzco. They were strictly watched until they reached the age of thirteen or fourteen years and upwards, so that they might be virgins when they should arrive at Cuzco, where they assembled in great numbers from all the provinces in the middle of March. The order of distribution was as follows: "Women were taken for the service of the Sun, and placed in the temples, where they were kept as virgins. In the same order women were given to the service of pacha- mama, and of other things in their religion. Then others were selected for the sacrifices that were offered in the course of the year, which were numerous. On these oc casions they killed the girls, and it was necessary that they should be virgins ; besides offering them up at special sea- i Matrons who had charge of the Virgins of the Sun. 332 THEATRE OF A GREAT TRAGEDY sons, such as for the health of the Inca, for his success in war, for a total eclipse of the sun, on earthquakes, and on many other occasions suggested by the Devil. Others were set apart for the service of the Inca, and for other persons to whom he showed favor. When any man had received a woman as his legitimate wife or mamanchu, he could not take another except through the favor of the Inca, which was shown for various reasons, either to one who had special skill in any art, or to one who had shown valor in war, or had pleased the Inca in any other way. The number of women who were set apart for these uses was very great, and they were selected without any regard to whom they belonged, but merely because they were chosen by the Apu-panaca, and the parents could not excuse or redeem them under any circumstances. Estates were set apart for the support of the houses of the chosen ones and this tribute would have been felt more than any other, if it had not been for the belief that the souls of the girls that were sacrificed went to enjoy infinite rest, which was the reason that sometimes they voluntarily offered them selves for sacrifice." 1 This quotation shows how the so-styled "Virgins of the Sun" were, in their raison d' etre and occupation, toto coelo different from the consecrated virgins of the Catholic Church, who voluntarily and only after attaining woman hood, assume the obligations of a life of poverty, chastity and obedience, and dedicate themselves to the work of iOp. cit., p. 165. Garcilaso denies that the Incas were ever guilty of human sacrifices. The consensus of authority is, however, decidedly against him. Among modern writers Markham sides with Garcilaso, while Prescott, Rivero and Helps accept the testimony of the majority of the early chroniclers, who distinctly assert the existence of human sacrifices among the ancient Peruvians, although "they were never," as Prescott observed, "followed by those cannibal repasts familiar to the Mexicans and to many of the fierce tribes conquered by the Incas." For a summary of the evidence bearing on this question, see Pres- cott's Conquest of Peru, Book I, Chap. Ill, and Markham's translation of Garcilaso's First Part of the Royal Commentaries of the Incas, Vol. I, pp. 139-142. 333 ALONG THE ANDES AND DOWN THE AMAZON instruction of youth and the care of the poor, the sick, the helpless and the unfortunate. Adjoining the convent of the Sisters of Charity and a part of the property within their enclosure, is what is represented to be the building in which was collected the famous ransom of Atahualpa. I know that Lorente 1 as serts that this historic structure was recently destroyed, but I think he must confound the captive's prison, which has disappeared, with the chamber in which the ransom was stored, which was in a different part of the city. At all events, tradition in Cajamarca, which seems to be well founded and is generally accepted, points to this building on the premises of the sisters as El Palacio del Inca — the house of Atahualpa 's ransom. With the kind assistance of the prefect I measured the building and found its inside dimensions to be as follows: Length 32 feet 9 inches Width 20 " 9 " Height 10 " 8 "2 The wall is thirty-four and a half inches thick and built of the same kind of massive dressed stone that is found in the old Inca palaces and temples of Cuzco and Ollantay- tambo. There seems no doubt about the antiquity of the structure, and the architecture in all its details is decidedly Incaic. The height to which Atahualpa agreed to fill this build ing with gold and silver, chiefly in the form of ornaments and domestic utensils, as the price of his liberty, was nine feet, or as Hernando Pizarro expresses it, "up to the white line, which was the height of a man and a half from the floor." The value of the treasure actually collected, ac- i Historia de la Conquista del Peru, p. 161, Lima, 1861. 2 This agrees closely with the dimensions — evidently not intended to be exact — given by Hernando Pizarro in his Letter to the Royal Audience of Santo Domingo, in which he states that "the room was seventeen, or eighteen feet wide, and thirty-five feet long." Reports of the Discovery of Peru, 1>. 120, translated by C. R. Markham for the Hakluyt Society, London, 1872. 334 a