>YALH«¥JMII¥EI!^inrY° Deposited by the Linonian and Brothers Library / fcz^ Deposited in the Linonian and Brothers Library P7 Z7 OVER THE ANDES THE HEAD OF AN ARGENTINE STEER CAME ROUND THE CURVE. C- OVER THE ANDES OUR BOYS IN NEW SOUTH AMERICA A TALE OF TRAVEL AND ADVENTURE BY HEZEKIAH BUTTERWORTH AUTHOR OF " JN THE BOYHOOD OF LINCOLN," " BOYS OF GREENWAY COURT," "THE PATRIOT SCHOOLMASTER," "THE ZIG-ZAG BOOKS," ETC. ILLUSTRATED BY HENRY SANDHAM BOSTON, U.S.A. W. A. WILDE & COMPANY 25 Bromfield Street Copyright, 1897, By W. A. Wilde & Company. AU rights reserved. OVER THE ANDES. ^Q.w,^ PREFACE. IN 1895 the writer made a journey from Southampton, England, to Buenos Ayres, and crossed the Cordillera by the Transandine railroad and by mule, and visited the port cities on the west coast, studying all available sources of information in regard to the prospects of these develop ing countries, that several thoughtful writers have prophesied will one day rival the ancient nations of the world. We have been asked to give a view of what we saw and learned in a narrative lighted with historical incidents, stories, anecdotes, and pictures, in such a way as to interest the reader to seek larger information in historical and scientific works. This we have aimed to do. Since their independence, many of the Republics of the Sun have had a dramatic history. Their material progress has been associated with North American enterprise. To the antiquarian the equato rial regions must ever be interesting, and to the naturalist the Gran Chaco is a wonderland. The story of the achieve ments of William Wheelwright — who was shipwrecked at Buenos Ayres — to inaugurate a system of safe harbors, the Pacific Mail Navigation Company, and to plan the Trans andine railroad, is one which the American boy may read 5 PREFACE. with profit. This man was the Franklin of the Andes, and the hero of peace, who fitly followed the accomplishment of the heroes of the liberation, — Bolivar and San Martin. The Transandine railroad, which we have endeavored to picture in the old cocoa trader's excursion with his two nephews, is to be one of the most important highways of the world. This via eminentia passes amid scenery in com parison with which Mont Blanc, the monarch mountain of Europe, might wear Mt. Washington, the glory of New Eng land, as a hood, and under its summits flow the two oceans of the principal ports of travel and trade. Sarmiento, the apostle of education in South America, the beneficent President of Argentina, and a friend of Horace Mann, Mrs. Mann, Charles Sumner, and Elizabeth Palmer Peabody, used to say that, "the primary school was the foundation of national character." Dom Pedro of Brazil had a like view. Sarmiento introduced the North American normal school into Argentina, and Dom Pedro sought to implant the kindergarten school in Brazil. The Froebel school is finding a place in the development of Argentine education. These facts will account for the character of Arline in our narrative. Ever since the Pan-American Congress, there has been a growing interest in our country in South American trade and opportunities for business. The two boys who figure in the narrative go to South America with an old merchant — a cocoa trader — to make a study of the history of the country and these commercial opportunities, a subject to which the sons of English and German merchants give much attention in preparation for a business life. PREFACE. 7 The narrative follows the "Zigzag" plan of interpolated stories. We are indebted to the Review of Reviews and the Kindergarten Magazine for the use of some matter which we originally wrote for those periodicals, and to the Ladies Home Companion for permission to copy, in an abridged form, a story which we originally wrote for it, " The Little Goose that Came Back." The poem on San Martin appeared in the Buenos Ayres Herald, after the manner of the narra tive, and the poem, " Night in the Andes," was originally contributed to a Madison Garden Charity Fair. Should the book find interested readers, we may continue the narrative through Mexico to the forests of Nicaragua, and the rivers and lake which are likely to form a part of the proposed gateway of the three Americas and two worlds — the Nicaragua Canal. 28 Worcester Street, Boston, Mass. CONTENTS. CHAPTER I. PAGE Captain Frobisher's Stories of the Heroes of the Andes . . . -13 CHAPTER II. Uncle Henry Frobisher, " Our Boys," and Arline 24 CHAPTER III. Captain Henry's Story of "The Bell-Mule of the Andes " ... 35 CHAPTER IV. " Our Boys " — Why they wished to visit South America — Arline causes a Surprise — She wishes to go to the Nitrate Desert of Tarapaca — Why? 43 CHAPTER V. Why Arline wished to visit Peru — " Aunt Mary White, the Golden " — The Most Wonderful Birds in the World — The Inca Bird, whose Plumes were Jewels ............ 52 CHAPTER VI. Uncle Henry at Home — Arline's Views of Elizabeth Peabody and Kinder gartens — The Story of Professor Gould and his South American Observ atory — Uncle Henry — New Holidays — His Story of "The Little Goose that came back " . . . . . . . . . .62 CHAPTER VII. To La Guayra for Caracas — First View of the Andes — The People turn out to meet them — A Little List 85 CHAPTER VIII. Caracas and the Land of the Chocolate Plant 92 CHAPTER IX. Arline at the American Minister's — The Lantern of Maracaibo — The Story of Simon Bolivar at the Earthquake at Caracas ..... 102 CHAPTER X. Para and the Monarch of Rivers — The Victoria Regia — The Rubber Groves — A Consular Tale ...... . . 110 CHAPTER XI. The Most Beautiful Harbor in All the World — Coffee — Loro . . . 125 CHAPTER XII. " What is the matter, Loro ? " — The Deep Sea — Beautiful Buenos Ayres . 134 CHAPTER XIII. Buenos Ayres, the Beautiful 141 CHAPTER XIV. The Wonders of Buenos Ayres — The Recoleta — The Largest Commercial Roof in the World — Dr. Dee — The North American Normal School — Stories at Dr. Dee's . .... . . 155 CHAPTER XV. In Buenos Ayres and Montevideo — Arline and Leigh go shopping with Remarkable Results 169 9 10 CONTENTS. CHAPTER XVI. page Up the Parana, Rosario — The Estancia California — Tales of the Gran Chaco ... 179 CHAPTER XVII. The Cattle Doctor of the Gran Chaco 194 CHAPTER XVIII. Strange People of the Pampas and the Coast 202 CHAPTER XIX. The Andes 222 CHAPTER XX. Over the Cordillera — The Transandine Railway 227 CHAPTER XXI. Over the Cordillera 240 CHAPTER XXII. A Storm — The Old Arriero — Nervous Mr. Cottle — In the Posada . . 247 CHAPTER XXIII. The Conductor's Story of Mr. Allwrong and the Wild Arriero . . . 253 CHAPTER XXIV. The Mountaineer's Story of the Muleteer of Coquimbo — -The Newspaper Man's Story of General Pringle and the " Step of Victory " . . . 260 CHAPTER XXV. An Unexpected Episode — Terror — Morning in the Andes . . . 275 CHAPTER XXVI. Morning in the Andes — To Santiago de Chili — The Story of President Balmaceda ............ 281 CHAPTER XXVII. The South American Poets — Leigh wishes to study in Santiago — A Remi niscence of a Night in the Andes . . . . . . . .291 CHAPTER XXVIII. The West Coast — Iquique and Lima — Tarapaca — The High Railroad to Titicaca — Cuzco ........... 308 CHAPTER XXIX. Lima, "The Pearl of the Pacific" — Aunt Blanco, the Golden — She is a Kindergartner — Arline remains in Lima ...... 323 CHAPTER XXX. The Land of the Emeralds — The Incas in their Glory — To Panama . . 339 CHAPTER XXXI. Guayaquil — The Story of "the Conqueror who gambled away the Golden Sun " — Uncle Henry's Tale of his First Visit to Guayaquil . . . 356 CHAPTER XXXII. Panama — The Harbor of Pearls — The Story of the Astrologer of Darien . 364 ILLUSTRATIONS. " The head of an Argentine steer . . . came round the curve " Frontispiece 41 " The harbor was full of boats, and the air of birds " 87 " Pierre knew that this flower would gain the reward " . . .124 Hunting the Rhea, or South American Ostrich . . . 206 " The railway climbs the Andes through rocky walls and roaring streams " . ....... 240 OVER THE ANDES. o^Ko CHAPTER I. CAPTAIN FROBISHER'S STORIES OF THE HEROES OF THE ANDES. CAPTAIN HENRY FROBISHER was an old merchant sea-captain, who had acquired a considerable fortune by trading on the east and west coast of South America. He was a popular story-teller, and he used often to entertain his family and friends by tales of his travels and advent ures. These chiefly related to South American life, and were somewhat different from those of most other countries. He lived at Milton, Mass. The town was famous in Revolutionary times as the place of the Suffolk Resolves, which led the way to the Declaration of Independence, and the house in which these resolute Resolves were passed still stands. It is a beautiful bowery town of fine residences, new and old. Here is a famous chocolate factory, one of the pro prietors of which has recently died, leaving a large fortune to many charities, and to his friends who had helped him make his money. Of this philanthropist, who was then Mayor of Boston, Wendell Phillips once said, that if Diog- 13 14 OVER THE ANDES. enes were to come to the city in search of an honest man, he might find him in the mayor's chair, and the same honest mayor and congressman — think of that ! — used to say that he would rather make a good thing than to get a large price for a poor one. When he died, something passed out of every heart that he had met. Uncle Henry had been engaged in the importation of cocoa ; not for the Milton factories, for we imagine these manufactories purchased their cocoa beans in many places and of many importers. He had also imported vanilla many years ago from Peru, but in recent years from the Mexican ports. To these articles of merchandise he added coffee, dyewoods, the Peruvian bark, and fruits and spices. There were several old sea-captains living in Milton, and these used to call upon Captain Henry at times, and talk over their experiences in the almost unknown countries on the South American coasts. When- one of these merchant tradesmen came to see Captain Henry in summer time, as it often happened, and the two sat down together on the wide veranda under the trees, there were certain boys and one girl that were sure to be found within range of hearing. The boys were students, and were beginning to consider what new opportunities the world and possibly the South American world might offer them ; and the old merchant's stories thus had a double attraction to them. As for the girl, she liked to listen to what interested the bright boys, after the manner that girls usually are pleased to read boys' books. It is a fiery evening in July, — vacation time, — and old CAPTAIN FROBISHER S STORIES OF THE ANDES. 1 5 Captain Long has come over to call on Captain Henry to discuss the Venezuela question, and to explain to him what complications and even wars might arise should the United States continue to pursue towards all of the South Ameri can republics the course that she had adopted in regard to Venezuela. "I tell you, Captain Frobisher," said Captain Long, "the time is coming when the overcrowded populations of Europe will be seeking new countries for emigration. They will come to understand the value of the empty table-lands of South America, and go there, even as now there is a new Italy and a new race forming in the Argentine Republic under the Andes. Then what complications may arise ! " Captain Long had a great cane, and at these ominous words he brought it down on the veranda with a great thump. At this sound a boy's head appeared. It was not the thump of the cane that had brought this boy suddenly to light, but the expectation that stories would follow politics. "A great English poet," said Captain Long, "has said that the greatest development of America will yet take place on the table-lands of the Andes. Why not ? It was so in the ages before the discovery. The author of ' Social Evolution ' says the same thing. Why not ? Everything will grow on the table-lands of the Andes ! " He gave his cane another tremendous thump, and another boy appeared. He, too, was hoping that the political breeze on the veranda would soon blow over, and that he might be allowed to listen to something more interesting. "Why," he added, "Sarmiento used to say that Buenos Ayres would become the biggest city in the three Americas. 1 6 OVER THE ANDES. Why not ? She is becoming one of the handsomest now ! " He gave his cane another thump, and this time a girl appeared. "Your audience is growing," said Captain Henry. " So I see, Captain. It's coming, Captain Frobisher, it is coming. Mexico and Japan have been the surprises of this last half of the century. The countries of the South Temperate Zone will be among the wonders of the next half century : the Argentine Republic, Chili, Peru, and the min ing regions under the equator. They are empty lands, but they have everything to offer to empty hands. "And Captain Henry, when that time does come, those countries will owe much of their prosperity and greatness to an American boy — " " Who, sir ? " asked boy number one. " Please to tell us something about that boy," said boy number two. " Do, Captain Long," said the girl, who added in a lower voice to the two boys : " That will lead to a more interesting story. I love to sit in the shade and hear sea-captains tell stories." The two boys nodded. Captain Long, as well as Captain Henry Frobisher, en joyed telling a story. " Well," he said, " I cannot refuse the request of my girl to tell a story about a boy who is my hero." He did so, and not without some picturesque words and real enthu siasm. CAPTAIN FROBISHER'S STORIES OF THE ANDES. I J THE STORY OF A SHIPWRECKED CAPTAIN WHO CHANGED THE OCEAN AND THE ANDES. In the year 1789 there was born at Newburyport, Mass., a remarkable boy, who became justly illustrious in South Amer ica, but whose history is but little known in North America, or even in the state that gave him birth. His father was descended from an ancient family in Lincolnshire, England. He was educated at Andover Academy. This man came to see in his mental eye new ports for South America, new systems of navigation, and a railroad over the Andes. He neither fought battles, held high offices, nor sought any place among the names of ambition ; but he, by a purely disinter ested character, put the world under obligation to him, and left a name to rise ever higher as a star in the history of human achievement. He stands for South American prog ress ; he became the soul of it. Peace has her heroes ; this man was one of them. (Here the captain made an exclama tion point with a thump of his cane.) The foreigner is an all-important factor in the develop ment of South America. The Andes beckon. The heroes of the Andes in history have been Bolivar and San Martin. They prepared the way for liberty. The peace-hero of the Andes is he whose wonderful story we are about to relate. (More punctuation.) Men who distinguish themselves in pursuits that benefit others give but little thought to their own personal history. This was the case of William Wheelwright. He never so much as left a scrap history of his personal struggles and achievements. 1 8 OVER THE ANDES. Wheelwright had a nature that loved the sea. He early launched out upon it, and became a sea-captain before he became of age. His higher education, to a mind like his, the highest, came from the merchant ship. Trade took him to South America, and he there saw the marvellous opportunity of the Republics of the Sun. A shipwreck on the South American coast taught him his first lesson in industrial improvement, and revealed to him his mission. Why was he shipwrecked ? Why were others likely to fare the same ? Partly for the want of light-houses, harbor works, coast directions. There was a great need of a new pilotage, buoys, charts, and improvements on this palmy coast, so serene in fair weather, so terrible in foul. The great need of South America was harbors. Who was to be the hero of harbors in these Republics of the Sun ? Wheelwright first arrived in Buenos Ayres, in the presi dency of Rivadavia, a man whose heart was in the enlarge ment of his country. He remained but a short time on the river Plata. The rule of Rosas, one of the South American tyrants, followed. He went elsewhere. The republics which had been made victorious by Bolivar and San Martin were now looking towards public improve ments. They must have safe harbors and good roads for trade. They must bring to the work minds skilled in such enterprises. They found such an one in Wheelwright. He began to map out in his mind the highways of the coast and the Andean Alps. When he returned to Buenos Ayres, Urquiza, the conqueror of the tyrant Rosas, was in power, and desired to open the river ports to the commerce of the world. CAPTAIN FROBISHER S STORIES OF THE ANDES. 1 9 As his co-operator in this work, which was to change the attitude of the whole country to the world, he engaged the once shipwrecked Massachusetts sea-captain, William Wheel wright. A translator of a Spanish work on Wheelwright says that he " had two births, two lives, two countries," and adds : " Wheelwright was the gift which the waves of the Rio de la Plata brought to South America. The vessel on which he was wrecked went to pieces at Otiz. He adopted the coun try of his shipwreck, not after the manner of the early Span ish adventurers, but to become its benefactor." The young Newburyport captain found himself at the port of Buenos Ayres in utter destitution. His only provision for a new life was his mind and heart. The people of Buenos Ayres received the shipwrecked captain with open doors, and it paid them well. For he not only created, as it were, the port of Taboga in the Bay of Panama, and that of Cal- dara in Chili, but glorious Ensenada, the seaway by which ships sail into the pampas to the deep seaport some thirty miles from Buenos Ayres. After his shipwreck he first went around Cape Horn. What was the need of the coast ? Harbors, light-houses, charts, ports. He desired to see these things, but what was he, a shipwrecked mariner from Newburyport, to make a new ocean world ? He at last established himself at Guayaquil, the principal harbor of the then Republic of Colombia, now of Ecuador. Here on account of his fitness for the place, he was appointed United States Consul, and in this consulate he found his feet firmly planted on the ladder of life. The position brought 20 OVER THE ANDES. him into association with great leaders of liberty in South America. It was the period of the emancipation from Spanish rule, and of the remodelling of the new republics after the manner of the government of the United States. He found himself a needed man in a needed place. The victories of peace awaited him. The Isthmus of Panama then belonged to Colombia. This was the road across the continent from sea to sea. After a residence here, commerce called him to Chili, to establish a line of pickets between Valparaiso and Bolivia. Here a great vision filled his mind. It was a line of steamers between Valparaiso and Panama and Europe. Step by step, the ladder ascends. Steam was in its early stage of development then. Wheelwright desired co-operation in this then great scheme. He went to the British Consul. His views were received coolly. He seems to have gone to the same place again and again. The British Consul regarded his views as an impertinence. " Servant," he said one day, " if that insane Wheelwright calls to see me again, deny him admittance." The boys laughed at him in the streets of Lima, Peru, when his plans for a coast line of steamers had become publicly known. But " that insane Wheelwright " was not to be deterred by a sneer. He went from capital to capital among commercial men urging his plan, and to London, and by influence at last prevailed, and he broke up the old lines of navigation ; set ocean palaces on the calm Pacific ; and set the clock of the CAPTAIN FROBISHER S STORIES OF THE ANDES. 21 ocean world to begin a new era. The new navigation de manded new harbors and ports ; it made them. It is not recorded what the British Consul thought of " that insane Wheelwright " now. The Comercio of Lima, Peru, describes the arrival of the first steamer of the Pacific Steam Navigation Company: — "Yesterday," it said, "the city presented a holiday scene. Every one who could went to Callao (the port of Lima), everything on wheels, even to old-fashioned volantes." The name of the steamer was the " Peru." "Oh," said the paper, "that some one would begin a rail road between Callao and Lima ! " Wheelwright was even then dreaming of such a road. Callao and Lima are practically one now. Wheelwright had a long battle with the old Spanish colonial systems in his efforts to make a new line of travel on the Pacific coast. When his plans had triumphed, and he had become recognized as a benefactor, a new scheme en tered his mind. It was a railroad over the Andes. Step by step. The conservatives of the old cities thought that he' must surely be insane now. The dream of the Transandine railroad brought him back to the La Plata, where he was cast up by the sea. A man is a debtor to his profession, and he should live in a place that best inspires his work. This place for Wheelwright now was the growing capital of the Argentina. He had united the republics of the south with Europe, he now desired to unite the two oceans by rail, from Buenos Ayres to Valparaiso, and to make these ports fitted for such a wedding. His scheme was derided and opposed by the conservatives 22 OVER THE ANDES. of both Argentina and Chili. He was to many "that insane Wheelwright " again. He well knew now that opposition is the price of success. He would bow the Andes as he had bound the sea. If Nature resisted him, he " would compel her to obey." He began on connecting links of this great scheme which came to him as it were on the mount of vision. Step by step. He inaugurated the works of the Grand Central Argentine at Rosario in 1863, amid flags, banners, music, triumphal arches, and parades. General Mitre himself threw up the first shovelful of earth. The road thus beginning was to people solitudes and become a new highway for mankind. " The inauguration of the Grand Central Argentine Rail way," said Wheelwright, "is the commencement of a new epoch ; the establishment of a glorious movement dedicated to industry, to agricultural and pastoral pursuits. Its office is the regeneration of the provinces." He added, and what a soul of vision and of magnanimity is in the words ! — "It is not a matter of surprise, gentlemen, that a project so stupendous (he refers to the Transandine) should not be looked upon with confidence by many; it is purely a question of time, however ; it will be realized. It will unite the great American family of nations. The enterprise has passed through many changes, but its success is certain." Wheelwright's next movement in the chain of this stupen dous highway which was to march through the heavens, was a railway from the deep seaport of Ensenada to Buenos Ayres, a distance of some thirty miles. The space was "CAPTAIN FROBISHER S STORIES OF THE ANDES. 23 short, but the importance of it was great. It was the Atlan tic end of the sky-piercing way. The Ensenada railway was inaugurated on the 31st of December, 1872. There was another festival. Wheelwright himself broke the sod for the enterprise on Washington's birthday, 1863. His health failed the next year after the inauguration of this part of the system. He never would see the Trans andine railway, but he was certain of its triumph. His physician ordered him away from the Plata. He went to England, where he died on September 26, 1873, " Bury me in Newburyport," he said. Afterwards George Peabody said in the same spirit, dying abroad, " Danvers, Danvers, remember Danvers ! " The two great Americans sleep near each other among the elms of the bowery old ports by the sea. The grave of Wheelwright is in Newburyport, but his monuments are in South America, at Buenos Ayres and Valparaiso. The latter city has a square in his honor. Wheelwright is an ideal character. His fame will grow with his works, and his career is one that a young man may well take to his heart, and from which any one shipwrecked by misfortune may find hope. The statues to Wheelwright in South America are among the first to honor the heroes of peace. There, boys, is an example for you. CHAPTER II. UNCLE HENRY FROBISHER, "OUR BOYS," AND ARLINE. THE boy that the thump of Captain Long's cane first brought to the light of introduction was Alonzo Fro bisher, a nephew of Captain Frobisher. The boy called up by a second thump of the cane was Leigh Frobisher,- Alonzo's younger brother. The girl who appeared after the Arabian manner was Arline Frobisher, a niece of Captain Henry, and a cousin to the two boys. Alonzo was a very practical lad ; to him the world was made for business. Leigh was as poetical as Alonzo was practical ; he had the original dream and vision of things, and it mattered little to him who did the work of the world. Uncle Henry used to say that the one was all head and the other all heart. Arline ? — She was a student of a kindergarten training school in Boston. She loved children, books, birds, and flowers. She found in Leigh much sympathy, and always took his part when he was criticised by Alonzo. " Uncle," said Alonzo, when Captain Long's cane had ceased to echo on the long wooden pavement, "South Amer ica interests me. It may be the country of the future. I like to hear your stories of that part of the world — the 'Austral world,' Captain Long calls it, and others, the equa- 24 UNCLE HENRY FROBISHER, " OUR BOYS," AND ARLINE. 25 torial world. I would rather see the Amazon than the Rhine ; the cattle kingdom of Argentina than the battle fields of Belgium, and Aconcagua than Mont Blanc. I would rather return with you to South America than to visit Europe. I wish that you would take me with you to your old vanilla farm in Peru." " I am glad, my boy, if the stories that I have been telling you have awakened your curiosity — I can see now how they have struck your fancy. The Amazon is a nobler river than the Rhine, and you might crown Mont Blanc with Mt. Washington and it would not be Aconcagua, whose heights not even the wing of the condor reaches in the frozen air. " If you were to return with me to Peru, you would go by the way of Europe. My business would take me first to London, and the way to South America from Southampton, or from Liverpool to Buenos Ayres and over the Andes by rail and mule to Valparaiso and thence to Callao and Lima, is the most delightful route of travel in all the world. A journey from the North Temperate Zone to the South Tem perate Zone by the way of Southampton is an historic and commercial education, and it costs no more to make it than to visit Italy and the East in the usual way." Captain Henry noticed that Arline was greatly interested in what he was saying. She presently asked hesitatingly, — " Uncle Henry, why not let me go, too ? " " Go where, girl ? " "To Peru — over the Andes." " Why, girl, what put that idea into your mind ? " " Aunt Blanco lives near Lima. She is my Golden Aunt. She lives in the suburbs of the City of the Kings." 26 OVER THE ANDES. "A queer place indeed for you, Arline, would be the same City of the Kings. What attracts you in that direc tion ? " "I would like to help Aunt Blanco, Dona Blanco, in her kindergarten schools." Uncle Henry lifted his hands. The captain was a large-hearted man, and he used to say in the words on a Boston monument, " My country is the world, and my countrymen are all mankind." His own sons were dead, and he had a lively affection for his two nephews, Alonzo and Leigh. The two boys had just graduated from a Latin school, and it was their uncle's wish that they should go to Geneva, Switzerland, and enter the famous commercial school in that city that, in a three years' course, prepares young men for mercantile life. It was his theory that a young man should learn the languages and commercial laws of the ports of the world. Captain Henry's home befitted a prosperous trader. It had ample grounds, and in these grounds was an orchid- house, which contained many rare orchids, and some curious South American animals and birds. It had been started with a few specimens of the vanilla vine, some night-bloom ing cereuses, and parasitic plants from the table-lands of the Andes. Two Brazilian "blue front" parrots had been added; some marmosets and an ant-eater ; and at last a condor, whose wings, that were of immense strength, had once scaled the Lower Andes in the atmospheres of the sun. The wonder of the collection grew. On each return from South America, Captain Frobisher brought to his home-gar den orchid-house something new. He liked boys and girls ; UNCLE HENRY FROBISHER, "OUR BOYS, AND ARLINE. 27 he offered them a free range of his "raree-show," and so his home-coming became a holiday. His two nephews, Alonzo and Leigh Frobisher, spent much time with him in his home among the Milton Hills, once called the Northmen Hills, and later the " Blue Hills," overlooking the sea. The two boys were now at the turning- point of life — they were asking the question, " What pur suit shall we follow ? " " Everything in life depends upon starting right," Captain Henry used to say strongly. " There is a time in life when one step is all the way : turn to the right, advance, and keep straight ahead. Prepare to take that first step rightly, and never retrace the way." Uncle Henry's parlor tables were covered with South American pictures. He went into the room, and returned with a photograph. "Arline," he said, "if you are going to help your Golden Aunt in Peru keep school, and expect to go there over the Andes, you may like to see some of the people that you would be likely to meet on the way. Perhaps you would like to see the prettiest shoe shop that I ever saw in all my travels. Here she is." ' He handed Arline a picture of a barefooted native girl with a basket of shoes on her head. Alonzo saw his brother Leigh coming out of the orchid- house, and called — " Leigh, come here ; uncle has something new to show you." Leigh Frobisher joined his uncle and his brother, bringing with him some of his schoolmates who had come to see the marmosets in the orchid-house. 28 OVER THE ANDES. "Leigh," said Alonzo, "what would you say if. you were to meet a shoe shop like that ? " " I would say, 'Buenos dias, Senorita,' " said Leigh, who, understood a little Spanish. The schoolboys made them selves merry as they saw the picture of the industrious little Argentine girl, and one of them said, " I would say, ' Seno rita, let me make you a present of a pair of shoes.' " " She would have no need of them on the hot, dusty, un- fenced roads over the pampas," said Uncle Henry. " Why, they have dirt storms there that they call pamperos, that bury one alive while he is running away. In the republic of the purple seas and skies it is a luxury to go barefooted. Now, perhaps, you would like to see a baker's shop on the pampas." "Yes, yes," cried all, and even Arline, who was not at all discouraged by the first view of an Argentine sister. "Well, my young friends, how would that do? She?" " She is not quite as attractive as the shoe shop," said Leigh, after he had carefully examined the picture of the barefooted baker's shop. " But they both have steady heads, and both evidently have true, honest hearts." " Have you any more walking, talking pampas stores, Uncle Henry ? " asked Arline. "Yes, here is a poultry dealer. You like to study faces. What are your impressions of him ? " replied Uncle Henry ; and this time he produced the picture of a man carrying a good supply of live poultry about his person. The boys liked the faces of all. So did Arline. She seemed charmed by these views of rustic simplicity. "The face is one's sign," said Uncle Henry, "and you seem to think that these signs are all right. Well, there is UNCLE HENRY FROBISHER, "OUR BOYS, AND ARLINE. 29 much good, true, pure blood, as well as some bad traits of character, in the Argentine race." Uncle Henry liked to have young people gather around him in the long summer twilights on the Milton Hills. He liked to tell them tales of the Gran Chaco, — that floral wil derness of beasts, birds, and reptiles lying along the rivers Parana and the Paraguay ; tales of the india-rubber groves, of the Amazon, and of the regions around Titicaca where were the ruins of the temples of the sun. The boys looked at the pictures, among which were some Gaucho minstrels, or wandering musicians of the pampas, who improvised complimentary airs. Amid the questions that were asked in regard to the pictures, Leigh, whose imagination was always active, asked — • "What, Uncle, was the greatest fright that you ever re ceived in your journeys in South America? " " It was a somewhat foolish one," said Captain Frobisher. "It was caused by a spider. I have told the story many times, and once after telling it, a friend on shipboard showed me a picture in Howard's 'Cuba with Pen and Pencil,' that almost exactly reproduced my experience, but that did not make my case any less real and true." " It was at La Guayra, the port of Caracas. I had landed there from one of the steamers of the Red D Line from New York. A crowd of people met me at the tender, who seemed to have known me all my life, who called me by endearing names in piratical voices, as if desirous to render me every possible assistance. A large part of the working people of the port seemed to have turned out to assist me in 30 OVER THE ANDES. carrying my simple baggage to the Custom House, and my self to the hotel. " I went to see the consul first. His name, as I remember, was Hanna, and I think that he had once been a Methodist minister in Iowa. Like all consuls, he was very friendly and accommodating. He invited me to visit his room, which overlooked a narrow street, and from the window of which depended an American flag. I was then driven to my hotel, a long old Spanish structure, rambling, zigzagging, near a great stable, and having dining-rooms open to the sky, gay with vines, flowers, and birds. " I had been told to drink cocoanut milk so as to escape the fever. " ' The healthy wells are in the trees,' said a fellow-passen ger. He was right. " A boy brought to my room green cocoanuts almost as large as buckets. He struck off the tops of one or more with his machete, or cutlass, and filled a glass with the most delicious drink that ever cooled my lips. The strand near the breakwater was shaded by cocoanut groves, whose immense tops were loaded with fruit. " I was tired, and I went early to my room. It was mid winter, but the heat was intense. Above the port gleamed the Andes, green with cacti. A little way up the mountain side was the ancient castle, associated, I believe, with the story of the Rose of Devon, or some character in ' West ward Ho.' The lights were beginning to come out in the huts on the mountain ; the stars, too, were appearing in the clear, liquid-like air, and it became hard to tell where the cabin lights ended and the stars began their night march. UNCLE HENRY FROBISHER, "OUR BOYS, AND ARLINE. 3 1 " My room ? I cannot so well picture it to you. It was like a guard-room in a fortress. It had immense doors and iron grates for windows. In each corner transwise was a cot- bed in an iron frame. " I sat down. I soon became very thirsty, and went out and called on a negro boy to bring me more cocoanut water. I do not recall that ever anything was more refreshing to me. " I partly undressed, and prepared to wash before lying down on one of the two cot-beds in the high, long room. I had only a candle for a light. It stood on a cheap stand near to two barred, fortress-like doors. " I poured out some water into a bowl, rolled up my sleeves, and was about to dip down my head, when such an object met my eyes as caused me to leap back as though I had received an electric shock. I bounded into the air back wards. I am sure that never before or since had I or have I performed a feat like that. I was electrified. " I was about to scream out, ' A tarantula ! a tarantula ! ' But what good, I thought, would that do ? I spoke Spanish so imperfectly then that the people might think that I was calling for a tarantula. " He stood there on that great door just above the wash basin. His legs were like feathers, and his body was as big as a small bird's. What was I to do ? " I walked off at a long distance and looked on the creat ure — ¦ such an one as hardly could have haunted the imagi nation of the author of ' Trilby ' — with distended eyes. " A New Englander, as a rule, does not lack invention. I formed a plan. I would put one of my boots over my 32 OVER THE ANDES. hand and arm, and go boldly up to him and kill him. But might there not be other tarantulas in the same room ? The air was hot, stifling, and dusty. What a night was before me ! " I put my right boot over my right hand and arm and went forward and struck at him. He leaped aside, dropped to the floor, and ran like a little mouse towards the cot on the opposite side of the room, and disappeared under it. " My situation was now as alarming as before. The spider could make long leaps and knew how to protect his own life. I had no desire to investigate the whereabouts of his hiding- place. He could have leaped upon me when he struck the floor, which he did with a dull thump. I was glad that I had so far escaped. I resolved now to sit up all night. The thought made me light-hearted for a moment. "But I turned to the stand. There was only one candle there, and that was burning down fast. I surely could not sit up all the night in the darkness with a tarantula in the room. " I now determined to go to bed with my boots and clothes on, and to cover my face with my rubber coat. This I did, and passed the early part of the night in suffocation and horror, thinking of old New England and of home and friends far away. " But while thus watching over myself, firmly resolving not to go to sleep, I did go to sleep. Oblivion ! " When I awoke, the sky was blazing, birds were singing, and the room was filled with the odors of flowers. My rub ber coat was on the floor. I arose and looked about the room. No tarantula was to be seen. UNCLE HENRY FROBISHER, "OUR BOYS, AND ARLINE. 33 " I had a superb breakfast : what coffee ! what meats and vegetables ! what fruits ! "After the meal, I started at once for the consulate to tell my tale of horror to Consul Hanna. I described the awful spider and my providential escape. He did not look at all alarmed, or even sympathetic ; he merely asked - " ' Did he have feathers on his legs ? ' " ' Feathers ; yes, he did ! ' " ' Then he was all right. He never would have harmed you, unless you disturbed him. The scorpions here are far more dangerous than the spiders.' " I looked at the tall man reproachfully. He did not seem disposed to send for a gunboat to protect the American flag against such intrusions as these, or to offer me any indem nity. He merely said with a consular air, ' You'll be putting that into a book some day.' " It was the last night that I spent in La Guayra. Consul Hanna generously helped me to make my journey to Caracas as speedily as possible ; and when I told the story in the French hotel, in the city of that enchanting valley, my host only said, ' But, Senor, that was nothing — salud, Senor ! ' (health, sir). "Arline," asked Uncle Henry, lifting his eyebrows and taking on a Bluebeard expression, " how would you like to go to such a country as that?" " I think that I would like to go very well, Uncle," said Arline, undeterred. " But why, when you have a lovely home on Milton Hills ? " " I would like to be doing something, Uncle," said Arline, 34 OVER THE ANDES. " You sometimes go to South America by the way of La Guayra," said Arline. " I would like to go that way and see Caracas. I have been reading 'Westward Ho.'" " One spider, I see, does not terrify you," said Uncle Henry, with a cheerful laugh. CHAPTER III. CAPTAIN HENRY'S STORY OF "THE BELL-MULE OF THE ANDES." CAPTAIN HENRY FROBISHER'S mind was in the South. " New England for homes and for youth and old age," he used to say ; " but the ports of the world for trade." He had traded much on his own ships, and had travelled as the agent of a line of ships of which he was in part owner. There was one story that he used to tell that most young people liked to hear, and it somehow had fixed the imagina tion of his nephews and Arline upon the Andes and filled them with a desire to make a Transandine journey with him. It was not an inviting story, but it turned these young peo ple's thoughts to scenes that were new. It related to a traveller's adventure in the Andes, and as it interested our young people, we hope that it may interest our readers for the journey that they are to make with this pleasant family. THE BELL-MULE OF THE ANDES. It was at Mendoza. " The passes are all open and the way plain. I am going to give you an old bell-mule — madrina — for the journey. 35 36 OVER THE ANDES. She is sure-footed, — never stumbles, and she knows all the roads over the Cordillera, from Mendoza to Valparaiso. She has led the pack-mules over the Andes an hundred times." So said a travelling agent. " But, Senor, is there no danger of accident or robbery ? " asked I. , " ' Accident ' ? no, my good friend ; a bell-mule seldom meets with accidents. If you should find any part of the way difficult, drop your rein, and trust the mule. That mule does not need an arriero; you have little idea how intelligent these animals are. When different packs of mules are given their liberty at a puesto for the night, each pack knows its own madrina or bell-mule by the sound of the hell, and can be brought together by that sound at any time, and separated from the rest. I myself could not distinguish one bell from another, but the mules can. ' Robbers ' ? no, the long way over the Cordillera is safe ; there are no robbers there. The mail-carrier goes on foot over the passes alone in winter and summer ; you will find his shelters along the way, and he is never molested." " Are there no wild beasts that might attack a lonely traveller? " "No, that thing is not likely to happen, — we do not hear of such attacks ; the passes are in constant use in the sum mer, but, Senor, hear me, — whatever may alarm you, trust your mule, trust your mule ; she knows ; in these matters of travel she is a philosopher with spectacles on ; she does not make a guide-post of any estray; how she knows I don't know, but I know that she knows, and if I were to put my boy upon her and say 'Para altura ! ' she would carry him CAPTAIN HENRY'S STORY OF THE BELL-MULE. 37 over the heights to Valparaiso. She would not make a mis step in all the way. You may shut your eyes, — that will not matter, — but see that your girth straps are secure, then hold on to the pommel of your saddle, and trust your mule. You will find some steep places, and some narrow ways over which it will turn your head to look down ; but trust your mule. Senor, think of what I now tell you then ; trust your mule, and you will get there. Senor, adios ! " It was the Andean summer — our winter ; and I was start ing on a journey over the Cordillera of the Andes for Los Andes and Valparaiso. My friend had given me an old, white bell-mule for the journey, a patient, discouraged-look ing animal, poor in flesh, with a head almost as large as a travelling-trunk, in which it was claimed was stored a great amount of occult and useful knowledge. She did not look around pleasantly at me — she seemed to regard me as an enemy, and it was not with a feeling of perfect confidence that I mounted her back, and looked up to the stupendous mountains gleaming over the foot-hills. The Cordillera was thirteen thousand feet high, — more than twice as high as Mt. Washington, — and over it shone stately Tupungato, in the solitary grandeur of eternal winter, sheeted with spotless snow. Beyond Tupungato, but unseen at my starting-point, towered Aconcagua twenty-three thousand feet high. The day was glorious, as are all summer days in the Andes. The way for a long distance followed the Mendoza River, which here and there fell in cascades, and which everywhere, even among the rocks, was bordered with flowers. Giant cacti were there ; orchids, like gardens in the air. The way was plain ; the atmosphere exhilarating, and as 38 OVER THE ANDES. the foot-hills sank behind, mountains rose over mountains, and I found myself among the ruins of the volcanic age of the meridional world. I came near sunset to a puesto, or posada, which was a long, low-walled house, and, aching in every bone, tumbled off my trusty mule, and asked for a cot. The room that was given me was full of cot-beds that were used by parties of travellers between Mendoza and Santiago or Valparaiso. There was but one lodger here now, beside myself, and I was for some hours too full of aches to engage in conversation with him. I had my coffee brought to my bed, and soon after taking it, I was dreaming, and my dreams followed a new imagination. I thought that a hundred volcanoes were blazing around me, as they once did blaze in these sublime regions when there was no eye to see them. I woke late. My room-mate was sitting on the edge of his cot. He was an Englishman, and had evidently been wait ing for me to awake. " It is a fine morning," he said. " Be you going over the mountains ? " "Yes, my good friend," said I. "When I laid down here last evening, I felt as though I would never leave this place again ; but that feeling is all gone now. Yes, yes, I am going over the Cordillera. Are you bound for the coast? " " No, I am engaged in the surveys for the Transandine railway, and am living here for the present. Let us go out, and take the air. The top of the heavens is out and shining, though it will be a long time yet before we will see the sun." We went out of the mountain house. The air was crisp ; CAPTAIN HENRY S STORY OF THE BELL-MULE. 39 the sky was clear and filled with sunlight ; the ground was dusted with a light snow. " Do you have snowstorms in summer here ? " I asked. " No, no, this snow is the dust of the mountains. It drifted down in the night wind." He looked up to the mountain wall, and lifted his hands. " Is that your mule up there ? " he asked. My mule was grubbing on the declivity, like a huge fly on an inclined ceiling ; she ambled along from one tuft of grass to another, and we stood and looked at her. The surveyor made a kind of observation tube of his two hands, and then said, — " Where did you find that old, white bell-mule ? I have seen her before. If it be the mule that I think she is, she has a history. Who let you have her ? " " Gormez, the agent of the Transandine route. I am to leave her at the Agency at Los Andes on the other side. Do you know Gormez ? " " Yes, I have met him. He probably gave you that mule because he thought that you lacked experience, and that she would make up for it. Did Gormez ever tell you anything particular about her, or about one of his bell-mules ? " " He said that the mules were all sure-footed, and that this one would be safe." " Safe ? That mule could lead an army to the top of the Cordillera and down the other side ! Some years ago one of Gormez's mules — and I think that may be the one — did one of the most curious things that I ever knew an animal to do. I must tell you about it — it will make you feel more safe for the long journey you have to go. You will have some rugged 40 OVER THE ANDES. places to climb ; but the going up is hardly a circumstance — it is the coming down that makes a man shut his eyes and wonder if it be all right with his soul ! " We entered the caravansary. We were obliged to wait for our coffee and eggs, and my English friend leaned back in his chair and said, — "So Gormez gave you that old white mule. Do animals reason ? I used to be taught that the most intelligent ani mals are only guided by instinct, and that a mule's head was but little better than a chopping-block. Just take a look at that half-fed creature, nibbling away up there, while I tell you how she saved the life of Gormez himself. " It was this wise : Before the Transandine surveys, things were more dangerous on the mountain paths than they are now. Gormez used to pass over the Cordillera quite often at that time on that white bell-mule. There is a long, narrow, zigzag shelf of rock that overlooks an awful chasm, around which a single animal can go, if the wind be not high and the sky clear. It requires a steady head and a great faith in a mule for a man to go that way, but it is the shorter journey. If you will give the mule the reins and her own will it may be that she will take you that way. Just look at that white creature now, climbing the side of the mountain where it is almost as steep as the side of a house ! Wonderful, isn't it? " One clear fine day, Gormez set out from the puesto here, to go over the Cordillera, and he took the narrow path along the shelf of rock. The mule went steadily on until they came to a projecting point of the way, over which, if you look, the world itself seems below ; you hang there over the moun- CAPTAIN HENRYS STORY OF THE BELL-MULE. 4 1 tain tops, as it were in the sky. The condor himself rarely goes up there, and there the ice seldom melts in the middle of summer time. When the wind is high, nothing there could live. " On that shelf the little mule stopped. What was the reason ? She had never stopped there before, but always trotted on, like one half afraid, as fast as her legs would carry her. Gormez gathered up the rein, and struck her with the loose end of it, but she threw up her head, with a no in the motion, and began to tremble. " Gormez looked ahead towards the projecting point of the rock. Suddenly he saw something that made his heart stand still : there came into the clear light there a shadow, and he heard the sound of feet and the rattling of stones. " He could not draw the mule backward, or turn her around. Only one animal could pass there, and were he to meet an antagonistic animal there, that animal or the mule must go over the shelf. " He glanced downward. The condors were wheeling above the foot-hills and pinnacles of the rocky ranges below. He felt the mule's body quiver ; she knew evidently what was coming — he did not. She snuffed it in the air; he had no such keen scent. He had but a moment to wait, to see what was his peril. The head of an Argentine steer with wide horns from the pampas came round the curve, and as the animal saw what was before him, he bellowed and his eyes blazed. " Gormez felt that his last moment had come. The steer would clear the way by lifting the mule on his long, widely branching horns. His grave would be on the rocks below, and the condors would feast upon him. This was his view. 42 OVER THE ANDES. " But another thought had the little white mule. She was not going to be tossed over the cliff, without a plucky resist ance. She turned around and lifted her little heels in the air. The steer stopped. A little way ahead, there was a little hollow in the wall. She crowded herself into it, with her heels turned towards the steer, and began to squeal and to kick. " The steer roared and bent down his head, but the mule kicked so vigorously, that one blow from her on his horns caused him to throw up his head again and snuff the air. " What was the steer to do ? He could not well back around the curve. He could not pass by the mule. There was one way of safe escape — he could leap over the mule. He seemed to see the situation at a glance. He made the attempt. The mule saw it. In the leap he might kill the rider. Did the mule see this ? I do not know, but she sank down on her knees with Gormez on her back, and lay on her side on the rocky earth kicking and squealing. " The steer saw the way clear ; with one snort and a wild frantic movement he made the leap over the mule's back and rushed forward, leaving Gormez and his little wise animal safely behind. Gormez was not struck by the feet of the steer. "The little animal rose up. Its trembling ceased. Gormez clung to the pommel of his saddle. He said that the perspi ration at that moment poured over him like water. " The mule gave a shake, and then put her little legs in careful motion until she had passed the curve, when she with joyful gait scampered down the declivity." CHAPTER IV. " OUR BOYS " WHY THEY WISHED TO VISIT SOUTH AMERICA ARLINE CAUSES A SURPRISE — SHE WISHES TO GO TO THE NITRATE DESERT OF TARAPACA WHY ? CAPTAIN HENRY FROBISHER was accustomed to call his two nephews, Alonzo and Leigh Frobisher, " Our Boys," and his niece, Arline Frobisher, " My Girl," and so we will speak of them often in that way in this volume, as we are to be travelling companions with them. These young people used to address the captain as "Uncle Henry," and we will often have occasion to speak of him in this way, as he pilots us over the Andes. "What do you most wish to see in South America?" one day asked Uncle Henry of his nephews. South America had become a kind of wonderland in the imaginations of Alonzo and Leigh Frobisher. Both had long cherished the desire to travel there, and the desire grew. Their Uncle Henry had for many years sought to enlarge his valuable trade in importing dyewoods, barks, and vanilla from certain parts of the coast, and had been largely success ful, though he met with some disappointments and failures. He had found that the Mexican vanilla was more valuable than the Peruvian, and had, as a result, changed this trade to Tampico. His early expectation of acquiring a fortune by importing 43 44 OVER THE ANDES. the fragrant bean from Peru had led him to become a special ist in dealing with other roots and barks, — valuable to chemist and apothecary, — and out of this experience he became an orchid collector, and a lover of these wonderful parasites whose gardens are the trees. He was a good Spanish scholar; he loved Spanish poetry, and was well versed in Spanish- American history. He talked of this life and its associations continually. He liked to relate to his neighbors tales of times when the Incas reigned in their glory at Cuzco and Quito, and the great roads ran over the plateaus of the populous empires of the Children of the Sun. He sometimes entertained them with stories of the conquistadores, as the Spanish invaders were called. The romances of the times of liberation of Bolivar, San Martin, and Pringle fired his own fancy, and won the admiration of the boys. "South America," he used to say, " is destined to become one of the greatest empires of the world. The highest arts of the future are likely to arise on the table-lands of the Andes. The South Temperate Zone and the equatorial plateaus of this country have every source for developing a noble race. A new Italy is already forming under the Andes." He liked to repeat these thoughts over and over in the presence of the boys, who gladly gave him their ears. They heard him so much and so often on the subject that South America seemed to become mapped on their minds. So when Uncle Henry asked them the question, " What would you most wish to see in South America?" they were well prepared to make ready and intelligent answers. "I have heard of few things in South America," said WHY "OUR BOYS" WISHED TO VISIT SOUTH AMERICA. 45 Alonzo, " that I would not like to see. Among the curious things, I would like to see a boa constrictor in the trees, at a distance, or to meet the wild Indians of the India-rubber groves of the Amazons, or the Indians of the Gran Chaco, and the whole menagerie of animals and birds to be found in the wilderness of the countries on the Parana." He took out his note-book, and wrote for some minutes in silence. He then said, — " Uncle, would you like to hear me read a list of some things that I would most like to see in South America ? " "Yes, my boy, give me your fancies. Dreams with a purpose in them become realities some times. It may be that you will some day see them all." Alonzo read : — "1. A Chocolate Plantation. 2. A Coffee Plantation. 3. The Vanilla Orchid. 4. The India-rubber Trees of the Amazons. 5. The Gran Chaco. 6. The Nitrate Desert of Tarapaca. 7. The Mines of Peru." "These are very practical subjects about which to learn as many facts as possible," said Uncle Henry. " You have selected them with a business eye, as I can see." " Uncle ! " It was Arline who spoke. "Well, My Girl?" "I want to go to the Desert of Tarapaca." Uncle Henry sat dumb for a few minutes. He then threw up both hands. 46 OVER THE ANDES. " Hoot, you do, My Girl. What could ever have put such an idea as that into your young head ? Of all places on this planet, why should a Boston girl want to go to the Desert of Tarapaca ? " " But I do wish to go, Uncle. I cannot tell you now why I wish to go. Alonzo would laugh at me — he is laughing now. It is a business mind's laugh, and I will forgive him after the Froebel teaching. He has never been to a kindergarten school." The three looked at each other with blank faces. " I know why Arline desires to go," said Leigh. " ' In the desert let me labor,' " he added, quoting a line from the venerable Dr. Smith, who was then living, and whom the family knew. "But, Leigh," said Arline, "that is not for now. Do not speak of it now." Arline turned away to hide her tears. Uncle Henry and Alonzo were more surprised than before. "What is it, Arline?" said Uncle Henry. Arline shook away her tears, and said : " I will tell you another day, Uncle, why I wish to go to South America. I want you to tell me, Uncle, what is the nitrate of soda ? " Uncle Henry threw up his hands again. "The nitrate of soda, My Girl? It is plant food. You don't wish to go for that. There is nitrogen enough in the soil of Milton." Alonzo, who had an eye to business opportunities, re inforced Arline's request. " I do not know what ideas Arline has in her head, or where they came from," he said ; " I have never been to a WHY "OUR BOYS WISHED TO VISIT SOUTH AMERICA. 47 kindergarten school, as she says ; but I would like to know more about the trade in the nitrate of soda." "Whither are we drifting?" asked Uncle Henry. "The nitrate of soda," added he, thinking, "and the Desert of Tarapaca? Well, well, that is a curious subject for us to be interested in here among the old Milton Hills. Colonel North made a tremendous fortune, if I may use that word, out of the Desert of Tarapaca. He was a poor man when he saw his opportunity there, and he lived to move in the English royal circles, in the ' Prince of Wales' set,' as we say. He was once reputed to be worth one hundred million dollars. But that was an exaggeration." Alonzo became intensely interested. Arline, too, exhibited a like interest; but Leigh seemed indifferent. " Nitrogen, as I said," continued Uncle Henry, " is the food of plants. No plant can grow if its roots are deprived of nitrogenous food. "The application of nitrogen to the soil is found to in crease the quantity of crops. " The so-called Desert of Tarapaca contains vast quan tities of nitrate of soda, by which nitrogen can be artificially applied to the soil of worn-out lands. The nitrate there is supposed to owe its origin to immense collections of sea weeds, such as float over the Saragossa Sea. These sea weeds settled in lagoons, and were separated from the ocean by some volcanic upheaval. The water evaporated, and the sea-weed united with the lime of the sea-shells, and produced the vast plains of the salts now so valuable. The worn-out lands of Europe can be fertilized by these salts, Colonel 48 OVER THE ANDES. North saw this, and for some people to see a thing is to become rich. It was so with him. His history could be added to the Arabian Nights tales that saved the head of Queen Scheherazade." " How many people are employed on the Desert of Tara paca ? " asked Arline. " There were some thirteen thousand so employed," said Uncle Henry. "Have they schools there?" she asked earnestly. " Schools ? schools ? Why your Uncle Henry never thought of such a thing — more's the pity! My Girl is not dreaming of going to the Desert of Tarapaca to teach school ? " " Uncle Henry, don't ; I have my ideas — no, they are not mine ; but I will tell you more after I have talked with mother. She is a friend of Dr. Smith, and she is willing that I should go." What did the girl mean ? "Well," said Uncle Henry, "wonders will never cease. Leigh, what would you most wish to see in South Amer ica?" " Well, Uncle, listen : — " ist. Caracas, where South American liberty was born." " What would you most like to visit in Caracas ? Calvaro, the park lifting its flower garden to the sky ? " " No, I would most like to see the old church that stood when Caracas went down in the earthquake, and in which Bolivar exclaimed when he thought that the earthquake would hinder the cause of the Independence, — ' If Nature herself opposes us, we will compel her to obey.' " WHY " OUR BOYS WISHED TO VISIT SOUTH AMERICA. 49 " My boy, you have begun well. I like your first number. Caracas, in the maritime Andes, is a glorious city. There the statue of Bolivar is a noble sight, as the hero seems leaping on horseback to make the nation free. The statue of Wash ington, too, is there. But as Humboldt says, — ' Caracas sleeps in her own grave.' " " What did he mean by that ? " asked Leigh. " Ten thousand people went down in the earthquake in the year of the Independence, and the survivors rebuilt the city where the old city had gone down. The earth trembles there yet. What next would you like to see ? " " 2d. The tomb of San Martin in Buenos Ayres." "And why?" " He liberated Argentina, Peru, and Chili, and then sought nothing in reward. I think that General San Martin is one of the greatest heroes of modern times. Think of it ! " said Leigh enthusiastically ; " the Argentine Republic offered him supremacy, but he said, ' I did not fight for power.' Chili came to him to present him ten thousand ounces of gold, but he gave it back, saying, ' I did not fight for gold.' And then Peru laid at his feet the crown, and he answered, ' The presence of a fortunate general in the country where he has won victories is detrimental to the state : I have won the Independence of Peru ; I have ceased to be a public man.' He left his coun try for the peace of his country when he saw that Bolivar could accomplish the work of the Independence better than himself : he lived and died in self-exile and poverty. That was a hero ! I would rather see his tomb than any other man's in all America except those of Washington and Lin coln. San Martin was not only the greatest of Creoles — he 50 OVER THE ANDES. was one of the greatest and noblest of all souls that have ever risen in the world ! " " Bravo ! " said Uncle Henry. " What a good South Ameri can you would make ! I am glad to hear you speak thus of San Martin, who organized the Army of the Andes. A nation is known by the heroes it crowns, and a boy by the hero he praises. Do you know what was the motto of San Martin ? " " No, Uncle, what was it ? It must have been one to be followed." " It was — it was this — 'Thou must be that which thou oughtest to be, or else thou shalt be nothing.' Lo que seras debes ser." " The whole truth of life is in that motto, Uncle, is it not ? You have seen the tomb." " Yes, they crowned him dead at last, who would not be crowned while living. Your second memorandum is excel lent. I really think that you have the spirit to visit South America. What next ? " " 3d. The ruins of the Temple of the Sun. There was the highest pagan worship ever seen on earth. The Peruvians worshipped the sun as the gift of God to them. " 4th. Tupungato and Aconcagua. I would cross the Cor dillera over the Transandine highway under these heights, as I have heard you describe." " Only a short distance of that railway now remains to be completed," said Uncle Henry. " 5th. I would see Chimborazo and Quito, and Cotopaxi. " 6th. I would visit the schools that Sarmiento founded in the Argentine under the guidance of Horace Mann." " So would I," said Arline. " We will go that way." WHY "OUR BOYS" WISHED TO VISIT SOUTH AMERICA. 5 1 '* 7th. I would see Santiago, and the associations of Balma- ceda, who was an advocate of universal education." " So would I," said Arline. " 8th. I would see the tomb of Sarmiento, — his tomb who brought civilization out of barbarism." " So would I," said Arline. " Miss Peabody knew him." " 9th. I would go to the old palace of Dom Pedro, a man who gave his heart to his people, though they broke it at last. " ioth. And I would visit the Quitua Indians, that wronged race, to whom the whole civilization of the world ought to make atonement. I should love to be a helper in a move ment to carry education to these Indians. It makes my heart burn when I think of these poor remnants of the splendid people whom the conquerors murdered and robbed." " My heart is there, too," said Arline. " There is a company of young Englishmen who have al ready organized for the purpose of educating the Quituas," said Uncle Henry. Some boys, friends of Alonzo and Leigh, had come upon the veranda. Uncle Henry, who was an " Uncle " to them all, asked one of these what he would most wish to see if he could go to South America. "Well, Uncle, I would like to see an armadillo, and tickle him and pull him out of his hole ; and a live coral snake, and drink some yerba-mate out of a bombilla, and go up the Oroya railroad to the top of the Andes, twelve thousand feet high, and ride down all the way back in a hand-car, as other travellers have done, and you once did. Wouldn't that be great? I think I'll do that some day — makes me dizzy to think of it now." "You are a very intelligent boy," said Uncle Henry. CHAPTER V. WHY ARLINE WISHED TO VISIT PERU " AUNT MARY WHITE, THE GOLDEN " THE MOST WONDERFUL BIRDS IN THE WORLD THE INCA BIRD, WHOSE PLUMES WERE JEWELS. THE next evening Captain Henry, his two nephews, and Arline met again under the vines of the hospitable veranda. " Well, Arline, My Girl, are you now ready to tell us why you made the extraordinary remark yesterday, that you would like to go to the Desert of Tarapaca ? I have not got over being stunned by it yet." " Yes, Uncle, I have talked with mother about it, and I am willing to tell you all that is in my heart. You remember Aunt Mary White, Uncle ? " " Yes, yes ; she that was Mary White, now Dona Blanco, with many more names. She has been sending home Peru vian mummies to colleges : dried bodies of Peruvian lords and ladies that lived no one knows how many centuries ago. She went to London to study music, and the next that we knew of her she was a Dona, in Peru ; but how she got to Peru is a mystery to all of her old friends. She never has written to any one but your mother and you. She always liked you, Arline, and your mother calls her your ' Golden Aunt of Peru.'" 53 WHY ARLINE WISHED TO VISIT PERU. 53 " Well she may. Don't forget, Uncle, that when we had our fair for the charitable kindergartens, my ' Golden Aunt of Peru ' sent us a check for one hundred dollars, and said in a beautiful letter, ' Change this into the tears of the sun.' To the old Peruvians gold was the tears of the sun." " Sentimental, wasn't she ? " said Alonzo. " I would like to have a Golden Aunt to weep some of those tears of the sun for me." "And," continued Arline, "when Elizabeth Peabody needed money for her work, Aunt Golden made the sun weep again. Her heart was always full of gold, even when she was poor in pocket. " Well, Uncle, she had, as you know, a friend in Miss Pea- body, who was a friend of Sarmiento, the leader of education in the Argentine Republic. Miss Peabody was a kindergart- ner, and Aunt Golden has established a kindergarten school near Lima, in her own patio. Her husband is a doctor and is engaged in the exportation of the nitrate of soda, and she wrote to me some months ago, that if she had help, she would open kindergarten schools among the children of the laborers of Tarapaca." Uncle Henry lifted his hands. Alonzo exclaimed, " Queen Scheherazade ! " Arline turned away, as if abashed at her own fancies which she had disclosed. Uncle Henry shook his head at the boys. Arline after a time returned, bringing a caged blue front Brazilian parrot from the garden of the orchid-house. "Saca la pata, papagayo," said Uncle Henry to the parrot. (Put out your paw.) "No, caro," answered Polly, though 54 OVER THE ANDES. whether the bird meant to say, "No, dear," or "no quero" (I won't), we cannot say. If the latter, she suddenly changed her mind, to an amiable mood, for she got down from her perch and put out her claw, which Uncle Henry and the boys shook affectionately. "Pretty Loro!" said each. "Good little Loro!" Loro is a common name for a parrot in Spanish countries. " If we were to go to South America," said Uncle Henry to Arline, " and take you another time, what would you have us bring you? " The girl seemed struck at heart, but she made a kinder garten resolution. " Oh, bring me from Brazil another bird as darling as Loro," said Arline. She added absently " 'another time.' " " Loro wants to come out," said the Brazilian bird in good English. " Well, you darling little creature, you shall come out," said Arline, opening the cage door; " and you shall be one of of us, just like the rest of us." The bird ran to Arline. "And I will go to Brazil and get you a mate, little Loro," said Leigh. "I was telling uncle, while you were gone," continued Leigh, " of some of the things that I would like to see in South America. I hadn't got through." " But what would you most like to see in South America ? " asked Arline, with wide eyes. "Myself," said Leigh. "But that wouldn't be — well — it would only be yourself." "And that to me would be a great deal, wouldn't it, Loro ? How would I see anything else if I didn't see WHY ARLINE WISHED TO VISIT PERU. 55 myself there first? There are some birds that I would like to find in Peru." " Parrots ? " asked Arline. "No, no, no! I would find a parrot for you in Brazil, and that would be all the parrots I would ever care to look for. Now, if we should go, Arline, I will bring you home the most lovely parrot that I can find in all my journey, to be company for Loro." " You would have a large company of parrots to choose from," said Uncle Henry. "The steamers on the Parana are often loaded with parrots. There is a large market for these birds among the sailors of the ports of Buenos Ayres." " What other birds do you wish to see ? " asked Arline. "I would like to see the Loddigesia mirabilis!" Leigh had been a reader of Hudson's delightful work, — "A Young Naturalist on the La Plata." Arline dropped the parrot into her lap, and held up both hands, after the manner of Uncle Henry. " Oh, Leigh, Leigh ! what a name for a bird ! How did you ever remember it all the same day ? Speak it again." "The Loddigesia mirabilis. That's easy." The parrot laughed. "Well, what kind of a bird is that, Leigh?" "It is the most beautiful humming-bird in all the world. It lives in Peru. There's only one that has been found in fifty years. It may be that I will find the other." Leigh went into the library and brought out a book. " Here, Arline," said he, " here it is," and exhibited to Arline and to Loro a surprising picture. 56 OVER THE ANDES. " But," continued Leigh, " there is a more wonderful bird than that in the Peruvian forest (or there may be, if it be not extinct) that I would like to catch. There are birds that dance there, but this one is not a dancing-bird. There are birds that ring bells there (bell bird), or that ring bells without any bells, but this is not a bell-ringing bird. It is a coraquenque ! " Arline threw up her hands again in wonder, and little Loro laughed out, " Ha ! ha ! ha ! " " You needn't laugh at me, Loro," said Leigh. " One cora quenque would be worth two thousand of you." "What is a coraquenque f " asked Arline. " The bird with the Inca feather." "But the Incas are all gone," said Arline. "Tell me about the bird." " It was the rarest and most curious bird that inhabited the Peruvian forests in the days of the Incas. It had a few feathers that were the most beautiful, or thought to be, in all the world. The Incas used to wear a turban of many colored folds. It was called the llauta, and in this, as the insignia of royalty, were placed upright two feathers of the cora quenque. "The birds from which these plume jewels were taken were found in a desert country among the mountains. It was death to destroy one of them. Each Inca had to have two of these plumes, and his plumes were not allowed to be used by the Inca who succeeded him. The feathers were the gems of the Incarial crown." "Are there any of these birds left ? " asked Arline. " I do not know. We are going to see, aren't we, Uncle ? " WHY ARLINE WISHED TO VISIT PERU. 57 " You might take me with you," said Arline, " and Loro," she added, choking, for the words "another time" prevented her. "Adios ! " said Loro. Arline laughed away her hurt feeling and clasped the par rot to her neck and said, " You little darling bird ! You do feel for me, don't you ? " " Uncle Henry, why did you speak of going to South America with Alonzo and Leigh, and of taking me there some other time?" "You are young, Arline." " But, Uncle, am I too young to go with you to Peru, to visit Aunt Blanco, with mother's own permission ? " " I will think of your question, My Girl." " It would be education to me," said Arline. " No, Uncle, let me go, if you go, and I want you to go." " I might leave my affairs with the London agent to man age, and change my plans of returning to South America by the way of Southampton, and go by the way of La Guayra, and thence down the coast." " Do so, Uncle, if it will be good business," said Alonzo. " I wish to visit South America with you before I choose a business occupation." " I wish to go," said Leigh. " I always liked to study Spanish language and literature. I admire the South Ameri can heroes." " I do not wish to go ' another time,' Uncle." " I will think of the plan," said Uncle Henry. He did. He talked with the mother of Arline in. regard to it. He was surprised to hear the good woman say, — " I am glad that Arline has benevolent purposes. Life 58 OVER THE ANDES. has many sides to it. You would not hesitate to take Arline to Europe with you. Why might she not profitably go to our friend in Peru with you ? " The question brought Uncle Henry to a decision. He said to his nephews and to Arline the next day, — " You may all begin to study Spanish. We will go by the way of La Guayra." The evening after Uncle Henry made this decision, he met Alonzo alone in the summer-house in the garden. ," Alonzo," he said, " I am facing the sixties, which is the youth of old age, and the old age of youth. I do not know what my future is to be. My wife has gone, and I have no children but you and your brother and Arline. You are all as dear to me as my own children could be. "You have come to me, now that you have graduated, to ask me to help you choose a business occupation. Leigh has done the same. I have no children of my own. You have no father and mother. We all of us have some means ; enough, I hope, to keep us from poverty. " You say to me, as though I were your father, ' What are you going to do with me ? ' Leigh asks the same question. Alonzo, in my old age fast coming on, what are you going to do with me? I could not live without you and Leigh and Arline, or without one of you. I wish to live with one of you, and share your young life." Arline suddenly stood before him. " I was saying, Arline, that I wish to pass my old age with you, Alonzo, or Leigh, or with you all." " I am the one, Uncle Henry. You will pass your old age with me. I am the one that will need you most." WHY ARLINE WISHED TO VISIT PERU. 59 " What do you mean, Arline ? " She drew herself up into an earnest attitude. " Uncle Henry, I have a plan of life in my mind for us, us two, or for all of us. I am going to try to influence you to want to adopt it. I would scorn to try to influence you in any hidden or underhanded way, — I mean that I would scorn to try to influence you, and not tell you of it, or to do it for any selfish reason. I do not want your money, nor any luxu ries that it can buy, but I do want you. You can help me." "How?" " That is the secret of my heart. You would shake your head, if I were to tell you now, and would say, ' That can never be.' Gradually, I will open my heart to you. I have told mother all ; I have told Leigh all ; and to be honest, I must tell you that I have a secret purpose on my heart, and that you are in that purpose, and that I am not seeking any thing for myself." "Arline, I do not know what you mean, but this I do know, that you are a noble girl. I will have to choose between you three, by and by. I will have to leave my property, hard- earned on the sea, to some one. I want it to be to you : I want some of you, or all of you, to have the estate at Milton Hills." " Leave your property to Alonzo and Leigh, or to whom you will, I am not thinking of that, Uncle — that is not in my secret. I will have some small means of my own. I do not want your money : I want your experience." " My experience ! " Uncle Henry threw up his arms higher than ever before. " Are you going to run a line of merchant ships, Arline ? " 60 OVER THE ANDES. The girl turned away pleasantly. " Queer, ain't she ? " said Uncle Henry to Alonzo. " But true as the Pilgrim Fathers. She is a Frobisher. Alonzo, I shall endeavor to study the bent of your mind and that of Leigh and of Arline during our journey, and when it is ended I will either know what advice I ought to give you all, or perhaps you will see what advice you ought to give me, you and Leigh, or Arline. Let us be true to each other." " Uncle, you were true to Leigh and to me when we were left orphans, and you have sons in us, and I know that you have a daughter in Arline." Later in the evening, Uncle Henry met Leigh. " Leigh," he said, "this journey that we propose making is likely to exert an influence on your life and a change of a profession. What would you most like to become ? " " I would first become a teacher. I would prefer to teach literature ; but I do not wish to teach for money alone, but somewhere where I can be of real use to the world. If I could study Spanish on our way, and could secure a place in some South American city to teach English, would you not make your home with me ? You are in my heart, and in my plans and dreams of life ; I always put you into my home. I would not be happy without you ; I want you, as soon as I have a home, to make your home there." Captain Henry Frobisher was not easily moved, but he strongly felt the force of what both Arline and Leigh had said. " I must follow these children," he said; "not try to lead them. I must simply help them to follow their own hearts — they are all true hearts, and it is enough for me to be blessed in them." WHY ARLINE WISHED TO VISIT PERU. 6 1 He then began to think as to what and where this journey might lead him. Facing sixty? Yes, but sixty is only "the youth of old age." Some of the best men of the world have done their best work after that. Leigh would " first " become a teacher, but, like Arline, he evidently had another purpose in his heart. CHAPTER VI. UNCLE HENRY AT HOME ARLINE'S VIEWS OF ELIZABETH PEABODY AND KINDERGARTENS THE STORY OF PRO FESSOR GOULD AND HIS SOUTH AMERICAN OBSERVATORY UNCLE HENRY NEW HOLIDAYS HIS STORY OF THE LITTLE GOOSE THAT CAME BACK. THE summer passed; the green leaves turned to russet and gold, and the time of Thanksgiving drew near. " It will be the last Thanksgiving Day that we will spend together in our old Milton home for a year or more," said Captain Henry Frobisher to his nephews and niece. " Emer son used to say that he was not much of an advocate of travel ; that people go abroad because they do not amount to anything at home, and that they return home again be cause they do not amount to anything where they go. I do not agree with the Sage of Concord in this. It is travel that has brought into union the families of the nations ; that enables one nation to profit by what is best in other nations. It was Crusades that advanced mediaeval Europe. It is travel that is uniting mankind in one family for the common good of all. Historical travel is an education that makes a man large-minded and large-hearted." " Do you know, Uncle," said Leigh, " what will be the supreme hour of my life as it appears to me now ? " 62 UNCLE HENRY AT HOME. 63 " When you cross the equator," answered Arline, for Uncle Henry. " No," said Uncle Henry. " It will be when I shall stand on the summit of the Andes." "On La Cumbre," said Uncle Henry. "The mountains around you will only be hills at that point, and so you will be disappointed." " I am with you, Leigh," said Arline. " I dream of the Andes by day and night. I can see them glowing in my mind now. I wonder if they will look as I now see them. But it is not scenery that I most wish to see. It is something else. It is not to see the ' Pearl of the Pacific ' that makes me most want to go to Lima. I want to find a place in life." Captain Henry lifted his hands again. "Shades of Elizabeth Peabody!" he said. "While you live, Arline, the influence of that good old lady will go on in one of her pupils, for sure." "She was a glorious woman," said Arline. "She not only introduced kindergarten education into this country, but she was a friend of Sarmiento ; and the South Ameri can normal school to make leaders of men after the Froebel plan seemed for years to be the object dearest to her heart. I used to hear her talk on ' Spiritual Education,' and 'Kindergartens in Italy,' and 'The Normal School for Argen tine,' and the heart training that fixes the child's habits. You may laugh at me, but my memory of that woman has become my life ; and I would give more for her little finger than for many other people's heads ; and I would 64 OVER THE ANDES. rather be able to wear her old bonnet with her influence than to have the crown of Peru, with all of its coraquenque feathers, emeralds, and gold. She used to tell me that the purpose of life is to grow. Now, I just wish to live for the things that last. I have read all of Miss Peabody's books on education, — those that she edited, and all, and there is quite a library of them. She was mother's friend, and father used to say that her visits made a holiday. They did for me. I shall never forget her — never ! What a woman she was ! she could talk all the languages of literature, and I have not mastered the Spanish yet. But I will learn that language, for I am going to grow." Uncle Henry seemed a little amazed at the tenor of these remarks, but he clapped his hands when the climax was reached, and said, — "That is right, Arline. Grow! grow! grow!" "And don't crow, crow, crow," said Alonzo, saucily, who had never entered into Miss Peabody's visions, which are now becoming realities after the gifted woman is gone. Arline took up her Spanish grammar, and added, " I must study this if I would grow, grow, grow !" Arline, in her childhood, had been brought under Miss Peabody's influence. This led her to choose the kinder garten training school as her means of development. Leigh had as strongly been influenced by another personality. He had taken a course of lectures on astronomy at the Lowell Institute. He had there come to view Professor B. A. Gould's work in the Argentine Republic, and he came to have as great an admiration for Dr. Gould as Arline had for the ideals of Elizabeth Peabody. UNCLE HENRY AT HOME. 65 William Wheelwright made new ports for South America, and Miss Peabody helped to inspire Sarmiento in his purpose to lay the foundation of a true system of education in Argen tina ; but Professor Gould made himself an exile to Cordova in the Argentine for the sake of science. He there created the observatory that now has become one of the glories of science, where he mapped the stars of the Southern heavens. It was on his return that Dr. Holmes wrote : — " Once more Orion and the sister Seven Look on thee from the skies that hailed thy birth, — How shall we welcome thee, whose home was heaven, From thy celestial wanderings back to earth ? " Science has kept her midnight taper burning To greet thy coming with its vestal flame ; Friendship has murmured, 'When art thou returning?' ' Not yet! not yet! ' the answering message came. " Thine was unstinted zeal, unchilled devotion, While the blue realm had kingdoms to explore, — Patience, like his who ploughed the unfurrowed ocean, Till o'er its margin loomed San Salvador. " Through the long nights I see thee ever waking, Thy footstool earth, thy roof the hemisphere, While with thy griefs our weaker hearts are aching, Firm as thine equatorial's rock-based pier." As poetic and sublime, though expressed in prose, is Presi dent Eliot's view of this man's work in South America : — " I suppose there is no science which so touches the popu lar mind as astronomical science. It deals with immensities, with great mysteries, with unfathomable space and illimitable time. And yet its agencies, its methods, are the most labori- 66 OVER THE ANDES. ous, patient, repulsive, one might almost say, of those of any science with which I am acquainted. When it comes to ob serving the passage of a star across twenty miles in the field of the telescope with the utmost accuracy and precision, and doing that many times over for each star, and doing it for twenty thousand stars, the infinity of this minute and patient labor is strongly impressed upon our minds. And when the declinations of countless stars have been observed, and the observer has to read through the microscope every time with the greatest possible care the gradations upon the circle, we have another immense labor of the same character. " Then there are hundreds and thousands of logarithms to be taken out of the tables, which Dr. Gould used to do, and immense columns of figures to be added together every time there was a mistake. And then there are fifteen great quarto volumes of proof-sheets to be read by Dr. Gould, and not a mistake must be made in the whole. Imagine, gentlemen, the intense labor, the routine character of the labor, the patient, minute accuracy at every step, and I think we see that progress into the infinite is won by the most laborious attention to an immense mass of minute details ; and I sup pose that is the way we always gain access into the infinite — in human life, as well as in science. These achievements of Dr. Gould represent a labor, and patience, and perseverance, and resoluteness which it is impossible to describe." A terrible affliction came to Dr. Gould while he lived at Cordova. It was one that touched many hearts, for he who goes away in the service of the world has all men for brothers. Dr. Gould lived many years at Cordova, which is situated on a branch of the Parana, the river of the Gran Chaco. He UNCLE HENRY AT HOME. 6y was a Boston Latin School graduate, and one of those who had won the famous Franklin prize. He was graduated from Harvard University at the age of nineteen, and began life as a teacher in the Roxbury Latin School. The story of the great misfortune that befell him at Cor dova has been told as follows : — " Distressing intelligence reached Boston on Fast Day, 1874, by the steamer from Buenos Ayres. It was that of death by drowning of two young daughters of Dr. B. A. Gould, with their female attendant. " Nearly four years ago," says the narrative, " Dr. Gould left this country by appointment from the Argentine Republic to establish an observatory in Cordova, three hundred miles from Buenos Ayres. " February 8 was the fourth birthday of his little son. The attendant, who had been his nurse almost from the day of his birth at Cambridge, and who was proudly fond of him, had asked that on that day, the high Sunday holiday of the Span ish, the family would have a little rural observance at a spot about three miles from the observatory. They had gone thither, and had taken their morning meal on the grass. Near by, though not in sight of the spot where they after ward reclined, was a stream of water, which might in most places be forded, as only ankle deep. The parents walked here with the children, and left them gleefully feeding with crumbs the little shining minnows. The girls asked and obtained permission to bathe with the attendant. In about a quarter of an hour the little boy came back to the parents, crying and saying that 'They had gone away in the river and not come back ' ; that ' Lulu was walking in the water and 68 OVER THE ANDES. fell down ; Susie ran to her, and she fell down ; then Viny went in and fell down too.' " The parents, rushing to the shore, saw the clothes of their children and the shawl of their attendant, which she had evidently hurriedly thrown off to run into the water, lying together, but all else was vacancy and silence. Help was immediately summoned from Cordova and the observatory. Meanwhile it was remarked that, owing to some freshet above, the stream had been swelling and had become very turbid. After the most anxious and earnest searching, continued for nearly six hours, the three bodies were recovered by a diver from a pool some distance down the river. Then the parents were made aware that very near the shallow spot where their children had been playing was a clayey precipi tous descent, like the wall of a house, into quite deep water. The younger daughter, walking off this, had seemed to her little brother to fall. Her sister and the attendant had instantly followed, to share the same fate, and a whirlpool current had borne them down the river. "On Monday evening, the next day, the precious little forms, enclosed in one casket, were committed to a tempo rary grave of flowers on the observatory grounds. The heart-broken father read over them the burial service for children. With the exception of their governess and the young assistants of the observatory, no one of the sad group around understood a word of the service, but as they knelt, all seemed to offer the same prayer. The children were most fondly cherished as pets in that foreign clime and by that strange people, and they were full of promise in their characters and lives. Instead of being restored to those who UNCLE HENRY AT HOME. 69 loved them here, the parents, on their return, can bring only the precious relics to rest with kindred dust in Mount Auburn. " It was Dr. Gould's desire that the fond and devoted attendant, who gave her life in her effort to save her charge, should have here such a notice as may give information to her friends. It is this : ' Alvina Fontaine of Digby, Nova Scotia, aged twenty-five. The list of heroines and martyrs is not yet full.' " Having regard to what he supposed would be the wishes of her friends, Dr. Gould caused her remains to be interred in consecrated ground, with the rites of her own church and with masses." Leigh had been a pupil of the Roxbury Latin School, and the astronomical work of Dr. Gould had there been followed with pride by the pupils. The lectures that he had taken at the Lowell Institute had interpreted to him the true value of this man's self-sacrificing life, and had made him resolute to find some useful place in the world. It inspired him to think of the National Observatory at Cordova, where this great spirit lived and worked. Uncle Henry delighted in holidays, which he called " home days," when he was at home. He used to bring home many curiosities from the Southern ports for Christmas presents. On Thanksgiving Days, after the dinner, he loved to relate old port stories or "yarns of the sea." After his wife died, and his nephews and his niece came into his heart, and often into his home, Miss Peabody, that gentle philosopher of the multitude of gifts and accomplish ments, unconsciously wrought a change in the manner of his keeping holidays. 70 OVER THE ANDES. The good lady taught the children, through Arline's mother, that it was a Froebel principle, and one of true education, to make things to give away, and that on holidays the children should find their happiness in making presents rather than in receiving them. This view quite changed the spirit of the holidays in Uncle Henry's home, and made him a receiver more than a giver. But Captain Henry Frobisher was always the story-teller of these merry occasions, and his stories usually related to voyages in the Southern waters. One of these related to some sea-robbers captured off Jamaica, who, to conceal the proofs of their robberies, put their papers and treasures into a metal box, and sunk the box in the sea, as they supposed. They were tried at Jamaica : there were no proofs against them, and they were about to be acquitted, when the metal box, which the waters had not penetrated, came rolling in upon the beach with the strong tide, bringing to shore the evi dence of their guilt. But the favorite story at Uncle Henry's table at holiday times was founded on a very curious incident, once very well known among the fisher families of the New England coast. We will ask Captain Frobisher to tell it here. THE LITTLE GOOSE THAT CAME BACK. The story that I am about to relate was once popular in the houses along the New England coast on November even ings, when reunited families gathered around the old home fire, and of all the tales that used to be told by natural story tellers on the unipod, tripod, or red settle, I know of none UNCLE HENRY AT HOME. 7 I that has a more genuine mystery, or that leaves on the mind a more pleasing impression. There was in the latter part of the last century a great house with a gambrel roof on a hill overlooking the Mount Hope Bay, of historic fame, at a place called Bowers' Shore, at Somerset, Mass. Here lived a widow by the name of Le Doit, who had one daughter and five sons. Her youngest son, a boy of some fifteen years, was named Biel. He had not been used well by his brothers, for the reason that he had a yielding disposition that could be easily im posed upon, and that his generous and affectionate nature made him a favorite with his mother, his teachers, and neighbors, and that excited the jealousy of the younger mem bers of his own family. He became restless and unhappy, and began to cherish a desire, that was not uncommon among farmers' boys who lived near to ports at that time, to go to sea. Near Somerset, on the Fall River side of the bay, are large fresh-water ponds. Here the flocks of wild geese used some times to stop on their long journey from the North to the South Lake Regions, and at such a time the boy Biel once caught a wild goose, and brought it to his home, and tied it by its leg to a post in the yard. An old sailor said that this kind of goose journeyed as far south as Mexico and Trini dad. The captive wild goose excited a great interest in the neighborhood, where events outside of the coming and going of schooners were few. The neighbors came to see it, the teacher of the school, and the minister himself. Children gathered in the yard day by day ; and it was a kind of holi- 72 OVER THE ANDES. day, when, on one Saturday morning, the boy Biel drove up the home flock of geese from the laurel pasture to make the acquaintance of the feathered stranger, who had indeed fallen from a very high estate, and had been left to very lowly associations. The domestic geese seemed to be greatly surprised to find the royal stranger thus pinned down to the earth in the farm-yard, and long and loud were their seeming discussions in regard to the matter. But after a time the wild goose seemed to learn the language of the flock, and to become friendly, and Biel cut her wing feathers, so that she could not mount again into the regions of the air, and gave her liberty to waddle about with her kind in the laurel past ure, which she usually did a little apart from the flock. The next spring brought a wonder. The wild goose made for herself a curious nest in the laurel pasture, at a place called the "hazel pool." It was a hidden nest, and it con tained nine eggs when Biel found it. But one day, when the cowslips were beginning to border the hazel pool, Biel went down to the pasture, and found the wild goose sitting upon her nest, dead. Some one had shot her. The grief of the boy, as he came bringing her home in his arms, was in tense and bitter. He suspected one of his own brothers as the doer of this act of cruelty, and the result of it was that a coolness sprang up between him and the other boys. "Mother," he said one day, " I have no place here ; let me go to sea." " Oh, Biel," said his mother, " thou art an over-sensitive lad. It is the wild goose that is turning thy heart from home. Cheer up, boy ; we are all of us sorry that the goose has been shot ; there is not one of the family that would UNCLE HENRY AT HOME. 73 have injured her. Some one shot the goose accidentally, thinking that she was game." The woman looked distressed. She was about to raise her white apron to her face, when she felt a touch on her shoulder. "Annie?" she said, looking around. " Yes, mum. May I say a word, mum ? You can set the wild goose's eggs under hens, mum, an' they will hatch out, mum, and Biel will have his wild goose again, mum, and a dozen of 'em, mum. Oh, it makes our hearts heavy to see Biel so down in the mouth, mum ! Biel has been good to me, mum ; he means to be good to everybody." "Annie," said Mrs. Le Doit, "you are right. I like to feel your touch on my shoulder ; it is always followed by healing words. Biel, what do you think about what Annie says ? " Annie was a Scotch-Irish workgirl, a little older than him self. She had a true, feeling heart, and he liked her. His face brightened. " That I will. I will set the wild goose's eggs under hens." He bounded away, saying, " Oh, Annie, you shall have half the goslings if the eggs hatch ! I will ever be true to you. You have a heart to be remembered on land or sea." The wild goose's eggs were set under hens, but only one of them hatched, and that was a little egg such as is some times found in a nest. It produced a little gosling, which was very bright and cunning. This one gosling Biel took into the house, and the bright, pretty, downy thing became the pet of the family. Every person in the neighborhood seemed to take an interest in it, for the people had all been sorry for the boy when the wild goose had been found shot. 74 OVER THE ANDES. The gosling was called the Cade. A nest was made for him in a bushel basket. As the Cade became older, Biel took him out of the basket each day, and let him pluck the tender grass in the back yard. The back door, or porch door, opened into an entry, out of which was a cupboard. In the lower part of this cup board, Annie, the workgirl, kept the Cade gosling's food, which consisted of Indian meal and water, called " dough." When the Cade had become a few weeks old, he found the way to this cupboard, and as often as he was in the yard, and the porch door was open, he would climb up the steps, into the entry, and find the dough-dish on the floor of the cupboard. There was a revival of trade between the Rhode Island ports, and Colombia and Venezuela. Quite a number of young farmers were about to embark as sailors for Trinidad and La Guayra on the Bowers' ship. The widow, seeing that so many of her neighbors' sons were choosing a sea life, at last consented to let Biel go to sea, and he, with a half a dozen others, prepared to embark on a ship called the " L'Ouverture." It was a sorry day for the little country port when the " L'Ouverture " sailed away. The people of the farms gathered on the wharves to see her start. "What will you do with the little Cade, Biel?" asked the widow, smiling amid her tears. " I will give it to you, Mother," said the boy. " Keep him until I come back." The widow felt a touch on her shoulder. "Annie," she said, "what, Annie?" UNCLE HENRY AT HOME. 75 " Give it back to him for a Thanksgiving goose. When you blow the dinner-horn, he will not be here." "Yes, yes," said the widow, "a bit of a Thanksgiving goose it shall be. Take him, Biel, and so make a Thanks giving dinner in the forecastle, and invite to it all the boys that are going from here. I wish he were bigger. When I blow the dinner-horn at Thanksgiving-day noon, I will be thinking of you." Annie came out of the door bringing the expostulating gander, which she put under the sailor-boy's arm. The boys of the farm village shouted and tossed up their hats when they saw him coming down to the vessel with the gander under his left arm. The captain of the "L'Ouverture" had been instructed to use his ship in a way that should bring the most profit to the owners, consistently with law and honor. It was several years before she returned, and the ship's mails, on account of the war, had been intercepted and failed to be delivered. A shadow fell on the little farming community around Bowers' Shore after that first year. First came anxiety, and then a restless fear, as people said in little groups by them selves, " Something must have happened to the ' L'Ouver ture.' " There were mothers who used to go up to the green hills overlooking the bay, and stand alone, shading their eyes with their hands. Annie used to go there ; she heard the wild geese go over in the spring, and come back again in the fall, honking, honking, honking, usually very high in the blue sky, but the sails of the " L'Ouverture " did not return in the spring or in the fall. On the third November after the ship had gone, the widow 76 OVER THE ANDES. Le Doit stood in the porch door on Thanksgiving Day. She took down the old dinner-horn, and was about to blow it, when she felt a touch on her shoulder. "Annie! What, girl ? " " Have you heard something strange ? " "No, girl; what?" " I don't know. There is something strange." "Where, Annie?" " Down in the pasture. Listen ! " The widow Le Doit stood silent. Presently a loud cackle of geese filled the air, and with it a bell-like sound of honk, honk, honk. It was a very joyous trumpet-like sound. " It reminds me — " She dropped the dinner-horn by her side, and her apron flew up to her face. " You may go about your work, Annie ; I'll blow the horn, when I am ready. I sha'n't have any appetite to-day, but I will have to keep up heart." The girl did not move. " Oh, Mother Le Doit, for you have been just like a mother to me, blow the horn." " What for, Annie ? " " For the geese." " You're daft, Annie ; what do I want to blow the horn for the geese for? If these were not sorry times, I would have to laugh at you." "Just to see what effect it will have upon them," said Annie. "You may blow it yourself." " No ; that would not sound natural." " Natural ? What do you mean by that, Annie ? " UNCLE HENRY AT HOME. "J"] " Oh, something tells me that the pasture is haunted- like ; that something is about to happen. Please blow the horn, and let me listen, and then I will go about the dinner." The widow Le Doit blew the horn. Lusty echoes came back from the hills where the white gravestones shone in the sun. Something else came back on the clear, mellow air. It caused the dinner-horn to drop at the widow's side. " Honk, honk, honk ! " "A wild goose," said the widow Le Doit. "We haven't any — now." "We had one once," said Annie, beginning to tremble. The eyes of the two met. " Why did the wild goose in the pasture answer the horn ? " asked the girl. " Oh, Annie, this is dreadful ; and on this day, too ! Why did that wild goose down there answer the horn ? I don't know. Do you think that it really is a wild goose, or has — something — happened ? " "There is only one little wild goose in the world," said Annie, "that knows the sound of that horn, or could answer it. Blow it again, Mother, once more." The. widow lifted up the horn, and blew it more violently than before, sending a ringing peal over the hills. The two listened. There was no response from the laurel pasture, but a dark form rose into the clear, bright air, and came fly ing low over the fields. " Annie, what is that ? " " It is a sign, Mother, that Biel is dead. That is a little yH OVER THE ANDES. wild goose, and, oh, Mother ! it will vanish soon. It is not a good sign — it is flying low." But the wild goose did not vanish. On it came, like a fly ing fragment of a cloud in the sunlight, and with another trumpet-like honk, it alighted in the shadow of the frost- smitten elm. A young dog had been brought to the place within a year, a fowler. He heard the honk, and rushed toward the place. The goose rose on its wings and flew back to the pasture, beside a long cornfield full of Indian- summer hazes. The family and visitors were now answering the call of the horn. The sitting-room was full of guests. The parson had arrived with his black suit, white stock, and collar. Squire Holmes was there, and he and the parson were observed to be talking very confidentially together. Annie heard the squire say : — " You needn't say anything about it, Elder. If I only be lieved in such things, I should say that that ship went down, and the cornfield was haunted." " Geese don't have ghosts," said the tall parson, solemnly. "The better thing for us is to keep quiet, and show our wisdom." Old Dr. Diggs, as he was called, — really, Dr. Daggett, — was there. He was a natural doctor, — a root and herb man, — full of superstition. It used to be said in the town, " If any one wants to receive a lift heavenward, let him go to Dr. Diggs ; his remedies never fail." He used to pull teeth with a twister, " One for a quarter, and two for thirty cents." The twister was an economical instrument, and his dental-chair, which was the floor, was also an economy. He would sit a UNCLE HENRY AT HOME. 79 young man down on the floor between his knees, and apply the twister to the aching tooth, and the result was such as to make a lively impression on susceptible women-folk, who usually started at the first cries for mercy for the nearest doors with their fingers in their ears. But the ven erable doctor assured his young patients that the twister was " a sure thing, and that when it was applied to a molar, the tooth was sure to come." It was. The old doctor had heard the words " haunted," " corn field," and he put them together in a manner calculated to excite an alarming curiosity. He was about to ask the squire what he had heard about " the haunted cornfield," when the parson rapped on a dinner-plate with a fork, and bending over the table, said, " For all that we are about to receive, O Lord, make us truly thankful, and may all of the mysteries of life turn into mercies, that whatever happens to us may be for our good and thy glory ! " It was a quiet company that sat down to the bountiful meal in the old farm-house on that Thanksgiving Day. No one was inclined to talk. Every one's thoughts seemed to be wandering, as though there were some nameless mystery in the air. In the midst of this mental depression, Annie came glid ing into the room, with wide, lustrous eyes, and stealing up behind the widow, touched her on the shoulder. " Annie, what now, girl ? " " I have heard it again, Mother ! " " Heard what ? " asked the widow, starting. " The wild goose." "Where, girl?" 80 OVER THE ANDES. "Alone — all by itself — in the cornfield." The men started up, and all of them, except the parson and the doctor, went to the mysterious field. They returned, having found nothing. The widow met them at the door. She heard their report, and said, — "Annie, bring me the dinner-horn." The widow took the horn and sent forth a peal that echoed loudly and clearly from the sunset hills. A trumpet tone answered it. It was a sound of joy. Wings rose in the red air ; black wings bearing up a white and black body, and a long neck. It was a wild goose. The widow Le Doit, old as she was, ran down the faded garden walk that led to the fields. The wild goose lowered his flight as he saw her, and alighted on the grape-vined garden wall, then dropped to the ground. She turned toward the door, and he followed her. He walked up the garden way toward the entry door. He climbed up the stone steps into the entry, turned into the cupboard, and opened the unfastened cupboard door with a side pressure of his head and bill, as the young gander had been used to do, three years before. The widow went into the guest-room. There were smiles on her lips, and tears in her eyes. She sunk down into a chair, between the elder and the doctor, saying: — " The ' L'Ouverture ' is near the coast. The little wild goose has come back again." " Not that one ? " said the doctor. "Yes, the one that my boy carried away." " But that would be extraordinary, very extraordinary, in deed. How do you know that that is the one ? " UNCLE HENRY AT HOME. 8 1 " He knew the way into the house ; there is only one little wild goose in all the world that could have known that. He followed me, and there is no other bird of his kind that would have done so. And, Doctor, he knew more than that; he knew the way to the dough-dish, and he is there now." " Madam, your senses have left you ; that was a spectre that you saw, a spectre from the haunted cornfield. The ' L'Ouverture ' has gone down ; there is no wild goose in the cupboard ; you will never see that bird again, nor the ship, nor Biel. The Lord comfort you. I have studied these things, and I know. A spectre bird means — that the sea covers all." There was a great outcry on the porch. The wild goose had come out into the entry, and Annie had clasped him in her arms saying, " Tell me what you know ! " The girl came bringing the goose into the great room, and set him down on the top of the long dining-table, and the room filled with people. The news of the strange event flew through the town, and the kindred and friends of the seven young men who had sailed away on the " L'Ouverture " came running to the house. The wild goose's movement riveted all eyes. He drew up one leg under him, which caused the parson to smile, and the doctor to lift his brows. The latter cast his eyes around inquiringly. " What did I tell you? " he said. " One of his legs is gone now." The wild goose put his head under his wing, which move ment seemed to be a good omen to the elder, and a bad one to the doctor. 82 OVER THE ANDES. " There," said the latter, " his head has gone after his leg ; he will all go soon. I tell you, he is an eidolon." The company looked toward the elder. "Our hearts are being prepared," said he, "for a true Thanksgiving." Hope again lighted all faces, when the doctor waved his hand, and the motion brought silence and shadow. The company stood still. The doctor was about to speak, when something happened. The wild goose's head seemed to shoot forth from his body. He shook it, dropped his leg with a backward kick, and uttered a soft, pleasant, uncertain sound, and then sud denly sent forth a trumpet-like honk that pierced the rafters. The company shrank back, pressing upon each other. The doctor ran, crying out, " The dragon ! " " The goose hears something," said Annie. " I thought that I did. I will go and see. I am not afraid now, after what the elder has said." The girl went out. As she did so, she met the doctor. " Let me go," said he. " I have seen enough. I have spoken, and all the gold in the world couldn't keep me any longer in a place like this." The widow Le Doit sat with her back toward the door. The company was silent, but she noticed a look of surprise coming into all faces. But so many strange things had hap pened this day that she did not turn around. Then came a touch on her shoulder. She turned her face. "Annie ! Well, girl, what now?" She turned her face farther around. Annie was there; another face was there. There were eyes that she had UNCLE HENRY AT HOME. 83 watched over in the cradle looking down ; there was a face that she had kissed a thousand times in its childhood and boy hood bending above her. She lifted her hand gently, trem blingly, and drew the face down. It was a young man's face. "Biel!""We are all safe!" he said, "all safely in from La Guayra. How strange! The little wild goose left the ship two days ago and got home before we did. How much of latitude and longitude these little dumb things do know ! " There followed a real Thanksgiving. One evening, as they were making preparations to leave Milton Hills, Uncle Henry said to Our Boys, as they all were seated around the first open fire: — " I am glad that you have chosen South America for our field of travel. South America may be the land of but little interest to our people now, but she holds the golden key of the future. You may each of you, and Arline also, find your calling in life in this journey that we have planned to make." "That is why I wish to go," said Alonzo. " Travel in one's young years is not only educational," said Uncle Henry; "it also shows a young man what he can best do in life: how he may be most useful. It dis covers opportunity. I would not be surprised if you all were to find your opportunity for usefulness in the Southern coun tries. You are all likely to choose your professions before you come back." " Would you have us all find situations in South America ? " asked Leigh. 84 OVER THE ANDES. " No, no, no ! I would have you see there how you may improve some situation in North America. I have been studying that all my life. That kind of intelligence is what has built up our great importing houses. As for Arline, if she is closeting in her mind an opportunity to teach, she will find in those countries one of the largest schoolrooms in all the world. I do not know what to think of Arline, except that she has caught the spirit of Elizabeth Peabody, and is too modest to make known such a large ambition. " I prophesy that you will all see clear ways to serve your day and generation before you return. Every hour makes me impatient to be on board the steamer, bound for La Guayra." " I have the same feeling," said Alonzo. " And I," said Leigh. "And I," said a spirited girl, who had just entered the room. CHAPTER VII. TO LA GUAYRA FOR CARACAS FIRST VIEW OF THE ANDES — THE PEOPLE TURN OUT TO MEET THEM A LITTLE LIST. THE Frobishers began their journey by taking the Red D Line steamer "Caracas " for Caracas, of which La Guayra is the port. While the delightful sea route to South America by Southampton, England, taking in as it does many of the historic seaports of the Old World on the way, and while the Panama route down the West Coast to Valparaiso and thence over the Cordillera, are favorite ways with commercial trav ellers, the journey down the coast from La Guayra to Buenos Ayres and over the Cordillera, and thence up the West Coast to Lima and Panama, presents more direct educational features to the student of South American history and trade. By this way one may visit nearly all the important ports and great inland cities. The voyage was uneventful. The steamer did not stop at Curacao, one of the queerest islands in all the world, where Holland may be found as she was in the times of Van Tromp. Here is the city of Willemstad, of some thirteen thousand inhabitants, of which the world seldom hears. The Dutch islands here, of which Curacao is the principal, have about forty thousand inhabitants. We are reminded of these habitations of the sea, chiefly by the fact that some of the 85 86 OVER THE ANDES. Red D Line steamers touch there, and by the Curacao oranges. The recollection of one of these oranges is likely to be a long one, as it is a castaway, an unripe fruit that falls from the tree, and is very sour and bitter. The liquor called cura- gao is made on these islands. The Caribbean Sea was very smooth, as the steamer ap proached the coast. A veil of mist hung over it, and Alonzo and Leigh stood for hours on the lookout, watching for the Andes. The mist thinned, and the two boys saw a long greenness in the high air, like an island in the sky. " What is that, Steward ? " asked Alonzo. "The world topsy-turvy," said the man of the many brooms, mops, and pails. " Are you looking for the moun tains, my lads ? " " Yes," said Alonzo, " for the Andes." " Well, there they are, as green as grass in a New England hayfield in June. The port will soon be in sight." "What makes them so green, Steward?" asked Leigh. "Those are cactuses," said the steward. The mountains were covered with cacti. La Guayra now appeared in outline. Above the city was an odd-looking castle, which, we think, Charles Kingsley has pictured in "Westward Ho." The mountains behind the city seemed from the sea to rise perpendicularly, and the houses on their skirts to be plastered upon them like swallows' nests. The mist rose, and the sea around the steamer lay in a long, calm, purple splendor. THE AIR WAS FULL OF BIRDS AND THE HARBOR OF BOATS. TO LA GUAYRA FOR CARACAS. 87 The air was full of birds, and the harbor of boats, and the coast road was shaded with cocoanut-trees. The harbor had a sea-wall, but the passengers were com pelled to land by boats and lighters. "All the city seems coming out to meet us," said Alonzo. Boats gathered around the steamer manned with swarthy men. They multiplied. Where did they come from ? — from out of the sea ? When the steamer came to a stop, and let down her steps, there was a whole town of boats around her. Hallooing ! was ever such heard in all the world ! Each boatman tried to catch the eye of a single passenger, and when he did so, he set up a cry offering his services in Spanish. " Now is your time, boys, to try the effect of your Span ish grammar," said Uncle Henry, who was used to such scenes. Not a word that they had learned in their grammar did they recognize. It was all hubbub, chaos. "Are they pirates ? " Alonzo asked of Uncle Henry. " Pirates ? No ! speak to one of them ; try your Spanish now; this is a good place to begin." "Buenos dias, Senor" said Alonzo, to one of the boatmen, touching his hat. This true, democratic politeness had an immediate effect on the boatman. "Una peso, Seizor Don el Americano." Alonzo shook his head. "Ho, cabellero ! " shouted back the man, followed by many exclamations, to which Alonzo could only answer, "No in- tendo." 88 OVER THE ANDES. "You see," said Uncle Henry, "you have taken a fall." " How ? " asked Alonzo. " You were Senor Don el Americano, now you are cabellero, without any titles or compliments." The sea was smooth, but the boats rocked, and there was some difficulty in getting upon them. But the confusion about the ship was small compared with that in landing at the custom-house wharf. Had the whole city indeed turned out to offer to carry the passengers' baggage ? " Hold tight to your belongings," said Uncle Henry to the boys. A great crowd of black and brown men — some lean, some fat, and all with- large hats and very scanty clothing — seemed most eager to snatch the passengers' hand-baggage, and run with it to the custom-house, or to some less known place. These porters swarmed. Their outcries ! Their out cries in their competitions were fearful. " Yo hablo Espanol" said Uncle Henry. Magic words ! The crowd of half-naked porters moved away. If the American gentleman could speak Spanish, he could attend to his hand-baggage himself, as it was but a short distance to the aduana. They went at once to the American consulate. Always go there first on landing in a Spanish or in any foreign city. The flag hung out on the consulate, which was in a narrow, shadowy street. The consular rooms were attractive ; the welcome of the consul was most hospitable, and the place was crowded with people of many woes and wants. The consul had met Uncle Henry before. They stopped at an old rambling hotel full of queer apart- TO LA GUAYRA FOR CARACAS. 89 ments. The dining-room was open to the air, and sur rounded with vines and birds. "The water grows on trees in this country," said Uncle Henry to the boys. It did, by bucketsful. The cocoanuts here were nearly as large as water pails. " It is said that those who drink cocoanut water never fall sick or have the fever. I will order some, and we will go to the balcony in front of our rooms and drink it." He led the way to their rooms. "Agua — cocoanut," said Uncle Henry to a waiter, in passing. Presently, a black boy appeared in their rooms with two enormous cocoanuts with green covering, and a kind of a hatchet or cutlass called a machete. He struck off the top of the cocoanuts with his machete, and poured out what looked like pure water from one of them into a glass on the table. He set the two cocoanuts on end against the side of the room, and having shown " los Americanos" how to use them, left them for future use. The plaza was a most interesting place. The people work little in this city past mid-day. The portenos, the boat men, the negroes, the fruit-sellers, the dealers in various drinks, and the bird-sellers lounged about the place in the afternoon. Many of them slept here on the walls and earth under the shade of the trees, after the morning work. At noon the sun blazed. The sea seemed a dream. The birds moved lazily on their wings. The heat was intense, but over the coast loomed the great shadows of the Andes. Amid the fiery splendors of the sunset they went to the 90 OVER THE ANDES. great Venezuelan watering-place, in the tent-like cocoanut groves near the port. There were some beautiful villas here belonging to the nobility, who made the place a summer resort. It is a curious place on a narrow strip of land studded with lofty cocoanut palms which were commonly loaded with fruit. Above it rose the green walls of the Andes many thousand feet high ; below, rolled the Caribbean Sea, the Mediterranean of the semi-tropical world, stretching from Cuba to Trinidad, gemmed with the palmy islands of the Antilles, and overarched with fervid skies, lovely in their serenity, but terrible in cloud and storm. Here in and about the plaza were parrots waiting to be sold. Some of them spoke Spanish wonderfully, but the boys were " no intendo " to the information that they had to impart. After two days at La Guayra, where their health was per fect, possibly under the good influence of cocoanut water, Our Boys took the "zigzag railroad" for Caracas. Arline was almost silent during the voyage. She seemed absorbed in her Spanish Grammar. She had taken with her Pilling's South American novels, Froebel's " Education of Man," " Don Quixote," and a translation in Spanish-Ameri can ballads. She was often heard studying aloud in her room. The burden of her studies seemed to be the things pertaining to the escuela or school. She came out on deck to gaze with delight on the green Andes when they first appeared over the blue Caribbean Sea. " I seem to have seen them in my mind before," she said, TO LA GUAYRA FOR CARACAS. 91 as the sun burst through the mist, lifting a veil, as it were, from a throne. Uncle Henry, who was always in a cheerful mood, re garded Arline's studiousness with alarm. "Why, Arline," he said, "you seem to think more of your books than of the monkeys in the cocoanut-trees." "I do, Uncle." " Arline," he added, " we have come to the land where there are many things good to eat, and I want you to be a good girl and enjoy yourself so as to make me happy. I have a list of words that the boys have been studying, and which I wish you to study. You will need them. " Here is the list : — " Deme. — Cafe" con leche (coffee with milk) . Pan y manteca (bread and butter). Te\ Chocolate. Tostadas. Bizcochos (biscuits). "Sirvame. — Pasteles. Tortas. Bunuelos. Huevos pasados por agua (eggs passed through water — boiled) . Huevos fritos, Pescado frito. Fiambres. Rosbif. Pan caliente (hot bread). Carne asada-frita-hervida (roast meat — fried — boiled). Lomo de ternera or File (loin of veal). Compotas. Peras. Manzanas (apples). Melocotones. Naranjas (oranges). Bananas. Ananas (pineapples). Uvas (grapes). Higos (figs)." These were good words indeed, as the young student of South American Spanish will say. Our Boys found them very useful here and at Caracas. CHAPTER VIII. CARACAS AND THE LAND OF THE CHOCOLATE PLANT. ALTHOUGH Our Boys saw the Andes first in the sky, in the near view, yet in clear air these majestic water fronts, which are eighty-six hundred feet high, much higher than the summit of Mt. Washington, may be seen at sea at a distance of from sixty to seventy miles. The maritime Andes, which here front the Mediterranean of the Antilles, have the appearance of a saddle, and are called La Silla. It is said that La Guayra is one of the most beautiful ports on earth, as seen from the sea on a clear day, and " the hottest place in all the world," and that " the hot season lasts all the time," which we hope is not true. Humboldt describes the coast here in a single line, which is more poetry than prose : " The Pyrenees, or Alps, stripped of their snow, rise out of the bosom of the waters." The plains of Venezuela, it is said, are capable of sustaining a population of five million people, and, although it is so hot on the coast, there are valleys in the country where the winds are so cold as to cause travellers to freeze to death. Here are forests larger than France. What will be the future of this empty world ? The journey up the mountain wall, which is covered with cacti, vines, and flowers, by the famous "zigzag railroad," is one ever to be remembered. 92 CARACAS AND THE LAND OF THE CHOCOLATE PLANT. 93 Caracas is situated in a valley, about three thousand feet above the sea. The Andes tower above the city some four or five thousand feet. The valley of Caracas is charming to view, full of bright sunshine, gardens, and flowers. The white towers of the churches and public buildings are most picturesque amid the green mountain walls. Over the city rises Calvary Hill, a grand park, a flower garden pointing to the sky, a menagerie full of curious beasts and birds. In Caracas everything seems to bear the name of Bolivar : the money, the public places, the trades. The hero's tomb is here, and a magnificent equestrian statue of him adorns the plaza. Here, also, is a statue of Washington. Our Boys were now in the land of cocoa, a plant that deserves a lyric poem, for is it not the delight of all the civilized world ? How is this plant or tree cultivated ? How are the beans grown, prepared for shipment, shipped, and changed into the most delicious articles for food ? Soon after the discovery of America, the coasts of the Caribbean Sea were found to be the fields of the source of two great luxuries, as they were then deemed, — the tobacco and chocolate. The praise of the chocolate bean began in the times of the conquistadores, as the adventurers of the Con quest were called. In the early accounts of the chocolate plant, we find that a larger tree used to be set by the chocolate tree to shelter it from the sun. Our Florida friends might find a method in this, for how 94 OVER THE ANDES. to grow the chocolate tree seems to have been acquired as an art after failure. Perhaps some pans of burning resin, which emit a thick smoke that hugs the earth, might have saved many a beautiful orange grove during the great freeze, or some like protection for these golden treasures of the air may be found. Would you see the cocoa bean in the pod ? If you are a Boston boy, you may find specimens of these in the office of the great chocolate factory at Milton. The chocolate plant is known to botanists as Theobroma cacao, or " food for the gods," and food for the gods it is. The method of growing the plant is carefully described in a late consular report, which we quote : — " The tree grows to the average height of thirteen feet, and from five to eight inches in diameter, is of spreading habit and healthy growth, and although requiring much more care and attention than the coffee-tree, yet its equally reliable crops require comparatively little labor in properly preparing for the market. "... There are two varieties of the cocoa-tree cultivated in Venezuela, known as El Criollo and El Trinitario, respec tively, the former of which, though not so prolific, nor as early fruiting as the latter, is yet superior to it in size, color, sweetness, and oleaginous properties of the fruit, and in the fact that it always finds ready sale, while the latter is often dull or neglected. The difference in price of the two varie ties is also marked, the former being quoted at $28 to $30 per fanega (no pounds), while the latter commands approximately half that price. "While coffee can be successfully cultivated under a CARACAS AND THE LAND OF THE CHOCOLATE PLANT. 95 temperature of 60° F., the cocoa-tree, for proper develop ment and remunerative crops, requires a temperature of 8o° F. ; hence the area of the cocoa belt is compara tively restricted, and the cocoa planter presumably has not to fear the fierce competition that he has encountered in the cultivation of cotton and coffee. Besides the condi tion of temperature above stated, this crop needs a moist soil and humid atmosphere ; and so the lands along the coast of the Caribbean Sea, sloping from the mountain tops to the shore, bedewed by the exhalations of the sea and irrigated by the numerous rivulets that course down the valleys, are found to be, in all respects, well adapted to the profitable cultivation of cocoa. And while the lands in the interior, possessing facilities for irrigation, may be said to be equally as good for the purpose, yet the absence of roads, and the consequently difficult transportation of prod uce on the backs of donkeys over rugged mountain paths, materially reduce the profits on the crop before it reaches the market. "A cocoa plantation is set in quite the same manner' as an apple orchard, except that the young stalks may be trans planted from the nursery after two months' growth. No preparation of the soil is deemed necessary, and no manures are applied. The young trees are planted about fifteen feet equidistant, which will accommodate two hundred trees to the acre. Between rows, and at like spaces, are planted rows of the Bucare, a tree of rapid growth, that serves to shade the soil as well as to shield the young trees from the torrid sun. Small permanent trenches must be maintained from tree to tree throughout the entire length of the rows, so 96 OVER THE ANDES. that, at least once in the week, the stream, descending from the mountains, may be turned into these little channels and bear needful moisture to tree and soil. At the age of five years the plantation begins to bear fruit, and annually yields two crops, — that ripening in June being termed the crop of San Juan, and that maturing at Christmas being known as the crop of La Navidad. The average age to which the trees attain, under proper care, may be estimated at forty years, during which period it will give fair to full crops of fruit ; but of course it must be understood that, as in our fruit orchards, a new tree must be set from time to time to replace one that may be decayed or blighted. After careful inquiry, it may be safely stated that the average crop of the cocoa plantation at ten years of age, and under a proper state of cultivation, will amount to five or six hundred pounds per acre. " In harvesting, the peons cut down the ripened pods, which are left for a time in a heap on the ground. The beans are then removed from the pods, and are taken to a place to be cured in sweating boxes. They are then dried in the sun and exported." The chocolate is grown in many hot countries, but its homes are the countries of the Caribbean Sea. The choco late beans of Esmeraldas are very fine, and South America is said to use her best chocolate beans at home. When the beans are brought to the factory to make prepared cocoa for drink or confections, they are cleaned and roasted and crushed. They are mixed with sugar for certain purposes, and the flour is made into a hundred luxuries. The coffee kernel and chocolate bean both contain nutritive properties ; CARACAS AND THE LAND OF THE CHOCOLATE PLANT. 97 of the two, the last has the larger value. The culture of the chocolate plant must increase, and herein may lie a cause for an increase of population beyond the hot and unhealthy coasts of the Caribbean Sea, wherein are indo lence, crime, the yellow fever, and, to the Englishman or American, a constant longing for home. Uncle Henry had been in most of the ports of South America, and was personally acquainted with many of the consuls. He used to say that the best story-telling places in all the world were the consulates. Sea-captains rest there, travellers, importers, inland people on their way to the sea, the rich, the poor, people in distress, adventurers. In the consulate, one may hear stories that would have saved the head of Queen Scheherazade, the relater of the Arabian Nights stories, who would have been executed had she failed to have been continually interesting. It is our purpose to reproduce in this volume some of the stories, such as we may hear in these resting places of the travellers of the world. We give here a legend of La Guayra, such as has color for the consular visitors, and is largely true. SIR FRANCIS DRAKE AND HIS SHIP OF GOLD. La Guayra, in the days of the sea-rovers, is associated with the story of Sir Francis Drake, and the "Golden Hynde," the ship of the knightly adventurer. Sir Francis was born in a cottage upon the Tavy, in 1539, a long-ago date. He lived upon the Tavy in the days of his 98 OVER THE ANDES. knighthood and riches, but he died off La Guayra on the placid purple sea. His young days were passed among the sailors of Devon, and he was apprenticed by his father to a neighbor who owned a bark, and so he began a life on the sea. The reports of the exploits of Hawkins in the New World were filling England. Drake heard of them, and was anxious to see the coasts of the discovery and palmy isles of the Spanish main. Wishes make ways. He found his way to Hawkins, and made a voyage with him, and became his successor in the fame of the sea. His first voyage to the Spanish main, which was with Hawkins, was not successful. He desired wealth ; but he came home poorer than when he sailed away. He went to the same Spanish main again, and at last enriched himself by the capture of a caravan laden with gold at Nombre de Dios. Every one knows how he became a favorite of Queen Eliza beth; how he waged war against the Spanish on the sea, and defeated the Invincible Armada. He sailed from Plymouth, England, in his early voyages, and the return of his ship to that port was a cause of great excitement. It was a Sunday in Plymouth, in the sixteenth century, far off and long ago. We think that it was in summer. The little old woman that opened the pews for a penny, and for more on holidays, came early to the church, with her high bonnet and her keys by her side, as we may imagine. The rector put on his white gown. "When do you think Sir Francis will come back ? " asked the little old woman of the rector, with a courtesy. CARACAS AND THE LAND OF THE CHOCOLATE PLANT. 99 " Ah, never mind about such things to-day, Mother. It is only gold that does good, that is good — as for the rest, it is fools' gold. It is the incorruptible seed that we must sow, and the durable riches that we must seek." The little old woman courtesied low in the high church, taking, we fear, a pinch of snuff. The people came into the church under the high tower, that the Pilgrim Fathers saw as they sailed away. The psalm was sung, and the credo repeated. The clerk looked out of the window. Suddenly the clerk was gone. Where had he gone ? Why ? The deacon looked out of the window after him. Suddenly he was gone. Where ? Why ? The decorous old sea-captains, one by one, looked out. One by one they went out. Old lady West, the grand woman of the place, craned her head, and looked out of the window. She, too, disappeared. Then the young folks dared to stand up to see where the old folks had gone. They, too, slipped out. The rector began to preach, full of wonder at seeing so many people going out one by one. He at last turned his face toward the window. What did he see ? A sail! It was Sir Francis Drake's. It was coming in from the Spanish main. The ship doubtless was loaded with gold. " Stop ! stop ! " he cried to the people who were going out. " I will go, too ! " He slipped off his robe as quickly as possible. IOO OVER THE ANDES, The little old woman who opened the pews stood alone with her keys and snuff-box in the great high church. She bent double when she saw the rector going, and said to him as he passed her, " It is fools' gold, all ! " It was. After his great exploits and battles, Sir Francis went to the Spanish main again for gold. He had a fever for gold. But another fever met him there, the fever of the garment of death. Twenty days he fought with the fever, but he was vanquished this time, — a ship of gold on the Spanish main could not arrest death. He died amid his gold. The Spanish main is deep. His ship with his fleet came to anchor off Puerto Bello. They lifted the body of Sir Francis over the rail of his ship, and gave it to the deep, deep sea. In England, they watched for the ship's return. It came back, it brought gold — but Sir Francis never came back. Said the little old woman that opened the pews to the nimble clerk, who had run out of the church on Sunday, " It was fools' gold, all." Alonzo became greatly interested in the cocoa industry. "These are superior products of the chocolate plant," he said to a trader whom he met at the consulate. " Why could not an American importer take advantage of these, and make for himself a reputation that would secure for his raw ma terial superior prices?" "He could, if he had capital, knowledge, and experience." "A gentleman in Boston manufactured superior chocolate," said Alonzo. " His business grew. He made a fortune from CARACAS AND THE LAND OF THE CHOCOLATE PLANT. IOI it : others who succeeded him, or worked with him, did the same. Why could not a young importer lay a foundation for success on the same principle ? " " He could." " If I had capital, and were to gain experience, why could I not make for myself a business by securing the best fruit of the chocolate plant for our markets ? " "You could," said the trader. " If there are plantations that can produce superior beans, they can be doubled. The superior product can be in creased ? " " Certainly, my lad, and you have just the spirit to enter into some business like that. Why are you travelling ? " "To find something useful to do." CHAPTER IX. ARLINE AT THE AMERICAN MINISTER'S THE LANTERN OF MARACAIBO THE STORY OF SIMON BOLIVAR AT THE EARTHQUAKE AT CARACAS. UNCLE HENRY was acquainted with the United States Minister, or the American Minister, as he was called, whose place of residence was at Caracas. He called upon him and introduced to him and to his family, whom he also met, his nephews and Arline. The minister offered Alonzo every opportunity to visit the country of the cocoa and coffee plantations. There were members of the family that at once took a more than polite interest in Arline. As soon as they found that she was interested in kindergarten education one of them said : "You should go no farther. We need you right here. Why, Dom Pedro of Brazil went to New York at one time to find people of ideas like yours. You must leave your hotel and stay with us while you are in port." Arline accepted the invitation. Uncle Henry was greatly surprised at finding his girl making herself so interesting; he was still more surprised to hear her speak American Spanish very well. Arline was delighted with this hospitality. She was in a ARLINE AT THE AMERICAN MINISTER'S. IO3 sympathetic atmosphere ; here — away off here in the earth quake valley — were people who shared her heart and thoughts. The evenings at the Legation were continuous delights. Here she listened to stories different from those that she had ever heard before, and poems and music unlike those of New England. One evening a Spanish Don, who spoke English, gave her a somewhat curious account of THE LANTERN OF MARACAIBO. When the Spanish discoverers came to the entrance of Lake Maracaibo, they beheld a scene that filled them with wonder, — villages seemed to be floating upon an open sea. They entered this new water land, and came to the houses of the water dwellers. They found that these dwellings were built upon piles driven into the mud. "Venezuela," said they, "a little Venice," and the country of this strange lake received Venezuela as its name. The people have been driven into this life by the mosquitoes. From the time of Columbus until now, Maracaibo has had the reputation of being a haunted region, on account of a peculiar light that appears above it at night, and which is called " Farol de Maracaibo," — the lantern of Maracaibo. It is a natural beacon which appears at midnight over the lake on the south. Nowhere else in the world does nature provide a mysterious light-house, and light in it a mysterious lamp. The light-house in this case may be but a wall of mist, and IO4 OVER THE ANDES. the light some form of phosphorescence : we cannot tell. The region where it appears is very hot, and the air is supposed to be charged with electricity, but if this is so, no explosions ever take place. It is a natural wonder, whose origin is certain to be some day explained ; but to the ignorant it has long been and is long likely to be regarded as a supernat ural appearance, such as gives rise to legends, stories, and poems, as in the case of the Will-o'-the-wisp and St. Elmo's fire. A region where the people live in trees over the water, to baffle the invasions of the mosquitoes, and where a natural light-house nightly appears in the hot, misty, electric air, is surely one of the most curious in all the world. The same gentleman related another story in a very fervid way, after the manner of the South. THE STORY OF SIMON BOLIVAR AT THE EARTHQUAKE AT CARACAS. It was Holy Week in 1812. The churches were veiled in mourning, but were preparing for the Easter joy. The valley of Caracas is a bed of flowers during much of the year ; the mountains are green with cacti, and lately the Calvary Hill has been made a flower garden, presenting the circles of the semi-tropical flowers of the plains and mountains of the maritime Andes to the circuit of the sun. The city stood in a valley at the elevation of some three thousand feet. Below the valley rolls the purple sea, and above the valley, a sky garden of paradise, the Andes loom thousands of feet in the clear blue sky. ARLINE AT THE AMERICAN MINISTER'S. 105 It was the time of the war for Independence, and Simon Bolivar, the leader of the patriotic army, was in the city. One day there had come to Bolivar a statesman who had said to him : — " If any calamity should fall upon the country now, — as a plague, earthquake, or accident, — it would endanger the cause. The people would attribute it to a judgment of Heaven for proclaiming the Independence." "The people are superstitious," said Bolivar, "and let us hope that nothing may happen till the republic is established." " Simon Bolivar, there comes to me a strange foreshadow ing. There is a dimness in the light of heaven, a strange and awful stillness in the air, and often at night I can feel the earth tremble under my house. Others have felt the same." " Such things have happened before," said Bolivar. " Caracas once went down, and since that time she sleeps on a grave. Here flowed a tranquil lake, or so the legends say : that lake went down. There may be cause for fear." "Thou speakest true, Bolivar, and there comes again electric air, and quivering waves of light, and a strange dimness turning red the sun." "Let the earth rise or sink, my cause is just, and justice never fails." It was a lovely day. The orchid hunter from the mountain woods came laden with a wealth of spiral blooms to deck the festal altars ; the cacti hung in the balconies of penitents, as waiting for the Easter light to bloom ; the solemn morn had passed; the hour drew nigh that celebrates the world's 106 OVER THE ANDES. supreme event, when the Cross threw its shadow on the sun. The churches were thronged, and heads to feet were bowed, and through the silence stole melting music. The sultry air grew more lifeless, and ceased to breathe ; the red sun shone, but nature seemed as dead. The sea- birds wheeled and screamed on faltering wings. The land- birds hid their wings amid drooping leafages of windless trees. The nightingale ceased his song; the wild beasts lifted up a cry of fear in silent forests and crept near the town. The stillness grew as though all things were wait ing. So there comes the hush that falls at an hour of execution, as if the clock of time had stopped. In the tepid air the sails hung loose upon the pulseless sea, whose wide splendors were spread beneath the green heights. The condors plunged in air,, as smitten with terror ; the birds and beasts seemed to know the secret that Nature held within her heart. A force is gathering weight beneath the land, — silent, elec tric, irresistible. The Andes rise clear as peaks at sea, when storms have cleared the air, and at their feet more mirror like and still lies the sea. Breathe low, O priests ! in all your shadowy temples. Did something smite the earth ? Look up, ye crowds ! Did not the pillars move ? A power unseen seems drawing near, and passing by. But how, and where ? Oh, where ? Go ask the birds, but they have ceased to fly ; go ask the beasts, but they have ceased to run. The startled bull no longer paws the turf. Portenos, did the higher Andes wave ? Serenos, did ye see the city move ? ARLINE AT THE AMERICAN MINISTER'S. I07 But all again is still. The Miserere flowed in sweet relief along the stifling aisles, and the worshippers prayed and shuddered as they moved their beads. There came a crash, and rent the earth. Ye powers that pity men, 'tis now your hour ; the earth is going down, and hangs the sky above as though suspended o'er a black abyss ! A cloudless darkness fills the moving air, the moun tains reel, and, rent in spasms, seem to cry as in a voice of thunder to the sky. The sea pours its tides upon the land, as though affrighted. The eagles upward dart and leave the earth ; the huge peaks break, the waterfall is rent, lakes dis appear, the valley opens its mouth, and downward draws the shuddering air. A cavernous thunder again shakes the earth ; the mountains echo it near and far; the craters of volcanoes, black and old, in near provinces, poured forth streams of lava down their rocky walls. Where art thou now, Caracas, far city of the mountains and the sea, where liberty for a new race was born ? And where thy villages 'mid pastoral farms ? And where the worshippers, who an hour ago lay on thy floor before the mourning gold that gleamed out through altar lights, — mysterious, vague, and dim ? Go ask the caverns of the hidden earth that never shall be explored. One village sunk, and left not an inhabitant. The fane, the churchyard of the cross, the convent walls, the happy and the wretched, rich and poor, — all, all, vanished as a mirage. The tropic sunset spread its splendors o'er the seas, but to Caracas but a single church is left, and that on tottering pillars leaned above the wreck, and waited there to tell other men of other times the tale. 108 OVER THE ANDES. And where was Bolivar ? There went up a cry, " Liberta- dor ! L ibertador ! ' ' The earth went down, but left him on a height. He stood alone above the ruin. The cloud volcanic rose around him and swift rolled away. He saw the single church that roofed the air, and heard the pitying cries for helping hands that came from the walls, " Libertador ! " He leaped over the ruins, rushed to the colonnade of the church, and there began his work of mercy. "Libertador!" Whose voice is that ? He lifted his face to see. It was the warning patriot who stood before him. " This is not the place for talk," he said ; " I told you so. I saw the ruin coming ; it has come. One question only, champion, answer me : Is the cause lost ? " Bolivar, small and slender that he was, rose into a form of majesty. "Compatriot, No! The earth may reel, but not the throne of justice in the world. If Nature's self oppose, I say to thee, Hear me, ye ruins; if Nature's self opposes us, we will force her to obey." The story which here was told in picture is founded on a true incident. The guitar was often played evenings in the bowers of blooms under the bright stars and the Southern Cross. Some of the Venezuelan songs, thus accompanied, have a peculiar form and charm ; like the following : — ARLINE AT THE AMERICAN MINISTER S. IO9 Seest thou yon lowly, silent tomb, Where flowers bloom and children play? I see — But ah! I have my hope Not there, but far, far, far away, Far, far away ! Seest thou yon cloud of azure hue, On heaven's fair bosom sport and play? I see — But ah! I have my hope Not there, but far, far, far away, Far, far away! Seest thou yon dome of azure sky, Where sparkle stars of silver rays ? I see — But ah ! I have my hope Not there, but far, far, far away, Far, far away ! IV. Nor tomb, nor cloud, nor stars of light, My soul in quest divine can stay ; For while God lives I have my hope, Not here, but far, far, far away, Far, far away ! CHAPTER X. PARA AND THE MONARCH OF RIVERS THE VICTORIA REGIA THE RUBBER GROVES A CONSULAR TALE. UP the curving harbor of the seaport of the Amazons Our Boys passed, and faced Para. It is a city of white houses with red tiles, and it was picturesque in the distance, and grew more and more interesting in a nearer approach. " First class in geography, stand up," said Uncle Henry, jocosely, to some passengers and the boys. "Who discovered the Amazon ? " There were blank faces and close shut mouths. "I know who discovered the Mississippi," said one of the passengers. "And I know who discovered the St. Lawrence," said Alonzo. "That is all well as far as it goes," said Uncle Henry; "but who discovered the Amazon?" " I only know that I don't know," said Leigh. " It never occurred to me that it ever was discovered before. I always thought it was just here without any romance at all." "You are one of a very large company of people, I fear." " Pinzon," said Arline. " The one of the brothers who was true to Columbus." Arline was patriotic, and she wore a little American flag, PARA AND THE MONARCH OF RIVERS. 1 1 I She was asked by a girl whom she met on the steamer, a daughter of a military officer, what it meant. " I am a Daughter of the Revolution." " The daughters of North America have been through one revolution," said the South American girl, speaking English, " and they bedeck themselves with flags and put on airs of great importance. The South American women have been through many revolutions, — as a joke in a North American paper well says, — and have forgotten all about them for the new times." Arline left her flag in her room the next day, in the kinder garten spirit. Para was at hand. A palace, a cathedral, and towers of churches, and halls of imposing appearance came clearly into view, with the docks of great navigation companies. They were at the mart of the great india-rubber industry of the world. The groves of the Amazon sent down their products through the wide gateway of the Para. The river Para is the south arm of the Amazon, and forms an outlet of that river to the Atlantic. It is forty miles broad at its mouth and twenty at the port city. The province of Para is nearly twice as large as Austria, and embraces, in part, the great Amazon Valley, — an almost unpeopled land, but capable of becoming one of the most productive countries of the world. If the Andes are the glory of the mountain world, the Amazon is the river of rivers. It starts in the mountain torrents of the sky, it flows four thousand miles, and has tributaries and water-courses over which one might travel 112 OVER THE ANDES. fifty thousand miles, or a distance equal to twice around the world. The American steamers go up the river for a thousand miles and connect with lighter steamers, making a route of three thousand three hundred and sixty miles. The Amazon forces itself into the ocean, and is a river of the ocean as well as of the land. The travels of Professor Agassiz on these water-courses of the forest kingdoms have made the waters familiar to scientific men. Here the great naturalist discovered one thousand new fish. Brazil is a country awaiting the occupation of the world. It is some twenty-six hundred miles long and twenty-five hundred broad, almost as long as from Maine to California. The Amazon Valley, wherever cultivated, pours out in luxu riance the products of the earth. The South American coast is unhealthy, but the great country of Brazil has its life-giving areas. The wonders of the Amazon are the caoutchouc forests, or india-rubber groves. " I can remember," said Uncle Henry at Para, " when india-rubber was chiefly used in the form of little blocks to erase pencil marks on paper. Every school-boy had a piece of india-rubber, or gum elastic ; and my old teacher told me that these erasers grew on trees. The boy who used the rubber the most was he who made the most mistakes at school, and usually the most mistakes in life. I found many errors to erase, and the habit has too much followed me, I fear. " But how the business has grown since my school-days ! PARA AND THE MONARCH OF RIVERS. I 1 3 First, we began to wear rubber on our feet to keep out the water and the snow. Then we wore it on our heads for the same purpose. Then we wore it all over us in the form of coats, which were as black as funeral palls. Then our rubber coats took on the appearance of cloth. Then we had rubber bands and belts, and finally combs, chains, bracelets, and buttons. There are some three thousand articles made wholly or in part of rubber. So a useful thing multiplies." "What is rubber?" asked Alonzo. " It is the juice, or milk, of the caoutchouc-tree. It is obtained by tapping the tree, and the juice is solidified by boiling down the liquid, when it is moulded, dried, and exported. The Para rubber is regarded as the best." The ship was long in port, and they visited the ships engaged in the rubber trade. Uncle Henry and the two boys connected with a steamer from New York, and went up the Amazon for a distance of a thousand miles. They sailed, as it were, on the melted snows of the Andes. The voyage was one of wonder, for it revealed to them the possibilities of the great Amazon Valley to the future world. They met with a few Indians, happy in an indolent life. The forests were alive with birds and animals ; a tropic glow was in the sky morning and evening. The boat went on and on, the wide waters and the land seemed empty, empty. Uncle Henry on this voyage gave the boys a description of a marvellous natural stone pyramid between the countries of Guiana and Brazil, called Mt. Roraima. It rose per pendicularly to a height of some seven thousand feet. It may have had a lake-like surface on top, for water ran over i 114 OVER THE ANDES. its sides, making it a beautiful object in the morning and evening light. It was difficult to ascend this mountain, which was like a square block of granite or slate or solid geological substance. They were now in the country of the concolor, which was introduced into the greenhouses of the temperate zones from the Organ Mountains, near Rio, and whose flower- scape suggests a hand of gold. They were led to recall again this plant of oval bulbs and flaming shaft by the fiery glory that appeared on the Amazon as the boat ap proached the shore. Leaves were seen floating upon the surface of the water, five or six feet in length. Presently, flowers began to appear among them of great size. Leigh asked Uncle Henry what these giant aquatic plants were. " I thought that you knew," said Uncle Henry. " Those are famous Victoria regias, the favorite plants of the great English aquariums. Let us secure some of the flowers." They did so by lines. The flowers were white, with a rose flush in the middle, and filled the rooms with fragrance. "We must secure some orchids for Arline, when we return to Rio," said Leigh, always mindful of his amiable cousin. They did so, not only securing the concolor from the Organ Mountains, but rare specimens of the queen of orchids, which blooms all the year. This magnificent and opulent flower has many hues and shades of color, and no two flowers are exactly alike. In some specimens it is the lily flushed with the rose. PARA AND THE MONARCH OF RIVERS. 1 1 5 "We will carry these to Arline," said Leigh. Our Boys found the Amazon rimmed with Victoria lilies. At one place they saw Indians harvesting the seeds of these wonderful plants, some of whose leaves were nearly as large as boats. Uncle Henry explained to them that the seeds of the lily were edible. " The plants are the cornfields of the rivers in some parts of the South," he said. " They are water corn ; in fact, they are in some places called the water maize." The india-rubber groves of the Amazon are full of animal life. Their tops are the forest cities of birds and beasts. In these regions sport the monkeys, and flaunt the gay macaws, and scream the parrots in the rising sun. The mind wonders at the world in these vast solitudes, which seem to form the pleasure and delight of the animal kingdom. Will these immense territories, fertilized by the snows of the Andes, ever be densely peopled ? What could civiliza tion accomplish here ? Are the Indian races here destined to increase or die ? Is this to be at some future day the resource for lumber, as it is now for cabinet woods and dyewoods ? It is often said that the world takes but little interest in South America. Will not the time come when the necessi ties of the world will compel a greater interest in these pro lific regions of material resources ? What is South America but a waiting world ? Waiting for what, in the order of Providence ? They were told a beautiful tale in the family of an ex-Eng lish consul at Para. Il6 OVER THE ANDES. THE YOUNG ORCHID HUNTER OF MT. RORAIMA. The warm, moist forests of Colombia, Venezuela, and the Guianas are the natural gardens of the most beautiful or chids in the world. Here is an orchid land. The air flowers here appear in all their fantastic forms and unaccountable hues. They haunt, as it were, the trees, as the mistletoe gathers on the English oaks. The mistletoe, in its sugges tions, is a Christmas plant : the orchid is an Easter flower. All people are familiar with the night-blooming cereus, the Queen of the Night. In some places, where it is cultivated in homes, its blooming is made the occasion of a flower party. It is found in the great solitudes of the South. This glory of the floral world is the flower of desolation. Strange as it may seem, it blooms in its native haunts amid desola tions in the night. To find it thus is to meet a floral parable, and one that haunts the mind. The plant resembles genius, which is a desert offering. Of the wonders of orchid land, only the florist has any con ception. The flowers in the great forests of northern South America are like gems, butterflies, birds, and every beautiful thing. There is no surprise that their flower-scapes may not reveal. Many of them not only have fantastic forms, but exquisite odors, and such as might make the perfumer's calling a high art, were it to develop the ancient Arabian delights. Some species of the orchids emit their fragrance only in the morn ing or at night. PARA AND THE MONARCH OF RIVERS. 117 They are flowers of mystery. There are some three thou sand known varieties, and of these, six hundred or more rare orchids have been discovered in Venezuela. They are hunted for. It has become a profession of young English, French, and German botanists to hunt for new speci mens of the orchids, in the floral gold mines of the South American tropical world. A new orchid may be sold for a little fortune to the great greenhouses of England and on the continent. There was once a young French orchid hunter named Pierre de Vert. He had studied botany in Paris, and the mystery and charm of the orchids of the maritime Andes and the Amazon had led his imagination away to the austral world, and his steps followed his fancy. He had heard that in the regions of Mt. Roraima — the pyramid mountain — some very rare orchids were to be found, and he went to French Guiana and began there to make long journeys over Indian trails into the vast and unknown forests. A very gentle and conscientious young man was the same Pierre de Vert. His soul was as white as the flowers he sought, and as sensitive as the most delicate epiphytes. He had grown up in France amid certain church societies that lived simply amid wealth for the development of the soul. To Pierre the orchid was the Flower of the Soul : to find new specimens was to secure new illustrations of the soul. One day, in a parish church near Paris, there had been brought to the altar the Flower of the Holy Spirit. It was Palm Sunday. Pierre had heard the poetic priest say, on studying the plant, — Il8 OVER THE ANDES. " I wish that I had the most beautiful flower in all the world." "What for, Father?" asked Pierre. " For Easter, my boy." There was a rich nobleman present who heard the words. " I am going," he said, " to offer a reward for the most beautiful flower that a florist can furnish our altar for Easter Sunday for five years." " It would be an orchid," said Pierre. " I love flowers, delicate flowers, those not of the earth, but of the sun and air. I wish that I might secure the reward." "I wish that you might, Pierre." " I would become an orchid hunter to do it." " Where would you go ? Orchids are to be found in all the world." " I would go to our old colony in South America. The most beautiful of all flowers have been found in the forests of those regions." " Good, my boy. You have the flower in your soul ; a desire for a thing is the thing in spirit. I hope that you may gain the reward." After the Easter festival, the nobleman met Pierre again. He made him an Easter gift. It was a golden charm, in the form of a medal, on which was stamped the ancient lilies of France. " That is worth five hundred francs, my lad. Wear it next to your heart, and it will bring you good luck. You have worked in the church many years, without any reward, and your life is blameless, and your face is after your life. When are you going to hunt for the priceless orchid — the PARA AND THE MONARCH OF RIVERS. 1 19 most beautiful flower in all the world — to lay on our Easter altar ? " " I am going, sir." "Where?""To the forests of the pyramid mountain ! " " Mt. Roraima ? " "Yes, to the regions where the rarest of all the world's flowers have been found." " How are you going ? " " With the missionaries." " But you will need more means. I will provide them, and you shall hunt for the flowers for my orchid-house, and I will still give you reward, if you shall find the most beauti ful flower of all." Pierre sailed away from Rochelle. He landed at Guiana, and there studied the ways of making long journeys into the far and wonderful forests. These journeys were not without danger. The waterways were malarious at certain seasons. The forests abounded with poisonous plants and insects and dangerous serpents. But at a favorable season he set forth, with the gold charm of the lilies, that the nobleman had given him, hung around his neck and lying concealed under his clothing over his heart. What a strange land was here, — land of the spices and peppers ! What a beautiful land, notwithstanding the gray rainy seasons ! What a sorrowful land, notwithstanding the plantations, gay with flowers! Here old France sent her criminals, and those banished here for eight years were never allowed to return. 120 OVER THE ANDES. Pierre travelled away from bright Cayenne, on boat and on foot, to the vast regions of the low plains, the highlands, the granite mountains, the rivers and cataracts. He passed beyond the alluvial lands, the places of the wide savannas and the mango-trees, and beyond to the Brazilian borders. There were but few Indians in the forests; a few plantations of the old-time maroons, or runaway slaves, perhaps from Dutch Guiana or Surinam. He watched out in these lonely trails for the great boas that looked like limbs on the trees, and that would sometimes fall on the great beasts and crush them in their coils. He was attended by a single servant and guide, whom he found at Cayenne, and who had been a maroon. This man had travelled over a great extent of the country in seach of choice woods for the cabinet-makers in France. Pierre simply addressed him as " Frese." The old, black wood-gatherer knew much about the hidden forest places, where the rare woods were, but he had never before taken into account the flowers. " Monsieur de Vert," he said one day in their travels, " there is an Indian district above the cataracts, where I re member to have seen the Indians bring beautiful flowers to their altars on feast days. When does Easter fall ? " " It is near, Frese." " Let us go there. The Indians have a form of worship, but they are jealous, fierce, and savage ; they do not take to strangers kindly, I am told, but they would be likely to meet me with favor. As I remember, I saw in their little church some beautiful orchids. Let us go there." They went. They arrived in the village a week or more PARA AND THE MONARCH OF RIVERS. 121 before Easter, and they made inquiries in regard to the beau tiful orchids that the black had seen. They were told that the flowers could be found among the Indian settlements in the region over which the mighty pyramid of Mt. Roraima towers. They wandered and wandered. One day they came to the lodges of some fierce-looking Indians. Their coming awakened suspicion. The Indians seized them and bound them. The black expostulated in vain. On the approach of the evening, after their capture, the Indians assembled under some great trees and kindled a fire. There was one that seemed to be a kind of chief, and he harangued the rest in a tongue which the black could but imperfectly understand. He then demanded of the black in more simple words, — " Why are you here ? " " Flowers ; for the golden flowers, that grow on the trees." The chief shook his head and pointed to the fire. Had this fire been kindled to keep away the swarming in sects or wild beasts, or was it intended for torture ? The black endeavored to show the chief for what they came. " Flowers, the most beautiful flowers ! " The chief shook his head. This was not to be believed. What were flowers ? What could these wanderers want of them ? A woman arose and shrieked, and the Indians began to whirl and dance. Suddenly the dance stopped and the chief seized Pierre. He searched him. 122 OVER THE ANDES. He found gold coins in his pockets and he took them away exultingly. The black had too scanty clothing to admit of search. The chief held up the gold coins to the company, and the dance was renewed. Then the chief led Pierre towards the fire. " What brought you here ? " he asked, and these words and others the black understood and interpreted. " Lilies, — the gold lilies, — the most beautiful flowers in all the land." " Deceiver," said the chief, " gold lilies die." He held up before Pierre one gold coin. " All ?" he said. " Is that all ? " " All," answered Pierre. The chief held up before him another coin. " All ? Is that all ? " "All."He held up another in the same manner. "All? Is that all?" "All.""All?" Pierre pointed upward, and was about to say again "all," when he laid his hand on his breast, and felt a hard substance there. It was the charm, the gold medal of the Bourbon lilies that the benevolent and flower-loving nobleman had given him. Could he say " all " ? He trembled. He looked the red chief in the face. "All?" asked the latter. PARA AND THE MONARCH OF RIVERS. 1 23 He turned his eyes upward in the last light of the sunset as it lit the great trees with a crimson flash. "All?"Pierre had never practised deception. His soul was as white as the lilies he loved. " Say 'all,' " said the black, "or we are lost." "All ? " again demanded the chief, fiercely. Pierre shook his head, and began to unbutton his tunic. He lifted it from him and laid it down at the feet of the chief. He then unbuttoned a thin vest that enveloped his heart. As he did this, all the Indians started up, and gazed at him intently. The Indian women, believing him to be a wizard, shrieked. He opened the vest. Then he drew back his silk shirt and revealed the charm. The chief started back. " The boy is true," he cried. The Indians bowed around him with wonder. " He has a white soul," said the chief. " He does not deceive." " He is good," said a withered Indian, a kind of priest. " I can see his heart. It is a temple ; a god is in it. Dance the joy dance ! " The Indians whirled. The great moon rose over the far savannas, and the dance went on. The chief did not touch the medal. They made for Pierre a couch of leaves and odorous boughs, and bade him lie down, and the black sunk down beside him. The morning broke fiery and red amid the loud calls of the multitudinous birds. 124 OVER THE ANDES. The Indians rose early. They did not rekindle the fire. The chief stood forth. "Flowers," he said; "to-day shall be a flower hunt. Go seek for the most beautiful flowers in all the plains." He handed back to Pierre the gold coins. " You have a white heart. You come not to deceive. The gods have sent you to find the treasures of flowers." The Indians disappeared. The chief remained, and Pierre and the black spent the day with him. Towards night the Indians began to return. Was there ever such a scene ? They were covered, as it were, with gar ments of flowers. Each one seemed to hold his own to be most beautiful. Among these flowers was one that outshone all the others in its beauty, lustre, and fragrance. Pierre knew that this flower would gain the reward if he could secure the plant that bore it, and take it back to France. He followed the Indians who had found this flower and secured the plant. When he returned to the chief's place of residence the Indians wished to worship him. But he left them a little cross, and pointed upward and said, " He whom you should worship is there." The boy returned to France. He placed on his home altar on Easter Day the most beauti ful flowers that the people had ever seen. Then he returned to the orchid land, not to gather white or golden flowers, but to teach the Indians how to live after the emblems of their glorious flowers. PIERRE KNEW THAT THIS FLOWER WOULD GAIN THE REWARD. CHAPTER XI. THE MOST BEAUTIFUL HARBOR IN ALL THE WORLD COFFEE LORO. THE wonderful natural harbors of the world are Liverpool, Sydney, Halifax, Portland, and those on the south Eng lish coast; but the most beautiful harbor is Rio de Janeiro (Reo day Zhansero), commonly called Rio, or Rio Janeiro. This harbor of fortressed waterways, mountains, and islands Our Boys were now approaching. The first view of it was a bold mountain which seemed rising from the sea. Then the heads of other mountains appeared; then the green land; then islands and circling waters; then the picturesque city of the serried armies of palms. Rio, the commercial emporium of Brazil, is situated on the land-locked waters of the province of Rio. Here is the region of the Organ Mountains, the wide lagoons, and the river Parahiba. The deep harbor of Rio is some seventeen miles long. It is dotted with islands, one of which is six miles in length. The steamer approached the majestic mountain walls of the harbor, at the head of which stands Sugar Loaf Moun tain, whose name describes it. Rising over the blue waters of the bay, it holds the eye in a strange way : it never "5 126 OVER THE ANDES. allows it to rest. Lofty granite hills on the sides of the calm waters look like the walls of giants. The shores are among the earthly paradises : one feels that a grand and picturesque city must be near to meet the demands of Nature in her beauty. " The harbor is so safe that no pilot is needed," said Uncle Henry, as the steamer passed the natural water gates. But what was the astonishment of all on board to find in this deep, safe harbor of Rio a great English steamer wrecked upon a rock. She was being unloaded by lighters. " How did it happen ? " asked every one. It happened in this way. The captain was a man of long experience, and was about retiring from the service with honor. It was in the evening of a serene day. The harbor was so safe, the weather so beautiful, that he accepted the invitation of his friends on board to share their hospitalities. It was, as it were, the supreme hour of his long and perilled life. He had guided many ships for many years into safe harbors ; why should he not share the merrymaking of his friends in this calm harbor of Rio ? In the festive hour he was thrown off his guard, and issued a wrong order, which the man at the wheel obeyed. He only spoke one word wrong, — only one, in a clear, calm harbor, after a life of honor. There came a shock. In the midst of clear, free water, the steamer had gone upon a rock. The captain had only issued one wrong order, in one of the safest harbors in all the world. The ship was a ruin, and the captain's good reputation was gone after all his years of faithful service. THE MOST BEAUTIFUL HARBOR IN THE WORLD. 1 27 Rome had seven hills, and seven hills has Rio : hills of the palm-trees, sunny hills that nature loves. The city consists of an old town and a new. It is full of white-walled houses with red-tiled roofs, and from the harbor and hills is alike delightful. It is famous for its long avenues of palm-trees, which look like giants on a march. The park of Santo de Santa Anna, the place of the govern ment palace and offices, corresponds in beauty with the noble scenery of the harbor and the seven hills. Rio is the great coffee port. The value of the coffee exports from Brazil in a single year must be ten million dollars or more. Brazil and the islands of the Spanish main produce one hundred and sixty thousand tons of coffee, — more than half the coffee product of the world. Of this, the United States consumes nearly a hundred thousand tons. Alonzo studied the coffee market. He went into the country and visited some of the great plantations. At the consulate, his inquiry was how a young man, by securing superior grains, could take advantage of the coffee trade. There was a young American girl on board the ship who was sick. She was evidently in consumption, and was going to a plantation on the Parana, where she had relatives. She had not been benefited by the voyage. In fact, she was sink ing. Her name was Helen May. Arline's heart went out to her. When the steamer stopped at Rio, Arline would not leave the invalid, but remained on board with her. "Are you not going on shore to see the avenues of palms ? " asked her uncle. 128 OVER THE ANDES. " No, Uncle, my duty is here, and I do not care to go unless Helen can go with me." "The ship is to remain in port several days," said Leigh to her. " Well, you buy me something on shore, something beauti ful, that will please Helen. I am content to remain here, as long as I can make her more comfortable. I would like to see some of the kindergarten schools, if such there be now, that were started by Dom Pedro. The emperor had the right views of education, and he brought here a number of kinder garten teachers from New York. I would like to see the results of their work. But my place is where my duty is, and my home now is here." THE STORY OF LORO, THE PARROT. The Frobishers met with a beautiful blue front parrot in a street market in Rio. " That is the very bird that I would like to take to Arline," said Leigh. The market was an open one. It simply consisted of many parrots, with some ungainly macaws. The latter had very brilliant plumage, but fierce beaks and evil eyes. Leigh looked at the beautiful blue front parrot. It was in excellent condition. The yellow about its head was a deep color, very rich and full. " Loro," said Alonzo, "little Loro, poor little Loro." "No quero" said the bird. But although the parrot " did not wish," she put out her THE MOST BEAUTIFUL HARBOR IN THE WORLD. 1 29 claw, as if to " shake hands," like the Loro of Milton Hills. Alonzo took the bird's foot. " Be careful, or she will bite you," said Leigh. Although Rio is a Portuguese city, the open street bird- store, which was only a few wooden frames on a market corner, was attended by a Spanish woman, old and withered. She had keen black eyes, and watched the boys intently. " Cuanto, Sehora?" asked Alonzo. (How much?) "Yo soy Americano — no yo hablo Portuguese." (I am an Ameri can — I do not speak Portuguese.) "Un peso," said the withered old woman in Spanish. (One dollar.) The boys lingered. The old woman, to make the beautiful bird seem more attractive, said, — "Saca la pata." (Put out your paw.) This sounded familiar. The bird obeyed, and the old woman shook it long and affectionately, which recalled home scenes. The parrot turned his head wisely, and stood still looking down. The boys could see no object to attract its attention. "What is the matter, Loro ? " said Alonzo. Leigh repeated the question, — " What is the matter, Loro ? " "No hablo Americano," said the old woman, meaning that the bird did not speak English. Suddenly the bird lifted his wings — how beautiful they were in their gold and green ! — and gave a joyous scream. "What is the matter, Loro ? " said both of the boys. " Cuanto costa usted?" asked Alonzo. (What cost ?) "Noquero," said the bird. 130 OVER THE ANDES. The bird went again through the same curious and inex plicable motions. She fixed her head so that she looked like a stuffed bird, then lifted her wings and screamed joyously. "What is the matter ? " said Alonzo. " What is the matter ? " said Leigh. The boys were attracted to an enormous scarlet macaw. "Aracanga," said the old Spanish woman. Below the wooden frames, on which were the parrots, were some beautiful marmosets, with reddish-yellow fur, long tails, black heads, with white beard. The parrot was turning her head to the side again. The boys waited to hear her scream as before. But to their sur prise, and the astonishment of the old Spanish woman, the bird did not scream, but uttered in a loud voice the words, — "What is the matter?" The Spanish woman lifted her hands and said, "Maravilla! " " I must purchase that bird for Arline," said Leigh. " That is what she was thinking of," he added, meaning that the bird had assumed a fixed attitude to think how to say, " What is the matter?" Uncle Frobisher had been looking into the cathedral, where imposing ceremonies were in progress, and he now came up to the place, and stopped before the parrot's stand. " I am going to buy that parrot for Arline," said Leigh. " I promised her that I would bring back for her the most beautiful thing in all Rio." "I would not do that," said Uncle Frobisher. "You have not begun to see parrots yet. South America is full of them. They fly in clouds in some places, like those Columbus THE MOST BEAUTIFUL HARBOR IN THE WORLD. I3I saw at sea. Besides, she would not wish to take the parrot over the Andes on a mule. Let us go to the menagerie through one of the avenues of palms, then go on to the great Avenue of Palms and Botanical Gardens." The boys left the place reluctantly, and much to the disap pointment of the old Spanish woman, because they did not buy the bird who had spoken English so miraculously. The glory of the lofty colonnades of palms did not efface the bright bird from Leigh's mind. He wanted that bird for Arline. On their return, our travellers passed the same place. What was their astonishment to hear the same parrot cry out, in clear, ringing English, — " What is the matter ? what is the matter ? " " I must have that bird," said Leigh. "But how would you carry it ? " asked Uncle Henry. "On my arm." " It might bite you, or fly away, and what a bother it would be on shipboard ; you could not take it over the Andes. Buy a parrot at Panama on your return ; all kinds are to be found there." " Well, Uncle, let me take it along with me a part of the way. If we cannot get along with it, I will give it to some parrot dealer in another city." " Do as you like," said Uncle Henry. " If the bird will be any company for you, or please Arline, buy her. You will soon tire of such a care as that. But you can give her away. She is a beauty." " It would so please Arline to know that we bought the bird for her — she would like to tell Helen about it." 132 OVER THE ANDES. " I don't think that Arline and the bird will ever be likely to become friends," said Uncle Henry. "The bird would require too much attention. She is not studying Spanish, like Arline." "Cuanto costa?" said Leigh to the old Spanish woman. (What price ?) "Two pesos," said she. " Habla Lngles." (She speaks English.) The bird had doubled in value in an hour. Leigh paid for the bird in gold and received Spanish pesos in change. This was acceptable, for he would soon be again in Spanish countries. The old woman was probably from the North or South. "Saca la pata," said Leigh to the bird, putting out his hand. Loro put out her paw, and walked up to his shoulder on his arm. He so carried her away. " Vaya usted con Deos " (Go your way with God), said the old woman. As they were turning a corner towards the sea, the bird looked back and screamed "Adios ! " (good-bye) to her late mistress. The woman called "Adios" after Loro, and the two never saw each other again. Loro showed no disposition to bite or to be disagreeable in any way. Her only wish seemed to be to eat. " Parrots eat forever," said Uncle Henry. So Loro was brought on board the steamer, and placed for a perch on a wooden chair in Arline's state-room, by the open door. She became the queen of this part of the ship. Having little to divert them on the calm sea, the passengers spent THE MOST BEAUTIFUL HARBOR IN THE WORLD. 1 33 much of their time in visiting and feeding Loro. The bird uttered some fifty words in Spanish, and her accomplish ments were a constant surprise to her visitors. Arline was delighted to receive the beautiful bird, but she was more interested in her Spanish Grammar. " Leigh," she said one day, " I am going to give Loro to Helen. The bird likes Helen, and Helen has fallen in love with her." " Do as you like, Arline. I bought the bird to make you happy." " It will make me happy to give her to Helen, or to have you do it. Take her to Helen's room, and tell Helen that we wish to give it to her." Leigh obeyed. The present lighted the sick girl's face with joy. One of the first exclamations of the bird on enter ing the room was, — " What is the matter, Loro ? " CHAPTER XII. "WHAT IS THE MATTER, LORO?" THE DEEP SEA — BEAU TIFUL BUENOS AYRES. THE ship moved out of the enchanting harbor into the wide, lonely sea, on its solitary way to Ensenada, the ocean port of Buenos Ayres. The land faded, the hills sunk, and the sea became a long, wide placidity without a coast. Helen grew worse. One day the doctor came out of her room, and said to Uncle Henry : " The girl's case is alarming. It is touching to see the affection that that little Brazilian parrot has for her. It sits on her pillow, and hugs her cheek. The sight brings tears to my eyes. The girl is sinking — her life may not last two days." Uncle Henry went to Helen's room, where he found Arline. It was as the doctor had said : Loro sat on the pillow, as though she were a watcher. Helen in her loneliness had treated the bird so affection ately, and with such constant attention, as to have entirely won its heart. The next morning, the doctor came out of Helen's room with a white face. He called to Captain Henry, who came to him. " I have found her dead." 134 "WHAT IS THE MATTER, LORO?" 135 " Helen — Miss May ? " "Yes; it was to have been expected. Come and see. Call Arline." Arline and Leigh joined them, and were told the unhappy news. They all went to the room. There Helen lay dead, with Loro on her pillow. Loro spread out her wings as in bewilderment as the door opened. " What is the matter, Loro ? " she said, with drooping head. " What is the matter ? What is the matter ? " " You poor bird," said the doctor. " No man can answer that question." "You darling bird," said Arline, with tears in her eyes. " You have been faithful. I will never give you up as long as I live. Oh Helen ! Helen ! I, too, would know all this mystery of life and death. What is the matter ? " "Take away the bird," said the doctor. Arline took the bird, and left the state-room, weeping ; as she went to her room, the bird struggled and cried, " What is the matter ? " That night the bell rung at twelve o'clock. The steamer stopped. Arline lit her lamp. She listened. She heard a voice say, "The sea shall give up the dead." There was a fall into the water. The parrot started. " What is the matter, Loro ? " The ship moved on. Arline buried her face in the pillows. "What is the matter, Loro ? " was to her a question of life. From that hour she took the little bird to her heart as a I36 OVER THE ANDES. loving memoir. She never heard her ask the question, "What is the matter, Loro?" that it did not recall Helen, and have a mystic meaning. Leigh heard his uncle repeating the next morning on deck, — " Un viaje por un mar de tempestades Es la vida mortal. La tumba es puerto. Morir es regresar a mustra patria. No se debe llorar por los que han muerto." 1 He took Uncle Henry by the arm, and they walked the deck together as the sun was rising. The wide sea rolled around them in serene splendor, and both felt the import of what had passed the day before. " Hasta siempre" (Until forever), said Uncle Henry, over and over again. The two walked the deck for a time, until the crimson in the sky had faded, and the fiery disc of the sun stood over the sea. The people of the Southern countries are very fond of pet animals and birds, and they carry these about with them. The affection that they pay to them is a very beautiful feat ure of Southern life in the meridional world. There were several Brazilians on board who had with them marmosets. These wise, loving, beautiful little monkeys, not a foot long, seemed to be the kittens of the Brazilians. Leigh began to study their habits as soon as they were brought on board. 1 " A voyage through a sea of tempests Is mortal life. The tomb is the port. To die is to return to our fatherland. We ought not to mourn for those who have died." — Manuel Flores. "what is the matter, loro?" 137 He found that, like the human species, they gave their affection to those who gave them attention. "Leigh," said Uncle Henry, "you are fond of natural history. Alonzo has the genius of business. I can see that daily. Arline has caught the Peabody-Horace-Mann spirit. She is filled with the thought of benevolent education, or soul education, after the Froebel plan, as she used to be taught by fine old Elizabeth Peabody, who took the greatest interest in kindergarten education and in South American education and progress of any woman that I have ever known in America. You have a love of history, poetry, and natural history. Alonzo will become a business man. Arline somewhere will be a kind of missionary teacher ; but I am not as sure as to how you will place yourself in life. My boy, I am studying you." Leigh felt the force of what his uncle had said, and asked, — "Why could I not obtain a place to teach English in some South American city ? " "You are too young and inexperienced. But your ques tion is a revelation to me. There is a very fine English college in Santiago. Balmaceda, I think, once sent his daughters there and used to visit it." " Who was Balmaceda ? " asked Leigh. " I only know that he was overthrown, and that his cause made trouble at the American consulate." " He was a man of many good ideas, but was too ambi tious. He was an advocate of universal education. I will speak of his history at some other time." " Could I not get a place to teach in the English college at Santiago ? " I38 OVER THE ANDES. "I do not know. I would not have you do that; but I would like to put you into that school as a pupil, to study Spanish language and literature." He added : " The lack of interest in Spanish language and literature is a defect in our system of education. The Ger man student goes to South America, and is successful in business there, because he understands the language of the country and the commercial laws. We need in our country schools like one in Geneva, Switzerland, where are espe cially taught commercial languages and international law." A vision arose in the mind of Leigh. He would become a student of South American history, poetry, and natural history. He saw that if he did this, he could find a place in the new education in the world. " Uncle, you said that I took an interest in history, poetry, and natural history. I do. Also in botany. Ought I not to find a place in life as a teacher of these subjects ? " " I think so, after a special education." " What can you give me to read to help me in this view of life ? " " The issues of the Bureau of the Pan-American Repub lics. I will do so." There was an odd animal on board. He was chained up near the wheel-house. He became very restless. "What is that animal ? " asked Leigh. "A little ant-eater," said Uncle Henry. " And why is he kept here ? He is chained to a part of the boat: he belongs to the boat." "The steamer is an old one. He belongs to it. He is kept on board to free the boat from roaches, I am told." "WHAT IS THE MATTER, LORO?" 1 39 There was a sudden excitement on board. The passengers were hurrying to the front upon the decks. The crew were looking into the bright distance that was as sunny as the sea, but of another color. "Land!" said Uncle Henry. "Monte video." (I see a mountain.) A green hill arose, then a beautiful city, and both disap peared. "We are coming to deep water now," said Uncle Henry. "The greatest known depth of the sea is somewhere between the island of Tristan d'Acunha and the mouth of the Rio de la Plata ! it is more than forty thousand feet." They entered the Rio de la Plata. The next morning they found themselves approaching Ensenada, a name associated with the enterprises of William Wheelwright, the Newbury port boy. The pampas lay before them, and the ships seemed steam ing into the land, so long and level was the deep canal. They landed. Here in reality was the beginning of the Transandine railroad. They took the cars for Buenos Ayres, and in an hour or more the beautiful city rose into view. Uncle Henry liked to repeat thoughts in the language of the new land, to help his young friends in their studies, and on seeing Buenos Ayres in the distance, he said : — A LA PATRIA. Repiiblica Argentina, Patria amada '. Tu explendida corona, matizada De gayas flores las naciones ven : 140 OVER THE ANDES. La carinosa mano de tus bardos Puso rosas, jazmines, violas, nardos, Entre los verdes lauros de tu sien. Yo no vengo a mezclar con esas flores, De olimpicos perfumes y colores, Las silvestres y humildes que aqui ves, Vengo, Patria gloriosa, solamente, A doblar la rodilla reverente, Y a deshojar las mlas a tus pies. — Estanislao del Campo. "O. CHAPTER XIII. BUENOS AYRES, THE BEAUTIFUL. UE sont Buenos Ayres esos ! " exclaimed the old Spanish ^ adventurer, as he landed on the shores of the Rio de la Plata. "What good airs are here!" The "good airs," Buenos Ayres, gave the name to the place. They have never left it. The purple empire that England lost has ever had the charm of good airs flowing from the purple seas under skies of resplendent purple : the throne purple of the sun and stars. Sarmiento, the great Argentine President, said that Buenos Ayres would one day become the largest city in either America. He saw her in his imagination as a great export city for the markets of Europe. Buenos Ayres may not, and probably will not, become the largest city in the three Ameri cas, but she is already one of the most beautiful. Her popu lation is already nearly seven hundred thousand souls : the end of the century will be likely to find it nearly a million, and she will doubtless face the rising sun of prosperity in the century to come. One passes a city of ships as he enters the city by rail from Ensenada : noble steamers from many lands, but princi pally from England, Germany, and northern Europe. "Why do I not see the Stars and Stripes here?" asked Alonzo, 141 142 OVER THE ANDES. Why? There was a long silence. There were long lines of English flags. There were many German flags. " The Stars and Stripes will be found here some day," said Uncle Henry at last. " North and South America have not yet got acquainted with each other. Buenos Ayres is like a European city." The city seen from a little distance is a bright glory of towers, spires, and picturesque architecture. The domes of the many churches are well placed for atmospheric effects. The city of the pampas seems like a Dore picture. It is perfectly beautiful. It is Paris, it is Rome, it is Granada, in suggestion. The people are European. They have the easy, old-time cour tesy and bright, happy faces. Argentines, with gay ponchos (shawls worn over the head), line the long, shadowy arcades. One of the first objects to arrest their feet was a statue of Mazzini. At the sight of this statue among glowing gardens of flowers, and amid the shadows of cool trees waving in the refreshing winds of the Plata, Leigh stood still, and took his uncle by the sleeve. He presently said, — " Mazzini, why are you here ? " Mazzini did not answer. Uncle Henry did. " He was the man of liberty, equality, humanity, and unity ; the man of ' God and humanity,' he was called, a man of the fixity of purpose that made events." " But he was born at Genoa and died at Pisa," said Leigh. " Why is his statue in Buenos Ayres ? " BUENOS AYRES, THE BEAUTIFUL. 1 43 " Look around you as you go on, and you will see. A very large part of the population here is Italian, and it is patriotic. The Argentine Republic is like a new Italy under the Andes, as you have heard me say." "It is a city of parrots," said Leigh, as they walked on under great arcades, and passed numerous birds. "A person finds everywhere what he is looking for," said Uncle Henry. " You see statues and parrots. But where is Alonzo ? There he is now in a coffee-store." Arline had stopped at a street book-store. " Make your purchases in Spanish," said Uncle Henry. Arline began to speak of " uno libro " when the book seller said, — "Habla usted in Ingles siempre." (Speak English always.) She did, while in the arcade. Uncle Henry secured rooms in the Hotel Universalle. The apartments of the hotel enclosed a long patio. It was his plan to place Arline in the family of one of his friends. Our travellers were weary, and prepared to rest. " Where shall we go first in the morning ? " asked Alonzo of Uncle Henry. "Where shall it be, Leigh?" asked Uncle Henry. "Did I not once hear you mention the place that you would wish to visit first in Buenos Ayres ? " "The tomb of San Martin," said Leigh. "You will not have far to go," said Uncle Henry. "It forms a part of the cathedral, near at hand, at the head of the street, on the plaza." Leigh rose early in the morning and awoke the others. 144 OVER THE ANDES. "I am going," he said, "to the tomb of San Martin" (San Marteen'). " Before breakfast ? " asked Uncle Henry. " Yes, I can find it ; the cathedral will be open at this hour." "Wait, Leigh," said Arline, " I am going with you." " I will come later," said Uncle Henry. " It is not often that two young people are more eager to receive a history lesson than to eat their breakfast." " But," said Leigh, " the tomb of the greatest of the Creoles is no common place." Leigh, by his brief account of this hero of the liberation that he had given at Milton Hills, had greatly interested Arline in this patriotic shrine. They went out together. The long, narrow streets, so crowded later in the day, were almost vacant. They came to the plaza, looked out on the surging waters of the Rio de la Plata, over which the arch of light that announced the sun was rising, and then turned back and entered the cathedral by a side door. How grand the cathedral was ! What a shadowy, golden splendor ! Dark forms were there, kneeling in the silence before dimly lighted altars. In some near room was the music of an orison. In a rotunda, opening out of the cathedral, was the tomb, — a marble room, encircled with grand inscriptions, in the middle of which a monumental pile bore up the coffin amid insignia of glory. Leigh and Arline sat down in the mausoleum in silence, and read the records of one of the noblest men of modern BUENOS AYRES, THE BEAUTIFUL. 145 times. They passed an hour there, scarcely speaking a word. They heard many steps outside, and the rolling of traffic in the streets, and they knew that the city was awake. We have given in a dialogue some facts in regard to the remarkable history of San Martin. We feel sure that our readers will like to learn more of his history. In Venezuela, the name of Bolivar is ever present : in Argentina, a like place has the name of San Martin. THE STORY OF SAN MARTIN, THE LIBERATOR OF ARGENTINA, CHILI, AND PERU. San Martin stands in the first rank of the world's heroes. He could draw the sword for humanity, and could sheathe it again, when the cause of liberty demanded the sacrifice. He refused wealth and honors, and for the advancement of others he was willing to go into self-exile, to live poorly, and die poor. His motto in life is worthy of a place in every note-book. " Seras to que debes ser, Y sino, no seras nada." " Thou must be that which thou oughtest to be, or else thou shalt be nothing." " He was not a man," said a student of South American history, "he was a mission." Cincinnatus returned to the plough ; Washington to his Mt. Vernon estate ; but San Martin to tranquillize his country went into exile. He said in spirit, "Why should I stand in the way of any one who can serve the cause better than myself?" He was a Creole ; he has been called the greatest of Creoles ; he was the Washington among Creoles, I46 OVER THE ANDES. He was born on February 25, 1778, in Missiones. His father was a South American military officer, and served under the viceroys. The family removed to Spain in his boyhood, and placed him in the Seminary of Nobles in Madrid. At the age of twelve, he became a cadet. He was deco rated with the colors of blue and white, which became the colors of South American liberty. He engaged in some of the military enterprises of Spain against the Moors and against Portugal. In the early part of the present century there was formed a society in London for the emancipation of South America from the Spanish rule. Its head was Miranda, and one of its animating spirits was Don Simon Bolivar. San Martin joined this society, and from that time but one purpose filled his soul — South American emancipation. San Martin won honors in the Spanish resistance to the victorious eagles of Napoleon. A young man, he landed in Buenos Ayres, his soul filled with visions of liberty. He led the patriots of Argentina in their successful struggle for freedom. He then conceived the plan of organizing an army to scale the Andes, and to descend upon the Spanish forces in Chili, and t© begin there the war for emancipation. In the campaign against Napoleon, he had borne a banner of the sun with the motto, — "We bear this aloft dispersing the clouds." He made this the banner of his new enterprise. He organized the Army of the Andes at Mendoza, and on January 17, 18 17, he began his march towards the sky, carry ing his artillery and stores on mules, a large number of which BUENOS AYRES, THE BEAUTIFUL. 1 47 perished. He went up the Uspallata Pass or La Cumbre Pass, sometimes called the Via Eminentia, bearing the banner of the sun. The pass from Mendoza is some thirteen thousand feet high, four thousand or more feet higher than that of St. Bernard in Switzerland. Tupungato looms over it, twenty thousand feet high, and Aconcagua, twenty-three thousand feet high, of which we have spoken. It was a high holiday in Mendoza when the army marched upward, and the banner of liberty, which had been made by the ladies of Mendoza for San Martin, disappeared. Mitre, in his " Life of San Martin," tells us that "that flag rose for the redemption of half of South America ; that it passed over the Cordillera to wave in triumph on the coast of the Pacific." He adds that after sixty-four years it served as a funeral pall for the body of the hero. The army met and defeated the army of the royalists, and entered Santiago in triumph. The royal arms gathered again. San Martin met them on April 5, 1818, on the banks of the river Maipu. Here the great battle of the South American emancipation in the South was fought, and the practical independence of Argentina, Chili, and Peru was won. Before the battle, a thrilling event occurred. "I take the sun to witness," cried San Martin, "that this day is ours ! " The day was cloudy, but just as the hero had uttered these words the sun broke through the clouds, and shone on the banner of the sun, with its motto, — " We bear this aloft dis persing the clouds." The night of the 5th of May found the Spanish royal army I48 OVER THE ANDES. in flight. The battle of Maipu is among the greatest events of South American history. The Chilefios were exultant. They offered San Martin the highest offices of state and ten thousand ounces of gold, as we have before related. " I do not fight for honors or gold," said he, in substance. He gave the gold offered him to Santiago for public use, and it was made the foundation fund for the grand library. San Martin now turned his attention to Peru. He created a navy, and prepared for the march of liberation. He em barked with his army of Argentines and Chilefios from Val paraiso on August 21, 1820. He said, " Ever since I returned to my native land, the Independence of Peru has been the purpose of my heart." He landed at the port of Lima, and the Spanish rule of the viceroys crumbled and fell. On July 20, 1821, the Inde pendence of Peru was proclaimed in the great square of Lima, amid thunders of artillery, the shouts of the people, and strewings of flowers. The Peruvians, like the Chilefios, offered San Martin honors and wealth. They would have made him dictator, and placed him in the seat of the Incas and the viceroys. San Martin had a mind to comprehend the situation of the whole of South America, and to regard the good of the whole as greater than that of a part. He saw that Don Simon Bolivar could now better achieve the independence of the whole of South America without his aid than with it, for his army was jealous to make him their leader, and to invest him in the South with supreme power. He resolved to go away from South America, that he might not disturb her largest interest by his presence. BUENOS AYRES, THE BEAUTIFUL. 1 49 He met General Bolivar at Guayaquil, and there, under the fiery arch of the equator, he announced his resolution. He returned to Peru, and from there wrote to Bolivar : " My decision is irrevocable. I have convened the first Congress of Peru. The day of its installation I shall leave Chili, con vinced that my presence is the only obstacle that prevents you from coming to Peru." To the Peruvians he said, and nobler words never fell under more sublime circumstances from the lips of any patriot in all history : — " The presence of a fortunate general, however disinter ested he may be, is dangerous to a newly founded state. / have achieved the Independence of Peru ; I have ceased to be a public man." He went abroad poor, he who might have had ten thousand ounces of gold. His wife had died. With his little daughter Mercedes he lived near Brussels, a simple, obscure man, hear ing only from afar of the great events of the Western world. He died nearly thirty years after his voluntary exile, and was buried as obscurely as he had lived. Years passed in the silence of the grave. Then Argentina remembered him, and all that he had gained for others, and all that he had given up for others, and resolved to crown him dead. They built for him a throne of marble, engraved with the records of his deeds, and brought home his body. The day that his remains were enthroned was one on which the re public stood still. No man ever had such a funeral in modern times, except Napoleon and Lincoln. They lifted his coffin upon the platform of marble, and there, amid 150 OVER THE ANDES. emblems of grief and insignia of worth, they left him to eternal fame. The temple of his tomb is connected with the cathedral of Buenos Ayres and the plaza. There are few places more impressing and beautiful in the world. It holds a place in historic memory with the tombs of Washington, Lincoln, Bolivar. To see it in the light of what it represents, is worth a pilgrimage. " He had been what he ought to be." Our Boys met at the Hotel Universalle a gentleman named Warrener. He was a teacher. He had written verse for the American papers and magazines, and was going to Chili to study the Spanish language and literature under the di rection of Mr. La Fetra, of the English Santiago College. He wished to join Our Boys at Mendoza and go over the Cor dillera with them, and it was arranged that he should do so. He visited the tomb of San Martin one day with the Fro- bishers. He well knew the history of the hero, and he published in verse his impressions on making the visit in a Buenos Ayres English paper, and Arline added the poetic pictures of this writer's fancy to her note-book. AT THE TOMB OF SAN MARTIN. I came a stranger to that lonely tomb Where Art divine had paid her dues to worth, And made for him the solid marbles bloom, Who lived for man, but was not of the earth. Whose soul to freedom gave three empires birth, Climes of the future, where night's Southern Cross, God's jewels, hangs above the Andean towers. BUENOS AYRES, THE BEAUTIFUL. I 5 I Who turned away, as though his gains were loss, From Argentina's purple seas of flowers, From high Peru throned 'mid her sun-crowned palms, And sea-girt Chili's fateful fields of war ; Nor sought to share the emprise of his arms That gave the skies his own republic's star. Grand were his words before he went afar : — " Patriots, I go, and never to return ; I seek no honors for the work I've done ; Let me but see the sunset ocean burn, And climb once more the Andes of the sun. Three golden empires lift their hands to me With titles, gifts, and pomps of kings of old! Did I accept them, I would not be free ! I fought for right ; I did not fight for gold. A soldier should not live where he has won ; A shaft ofliving light his fame should be, Unsullied and unthroned. Farewell, Pacific sky! Farewell, Peru ! I go across the sea, With those who knew me not, to live and die, But free in soul, now that my work is done! "And wouldst thou know the secret of my heart? Fate gave these consecrated words to me, Seras lo que debes. We part, — You to your hills, I to the alien sea. I must be that that I ought to be. The ought of these strange words divinely given, First 'gainst Napoleon's eagles, drew my sword, Then led my feet to these plateaus of heaven ; Now I descend obedient to that word, Seras lo que debes, — that is my thought. Those words, like heaven's bells, by faith I hear, And I must be, Chilefios, what I ought, 152 OVER THE ANDES. And what I ought, as yonder sun is clear : This sword I ought to sheathe. I do it here ! IV. " To give to others all one has of life, To seek from others nothing in award, To turn unpurchased from the field of strife, For honor sheathe as well as draw the sword, — This is the soldier of the fields of God! Chilenos, I have shared the soldier's lot, And slept with him upon the common sward ; Now Peace demands my name should be forgot! I hold his life to be most wise and strong Who seeks advantage for himself no more ; Gives up his will, nor seeks nor gold nor song, Nor love, nor ease, but shuts 'gainst self the door! 'Tis more than rank to be a soldier true! I only ask a soldier's grave, like you! " Above him, 'gainst the irised clouds of fire, The happy condors wheeled on shadowy wings, Now toward the ocean wells, now scaling higher, The gold of sunshine scattering from their wings, But screaming free, as though terrestrial things Were but the lines of their transcendent flights, He saw them beat the seas of liquid air, And, circling, sweep above the crystal heights Of frozen rainbows, cold fire opals, where The ghost of suns reflected lead the nights, The winged kings, of all aerial powers, No danger knowing, seeking naught to shun, As free and glorious when the tempest lowers As upward mounting 'gainst the walls of sun. VI. " Ye condors, swimming in the seas of light, On wings that catch the earliest morning ray, BUENOS AYRES, THE BEAUTIFUL. 1 53 Who ne'er have rested since your first young flight, Save on the crags that ocean torrents stay, Whose eyes forever face the eye of day, — I have not rested, condors ; when ye fall, 'Tis but to feed the nest, or crush the prey, Or die alone on some sea-mountain wall With spent wings spread ! But when thy young shall soar, Thou hidest in the cloudlands far, and they, Impatient of the empty sky and shore, Mount up, and fly forever, and obey The higher law that independence brings ! And leave the lowering Andes 'neath their wings. " O condors, condors of the skies, like thee, The winged emblems of these realms of the sun, I leave to nest safe cradled by the sea, Nor seek to own it now my work is done, Nor seek to profit by one victory won, For liberty and that young patriot brood Whose destiny is independent air ; It is enough to strive for others' good, And for the same to go alone elsewhere ; We give up our complaints with our desires, 'Tis right to struggle, and from struggle cease ; And all is won when one no more aspires. I fought for welfare, now I seek release, For welfare seeks her highest good in peace." He sunk the Cordillera's burning stairs, Where friendly stars had once his armies led, And caught the breath of Argentinian airs, Saw the auroras of the Atlantic red, Saw the shores fade, and so from glory fled ; Of empires three sought not a single gem, To dim the cause that he had loved so well, 154 OVER THE ANDES. But counted worth life's richest diadem ; So, with his little daughter Mercedes, He came at last to Waterloo to dwell, Apart from courts of Bourbon or of Guelf, Incarial wealth, vice-regal pomps and bays. The world had kings, but he was not of them — His love for man was greater than for himself. The world's immortal Creole, thou in fame Thy monumental solitude dost hold. In this resplendent church where altars flame And music rolls through sacristies of gold! Here young /Eneas leads Italy old, A third Troy, finding for his pastoral palms To share the freedom that thy soul gave birth! — Grand was that day when Buenos Ayres' arms His lost remains received from alien earth, And laid them here. The panegyrics said, The silver bells all tolling o'er the sea, The nation weeping with uncovered head, They bore him up to the shrine of Liberty, And crowned him dead — a more than king was Who here could stand and read this templed name Whose angels, Freedom, Commerce, Industry, Have burst the solid marbles to proclaim How great the soul that conquers self may be, And not that high immortal destiny see For which the soul was formed, nor seek to rise, Upon the Mount of Vision, and design His life for welfare 'neath revealing skies, Like him who saw the temple's pattern shine ; Nor be content earth's common crust to share, And so fulfil within the OUGHT divine, If h- might know that he had lit elsewhere The f'jst.il lamps of human brotherhood, And lost himself in universal good? CHAPTER XIV. the wonders of buenos ayres the recoleta the largest commercial roof in the world dr. dee — the north american normal school stories at dr. dee's. HAVING visited the tomb of San Martin, Our Boys break fasted, and then went to the Palermo, a winding park of palms, grottos, fountains, and statues ; curved streets of elegant houses of every expression of wealth, refinement, and art. The Palermo brought them to the Recoleta, a marble city of the dead, that looked like a garden of art. A noble church stood at one corner of this field of white. In it funerals were held. A funeral service was going on : a chant was heard ; a coach for the dead, that might have been an imperial chariot, stood before the door; it had splen did horses, black and restless. " I never saw such a grand funeral carriage as that," said Arline. " Let us go into the church." The interior was vast and dim. It was filled with men, who were kneeling, holding tall lighted candles in their hands. The resplendent altar was being lighted. The organ music was a solemn enchantment. There followed imposing ceremonies, which our travellers did not understand. As the altar became luminous, the r55 156 OVER THE ANDES. beauty of the church was revealed. It was full of the fra grance of flowers, and a cloud of incense added to the odor ous atmosphere. They came out into the bright air, under the blue sky. It seemed like another world. " Why were there no women at the funeral ? " asked Arline. " Women do not attend public funerals here, I have been told," said Uncle Henry. " There is a tomb in the Recoleta that I wish to see," said Leigh. " Sarmiento's ? " asked Uncle Henry. " I have heard Elizabeth Peabody speak of Sarmiento many times," said Arline. " He was sometimes entertained by her brother-in-law, Horace Mann, I think, while he was the Argentine Minister to the United States. Charles Sum ner was his friend. Miss Peabody knew him, and they dis cussed education together. He used to say that the United States owed her glory to education. He wrote a book called ' Facundo Quiroga,' which was translated by Mrs. Horace Mann, in which Miss Peabody must have taken a great in terest. It is one of the most interesting books that I ever read." They entered the great garden of marble, under the lofty gates. How beautiful it was ! The flowers, the monu mental houses, the emblems of immortal life ! The coffins, many of which were works of art, were ex posed to view. Some of the tombs were lighted with lamps or candles ; many of them were decorated with fresh flowers, and nearly all of them with immortelles. THE WONDERS OF BUENOS AYRES. 1 57 " In a place like this, it would seem almost beautiful to be dead," said Leigh. The Italian art sense was everywhere. Almost every tomb bore some new expression of immortality. The crosses, angels, statues, were of wonderful beauty. "This," said Arline, "must be the most beautiful ceme tery in all the world." " There are cemeteries in Italy that are as beautiful," said Uncle Henry. They did not find the monument to Sarmiento at once ; but they met with a memorial to Wheelwright, with whose story this book opens. Leigh said to one of the gardeners in his own Spanish, — " Donde esta la tumba de Sarmiento?" (Where is the tomb of Sarmiento ? ) The brown-faced man lifted himself from the flower-bed over which he was bending. It touched his heart to find Americans here, seeking this patriotic tomb. " Venga," he said, and led them through avenues of marble angels and crosses. They came to a plat of flowers. Out of it rose a shaft covered with records of glory. At the base of it were reliefs. They stood and read the record of fame. Then Leigh, looking down on one of the reliefs, said, — " Was Sarmiento ever a teacher ? " " I have heard Elizabeth Peabody speak of him as such," said Arline. " Then, come here ; look at that bas-relief. There he is surrounded by the children ! " It was a delightful view of the Argentine's President's 158 OVER THE ANDES. character that the sculptor had here given. Sarmiento, the hero, the statesman, the man of great events, never forgot the children, or the relation that they bore to the state. " I would like to become a teacher," said Leigh, as he stood there. " I think that it is one of the noblest callings in life. All of these records of war are to me nothing beside this picture of Sarmiento as a teacher." "It seems strange," said Arline, "that we should be standing by the tomb of one who received lessons in life from Horace Mann, Mrs. Mann, and Elizabeth Peabody. It makes the world seem small." " I wish to visit the storage warehouse for grain and wool," said Alonzo, on coming out of the beautiful cemetery, and sitting down before it on one of the seats of the Palermo among the flowers. " I have read that it has the largest roof in all the world." "Later," said Uncle Henry; "it is quite a distance from here." They returned to Calle San Martin. There was a most intelligent, influential, and hospitable family living in Buenos Ayres, named Dee. They were en gaged in missionary education, and their home, which was simple but beautiful, was a place of resort for all travellers interested in missionary and educational progress. Dr. Dee had a large mind, a warm heart, and the genius of the work to which he had been called. He was an extensive traveller, had lived in Mexico, and had the reputation of being one of the best Spanish scholars among the North American resi dents. He had accomplished, in a quiet way, a noble work of permanent value, the outlook of which is so large that it THE WONDERS OF BUENOS AYRES. 1 59 must be numbered among the great influences of the world. Uncle Henry, in his travels, had been accustomed to call on missionaries in foreign ports. He left his card at Dr. Dee's office, and received an invitation from the doctor to meet him at his house, which was on a long street, somewhat removed from the business part of the city. Thither, one afternoon, went Captain Henry, Our Boys, and Arline. They were warmly welcomed. Had they been brothers and sister to members of the family, they could not have been more so. They were then introduced to Mrs. Dee, who made them feel at home at once, and who immediately took Arline to her heart. Simple refreshments were served amid Argentine flowers, such as were constantly being sent to Mrs. Dee, who was the heart of a great circle of friends. The Dees saw the earnest purpose in the lives of Our Boys and Arline. For them to see such a purpose was to offer a ready sympathy. The Dees were people of wonder ful social charm and accomplishments ; they numbered the United States Minister, the Consul, and a large number of literary people among their friends ; but their lives stood for growth, and this spirit of growth had been one of the reasons of the Doctor's success in his work of Christian education. After an hour's conversation, Mrs. Dee said to Arline : — "You tell me that you are stopping with your uncle at the hotel. Could you not be induced to make your home with me during your visit in Buenos Ayres?" Arline was surprised at the suggestion. She had no claim l60 OVER THE ANDES. whatever on Mrs. Dee, whom she saw lived very simply, notwithstanding her high social position. "I would be glad to do so," said Arline; "but I fear I would be something of a burden to you. In return for your kindness, I would wish to be asking questions all of the time." " Then you are a girl after my own heart," said Mrs. Dee. " That is one of the reasons why we are in Buenos Ayres. My home shall be yours. What is there in Buenos Ayres that you would most like to see ? " " The North American Normal School," said Arline. " Do they have kindergarten schools here?" " We have a kindergarten in our normal school, the one connected with our own work," said Mrs. Dee. "There is also, I think, a kindergarten department in our normal- school work carried on by the city. Are you interested in kindergartens ? " "Yes," answered Arline. Then she told Mrs. Dee about Elizabeth Peabody ; and how that Mrs. Mann had known Sarmiento, and had translated one of his books, which she regarded as one of the most interesting books ever written. " I have a copy of it in my library," said Mrs. Dee. "You can read it in Spanish ? " " Oh, yes ! I speak and read Spanish. The book is very- dramatic, and presents the picture of the change from barbarism to civilization in the Argentine in a very vivid way, and I am proud to meet one who knew the translator of it, and prouder yet to find you alive to the educational needs of this country as a pupil of the ideals of Sarmiento, and a friend of Miss Peabody. I will go with you to visit our normal and kindergarten schools." THE WONDERS OF BUENOS AYRES. l6l Dr. Dee had been several times over the mountain passes of the Andes. He had been up the Oroya railroad, and to Lake Titicaca, and into Bolivia, and during these journeys he had written many letters to Mrs. Dee which gave views of the manner of travelling, the scenery, and the habits and customs of the people. From extracts from these letters she had made a very charming little book, which had been printed in the interest of their work. So when Our Boys, who were attracted to Mrs. Dee as a most sympathetic source of information, asked her about the travellers whom she had entertained before making the Transandine journey, — how they prepared themselves to go, and like things, — she said, — • " If you will stay to tea with me, and spend the evening, I will read to you from my book of Dr. Dee's letters a narrative of how he made one of his journeys over the Andes." This invitation Our Boys were delighted to accept, and in the evening Mrs. Dee related and read a narrative of how the Doctor had made the journey that they were soon expect ing to make. It began as follows : — OVER THE ANDES. " The passage of the great Cordillera is one requiring some special preparation, owing to the mode of travel and lack of suitable accommodations. The services of an arriero, or mule teer, with the necessary animals, must be secured, and it is well to carry a portable cot, a limited supply of provisions, and an alcohol lamp for heating water for tea or coffee. "We had secured our outfit before leaving Buenos Ayres," l62 OVER THE ANDES. continued the interesting account, " and concluded the pre liminaries of our journey at Mendoza, with a view to mak ing the start in the early evening, and accomplishing the passage of the hot, dry pampa in the coolness of the night. A little after six o'clock our arriero appeared with two baggage mules, having left our saddle animals at the meson, where we were to mount. We saw the larger pack ages lashed to the mules, took the rest of our outfit into a carriage, and bade farewell to the friends who wished us bon voyage. But we were not fairly off yet, as we found to our sorrow. It was nine o'clock before we left the Posada Chilefia, where we loaded and mounted, and then our drago man stopped further on to get his furniture and provisions. It was now nearly ten o'clock, and how much longer we might have been delayed is uncertain, had not the travellers' patience broken down, leading them to give utterance to some decidedly energetic protests and adjurations. " At last we were fairly started, our road lying directly northward, between long lines of Lombardy poplars, extend ing for a mile or more beyond the outskirts of the city. " At the last house on the road we stopped to see if we could get lodging, in which case we would have slept three or four hours, and taken a fresh start. But we could not get hospi tality, so, begging a bottle of water, for we would find none on the forty miles of pampa before us, we fared onward into the desert and the night. " It was a most magnificent night. There was a gentle breeze in our faces, soft and warm, with not the remotest sug gestion of cold or damp with it, and we were perfectly com fortable without any wraps. The moon had just sunk beneath THE WONDERS OF BUENOS AYRES. 1 63 the high mountain wall on our left. I was never so much im pressed by the magnificent march of the stars. Taurus, with beautiful Aldebaran, was just hanging on the verge of the dark mountain top. After him followed in swift pursuit Orion, the hunter, leading the Dog, with Sirius shining in unequalled splendor. Not far away Procyon and the Twins, and after them Leo, his bright sickle transformed by the presence of Saturn into a perfect figure 5, swept adown the gleaming arch. Later on in the night the glory of the South ern sky was seen at its best. The Southern Cross came to the zenith, set in that most magnificent section of the Milky Way, whose brilliance seems the greater by contrast with the black Coal Pit. The two bright stars of the Centaur, like faithful messengers, pointed the way of the Cross. The Scorpion came out of the mists of the eastern horizon, but his sting was gone. The Magellan clouds were like patches of filmy lace on the sky. " The beauty of the night calmed my spirit, and thoughts, bright and sweet and tender, came to me of my distant home and wife, and then ran forward to the work before me on this journey. For four hours, sleep was driven from me, but about two o'clock in the morning came upon me like a strong man armed, and I found myself, as my companion had long been doing, reeling in the saddle. We gave the word to our muleteer to stop, and while he unloaded and picketed the mules, we dropped down upon a rawhide laid upon the stony ground by the roadside, and were almost instantly asleep. " I awoke with a start at five o'clock to find the stars all gone, save the bright herald of the dawn, which was already kindling the eastern sky into crimson and gold. 164 OVER THE ANDES. "At a quarter past five we were in motion again, and pushed rapidly on until eight, when we stopped, and in the shade (not very dense) of a scrubby bush opened our lunch- basket, made tea with the water from our bottle, tried our provisions, and found them excellent. " This took us about an hour. After a little more than two hours' riding in the hot sun over the scorched pampa, we turned into the ravine, which brought us at about an hour before noon to Villavicencio. The tall poplars, three or four in number, though ragged and gaunt, were a cheering vision. " We dismounted, and had only strength to drag out our cots, spread them under the narrow porch of the miserable mud post-house, and stretch our cramped and weary limbs upon them. An hour later we got the people of the place to cook us a steak, with an egg and a few slices of potato, and I made coffee for the first time, with good success. At half-past three we set out once more, and in less than three hours reached Los Hornillos, said to be nine teen leagues from Mendoza. " This last stretch of road was very picturesque, rising rap idly between steep, rugged mountains. In one place the path led straight to the foot of a high cliff of reddish rock, or hardened clay, and then turned suddenly to the right up a steep zigzag between walls of gray rock, broken into a thousand crevices and seams. Upon the face of the preci pice, and near its summit, we saw, as we approached, several condors pluming their wings, but evidently indisposed for flight. As we turned the corner, we found the explanation of their presence, and also of their inertia, in the carcass of THE WONDERS OF BUENOS AYRES. 165 a dead animal upon which they had evidently gorged themselves. " The post-house at Los Hornillos is much better than the one at Villavicencio. The house is plastered, the earthen floors are covered with rough matting, and the rooms and beds are passably clean. We had thought to push on the same night for Uspallata, but it came on to rain heavily, and the weather continued so bad that we were storm-bound all the next day. "We reached Uspallata in good condition, after a steady ride of seven hours and a quarter. The route led us over the summit and down the western side of the - Paramillos range to the valley of Uspallata, and left us face to face with the grand Cordillera, into which we were to plunge immedi ately upon entering the next stage of our journey. It was foggy and drizzling when we left Los Hornillos, but in an hour we were above the clouds, and had bright weather all the way. "The Paramillos range affords a striking combination of grandeur and desolation. " The mountains rise high on both sides of the road, and the bare rocks are of all colors and shapes. There is one narrow gorge where the rocks are black, as if the fires of the great furnace had just died out. Again, the strata are red or gray or blue tinted. At one point, we passed what seemed to be a lone grave, where some wanderer had perished by the way. There were buzzards floating on poised wings overhead, guanacos feeding in the distance, and a single ostrich standing out against the sky on the rounded sum mit of a distant hill. 1 66 OVER THE ANDES. "The first view of the great Cordillera burst upon us suddenly as we turned a bend in the gorge. We could not learn from our guide whether any one of the peaks before us had a name known to our childhood's geography, or marked upon the map ; but there stood the mighty snow-crowned range glittering in the morning sun, and sending to us an icy breeze, which made us thankful for warm clothing. " The valley of Uspallata, with its alfalfa fields and winding river, looked very beautiful after the barren mountains. It has the appearance of having been the bed of a lake now drained through the mountain chasm opened toward Mendoza by some earthquake. Up this canon the Transandine rail road is building, and is now nearly complete up to what will be Uspallata station, a league south of this posada. " The next stage was a long one. We were in the saddle from half-past five a.m. till seven p.m., nearly fourteen hours, with only a break of less than an hour from eleven to twelve, when we stopped to take lunch, prepared by ourselves, at a very picturesque place called Arroyo de Picheuta. At this point there comes tumbling out of a steep gorge between two high mountains, a boiling torrent of bluish-white water, which has long since washed out all the sand and small stones, and now frets itself into a white rage among the huge boulders which it cannot move. The stream is danger ous on account of the large stones over which the horses must stumble at the risk of breaking a limb, or precipitating the rider into the flood, so we took the bridge, an old stone arch, very narrow and very rough, with a steep approach at either end. " Our course lay almost due west most of the day, following THE WONDERS OF BUENOS AYRES. 1 67 up the left or northern bank of the river Mendoza until we crossed one of its principal branches by a well-built bridge just before arriving at Punta de las Vacas, the night's halting- place. This river is a rapid torrent, carrying quite a volume of water, though not by any means covering its wide, gravelly bed. " Evidently the valley was once filled to a great height by a vast bed of drift, deposited, perhaps, ages ago by an immense glacier. " Remains of these drift-beds are seen first on one side and then on the other, the river having cut its way down through from thirty to fifty feet of it, leaving a perpendicular bank showing the various layers of sand and gravel through which it has worked. The river receives on one side and the other numerous mountain streams flowing down the steep gorges, which open at right angles to its course. " Our road lay at times almost at the level of the stream, and again up and around the sharp shoulder of a mountain at whose base were roaring waters. At one place we made a rapid descent in the face of the cliff, almost to the river level, and then rose by a long zigzag to about the height we had left. I never saw such high, precipitous mountains, nor such varied colors, qualities, and shapes in the rocks. " The road is not bad, and may be said to be perfectly safe. Much of it is over nearly level ground or very gradual slopes. Even where the road is cut in the face of the steep mountains or overhangs the river, it is smooth, and wide enough to give perfectly secure footing. " There are two or three places where the overhanging banks are apparently of loose material, or where rocks, tumbled 1 68 OVER THE ANDES. from great heights, have been stopped almost inexplicably in their descent, and lie in positions from which it would seem that a gust of wind, or the slightest impulse of any sort, would send them hurling down upon the passer-by. But they have been in just those positions possibly for generations, and one reproves himself for the involuntary dread and feeling of fear when he has got safely from under." This part of the narrative related to the earlier stages of the journey, and over a way now traversed in part by the railroad. It gave Our Boys a picture of the journey before them, and they were eager to follow the steps of Dr. Dee, as described in his letters, of which his wife had formed a con nected narrative. CHAPTER XV. IN BUENOS AYRES AND MONTEVIDEO ARLINE AND LEIGH GO SHOPPING WITH REMARKABLE RESULTS. ALONZO, in Buenos Ayres, saw the world in a new light. What meant these great cities of docks, these three immense ports over which floated and mingled the English, German, and Italian flags ? Why was the flag of the United States not seen here ? What was the value of this flourishing trade, this stupen dous commerce with Europe ? He began to study the mer cantile houses. What a view of the future they brought to him! " Uncle Henry," he said after reading some of these con sular and commercial documents, "you said that you liked to have us travel that we might intelligently decide on what occupation in life we were to follow. I have decided what I wish to do." " What is it, my boy ? " " I wish to follow your own calling of trading among the ports of the South." " You could not please me better. I am growing old. I have often hoped that I might transfer my business to you, but I have wished you to choose this business of life for your self. A man can only win the highest success of which he is capable by following the calling of his own choice. I am 169 170 OVER THE ANDES. glad, I repeat, to find that that plan of life has found a place in your mind." " Uncle, to be successful, I must prepare for such a busi ness. Leave me here in Buenos Ayres. Let me go into some commercial house for a year, even if I have to work for my board. The consul will give me good advice in the matter. I wish to study the trade of Buenos Ayres." "You are on the right way," said Uncle Henry; "but you are not ready to pursue this course now. I wish you to go to Valparaiso with me, and to Callao, the port of Peru, and to see the great trade in the nitrates. I want you to go with me to Panama, and see the wreck of the attempted canal ; to the ports of Mexico, and make a study of the vanilla trade ; to Costa Rica, and to its beautiful capital San Jose, and visit the coffee farms. I have planned to have you visit with me Grey Town, and the San Juan River, and Lake Nicaragua, where are to be the two water gates of the two worlds. There will arise a great port city on the Nicaragua Canal ; and when the gates between the two oceans open, San Fran cisco will grow, and there will expand the port cities on the west coast of South America, especially so, if the mines of Quito are reopened. The Nicaragua Canal, which is certain to be accomplished, will make a new world of the South. On the one side, lies the East; on the other, lies Japan, China, and India." " I see, Uncle, that your plan for me is the larger and the better one." Alonzo began to study Spanish in earnest and at once. The German young men have a great advantage over young Americans in these countries, for they come here with a com- IN BUENOS AYRES AND MONTEVIDEO. \"]\ mercial education that includes the Spanish language. There is a school in Geneva, Switzerland, that is devoted to trade languages, to commercial arithmetic and geography and inter national law. There should be many such schools in the United States. A new commercial era is at hand, after the small political follies of the present time are past, and the great canal divides the ocean. The Nicaragua Canal will mean much to the world. It tends to make the nations one ; it will follow arbitration in the steps of the progress of mankind. The austral age is coming — the time of the republics of the sun. Alonzo saw the future in this light. Spanish ? He had been studying it for a year. It seemed to him to be the easiest language in the world. Why should not this language tend to become universal, instead of the complicated English tongue ? The Spanish is not only simple : it is musical ; it is polite. The answer may be that England is the commercial nation of the world, and her language is that of ships ; that the United States is the progressive nation in agriculture and manufactories, and the land of immigrations, and she changes all tongues into English. Alonzo thought that he would try his Spanish. So when he returned to the hotel, he said in an imperfect way: " Mui- streme la tarifa. Donde puedo sentarme comer. Donde es la barberia ? Afeiteme." He was understood. He then went to an almecen, or variety store, and asked the price of panuelos (handkerchiefs), camisas (shirts), medias (socks), cuellos (collars), guantes (gloves), jabon (soap). I72 OVER THE ANDES. He was understood again. He went to a medicine-man, who asked, "Que tiene? — Dolor de cabeza?—de musculos? — de vientre? — reuma- tismo ? — resfriado ?" He did not understand, but he said, "Quiero que me recite una medicina." He was understood. He was able to read the Spanish papers, but he called on a Spanish editor one day, who began to talk of American and English tariffs in a rapid and excited way. He could not understand a single word. He might as well have gone down to the boca and have listened to the sea. " An English-speaking traveller can make himself well understood in these Spanish-American countries long before he himself can follow rapid speaking in the native language," said Uncle Henry to Alonzo, who had spoken to him of his success and failures in his attempts to use Spanish. " It is more easy to train the tongue than the ear. What you now need is to become a good listener." Alonzo, young as he was, saw daily how great was the need of new ideas in the United States in regard to the demands of markets in the ports of the South. It hurt his pride to see the great steamers coming and going, the ocean giants of Eng land, Germany, and Italy, and seldom to find the Stars and Stripes among the prosperous flags. He began to read the pamphlets of the Bureau of the Pan-American Congress and literature of the Human Freedom League. As he followed the trend of this literature, he saw how large and wise were his uncle's plans for him. He was glad that he was going to Mexico and Central America. Such educa- IN BUENOS AYRES AND MONTEVIDEO. 1 73 tional travel would enable him to begin a commercial life with advantage. Arline' s ideas, too, were enlarging ; but they were led by a secret purpose that she was cherishing, which was so original, and so followed the large plans of Elizabeth Peabody, that she scarcely dared to speak of them. What was her plan ? You shall be told later. Leigh ? Was he getting into position for some useful active work in life? He was, but he did not see it himself. Nor did Uncle Henry. He thought that he was preparing to be a literary man or a naturalist. But these professions were to be but tributary streams to a deeper current in life which was flowing in his veins, but whose meaning he had not yet apprehended. From Buenos Ayres Our Boys made an excursion to Monte video, — San Felipe de Montevideo, — a wonderfully beau tiful city, and one of the cleanest and most healthful in South America. It is situated on the estuary of the Rio de la Plata, one hundred and thirty-two miles from Buenos Ayres. The trip from the latter city was made in a hotel-like steamer in a single night. The red morning revealed noble coast scenery. The landing, on account of the heavy surf, was somewhat difficult. Our Boys were delighted with the Uruguayan capital. The suburbs were a paradise of blooming villas, and the reco leta, or cemetery, was like the burial ground of Buenos Ayres, one of the beautiful places of the world. There is an expression of refinement here, which, with the noble scenery, will always leave a dream in the traveller's mind. There is a charm and soul ideal in this city that will 174 OVER THE ANDES. haunt one who seeks the best in life. Cities have souls, voices, and moral atmospheres. Arline visited the North American school in this city. It was at that time in charge of one of the teachers of whom she had heard, and she found in the girls' department a little kin dergarten school. It was just beginning to bloom like an early Uruguayan violet. The teacher then in charge of the girls' department of the large school was Miss Mary E. Bowen, born in Warren, R.I., and trained for her work in one of the great schools for such purposes in Chicago. The interior of the school building, with its patio, was most delightful. The school numbered some sixty or more pupils, who were preparing to advance, either directly or indirectly, the educational interests of Uruguay. The school showed the results of earnest, faithful, inspiring minds, and Arline was pleased to hear Miss Bowen say, " I am perfectly happy in my work." The words haunted Arline. It was not the beauty of the city, or of the green hills, or wide rolling sea that made this teacher happy, but the work. It was work that had a future : the kind of work that makes a home of the heart wherever duty is. ARLINE AND LEIGH GO SHOPPING WONDERFUL ARGENTINE BIRDS. Arline proposed to Leigh one day that they visit the bird- stores in Buenos Ayres, and see the parrots of Argentina. " One parrot will do," said Uncle Henry. " Do you really intend to take Loro over the Cordillera ? " IN BUENOS AYRES AND MONTEVIDEO. 1 75 " Yes, Uncle, unless you forbid it. Loro will find friends all the way; I have read that the muleteers are very ac commodating." Uncle Henry Was acquainted with an ornithologist in Buenos Ayres, and he took his bird-loving niece and nephew to his bird-garden. Leigh was introduced to three birds of different species, all of which he wished to buy. " I give you my aviary garden," said the ornithologist, with the usual Spanish expression of extreme politeness. This seemed very generous. The polite bird-collector quite en chanted Leigh with an account of a white-banded mocking bird of which he had specimens for sale. " It is the king of mocking-birds, and it outdoes in its song all other birds in the world. When it sings, the very trees stop to listen." This was Oriental language, but may have been true, as none of the trees ever walked away from the place of their enchantment. There was a certain truth in the figure, for an ornithologist, in speaking of this bird, once said, — " Its melody delights the soul above all other bird music," and again, " This bird is among song-birds like the diamond among stones." Leigh desired to secure one of these white mocking-birds of enthrilling song. He expressed his great interest in the bird to the collector, and since the latter had said, — " Senor, I give you my aviary garden," he expected to hear him say, " Senor, I give you one of my white-banded mock ing-birds." 176 OVER THE ANDES. But somehow, strangely enough, he did not. Leigh's imagination grew. If only he could take with him one of these captive birds, and some time hear it sing its rapturous song ! How such a Jenny Lind among birds would delight the boys and girls of Milton Hills ! " Oh, buy one ! " said Arline, in an aside tone. " What shall I do with it ? " " Carry it with you. If I can carry Loro, you can take a simple bird like that along with you." Leigh inquired of the collector if the bird were hardy, and was assured that it was. " Could I carry it in a cage to Valparaiso, over the Cordil lera ? " He was assured that he could do so. And would it some day repay him by pouring forth his marvellous song? Certainly, the bird would. As the collector, notwithstanding that he had given him the whole of the bird-garden, did not specify this " diamond among song-birds " as a part of the gift, Leigh paid him a good price for one, and said to Arline, "What will Uncle Henry now say ? " The collector having secured one good bargain, next ap pealed not to Leigh's ears, but his eyes. He showed him a white-capped tanager, a bird in royal purple, with a white cap on its head tinted with red. " Oh, what a beauty ! " said Arline, with lifted hands. "This bird," said the collector, "is called Linda, or the beautiful, the blue, white-headed beautiful. It is the summer bird of Buenos Ayres. During the incubation of the female bird, the male hides himself among the leaves and flowers, and sings to her all the day long." IN BUENOS AYRES AND MONTEVIDEO. 1 77 As the collector did not say, "I will give you Linda the beautiful," Leigh bought one. " You now have the most beautiful singing bird in all the world, and also the bird of the most royal plumage ! I wish to show you another bird." He next introduced the delighted travellers to a specimen of the red oven-bird, the bird of the house and garden, about whom he told fairy tales. "This," said the collector, "is a pious bird; it keeps fast- days." Just here Uncle Henry reappeared and threw a shadow over the Arabian atmosphere, by saying to Leigh that he would do well not to add this pious bird to the collection. " We are not going to take a menagerie over the Andes," he said. " If Arline takes Loro, and you take the mocking bird and Linda, you will have all the pets that you will be able to manage when you are struck by the winds on the cumbre." Arline and Leigh bowed and bowed to the polite collector as they departed. They felt under obligations to him. He had given them his aviary garden, his store, and had secured a good price for his birds : it costs nothing to be polite. After Leigh had taken beautiful Linda to the hotel, he noticed that the bird seemed lonely. He recalled the legend of this species of birds that the munificent bird-vender had related to him ; this brought on a tender-hearted conscience stroke, and he returned to the aviary and bought for her a mate. "Two of them?" asked Uncle Henry, when he next went to the cage. " And they are to go over the Andes ! My I78 OVER THE ANDES. boy, when the high winds of the high Andes strike you at some point twice as high as Mt. Washington, under peaks three or more times as high, I am afraid that your beautiful birds will ruffle their feathers. I pity them. Enjoy the sunshine while you may, my lovely Lindas." Arline heard these discouraging words. " I will protect Loro, if I almost perish myself," she said. " You will find friends in your need, I have no doubt," said Uncle Henry, "like a woman with a baby." Alonzo, whose mind was wholly given to the study of com mercial business, strongly disapproved of his brother's pur chase of caged birds. "I will return them or give them away," said Leigh, "if my plans will cause you trouble." Alonzo looked at the Lindas, the beautiful, and imagined what it might be to his old school friends to hear the Argen tine mocking-bird sing. " No, Leigh, do not return the birds. Many people carry caged birds on steamers in this country, and if you can cross the winter weather on the tops of the Andes with them, you may enjoy having them with you. Do not return them." The purple Lindas, with their white heads with a few feathers like rubies, appealed to his sense of beauty ; he was sorry that they had been bought, and yet he would be un willing to have them sold. CHAPTER XVI. UP THE PARANA, ROSARIO THE ESTANCIA CALIFORNIA — TALES OF THE GRAN CHACO. THE Frobishers wished to see the enterprising city of Rosario, so Uncle Henry said one day to the boys, as they were walking along the wharves of the great steamers: "There comes the little steamer 'San Martin' full of mer chandise, fruit, parrots, and everything. She plies between Buenos Ayres and Rosario. Let us return on her to Rosa rio, and see the river Parana." The word " parrots " caught the ear of Leigh. " Let us go and see her land her passengers and parrots," he said. " But you are not to purchase any more parrots, no matter how wonderful the birds you may see. Loro is the only one that we can afford to carry with us. Do you really expect to take her over the Andes on a mule ? " " Yes, Uncle, if you do not absolutely forbid it. As long as Loro sticks to me, I will be true to her. I wish to carry back to Milton a bird with a history." "The bird will have a history if she passes through the high winds on the La Cumbre mountain pass," said Uncle Henry, good-humoredly. " If her feathers do not get ruffled there, they will be able to stand the open March winds on Dorchester Bay. People usually wear an overcoat, a poncho, 179 l80 OVER THE ANDES. a bonnet over their caps, and leggins over boots on that pass, and if the snow should snow, and the wind should blow, alas for poor Polly ! " They went down to the landing where the "San Martin" came puffing in. What a freight the steamer bore ! Argentines, Indians, Italians ; great bins of oranges, bananas, and fruits unknown to our travellers, of many kinds. An hundred or more parrots. But there was one passenger that at once attracted Leigh's eye, more curious than all the rest, whether of people, ani mals, or birds. He was chained to a place near the wheel- house, and seemed very restless and uneasy. As the boat touched the wharf, and the passengers began to crowd towards the landing-plank, he rolled over and entangled himself in his chain. He evidently was not used to being restricted in this way. " Uncle Henry, what is it ? " asked Leigh. Uncle Henry did not need any further description of the particular object on which Leigh wished to fix his attention. " That is an animal that puts his tongue into a pocket ; we saw a little one before on another boat." " Where is his pocket ? " asked Leigh. " In his mouth. He has plenty of room for it there, for he has no teeth. When he wants food, he runs his tongue out of his pocket, where it is doubled up when it is not in use, and as it is covered with a viscid saliva, he draws in in sects for food. He is a great sleeper. He doubles himself up when he goes to sleep, as he doubles up his tongue when he is not hunting insects with it. He doubles his long head and snout against his breast, and clasps his legs around both, UP THE PARANA, ROSARIO. l8l and he sleeps in the form of a ball, and of what he dreams no man knows." " What is its favorite food, Uncle ? " " Nuts, ants ! " " I thought so, Uncle." " It is the larger ant-eater, or ant-bear. It fights by hug ging. You will not need one for Arline," said Uncle Henry. " There would not be ants enough in our part of Milton to keep him alive. But look, my boy, the Indian women are coming on shore with their cages of parrots ! " Indeed they were. They were bearing wicker cages full of parrots. " Basketsful of parrots," said Leigh. " I wish Arline were here to see." The women were bareheaded, and were dressed in cheap fabrics of gay colors. Many of them had, beside their " basketsful " of parrots, macaws of enormous beaks and gorgeous plumage. They went on board the boat. It was much like a river steamer in the states. The lower deck was heaped with oranges, and every part of the boat was crowded with merchandise. Uncle Henry procured tickets, and secured rooms for a passage of the party to Rosario. The journey from Buenos Ayres up to the Parana was uneventful. There were no parrots or oranges on board, but a few Indians, and fewer interesting people. The banks of the river were lined with pampas-grass, very tall and feathery, into which dropped many kinds of birds, and out of which as many kinds of birds flew. Here 1 82 OVER THE ANDES. and there were landings and huts, where no traveller would wish to be landed. The Frobishers spent only one night on board the steamer. Late the next afternoon Rosario appeared, gay with flags, for it was an anniversary day of some political event, and the city gayly celebrated its days of freedom. At such times the Argentine flags, the Italian flags, and the Swiss cross flags seemed to float everywhere. They landed from a lighter, and the city lay before them. They passed the cathedral and entered the plaza, and Alonzo studied the bullet-holes in some of the near build ings, — the reminders of a late revolution. It seemed like an Italian city — as though a Vesuvian eruption had thrown up some square miles of Italy and dropped it down here. One of the first objects to arrest their feet in the street was the Masonic Temple, in front of which stood a fiery and heroic statue of Garibaldi. The statues in the city were those of the heroes of liberty, San Martin, and the men of the war for independence. They went to an old rambling hotel, called the Hotel English, attracted to it by its name. An orange-tree loaded with fruit and covered with flowers stood in the patio, or inner open room of the house. It was an old tree. When there was a breeze, the blossoms fell like snow, and filled all the rooms with odor. There were many English people at the hotel. The food was Spanish and well spiced, but it had the attraction of novelty. " Nobody can tell what they will bring on next," said Uncle Henry at the table. " Let us be thankful for variety, UP THE PARANA, ROSARIO. 1 83 and ask no questions ; and, if we see anything that we do not wish, let us remember that it is the custom of the country, and eat on, even if we have to shut our eyes." But there was no need for them to shut their eyes. Flowers, as well as fruits, came upon the tables. The ser vants were willing and polite, and coaches at the door were always ready for service. Leigh called the place the hotel of the orange-tree. Uncle Henry used his money with a prudent generosity, and they were very happy here. Their first visits were to the American and English schools. The reader may exclaim, "What! are there American schools in Rosario, on the Parana?" Yes, the North American Normal School, under the direction of Madam Bishoff, numbers some five hundred pupils, and occupies very beautiful buildings and rooms. This lady came to the Argentina from the West in the days of Horace Mann, when Sarmiento's heart was out-flowing to establish the North American education here, after he had been the Argentine Minister of the United States for a time, and had met Charles Sumner and Horace Mann and Elizabeth Peabody. Sarmiento's study of the United States led him to the conclusion that " North America owes her greatness to her schools." He studied the subject more deeply and said, "The primary school is the foundation of national character." By the primary school he did not mean such schools as develop the memory alone, but those which have the Swiss foundation as well, which develop the spiritual faculties first, and whose end is a just and benevolent character. 184 OVER THE ANDES. The lady received the Frobishers into her charming home. She had been personally acquainted with the great Argentines, and she related many anecdotes of Sarmiento. Leigh chanced to walk out of the parlors on to a balcony overlooking the patio that was surrounded by the schoolrooms. He was accosted by a very fat and pompous-looking parrot, who said in Spanish, — " I will cut you." He wished to shake hands with the voluptuous-looking bird, but she bowed and bowed, and said, — " I will cut you." Leigh glanced at her bill; it looked suspicious, and he bowed himself back into the parlors. He had no wish to add this feathered treasure to his collection for Arline. They visited the school on another day. Madam assem bled all of the pupils of the school in the patio, and the kindergarten presented them with violets, and all the schools sang the national anthem of Argentina. Another school in another part of the city was conducted by Miss Swaney. It was a benevolent and missionary enter prise, and exhibited all the progressive ideas of modern educa tion. This, too, had a kindergarten department ; but no parrot, so far as we know. This school also sang for the visitors the national song of Argentina, with the inspiration of pur ple banners. Some of the Spanish pupils refused to sing the line of the song, — "At whose feet a lion lies dead." The " lion " in this line represents the Spanish rule in South America. UP THE PARANA, ROSARIO. 1 85 Some of the pupils sang "The Star-Spangled Banner" in honor of their guests. Here was conscientious teaching, enterprise, and a lively sense of the demands of the times and spirit of the age. While at the normal school the Frobishers received an invitation, through the suggestions of Madam Bishoff, to visit the estancia California, at the distance of a few hours' ride by rail. This estancia is, we think, mentioned in one of the works of Madam Brassey. " Be careful," said their literary hostess ; " you will find a lion in the dooryard." The South American lion or puma is a very dangerous beast. The tone of madam's warning did not sound alarming; but her words certainly were. Was there really a lion running loose in the yard of the villa of the estancia ? The estancia was owned by a family by the name of Bernitz. Madam Bernitz had crossed the plains of the west ern territories of the United States in her girlhood. She had arrived in California before the discovery of gold. She married, and the family a'ccumulated a great fortune, when Mr. Bernitz was obliged to make a change of climate and condition on account of his failing health. Leaving a part of his property in California, and taking with him some sixty thousand dollars in gold, Mr. Bernitz with his wife and seven sons went to Argentina and purchased a great estate near Rosario, at a time when this part of the country was unsettled and the land was cheap. Here he built a villa, and a village-like place of residence for his work-people, or peons. He died not long after his settlement here, leaving to his wife and son the management of the estate. 1 86 OVER THE ANDES. The party enjoyed the ride out of Rosario over the pampa to this delightful place. They passed beautiful houses and some immense estates on the way. The villa of Madam Bernitz at last appeared, something less than a mile from the depot, over the green fields of alfalfa. A carriage was waiting for them at the depot ; a warm wel come met them there from one of the sons of the pioneer, and they were wheeled away to the bowery villa. There was but one principal thought in the minds of Alonzo and Leigh : it was that of the lion running about in the yard. A great cattle kingdom, for so we may call this estancia, rose before them. There may have been fifty thousand or more cattle, horses, and sheep on the estate ; they were told that the flock of sheep numbered more than ten thousand, — but what were all these to a lion in the yard ? Guanacos came into view, throwing up their heads ; ostriches were feeding in the great fields ; there was alfalfa, alfalfa, everywhere, — but what were all these animals, birds, and clover fields to a lion in the yard ? When one is expecting to be landed in a yard with a lion, "one has only one thought. Leigh seemed to feel as though he were being carried to a Roman amphitheatre on a martyr's day in the times of the emperors. The carriage was driven up to the fence of the villa. How queer the yard looked ! Orange-trees and pepper-trees were there ; queer fowl, and parrots, not in cages but in the trees. Many horses saddled stood at the gate, ready for the use of any one who wished to gallop over the plains. Bright, happy people were passing unconcernedly about, — where was the lion ? UP THE PARANA, ROSARIO. 1 87 They passed through the gate under the shadows of the twinkling pepper-trees. There he was. Surely it was so. He rose up from a place where he had been resting, under some trees near the oppo site fence, stretched himself, opened his great jaws, and came towards the house. Leigh started back. "He won't hurt you," said Mr. Bernitz. "He caught a sheep this morning, — some of the flock chanced to stray into the yard. That is nothing; what is one sheep ? " One sheep, — it might not count for much in a flock of ten thousand ! " But, sir, I might be the next sheep," said Leigh. " I hope I would count for something. What do you think, Uncle Henry ? " " You surely would. I don't think that there are ten thousand Frobishers in all the world." Alonzo eyed the puma closely. " You wouldn't think that we once carried him about like a kitten," said Mr. Bernitz. Alonzo saw by the indifference of the people in the yard that somehow the lion was not dangerous to them. How ? He seemed to be loose, and he had caught a sheep that day. A closer view revealed the secret. There was a long, small, stout chain attached to a metal collar around the animal's neck. The grass hid the chain from view, and the fur the collar. But to what was the chain attached ? A further investigation showed that it was fastened to a long, strong wire, which was stretched among the rails on 1 88 OVER THE ANDES. the fence. The lion could not go beyond his chain, and the chain would not allow him to reach the walk from the gate to the veranda. The villa was elegant, with all the arts and refinements of a suburban residence in the United States, or outside of Paris or London. Madam Bernitz was a delightful hostess. She made the party feel at once at home in her hospitable house. She took them to ride over the alfalfa lands. She was over sixty years of age, but she sometimes rode on horseback, for at her gate saddled horses were always waiting. The family owned a part in another great estancia in the Gran Chaco. As they were returning from the ride, madam said, — " Boys, if you like, I will ask my friends to-night to tell you some stories of adventure in the Chaco." The promise made the evening a pleasant one to look forward to. When they had again entered the yard, some strange birds came pecking at their heels. What were these ? They were told that they were serpent-eaters. " Give one of them a long stick," said madam. Leigh did so. The bird took it in his beak, threw its head back as if it had been hung on a hinge, and dashed the stick upon the ground with such violence that he would have killed it had it been a serpent. The evening came, — evening on the pampa, — and with it many stories, some of which we will relate in our own manner, but in the first person. UP THE PARANA, ROSARIO. 1 89 TALES OF THE HACIENDA THE RED OVEN-BIRD. The red oven-bird is the bird of the house and home. Like the swallow of the North and of Mexico, it seeks to share a part in the life of the family. All people who have an eye for what is sympathetic in the animal world love the red oven-bird. It builds its nest in the eaves of houses, about the out houses and walls of the liaciendas. The male bird is as true to its mate as ever a human heart was to a wife. I have heard a very beautiful story of the attachment of these birds. One of them made its oven nest near a granary which became infested with mice. A steel trap was set for the mice, and the bird alighted upon it, and was caught, the snapping of the trap breaking both its legs. The bird was released as soon as caught, and flew piti fully back to her nest, and entered the oven to die. After she had died on her nest, the male came and called to her. She, of course, did not hear his call, and his cry became pitiful. He fluttered about the opening to the nest oven three days, crying and trying to awaken the dead bird : then he went away. In a few days he returned with a mate. They did not seek to occupy the old nest, but to build a new one by its side. But before beginning to build the new nest, they brought earth and sticks and made a plaster, and sealed up the old nest in which the dead bird was, as though to make of it a tomb. The conduct of the birds seemed almost human. 19° OVER THE ANDES. ESCAPED. I was once out on the pampa, when my young dog came to me with something in his mouth. I took his head in my hand, and found that it was a little bird. Dogs do not usually molest these birds, but this one had found an easy prey, and he hoped to gain my approval by his smartness. I took the bird from his mouth. I saw that one of its legs was injured, and I pitied it, and put it inside of my hunting-shirt. I recalled that an English naturalist was visiting me and was out hunting, and I thought that I would keep the bird and show it to him. Towards evening, as I was returning home, I met the naturalist. " My friend," I said, " I have something to show you, — nothing uncommon with us, but what may be interesting to you." I took from my bosom the bird. As I was about to hand it to the naturalist, it escaped and flew into the air. A hawk was passing, and pounced down upon it and seized it in its claws, at the sight of which the naturalist put up his fowling-piece and shot the hawk. The hawk came tumbling down, but without the bird. The latter flew away with a joyous note, and I hope she found her nest again, and was ever after unmolested and happy. Whenever I get entangled in my affairs, and everything seems working against me, and all means of escape appear to be closed, I always recall the little bird that I rescued from the dog, and that my English friend freed from the hawk. UP THE PARANA, ROSARIO. igi The joyous cry in the air comes back to me — it was a parable. The poet may well have said, " Hope springs eternal in the human heart." THE STORY OF THE TALL RATTLER OF THE CHACO. If you will go into the room in the outbuilding where I keep my curiosities, you will find the skin of a very long rattlesnake — a tall snake as it first appeared to me — which I shot in the Gran Chaco. I am a part owner in a hacienda in the Gran Chaco, and I go there every year. I make the journey on horseback, and, as the way is a long one, I usually go on my favorite horse. Some years ago I set out for the floral wilderness on a young horse which I greatly valued. She was a beautiful animal, — a roan mare, — and I had so trained her that she would respond like a child to my voice. She was company for me. I never gave her a harsh word or struck her a blow. One evening after I entered the wilderness, I tethered her to a tree, and had lain down to rest. I recall how lonely all things seemed as the night came on. The wilder ness grew still as the twilight faded and the night shadow fell. I kindled a fire, made some mate, and ate one of the lunches which had been prepared for me at home. As the stars came out, the stillness was broken. Wild beasts began to howl in the forests, and they seemed to answer each other. The night-birds cried in the trees. It was very hot ; poisonous insects filled the air ; all kinds 192 OVER THE ANDES. of creeping things seemed to surround me. I drew around me a netting, and lay down under a palm, and was sinking into oblivion, by the way of dreams, when something startled me. I heard the horse give a loud snort. I opened my eyes, and saw in the starlight that the head of the animal was stretched up strangely, with a giraffe-like motion into the air. She stood still. Then the same loud snort was repeated. I was afraid that some dangerous animal might be lurking near, and I started up. Presently I could see that the horse was trembling in every limb. What was there near ? What had happened ? She reeled. Why ? Presently she dropped down with a thud, stretched out her limbs, and never moved again. I threw off the net and went up to her. Her limbs were stiff ; her tongue lay outside of her mouth ; she was dying, or already dead. I seized my gun and looked around. There was nothing to be seen. I sunk down again and was filled with wonder and alarm. I had never met with any like adventure before. I could not sleep. About midnight I arose and examined the animal. She was dead and cold. I sunk into an unquiet sleep toward morning. When I awoke the red flush of morning was in the sky, and the air was filled with calls and cries of hosts of birds. I looked towards the horse. I had not dreamed that she was dead. She was laying there stiff and cold, with the indications that she had died in extreme pain. UP THE PARANA, ROSARIO. 1 93 Early in the day, while I was preparing to go forward on foot in order to join another party who would be waiting for me at a fonda, there came up some Chaco Indians. They saw the dead horse, and stopped to cut some strips of "beef " from the haunches. They busied themselves in this way for a time, when one of them said, " Volve '' (turn). Two of them seized the animal's legs, and were turning over the body in order to cut strips of meat from the other side, when suddenly a terrible object leaped into the air. I never shall forget the shock it gave me. The forked tongue, the eye of fire, the spiral motion, the attitude of chal lenge and defiance. It was the tallest rattlesnake that I ever saw. One of the Indians at once severed its head from its body with a machete. The form tumbled into a heap, and the Indians examined the place where the horse had lain. The snake had bitten the horse on the nose as she was feeding. She had turned around so that when she dropped she fell upon the rattler in such a way as to imprison him in a hollow in the ground which was filled with a network of dead roots and living vines. The snake had been released from this curious prison when the body of the horse was moved. I secured the skin of this immense serpent as a curiosity. You may find it in my museum when you will. All of these stories are substantially true. o CHAPTER XVII. THE CATTLE DOCTOR OF THE GRAN CHACO. THE Gran Chaco, a great wilderness on the north of the pampas in Argentina, is nature's wonderland : a vast menagerie of beasts and birds ; a wild, semi-tropical garden of palms, fruits, and flowers. It stretches beyond northern Argentina into Bolivia. It is the favorite resort of the adventurous hunters of the South, both Argentine and Eng lish. The naturalist here finds his paradise. There is noth ing like it in the world. Strange tales are told of this wild region in which Nature has her own way. These relate to the pumas, the serpents, the inquisitive birds, and to the wandering Indians. But the legends of the ahots are stranger than these. What are the ahots ? The Chaco Indians do not worship any God. They believe in spirits. When a man dies, they think that his spirit enters into another man, such as he himself was, and acts through his body, and more or less controls him. If the spirit be an evil one, it impels the one obsessed to acts of evil. In this way the good become better, and the bad worse. A man might have one, or more than one, familiar spirit of this kind. 194 THE CATTLE DOCTOR OF THE GRAN CHACO. 1 95 These are called " earth spirits," or ahots : spirits that live in the earth, or that hover near it, of a low order, loving evil, and tempting those in whom they make their dwelling to evil. Now, according to these Indians, no attention need be paid to good spirits, since good produces good, and in good ness is no harm. But to know how to resist the influences of evil spirits is the essential thing in religion, and the wizard priests who can do this are benefactors. For in their fancy, the ahots (nasal h, with a sneering twang) are everywhere. They live in subterranean caverns ; they wander in the wilderness at night; they ride on the winds; they cause evil imaginations, sickness, and death. The ahots, or departed spirits, live near the place where they dwell in the flesh. Hence the Chaco Indians hold religious rites at the tombs of their dead. The curious feature of this religion is the bit of philosophi cal lore, — that that which is good can do no harm, and need not be heeded, — an utterly false conception, but one that seems very reasonable to the poor Indians' minds. " Uncle Henry," said Arline, still hugging her parrot, "it is not all birds and butterflies and orchids in South America. Tell us one of the other kind of stories : a story of the ahots." Arline gave a little sneer on the letter //, trying to imitate her uncle's pronunciation of the word, and Loro cried out, "Nada ! " Uncle Henry did not altogether approve of ahot stories ; but he could not say " No " to Arline, and so he related a tale which he called I96 OVER THE ANDES. THE LITTLE OLD CATTLE DOCTOR OF THE GRAN CHACO. There are large estancias on the Gran Chaco. " What do you mean by estancias, Uncle ? " This inter lude was from Arline, and Loro was listening. An estancia is like a great American farm, a Western ranch ; in Argentina it is a little cattle kingdom with a village of work-people — peons. "What are peons, Uncle?" This, too, from Arline, and Loro seemed equally interested. Peons are poor people who labor for a living, — laborers, commonly, but not always country people. Over these solitary estancias roam thousands of cattle, and here the cattle-raiser lives, and sometimes grows rich, like the patriarchs of old. I was once invited to make a visit to one of these estancias in the Chaco solitude, on the Vermejo, or Vermilion, or Crim son River. There had been a season of dryness, followed by recent light rains, and when I came to the place, I found my host, Senor Matteo, in trouble, because a large number of his cattle had fallen sick. One day Senor Matteo and some peons went down the Crim son River to see some sick cattle ; he evidently found the con dition there serious, for he did not return at night, and I found myself in the casa or house all alone, except an Indian cook. I was sitting in a roof-room, where it was cool, hoping for the return of Matteo, when I suddenly heard a pounding on the lower door. It was repeated. The cook came up to my room with a light, around which insects were swarming. He was trembling. THE CATTLE DOCTOR OF THE GRAN CHACO. 1 97 " Go to the door ! " I said. His eyes enlarged. " I saw him ! " " Who ? " "The wizard — the doctor." " Go and let him in." "You go, Senor." I started up, and went down the narrow stairs. The pounding was repeated very slowly, causing some un known bats or birds to fly about the entry in the shadows. " Quien es ? " said I. (Who are you ?) "Hue, hue, hue! Amigo. Hee, hee, hee! Amiga. Hi, hi, hi ! Amigo." It was a strange answer. The old Indian cook stood be hind him, his eyes turning white. "The cattle wizard," he said, in a choking voice, — "he has come to cure the cattle." There came another pounding at the door, causing it to shake. " Que queriendo ? " I answered. (What do you want ?) " Hue, hue, hue ! " I opened the door, when one of the strangest looking be ings that I ever saw stood in the pale lamplight. " Senor Matteo ? " " No, a guest of Senor; English — Americano." He came in, as one in a kind of dream. The cook lighted the hall, and the dark creature groped about as if absently for a time, and then sat down in a shadowy corner and began to talk earnestly, but in a far-away tone, with the cook. The wizard priest, or medicine-man, had come to say that I98 OVER THE ANDES. he had received communications from the ahots, or ground spirits, that he could cure Senor Matteo's cattle. The cook became greatly excited at this news, and went up to the upper balcony, and began to blow a horn. Presently, I heard outside a pounding on the ground. I went to the door, and found a tall boy there. He ceased pounding, but taking up some dry gourds, in which there were some seeds, began to shake them. He was the son of the medicine-man. His father was too old to leap, and as high leaping was a part of the method of curing disease, he accompanied his father, to make effective this part of the mystic ceremony. In the night, Senor Matteo and the peons came home, and were surprised to find the wizard there. The latter went out to meet him. " Hew, hew, hew ! " or " heu, heu, heu ! " he began to ex claim. "The ahots speak — the ahots are crying up from the ground. Take me to the cattle; they shall all live again." Matteo welcomed the wizard, as though the man indeed were a prophet. " It cannot be that you believe in the doctor ? " said I. " You shall see in the morning," said he. Very early in the gray of the morning, Matteo, the doctor, the doctor's son, and some peons started towards the cattle ranges. Matteo asked me to accompany him, and I did so, full of curiosity. The red light of the dawn was rising over the wilderness ; afar we heard the cries of strange animals : here was the territory of the wild horse ; the jaguar, or the American THE CATTLE DOCTOR OF THE GRAN CHACO. 1 99 tiger; the puma, or cougar, or American lion; the wild ostrich, and of birds innumerable. The bushes were full of life as we rode along, and the banks of the Vermilion River seemed abloom with the wings of many colored birds. There was a morning stillness in the high air. A fiery day was looming over the long stretches of wood. Beasts and birds appeared to know that it was coming. The range where the sick cattle were opened at last before us. I was shocked at the sight that it revealed. There were dead cattle all along the banks of the stream, and swollen cattle yet living, mingled among them. The living cattle did not move. The range was covered with patches of green, tender grass that had come up after a dry season, in the first period of rain. It was evident that the cattle had been eating this freely ; might it not have had something to do with the sick ness ? The sun was now rising, making the river indeed ver milion. The doctor walked about among the cattle, lamenting that so many should have died. He then spake to his tall son, who had bells about his feet, and bells and ostrich feathers about his forehead. The tall boy lifted the rattling gourds, and began to leap. At this the doctor went to one of the sick animals, and uttered a sudden cry. The animal leaped upon his feet. He went to another animal and did the same, beating upon the ground. The same result followed. " Hue, hue, hue ! " he said, shaking his head. " So many should not have died ! " 200 OVER THE ANDES. Another and another animal, lying swollen and motion less on the ground, leaped up at the same cry, as if by a miracle. The doctor drove these animals before him, among the other sick animals, now and then beating the ground, cry ing, "Hi, hi, hi!" His son came leaping after him, shak ing his gourds. Soon all the living animals were in motion. They rose up as from the dead on all sides. How had this happened ? Was it indeed the work of the ahots ? I asked the English Consul on the Parana these questions. His solution was simple : — " The cattle had eaten a kind of grass which, when it is new, causes them to swell, and some of them to die. The doctor knew at what time the dangerous stage of the dis ease would be past, and that all the cattle that passed that stage would be likely to recover. All that was needed was to make an excitement to put them upon their feet again. He was a kind of hypnotist. He scared up a few of the animals that were at the point of recovery, and they excited the rest that were in a like condition, and sent new life into them. The ahot doctors are as cunning as are any other traders in superstition. The miracle was per formed in some such way. The ahots, if there were such beings, had nothing to do with the cure." In the Gran Chaco almost everything remains as it was in the days of the primitive world. You should see a single morning there, and hear the sounds of the beasts and the birds. There are estancias there, it is true, but there has been little progress there since the times of the explorers of the Banda Oriental. THE CATTLE DOCTOR OF THE GRAN CHACO. 201 " What, Uncle Henry, was the Banda Oriental ? " So asked Arline, and the parrot looked as if she wanted to know. " The Oriental Band, or the eastern boundary of a part of old Brazil, or ancient Uruguay. It is now called Uru guay." CHAPTER XVIII. STRANGE PEOPLE OF THE PAMPAS AND THE COAST. WHEN Our Boys returned to Rosario, they met several old pioneers at the English hotel. From them they learned many curious things about the old-time inhabitants of the pampas of the South Temperate Zone and of the wild South Coast. Arline spent several days in the hospitalities of the direc tor of the North American Normal School. Strange as it may seem, she again read here " Life in the Argentine," written in Spanish by Sarmiento, and translated by Mrs. Horace Mann, a sister of Miss Elizabeth Peabody, whose opinions of life and character had entered so largely into her own. She made the original book in Spanish, under the title of " Facundo Quiroga," her text-book in acquiring the language. We must give our readers the results of some of these talks at the hotel, and of Arline's studies. We hope that some other traveller may like to follow some of the studies which Arline's course may suggest, and to find the general facts which we present useful as a means of general informa tion. We must acknowledge our indebtedness to that mar vellous book, which, in North America, found its way into the public out of Arline's own circle of old home friends, — STRANGE PEOPLE OF THE PAMPAS AND THE COAST. 203 "Life in the Argentine." This book is almost an epic poem the Virgil of Argentina. THE PATAGONIAN GIANT AND FUEGIAN DWARFS. The cape countries of South America have two of the most curious races of men. One of these, the Patagonian giants, used to be fabled to be twelve feet high. This was due largely to the suggestions made to the imagination by Sindbads among the sailors ; but men eight feet high have been met among these tall people, and many of the inhabit ants of Patagonia are seven feet high. They are Titans among men, — the tallest of human beings ; and the early voyagers thought that they were a race of Cyclops indeed. The Patagonia of history is some eight hundred miles long and two hundred wide, and as large as the Republic of France. The giants inhabit the plain. It is a land of the puma and desert ostrich, and vultures and eagles sail the air. It is also the land of one of the most useful, timid, and curious of all animals, the guanaco. The guanaco is a camel sheep, allied to the llama, alpaca, and vicuna. It roams in herds over the vast deserts and plains. It furnishes the giants clothing, food, and compan ionship. The Patagonian wears a guanaco fur over his shoulders ; he feeds upon his flesh, and he pets him in his family. The wild guanaco is very timid and very wary. An old male watches upon a hill for intruders, when the herd feeds. The hunters capture them in herds by surrounding them and throwing them into confusion. 204 OVER THE ANDES. The flesh of the guanaco and the eggs of the ostrich are a part of the food of the giants, and hunting the guanaco is the common occupation in this vast territory. The poor guanaco is accustomed to see a tall man and his horse together, and looks upon the two as a kind of centaur. If the tall man will leap from his horse, and leave him out of sight, he may sometimes as easily approach the beautiful creature as if he were an ostrich ; for after the instinct of the camel sheep, the man is the harmless part of this strange being that hunts him, and runs him down, and throws a bolas at him, and roasts his flesh, and wears his skin. The guanaco, when tame, is a very gentle and sociable animal ; but woe to him who offends him : he spouts from his nose a great quantity of disagreeable fluid over him with an air of triumph, which never fails to be followed by an air of humiliation in him who receives the malodorous sprinkling. In strange contrast to the Patagonian giants are the dwarfs of Tierra del Fuego, or the Land of Fire. Their land lies nearest of any large territory to the South Pole. It is a congeries of many islands broken by arms of the sea. Some of these islands are mountains, and this chain of mountain islands runs in the direction of Cape Horn, of which it forms a part. They are the Andes of the sea, which end at Cape Horn. It is called a land of fire ; but it is a land of cold, and of cold water. The Spaniards, in the days of the discovery, beheld fires on the coast at night, and so named the place Tierra del Fuego. The Fuegian stands at the foot of the human race, — the STRANGE PEOPLE OF THE PAMPAS AND THE COAST. 205 lowest in the scale of humanity. He is between four and five feet high ; his hair is tangled and hangs in ropes about his neck. His only clothing is a fur skin, fastened by a skewer. He has no hat or shoes ; he roams in his canoe in bitter cold weather, bareheaded and barefooted. His wife is shorter than himself, — a little girl in size, and an otter skin, or some like small blanket of fur, is her only protection against the cold weather. These people have an evil look, and are as ferocious as they appear. They not only kill their enemies, but eat them. Their food is chiefly shell-fish. The Fuegian's house is merely a den built with no more skill than an otter's, — without utensils, except a bag for water. His bed is grass. He has no table or chair. He lives on the shore, and feeds on the coast. He travels along the coast in the high winds, carrying his canoe on his back. But how does he procure fire, from which he receives his name in the civilized world ? There is an ore called commonly iron pyrites, which is found in the sides of the gloomy mountains. If this ore be struck by a pebble, it will emit a spark. He dries moss for tinder, and when the spark falls upon it and is fanned it produces a flame. This is conveyed to dry grass, and thence to fuel. There is one thing that is sacred to the Fuegian — it is his fire. But with their sacred fires, they have no relig ion except a belief in devils. They eat their food raw. Their festival day is that when a whale drifts dead upon the beach. 206 OVER THE ANDES. Queerest of all, they have little sea-dogs that hunt fish in the sea and drive them into a shallow. He is said never to wash his face, hands, or body, and probably he never has heard that water was made for such a purpose. Truly, one would not seek for a bride in Miss Tierra del Fuego until there is a larger development of missionary work in the corners of the world. THE GAUCHOS. The Gauchos, or the native inhabitants of the pampas, have the fierce aspect of tradition, but are picturesque in their lingering barbarism. They wear ponchos, or immense shawls, with an opening in the middle through which to put their heads. These are of bright and lively colors. They are choice in the colors of their horses, of which a large number are roan and piebald, and are curiously marked. The Gaucho, or Goucho, at a distance on a horse looks like one flying. He seems like an inhabitant of the regions of the air. The poetic horseman is passing away. So are the ani mals of the once sea-like expanse of pampas-grass. Herds of small deer used to be seen everywhere, and solitary ostriches among the enormous thistle fields, into which, if one were to wander, he would become lost. If the horses seem to fly over the pampas, what shall we say of the ostriches that outrun them ? As they used to be greatly hunted for feathers, how were they caught ? The Argentine ostrich hunter provides himself with two leaden balls covered with hide, and attached to a long HUNTING THE RHEA OR SOUTH AMERICAN OSTRICH. STRANGE PEOPLE OF THE PAMPAS AND THE COAST. 207 string, or lasso, or plaited thong. On his swift horse, he approaches the ostrich in such a way as to put the bird to a disadvantage. When he approaches near the running bird, he whirls the balls around his head, and throws them so that they will strike the bird's legs and twist around them. Truly, the poor ostrich then finds that the race is not to the swift. It tumbles helplessly in all of its pride, and is plucked of its plumes. Alas, how often a self-sufficient life gets tripped up in this manner ! The whole pampas land was once populous with a curious little animal called in Spanish the biscacho, a kind of badger. The animal burrows and leaves great holes in the earth, which used to make travelling dangerous before the greater emigrations and the advent of steam. The careful horse may fall into them. They tunnel, as it were, the earth. This little badger recalls the jack-rabbits on the prairies of North America. He does not wander far from his hole in the ground. He comes out of the earth towards evening to feed, uttering an unmusical sound, yet one probably intended to be cheerful, as he keeps fat. His good condition is his misfortune, for he cannot run fast. As he is excellent food, he is easily caught when he wanders away from his burrow. He is run down, when he turns and makes a last fight for his little life. He has one watchful friend in the small owls, which in some places seem to be almost as thick as grass hoppers. These great-eyed little birds sit on the little mounds of earth thrown up by the biscacho, and gaze at the hunters with wonder. They seem to be staring at the world, and to be waiting for the advent of some Darwin of their species to tell them what it is all about. Owl-land is wonder- 208 OVER THE ANDES. land. The owls and badgers seem to seek the great natural gardens of wild melons for the place of their abode. There are whole cities of them in these places, as populous as New York, or possibly London. The wild pampas is the lurking-place of partridges and quails. Lizards are to be found everywhere, and in certain years and seasons grasshoppers cover the earth. In plague years they devour everything green before them. They come in armies, and disappear, leaving the earth bare as though burned by a fire. But the most interesting animal of the pampas, to the native or stranger, is the armadillo. He attracts the eye, and his flesh is greatly esteemed for food. The animal is toothless, or has only feeble teeth. It has a long, smooth tongue covered with glutinous saliva; this it darts out in such a way as to draw in insects for its food. Like the pampa badger, it burrows, and when it is pursued, or finds itself in danger, it digs down into the soft earth, almost as rapidly as a fish dives into the sea. But what excites the curiosity of the stranger is its armor. In this it differs from most other animals. It is covered with bony plates, and goes forth like an armed knight. The largest species are some three feet long, but these are small in comparison with those that once existed, and whose armors are among the wonders of fossil remains. In the clear air of the pampas circles the condor, so wondrous and majestic in the distance, so unsightly when near. As the horseman flies over the narrow lanes or roads of STRANGE PEOPLE OF THE PAMPAS AND THE COAST. 209 the pampas, animals, birds, and insects mount up on every hand. The mighty plains are a great ocean of life. The flower land, the thistle land, the grass land, all beat with life. When the storms arise, the storms of dirt, of wind and rain, of wreck and ruin, these inhabitants of the earth's sur face seek shelter in the earth, or in the gigantic vegetation. Who could ever compute the number of these inhabitants of the plains, susceptible to joyous life, trodden under foot of the horses, and for the most part no more regarded by man than minnows ! THE BEE HUNTER OF THE GRAN CHACO. The Gran Chaco, that immense tropical garden abounding in palm forests which are full of blooming vines, and in pampa-like meadows which are full of flowers, is divided by the river Parana, and walled on the north by the Peruvian Alps, and bounded on the south by the pampas. This primitive region, of which we have already spoken, is some two hundred thousand square miles in extent, and has twice the territory of the British Isles. The Paraguay River runs to the Parana, and the Parana to the Rio de la Plata, and this broad river to the sea. The Parana pene trates the Gran Chaco, which the Spanish and Portuguese have claimed as their territory, but in which the red Indian roams free. All honor to his native valor, and high and independent spirit, the red Indian holds the great floral wilderness. The Spaniard has never been able to conquer him, He is still a 2IO OVER THE ANDES. lord of the earth, and the horse's back is his home, and he knows the trails of a thousand miles. He lives to be old, very old. He is young at fifty, and he may be in the prime of life at seventy, and active as ever at eighty. Many of these Indians live to be a hundred, and some to a hundred and ten, and even to a hundred and twenty, if we may trust their own traditions. Why do they live to be so old ? We may answer, — a free life on horseback in the open air, and a vegetable diet, or a diet of fruits and the flesh of vegetable-eating animals. There is one luxury that these Indians enjoy that is found nowhere else in the world. In the palm region full of flowers, that even the botanist does not know, where the vines are hung with parasite-like orchid blooms, and where the orange-trees grow wild, there are innumerable insects of bright colors, flowers of the air, and bees that are stingless. These stingless bees produce the sweetest honey. But the bees that have no poisonous stings seem to make up for this want of defence by hiding their stores of honey. The honey hunter must be a very observing and skilful man. He goes about without beard or eyebrows, for he thinks that he can see better without eyebrows, and that clear vision is essential to his curious life. He has no saddle for his horse, and he wears no clothing but a cloth about his loins, and at a distance, as Mayne Reid has shown, he looks like a man-horse, or centaur. In search of the stores of the honey of the stingless bee he goes on foot. Let us follow him. All alone in this vast region of flowers, which no eye sees, he espies a single bee. The insect is as STRANGE PEOPLE OF THE PAMPAS AND THE COAST. 2 1 I harmless as a fly, and he wings from flower to flower until he is heavy with his store. Where is his nest ? The Indian follows him at a little distance, keeping upon him his eye- browless eye. The bee zigzags. From one sweet flower he passes to another, for he seems to be a chemist, and to know how to mingle his stores. But at last, unable to sustain the weight of any more pol len, he mounts into the air, and makes a bee-line for his treas ure house, which may be the hollow of some large tree where monkeys gibber and parrots scream. But as heavily laden as he is, he flies swiftly, and the clear sighted hunter has to be nimble of foot. Now the bee has escaped his eye, but the hunter knows the bee-line. He has only need to be true to this bee-line to come upon the golden treasure ; the only danger of his losing it is that he may pass it by, for the bee gives little outside sign of his storehouse. He comes to a gigantic tree. He sees no hollow in the trunk. But some of the branches seem unusually large and distended. His keen eye sees that half of these branches are virgin honey, and that he has only to swing himself up to them to gather it. He breaks these branches from which the richest honey in all the world pours down like rain. If he were to carry his honey to a Spanish town, he would receive a large sum of money for it, for there is no other honey like this. But what does he want of money ? he weighs the trouble against the money in his mind, and chooses his ease. It may be that he will find the honey in some cavern of 212 OVER THE ANDES. the earth. There may be great stores of it there. If so, he takes what he needs, and leaves the rest to its owners. Or the bee may be a toscina ; if so, its nest is on a cactus plant, and of all the sweet honey makers of the Gran Chaco, or the world, its honey is the sweetest and best. The bee hunter goes back to his family, and shares it with them. They have made St. John's bread from the flour of nuts for his return, and a drink of sugary sap. This with game makes a rich and healthful meal. The palm nuts pounded or grated supply abundant bread. They have only to be gathered to be prepared for food. In this simple, pastoral way live the Indians of the Gran Chaco, and among their, many easy employments in a region of eternal spring, the bee hunter would seem to have the most delightful of all, as the honey that he gathers is the most delicious of the productions of the earth, and as the bees that make it do not sting. It became Uncle Henry's wish to secure some of these stingless queen bees, and take them back to the states. " I could accomplish this," he said, " if the bees could en counter the cold of the Upper Andes. It would be hard for them, if we were to meet with a snowstorm on La Cumbre." Uncle Henry secured some of the Chaco bees, and had especial hives made of light material, with which to transport them. THE RASTREADOR. In the account of this strange character, the Argentine detective, we follow Sarmiento, and largely Mrs. Mann's translation : — STRANGE PEOPLE OF THE PAMPAS AND THE COAST. 213 " I once happened to turn out of a by-way into the Buenos Ayres road, and my guide, following the usual practice, cast a look at the ground. ' There was a very nice little Moorish mule in that train,' said he, directly. ' D. N. Zapata's it was. She is good for the saddle, and it is very plain she was saddled this time ; they went by yesterday.' The man was travelling from the Sierra de San Luis, while the train had passed on its way from Buenos Ayres, and it was a year since he had seen the Moorish mule, whose track was mixed up with those of a whole train in a path two feet wide. And this seemingly incredible tale only illustrates the common degree of skill. The guide was a mere herds man, and no professional rastreador." In this picturesque way Sarmiento introduces to us this plainsman. " The rastreador proper is a grave, circumspect person age, whose declarations are considered conclusive evidence in the inferior courts. Consciousness of the knowledge he possesses gives him a certain reserved and mysterious dig nity. Every one treats him with respect : the poor man, because he fears to offend one who might injure him by a slander or an accusation ; and the proprietor, because of the possible value of his testimony. A theft has been com mitted during the night ; no one knows anything of it ; the victims of it hasten to look for one of the robber's foot prints, and, on finding it, they cover it with something to keep the wind from disturbing it. They then send for the rastreador, who detects the track, and follows it, only occa sionally looking at the ground, as if his eyes saw in full relief the footsteps invisible to others. He follows the course of the streets, crosses gardens, enters a house, and, 214 OVER THE ANDES. pointing to a man whom he finds there, says coldly, ' That is he ! ' The crime is proved, and the criminal seldom denies the charge. In his estimation, even more than in that of the judge, the rastreador's deposition is a positive demonstration. It would be ridiculous and absurd to dis pute it. The culprit, accordingly, yields to a witness, whom he regards as the finger of God pointing him out. I have had some acquaintance myself with Calibar, who has prac tised his profession for forty consecutive years in one prov ince. He is now about eighty years old, and of a venerable and dignified appearance, though bowed down by age. When his fabulous reputation is mentioned to him, he replies, ' I am good for nothing now : there are the boys ! ' The ' boys,' who have studied under so famous a master, are his sons. The story is that his best horse-trappings were once stolen while he was absent on a journey to Buenos Ayres. His wife covered one of the thief's footprints with a tray. Two months afterwards Calibar returned, looked at the footprint, which by that time had become blurred, and could not have been made out by other eyes, after which he spoke no more of the circumstance. A year and a half later, Calibar might have been seen walking through a street in the outskirts of the town, with his eyes on the ground. He turned into a house, where he found his trap pings, by that time blackened by use, and nearly worn out. He had come upon the trail of the thief nearly two years after the robbery. "In 1830 a criminal, under sentence of death, having escaped from prison, Calibar was employed to search for him. The unhappy man, aware that he would be tracked, STRANGE PEOPLE OF THE PAMPAS AND THE COAST. 21 5 had taken all the precautions suggested to him by the image of the scaffold; but they were taken in vain. Perhaps they only assured his destruction ; for as Calibar's reputation was hazarded, his jealous self-esteem made him ardent in accom plishing a task which would demonstrate the wonderful sharpness of his sight, though it insured the destruction of another man. The fugitive had left as few traces as the nature of the ground would permit. He had crossed whole squares on tiptoe ; afterwards he had leaped upon low walls ; he had turned back after crossing one place ; but Calibar followed without losing the trail. If he missed the way for a moment, he found it again, exclaiming, ' Where are you ? ' Finally, the trail entered a watercourse in the suburbs, in which the fugitive had sought to elude the rastreador. In vain ! Calibar went along the bank without uneasiness or hesitation. At last he stops, examines some plants, and says, ' He came out here ; there are no footprints ; but these drops of water on the herbage are the sign ! ' On coming to a vineyard, Calibar reconnoitred the mud-walls around it, and said, ' He is in there.' The party of soldiers looked until they were tired, and came back to report the failure of the search. ' He has not come out,' was the only answer of the rastreador, who would not even take the trouble to make a second investigation. In fact, he had not come out, but he was taken and executed the next day. "In 1831 some political prisoners were planning an escape : all was ready, and outside help had been secured. On the point of making the attempt, 'What shall be done about Calibar ? ' asked one. ' To be sure, Calibar ! ' said the others in dismay. Their relations prevailed upon Calibar to 2l6 OVER THE ANDES. be ill for four full days after the escape, which was thus without difficulty effected. "What a mystery is this of the rastreador ! What micro scopic power is developed in the visual organs of these men ! How sublime a creature is that which God made in his image and likeness ! " THE SOUTH AMERICAN TYRANTS QUIROGA THE TIGER. In the period between barbarism and republican civiliza tion in South America, there arose three tyrants, who have a strange history, and who came to an evil end. They seem to have been born with a kind of majestic power over men, an influence they used for evil. They were intensely selfish, vain, and cruel; they loved power and money, and they sought each to enable them to gratify their own passions. Their lives illustrated the truths, that to be "carnally minded is death," that " men make a law unto themselves of what they themselves are, and that the violent man will be pur sued by violence, and that he who takes up the sword will perish by the sword." The first of these tyrants, who was a human beast, but who had withal a love of liberty, and a desire to emancipate the plains from the tyranny of their past conditions of en slavement, was Juan Facundo Quiroga, a poetic and romantic name which became changed to the "Tiger of the Pampas," — a man who drew the plainsmen after him like the wind, and whose will made the old Spanish cities tremble. He was a Gaucho or Goucho, or a man of the pampas or plains. His home was the saddle, and his spirit was fire. STRANGE PEOPLE OF THE PAMPAS AND THE COAST. 217 Why was he called the Tiger? After a bloody encounter with another Gaucho in his early days, he fled to a desert near San Juan, under the Andes, called Traversia, with his riding gear on his shoulders. He was an outlaw. In this desert there was a man-eating tiger. When a tiger has once tasted human flesh, nothing can restrain his passion for it. This tiger had killed eight men, and was ever on the watch for other men to kill. He followed the track of all that crossed the desert. He was what was called "the Man-eater." When the outlaw, Facundo Quiroga, had traversed some six leagues of the desert, carrying his hunting gear with him, in the hope of securing a swift horse, he heard a wild screech behind him, and knew the voice to be that of a tiger. But no animal was to be seen. But the sound came again, a venge ful roar, boding destruction. Then it came again — nearer. Quiroga looked around for a place of escape. On every hand was the desert. Only one object arose out of the wild waste, — it was a small carob-tree. Quiroga ran towards the tree, throwing down his riding gear. He climbed into the top of the tree, and there saw the tiger madly approaching, snuff ing the earth and roaring at the scent. He circled around the place, saw the riding gear, and shook it to pieces. He discovered his prey in the tree. The carob-tree was old, it had a decayed trunk, and it rocked to and fro. If the beast were to leap into the tree, it might topple it over. Qui roga saw that he was in deadly peril, with but small prospect of his escape. The tiger crouched under the tree, as preparing to leap, his eyes red with fury, and his tail lashing the earth. He 2l8 OVER THE ANDES. fixed his gaze upon the Gaucho, and exerted a fascination upon him which caused him to begin to lose self-control. But there were dark objects seen in the distance, flying as it were through the air. They were horsemen. They saw the shattered saddle, and so were directed to descry the man in the tree. They threw their lassos over the tiger, and so Quiroga escaped. " At that moment," he said, " I knew what it was to be afraid." He himself became what was called the "Tiger of the Llanos." His career began in being hunted by a tiger; he himself hunted men like a tiger, and at last was hunted as a tiger is hunted of men. Sarmiento, in his " Facundo Quiroga," or as we have the book in English, " Life in the Argentine," as translated by Mrs. Horace Mann, gives the following view of the life of this Gaucho chieftain : — " Facundo Quiroga was the son of an inhabitant of San Juan, who had settled in the llanos of La Rioja, and there had acquired a fortune in pastoral pursuits. In 1779 Facundo was sent to his father's native province to receive the limited education, consisting only in the arts of reading and writing, which he could acquire in its schools. After a man has come to employ the hundred trumpets of fame with the noise of his deeds, curiosity or the spirit of investigation is carried to such an extent as to scent out the insignificant history of the child, in order to connect it with the biography of the hero ; and it is not seldom that the rudiments of the traits, characteristic of the historical personage, are met amid fables invented by flattery. The young Alcibiades is said to have lain down at full length upon the pavement of the STRANGE PEOPLE OF THE PAMPAS AND THE COAST. 219 street where he was playing, in order to insist that the driver of an approaching vehicle should yield the way to avoid rim ing over him. Napoleon is reported to have ruled over his fellow-students, and to have intrenched himself in his study to resist apprehended insult. "On the Godoy farm in San Juan are shown to this day mud-walls of Quiroga's treading ; there are others in Fiam- bala, in La Rioja, made by him. He himself pointed out others in Mendoza, in the very place where one afternoon he had twenty-six of the officers, who surrendered at Chacon, dragged from their horses and shot to avenge Villifane. " He also showed some monuments of his wandering life of labor in the country districts of Buenos Ayres. What motives induced this man, brought up in a respectable family, son of a man of means and of creditable life, to descend to a hireling's position, and moreover to select the dullest and most brutish kind of work, needing only bodily strength and endurance ? Was it because the labor of building these mud-walls is recompensed with double wages, and that he was in haste to get together a little money ? " This man became the leader of the Gauchos, or plains men, of Argentina, and practically the dictator of the wild country in the period between the liberation and founding of a civilized republic. The people made a hero of him. Why ? Simply because he was an enemy to Spain. Cities fell before him. He was a firebrand. He was ani mated by the purpose to make the Argentines free from Spanish influence, but to enslave them himself. Quiroga, like the tiger who had tasted human blood, became filled with passion for blood. Power made him delight in power, 220 OVER THE ANDES. and he gloried in having his own brutal will. He did not believe in God or man, only in Quiroga. He was the spirit of revenge. " Pax," he once said, " shot nine of my officers; I have shot ninety-six of his." He killed any one who op posed his will, even those who laughed at him ; he murdered a girl whom he had promised to marry, and even struck dead his own son. To excite his envy or jealousy was death. He became the product of himself — a despot. What was the end of the Tiger ? "It was on the 18th of December, 1835, that Facundo took leave of the city, saying to his friends, ' If I succeed, you will see me again ; if not, farewell forever.' At the last moment this intrepid man was assailed by dark presenti ments. It will be remembered that something similar hap pened to Napoleon when he was leaving the Tuileries for Waterloo. " He had scarcely made half a day's journey, when a muddy brook stopped his carriage. The travelling attend ant came and tried to get it over ; new horses were put in, but in vain, and Quiroga, falling into a rage, ordered the man himself to be harnessed to the vehicle. His brutality and terrorism appeared again as soon as he found himself without the city. This first obstacle being overcome, he went on across the pampas, always travelling until two o'clock in the night, and starting again at four. He was accompanied by Dr. Ortez, his secretary, and a well-known young man, who had been prevented from continuing the journey in his own carriage by the loss of a wheel soon after starting. " At every post Facundo eagerly asked how long it was since a courier from Buenos Ayres had passed ? the usual STRANGE PEOPLE OF THE PAMPAS AND THE COAST. 221 answer was, 'About an hour,' after which he called hurriedly for horses, and drove on rapidly. Their comfort was not in creased by the rain, which fell in torrents two or three days. On entering the province of Santa Fe, Quiroga's anxiety in creased, and it became absolute agony when, on reaching the post at Pavon, he found that the post-master was absent, and that no horses were to be had immediately. His com panions saw no cause for this mood, and were astonished to find this man, who was a terror to the whole republic, a prey to what seemed groundless fears. " When the carriage once more started, he muttered in a low tone to himself, ' If I only get beyond the boundaries of Santa Fe, it is enough ! ' " He made the most frantic efforts to escape, but he who had pursued so many others to death without mercy was now himself pursued by Death without mercy. Followed by avengers, he put his head out of his coach window to give vent to his rage, and was shot. Nearly all of the South American tyrants came to a like end. The two other tyrants were Rosas and Lopez. CHAPTER XIX. THE ANDES. THE Andes (from ant a, metal) may be called the beau tiful mountains of the New World. They hold the delights of all climates, and have the fruits of all zones. The orange blooms at their feet; the plantain, the cocoa palm, the olive ; the cactus and the orchid flourish on their sides ; and their tops are so cold that hardly a moss can live upon them. Seen from the pampas, they are celestial won derlands ; giants crowned with crystal ; Titans that seem to uphold the heavens, the pillars of the firmament, the gate ways of the sky. In the sunset, they dazzle earth and sky with their frozen fires. At night, they seem to be the chambers of the stars. Seen from the calm Pacific sea in the sunrise, their im pression is never lost. Light pours over them in unimagined glory. The Cordillera, in the chain of the Andes, begins in the mountain islands among the tumultuous billows of Cape Horn, and may be found under the sea at Panama, and may even be said to cross Panama and unite with the peaks of Central America, Mexico, and the California Sierras. The plateaus of the Andes were the wonderlands of an cient civilizations, of whom little except the remnants of the Incarial Indians remain. Nature moulded the New World on the Andes ; she made THE ANDES. 223 them her vertebrae ; she marked the continent in the gigan tic uplift for nearly five thousand miles, or for nine thousand miles, if we accept their North American continuance. They begin in the islands of surf, stretch under the fiery arch of the equator, and, in their farther sweep, end in the Arctic snows. The Old World presents no chain like this. The elevation in India may be higher, but the Oriental tropics present no scenes like the plateau between Chimborazo and Cotopaxi, where eternal snows gleam in the glow of the primeval furnaces of the earth, over valleys that bear the fruits of all zones. There never was a road amid such scen ery as that over which the Incas travelled. It was like a highway amid the unfinished earth, lit by the lamps of the stars. The golden temples of the sun that blazed at Cuzco and Quito began and ended a highway of the world that finds no rivals among the Alps, the Atlas ranges, the Himalayas, Pyrenees, or Apennines. The sublime region of Lake Titi- caca stands solitary among the temples of nature in the world. The mighty Amazon is but the drain of these stupendous terraces and watersheds, whose towers command the sky. The chain is subdivided, and the names of the divisions present to the mind a view of the extent of the whole : the Patagonian Andes, that begins far out at sea ; the Chilian Andes, which have a distance of more than 1200 miles; the Peruvian Andes, that enclose the plateau of Titicaca, as large as the whole of Ireland ; the Andes of Ecuador, with their volcanoes, — the magnificent mountain land of the world ; and the Andes of New Granada, which seem to 224 OVER THE ANDES. disappear near the Isthmus of Darien, but which really rise again in Central America. Of the peaks of these moun tains, Aconcagua is nearly 23,000 feet high, and six other peaks are more than 20,000 feet high. The glory of the Andes is their plateaus, — the fertile lands of temperate zones, — where may be found nearly all the products of the vegetable world. The table-lands of Titicaca are 17,700 feet high, — more than twice as high as the sum mit of Mt. Washington. The table-land of Cuzco is 8300 feet high ; that of Quito, 9543 feet high ; and of Asuay, 15,520 feet high, or higher than the top of Mt. Ranier or Tacoma. The height of the principal passes fills one with wonder. The pass of La Cumbre, in the Chilian Andes, the popular way between the Atlantic and the Pacific, or from Buenos Ayres to Valparaiso or Santiago de Chili, is 12,454 feet» or more than twice as high as Mt. Washington; while the pass of Antaranga, in the Peruvian Andes, is higher than Mont Blanc, or 16,199 feet- The lowest pass in the Andes over tops the highest summit of the Pyrenees. Down the passes pour the torrents, from herbless icelands to wild gardens and plains of luxurious fertility and exuberance of beauty and bloom, where dead trees are orchid gardens in the air, where sport birds of the most gorgeous plumage, and hide the most gentle animals, and lurk the most deadly serpents. But as grand as the Andes appear from the pampas and from the sea, they lose their glory upon near approach. In the passes, the loftiest peaks are sometimes less impressive than the lower ranges. Many travellers over La Cumbre have expressed their disappointment when the highest point THE ANDES. 225 was gained. The Andes, to overawe the soul and to excite admiration and reverence, must be viewed from afar, as from the pampas at sunrise, or from the Pacific at sunset. In the range of the Andes are fifty-one volcanoes, few of which are active. The grandest of these are in Ecuador. The highest is Cotopaxi, 18,887 feet. It has been known to issue flames 3000 feet high, and to shake the earth for hun dreds of miles. In the region around Quito, there are ten or more active volcanoes. The people live, as it were, over caverns or laboratories of fire. The dens of the Andes, caused by volcanic action, present awe-inspiring scenes. The den of Chota, the top of which is some 26,000 feet wide, has a perpendicular height of nearly 5000 feet. The Andes, as the name implies, are treasuries of nearly all metals, and of the most precious of all, gold. Peru is the land of golden treasure, famous of old, and likely to be so again. The uplifts are nature's banks of silver as well as of gold, and of quicksilver as well as of silver. The moun tains have never been mined to their largest extent, and they still offer to the world riches which may bring to the table lands a new civilization and generation of men. Their plateaus, in the days of the children of the sun, held the highest civilization known to the Western world before the Columbian discovery. These plateaus are likely to be come historic again in the high development of mankind. It is prophesied that they will. The finding of new mines may accomplish this. The overpopulation of North Amer ica may lead to new migrations. The final march of the Aryan race may find its rest here, in times when the wonders Q 226 OVER THE ANDES. of science may eclipse the Incas in their glory, in material things, and when spiritual light shall uplift temples to which the roofs of gold were but feeble types. A great educational field will these plateaus one day be come. The work of the philanthropist here will last. These regions are to be surprises of future centuries. The moun tains of the metals are yet to enrich higher ideals of life than any that ever entered into any Inca's dream. CHAPTER XX. OVER THE CORDILLERA THE TRANSANDINE RAILWAY. THE fare over the Andes from Buenos Ayres to Valp-i, raiso, at the time this journey was made, was about ont hundred and fifty dollars in paper, or fifty dollars in gold. The journey can be made by rail and mule in some seventy- two hours, or leisurely in four or five days. One might like to rest for a day at Mendoza, on the east side of the Andes ; or among the bowery gardens of Los Andes, on the west. The tickets for the whole journey are to be obtained ire Buenos Ayres. The Cordillera to be crossed is some 13,000 feet high, bu less from the elevation from Mendoza. Our travellers bought ponchos, leggins, and ear wraps for the mountain journey at Buenos Ayres. The same es sential articles can be obtained at a low cost in Mendoza. A poncho is a large shawl, with an opening in the middle, so as to go over the head, and wrap the whole body to the knees on mule back. Ponchos may be purchased from five to ten dollars each, or if one wants a bright and fine one to bring home as a souvenir, for fifteen or twenty or more dollars. A good poncho may be secured for eight dollars ; these quotations are in paper — pesos. The Argentine depot is a very busy place. It is near the 227 228 OVER THE ANDES. river, and one looks out from the platform, on a line of steamers and ships, most of them bearing the English or German flag. The water, purple in the distance, is clouded with yellow earth, caused perhaps by the mighty rush of its tides. Above the streets leading to the depot stands the custom-house, and the grand plaza, with its four walls of noble buildings, and its well-furnished walks, and its conspicu ous monuments, one of which celebrates the Independence. The coaches of the train are large and luxurious, as good as the best on the ordinary North American railway. The route across the pampas is level ; the vast plains are " cattle kingdoms " ; herds succeed herds ; flocks, flocks ; fields of grain, fields of grain; and alfalfa, alfalfa. It was late in autumn when our tourists started. It was spring on this side of the equator. October was April, and November, May. This is the beautiful time of the year to cross the Andes. The sky is blue, serene, and friendly, and the earth is a sea of flowers. The cars rolled out past the Alameda and the beautiful Recoleta. There is one city of the dead in the world from which one is loath to part forever, — a city of marble temples, lights, and flowers, where the dead do not seem to be dead, but only awaiting the coming of the living. It is the Recoleta. " It is a long, hard journey that you have before you," said an English traveller on the train. " You will be likely to bleed from the nose, eyes, ears, and mouth on the Cor dillera." Would they ? The boys listened excitedly. The traveller then proceeded to tell stories of tourists who had lost their lives in the passes, and some of whose bodies OVER THE CORDILLERA. 229 had been found, remaining undecayed for years in the rare, cold, dry air. At the altitude where these travellers per ished in the cold and snows, the condors had spared their remains. But the boys saw that Uncle Henry was not disturbed by these tales. " Is what the gentleman has said true ? " asked Alonzo of Uncle Henry. " I think so. It is quite likely." " Will we be in any such peril ? " " I think not." " But why did they perish ? " " They attempted to make the passes too soon," said Uncle Henry. " Shall we bleed ? " asked Alonzo. " I think not," said Uncle Henry. "Why? Others have." " My boys, when you ride up into the high Andes on mule back, you will forget to bleed in daylight, and you will be too tired to think of anything but sleep when you roll off your mules at nightfall." Leaving behind the placid purple sea and the yellow har bor, the railway seems to sweep away into lands of the sun set. At a distance of three hundred miles, it joins the Argentine Great Western Railway at Villa Mercedes. ' At sixty miles from the city of the Plata, we come to a pleasant town in a green and fruitful region, called Mercedes. It was, not many years ago, an outpost of civilization. Emi grant sheep farmers came here : their first homes were their adventurous wagons, perhaps under their carts. Some of 23O OVER THE ANDES. them are now rancheros, or herdsmen ; others own haciendas. A Scotchman, who came here empty-handed, and slept under his cart, now owns ten thousand or more sheep, and took one of the premiums for wool at the World's Columbian Exposition. This man is one of nature's noblemen, a pioneer of superior sense, moral force, and benevolence. He has given twenty- five thousand dollars in gold to a school in Mercedes, and his name has been chosen to honor one of the beautiful public grounds. His wife, a lady from the states, shares his charac ter, energy, and benevolence. His name is Nicholas Lowe. Our travellers stopped at Mercedes, the guests of Mr. Lowe, on an introduction from Dr. Dee of Buenos Ayres. They were taken by this hard-sensed, open-hearted Scotch man to ride over his noble estate, which is called Alta Mira, if we may thus spell the name from the sound of the words as given them. The country around this beautiful estate recalls Old Eng land and New ; but the town has a very Spanish expression. The boys heard, with deep interest, Mr. Lowe tell the story of his own life. His fortune had been built on character, and he had come to be regarded by the people as a kind of patriarch of the plains. If a look of honest satisfaction came into his face as he passed the school that he had endowed, and the plaza bearing his own name, it was but the reflection of the high purpose of his own soul : he had earned it — and there are no jewels to compare to a crown of life like that. We say honest satisfaction. An estancia like this, created out of one's purpose of soul, is one's objective life. It is the OVER THE CORDILLERA 23 1 inner life projected : one's thoughts in material form outside of one's self. For a man without any resources, except those within himself, to make an estate like this, and to turn its profits into good for mankind, is to change the soul into material expressions of thought and vision after the manner of creation. These material images multiply, and their influ ences never die. Froebel founded his system of education on the discovery, or the apprehension, of the fact that the greatest joy that comes to a youthful soul is that when a child exclaims, " See what I have made ! " The principle holds good in all life. To create something for the good of others, out of one's visions, is to develop a noble soul. What San Martin did as a soldier, and William Wheelwright as a practical scientist, Nicholas Lowe has done as a simple farmer and shepherd under the blue skies of Argentina. His thoughts will live long after he has gone. THE FIRST VIEW OF THE ANDES. Whatever the traveller may fail to see in the passes of the high Andes, he will never be disappointed in his view of the white Cordillera, as seen from the pampas or from the ocean. No objects more enforce the truth that distance lends en chantment than the Andes. As the boys approached Mendoza, houses surrounded with green poplars and vineyards began to appear. The pam pas seemed rolling, as over them once rolled the sea. There were delays in this part of the route, and in these they studied the scenery. One clear morning, just as the sun was coming up over the 232 OVER THE ANDES. billowy pampas, the party got out at a station near Men doza, and looked towards the west. What a scene, never to be forgotten, met their eyes ! A long line of dazzling splendor blended with the purple sky ; temples of crystal, whose pinnacles it would seem might have shone in the regions of the stars ! The rosy flush of the rising sun arched the ice plains under the brows of these stupendous heights. All was white and crystal, as one might fancy the guar dian wall of a paradise to be. In the high peaks there was an amber light, which faded, like a golden fire on a crystal altar in some city of stars. But the colors disappeared, leaving all the Cordillera white and crystal, with tropical forests and gardens about their feet. One might here recall Sir Thomas Moore's lines, on view of Mt. Lebanon : — " Now upon Syria's land of roses Softly the light of eve reposes, And like a glory the broad sun Hangs over sacred Lebanon, Whose head in wintry grandeur towers, And whitens in eternal sleep ; While summer in a vale of flowers Is sleeping rosy at his feet." How did Alonzo and Leigh look upon this scene ? They simply stood silent. The vivid white of the mountain wall began to lose its lustre as the sun came up blazing over the wide green sea of the pampas. "What must it be to stand upon those peaks and look down ! " Alonzo said at last. " I can't speak," said Leigh. " There are no words for such scenery as that. It makes me all choke up." OVER THE CORDILLERA. 233 " But this is nothing," said Alonzo ; " how will you feel when you are up there ? " " My boys," said Uncle Henry, " I don't want to have you disappointed. You will seem to be among low mountains all the way when you are up there, for the peaks will look to you no higher than when they rise above the pass. You have already seen the Andes in their glory. Look well, for you will not see another such a sight as this until you look upon the Cordillera in the sunset from the Pacific Ocean. To see the Andes in the sunrise from the pampas, or in the sunset from the sea, is to view one of the grandest of the world's spectacles ; but in the Andes the sense of height, of majesty, and glory disappears." " But," said Alonzo, " how is it if one looks down ? " " It is not looking down, my boy, that thrills the soul, and makes one choke up with awe, admiration, and reverence, as Leigh has been doing. It is looking up that fills the soul. It is worth everything in life." After this view of the high Andes, everything seemed to sink into serene shadow, as the eye fell. "A scene like that ought to last forever," said Leigh. " If it did, it would cease to make travellers like you choke up," said Uncle Henry. "We have but little appreciation of what is continuous." " How far are we now from the summit of the mountains?" asked Alonzo. " I should think that we might be one hundred and fifty or one hundred and seventy miles from the Cumbre pass over the Cordillera," said Uncle Henry. They went on amid sunny fields of lucern. The high 234 OVER THE ANDES. Andes were shut out from view by the lower ranges. The wide gray waste of the country disappeared. The thistle fields and everything became green. Beautiful Mendoza, with her towers and poplar-tree shadows, began to come into view. " Mendoza ! " said the conductor. They were in the city of bowery streets where General San Martin organized the Army of the Andes, of whom it may have been said in the words of the poet, — "Whither go they? Whither go they?" Mendoza the beautiful, in a waving sunlight sea of lucern and clover, with the majestic Cordillera towering above, and pouring down a rapid, rippling river from the crystal heights to water the plain ! The streets are bowers, the enclosures of the houses are beds of bloom. Here would seem to be found the perfect city of the inland world. But one was not to walk about for a long time to find the ruins made by a once terrible earthquake. In 1861 the city was overturned, and the greater number of its fifteen thou sand people perished. " Caracas sleeps on her own grave," said Humboldt. The same could be said of Mendoza. It was rebuilt more beautiful than before, and has steadily grown in size and population. It is about one hundred and ten miles from Santiago, over the Cordillera, and stands at an elevation of some three thousand feet above the sea. The Frobishers spent several days in this city of bowery ways and mellow mountain shadows. They met here edu cational work in many progressive forms. Here, also, the following touching incident came into their experience. OVER THE CORDILLERA. 235 Some years ago an Italian came here to labor for the spiritual good of the people. It is a custom for Italians to emigrate from their own country to Argentina, to accumulate a small fortune, and to return to their old home places, and to purchase or make a villa in Italy. This man had made his small fortune in this way, and was about to fulfil his dream of life, when a new impression came to him. He had been brought under religious influ ences in Argentina in such a way as to reveal to him the religious educational needs of the growing population of this new empire under the Andes. When this need was made clear to him, the prospect of a villa in Italy no longer satis fied his soul. Why should he not use his means in an effort to improve the condition of his own people here ? To build men was now more to him than to own a villa in Italy. He resolved to give his life to humanity, and he chose Mendoza as the field of labor. The plague came, and he labored among those stricken. He won all hearts by his unselfish efforts and his consecrated life. He led many to religious light, and he so improved the social conditions of his countrymen here that any villa in Italy now seems of small account to the work that he accomplished. He died in his adopted country, and could have never regretted that he had relinquished the dream of his villa in Italy. At Mendoza, ponchos and mufflers and leather leggings were purchased by some of the people who were going over the Cordillera. Alonzo found a naturalist there who had, in collections of reptiles, a fine specimen of the handsome, but deadly, coral 236 OVER THE ANDES. snake. It was confined in a tin box, with a network of wire in a part of the cover. Alonzo had heard a director of a museum in Boston speak of this deadly serpent in a lecture, and he desired to secure this one for the museum. He would try to take it alive, but as this could hardly be done in a long journey, he would have it put into a bottle of alcohol, on the other side of the mountains. Uncle Henry thought that a specimen could be secured in Lima or Guayaquil. But Alonzo, fearing that he might fail to secure so handsome a specimen on the West Coast, pur chased the reptile, and it was added to the curious collection that Our Boys had made to take over the Andes. " If there comes a snowstorm, and you are housed, you can throw him away," said the vender. It was a somewhat novel sight that Our Boys, if so we may call all of our Milton Hill travellers, presented as they walked the long platform of the Transandine depot at bowery Mendoza. There was a nervous old English gentle man, named Cottle, who was going over the Cordillera, and as he had no friends, he joined himself voluntarily to our party. "You look friendly," he said, addressing the whole party. "Americans are safe people to travel with ; you are going over, I conclude." He tilted his head back, rested on his cane, and remarked, " It is a long distance up there." He noticed Arline's parrot. " You are not going to carry that owl with you over the Andes, are you, my little lady ? " he asked. OVER THE CORDILLERA. »237 Before Arline could answer, Loro said, — " What is the matter, Loro ? " "My heyes (eyes)!" exclaimed Mr. Cottle, "or rather I should say my hears ! I never had a bird answer me back in that way before. You'll find out what's the matter, you saucy little jade, when a snowstorm overtakes you up there : you'll ruffle your pretty plumes about that time, or my name is not Cottle. There were seven persons who perished in the snows up there two years ago." Arline looked towards her uncle in alarm. "What are you going to do with those fine birds?" he asked of Leigh. " I am going to try to take them back to America with me, sir." " What — do I hear with my hears ! — what, over the mountains ? " " Yes. I am going to try to do it. The mocking-bird, I am told, has a very melodious voice. I have not heard it sing yet." "And you never will. It has sung its last song, poor thing ! Boy, have you any idea where you are going ? " " Over the Cordillera, sir." " You are going up where it is so cold that the ice has not melted for one thousand years. Nothing but condors and pumas can live up there. And what have you ? " he asked of Alonzo. " What have you in that tin box ? " " That is a coral snake, sir." " My heyes ! and my hears, and all of my 'ead ! Suppose it were to get out ? " " It cannot do so, sir," 238 OVER THE ANDES. " Ah, you can't be sure. Suppose it were to crawl out by the fire in the casucha. It makes me shake to think of it." " What is the casucha, — may I ask, sir ? " " It is a wretched hut, — a shed of wall and grass, — where travellers seek shelter in a snowstorm ; a thing that is likely to come at any time up there. Ain't you a rather queer lot of folks ? What have you, my friend, in your box ? " he spoke to Uncle Henry. "Bees!"" Bees ! You are not going to take them over the Cordil lera, are you ? Why, good man, they will freeze up ; and a snowstorm is likely to come, and send you into a caravansary for three days ; and they would all thaw out before the fire, and they would make lively times, when and where there would be no chance to run." "These are Chaco bees, stingless bees, sir." " Well, well, well ! I hope that you will be more fortunate than some other travellers have been at this time of the year. Suppose the coral snake should thaw out in the caravansary, or the post-house, and you could not find him, and that there were puma's tracks outside in the snow. Do you ever think of such things as those ? I do. I anticipate events. I have an active mind. It goes all the time. Just fancy yourselves up there, twelve or more thousand feet high in a snowstorm, shut in a walled hut, with parrots, and bees, and snakes, and pumas outside, and the wind blowing at the rate of a thou sand miles a minute — O-o-o-o ! Sometimes I wish that I hadn't started." " Vamous ! " cried a voice. The passengers hurried to the train. OVER THE CORDILLERA. 239 The old man stood still, as if he were yet uncertain as to whether or not he would go. "Adelante /" said the same mysterious voice. Mr. Cottle entered the car. The bell rung. Our Boys were headed towards Tupungato now, with birds, bees, snake, and with timorous old Mr. Cottle to predict snow storms in the passes, which he did fail to do at several cheer ful stations. The newspaper writer, Mr. Warrener, had joined the party at Mendoza. He had no parrot, birds, bees, or snake, but simply a portfolio, with harmless bits of verse. CHAPTER XXI. OVER THE CORDILLERA. MENDOZA," says Dr. Dee, in his picturesque little book of one of his missionary journeys, "is the gate way of the Andes." It is the Argentine terminus of that Transandine railroad that the shipwrecked William Wheel wright saw in his dreams and visions. It will one day become a great city, if an earthquake does not throw it down again. The Transandine railroad really begins at the seaport of Buenos Ayres in the pampas, Ensenada. Buenos Ayres is a stopping-place on the way. The railroad is to be one of the wonders of the world, and one of the most important highways of travel and trade. Travelling for pleasure, when it shall be completed, which will be in a few years, will be likely to turn its course to the greater Alps, the Alpine Andes of the South Temperate Zone. The railway climbs the Andes through rocky walls and roaring streams. Flowers, of varieties unknown except to the natives or to botanist, bloom on every hand along the way. It is not often that one obtains any inspiring view of the heights as one ascends the lower ranges. The traveller knows that stupendous Tupungato and Aconcagua rise like towers of heaven in the neighborhood of the vast city of the hills ; but these pillars of the sky are shut out from view. One may hide the sun with one's hand, and the little hills 240 THE RAILWAY CLIMBS THE ANDES THROUGH ROCKY WALLS AND ROARING STREAMS. OVER THE CORDILLERA. 24 1 here shut out the near spectacles of majesty and glory. One must stand afar, look up to Tupungato, and farther to view Aconcagua. At a stony level, after a few hours' ride, one leaves the railway, and takes the mule. At this point, the boys were filled with curiosity and excitement. The mules were awaiting the travellers in the cars at the point where the train stopped. It was a curious sight. The little animals were some fifty in number.. The larger number were pack-mules, or those who were carrying the baggage. The arricros began to load the pack-mules. The boys surveyed the work with wonder. An arriero strapped two large trunks together by heavy hide bands, and put them on the back of a patient-looking little white mule, so that one trunk hung upon one side, and the other upon the other. "The trunks are bigger than the mule," said Alonzo. "That is what I call cruelty to animals." The white mule stood patiently, as though expecting a yet larger load. He was not disappointed. The larger load came. Be tween the two trunks the arriero piled boxes, portmanteaus, canes, umbrellas, and many other things, until the poor little white mule was lost under the stack of everything. " I would kick, if I were that mule," said Alonzo, indig nantly. But the mule did not kick or bray or squeal. When he at last was loaded, so that he looked like a kind of Tupun gato, the arriero said, — R 242 OVER THE ANDES. "Anda ! altura ! " The great pile of baggage began to move away, leaving the other mules, who were loading in like manner. The boys' eyes watched the animated load. It presently disappeared among the rocks in the upward way. " Extraordinario ! " said Leigh to the arriero, who was loading another meek little mule in the same way. "No extraordinario," said the muleteer. " Ni con mucho." (Far from it.) "Yo soy Americano" answered Leigh, humbly. As fast as the pack-mules were loaded, they started off at the word of the muleteer. They seemed to have no guide, although the boys afterwards learned that the old white mule that had been started first knew all the way, and acted as leader of the rest. So one by one the loaded mules disappeared. The boys looked over the mules that were left, and won dered to which of these they would be assigned ; which would be their mules. The best mules were assigned to two Spanish ladies and to Arline. THE NEST OF THE CONDOR. They started on. It was high noon. Peaks rose over peaks, some of them black as ebony at the base, lifting into the sun gleaming pinnacles of ice and snow. The party zigzagged, the mules stopped at their will to rest in the rare air, and always turned their heads towards the edge of the cliffs when they stopped in order to keep their feet planted on firm ground. OVER THE CORDILLERA. 243 They came to a little platform of rock that overlooked the pass. Here the party stopped, and the riders dis mounted, and the arrieros examined the saddle girts. Our Boys rolled off of their mules. Uncle Henry simply sunk down from his saddle, and sat there looking off into the far distance. He said, — " My muscles are so stiff I cannot move." It was not very cold, although the platform of rock was amid the snow peaks. There was a warm flood of sunlight and a sharp, keen wind that at times cut around a shelf of the pass. Condors were flying in air. How grand they looked ! their wide wings swimming, as it were, in the blue fields of the sunlight. Higher and higher they circled and wheeled. It was a delight to watch them. Alonzo walked out on some shelves of rock. He seemed to be suddenly startled by something that he saw, and he beckoned to Leigh, who answered the call. "What is it? " asked Leigh, coming up to his brother. " Condors." " Where ? " "Look down." On a wide shelf of rock below were three condors, enor mous birds, with grizzly heads and white collars. They did not move at the sound of voices. Alonzo threw down some tufts of earth towards them, but the birds did not move. "There must be a condor's nest there," said Leigh. "'The birds are protecting their eggs, or their young ; let us climb down and see." " Is it safe ? " 244 OVER THE ANDES. "We will go slowly. I have a knife." " I have a pistol." " Let us call to Uncle Henry." The boys whistled, and drew Uncle Henry's attention. Then they threw up their hands to indicate to him the direc tion where they were going, and climbed down the rocks. They came to the platform where the birds were. The latter ruffled their wings, but did not attempt to move, rise, or fly. There was no nest at hand. The birds seemed stupid. They had enormous breasts, and looked as if half asleep. " If we could secure some eggs for Arline," said Leigh, " they would be treasures to be proud of, and to keep for ever." " I do not see any nest or any eggs or young," said Alonzo. " I did not know that condors were so tame." "Here is something strange," said Leigh. "A carcass; the flesh has been eaten by the birds. See, the birds are gorged. They look like so many sleeping gluttons. There are no nests here. The birds have eaten so much that they cannot fly. The carcass is that of a guanaco." "Do you suppose that the birds killed him ?" asked Alonzo. " No, they have not the power to do it. The guanaco is almost as big as a cow." " If the birds did not kill it, what did, do you suppose ? " " Perhaps the animal died." " No, the flesh on his bones is fresh and torn." " It may be that he was shot by some caravan." " No, it looks as though he had been killed by some wild beast." OVER THE CORDILLERA. 245 Alonzo approached the birds. The latter spread their wings as if to fly, but after waving them a few times, they simply moved lazily around for a little distance, and looked more stupid than before. "They are gorged," said Leigh. " Condors in high air, and condors at near range, are very different looking birds. They sail about above you, like the monarch of the air ; but near at hand, they are only enormous buzzards. They seem to have hardly life enough to keep their eyes open. Let us call Uncle Henry to come here. I have no wish to harm the birds." The head of a curious animal appeared in a cavernous shadow near. It came out of the rocky hole slowly, turning hither and thither, revealing a sinuous body. " It's a puma," said Alonzo. " Heaven save us, then ! " said Leigh. The two boys flew, as it were, up the rocks, and then turned and looked back. The puma placed his paws on the guanaco, and looked up toward them, turning his head as though it were hung on a pivot. He opened his mouth not savagely, but lazily. " It was he that killed the guanaco," said Alonzo. " He ate his fill and went away, and then the condors came down and gorged themselves." Uncle Henry, seeing that the boys had found something that interested them, joined them. The three stood on the rock looking down. The puma presently left the carcass and disappeared in the cavern. The birds made an effort to fly, but simply flopped their wings again. 246 OVER THE ANDES. "It is after the banquet," said Uncle Henry. " 'Wonder ful, majestic bird,' " added he, quoting the "Lines to the Con dor" from an old reading book. There came a rush of wind, followed by the sound of the arriero's whistle. "My muscles are like wood," said Uncle Henry. "How shall I ever mount up on that mule again ? " The arriero helped him, and said, "Para altura." "Altura," answered Uncle Henry. The party was soon defiling through rocky walls, where were dark caverns. "Suppose," said Alonzo, "there should be some puma here that has not had his dinner." "He surely cannot have my mule for one," said Uncle Henry. They came again into an open space, larger than before. They looked up. Between two dark peaks, crowned with snow, rose a pinnacle of snow to a tremendous height. It was pure white, and dazzled the eye. It looked like a pillar of the sky. The air was clear. The snow column had a silvery lustre, without a single shade of any other color. It revealed no tree or rock or cliff. " I never saw so beautiful a monument," said Leigh. The scene was shortly lost to view. "Altura! " cried the guide. CHAPTER XXII. A STORM THE OLD ARRIERO NERVOUS MR. COTTLE — IN THE POSADA. IT was a cheerful sight, as the procession wound its way up the pass. An old bell-mule led, a madrina, as she was called. She was, as it were, the queen of the mules. She was followed by the pack-mules with their curious loads, — ¦ walking stores or almacens. There were two arrieros, or muleteers, who accompanied the manager of the journey. The travellers came last, and last among these were Our Boys, and the Englishman, and Arline with her parrot. The nervous old Englishman, Mr. Cottle, rode near Arline, and predicted storms, and wondered whatever did tempt him to undertake such a journey as this. The wonder grew as he ascended the granite stairs to the sky. Arline let Loro sit on the pommel of her saddle. There seemed little danger of her flying away. She had no dispo sition to part with the present company. The bird's wonder, like Mr. Cottle's, grew, and she constantly asked, — " What is the matter, Loro ? " The weather was beautiful. There were no clouds in the sky. From time to time snowy summits appeared on high, or in the distance, — glorious domes rising into the purple heavens, as though earth were the temple of them. 247 248 OVER THE ANDES. There was a young arriero named Manuel Flores, who had sparkling black eyes. His poncho nearly covered him. He carried a whip of long leather cords in his hand. He was a lively and kind-hearted youth, and he began to take a sym pathetic interest in Arline and Loro. Up the little caravan wound, like a thread into the bright air. At several places the party dismounted and walked, the old gentleman losing his breath. There was an old arriero in the company, who was also named Flores, and was called ' Senor Flores.' He had a ready hand and a very faithful heart. When in walking, if one was seen to falter, he offered the person his hand. He helped the old gentleman up steep places, and carried Loro for Arline. "Altura ! " (heights), he exclaimed, as new summits ap peared. " It is old Flores' work to cry 'altura !' " he said to Arline, " and to help the traveller upward. I have done this work for many years. I help everybody, and hinder nobody, and cry 'altura! altura ! para altura!" Arline came greatly to admire this guide. He seemed somehow to represent human life, with his cry of altura and his helping hand. Mr. Cottle avoided Alonzo. " I would not carry that tin box over the Cordillera for all the gold of Peru," he said. " How do you know what effect the atmosphere may have upon it ? " The arriero did not offer to put this suspicious piece of baggage on a pack-mule at the time of starting. In the course of the journey he attempted to do so, but the mule kicked and ran, as though he knew what was in the box. A STORM. 249 They came to a point where the great white summits ap peared. Along their walls were rising some gray clouds. " It looks as though we might have a fall of snow later," said Manuel. " Snow, snow ! " said Mr. Cottle ; " what would we do if it were to come on to snow ? " " We would find shelter in a casucha, if we were not near a posada ; we would be safe." The casuchas, or travellers' retreats, were wretched huts, and looked as though they would afford but little security in a violent storm. The posadas were not inviting, but they had strong walls and places for open fires. It grew cold. The sun wore a silvery, moon-like pallor. The pearly gray clouds were overspreading the purple sky. In the afternoon, the sun went out. There was a shade everywhere. "Altura ! para altura ! " cried the old arriero. Young Manuel's face wore a look of alarm. He hurried on the mules. " What is the matter ? " asked Loro, as she felt the excite ment that the arrieros had raised in hurrying the train. The mules panted. Poor Mr. Cottle's face was turned toward the sky. He wondered, and wondered, and while he won dered a few flakes of snow fell. " It is coming ! " cried the old arriero. " Manuel, hurry on the train ; we must reach the posada ! " The air was still, but the chill grew. Loro hid in Arline's poncho. It must have been a pitiful time for the two caged birds and the bees. The tropical coral snake must have become oblivious of his fangs. 250 OVER THE ANDES. "Altura!" The snow was falling on the heights. " This is awful," said Mr. Cottle to the old arriero. " What did you take us up here for into the chambers of the sky, before the snowstorms were over ? They told me that the passes were open, and that it was all like summer on the Cumbre." The snow fell gently, but heavily. A poor pack-mule in her hurry turned her baggage saddle so that the baggage hung under her, and delayed the train. The- old arriero worked vigorously at the straps, and repacked the baggage. The peaks disappeared. Nothing could be seen but the narrow pass in the snow. The great flakes of snow were mingled with bits of ice that cut. There was a light wind. The rare air and the gathering snow compelled the mules to stop often to breathe. " I let my mule breathe for me," said Mr. Cottle to Arline. " I don't believe that any one of us will ever see home again. Whole parties have perished in these mountains." This was not a cheerful view, especially as the snow thick ened and the wind increased. The mules crowded together. There was alarm in the train. Old Flores himself seemed troubled. " It is not often that we have very severe storms so late in the season," he said; "but we shall reach the posada in an hour." It was a dreadful hour. The wind began to blow, and the gusts cut. The snow seemed mingled with points of knives. "Why did I ever leave Old England?" said Mr. Cottle. " But I did — and here is the end of it all." A STORM. • 251 The mules began to run and to plunge. They had discov ered a light. They knew that there were shelter and food be fore them. They wallowed down a narrow turn in the way, and stopped and brayed with short breath. They had reached the posada. It was now nightfall. It was snowing furiously, and the wind whistled and roared. The travellers dismounted with aching limbs, and entered the posada. The house was built of stone. It had a long low wall and a grass roof. There were tables and benches along one side of the wall, and in the middle of the wall on the opposite side was a large open fire, with a bin of fuel. The fire pre sented a cheerful glow, and the travellers gathered around it. Poor Loro put her head outside of the poncho, when she felt the fire, and inquired, " What is the matter? " " I would give a guinea for a sip of that coffee, if I could have it now," said Mr. Cottle. "The storm will be over in the morning," said the cook. " Snowstorms do not last long at this season of the year." This was cheerful intelligence. Our Boys heard it with joy. " It is not an uncommon thing for travellers to get caught in the snow up here," added the cook, setting some meat down to cook. But th,e old arriero shook his head, and said, stamping his feet, — " We are out of danger, but I would not be surprised if we did not get away from the place to-morrow." " But what shall we do ? " asked Mr. Cottle. " How shall we pass the time ? " 252 OVER THE ANDES. " Some travellers, in such a case as this, pass the time in games, and some in telling stories around the fire." "We must make the best of the situation," said Uncle Henry, " and all of us be as cheerful as we can." The cook set the tables, and placed upon them meat (came), bread (pan), cheese (queso), curry, and coffee. The meal was simple, but was eaten with a relish, espe cially the curry, which Mr. Cottle declared to be made of fire, and to turn one's " internal regions " into the regions which rhymed with the adjective. The wind raged. The snow beat against the wall like bullets ; but after the meal the travellers became cheerful, especially as the cook replenished the fire with some myste rious coal or fuel, and the light flashed over the room. Few cared to play games. All wished to talk, and the travellers desired most to hear what the manager and the old arriero, Flores, might have to say. The room became more cheerful when the manager and the arrieros had sheltered the mules, and came into the room, and sat down by the fire for the evening. The conversation took on a lively and hopeful tone, and Our Boys ventured at last to ask the conductor, or trainman, for a story. He complied. His story related to an alarmed traveller, which we will give in another chapter. CHAPTER XXIII. THE CONDUCTOR'S STORY OF MR. ALLWRONG AND THE WILD ARRIERO. THERE was an Englishman who seems to have been born on the day when the world stood still, and whose bent it was to see how everything that was accomplished should have been done in some other way. He had the genius of seeing how things, which he opposed doing at all, could have been brought about in some better way. He made few friends and many enemies, wherever he lived, and used to remark that a few people had had their way in this world long enough, and that he had ceased to follow such, but meant to serve the public by having his own way. His name was Mr. Allong, but people came to call him Mr. Allwrong, after his characteristics, and Mr. Allwrong heard that fortunes were to be made in Argentina and Chili in many ways ; that it rained gold, as it were, in those coun tries, as in Peru, whose sun was supposed to weep tears of gold, and he thought that he would go and see. So Mr. Allwrong sailed away from Liverpool for Buenos Ayres, and finding things all wrong there, he concluded to go over the mountains to Chili, — a pushing country where the old Arau- canian Indians used to set their heroes in the sky. It was many years ago before William Wheelwright's 253 254 OVER THE ANDES. vision of a Transandine railroad began to take form in iron rails. He arrived at Mendoza, which had recently been tumbled down by an earthquake, and where he of course found things all wrong; and more, he looked about for a guide to help him over the Cordillera, which, when he saw it from a distance, really excited his admiration. There were many arrieros in Mendoza ; but he tried to make a hard bargain with them, and they refused to under take the journey for an undesirable traveller and a poor return. There was an arriero in this region of the earthquakes and purple vines who was a little touched in mind, a little off when he became excited, who was sometimes called the wild guide. His name was Espanillo. He was advanced in years, but his muscles were firm, and his conduct with those who treated him well was trusty and true. " But I'll not be driven about like a dumb animal," he used to say. " I treat those well who treat me well : all men make their own kind of a world ! Old Espanillo never failed a man who treated him well." But it was hinted that there was a traveller who went up the pass with Espanillo who was never heard from again. This traveller had little money, but a very bad temper, and it was feared that he had awakened the wild nature in his guide during the journey. Espanillo was not a robber. Mr. Allwrong secured the service of Espanillo to help him over the Andes. " How will we go ? " he asked. " On two mules, amigo," said Espanillo. THE CONDUCTORS STORY. 255 " That would be all wrong. I could not ride a mule ; he might kick up." " But the road would remain. When mules or men kick the world remains just the same," said wild Espanillo. " Could you not carry me in a chair over the hard part of the way? " "Yes, Senor, I have carried travellers in a chair strapped on my back over the hard places many a time, but they were chiefly women. Espanillo is not as young as he once was, and the thin air on the ascent to the Cumbre makes it hard for him to breathe with a little woman on his back, and you must weigh a hundred and fifty pounds," he added. " The soroche blows there." " What is the soroche ? " asked the old gentleman. " The fever wind. It makes you bleed out of your eyes, nose, and mouth, and if it causes a blood-vessel to burst in your head, you are gone." " Merciful heavens ! didn't I tell the folks that the world was all wrong ? " But he made a bargain with Espanillo that he should take but one mule, to provide for any emergency, and that he should lead this mule by a bridle, but should carry him in a traveller's chair over the hard places. " I want to see the magnificent scenery," he said, as they started mid the foot-hills of flowers. "You can see that better from the plains," said Espanillo. "The higher you go, the less high become the peaks." "That is just like life itself," said Mr. Allwrong. " I wish I had had the planning of things. You lose everything in obtaining it — all the fun of life is in the pursuit, and the 256 OVER THE ANDES. thing that you follow always turns out to be dust and ashes." They journeyed upward. They crossed the bridge of the Inca, where our unhappy traveller took a long rest, and dis covered that the bridge was not nearly as curious as he thought it was going to appear. Then they ascended by many easy stages out of the regions of palms into the cooler atmospheres. " Where is Tupungato ? " asked Mr. Allwrong one day. "Back of the mountains, Senor." " But what did you have it there for, all out of sight? Why did you take me in some way where I could not see the scenery?" "The lower mountains shut out the view of the higher mountains," said the guide. " But what do they do that for, — just to bother a person ? " " I cannot tell, Senor." " But why not ? it is your business to take a traveller where he can see the scenery." " I cannot go out of the pass, Senor. I would lose the way." " You would. In England we would use a head like yours for a horse-block ! Where is Aconcagua, the mighty ? " " Behind the mountains, Senor." " Shall I not see it at all ? " " I cannot say, Senor. It is better seen from the pampas or ocean." " It is, hey ? — better seen from the ocean. Then, why don't people go out on the ocean to see it? " " I do not know, Senor." THE CONDUCTOR'S STORY. 257 The pass became a gray wall over which loomed summits of snow. The way was steep, and our traveller called for the use of the chair, and he mounted into it, and rode upward on the old arriero' s back. But he was still unhappy. " Don't jolt me so," he said, and he constantly repeated the admonition. " Don't jolt me so, — you will shake me all to pieces ! " " But what do you think of my case, Senor ? I have to pick my way." " Your case ! Don't I hire you ? am I not going to pay you ? You are nothing but a pack-horse, anyway ! " " Don't say that again, Senor. I don't like to have my feelings ruffled in such places as these. We are coming to the top of the world." "What good would it be to visit the top of the world, if one could see nothing when he got there ? One might as well be blind." As the days passed Mr. Allwrong became more and more disagreeable. The air became rare, and he compelled Es panillo to carry him all the way, and found fault when he did not travel rapidly, or when he stumbled. Old Espanillo in the higher part of the pass had to stop often for breath on account of the rareness of the air. " Why are you stopping so often ? " asked Mr. Allwrong. " I cannot breathe." " But I can, as old as I am." " But I am carrying you, not you me." " Of course you are ; that is what I hired you for." " Have you no feelings, Senor ? " s 258 OVER THE ANDES. " Feelings ! I don't wonder that you ask the question. One would need to be made of lead to be jolted about this way." The air became thinner and the way harder. Great masses of snow rose from black rocks, and there was not a plant to be seen, nor even a bird in the air. "I must stop," said Espanillo, "and you must dismount, and we must rest." " Oh, go on, you ass ! When do you suppose we shall ever get to the road to Santiago ? " Espanillo halted. " What do you stop here for ? Go on ! " Espanillo stood panting. " Go on, I say ! " Mr. Allwrong struck him a blow. The arriero turned his face. There was a fearful look in his eye. " I will go on," he said in a mocking tone. He turned from the way. He presently came to the nar row shelf of rock. A stupendous spectacle opened before the traveller's eyes. Afar, loomed snow mountains, like the tents of gods or Titans. Afar, stretched the world, the lower peaks, the green pampas, the slanting sky in the light of the sun. Espanillo went to the edge of the cliff, and turned his back so that the chair hung over the chasm. "What are you doing now, you dog?" asked Mr. All- wrong. He looked down. The mountain wall descended thousands of feet, and the chasm below was awful to behold. THE CONDUCTOR'S STORY. 259 " This is a hard world," said Espanillo, " and now the time has come for you to go where you will be better off." He began to unloose the straps that bound the chair to his back. " Let me get down," cried Mr. Allwrong, shaking in alarm. " Well, get down. It is a far way down, and all your com plainings will be over when you shall arrive there." "You dog! you villain! Oh, no, amigo, amigo! I never will find fault any more. Let me down, and I will walk the rest of the way ! I am wrong — all wrong, all wrong ! " Espanillo tightened the straps again, and Mr. Allwrong dismounted, and the two, leading the mule, walked over the Cumbre. " I would not see such a sight as that was again for all the gold of Peru," he used to say. " Think of me hanging over a cliff in a chair on that man's back, and he unloosing the straps. It shuts my eyes to think of it. There are some people that we never want to meet again in this world or any other." There are. CHAPTER XXIV. THE MOUNTAINEER'S STORY OF THE MULETEER OF COQUIMBO THE NEWSPAPER MAN'S STORY OF GENERAL PRINGLE AND THE " STEP OF VICTORY." THE old arriero, Flores, was next asked for a story. He was an Argentine, but he spoke English well. He had been over the Cordillera hundreds of times, and in all weathers, and had seen hard service. He was proud to be an arriero, for the guides of the Andes have made a reputa tion for honor. THE MULETEER OF COQUIMBO AND HIS SADDLE OF GOLD. There is true friendship in the heart of a muleteer. It makes him happy to show a stranger that he cares more for his integrity, and for the good reputation of his profession, than for himself. The calling to be a guide in these perilous regions is no mean occupation. The character that can be trusted alone amid mountain passes and over pampas is no unworthy subject for study. There have been crafty and dangerous muleteers, but in most places in South America such guides have been exceptions to the rule of simple honesty and native worth. Old Jose of Coquimbo was one of these men of native 260 THE MOUNTAINEER'S STORY. 26 1 worth. His character had made such an impression on the owners of the mines in the mountains, who lived on the coast, that they would send him on long journeys with bags of doubloons to pay the men working in the mines. The miners would as soon have thought of trying to rob an English bishop, or even the pope himself, — did the pope ever travel, — as the honest old muleteer, amigo Jose. It was many years ago. The mines had been yielding well, and many peons, or laborers, had been sent to them. A large payment in gold was due these men. The treasurer of the great mining company thought it wise to entrust the whole amount of gold due, to the old muleteer, amigo Jose, — friend Jose. "Amigo Jose," said the treasurer, "it is a heavy weight of doubloons that I am going to entrust to you now, but I know that you will convey it safely." " I will do with it as though it were my own," said Jose. " I know that you will," said the treasurer. " Character with you is more than gold." Jose turned his sombrero and echoed, " Senor, character is more than gold, — it is the gold of God. Heaven forbid that old Jose should ever forfeit that ! " The treasurer brought out from his office a long bag. In the bottom of it was a heavy weight of gold doubloons. He removed the saddle from the mule that the old man was to ride, and divided the gold in the bag into two parts, so that one part might hang on one side of the mule and the other on the other side. Now half of the weight of the doubloons was on the side of the string that tied the bag. "A hundred doubloons," said the treasurer. 262 OVER THE ANDES. He examined the string and thought it secure. He then placed the saddle on the bag so as to cover it, and put a heavy blanket over the saddle so as to cover the whole. "Two hundred doubloons!" Old Jose mounted the mule. He had put on his largest poncho, which as he rode nearly covered the mule. "Amigo Jose, it is a fortune that you carry, but any one who has the gold of God in the purse of his heart can be trusted with the gold of the world. I could trust you with all the gold of Peru." It makes one true to be regarded as true, and never did there ride out of Coquimbo a more honest heart than friend Jose. " Stop," said the treasurer, after he had gone a little way. The old man halted, and the treasurer examined the bag again. "Two hundred doubloons, one hundred on each side, — a saddle of gold ! " He then patted the mule on the head, and said, "Adios " to the treasure-bearer. It is wise to be careful; but the careful are not always wise. The jolt of the mule will soon make a bag-string loose, and a long journey will cause it to slip down and off. The old man rode on. Night came, with a clear heaven and the glory of the stars. Old Jose loved to ride alone in the desert with the stars overhead. His consciousness of honesty made the stars seem friendly to him. He felt a oneness with the great spirit that filled all created things. He rode on. The great moon arose over the far mountains, like a sun of night. His thoughts were caught up. On and THE MOUNTAINEER'S STORY. 263 on he rode, and at last the mule lagged, and he stopped her, and dismounted, and prepared to lie down to rest all alone, under the moon and stars. He put his hand under the saddle on one side. The treasure was there, firm and heavy. He put his hand under the leather on the other side, the side on which was the string. His heart leaped. The string was untied, the half of the bag was open, and the doubloons that had been placed there were gone. Where ? He had made a long journey. When ? He had not heard anything drop. But the sands were soft, and his thoughts had been in the skies. The old man felt a chill run through his body. " God help me now! " he cried. "Why should such a thing happen to me ? " What was he to do ? The coins had dropped out of the bag into the sands over which he might have passed hours ago. He put his withered hand on his forehead and thought. " My character in this world is gone," he cried; "but God knows that my soul is true. My heart aches, my brain burns. O that God would let me take my life! — but that can never be. Why should an honest man be compelled to live to suffer ? " He stood in the midst of the great white desert with up lifted hands. "The tears come to my eyes," he said ; "but they can go no further, for I am an honest man ! " He could not go back in the night — he felt that he could not go forward without the gold. He must wait for the sunrise. 264 OVER THE ANDES. He faced the sands, then sunk down on the earth to watch the great clock of the stars in the heavens. The stars rose and set ; there was a pearl-gray light in the east, and a crimson flush followed. He could see the sand clearly now, and he must go back. Suddenly a caravan of muleteers and mules appeared in the distance. The muleteers had been riding over the way that he had passed the afternoon before. " Heaven be praised ! I know them all ; they are all honest men. It was I, old Jose, who taught them how to carry merchandise. They are honest men, — they are, yes, they are ! " Arturo, Basilio, Carlos, Domingo, Enriquo, and Felipo, with four others, and a long train of pack-mules behind them. The day brightened. The caravan drew near. Arturo, Basilio, Carlos, Domingo, Enriquo, and Felipo were swinging their sombreros and shouting. "They are not often so merry," said old Jose. "They would not be so light if they knew how my heart is torn. What hours of agony I have passed ! God forbid that I should feel the fires of remorse — that would be hell." Arturo came riding up. " Jose, padre, what have you lost ? " "All but a half bag of doubloons and my soul. What hast thou found ? " "Ten doubloons." " Where didst thou find them ? " " Scattered in the sand." " Brother, they are mine." "Thine they are, amigo Jose, mi padre." THE MOUNTAINEER'S STORY. 265 Basilio rode up. "Amigo Jose, what hast thou lost? " " Ninety doubloons. What hast thou found ? " "Ten doubloons. They are thine, father Jose." Carlos came next. " Jose, what hast thou lost ? " " Eighty doubloons. What hast thou found ? " " Ten doubloons. They are thine." Then came Domingo. "Jose, amigo, how much hast thou lost?" "Seventy doubloons." " Here are ten of them." Enriquo came to the front. " I have ten doubloons for thee, friend Jose." Then came the others. They each brought ten doub loons which they had by agreement divided between them, excepting the last. This last muleteer said, " Jose, how much have you lost?" " Ten doubloons. What have you found ? " " I have found nine." " I have lost only one doubloon. I have found ninety- nine in your honest souls." The sun was rising in a clear sky, — a crimson splendor in a sea of gold. Old Jose took off his sombrero, and sunk on his knees on the sand. Then he rose up and said, — " But where is the one doubloon ? " "It has not been found," said Arturo. " I think the foot of a mule must have pressed it into the sand." 266 OVER THE ANDES. " But I have not a doubloon to make good the loss. What shall I do ? " "Trust to us," said the ten. The ten made up the value of a doubloon between them and changed it into a doubloon. "My example did this," said old Jose. "All the world becomes to us what we are ourselves." And he took off his sombrero again, and sunk upon his knees on the sand. Then they journeyed on, — eleven happy muleteers ; and old Jose, with the end of a long cord in his hand which bound the top of the bag, rode singing a morning song on his saddle of gold. The newspaper poet was next asked for a story. He read one which he had composed in Buenos Ayres, and had written down in his note-book. It was the story of General Pringle's exploit, — a school tale in these countries. General Pringle's name adorns streets and public places in the cities of the Andes. On being surrounded by the Spanish troops in the war of liberation, after most of his men had been killed, he leaped, with two or more companions-in-arms, over a bluff on the coast of Peru into the sea. THE STEP OF VICTORY. The long white line of Andes shone The wide Pacific o'er, And fiercely gleamed the rainless sky Upon the waveless shore. THE MOUNTAINEER'S STORY. 267 'Twas on those days when Liberty Her Austral flag unrolled, And Argentina's heroes climbed The high plateaus of gold The Incarial realm to free ; The Peruvian realm to free. And General Pringle from the sky Marched downward to the sea, To help Peru to gain Her liberty from Spain. To dare, to do, or die, And fought at white Chancai. 'Twas where white Pescadores beach Loomed palmless in the sun, There ten were Alvarado's men To General Pringle's one. " Shall shame o'ertake us ? " Pringle cried, When all were slain but three Of those he led ; " the sea-walls ride, And leap into the sea! We will not perish till we've tried The step of victory ! " He spurred his steed along the cliff, Swift followed by the three ; He leaped into the air, and took The step of victory, — The hero of Chancai, Whose name now makes the marbles bloom With flowers that never die ! The Argentines beheld his steed — A glorious steed was he — Leap to the air, and Pringle bear Unconquered to the sea. And they recalled the words of flame 268 OVER THE ANDES. He spoke in Argentina's name : " The brave, whate'er may be their lot, While hope remains, surrender not ! True to the last for honor's sake, The hero may forever take The step of victory." 0 heroes of Chancai, Wilt thou unloose thy reins like him, And unsurrendered die ? Three horses leaped into the sun, And sunk into the sea. Three horses swam the sea as one, And bore their riders free. And Alvarado up the height Upon his charger sped. " Halt ! halt ! O English Argentine, Where goest thou ? " he said. Before him lay the shady sea, Above, the peaks of fire. Below, four heroes on their steeds, Whom none could rob of deathless deeds ; He cooled his Spanish ire, The victory of the vanquished then His eye of vision saw ; He stayed his hand, as fifty men, With fifty guns above the shore, Levelled their deadly aim on four Grand heroes of the war, Four heroes of Chancai. 'Tis those who spare, as those who dare, Whose names shall never die. Four horsemen swam the burning sea, 'Neath fifty guns of death ; And o'er them Alvarado white Swept with his sword the sunset light, THE MOUNTAINEER'S STORY. 269 And called with trumpet breath : " Fire not, my men ; — acclaim! Return, ye glorious Argentines! For you the ages thrill, The sun forever shines ; Return in honor's name. The victory of the vanquished still Shall crown your heads with fame." Four cavaliers rode up the shore, Unconquered in the sun, And long for those who went and came Blew Argentina's trump of fame, Three trumps for General Pringle's name, For Alvarado, one! The heroes of Chancai, Their deed became a star to shine In Argentina's sky ; Their legend, like a prophet's voice, Haunts Pescadores' sea,, And as the ships pass by, Their flags the captains fly, For honor's glorious sake, Beneath the Andean sky. The brave surrender not, but take The step of victory ! A YERBA-MATE TALE. "It is going to be a cold night," said the cook to Uncle Henry. " I will make you some mate and some casuela." "Benigna sea Deos," said a traveller from Concepcion. This man's name was Velludo. He had served in the Eng lish consulate in Concepcion. "Benigna sea Deos!" (May the Lord be praised !) What there was in the cook's suggestion to call forth such 27O OVER THE ANDES. a devout expression, Our Boys were quite unable to compre hend. They knew that the yerba-mate was the favorite drink of these countries, and had heard that the casuela, or soup, was a very fiery compound. "Senor Velludo," said the elder arriero, "there has been many a good story told over the bombilla (the tnate tube). Could you not tell us one on a night like this ?" Velludo shrugged his shoulders. "The favorite stories here are those of the poet Ercilla," he said, "who was a kind of Virgil to the Araucanian heroes. " The classic field of Chili is Araucania. One of the Araucanian tales in some respects resembles that of the Trojan horse, though there was no horse in the case." " Kindly give us that story on this most dismal night," said Uncle Henry. The company gathered close to the fire. The cook brought a large copper jar filled with water, and placed it over the coals to heat. He put a number of large gourds upon the table and a single silver tube — a bombilla. He presently set down beside this a tin can, with two compartments, one of which was partly filled with mate, and the other with sugar. Velludo began his tale. " The Araucanians were never conquered. They believed that their heroes ascended to the sun, and became stars, and that they nightly marched through the heavens in their armors of light. When Mendoza came down from Peru to found Concepcion, he found the race unconquered, and left them defeated but not conquered. "There lived a chief in those days named Caupolitan or Caupolican. He resolved to dislodge Mendoza from the THE MOUNTAINEERS STORY. 27 1 coast. He met him in battle, was defeated, and fell a prisoner into the hands of the invader. " When the wife of the chief found that he had been capt ured, she went to him carrying her son, a babe. "'Take him,' she exclaimed, with the spirit of her race ; ' let him share your fate. I would be ashamed to nourish the son of a chief who would be taken captive alive ! ' "The Araucanians, finding themselves unable to dislodge the Spaniards, determined in a secret council to destroy them by strategy. "They planned to do this by the aid of some of the cap tives, who were employed within the walls of the fortress that the Spanish had erected. " They sent spies to the fortress, and these sought to find a trusty confidant. They thought that they had done so in the person of a captive named Andresillo. He listened to the plan eagerly, and promised them his assistance. " ' At what time should we attack the fortress ? ' asked the spies. '"At noon.' " ' Why at noon ? ' " ' The Spanish take their siestas then, and the gates of the fortress are closed. The officers are off their guard.' " ' But the gates are closed.' " ' I will open them to you.' " ' We will hide our men in the thicket at night, and they shall remain there until noon. At high noon you will un fasten the gates ? ' " 'At high noon I will let you in.' " The day for the surprise was set, and the spies went away. 272 OVER THE ANDES. " Andresillo saw an opportunity to gain wealth and fame by betraying the Araucanians. He disclosed the secret to the Spaniards. The latter hailed him as a hero, and they counselled together to allure the army into the fortress after their own plan, and to destroy them all. " ' We will close the gates,' said they to the traitor, ' and pretend to be asleep ; and you shall open the gates, and cau tion them to be very still in their movements, until all are inside. Then you shall close the gates, and put them under guard.' "The Araucanians came stealthily at the appointed hour. The gates opened, Andresillo was there. "' Still, still,' said he. ' They are all asleep. Enter silently.' " The Spaniards seemed to be lost in slumber under their blankets and covers. " ' Cautiously, cautiously,' said the cunning Andresillo. " When all were inside, a wild cry arose at a given signal. The gates were closed, and the Araucanians were put to the sword, or captured, to be tortured after the most terrible forms that the imagination could invent. " It was not so that the Greeks took Troy ; but so the Spaniards captured the Araucanians." While Velludo was relating this story, the Argentine cook had been preparing the casuela, or, as he called it, the casuela de ave. Velludo proceeded to describe the terrible death of the captive chieftain, Caupolitan, which was by empalement. The invaders baptized him before putting him to torture. In the midst of the thrilling narration, the cook announced that the mate was ready, and proceeded to pass around the THE MOUNTAINEER'S STORY. 273 gourds, which he filled with hot water. He then scorched the sugar, and put a pinch of the Paraguay tea or mate into each gourd, and afterwards the burnt sugar. He then handed to the Englishman the bombilla. The latter sucked the tea from his gourd with relish. He then took the bombilla from him, and handed it to Velludo. He used it, and passed it to Arline. "The same bombilla?" ventured Arline. Uncle Henry whispered: "Yes, Arline, the same bombilla. It is the custom of the country : to refuse it is to give offence ; the hospitable cook would be offended if you were to refuse it in that way." Arline complied with the customs of the country, as did Alonzo and Leigh. > The mate was excellent, but the manner of receiving it lost for it its relish with the English travellers. The soup was now served. The Englishman took one spoonful and cried : " Oh, mur der! Water! I'm on fire, — my throat is all burning up! What is this — melted lead ? " He doubled over, coughing, and at times turning his head with wrathful, watery eyes towards the alarmed cook. Arline picked out a few morsels of the ave, and tears began to course down her cheeks. Alonzo was cautious, as also Leigh. "What is the matter ? " asked the generous cook of Arline. " Why do you not eat ? What would you have ? more aji (pepper)? " Loro seemed surprised, and echoed the cook, ¦ — ¦" What is the matter ? " 274 OVER THE ANDES. The Argentines ate the soup with relish. " They must be lined with iron," said the Englishman, who openly rebelled at the hospitalities of the country. "That," said he, " is what I should call liquid fire. A bowlful of that would cremate a man." He drank the mate from his gourd without the bombilla, when the cook's back was turned, and Our Boys followed his example. " More aji?" asked the cook of him, coming back. The Englishmen threw up his hands and shook his head in silence. He picked out a part of the vegetables as Arline had done, and ate them very, very slowly. He had never eaten so slowly before in all his life, and he whispered to Arline, "It takes time to eat fire." He looked towards the cook and said, "Bueno." He added, "I mean him!" CHAPTER XXV. AN UNEXPECTED EPISODE TERROR MORNING IN THE ANDES. THE conductor rose early in the morning and opened the door of the posada. It had ceased to snow, and the wind had gone down. The whole outside world was white, — the peaks, the valley, the quebradas (ravines), the posada. Mr. Cottle, the Englishman, groaned. " Pray shut the door ! " he cried. " I am going to have one of my rheumatic turns. I can feel it coming on now. What would you do if all my joints were to turn stiff — they do sometimes ; you would not go off and leave me here ? " "No, no," said the arriero; "we would roll you all up in blankets and mount you on a pack-mule. We cannot go forward to-day ; the passes are full of snow. We must stay here. To-night the snow will harden." The mules were braying. " Did my ears ever hear such sounds as these ! " said Mr. Cottle. "These are the notes of woe, if ever they were sounded. They just express my feelings. I never want to come up to the top of the world again. What did I come for?" 275 276 OVER THE ANDES. When the door was opened again, the outside scene was a dazzling splendor. Everything was glistening ; the sun was struggling with the clouds, which were breaking in pearly hues. Mr. Cottle looked out and saw the rising of the sun, seem ingly rolling through the clouds like a chariot-wheel of gold. "That is good for my rheumatism," he said, with an Inca-like expectation. He called upon the cook to make a hot fire, and then said, — " I will try to arise, and see if the coral snake has got out." He presently appeared before the fire, to hear Loro ask, — " What is the matter ? " The coral snake had not "got out," nor had the bees. Breakfast was served, and Mr. Cottle declared that he never before had eaten a meal with such a relish. At noon the sun shone clear in a blue sky. The clouds seemed all rolling merrily away, and to be laughing as they went. Mr. Cottle became very cheerful. "We will have to get up very early to-morrow morning," said the conductor, " so that we may pass the valleys while the snow is hard. It is near the full of the moon; there will be no more snow ; and, as it is clearing warm, the night will be glorious. We shall stand on La Cumbre under the stars, in the chambers of the sky." He was something of a poet, and his figurative language disturbed the imagination of nervous Mr. Cottle. " ' The chambers of the sky'?" he asked. "You don't expect to go up that high, do you?" AN UNEXPECTED EPISODE. 277 " You will be nearer to the stars to-morrow morning than you have ever been before," said the conductor. " Or shall ever care to be again, in this world," added Mr. Cottle. Uncle Henry examined his hive of bees. "I would give those bees their freedom," said Mr. Cottle, " and eat the honey ; you never will see a day in all your life when you will need it more. We might make a pot-pie of the birds." Arline folded Loro in her poncho ; the bird, however, con trived to wriggle out her head, and inquired again, " What is the matter ? " Leigh, in the course of the evening, uttered an exclama tion of surprise and disappointment, — the purple bird had died. The party grew more cheerful. "We must have one or two good stories to-night," said the conductor, "and lie down early. The mules will be ready to-morrow morning by three o'clock." Mr. Cottle's rheumatism, from the time that he saw the sun, left him, and he became quite cheerful. It was warm in the posada, and after supper the now cheerful Englishman was asked fpr a story, and he related several stories in a merry mood. There was little sleep in the posada that night. As the fire went down poor old Mr. Cottle began to cry out with his rheumatism, whose pains came upon him again. "Conductor! " he said; "Senor! I shall not be able to go on in the morning." "Yes, yes, my good friend, you will. You will be upon 278 OVER THE ANDES. the top of the planet when the sun rises, and you will say that that sunrise is the most glorious sight that you ever saw." " Sefior, I am freezing to death ! Senor ! " The conductor called upon the cook to rise and make a hot fire. The cook obeyed, and the atmosphere changed. Suddenly, after the room had become much heated, there was a report like a pistol shot. "What was that?" cried Mr. Cottle, starting. " I will get up and see," said the conductor. "The cage has burst open — the fire melted the solder." " What cage, Senor ? " asked Uncle Henry. " What cage, Senor ? " echoed Alonzo. " What cage, Caballero?" screamed Mr. Cottle. "The snake cage," was the paralyzing answer of the conductor. "The snake cage!" roared Mr. Cottle, starting up from his bed like a Jack-in-a-box, and forgetting his rheumatism. " He hasn't got out, has he ? " " I don't see anything of him," said the conductor, put ting on his boots with a jerky motion. Alonzo arose, pulling on his boots very concernedly. He went to the fire and examined the rent cage with a shovel. "Where do you suppose he has gone?" asked Arline. " Is Loro safe ? " " He hasn't gone into the fire or into the cold. He may have crawled into somebody's boots or stockings, or under one of the beds." " One of the beds ! " cried Mr. Cottle, rolling himself up in his blanket. " Heavings ! " AN UNEXPECTED EPISODE. 279 Arline slept near the Spanish women, who were alarmed, like the rest of the company. The three followed Mr. Cot tle's example, and rolled themselves up in their blankets. " He's crawled into the wall, I guess," said the conductor. " He will be harmless in the cold, wherever he may be," said old Flores, the arriero. "All go to sleep. I will see that no harm comes to any one." Twelve o'clock came. The conductor and arrieros went out to get ready the mules. At last the conductor came back. " Will you be able to go on ? " he asked of Mr. Cottle. " Go on ? Yes, yes. I had a cold, or something. What was it I said that I had ? Well, whatever it was, it is all gone now. All the gold in Peru wouldn't tempt me to stay in this place any longer than I could mount a mule. Let me get up and start now. I'd be willing to ride next to the bell-mule. Examine your boots well before you put them on. I'm going to shake mine over the fire." It was a silver morning. The snow was dazzling white, and the full moon shone on the valley and gleamed on the crystal peaks. The snow was encrusted, and the party went comfortably up to the Cumbre. The rocks were as black as ebony, and were the bases of crystal pinnacles that seemed to burn with silver fire. The air was as silent as it was clear and bright. The mules stopped often to breathe. "Altura ! " again cried the arriero ; "para altura ! " A purple circle surrounded the high peaks. It deepened ; it glowed ; it lived. It was near the dawn. "Altura !" 280 OVER THE ANDES. The purple circle of light changed into gold, — a resplen dent belt, — as though the earth wore the necklace of heaven. This circle, too, deepened and glowed. The night had fled. "Altura!" The golden circle was changing into crimson. The sun was rising, not over plains, hills, or mountains, but from the far regions of eternal space. The travellers stopped to breathe and to wonder. It was morning in the Andes ! CHAPTER XXVI. MORNING IN THE ANDES TO SANTIAGO DE CHILI THE STORY OF PRESIDENT BALMACEDA. IT was sunrise on the peaks. On one side of the pass was Argentina, on the other side Chili : on one side the far Atlantic beyond the pampas, on the other side the near Pacific. These scenes were hidden by the black, castle-like peaks crowned with crystal. In this chain of giant eleva tions, though unseen from La Cumbre, rose Aconcagua, the monarch of the American mountain world. If that mountain could speak, what tales it might tell : of chaos ; of primeval existences ; of the days when all of these peaks now mantled with snow flamed with fire ! "The hardest part of the journey is yet to come," said Flores, the arriero. He spoke truly. It was the going down that was most perilous. With the mule's body for a great part of the way at an angle of forty-five degrees, the difficulty for one was to keep from going down over his head. After some hours of these terrors, the party came to a posada, and those who desired carriages were offered them. Our party and Mr. Cottle were glad to see carriages. Even in the carriages the way was perilous. There were places where an accident to harness or wheel might have 281 282 OVER THE ANDES. ended in fatal disaster. It was fearful to look down from some of the shelves of rock over which the vehicles passed. The earth began to turn green. Gardens of fruit appeared ; palms ; villas ; fields of lucerne. Then the world all burst into bloom. The waysides rippled with water and glowed with flowers. There were vineyards here and there ; and there were bright, happy faces every where. Loro began to scream, "Aqui! alii! helo!" new words to Arline's ears. " Los Andes ! " exclaimed the driver, as they came to a bowery town, and to an inn all balconies and vines. " Thank Heaven that we are here ! " said Mr. Cottle, with a beaming face. " Haven't we had a merry journey ! I would like to go over the Cordillera again. I hope I haven't brought away the coral snake in any of my belongings. It was he who cured me of my rheumatism. A great journey this has been to me ! " The party, including Mr. Cottle, who had become most gracious, now stopped a day in the vine-clad inn, and then set out for Santiago de Chili. The land was bloom, the air was balm, and in these celestial atmospheres the wonderful mocking-bird began to sing. It was a glorious song. When Loro heard it, she cheered, or rather uttered new words, con mucho gusto, one of which was hazana, in appreciation of a noble deed. We now find Our Boys in Chili. Dr. Dee, the missionary traveller, in a little book published in Buenos Ayres, gives a vivid picture of the Chilefios, and we copy from it by permission : — MORNING IN THE ANDES. 283 THE CHILIANS. "What do I think of the Chilians?" says the Doctor, in this delightful little book. " My impressions are made up of many elements. The race type shows clear traces of the mixed Spanish and Araucanian ancestry which it can boast. One thinks of old Pedro de Valdivia, with his handful of hardy Castilian followers, besieged upon the isolated rock of Santa Lucia, reduced to subsist upon the wild onions of the forest; yet with invincible perseverance, and what might well seem presumptuous faith in the prowess of his own right arm, laying out around his fortress the plan of a future capital and metropolis. Then one's thoughts turn to those most indomitable of American savages — the Arau canians — who, after three centuries and a half, have not even yet been reduced to complete subjection. Here is an ancestry which might well bequeath to their descendants, together with a narrow home between inaccessible mountains and the thundering ocean, amid wild valleys and with an inevitable and constant struggle for existence, such char acteristics as we find in the Chilians of to-day. Ancestry and environment may well explain the nervous activity and enterprise ; the fierce, headlong valor ; the implacable spirit of revenge; the jealous dislike and suspicion of foreigners; the greed of conquest ; the love of extravagant display which may be noted in this people — qualities most of them which have their admirable as well as their execrable side. You sympathize with the Chilian in his intense love of country and utter devotion to her interests ; but you smile inwardly 284 OVER THE ANDES. and almost despise him when you find him sillily boastful of the superiority of his country in the most trivial things, and utterly blind to, or envious of, the manifest superiority of some of the sister nations of South America in gifts of nature which argue neither virtue nor real superiority in the possessor. " You admire the evidences of thrift and enterprise which you find in Valparaiso and Santiago ; but you are filled with indignation when you read or hear of the shameless greed with which Chilian officers of low and high station robbed prostrate Peru of public and private works of adornment and use, filling returning transports with pianos and furni ture, carpets and tapestries, pictures and statues, taken from the homes and public buildings and parks of Lima. " Your blood thrills, and you are ready to doff your hat in the presence of the monuments of the dead heroes who glorified the headlong enthusiasm and fierce valor which knew no fear on the field of battle and rushed over all ob stacles to constant victory ; but you shudder with horror when you read of the vindictive rage and ungenerous hate which would neither give nor take quarter, and the brutal savagery which cut the throats of helpless, wounded men, and utterly reversed the relative statistics of killed and wounded in the records of a war running through years. "You prophesy prosperity for a country whose laboring class are active, industrious, and efficient ; but you doubt the realization of your own augury when you learn that the Chilian workmen are utterly jealous and intolerant of foreign immigrants, driving them by hundreds to seek refuge on the eastern side of the Andes. MORNING IN THE ANDES. 285 "You find yourself in what is thought to be the model of Spanish-American republics, and yet you are struck with the existence of social lines of caste which utterly belie the prin ciple that 'all men are born free and equal.' The roto, turbulent and fierce as he is, and ready with the knife, will meekly submit to abuse, and even to blows, from a man in a frock coat and tall hat. This idea of class distinctions pervades the whole structure of society, and runs down into lines of separation between servants of different em ployments. " In the wealthy classes you find a great love of extrava gant display in house and equipage. A scion of one of the richest families of Buenos Ayres, travelling with us, ex pressed his astonishment at the scale of magnificence on which he found certain private houses of Santiago fur nished. Hand-woven and hand-embroidered silk hangings ; upholstery materials which cost five hundred dollars gold the square metre; a pair of curtains worth sixty thousand dollars; twenty-two handsome carriages in the coach-house of one residence, and a multitude of other items mark the ornamentation and outfit of a Santiago house in which the mistress has never yet set foot. " The people are great lovers of amusement and outdoor pleasures. The theatre, the alameda, seaside and mountain resorts, are much patronized. "The commerce of the country is chiefly in the hands of English, German, and French merchants ; the mines and landed estates belong in the greater part to the old Chilian families. "The future of the country promises to be marked by 286 OVER THE ANDES. increasing wealth and prosperity, but will depend much upon her relations with the Argentine Republic. The two nations are so related to each other, and the natural re sources of each are of such a character, that, if cordial, reciprocal relations are maintained, they may jointly march on in a career of prosperity and widening influence over the destiny of the continent. Mutual jealousy and suspicion, if not hostility, seem, however, more likely to prevail for years to come. " Nations, as well as individuals, learn wisdom ever in the hard school of experience rather than in the law and the gospel, which are man's safest and best guide." THE GOVERNMENT OF CHILI. The Chilian Republic is the most remote on the continent from the great republic of the North ; it rises between the Atlantic and the Pacific, and the mountain dome of Acon cagua seems to tower over it like a crown. After achieving its independence from Spain, it adopted the republican form of government, and established it under a constitution in i833- The population was then less than a million ; it is now more than three million, and the revenues have increased some sixty fold. Her constitution is liberal. Toleration is accorded to all religious beliefs, and all who can read and write are entitled to vote. The executive power is placed in the hands of the Presi dent, as in the United States, and this executive officer is elected every five years. In other respects the Chilian MORNING IN THE ANDES. 287 government closely resembles our own. It has two houses of Congress, and these are elected by the people, and the members serve the Republic without remuneration. The first President of the Republic was General Prieto, who was re-elected ( 1 831-184 1 ). General Balnes succeeded him, and was re-elected (1851-1861). It speaks well for Chili that she re-elects her faithful public officials and that her great presidents have been honored by a second term of office. Balmaceda, a very dramatic figure in Chilian politics, was elected in 1886. He was a man of liberal views, who ad vocated a great enlargement in education, the separation of church and state, civil marriages, and many reforms, and who had rendered his country distinguished services. He became very ambitious for the success of his own measures, and is accused of assuming dictatorial power, which led to a revolution that ended in his death. At the Valparaiso consulate the boys asked an official, who was interested in the history of the country, to tell them THE STORY OF BALMACEDA. "Jose Manuel Balmaceda," said the officer, who was an old resident in the country, "was born of ancient and noble Castilian family in 1840. He was educated in the Seminario Concilias of Santiago, in the expectation that he would enter the priesthood. But he had an ardent nature, and politics filled his brain. He joined the Reform Club, and became a leader among young men of advanced ideas. He saw the new age, that liberal ideas were everywhere on the march, 288 OVER THE ANDES. and he espoused the cause of the people in the spirit of the Gracchi, and met their fate. " He was an orator, and he came forward as a leader of the cause that sought to liberalize the constitution. He entered Congress at the age of twenty-eight, — brilliant, accomplished, popular ; Chili saw in him a rising star, and he became the natural leader of the Liberal party, composed of progressive men, and especially of progressive young men. " Like Sarmiento, he saw the power of education in devel oping a great nation, that there was no darkness like that of ignorance, and that the glory of the Northern Republic was her schools. He favored the education of the people for the progress of the Republic, and although he was opposed by the Conservatives, his star brightened. " He served five terms in Congress, became a minister of the interior, a senator, a foreign minister. He was elected President on September 18, 1886, by an overwhelming majority, after one of the most brilliant political careers in the history of the Republic. " When he was inaugurated, he was the idol of the people. The expectation of the Republic centred in him. He was expected to lead Chili to glory, and to place her foremost among the liberal nations of the Austral world. In the first three years of his office, his popularity hardly abated. Chili advanced and made wonderful political and educational progress. Railroads were built ; the harbors were improved ; a North American system of normal schools was established to make competent teachers for the whole people. In the rush of new ideas and new light, political opposition to him MORNING IN THE ANDES. 289 almost disappeared. He was the state, — its brain, its heart, its representative. It seemed impossible that this man could fall. " But there were not wanting those who looked upon the reforms as the overthrow of ancient rights. The established church felt that their prerogatives had been invaded. The old capitalists thought that their power was being imperilled. The Conservative mind reacted against the rapid advance ment of new thought. " Balmaceda could now have made himself glorious by surrendering his office to the requirements of the constitution and the will of the people. But ' he that saveth his life, shall lose it.' How could he take his heart out of these reforms ? His life was in them. He changed. He sought to hold his power by indirection. From the splendid Liberal leader, fore most in enlightened and progressive thought, he became an autocrat. The opposition to him grew. The people changed. They had good reasons to change, for the constitution was being violated. The Congress, the navy, and a large part of the people revolted. A bill was passed by Congress, placing the electoral management under the control of the munici palities. Balmaceda vetoed this bill, and so a conflict arose between the executive and legislative powers. " In this crisis he proclaimed himself military dictator, and then followed war. " In this conflict he had thirty thousand men under arms. A provisional government was formed, and conflicts followed on the land and on the sea. "In August, 1890, the Waterloo of Balmaceda came near Valparaiso. The dictator was at the head of a powerful army ; the constitutionalists were apparently weak ; but they 29O OVER THE ANDES. were strong in generalship and the arts of war, and the army of Balmaceda was outgeneralled, deprived of its ammunition and shattered, and the dictator found himself a fugitive. " The victorious army entered the capital in a triumph. " Balmaceda had vanished. A hunt for the fallen dictator was begun. It was a time of terror and of vengeance. The dead generals of the vanquished leader were paraded through the streets of Valparaiso. The wounded in the field were killed. The friends of Balmaceda fled in every direction, and their houses were burned. What a sunset of life for such a morning ! Balmaceda, — where was he ? " ' He is on board the American gunboat, the " San Fran cisco," ' passed from lip to lip. Then the Americans in this part of the country were no longer safe. The suspicion made them the objects of popular fury. " The congressional government sought to stay the violence of the people, but in vain. " Balmaceda had hoped to escape from the country ; but all avenues seemed closed against him. He hid in the Argen tine consulate. There was no safety for him here. He did not dare to throw himself upon the mercy of the people. He made a fatal resolution, and ended his life with a pistol shot September 19th." The party arrived at Santiago, late one burning afternoon. What a beautiful city it was! The wealth of the world seemed to be here. They went to the English college, where they had friends, the La Fetras ; there they were warmly received, and made to feel at home under the dome of Aconcagua and the sunset walls of the Sierras. CHAPTER XXVII. THE SOUTH AMERICAN POETS LEIGH WISHES TO STUDY IN SANTIAGO — -A REMINISCENCE OF A NIGHT IN THE ANDES. THE English college at Santiago greatly interested Leigh. " It is my plan," he said to Uncle Henry, " to stop here and study." "What do you wish to study most? " asked Uncle Henry. "The Spanish language, and English and Spanish litera ture." " I know of no more fitting place for such studies than here," said Uncle Henry. " But you are now making an educational journey. You may like to return here and study." Mr. Warrener was to remain here and study for a year. Leigh would have been willing to give up the remainder of the proposed journey for this opportunity of study in his companionship, but he knew that Uncle Henry had planned what was best for him. But this school won his heart. He found an atmosphere which his soul seemed to recognize here. He was introduced by Mr. Warrener to several literary people, who quoted poets of whom he had never heard. Had South America a distinct literature ? Had she true poets ? If she had true poets, how noble, sublime, and patriotic their 291 292 OVER THE ANDES. work must be, when and where there are such thrilling scenes and records of events to inspire them ! Leigh began the study of the South American favorite poets, — of those whose poems were best known. He asked Mr. Warrener, who seemed to be quite familiar with popular South American verse, to give him a little lecture on the writers of Spanish America who were most read, quoted, and known to the schools : " The reading-book and choice-selec tion poets," as he termed them. Mr. Warrener was an en thusiast, and had caught the ardor of the South American school of verse. Leigh enjoyed his lively imagination. Mr. Warrener made a review of these; "imperfectly," as he said, but with poetic feeling, in the following narrative : — POPULAR SPANISH-AMERICAN POEMS. Some of the most beautiful and sympathetic interpreta tions of life in verse that have been made during recent years, have come from the pens of the American-Latin poets, and yet these writers are but little read outside of their own countries. The list of those who have written inspired poems in the present generation in the mellow and melodious language of Calderon and Cervantes is long, and it includes those whose personal history has been as remark able and picturesque as the work that they have produced. In South America the poems that have found favor have been voices of life ; the experience has been the soil of the orchid, and the reason for it ; in the land of picture and bloom, of the billowy pampas and the gleaming Andes, poems are the creations of what the singers have felt or done — they bloom. THE SOUTH AMERICAN POETS. 293 During a recent visit to the Argentine Republic and to Chili it was my privilege to meet Sefior Don de la Barra, the friend of Balmaceda, and once the Chilian Minister to England, the author of several books on Greek forms of verse and on rhythmic expression, — one of the most courtly and scholarly men in literature. He wrote the grand ode which opened the Chilian exposition, — one of the few poetic interpretations of art and science that in recent times have been adequate to really great occasions. In this ode one hears the music of the march of machinery, and finds one's heart in the new triumphant progress, and sees the soul of the living and inspiring age. "Hail, Triumphal Industry! Divinity without bloodshed! In thy crystal firmament Go forth the works of the new Cyclops, Resplendent!" The wings of the condor in this composition are made to gleam over the great workshop of human progress, and with this vision in his imagination, the reader is prepared for the force of the line, — " Come, all nations ! " I met in Buenos Ayres, Sefior Carlos Guido y Spano, the Longfellow of Argentina, a most lovely and beautiful char acter, whose identification of his work with his life is marked. He won the hearts of the Argentines by his sympathy with the public suffering during the yellow-fever epidemic in 1871. He is an old man now : he has come out of life in public service with clean hands, and like many who have lived for others, has not accumulated a fortune for himself. But he 294 OVER THE ANDES. has gained that which is more than material wealth. The people of the purple Republic are very proud of their vener able poet, of his philanthropy and integrity, as well as his verse, and they are about to present him a home and a tribute out of their ample purses, that he who has loved them may pass his serene old age amid the evidences of their grateful affection. He has a beautiful face, refined by the sympathies of his thought and heart, and one that recalls Longfellow at seventy years of age. There are few poets whose lives have been more ideal. I shall never forget some of his thoughts when he gra ciously allowed some Americans to make him a visit. " I do not know," he said, with a face of illumination, "what the value of my verse may be; but this I do know, that the people love me, and in that I am content." The words have the spirit of a poem, and they could have been spoken only by one who had made a noble poem of his own life. He was born in 1829. His father was one of the great leaders of the liberation. Looking up to the picture of San Martin, the liberator of Argentina, Chili, and Peru, and to that of his father, who was an inspiration in the great strug gle for liberty, he said, " My father was an eminent man in his day: he was better than that, he was a good man." He called himself "a child of the people." He has mod estly named his poetical works, " Hojas al Viento " (Leaves to the Wind). The South American verse is largely confined to three sub jects, — patriotism, love, and the soul. Sefior Don de la Barra has written a notable work, published in Santiago de Chili, THE SOUTH AMERICAN POETS. 295 1787, on " Elementos de Metrica Castellana " (Elements of Castilian Metres), in which he illustrates the art of the Iberian tongue. There is great beaLity in the forms of many South American poems, and those forms are well worthy of study and imitation. The South American poets usually make their rhythms after the inspiration of the compelling theme : they sing as the joy of the day makes the vibration of the wing of the bird; as the winds find the reeds, and as the brook flows. The most romantic of the Argentine poets is Don Estevan Echevern'a, whose Gaucho-like soul caught the spirit of the pampas, and interpreted it to the world. His early home seems to have been the saddle, and his Parnassus the purple splendors of the plains. He felt the heart of nature beat, and what he felt, he wrote. He lived when barbarism was dying, and the new age of civilization was flinging into the air the golden spears of the dawn. His early fancies made little account of the restrictions of the critic. " A Savage of the Pampas," he made a voyage to France, and his studies in the gay world gave to his after work a certain coloring of sentiment and philosophy. In his poem " La Cantiva," he describes the vast and solemn pampas, and the originality and sweep of his theme and the force of his picturing will ever lend the work a fascination which belongs to true interpretation, whatever may be its other defects. Don Luis Domingues — poet, liberator, and Argentine statesman — was born in Buenos Ayres. After the time when he published his first poems, he engaged himself in numerous poetic studies for the inspiration and correction of his style. He produced many forms of lyrical poems, 296 OVER THE ANDES. and songs of love, of his country, and domestic life, with equal power, and described with rare skill the natural his tory and customs of his own land. Besides his articles in the periodicals of the Plata, he produced works of merit, — among others, the "History of Argentina." He was en gaged in public work in Uruguay and Argentina. He was active in the national and provincial congresses of his own country, and was eminent for patriotism, social position, and worth of character. He, for a time, filled the office of min ister plenipotentiary of Argentina to Peru. Don Jose Marmol, whose beautiful tomb is a shrine in the marble walks of the Recoleta of the Palermo of Buenos Ayres, was of gentle blood. He was for many years the librarian of his native city. He had the poetic fire of Echevern'a; he felt the grandeur of his native skies, seas, plains, and mountains ; but he united a refined culture with his work, and tamed his glowing visions with the law of art. It is delightful to listen to this sympathetic and affluent in terpreter, as he touches his chords to the "Tropics": — " The Tropics — shining palace of the Southern Cross, Whose founts of life o'er all creation pour Their wealth of splendor and their vital power ! " When Nature saw her third creation fail, She fled the poles and to the Tropics climbed. God said, ' Enough ' — she was the future world. " She caught his breath and his reflected eye, And set on high her primal throne of light Bathed in the amber of celestial air. " She showered roses, oped her crystal springs, Her finest carpet she with lilies spread, And myrtle flowers, and filled the trees THE SOUTH AMERICAN POETS. 297 With winged songs, and set her bounds With rivers longer than the bounds of sea." It is a strange event in the history of the literature of the lands of the Southern Cross, that Salaverry, the soldier, whose end was tragic, should have written the stirring peace poem of his own, or of any, age. In this poem the grand pulse-beat for humanity is expressed in martial words that lose their force by translation : — " Ye warriors of freedom, ye champions of right, Sheathe your swords to sweet harmony's strains ; No bayonet should gleam, and no soldier should fight, Where Liberty glorious reigns. " Melt your lances to ploughshares, your swords into spades, And furrow for harvests your plains ; No shock of the battle should startle the shades Where glorious Liberty reigns. " Nor honor is won from battlefield red, Nor glory from tumult and strife ; That soldier is only by god-like thought led Who offers his country his life." Don Juan Godoy, whose sublime and glorious ode to the "Cordillera" of the Andes will compare with Coleridge's "Hymn in the Valley of Chamouni," was born in Mendoza in 1873. He is one of the greatest of the later South Ameri can poets. At Mendoza, San Martin organized his army for the liberation of Chili and Peru. The transandine route starts from here, at first following the windings of the Men doza River. The Cordillera here is thirteen thousand feet high, and over it looms the stupendous dome Tupungato, in its winter of eternal silence, sheeted with spotless snow. 298 Over the andes. Beyond it rises Aconcagua, higher than Mont Blanc would be were it to wear Mt. Washington for a hood, and whose base is lost in the mysteries of the ocean world. You have been in the region. The sight of these peaks probably be came a haunting vision to Godoy, and although before such a theme language struggles for utterance, he produced a most sublime apostrophe, — one that to read is an eternal recollec tion. Some of the thoughts of this apostrophe, which is really an ode to liberty, have an awesome sublimity : — "The condor in his flight Leaves clouds behind him, And ascends the skies, But has never left The impress of his gory talons On thy crests of snow ! " Again, " What were the Alps, the Caucasus, The Pyrenees, the Altas, and the Apennines, If they were neighbors to thy front, O Chimborazo! "Immense Cordilleras, Where the ice sheds not a raindrop, In the blaze of day, but whose pedestal Uplifts a peak colossal, that appears The pillar of the firmament." The female poet who has the South American ear and favor is Dona Gertrudis Gomez de Avellaneda, who was born in Puerto Principe, Cuba, in 18 16. She caught the spirit of liberty, and one of the finest of her poems is a sonnet to Washington : — THE SOUTH AMERICAN POETS. 299 A WASHINGTON. No en lo passado a tu virtud modelo, Ni copia al porvenir dara la historia, Ni el laurel immortal de tu victoria Marchitaran los siglos en su vuelo. Si con rasgos de sangre guarda el suelo Del coloso del Sena la memoria, Cual astro puro brillara tu gloria Nunca empaiiada por oscuro velo. Mie"ntras la fama las virtudes cuente Del he"roe illustre que cadenas lima Y a la cerviz de los tiranos doma. Alza gozosa, America, tu frente, Que al Cincinato, que formd tu clima Le admira el mundo, y te lo envidia Roma. The past could give no model of thy virtue, Nor history any copy ; the centuries In their flight cannot wither Thy immortal laurel! If with gashes of gore the native land Of the statue of Sena guard his memory, Thy glory that has never known a shadow Will live a pure and brilliant star. While Fame recounts the deeds Of the illustrious hero who broke the chains, And tamed the neck of tyrants, America, rejoice, and lift thy front, For admires the world, and envies Rome The Cincinnatus, whom thy clime gave birth! We have given here but a thought of this grand poet, as a picture of the ideal of a true Latin-American poet, whom all 300 OVER THE ANDES. American women should honor. " Come, O Thou, Diva," is a notable page of philosophical poetry, in her ode to Hope, as a conclusion of an introspection and an interpretation of life. A great poet and scholar of Chili is Sefior Don de la Barra. Eduardo de la Barra was born in Santiago de Chili on Febru ary 9, 1839. He belonged to a diplomatic family, and received a most liberal education. A diplomat, as well as a man of letters and of almost universal knowledge, he was a coadjutor of Balmaceda, and left Chili and took up his residence in Rosario, in the Argentine Republic, after the great Chilian President fell. He accepted an educational appointment in Argentina, which he held until changing politics made his return to Chili favorable. He is a gentleman of fine face, quick sympathies, liberal views, and Castilian manners. He has published several volumes of poems, and his life has been written by Leonardo Elit (1889). But the most popular of the Latin-American poets, and one of the true children of genius of the world, is Manuel Acufia, a descendant of a humble family, who was born in Saltillo, Mexico, in 1849. His history is romantic and touch ing ; in some points it resembles Chatterton, for it ended in clouds and darkness : his sun went out at noon. His poetic endowments were exalted and multiple ; he was a voice of the democracy of Mexico, and so of the spirit of South American republics. His fiery zeal for the democratic princi ple, for the cause of the people, was toned and refined by a nature full of pure and true affections. He loved his father with a fervor that has seldom found in verse so intense an expression. Amid his rising fame he was true to his simple THE SOUTH AMERICAN POETS. 3OI home, and it is the home poet, like a Scott, a Goldsmith, a Longfellow, whose verses creep into the heart of the world. His patriotism, his love of his father, and a shadowy romance, that brings a touch of pity to his last young days, have made him at once the Keats and the Burns of Latin America. One who could write, — " Mi Madre, la que vive todavia, puesto que vivo yo," would never want for hearts or readers. The poets of sym pathy outlast all others. He was an enthusiastic student of the sciences, and he founded a literary academy in Mexico, of which he became the guiding light. His genius was self-consuming : the sword was too sharp for the scabbard. His beloved father died ; he was unhappy in an affair of the heart; and with his own hands he closed the door of life, and so left a shadow on his works and memory. His poem on the death of his father called " Tears " is tears, if ever words were such : — " Over my cradle, Wherever the songs of night lulled me to sleep, The blue sky floated ; Two stars were there that beamed when they saw me. To-morrow when I lift my eyes toward the shadowy space Over that cradle will be a void. "Thou art vanished — of the book of darkness I have not the knowledge or the key. In the grave wherein thou slumberest I know not if there be room for love ;. I know not if the sepulchre can love life, But in the dense obscurity I know There lives a spark that glows and trembles. I know that the sweetest of all names 302 OVER THE ANDES. Is that I utter when I call on thee, And that in the religion of remembrances Thou art the God I love. " Father sleep — my trembling heart Sends thee its song, and leaves thee its farewell. My love illuminates thy lonely grave, And over thee in the eternal night That veils thy tomb my soul will be a star." His poem on the " Fifth of May " is a picture of his love for Mexico, for whose welfare and glory he was willing to die: — " My country, God gave thee a soldier in every man, And in every soldier a hero ! Thou hast entered a new era, An era of progress and glory : To thee it comes to-day, Heaven's kiss of love Upon thy banner." There is something pathetic in the songs of the errant Gauchos, whose homes were their saddles, and whose estan cias were the plains. They recall the days of Gomez, and his free, wild horsemen, and the romances of a picturesque but tragic barbarism that is forever gone. The water-carrier listens at the veranda, as he hears the guitar attuned to these themes, as the North American lad would do to a tale of Marion's men. The patriots of the plains of the Silver-land who breathed liberty in the air is a theme that must ever haunt the growing Republics of the Sun. South America has glorious singers and songs, but the greater are to come. The countries of the South Temperate Zone are pulsing with literary activity and expectation, and THE SOUTH AMERICAN POETS. 303 Aconcagua is a new Parnassus, and is likely to be the last in the West. Poets came in brotherhoods at the dawn of the new era, as prophetic heralds, and as inspired and inspiring leaders ; and, again, in the decline of an epoch they appear as raconteurs. The poets of the dawn have already appeared in the ten republics of the Andes, and have sung the songs of liberty and love, of the wide pampas, the majestic rivers and groves, and the orchid-haunted plateaus. In the faded and gone Incarial days poets sprung into the life and inspirations of the golden temples of the Children of the Sun. The land of poetry was there, and is there. The end of the long march of the Aryan people toward the West must come in Argen tina, Chili, and Peru. The Italian immigration to this new Italy is one of art. The mixed race of Argentines, Chilians, Peruvians, Italians, English, French, and Germans is making a new nation, and beautiful Buenos Ayres and Santiago show what that nation will be. The development of the United States has been the wonder of the nineteenth century. The surprise and glory of the twentieth century is likely to be the achievement of the Republics of the Sun and of the Southern Cross, of which the poets are already singing, and are more gloriously to sing in the supreme century before us. South America loves to sing of her heroes of the liberation. There is an Andean-like air in the chorus of her song to Bolivar (El Libertador) : — " Compatriots, the day is at hand, The day great Bolivar was born, The Alcides new, the tyrant's terror, America's love and glory." 304 OVER THE ANDES. " Dulce Patria," the national song of Chili, the vow in which is sometimes sung by the army kneeling, has lines as inspiring : — " The strife and the warfare is ended, And we hear the glad rejoicings of the free! He who yesterday was our invader, Can no longer a brother be. On the field now our banners are gleaming, Three centuries of stain thus redeeming! And at last we are free and victorious — Here in gladness our triumph revealing. For the heritage of heroes is freedom, At whose feet sweet victory is kneeling! Chorus. " Land beloved ! Our vow now receive, Vows which Chili upon thine altar swore ; She shall be the grave of free men, Or th' asylum 'gainst tyrants evermore! " The national air of Brazil opens as nobly: — " May the glorious sun shed a flood of light O'er Brazil with its hallowed sod. Despots never again will our land affright — Never more will we groan 'neath the rod. Then with hymns of glory resounding, With new hopes for the land we adore, Loyal hearts for our country rebounding, Let our song ring from mountain to shore. Chorus. "Liberty! Liberty! Open wide your pinions grand ; Thro' tempests dire and battles' fire, THE SOUTH AMERICAN POETS. 305 This was the hymn of the Proclamation of the Republic, and the words were by Medeiros e Albuquerque. These songs have one sentiment : " O my country! Sooner than see thee bound again In slavery's chain, I'd give my life for thee." If Sarmiento did not write verse, his prose is poetry. His " Facundo," translated by Mrs. Horace Mann under the title of " Life in the Argentine," reads like an epic. The first President of Argentina, Ravadavia, was a literary man. Simon Bolivar and San Martin had the qualities of epic heroes, and their achievements will doubtless furnish inspira tions for literary art that will be worthy of the Andean peaks and plains. South America not only promises to be the new poet's land, but one where the epic strain will follow the present prophetic period of reed and song. Leigh purchased a cyclopaedia of South American authors, with specimens of their work, which he began to study in Santiago. These poems were full of feeling and color, and he himself began to feel an inspiration in their glowing lan guage, and to talk and write in a way that would have seemed effusive in the North. Our Boys found a curious custom in the Chilian cities, which may or may not be commended. The conductors on the street cars were not men, but bright, attractive young women. Before they left the city, Mr. Warrener read to Our Boys some lines that he had written. He said : " I have put my x 306 OVER THE ANDES. heart into these verses ; I wrote them after reading Godoy. I am not a Godoy, — I wish that I had his inspiration, — but because I have not is no reason why I should not express in my own way my thoughts and feelings." NIGHT IN THE ANDES. Sublime ! magnificent ! The westering sun his fluent glory pours O'er all the peaks that sentinel the sky, And in the mellowing splendors Hesper burns Above the walls of jasper, pearl, and gold ! Silence ! We tread the pathway to the sky Upon the crystal ladders of the air. Here Tupungato lifts his snowy brow, As when the thundering glaciers made their march And stopped forever at the voice of God ! There Aconcagua hails the gates of heaven ; Cordilleras grand of silent solitudes, Whose temples' stairs no human foot has trod, Nor wing of condor scaled, nor sun of noon Caused one warm tear to fall ! " Altura ! " The arriero's voice on cliffs above Breaks on the air, and downward falls from heaven. Heights rise on heights in sunset's frozen fires, And loom their amber mantles in the sun, And fade in night's cerulean eclipse, As though God turned his back upon the world! And now we stand in suburbs of the skies, Above the bending axle of the earth ; The dusty arriero spreads his tent, Points to the sky : " Para altura ! " cries, And sinks upon the moss ! The stars come forth, Taurus aflame and Aldebaran beautiful, THE SOUTH AMERICAN POETS. 307 Orion robed in mysteries of light, And Sirius, queen of the far hosts of worlds. Here sickled Leo shines in Saturn's face, And there the Centaur points the jewelled way Towards the rising Cross. Soft comes the moon, A mystic splendor wheeling through the clouds That veil the pampas and the floral seas. The peaks to silver turn ; and this is night. Majestic ! grand ! sublime ! Around us gleam The crowns of earth upon the thrones of heaven. Hail, Aconcagua, hail ! What were the Alps, What were the Apennines, the Pyrenees, The clouded gold of Afric's desert peaks, The white Sierra's walls, compared to thee ! Couldst thou but speak, what mysteries thou couldst tell Of chaos thundering in the age of fire When first creation wrought the will of God, And myriad forms of conscious life came forth Conjubilant with song ! But, lo, the night is passed! A mighty glory fills and thrills the sky. The rising circles of the sun appear A purple splendor, irises of flame, And comes the sun, not o'er the hills or plains, But up the void of planetary space, And greets the earth as a companion world. The peaks are fire, and, grandest scene of earth, 'Tis morn upon the Andes ! Alonzo, with an eye to business opportunities, did not enter into these poetic imaginations and studies, but Arline was in full sympathy with Mr. Warrener and Leigh. She procured the poems of Avellaneda. CHAPTER XXVIII. THE WEST COAST IQUIQUE AND LIMA TARAPACA THE HIGH RAILROAD TO TITICACA CUZCO. FROM the beautiful port of Valparaiso, whence the snowy brow of Aconcagua may be seen from the hills on clear days, Our Boys sailed away for Iquique, over a placid sea. The steamer stopped at ports on the way, among them at Coquimbo and Caldera ; but so placid were the Pacific waters that one in a stateroom could hardly tell whether one were on the open sea or in port. The ocean was purple ; the coast was white and rainless and palmless ; the sunsets were a glory ; the nights, silences of star-hung shadows. Iquique, on the borders of Peru, where once passengers were landed on men's shoulders, is a very busy place. The moles were covered with merchandise, and the harbor was full of rugged-looking ships. The desert of Tarapaca, of which it is a port, is, as we have said, a vast chemical laboratory, having a great wealth of fer tilizing material. Iquique is one of its ports nearest to the sea. The desert is some four hundred geographical miles in length, and the oficinas of the nitrate enterprises extend over an area of some sixty miles. The nitrate railroad was incorporated in London in 1882, on a concession by the Peruvian government in i860. 308 THE WEST COAST. 3O9 Our Boys went over the nitrate railroad. Arline sagely observed that people at Iquique and the colonial places along the route did look as though they "needed education." Uncle Henry agreed. He said that he had been informed that the native women here put on new dresses once every year on feast days (festas), and as they did not put off the old ones, they assumed very dignified proportions. It would seem, if this were true, that some Boston dress reform might be of service, as well as Swiss education. Alonzo secured many curious specimens of fossil remains on the way. These would not be likely to run away, like the handsome coral snake. The night on the nitrate desert was very sublime; the stars shed a vivid splendor. The blasting of the dead ocean bed by the powerful explosives presented at times a very start ling scene. From Iquique Our Boys went to Mollendo, and thence to Arequipa and Lake Titicaca. LAKE TITICACA AND CUZCO, THE CITY OF THE SUN. Titicaca is the highest lake in the world, and its shores and near regions present some of the noblest scenery and most interesting of ancient American ruins to the traveller. This is the way to Cuzco, the Incarial City of the Sun, and it was here that the first messengers of the sun were supposed to have descended from heaven. The way to Titicaca by Mollendo and Arequipa is by rail. Mollendo is a port and a railroad town, — a town of con fusion. The houses of the inhabitants are mere coverings, 3IO OVER THE ANDES. and the people for the most part seem lazy and dirty, and offer but few suggestions of the days of Peru in her glory. A calm sea, a barren coast, a blazing air, and a mart full of the unloading and loading of merchandise is about all there is of it ; one sees all in a few hours, and is glad to be on the upward way to beautiful Arequipa. The road runs along rocky headlands, and at points over looks the sea. The green surf tosses beneath, and the hills rise above. From Ensenada the road rises for twenty miles at a dis tance of more than 3000 feet, but with the ocean and white surf often in view. The hills were bare ; but fruitful valleys must have been near, for the stopping-places were sur rounded with brown Indian women with very black hair, who had bananas, figs, guavas, and grapes to sell. Erelong the majestic cone of Mt. Misti appeared, higher than Mont Blanc, or 18,650 feet high. It was robed in pure snow, white and glistening. Near it rose Charchani, 19,000 feet high. Snow peaks after snow peaks came into view, rising like giants in dazzling whiteness. Here was a land of wonder. The almost vertical sun made pictures on the pampas, — mirages of fantastic shapes ; the wind here had been an artist in sand, leaving the plain a picturesque confusion. At length after passing through deep gorges and crossing a bridge 100 feet long, the train arrives at Arequipa, 7550 feet above the sea. Arequipa is indeed beautiful in situation. The mountains that are around her seem to be a part of her. Mt. Misti rises 11,000 feet above her like a cathedral THE WEST COAST. 31I dome. The mountain river flows through her. At the first sight she seems to be a fortunate city, but she is not unfrequently shaken by earthquakes, to drive away which the Plegaria (miserere mei) is rung, though usually not soon enough to prevent the houses and walls from falling. The churches have very thick walls and arches. The cathedral has been shaken, but is an immense structure. It was once rich in treasures. Its silver candlesticks were so massive as to bring thirty-six thousand dollars in gold, when sold to meet some necessity of the government. It is a city of churches ; of native Peruvians, who speak the Quichua tongue ; of droves of llamas, who lift high their camel-like heads, and stare upon you as though they saw a ghost. One rises from Arequipa amid snowy peaks to Puno. Here one takes the steamer and crosses Lake Titicaca and sails among the sacred islands, as it were on a lake in the sky. The steamer is small, the water often choppy, and one finds one's self in much the same physical condition as on the English Channel or the Caribbean Sea. The Sacred Island of Titicaca, whence spring the Incas in their supposed descent from the sun, is beautiful with its terraces green and gold with barley. But another vision here appears that is rarely equalled, if ever, in the sublime aspects of the earth. Of this scene Dr. Dee, who visited the lake a few years ago, says: — " Passing through the narrow strait between the island of Titicaca and the peninsula of Copacobana, we had before us on the Bolivian mainland the far-famed mountains of Sorata and Lampa. Of all the mountains I have ever seen these 312 OVER THE ANDES. have filled out most my imagination of height and snow masses. They are utterly indescribable." Dr. Dee lived in Mexico for a long time, and has been a very extensive traveller in regions of grand mountain scenery. Lake Titicaca is 12,846 feet above the sea-level. It is 1 1 5 miles long, and from 30 to 60 miles broad. The plain of Titicaca is larger than Ireland. Crossing the lake one journeys to La Paz, a city of some fifty thousand souls. There is a partly built railway between Peru and Cuzco, but the journey in part will be made on mule. The mountain chains from Titicaca, which wall the great plain, trend towards the historic city and form what is called the Knot of Cuzco. These table-lands are rich with potatoes and barley ; our potatoes originally travelled to us from Peru. Here are the lands of the verbena, fuchsia, and the heliotrope, the latter of which is very fragrant and appro priately named. On the pasture land graze the vicuna and alpaca. About the Knot grow luxurious tropical forests, the home of birds and flowers and many of the mysteries of the animal and vegetable world. The city of Cuzco is situated amid all this beauty of moun tain, forest, and stream at 1 1,300 feet above the level of the sea. Many of the peaks here exceed Mont Blanc in height. They are from 17,000 to 22,000 feet high. The climate in the valleys is healthful and beautiful. What wonder that in this region should have arisen the Golden City of the Sun and roads and works of cyclopean construction ? The civilization and religious philosophy of the ancient Peruvians were far in advance of all other primitive nations before the advent of Christianity. These people believed in THE WEST COAST. 313 a Creator, — the spirit who filled the whole universe with his presence, and whose manifestations to the children of the world was the sun. They held to the equality of all men, and not only to that but to the equality of the obligation to work among all men. All toiled : none were rich ; none were poor ; none were uncared for. Helpless infancy and age were alike provided for. They believed that the soul lived forever. If the soul was noble and pure, it had rest after this life ; if evil, it must labor on until it should find rest in obedience to the laws of the Creator given to the soul. They believed that the sun had sent to them teachers to instruct them how to live, and as to what awaited them. These teachers were the Incas, the royal children of light, whom the spirit of all good had permitted to live among them. The Incas, according to the ancient tradition, appeared on the shores of Lake Titicaca about the year iooo. Manco and his wife, Mama Oello, suddenly came among the people, and announced that they were the Children of the Sun, sent from heaven to instruct mankind. Manco bore with him a golden wedge, and declared, accord ing to tradition, that when in his travels this wedge should sink into the earth there he must found a city. The golden wedge sunk into the earth at the place where now is the ancient city of Cuzco. Hence Cuzco became the Sacred City, and there arose the Temple of the Sun. THE INCA INDIANS. Missionary efforts from time to time call attention to the condition of the once robbed, and always wronged, Inca Ind- 314 OVER THE ANDES. ians. The sympathetic pen of Prescott has pictured the his tory of these pastoral people, who made their offerings of corn to the sun on the high plateaus, and whose golden tem ples once blazed in the morning light and reflected the first rays of the day amid joyous acclamations and poetic ritual. They once numbered thirty million, and inhabited one of the most lofty plateaus of the world. They were a peace-loving race, — children of nature, — and worshipped the sun as the source of their prosperity, and as the gift of the Supreme Being for their adoration. They believed the legend that we have related, that the first Inca, Manco Capac, descended from the sun, and appeared as the divine messenger on the banks of Lake Titicaca. This messenger not only taught them the pastoral arts, and founded Cuzco, and the Temple of the Sun with its ceiling of pure gold, but also the amiable virtues, and the duty of serving mankind by public improve ments. The stone structures and the immense public roads of the early empire of the Children of the Sun yet remain, and excite the admiration of those who visit them. The empire grew, and attained a semi-civilization of unwonted splendor and ideality. It was found by the Spaniards under Pizarro in 1527, was robbed to enrich Spain, and fell. There are in history few pages of greater cruelty and wrong than those inflicted in the name of Christianity on these innocent people. They were slaughtered in battle, tortured for their gold, deceived, en slaved, and scattered. They declined in numbers and in pro ductive occupations under their conquerors, who offered them the delights of another world for slavery in this, and who have made them as poor as they were once rich. Their con- THE WEST COAST. 315 dition represents one of the great, unrighted wrongs of time. There are no correct statistics of their present number. There are in many places in Peru, and the villages under the equator, a mixed race. They are called the Quichua, or Que- chua, Indians (Kaychwah), and are supposed to represent a population of about three million. The allied Indian tribes of the Amazons and the Orinoco number some two million. A very large part of those Ind ians in the equatorial regions of the Andes and on the great rivers have not been taught the higher arts of civilized life. There are on foot several movements to carry to them edu cation, as both the inspiration of Christianity, and as a sense of that justice which civilization owes to a wronged people. THE GREAT INCA ROAD. Next to the Roman road, among the marvellous achieve ments of human skill, must be ranked the road of the Incas over the high plateau of the Andes, under the splendors of the meridional sky of the equator. This road is shadowed by the loftiest mountains. The forests by the wayside, with their orchids and birds, are like gardens of the air. The road once passed cities where temples were arched with gold. It took hundreds of men to bear away the golden roofs of the temple of Cuzco. The roof of the Temple of the Sun had some seven hundred golden plates, like the lids of chests, and it required four men to move some of them. In the sun these plates were like a sun of gold. The greatest of these Incarial roads, along terraced moun tains and over gleaming viaducts, was that of Cuzco to Quito, 3 l6 OVER THE ANDES. of which we shall speak. It passed over blooming table lands, over sierras buried in snow, through galleries cut in the living rock, over suspension bridges, which spanned awful chasms. It was nearly two thousand miles long, and it made the two great cities of the sun lands neighbors ; while European cities at the same period that were near together were almost strangers to each other. Along these high roads were caravansaries for the shelter and comfort of the traveller. These were stationed some five miles apart, and in them rested the runners who for warded the despatches of the empire. Some of the grandest railroads in the world are those that climb the Andes, at heights of from ten to fourteen thousand feet. As stupen dous as are these works of modern science, they hardly excite the wonder of the traveller more than do the re mains of the old Inca roads. Enormous blocks of stone were fitted into each other so perfectly as to leave scarcely a seam. These remain. In the Peru of the Incas, the nation of some thirty mill ion people, was one family ; all worked for the state ; the state provided for all. These roads were built for the wel fare of the whole people by these state laborers. Our Boys went to La Paz ; on a part of the way by the lake of the cloud world. They made the journey to Cuzco partly by rail and partly by mule. They found the city in a state of partial decay. We shall speak of Cuzco in her glory in another chapter. She will soon be united to Are quipa by rail. The railway from that city to the connecting points on the lake is already partly completed. " The earth helped the woman," says the Scripture. So science helps THE WEST COAST. 317 civilization. What South America needs is Swiss education. Arline was seeing this as she went on her strange way over mountains and through clouds, dreaming in her young mind the dreams of her family friend, Elizabeth Peabody. "What this country should have," she ventured to say to Uncle Henry, "is a kindergarten school for every twenty children." Uncle Henry lifted his hands, after the manner that these exclamation points had started up on the summer veranda on Milton Hills. "Arline," he said, "it strikes me that your ideas are rather Oriental — they would have saved the head of Queen Scheherazade." From Mollendo Our Boys went to Callao, the port of Lima, where lived the mysterious Dona Blanco, an old friend of the family in her younger days, who went abroad to study music, and in some way married a Don and went to Lima and lived near the " city of the kings " in a place of public resort, bearing the delightful name of Miraflores. She was a young woman of great vigor of mind and character, and one who had heard the educational lectures of Miss Peabody in the revival days of Boston education. On the steamer again, Arline read, one bright afternoon, a poem to Uncle Henry. It had been written in her note-book by the imaginative American whom they had left at Santiago. She read it very carefully, as though it contained some idea that she would impress upon the captain. What did it mean? 3l8 OVER THE ANDES. THE BARRIER REEF. (AUSTRALIA.) A thousand miles the waves beat back and thunder, A thousand miles the firm reef spouts its spray ; Who reared, my soul, these ocean walls of wonder, That here the mighty hosts of breakers stay? Without, all currents of the angry billows ; Within, the placid splendors of the calm, Where spreads the chambered sea her warded pillows, Safe from the gales as isles of pine and balm. O coral builder, who this reef made glorious That stands among the parables of time, As thou hast lifted, 'gainst the seas, victorious, These fortress walls, stupendous and sublime, So man may add by simple self-denials Virtue to virtue, till his perils cease ; Without, the billows baffled in their trials ; Within, the havens and the ports of peace. O coral builder, least of all earth's creatures, Thy will has climbed where failed the aims of man! The simplest yet the grandest of life's teachers, Finite in work, but infinite in plan ! In thee, achievement finds her noblest story, He wins whose purpose upward climbs like thee ; Man maps the earth, and builds his towers of glory — But thou alone hast ordered back the sea! Dofia Blanco lived out of Lima. Uncle Henry decided to take the great railroad trip of the world before paying THE WEST COAST. 319 her a visit. Arline wished to go at once to the Dona's villa, but Uncle Henry said, " No, we will rest there afterward." THE HIGHEST RAILROAD IN THE WORLD. In their curious hotel at Lima, whose dining-room was all bowers and bloom, and whose tables made one never forget the hour of the meal, Leigh said to Uncle Henry: — " You said, Uncle, that we were to go up on the Oroya rail road, and that it is the highest railroad in the world. Where is Oroya ? " " Oroya is not any grand city of modern times nor ruin of the Inca age, but a railroad station on the Cumbre." " But does the railroad stop there ? " " For the present, or near there. Oroya stands for the summit of the Cordillera. Oroya is a hamlet at the summit of the pass of the Peruvian Andes, about one hundred and thirty- seven miles from Callao, at a height of more than twelve thousand feet. It is one of the highest railway stations in the world." " If Oroya is not a great city nor a great mining camp, why was this road built ? " " To connect the Pacific coast with the navigable part of the Amazon River. It is one of the most gigantic schemes ever conceived by the human brain. It almost makes Napo leon's saying true, that there is no such word as impossible." " But why has the railroad stopped at Oroya ? Why has it not gone on and down to the banks of the Amazon ? " " It stopped at Oroya for the want of further means to carry on the construction. The building of the road to the summit nearly ruined the Peruvian government." 320 OVER THE ANDES. "Will it ever be finished?" " Nothing can be more certain. The conditions of the growth of the people and of commerce will compel its comple tion. The impossible work on it is already done. It has silenced the common assertion that it could not be built. It is practically accomplished. It will not be a difficult thing to complete the road to the Amazon, but it may for a time not be as easy to command the capital to do it." " I have heard that those who go up to Oroya are in danger of mountain sickness; that they may bleed from the nose, eyes and ears ; and that there have been cases in which the burst ing of the capillaries in the brain has caused instant death." "There is little danger to one's health, if one approaches the Cumbre by slow stages. I have arranged for us to stop off three times, once at Matacoma, at San Mateo, and again at Chilca. I do not apprehend that we will suffer. We will take time to adjust ourselves to the altitude." " What will we see ? " "The terrace farms of Indian races now gone — farms above the clouds, gardens of the sky. We shall see the re mains of the dwellings of those of another age, who actually lived in the sky. We shall see such exhibitions of enginery as were never before attempted by man. We shall go through countless tunnels, over stupendous chasms, and face the White Andes, that can only be seen from the far plains or from the sea." " When shall we begin the journey ? " "To-morrow." The next day they set out for this journey to the sky ; at first up the long, narrow valley of the rapid Rimac. They THE WEST COAST. 321 arrived by pleasant stages at a great bridge of a fearful name, the Aqua de Verregus, or "the water of warts." To drink the water is to induce goitres. Many of the builders of the bridge suffered from this infliction, and there is a cemetery near called Beautiful View, that bears witness to the peril of this poisoned stream. The mountain walls now begin to show the remains of terraces, which were once gardens. They seem like human swallows' nests, and they become more and more numerous. What a strange and picturesque population once dwelt amid these hanging gardens ! shelf farms, in the moist air. They stopped at San Mateo, a town of some two thousand inhabitants, on a mountain stream. Here they rested amid the great upheavals of nature, in the solitary mountain world. They were glad when they could resume the journey. In all of these places one is in a hurry to get away; one is overpowered with a desire for change, and thinks of the world as something afar. They passed a place so terrible in its suggestions as to be called A Little Hell (Iufernillo). At Chilca they stood on an altitude of twelve thousand six hundred and ninety-seven feet. The snow peaks soon began to loom up above the green mountain walls. At last Mt. Sunday appeared in showy grandeur. Here is the source of the River Rimac, which goes tumbling down the gorges, and gathering force to become the delight of Lima and her gardens of bloom. The railway crosses the Cordillera in view of Mt. Meiggs, a summit higher than Mont Blanc. Here is the highest 322 OVER THE ANDES. tunnel in the world. It is some six hundred feet below the Cumbre. The feeling in these stupendous solitudes of the sky is one of awe. Human pride vanishes here. The heart longs for its old home, wherever it may be. One can but pity the fate of the Italian laborers who helped the Indians to construct these immense curves, bridges, and tunnels, whose lives must have been short, and whose wages small. They were men of necessity, who toiled with out comfort, and with little hope, and who left not so much as a name in the world. Here were the regions of the llama or the mountain camel, which seems created for the cliff, as the Arabian camel is for the desert. Below, on one side, was the serene Pacific ; on the other, the mighty waterways to the Amazon. Some day, when the over-population of Europe, or the finding of mines, shall bring a new race here, this highway will be travelled as in the days of the vanished Indian races. " From the Pacific to the Amazon " will be a proud name in human achievement. It is largely North American enter prise that has planned and built these stupendous highways of Argentina, Chili, and Peru. Will not this spirit march on until it shall embrace education and the arts, and lead to the valleys and table-lands of the Andes populations who shall develop the untold and incalculable resources of this empty part of the world ? CHAPTER XXIX. LIMA, "THE PEARL OF THE PACIFIC" AUNT BLANCO, THE GOLDEN SHE IS A KINDERGARTNER ARLINE REMAINS IN LIMA. THEY found Mary White, whom they had come to call " Aunt Blanco, the Golden," in a lovely villa on the Rimac, a few miles out of Lima. She was expecting Our Boys and Arline, and had been hoping for their coming on the arrival of each steamer from the south at Callao. She received Arline with tears, embraces, and kisses, as though she were a sister. She welcomed Our Boys with wonderful grace and dignity, and turned them over to her husband, the hospitable "Dr. Don." The villa was very beautiful. The patio was a slender marble colonnade, hung with vines, orchids, and- cages of lovely birds. In the middle of it was a fountain, with Italian statues. The salas of the house, or casas, were adorned with paintings, and the whole villa seemed to be a little palace of beauty and art. Arline was taken into the Dona's private rooms, and was there served with fruit, cake, and coffee. "Now," continued the Dofia, "you will wish to know 323 324 OVER THE ANDES. how I came to change my name. I went abroad to study music, and one summer I visited Switzerland, where I be came interested in kindergarten education. I met Dr. Don Blanco at Geneva. He was connected with the Peruvian government. He, too, was interested in education, and had come to Geneva to study the influence of the Swiss system of education on the national character. He is a Liberal in poli tics. He offered me his name. He was a great-hearted man, — one who was seeking for a more liberal government in Peru. I believed in him and in his purposes. I loved him, and I married him. " You will like him ; and now you have come, I hope, to help us in our educational work in the true spirit of Elizabeth Peabody, our old friend. I have a large kindergarten in my own house at Miraflores, where we will go, and have plans for such schools among the families at Tarapaca and among the Quichua Indians. Let me now introduce my husband to you." The Don appeared ; he looked like a king. "La casa esta a la disposition de usted" he said; "la casa delisted." (My house is yours.) It seemed delightful to be given such a beautiful house. The Don had just before given it to Our Boys. Dr. Don Blanco was a man of genius, and highly esteemed as a physician on the coast. As soon as he discovered Leigh's fondness for botany, he began to take the boy to his heart. One day, he said to him: — " My boy, you are looking about for an occupation in life. You should become a physician, and a specialist." LIMA, "THE PEARL OF THE PACIFIC. 325 "How a specialist?" asked Leigh. "I am glad that you take such a friendly interest in me. I would be glad if I could become superior in something, and your word specialist makes me eager to know what you have in your mind." " My boy, amigo mio, your saying that you wish that you could become superior in something strikes the right chord. " Peru is the land of the new discoveries of medical plants that have proved most useful to the world. Here is the place of cinchona (Peruvian bark), sarsaparilla, ipecacuanha, and copaiba, names familiar to your ears. But the forests of Peru abound in plants that offer new remedies. You should study there, and make yourself useful to the profession in that way." "Dr. Don Blanco, I cannot tell you what I now see — you have opened the door to my whole life. Let me call Uncle Henry." The captain responded to the call. " Uncle Henry, my duty in life has been made clear to me," said he, with his usual enthusiasm. "I have chosen my occupation in life." " So has Alonzo. He is now studying to become a mer chant. His choice makes my heart glad. Travel enlarges one's views in this way. Now, Leigh, what calling have you chosen ?" " I am going to study to be a physician, and I would like to begin my study here with the Doctor. He is a botanist, and I wish to study the plants that offer new remedies to the profession. I can make my life useful in this way." " Leigh, my boy, I am glad to hear you say that. I am happy that you see in that way your duty in life. But you 326 OVER THE ANDES. should not begin your studies here at first. Go back, be graduated from an American medical college, then return here and study medical botany with the Doctor." Arline entered the room. "Well, Arline," said Uncle Henry, "Alonzo and Leigh think that they have chosen their occupations in life." " So have I, Uncle.'-' The exclamation points in the shape of two arms went up. " I am going to try to be a kindergarten teacher, and to find a field where I am most needed. Elizabeth Peabody told me I ought to do that years ago." Dofia Blanco now came upon the scene. She held in her hand little Loro, who asked as usual, " What is the matter ? " " I am going," she said, " to hang Loro up among the birds in the kindergarten schoolroom, when we go to Miraflores, and there she will always remain.." " Arline here tells me that she intends to become a kinder garten teacher. Why a kindergarten teacher ? " asked Uncle Henry. " Captain Henry Frobisher, Arline is right," said Dofia Blanco. " She has caught the true spirit of Elizabeth Pea body. The need of South America is education, and pri mary-school education, and the kind of primary-school education that stands for character, and that develops the individuality of the pupil for the best that he can do in life. We need great teachers for our schools, — I mean those who are great in heart, not intellectual acrobats. " Captain Henry, I am proud of Arline and of her pur pose in life. I want you to leave her with me. I want to make a place for her as a teacher among the families of a LIMA, "THE PEARL OF THE PACIFIC." 327 colony town on the desert of Tarapaca. If she loves the work there, I want her to begin the same kind of education among the Quichua Indians. " Captain Henry, listen to me. I am dead in earnest in this matter. You ask me what is this kindergarten that is not in other education. The Sermon on the Mount is in it. The work fixes the Sermon on the Mount in the con duct of the child. It is spiritual education first, memory and reason afterward. " ' I have given away much money in charity,' said, in substance, Elizabeth Thompson, the philanthropist, — whom Congress honored with the freedom of its halls, — 'in a man ner which has done more harm than good. Could I live my life over again, I would establish in the country kindergartens for friendless children of the city.' " ' We create life through ideals,' taught Pestalozzi. ' We learn by doing,' said Froebel ; and both agreed that life must be taught from life or by example, and that the individual gift of the pupil was ' sacred to the teacher,' and that each pupil must be developed after his own gift, as though there were no other pupils like him, or gift like his in the world. The old-time New England school-dame, whipping the dates of the reigns of Roman emperors into five-year-old brains, formed no part of the grand Pestalozzian vision. ' Educa tion stands for character,' said Pestalozzi." Arline listened to these views with the spirit in which Leigh had given his ears to the poetic Mr. Warrener. Dofia Blanco continued, — " Our schools have followed too largely the monarchical idea, and too little the plan of self-government which repre- 328 OVER THE ANDES. sents the spirit of the Republic. We look out upon the moral condition of the people with alarm, and there comes to the prophetic souls the strong conviction that we must have a new order of universal education — an education that tends to character on the principle that ' power lies in the ultimates ' — to make a new generation to meet the higher demands of the age. What shall be our model ? " Arline nodded to Uncle Henry to listen. " It has ofttimes been said that Switzerland — the place where freedom and schools were born — is the model repub lic of the world, and that she owes her admirable system of laws to her methods of education. Switzerland has entered into treaties of perpetual peace with the European nations ; she has the referendum by which the laws enacted by her congress are referred back to the people for endorsement ; and her children are all educated by the state for the pro tection of the state. Of some 485,000 heads of families, 465,000 own landed or other property. Capital punishment has been abolished, and in no one of the public institutions may any one strike another a blow. These well-known facts produce an ideal impression. The like influence of her sys tem of education, which is essentially the same, has been claimed for Prussia. When the latter nation went down before France, the Emperor Frederick declared, ' We must have a new education to make a new generation of men.' His empress, Louisa, had read Pestalozzi's delightful novel, ' Lienhard und Gertrud,' and asked to be allowed to send a class of Prussian students to the Swiss school-master's Institute of Yverdon. So a new education for Germany was begun. After Sedan, General Von Moltke is reported to have said, ' It was Pestalozzi who did it.' " LIMA, "THE PEARL OF THE PACIFIC." 329 The Dofia had become so enthusiastic in what she was saying that Loro said, " What is the matter ? " " In this view, and to learn features for new development in Froebel schools for friendless children in charitable work, and for the larger and more general work of elementary culture, I went to Zurich in 1895, and spent the summer amid the scenes and associations of Pestalozzi and among the castles associated with the forming of the first public schools and a system of moral education. " I began my Pestalozzian pilgrimage at Zurich, but be fore speaking of the birthplace of the world's great school master, let me give a simple outline of Pestalozzi's life, as it appears on his famous monument in the old square at Yverdon : — Henry Pestalozzi, Born at Zurich, the 12th of January, 1746, Died at Brugg, the 17th of February, 1827, Saviour of the poor at Newhof, Father of orphans at Stanz, Founder of public schools at Burgdorf, Teacher of humanity at Yverdon. " Two of the places named in this beautiful memorial relate to the development of that new education which filled Switzerland and Prussia, and which we believe is to be made the foundation of a better system of national culture in our own Republic, and by all American republics. " I went to Burgdorf. Here Pestalozzi established the first public school in the world in the interest of common- school education. His system of instruction was a wonder. 330 OVER THE ANDES. It was founded largely on these principles, that ' the individu ality of the pupil is sacred to the teacher,' and that ' life must be taught from life,' or by example, or sense impres sions. The wonder grew. The report of the official visitors to this first free school is an expression of amazement. We give an extract from it, in which is clearly shown the philoso pher's methods : ' So far as we are able to judge, all that you yourself hoped from your method of teaching has been real ized. You have shown what powers already exist in even the youngest child ; in what way these powers are to be developed, and how each talent must be sought out and exer cised in such a way as to bring it to maturity. The aston ishing progress made by all your younger pupils, in spite of their differences in character and dispositions, clearly shows that every child is good for something, when the master knows how to find out his talents and cultivate them in a truly psy chological manner. Your teaching has brought to light the foundations on which all instructions must be based, if it is ever to be of any real use. It also shows that from the tenderest age, and in a very short time, a child's mind can attain a wonderful breadth of development, which must make its influence felt, not only during his few years of study, but throughout his whole life.' " I went to Yverdon. Here in the old castle, in view of the placid Neuchatel, and under the low, dark walls of the Jura, Pestalozzi founded his institute to train teachers for the work of public-school education after his new philosophy and method. His schools continue there now, and in the same rooms where he used to teach. The fame of Yverdon filled Europe. The institute was visited by the learned and LIMA, "THE PEARL OF THE PACIFIC." 33 1 titled from many lands. Here came Froebel, and caught the leading ideas of the Pestalozzian philosophy and changed them into the system called kindergarten. His earliest les son in a school that he attended in childhood was : ' Seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you.' "The word first haunted him for many years, and he resolved to found a system of education upon it, in which soul culture should be the moulding influence. He saw that the child creates life by his ideals, and that it was the true principle of education to lead the child to put into habit the highest ideals ; to make a moral education of the playground in the natural way, and to mould the soul to the highest expression of life, human and divine. " Froebel saw that the social life of a child is, as a rule, decisive of its destiny ; that in the first years of life the incorruptible seed must be sown, and that his methods of education should follow the spiritual symbols of nature. ' Life,' he says, ' is one continuous whole, and all the stages of development are but links in the great chain of existence ; and since nothing is stronger than its weaker part, it is essen tial that the first link — babyhood — be made firm enough to bear the strain of future life.' The child must learn by creative things to delight in his objective self. " ' For thyself in all thy works take care, That every act the highest meaning bear ; Wouldst thou unite the child for aye with thee, Then let him with the Highest One thy union see. Believe that by the good that's in thy mind Thy child to good will early be inclined. By every noble thought with which thy heart is fired, 332 OVER THE ANDES. The child's young soul will surely be inspired ; And canst thou any better gift bestow, Than union with the Eternal One to know ? ' — Froebel. " The traveller in Switzerland can take but one view of the influence of this system of soul-culture in childhood upon the national character. That strength of the system lies in that it tends to eliminate hereditary evil tendencies, and starts the moral growth rightly while the nature is susceptible. "As King William said of Prussia, we may now say of South America, ' We must have a new system of education to make a new generation of men.' Froebel once found a garden without a lily, and it did not meet the ideal of his soul. Our system does not educate. It is the garden with out the lily." Here the Dona rose up, and Loro was about to speak again, but Arline raised her finger. " A kindergarten age is at hand, and the political attain ment of Switzerland pictures what its influence will be. It will be an evolution of education, whose salutary effect is likely to be felt in the three Americas. It has already begun. "The rise of moral education in this country owes much to the influence of Miss Elizabeth Palmer Peabody, my old friend and Arline's ideal, who threw herself like a prophetess into the Froebel work of character-building in childhood. This woman's work was hardly appreciated while she lived, for the power and extent of its influence could not then be seen. It was just and fitting that the latest evolution of the kindergarten method — the Kindergarten Settlement in Bos ton — should be given her name. " The preparation for the new education of the kinder- LIMA, "THE PEARL OF THE PACIFIC." 333 garten age has been going on silently, but with prophetic force, in many of our American cities, and notably in Chi cago, Boston, San Francisco, and Cincinnati. It found strong expression at the World's Columbian Exposition. It is a woman's movement in this country, and it has for its end the building of national character." Arline's face glowed, and Loro, seeing it, now ventured to inquire again, "What is the matter? " " Any one who has means and the time can go on a mis sion of humanity in this way. It offers an open door where the need is the greatest, and the influence the longest and the most evolutionary. Every street in America where there are friendless children needs a kindergarten to offer such little ones sympathy, protection, a home, and to bring security to society. " The old nations which are surprising the world by new progress, as Japan, Mexico, and several of the South Ameri can republics, are accepting the fact that 'the primary school is the foundation of national character.' This is notably so in Japan, where a few years ago the first kindergarten was opened in Tokio, under the patronage of the court, amid songs of the poets, music, and flowers, and it now numbers in its branches nearly ten thousand pupils. " Instruction and memory culture is only a fraction of the whole system of education. The heart must share the like development of the brain, and the conscience be ennobled to govern both, and the wings of the imagination have an atmosphere. The Republic must have men, if it would live. Every friend of human progress may well welcome the kindergarten age as an iris of hope in the signs of the 334 OVER THE ANDES. times ; in it will appear, as in Switzerland and Prussia, a new generation of men to meet the higher demands of the race. As Froebel says, ' Renunciation — the abandonment of the external or of the internal — is the condition for attain ing the highest development.' " Let me tell you the story of what one woman did in San Francisco, and show you her development. " In the graduating exercises of the Pacific Kindergarten Training School in 1880, Mrs. Sarah B. Cooper began an address which has been widely quoted, with these words : ' When the old king demanded of the Spartans fifty of their children as hostages, they replied, " We would prefer to give you a hundred of our most distinguished men." ' This was but a fair testimony to the value of a child to any community and in any age. " Mrs. Cooper, strange as it may seem to-day, had fallen under the criticism of 'heresy,' the cause of her offend ing being her inspiration to lay the foundation of a better national character by founding free kindergartens for neg lected children. In this address she proceeds to show that such schools are Christ schools, and that they follow the first principles of the Galilean teaching. She said in strong, positive words : ' The hope of San Francisco lies in the little children that throng her streets to-day. . . . With fifty or sixty kindergartens established in the most neglected districts, San Francisco would be a different city in ten years.' In the same address, and in answer to the question as to what is to be done with the neglected classes of children in large cities, she said, ' Multiply free kindergar tens everywhere.' LIMA, "THE PEARL OF THE PACIFIC." 335 " This was fifteen or more years ago. She saw the star that was to lead the pioneer teachers into the larger and more spiritual evolution of this work in life. The city of San Francisco, notwithstanding the charge of ' heresy ' against Mrs. Cooper, accepted the Jackson Street Kindergar ten for neglected children as an experiment in character education. The result became an example to the Pacific states and to the country. Mrs. Cooper came to see such schools endowed with sixty thousand dollars from Mrs. Leland Stanford, and to be recognized as the influence that met the needs of American cities. " The kindergarten movement in San Francisco is asso ciated with the honored names of Miss Emma Marwedel and Mr. Felix Adler ; but among the leaders of those who have sought to make the kindergarten a part of benevolent church work, Mrs. Cooper merits a high place of honor — she may be said to belong to the martyr period of the movement. " When Froebel appeared as a pupil in the old German town, his earliest lesson was, ' Seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness.' That word first haunted him, and it became his star of life, and he resolved to found a new system of education upon it, one that should begin with the exercise of the spiritual faculties. " Mrs. Cooper clearly saw this side of the Froebelian purpose and vision, and she gave her influence to making this education the work of Christian benevolence. It be came a clear light, a multiplying power. It flowed from her heart naturally : she can have had no thought of personal gain or reputation. " Her life is full of incidents that are inspiring. It shows 336 OVER THE ANDES. the hand behind the event ; how the doors of Providence open to those with a benevolent purpose ; how the true cur rent of life finds the larger way. It is the running stream that fertilizes, and the stream runs to the river, and the river to the sea. "She was born at Cazenovia, N.Y., December 12, 1836. At the age of fourteen she became a teacher in a country school. ' My first teaching was the best that I ever did,' she says. Her experience in the country school is a picture of her whole life, for she organized a Sunday-school in the schoolhouse, in the true spirit of Froebel, and drew to it the people of the town. " She became a pupil of Mrs. Willard's female seminary, in Troy, N.Y., and then went South to teach in the family of a distinguished and wealthy gentleman. The spirit of the fourteen-year-old teacher in a country town in New York sought a like opportunity in Georgia, and she gathered a school of plantation slaves for religious instruction. All this was a preparation for a larger work, which she could not have then foreseen. " She was married to Mr. H. F. Cooper, in Augusta, Ga., a gentleman who held in his life important offices under the state and federal government. " President Lincoln having appointed Mr. Cooper assessor of internal revenue at Memphis, Tenn., Mrs. Cooper enlarged her work by organizing Bible classes among the soldiers. In the same perilous period she formed a society for the protection of refugees. In 1869, she became a resident of San Francisco, and engaged in benevolent work in the Howard Presbyterian Church, and later in the Calvary Presbyterian Church. Here LIMA, "THE PEARL OF THE PACIFIC." 337 her real life work, for which she had been long preparing, came to her. She was led to give her great personal influ ence to free kindergartens for neglected children. " In this effort she was criticised by members of her own church. The criticism led to an awakening of public interest in her missionary enterprises, with the result that benevolent citizens of San Francisco contributed, in 1891, the sum of more than thirty thousand dollars towards her benevolent kin dergartens. Some ten thousand children have been trained in these schools, the success of which led to the forming of the Golden Gate Kindergarten Association. Mrs. Cooper was made the president of this association, and her reputation and work became national. " She has written much and lectured before important associations in the interest of her work. She has taken an interest in the education of Jewish children, and her influ ence for good in San Francisco has been many-sided and powerful. She has helped her times. " Her answer to the problem of the age is, ' Multiply kindergartens for neglected children.' " What one woman did for the Pacific states, Arline and I can begin to do in this country. We can make, I say, a beginning. We can drop the first seed into the soil." " I see, I see what you would like to do," said Uncle Henry. "Well, ideals in some minds become temples. But Arline is too young to begin this work now. She can come back again, if she wishes, when she is older." "Captain Henry Frobisher, I hold a letter in my hands. It is from my old friend, Arline's mother. In it she says that Arline may remain with me, and engage in study and 338 OVER THE ANDES. teaching here, if she shall wish to do so. What do you say, Arline?" " I wish to stay. I love Uncle Henry, and my favorite cousins are Alonzo and Leigh ; but my duty is here. ' He who prefers his friends to duty will soon prefer himself to his friends,' some one says. " I saw my place here in my mind before I left home. I told my conviction to my mother. She kissed me and told me that she believed that I would become consecrated to this work ; that it was a work begun by Elizabeth Peabody. She was glad that I wished to give my life to seeking the good of others." " But you are only a drop in the sea, Arline." " But the drop is of the sea, Uncle Henry. I came here to stay. Here I must stay. I cannot do otherwise." " Captain Frobisher," said Dofia Blanco, " no one can suc ceed in this country without enthusiasm. Enthusiasm does succeed here, as you have seen." " Well, my Arline. I am loath to give you up ; but Another has called you. I can see it. May Heaven bless you, and when you need help in your work, remember that you will find a friend in the heart and pockets of your old Uncle Henry." So Arline found a home on the Rimac, under the rainless skies of Peru. CHAPTER XXX. THE LAND OF THE EMERALDS THE INCAS IN THEIR GLORY TO PANAMA. THE Esmeraldas ! The word had a charm of old, both to the Incas and to the Spaniards. The charm vanished, for there were no longer Incas to wear the green jewels in their golden robes and among their sacred feathers, and the Spaniards have been taking long siestas in their mountain- walled cities. What a land is this, of Ecuador ! Over it looms the dome of the equator, Chimborazo, and blazes the eternal chimney of Cotopaxi. It is under the equator, and beneath this fiery arch the axle of the earth seems to bend. In the blaz ing noons here the sun casts no shadow. The sunsets are splendors before which the memory of the sunsets of Italy lose their charm. The stars of night seem to hang in liquid air. It is still a land of gold, and these mines in the mountain walls will yet carry into the highlands of the Andes a new civilization and the influences of Christian education. Al ready plans are being made by American and English capi talists to break open again the treasure-houses of nature in the equatorial hills, whence Incas and viceroys once obtained their wealth. Should gold, rather than a desire for the spirit- 339 34° OVER THE ANDES. ual good of mankind, lead this higher progress of civiliza tion ? We can only answer by saying that in the uplifting of mankind all things work together for good. " Friends," said Pizarro, the conqueror, robber, and mur derer, as he traced a line with his sword on the sand, "on that side of the line are toil, hunger, and nakedness, the drenching storm, desertion, and death ; on this side, is ease ; on this side is pleasure. On that side of the line lies Peru and its riches. Choose, each man as becomes a Castilian. As for me, I cross the line and face the south ! " He stepped over the line on the sand: his comrades followed him. What this man did for gold, some great soul should be found to do for the uplifting of the untaught races in these regions of gold and emeralds under the mountains of the sun. Here might arise one of the most glorious nations in the history of mankind. Nature has prepared a triumphal way for those who would go there, not to enrich themselves, but the soul ; who would go there poor, and return poor, but leave the Kingdom of Heaven behind. The Guayaquil River is like a garden in the sea. It is lined with canoes, groves of mangoes, and venerable trees. Birds of bright plumage fill the air. Far in the distance loom the Andes in the blazing sky. The steamer from Panama, or from Valparaiso, seems scarcely to be moving as she approaches the port city of Guayaquil, so undisturbed are the waters. The city of Guayaquil, once known as Calanta, but called by its present name, after Guyas, a chief of Atahualpa, the Inca of tragic history, is the port of Ecuador. It has some twenty or more thousand fixed residents, some fine houses, THE LAND OF THE EMERALDS. 34 1 and is very picturesque at sunset, or when lighted at night and thus seen from the still river. The river was known to the Spaniards nearly a hundred years before the landing of the Pilgrim Fathers in New England. The province of Quito was anciently one of the richest in all South America, and is still full of undeveloped resources, which promise one day to make it a wonderland of the world. It is one of the regions of the future. In the eighteenth century it began to fall into decay, and at the present time there are few more inactive countries than the Republic of Ecuador. The plateaus of the Andes here are from five to eleven thousand feet above the sea. They have temperate and agreeable climates ; clear, brilliant atmospheres ; the moun tains lift their heads in eternal winters, while the orange, the olive, the vine, the maize, spread their gardens about their feet. The slopes of the Cordilleras are green with forests. Here grows the mahogany-tree. Here are spice-trees, dyewoods, the wild cocoa, coffee plant or tree, the cinchona, the wax palm, the vanilla vine, and orchids of wonderful forms and colors. Gold, silver, and copper are richly stored in the hills. Quicksilver oozes from the ores. The Esmeralda River is still walled with rocks containing the green gem once so highly esteemed. There is a mountain range southeast of Quito called the Langante, or Beautiful Mountain, which was known as the Mother of Gold, because gold was found in the waters that flowed down her sides. How do travellers go to Quito — the hidden city of wonder from the port of Guayaquil ? The distance is some ninety 342 OVER THE ANDES. leagues, or two hundred and seventy geographical miles. It looks like a commonplace effort, a journey of less than three hundred miles, which we make in America by rail in nine hours or less. But in this journey, in the lights and shadows of Chimborazo, one of the highest mountains on earth, and which must be made by mule or diligence, there will arise difficulties of which the ordinary traveller little dreams. In the fair season one may go from Guayaquil to Quito safely and comfortably in from three to five days ; in the rainy seasons, no schedule time can be made. The way from Quito to Guayaquil in the dry season is first for some sixty miles by the river to Bodegas, thence by mule or diligence over the lower mountains to the regions of Chimborazo, amid atmospheres of all the splendors of light and shade, to Huaranda. Church, the painter, has made this part of Ecuador famous as the Heart of the Andes. He exhibited a beautiful oil painting under this name in London, in 1856. It was a revelation to England, and afterwards it excited by its ex hibition in our large cities the wonder of scenery-loving people in our country. It is said to have been a composite picture, but the principal view was taken from Huaranda, at sunset, under the shadows of Chimborazo. Mr. Frederick E. Church was born in Hartford, Conn., 1826. He was a pupil of Thomas Cole, and developed a passion for painting that which was the most sublime and beautiful in nature. He began with a view of East Rock, near New Haven. His Niagara Falls made him famous. He longed to see Nature revealed in her most lofty expres sions. In this quest he went to Ecuador. His Cotopaxi THE LAND OF THE EMERALDS. 343 added to his reputation, and his Heart of the Andes made for him an international reputation and a world-wide fame. Under the shadow of Chimborazo, and in view of blazing Cotopaxi, he saw the giant forces of nature, and gave them to canvas for the admiration of the world. At Huaranda, the mules of the travellers are changed for those of hard feet and long training. ^Pfter four hours or more hard climbing, the highest point of the road is reached, and we are traversing the companion hills of the mighty Chimborazo. We come next to Moca, and fifteen miles farther to the town of Hambato. The city of Latacunga next appears, more than 10,000 feet above the sea-level, out of the valley of which rises Cotopaxi. In a little less than one hundred miles we reach Quito, amid surroundings of natural scenery unsurpassed on earth. The city crowns the plateau. Its climate is eternal spring. The fruits of nearly all zones grow here. At the south rises the hill of Panecillo, where the Peruvian conquerors wor shipped the sun. The towers of churches rise over the streets and walls. Quito has some 80,000 inhabitants. Ascend the hills around the city, and eight icy peaks of the Andes are to be seen. Go down into the valleys, and you are in a paradise of flowers, fruit, and singing birds. The sky of Italy is over you, and Chimborazo, 27,000 feet high, reflects the sun and mirrors the moon, where "seldom human foot has trod, or wing of condor scaled," or a single stream of water found an earthward way, for the hard moun tain never weeps, but self-contained holds its eternal propor tions and grows. 344 OVER THE ANDES. About 9000 feet above the table-land of Quito rises flaming Cotopaxi, 18,887 feet high. Its upper part is a perfect cone of more than 4000 feet of snow. The flames of Cotopaxi have been known to rise 3000 feet. The scoria covers the valleys, where the thunders of the volcano have shaken the earth and air for more than five hundred miles. Humboldt, the great naturalist, reached the snow line of Cotopaxi and pronounced the mountain inaccessible. The Esmeralda River, or River of the Emeralds, which gives the poetic name to this region, rises near Quito, and flows to the sea through the province and past the town of Esmeraldas. The rock along the river was once famous for the green gems, and the whole country still may be claimed to be the true soil of the emerald. It was by way of the River of the Emeralds that the Caras invaders found Quito from the coast, and so conquered the Quito race. There is a hill on the south side of Quito called Panecillo. The view from its top is one of the most beautiful and grand in the world. The hill was called the Incas Yavira, or the Virgin. The Quitos first had a temple there, and afterwards the conquering Caras. The Caras came to Quito 1000 a.d. On the hill was erected a temple to the sun and a temple to the moon. Few structures in the world have been more poetic. The Temple of the Sun was built of stone, having a pyramidal roof. It was square. On the eastern wall was a sun of gold, so fashioned as to emit resplendent rays on the processions of robed priests and multitudes of worshippers. The door of the temple stood wide open to the east, so as to face the sun in his earliest rising. The sun came up over the colossal THE LAND OF THE EMERALDS. 345 mountains, — the peaks of ice and fire. His first rays fell upon the huge disk of gold in the open temple, and the gold sun became dazzling in the day god rising over the mountains. As the golden sun sent forth its fiery splendors, the priests adored the Maker of all things, and the people rejoiced in awe. But more poetic was the Temple of the Moon. It was round, and also faced the east, with a wide, open portal. In it on the eastern wall was a moon, or luna image of silver. When the moon rose over the Cordillera, her first beams must have shone upon the moon of silver, or the image representing the moon. How beautiful was night in Quito in those days of spectac ular splendor, romance, and charm ! Afar, volcanoes blazed. The stars like lamps hung about stupendous Chimborazo. The land was flowers and the air was balm. Upon Pane- cillo Hill, commanding glorious prospects in sun and shadow, passed long processions of people; caciques loaded with gems; priests in white ; women on whose necks shone the green lustres of emerald in chains of gold. The rim of the moon appeared above the mountain wall, and the moon god in the temple began to gleam. The silver moon, we may fancy, responded to the moon in the horizon, and a silver gleam filled the round temple, as the full-orbed moon parted from the mountain crest. Joy filled the hearts of all as the earth temple seemed to answer the heavens. Music pulsed in the delicious air, and song and ecstasy arose. God seemed to come visibly near. It was ignorant and bar barous, but it is all that the Indian mind could know. It approached truth. Beautiful in catching the moonbeams 346 OVER THE ANDES. by night, as the golden sun caught the sunbeams of early morning, were the two temples and their bejewelled worship pers, and beautiful was night in Quito from five hundred to a thousand years ago. What Ecuador most needs is education, — Pestalozzian, Froebelian, and Swiss education, or that which stands for the development of the spiritual nature of the child and a true knowledge of its relations to life and the world, — an education that stands for character and makes men. Ecuador, with a system of free and universal education, would rise high among the republics of the world. Nature has given her everything. She only needs to create a new race of enlightened men. The reopening of her mines to American enterprise will carry there a higher sense of responsibilities of civilization, and the school will follow, and that will be a happy day for the lands of the equator when the school bells shall ring under Chimborazo. The way from Guayaquil to Quito was formerly by river and mule train. But now one may go by steamer and dili gence (diligencia). The latter course was taken by our travellers, who passed over the foot of Chimborazo, or over those elevations above which the monarch mountain rises like a dome. THE INCAS IN THEIR GLORY. The visions of the equality, fraternity, and union of man kind, such as prophets foresaw and Virgil in the Pollio (Eclogue IV.) picture, was in part fulfilled in the years of the Incas in their glory. THE LAND OF THE EMERALDS. 347 In that golden period of semi-barbarism, as we have said, none were rich, none were poor, and the care of helpless infancy and old age was bestowed alike upon all. Vanish ye, last years of the nineteenth century ! let us turn again to the past through the eye that looks backward. It is a high day in Cuzco, the beginning of the Feast of the Huaraca, when the new Inca is to be proclaimed, which is to last for thirty days. The royal neophyte, who is now to take his seat beside his father on the golden throne of the sun, is Huayna Capac, the last of the legitimate Incas, and the last but two of the royal race. It is early morning. The city is laden with flowers, and the breath of flowers fills the air. The way to the great Temple of the Sun is strewn with Inca lilies ; drums are beaten ; trumpets are blown, and bells of silver and gold awaken the sleepers. As a rising arch of pearly light fills the east, and under it appears a red glow, like a semi-crown of rubies, the mighty fortress that guards the city comes distinctly into view. What a structure this was on the white steps of the sierras ! The wall facing the city was a precipice, twelve hundred feet long, lifting into the air three stupendous towers. No cement had been used in erecting this moun tainous defence, yet the stones were so fitted together that a blade of a knife could scarcely have been inserted between them. Some of these stones were nearly forty feet long and of great thickness. They had been brought by rude machines from distant quarries. The building of the for tress had occupied twenty thousand men for fifty years. The rubies of the eastern sky brighten under the arch of 348 OVER THE ANDES. spreading splendor, that is gray, pearly, and liquid in hue, like the sea. A single sun ray shoots above the sierra. A great pro cession moves from the fortress and palaces clothed in white. At the head comes the Inca, crowned with cora quenque feathers, gleaming with gold and emeralds, and bearing the banner of the rainbow. The sun shoots its rays over the sierra, and the great pro cession bursts into sacred song. The seven hundred massive plates of gold on the roof of the Temple of the Sun begin to burn and glow. The golden sun there is kindling from the first light of the sun in the heavens. There is another peal of trumpets and another song. The streets are strewn with flowers, crushed lilies pour forth their fragrance on every hand, the orchids in festoons hang over the brightening way. The sun's rim touches the horizon, and a living glory passes over the top of the sun of gold. And now the city of the sierras bursts into song. The whole procession and even the llamas kneel, for the god of day is rising. Joyous he comes, and the sun in the temple of gold radiates to meet him. Acclamations pour forth ; the sun has risen ; it is day. The heir apparent, who has passed through the military training after the nobles, comes forth. He has been ex amined by the lords ; he has wrestled and boxed, and has been tested as to his strength and agility. He is sixteen years of age. He has slept on the ground, travelled over hard places with bare feet, and worn simple attire. THE LAND OF THE EMERALDS. 349 He is brought by the nobles into the council of the high lords of the empire, and placed face to face with his father, the king. " Child of the Sun," exclaims the Inca, " I have seen the flower blooming upon the stalk, but it passed away. The sun of yesterday is gone, and the suns of the yesterdays that have led up to to-day the march of time. I have stood in the sunrise of life ; it is now high noon, and soon the sun will go down for me forever, and I shall sleep in the hollow tombs of my fathers, the Children of the Sun, who descended upon the gardens of the high lake of Titicaca, and who received the golden wedge that sunk into the earth and now lies buried under our sacred feet. " Child of the Sun, look upward. Above you in the sky of noon marches your father, the messenger of the God that lives in all things. He holds over you his shield. You can not look upon him : his glory dazzles the eye. Child of the Sun, look down. Before you in the shadows of the earth lies an empire of millions of souls. It stretches from the white deserts to Quito in the land of the emeralds. Its high way leads through the skies, and to it at night the stars draw near. " Shine, Child of the Sun. A new career of glory awaits you, and your deeds shall add lustre to the records of the race when my sun has gone down, and I shall sleep with those who await the resurrection. " Child of the Sun, the heart of the Inca has but one prayer for his offspring, — it is that he may be more glorious than his father. Excel in deeds of justice, and you shall ascend at last with the immortals." 35O OVER THE ANDES. The white priest of the temple lifted his face to the sun. There was silence. Even the birds seemed to cease to sing. " O thou that treadest the pathway of the sky, in thy march eternal encircle thy child with thy light. Thou camest from the eternal mysteries; thou art the child of the spirit with whom there is no space or time. There is no space but there is space beyond ; there is no time in which there was not time before, and time that never began shall never cease to be. " Make the deeds of the sons on earth resplendent, clothe this thy champion with thy power, guide him by thy wisdom, and receive him at last into the eternal abodes of light and glory." The prayer ended ; the poets sang their odes. The young Inca knelt down before his father. The latter pierced his ears with a golden bodkin, in which were to be hung orejones, or heavy pendants of gold. The noblemen then put a sash of jewels about the young prince's loins, and sandals of the sacred order upon his feet. Then came the jewels from the fields and gardens — the flowers that were the emblems of the virtues, and the ever greens that typified the immortality of these virtues. With these flowers the prince was crowned. A tassel of golden color was then fastened about his head. The old Inca arose on his throne. " Huayna Capac, Child of the Sun, receive the banner of the rainbow, and go forth with it to bless mankind." The trumpets sounded. The nobles formed in a long, glit tering procession, and did homage to the new prince, Huayna Capac, the last of the glorious race of the Children of the Sun. The ceremonies of the presentation over, we may now see THE LAND OF THE EMERALDS. 35 1 the nobles going to Yucay, the gardens of delights, the banner of the iris leading them on. These gardens were some twelve miles distant from the Temple of the Sun. Such gardens were never seen elsewhere in all the world. The artificial flowers were made of gold and silver. The maize harvests were of golden corn, with silver husks and silk tassels. The basins of the baths were of gold. Amid the artificial flowers of gold, silver, emeralds, and other precious stones, real flowers bloomed. Here were the sacred animals and birds. They go singing after the banner of the iris, lovely girls strewing the way before them with flowers. The dances in the gardens of delights follow. One may judge of their splendor when we repeat the oft told story, that on the birth of Huascar, Huayna Capac gave a festival to which the nobles danced in honor of the golden chain, seven hundred feet long, with links nearly as large as a man's wrist. Such were the golden gardens of Yucay in the delicious valley of the sierras ! One day there would be added to the heir apparent's insignia the llanta, with two feathers of the most sacred bird of all the empire, the coraquenque. It is night now. The vestments change to silver, and amid ornaments of silver the festival goes on, and Cuzco rejoices in the light of the moon. The people are happy. No one lacks bread or shelter; no one struggles for wealth or power. All are content. Justice reigns over the Peruvian empire. The old Inca is dead now and laid away in the temple in the dusty gold of the tombs of his fathers. 352 OVER THE ANDES. Huanya Capac is an Inca, and he marches over the great Inca road to Quito the glorious, a distance of some fifteen hundred miles. There, in that conquered province, where has been set up the golden Temple of the Sun and the silver Temple of the Moon to meet both luminaries at their coming, he sets his throne. He has a son Huascar, the true heir to the throne, but he has another son on whom he has set his heart, Atahualpa, whose fate all the world knows. He desires that this son of his heart shall share the throne with his brother. The world has long read the story of how Atahualpa caused his brother to be slain, and how he himself was executed at the order of Pizarro in the square of Caxamalca. The affection of Huanya Capac for Atahualpa led him to violate the law of the Incas in regard to the right to the throne. Huascar was the true heir. The two brothers soon became jealous of each other, and Atahualpa held Huascar, who was a mild and tender-hearted prince, in his power. The Spanish robbers came, led by Pizarrq. The Inca empire fell, but the two brothers were Incas by name. " I will examine their claims and will decide which is the true Inca," said the usurping conqueror. Atahualpa saw what this decision would be. He knew that his brother was the rightful heir, and that his amiable spirit would commend itself to the invaders. He determined to make that judgment impossible by putting his brother to death. He ordered that he should be drowned. Torn by the injustice of the act, Huascar appealed to Heaven, and pronounced in prophecy his brother's doom, THE LAND OF THE EMERALDS. 353 "As you do by me," he is said to have prophesied, "so will the Spaniard one day do by you. The white man will avenge me; you will not long survive." He was drowned, according to ancient tradition, in the river Andamarca. His fate was repeated in that of Atahualpa. He, too, became a captive. He longed for life, for freedom again. " Release me," he said to Pizarro, " and I will cover the floor with gold." The victor smiled. " Release me, and I will fill the room with vessels of gold as high as I can reach ! " " How high can you reach, Atahualpa ? " He could reach nine feet high around the wall of his prison room. "I accept your terms," said Pizarro. He drew a red line on the wall. Forth went the servants of Atahualpa to gather gold. Cuzco was robbed of its treasures. The remarkable promise seemed likely to be fulfilled. But the long delay in gathering the gold had led to a suspicion that Atahualpa's subjects were plotting for his liberation. Pizarro secured all the treasures that the couriers brought, and then condemned him to death, for the like cause that he himself had condemned his brother. The priests went to him and exhorted him to change his religion. He refused. He was taken into the square of Caxamalca to be burned. The faggots were gathered around him. "Abjure your religion and accept the faith," said the priest, "and you shall not be burned — you shall be stran gled." 2 A 354 OVER THE ANDES. The fallen Inca bowed to the priest. He was strangled, and his body was buried with Christian rites. While the latter was going on, his family and devoted friends rushed into the church that they might sacrifice themselves at his side, and so enter with him the shining mansions of the sun. They were driven back. Some of them committed suicide. Notwithstanding his treatment of his brother, Atahualpa had many noble and generous qualities, and had been friendly to the hand that had struck him down. But this was not the end. Pizarro's conduct towards Ata hualpa was to be repeated in himself by his own jealoui followers. One day after dinner a tumult was heard in the outei court-yard of his palace. A messenger came flying into tfu inner court-yard crying, — " Help, help ! the men of Chili are coming to murder the marquis ! " They secured the door to the apartment of Pizarro. It was shortly assaulted by a band of desperate men with the cry, — " Death to the tyrant ! " Pizarro's brother attempted to force back the assailants and was striken wounded on the floor. Pizarro now threw himself upon the invaders. "What, ho ! " he cried ; " have you come to kill me in my own house, you traitors? " He ran one of the assailants through with a sword. Just as he did this he received his own death wound, and fell reeling upon the floor.- "Jesu!" he exclaimed. THE LAND OF THE EMERALDS. 355 He touched his finger in his own blood to write J-e-s-u-s, and he tried to kiss the word. It was the last act of his life. His body was left alone for a time, and then was secretly buried in darkness in a corner of the cathedral of Lima, and is now in a glass coffin surmounted by an inscription. Such were the days of the Incas in their glory. Such was the sunset of the long reigns of the Children of the Sun, of whom there are few records in the history of semi-civilized nations that are more picturesque and wonderful; for the eternal laws of justice run through the events of all people, whether they be pagan or Christian or those who seek in darkness the light of the truth. The Inca history is a chapter that will yet more closely claim the thought of the world. CHAPTER XXXI. GUAYAQUIL THE STORY OF " THE CONQUEROR WHO GAM BLED AWAY THE GOLDEN SUN " — UNCLE HENRY'S TALE OF HIS FIRST VISIT TO GUAYAQUIL. THE port of Ecuador is an easy place. The people work to-morrow, and if they do work to-day they expect large and extra pay. The sun clothes the children with his vertical rays, and adults require but little more clothing. The people may have tropical fruits in the morn ing, at noon, and at night almost for the asking, and what do they need more? Easy as the place is, the traveller will be likely to find many difficulties there. He will be charged full value for everything. He will need to be very careful of his health, his diet, and his personal comfort in many ways. At the consul's Our Boys heard a very strange tale, in substance a true one. It was of Mancio Sierra Lejesema, — the last of the conquistadores, or conquerors, — who seems to have been a great gambler in his early life and prime. In the division of the gold of the conquest, Lejesema received as his portion the most magnificent of all trophies, — the golden sun of the temple of Cuzco. The value of this trophy cannot be computed now. Would he take it back to Spain, that it might become an eternal memorial ? 356 GUAYAQUIL. 357 A man who is a slave to any passion will be likely to bestow anything that he may receive upon that passion. Now gambling, as we have said, was the governing passion of Lejesema. But why should he gamble any more, now that he pos sessed the treasure of treasures of Peru ? He had no need to add to his wealth. But the Scriptures say that a man " shall be held by the cords of his own sins." As the poet says, — " There is a guilt That can be punished only by excess Of guilt." Only a revival of the spiritual life in the soul — a new nature, a conscious stroke — can, as a rule, break the power of passion. To gamble was the Don's nature. It held him now. " Sefiors," he said, " I am going to play the greatest game ever played on earth. I am going to invite you to go to the gardens, and there you shall sit down with me and play for the golden sun of Peru." They went. It was a merry night. The game was an intense one. The Don lost !, He walked the gardens in despair; he saw he was a slave, and he received a conscious stroke like Paul's on the Damascus road. He cried out in his soul for help. His feelings became changed; he came to hate gambling as greatly as he had loved it. As Paul the persecutor came to write the great personifi cation to Charity, so this man lived to pen the greatest of all tributes of justice to the Children of the Sun. It may be 358 OVER THE ANDES. found in Spanish in the Appendix to Prescott's " Conquest of Peru." He married an Inca's daughter, repented of his sins, lived for the welfare of the Peruvians, and was the last of the conquistadores. It was he who gave rise to the Spanish proverb, Juega el sol antes que amanezeca, " He plays away the sun before sunrise," that is, he is an habitual spendthrift. Uncle Henry, as he was sometimes wont to do at such places, told a very curious tale of travel at the consulate. UNCLE HENRY'S STRANGE VISITOR. I shall never forget the first night I passed in the suburbs of Guayaquil, where I had gone in a merchant vessel from Panama. I was then dealing in dyewoods and barks, and had in view the purchase of a cargo of superior quality of medicinal barks. I had heard that they could be secured here from Indians who traded beyond the mountains. In this I had been somewhat misled ; but my visit to Guayaquil was not without profit, though at first attended by great dis comfort, which began in a terrible fright, and was followed by a raging fever. I had found quarters with a planter who lived a little out of the city. The weather was extremely hot, but the planter's home was well shaded, watered, and artificially cooled, and I passed my first evening very pleasantly, enjoy ing accounts of the country related by the planter and his fam ily, and the hospitality of delicious cocoa and equatorial fruits. The night was warm and moist, but I was extremely tired, and I slept well. GUAYAQUIL. 359 The next day I began to be feverish, with a languor and pain in my chest. I went to my couch and remained there. Night came on with a steam-like heat and a vapory moon. My window was open. It was protected by wide bars of iron, and around these were trailing vines full of blooms and odors. I could not sleep. After midnight, I saw a strange dark object on the outside of the window frame. It dropped to the floor, and seemed to be as large as a cat, dog, or baby. It climbed up on my large travelling trunk, which was covered with leather, and in which were my valuables, and sat there. I had no light. The single candle which had been brought to my room I had allowed to burn down ; I had no matches in my room, whose door I had carefully locked. Now my trunk stood midway between my cot and the locked door. The room was constructed of wood and was unplastered. The moon was bright, and shed a feeble light into my room through the blooming vines. I stared at the object on my trunk. To my mind it was the most fearful object that I ever beheld, like a gargoyle. I could not believe it real ; I persuaded myself that it must be a waking dream of the fever. I knew that fever in these countries often began with terrors like these. The more I stared at the object, the more terrible it ap peared. At last it waved a long tail like a serpent. I heard the tail strike against the chest. I dared look no longer, and shut my eyes. I saw things in my fancy after my eyes were shut, and I concluded that the object that I had thought I saw on the great travelling trunk was a matter of imagination like the rest. 36O OVER THE ANDES. I tired myself out at last and fell asleep. When I woke it was light. There was a breeze from the river and a dewy fragrance from the vines, and my head felt clearer and my fever seemed to have somewhat abated. I recalled my midnight terror, and as I looked toward the travelling trunk, I saw there a sight that filled me with such surprise that my pulses bounded and the fever came back again. I could feel my temples throb. On the trunk was the object that I had seen in the dim moonlight. It was unlike anything that I ever saw or imag ined. It was like a church-tower gargoyle, only it was alive. I started up in my bed. I dared not attempt to dress, and should I go to the door it might leap upon me. I pounded on the wooden partition at the head of my bed, and cried, — "Seiior ! " There was no response. Then I cried again, giving the word the true accent. "Sefior/" People sleep in the mornings at Guayaquil, and are not to be easily aroused. I next cried, — "Muchacho (boy) ! " I recalled that there were boys on the place. There was no answer. "Muchacha (girl) ! " There were girls, I recalled, who worked in the cook-room. One of them might be awake at this hour. But the house and premises were as silent as though they were uninhabited. " Sefiorita ! " GUAYAQUIL. 36 1 Only the breeze from the river broke the stillness. " Sefiora ! " Still no movement. I looked again toward the trunk. There the awful object was. My veins seemed bursting, and I called at the top of my voice, — " Mozo ! Moza! (man-servant, maid-servant)." There was a light step outside my door, and a soft voice said, " What does the American gentleman want ? " It was a little man-servant. " There is something in my room." " What shall I do ? " " Go and call your master." " He forbids us to wake him at this hour." He tried to open the door. " If the American gentleman will unlock the door, I will come in." " I do not dare to leave my bed. There is something on my trunk." " How does it look, Sefior ? " " It is awful ! " " Has it a head ? " " Yes, a head like a man, with his throat hanging down." "Has he a body?" "Yes, like a saw." " Has he a tail ? " " Yes, like a serpent." " The American gentleman has a fever. If he will open the door, I will help him." " I dare not get out of bed. Beat in the door." 362 OVER THE ANDES. "That would arouse master, and he would be angry." Just then there was a swarm of flies in the room, and the terrible object opened his mouth, and threw out a tongue that riveted my eyes upon its head with a new terror. "Mozo ! " I cried. " Oh, if you were in here now ! He has opened his mouth ! He is an evil spirit ! " " Shall I call the priest ? " asked the man in alarm. " I will go around and look into the window. I think that the American gentleman has a fever." He went around to the window, and pushed away the vines and looked in. He grinned and whistled. At the whistle the terrible object threw up its serpent-like tail, and I pressed my hands against my throbbing head. "That is nothing," said the servant, "only an iguana. He got in through the bars. He is harmless. I will catch him, and we will have him for dinner." I felt that all this must be illusion from the fever. The little servant began to pull at, one by one, the iron bars. He loosened one, pushed it aside, and crawled into the room. He passed by the dragon without fear and un locked the door and went out. He came back presently with a stick, having a long cord with a noose. " Does the American gentleman want to see how we catch 'em in this country ? " he asked. He began to whistle. The dragon-like creature threw up his head to listen. The mozo then tickled his neck with the end of the rod, and whistled again. Then the man threw the noose over his GUAYAQUIL. 363 head and jerked him to the floor. When the animal, or what ever he was, fell, he began to swell up. I could endure no more. I leaped from my bed and ran out of the door. It was all a real occurrence, and not a delirium. The living gargoyle or dragon was an iguana, and when next I saw him he had been well cooked, and was laid out on the table as harmless as he had been the night before. In the afternoon my fever returned, and my sickness saved me from ridicule. The planter said when I was better : " You thought that an iguana was a dragon. The fever takes such forms in this country." CHAPTER XXXII. PANAMA THE HARBOR OF PEARLS THE STORY OF THE ASTROLOGER OF DARIEN. UNHEALTHY is Panama, but as beautiful and romantic in its decay as its health is malarious to the ordinary traveller. The Island of Pearls lies fair in the purple ocean, as in the days of that most fortunate and yet unfortunate of adventurers, Nufiez Balboa. The Isthmus of Panama, or the Isthmus of Darien, is associated with some of the most picturesque events in early American history, — with the vanished names of Castilla del Oro and Nombre de Dios, with Aspinwall (Colon), and the Spanish Main. The ancient town of Panama, which is in the province or state of the same name, and a part of the Republic of Colombia, formerly New Granada, has a very fine and safe harbor, though ships commonly anchor some distance from the quays. Here were the once famous pearl fields, the scene of the pearl fisheries, which, like the emeralds of the river Esmeralda in Ecuador, once made the heart of the adventurer turn to the coasts of the West Indian seas. The peak of Darien stands as a monument to the discovery of the Pacific and recalls the life of a very remarkable character, — Balboa. 364 PANAMA. 365 He belonged to an impoverished Spanish family, and was a poor debtor on the island of San Domingo when he heard the Sindbad-like tales that the voyagers and the discoverers told of the Spanish Main. Flying from debt in San Domingo, he secreted himself in a barrel or cask on board of one the ships about to sail in the interests of American discovery, and when found, begged the mercy of the commander of the expedition, and so found himself on the way to the El Dorados of the western waters. His romantic adventures are well known in outline, but Our Boys heard of a strange legend of him at Panama at the consulate, which we will give as the last of the consular stories in this volume. THE ASTROLOGER OF DARIEN. We make no claims for astrology. If one were to examine the so-called science on the side of the predictions that did not come true, one's views on the subject would be likely to become doubtful or adverse, but the story that we have to tell has suggestions beyond what may seem to be marvellous in it. The life of Vasco Nufiez de Balboa as an adventurer in Darien began in 15 10. He was able to gather harvests of gold from the caciques or lords of the country, and as he sent one-fifth of this treasure to Spain, his name held a high record at court. One day in a division of the treasure, the Spaniards were weighing out gold in the presence of a young cacique. In their greed they began to quarrel with each other. The young Indian lord, who had looked upon them as. gods, was 366 OVER THE ANDES. amazed at such a petty exhibition of selfishness and avarice, and exclaimed, — "Why should you dispute about trifles like these? If gold is what you desire, I can direct you to a region where you may find all the gold that your ships can hold." " Where ? " exclaimed the adventurers. He pointed towards the south. " See you yonder moun tains ? " he asked ; " beyond them is a mighty sea. The rivers that flow into that sea roll over beds of gold. The caciques of that country feast from vessels of gold." " How may I know that beyond the mountains lies a sea ?" asked Balboa. "A high peak rises over the country. It is a perilous journey to the peak. There are fierce tribes on the way. Go over the mountains with an army of strong men, and you shall see the peak ; ascend the peak, and you shall behold the sea. It is a glorious sight ! " Balboa had headed a revolt in Darien ; had sent the gov ernor to sea in a crazy ship, and had made himself master of the colony. He had won the favor of rich caciques. He was becoming very rich. He felt sure that fame as well as greater riches would be a part of his destiny, — that he was a man with a star. Among the adventurers in Darien was a Venetian as trologer, by the name of Micer Codro. Balboa's conscience may have been ill at ease in regard to the manner in which he sent away the former governor and secured to himself treasures of the forest lords ; we do not know, but one day he betook himself to the Italian star reader, and said, — PANAMA. 367 " Micer Codro, I wish you to cast my horoscope, and to tell me all that awaits me." The dark Italian studied Balboa's birthday and the sup posed fateful stars. " Come to me to-night." Balboa obeyed the astrologer, and went to him. The Italian led him out in view of the sky and pointed out to him a certain star, and said, — ¦ " When you shall see that star in the part of the heavens indicated on the horoscope which I am about to give you, your life will be in great peril. Should you pass that event you will become one of the most renowned men of the Indies, and the richest captain of the Spanish Main." On the 26th of September, 15 13, Balboa, emerging from a tropical forest, beheld the peak which he had long seen in his dreams. He ascended the mountain alone; he found it as the young lord had said ; the Pacific rolled before him ; he went down into the sea covered with the banner of the Castilian sovereigns, and took possession of the country in the name of Spain. He planted a cross on the mountain ; a Te Deum was sung, and he assured his followers that if they would con tinue to follow him, unexampled wealth and fame should be theirs. He returned, and sent to Spain the news of his great discovery. His name filled Spain. The poor debtor of the cask now felt that his glory was assured. The star that had led him on would lead him on. But Spain sent a new governor to Darien, with directions that Balboa should serve under him as a leader of expeditions 368 OVER THE ANDES. to the realms of gold. The two met kindly, and to make peace between them secure, Balboa married the governor's daughter. Balboa went forth as an explorer ; he harvested riches ; his star still seemed to lead him on. His fame, riches, and popularity excited the jealousy of the governor. The latter knew how he had disposed of a former governor ; he feared his power ; he resolved to recall him on some friendly pretext, and to find some occasion to put him to death. One serene evening, Balboa and some companions were out on the shore of Isla Rica. The heavens were clear, and the explorer looked up to the stars. Exactly in the place in the horoscope shone the star that the Italian had warned him to fear when he should behold it in that position. But he had become so rich and famous that the sight of the ill omen did not excite him to caution. "What folly," he said, "to believe in the words of astrolo gers, especially in those of Micer Codro ! According to his words, I should now be in peril of my life, whereas I was never more secure. I have the favor of Spain, of the gov ernor, of the caciques, and abundant wealth, and you are all trusty and true followers." There came to him a messenger, bearing a note from the governor. It was very gracious. It asked his presence at a council on public affairs. " See how I am respected and honored," he exclaimed. He indeed may have had little occasion to fear the sup posed influence of the star, but he had been an intriguing man, and he had good reason to fear that his own conduct PANAMA. 369 would be decisive of his fate. In all wrongdoing there is an evil star. He would go to the governor. If the star had no message for him, he might yet have learned prudence from his own habits. But he did not. He left the Pacific, and crossed the mountains alone. He hurried towards the palace of his father-in-law. He rushed upon the snare. On his way to Acla, the place of the governor, he met some old friends who came out to warn him of treachery. He was greatly astonished. " Why should the governor regard me with any disfavor ? " he said ; "he but recently gave his daughter to me." He was soon met by an armed band. " I have been sent out to arrest you," said the commander. " I have done nothing to cause my arrest. On what charge do you arrest me ? " " On the charge of high treason." He was seized. The charge was sustained by a mock court, and the head of Balboa, the discoverer of the Pacific, was erelong to be seen hanging on a tall pole in Acla, under the clear, bright stars that had fated him no ill. Treachery becomes the victim of treachery by its own law. And here at Panama, so much of the journey of Our Boys must come to an end. If the reader would know more of Balboa, let him turn to Irving's " Voyages and Discoveries of the Companions of Columbus." From Panama Our Boys will hope to go to Mexico, and to Costa Rica, and Costa Rica's beautiful capital, San Jose. Thence to Lake Nicaragua, and the scenes of the proposed 37° OVER THE ANDES. new waterway through the three Americas to the Pacific parts of the old and new worlds. Adios, Arline and Loro, and the educational visions of great-minded, large-hearted Elizabeth Peabody ! Adios, for the present, practical Alonzo, susceptible Leigh, and benevolent Uncle Henry, whose soul had really become more sunny in the sun lands ! Adios, all ! The journey has been a rapid one, but it has yielded many lessons of life. Vaya V. con Dios ! THE END. W. A. Wilde Co., 25 Bromfield Street. W. A. Wilde & Co., Publishers. Brain and Brawn Series, rHE BEACH PATROL. A Story of the Life-Saving Service. By William Drysdale. 318 pp. Cloth, $1.50. The dangers and excitement of the Life-Saving Service are very graphically described and add to the general interest of the book. The real value of the story, however, lies in the fact, so clearly set forth, that it is possible for an earnest young man, of sterling integrity, to make an honorable place for himself in the world. It is a strong book, good for boys and young men. rHE YOUNG REPORTER. A Story of Printing House Square. By William Drysdale. 300 pp. Cloth, $1.50. I commend the book unreservedly, — Golden Rule. "The Young Reporter" is a rattling book for boys. — New York Recorder. The best boys' book I ever read. — Mr. Phillips, Critic for New York Times. rHE FAST MAIL. The Story of a Train Boy. By William Drysdale. 328 pp. Cloth, $1.50. "The Fast Mail *' is one of the very best American books for boys brought out this season. Perhaps there could be no better confirmation of this assertion than the fact that the little sons of the present writer have greedily devoured the contents of the vol ume, and are anxious to know how soon they are to get a sequel. — The Art Amateur ; New York. 0 Travel-Adventure Series. VER THE ANDES; or, Our Boys in New South America. By Hezekiah Butterworth. 368 pp. Cloth, $1.50. South America to-day presents a most interesting subject for study. Its history is one of a constant struggle for liberty against oppression. The cruelty and avarice of the Spanish conquerors was finally met by the solid opposition of the South American people. Out of the terrors of the Revolution came liberty andthe wonderful commercial and industrial development for which South America is famous, as well as for her inex haustible mineral wealth. The subject is an inspiring one, and Mr. Butterworth has done full justice to the high ideals which have inspired the great men of South America. 'N WILD AFRICA. Adventures of Two Boys in the Sahara Desert, etc. By Thos. W. Knox. 325 pp. Cloth, $1.50. A story of absorbing interest. — Boston Journal. Our young people will pronounce it unusually good. — Albany Argus. He has struck a popular note in his latest volume. — Springfield Republican. rHE LAND OF THE KANGAROO. By Thos. W. Knox. Adventures of Two Boys in the Great Island Con tinent. 318 pp. Cloth, $1.50. His descriptions of the natural history and botany of the country are very interesting. — Detroit Free Press. The actual truthfulness of the book needs no gloss to add to its absorbing interest. — The Book Buyer, New York. Boston: W. A. Wilde &° Co., 25 Bromfield Street. 1 W. A. Wilde & Co., Publishers. Fighting for the Flag Series. Tl/fIDSHIPMAN JACK. By Chas. Ledyard Nor- IrJ. ton. 290 pp. Cloth, $1. 25. In the third volume of the " Fighting for the Flag Series," Jack is commissioned a midshipman in the navy ; but while on his way North to join his class in Newport, where the Academy then was, he finds himself most unexpectedly on duty and in active service. In those days naval cadets were hurried through the Naval Academy with as little delay as possible, and Jack soon receives an assignment to duty under one of his former ship mates. C^fACK BENSON'S LOG; or, Afloat with the Flag in T '61. By Charles Ledyard Norton. 281 pp. Cloth, $1.25. An unusually interesting historical story, and one that will arouse the loyal impulses of every American boy or girl. The story is distinctly superior to anything ever attempted along this line before. — The Independent. A story that will arouse the loyal impulses of every American boy and girl. — The Press. /I MEDAL OF HONOR MAN; or, Cruising among ^J. Blockade Runners. By Charles Ledyard Norton. 280 pp. Cloth, JS1.25. A bright, breezy sequel to " Jack Benson's Log." The book has unusual literary excellence. — The Booh Buyer, New York. A stirring story for boys. — The Journal, Indianapolis. /t SUCCESSFUL VENTURE. By Ellen Douglas ^1 Deland. 340pp. Cloth, $1.50. "The best story Miss Deland ever wrote," says a critic who is familiar with the great success which attended the publication of both " Malvern " and " Oakleigh." In the first place, she knows girls and young women, and in the second, she knows how to write about them. Her success has been wonderful, and yet in every sense merited. "A Successful Venture " tells the story of a family of girls who found it necessary to make their own way in the world. They had a good deal to learn, and experience is ex pensive, but they manage to meet all their obligations, with something to spare. Jl/TALVERN, A NEIGHBORHOOD STORY. By 1VJ. Ellen Douglas Deland. 341pp. Cloth, $1.50. 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Two types of New England girlhood are illustrated in " The Orcutt Girls " — one the brisk, practical, domestic girl with a genius for housekeeping ; the other, the dreamy, studious, and imaginative, with the true New England appetite for knowledge. Boston: W. A. Wilde &• Co., 25 Bromfield Street. 3 W. A. Wilde &> Co., Publishers. nERAPH, THE LITTLE VIOLINISTE. By Mrs. O C V. Jamieson. 300 pp. Cloth, $1.50. The scene of the story is the French quarter of New Orleans, and charming bits of local color add to its attractiveness. — The Bostoti Journal. Perhaps the most charming story she has ever written is that which describes Seraph, the little violiniste. — Transcript, Boston. JBOVE THE RANGE. By Theodora R. Jenness. Xl 332 PP- Cloth, $1.25. The quaintness of the characters described will be sure to make the story very pop ular. — Book News, Phila. A book of much interest and novelty. — The Book Buyer, New York. QUARTERDECK AND FOK'SLE. By Molly <£/ Elliott Seawell. 272 pp. Cloth, $[.25. ^^-Miss Seawell has done a notable work for the young people of our country in her excellent stories of naval exploits. They are of the kind that causes the reader, no mat ter whether young or old, to thrill with pride and patriotism at the deeds of daring of the heroes of our navy. QIG CYPRESS. By Kirk Munroe. 164 pp. Cloth, /j $1.00. If there is a man who understands writing a story for boys better thau another, it is Kirk Munroe. — Springfield Republican. A capital writer of boys' stories is Mr. Kirk Munroe. — Outlook. TpOREMAN JENNIE. By Amos R. Wells. A Young JP Woman of Business. 268 pp. Cloth, $1.2^. It is a delightful story. — The Advance, Chicago. It is full of action. — The Standard, Chicago. A story of decided merit. — The Epworth Herald, Chicago. * Jt/TYSTERIOUS VOYAGE OF THE DAPHNE. 1VJ. By Lieut. H. P. Whitmarsh. 305 pp. Cloth, $1.25. One of the best collections of short stories for boys and girls that has been published in recent years. Such writers as Hezekiah Butterworth, Wm. O. Stoddard, and Jane G. Austin have contributed characteristic stories which add greatly to the general interest of the book. PHILIP LEICESTER. By Jessie E. Wright. 264 pp. Cloth, $1.25. The book ought to make any reader thankful for a good home, and thoughtful for the homeless and neglected. — Golden Rule. The story is intensely interesting. — Christian Inquirer. CAP'N THISTLETOP. By Sophie Swett. 282 pp. Cloth, $1.25. Sophie Swett knows how to please young folks as well as old; for both she writes simple, unaffected, cheerful stories with a judicious mingling of humor and plot. Such a story is " Cap'n Thistletop." — The Outlook. rHE MARJORLE BOOKS. Edited by Miss Lucy Wheelock. 6 Vols. Over 200 Illustrations. The Set, JjSi.50. A very attractive set of books for the little folks, full of pictures and good stories. r\OT'S LLBRAR Y. Edited by Miss Lucy Wheelock. X^J 10 Vols. Over 400 Illustrations. The Set, $2.50. In every way a most valuable set of books for the little people. Miss Wheelock possesses rare skill in interesting and entertaining the little ones. Boston : W. A. Wilde &° Co., 25 Bromfield Street. 4 W. A. Wilde &* Co., Publishers. L rHE BEACON LLGHT SERIES. Edited by Nat alie L. Rice. 5 Vols. Fully Illustrated. The Set, #2.50. The stories contained in this set of books are all by well-known writers, carefully selected and edited, and they cannot, therefore, fail to be both helpful and instructive. AD Y BETTY'S TWINS. By E. M. Waterworth. 117 pp. With 12 Illustrations. 75 cents. The story of a little boy and girl who did not know the meaning of the word " obe dience." They learned the lesson, however, after some trying experiences. rHE MOONSTONE RING. By Jenny Chappell. 118 pp. With 6 Illustrations. 75 cents. A home story with the true ring to it. The happenings of the story are somewhat out of the usual run of events. pELOUBET'S SELECT NOTES. By F. N. Pelou- JL bet, D. D., and M. A. Peloubet. A Commentary on the Inter national Sunday-School Lessons. Illustrated. 340 pp. Cloth, #1.25. This commentary is the one book every teacher must have in order to do the best work, It interprets the Scripture, illustrates the truths, and by striking comments convinces the mind. It is comprehensive, and yet not verbose, and furnishes winnowed material in the most attractive and yet convincing form from both spiritual and practical standpoints. Accurate colored maps and profuse original illustrations illuminate the text, and create an intelligent and instructive view of the subject matter. Teachers are invited to send for sample pages of " Select Notes." TJ/AYS OF WORKING; or, Helpful Hints to Sunday- Vr School Workers of all Kinds. By Rev. A. F. Schauffler, D. D. 216 pp. Cloth, $1.00. A really helpful manual for Sunday-school workers. — The Sunday-school Times. It unlocks the door to the treasure-house of Sunday-school success. — F. N, Peloubet, D. D. The best all-around book for a Sunday-school worker I know of. — Marion Law rence, Sec'y Ohio State S. S. Association. Will take rank at once in Sunday-school literature, not only as a standard publica tion, but as one of the most influential. — Congregationalist, Boston. Cannot fail to be of value in the hands of all Sunday-school workers. — IV. H. Hall, Sec'y oj Conn. State S. S. Association. This book absolutely covers every phase of Sunday-school work in a clear, instruc tive manner, and cannot fail to be of marked benefit to every worker. Send for sample pages. CtPECIAL SONGS AND SER VICES for Primary and O Intermediate Classes. Compiled by Mrs. M. G. Kennedy. 160 pp. Price, 45 cents; $40.00 per hundred. The book contains Exercises for Christmas, Easter, Children's Day, Harvest, etc ; Lessons on Lord's Prayer, Commandments, Books of the Bible, Missions, and many other subjects. Adapted to Primary and Intermediate Classes, Junior Endeavor Socie ties, etc. It has ninety pages of new, bright music for all occasions, including a large number of Motion Songs that are now so popular. We feel sure the book will prove instructive, interesting, and entertaining. It is printed on heavy paper, bound in board covers. Sample pages sent on application. Boston: W. A. Wilde &* Co., 25 Bromfield Street. 5 3007