^\ V '7TTnkiv/ cm Qnl -^mmm- mkm- ^lOS Av\m/. 'Kl^ '\ ACROSS SOUTH AMERICA RCOVADO ACROSS S^UTH AMERICA AN ACCOUNT OF A JOURNEY FROM BUENOS AIRES TO LIMA BY WAY OF POTOSI WITH NOTES ON BRAZIL, ARGENTINA, BOLIVIA, CHILE, AND PERU BY HIRAM BINGHAM YALE UNIVERSITY WITH EIGHTY ILLUSTRATIONS AND MAPS 2^-?^6 r-^ BOSTON AND NEW YORK HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY H 'S ^ 5 ^^ COPYRIGHT, I9II, BY HIRAM BINGHAM ALL RIGHTS RESERVED Published April IQJI 1)51 THIS VOLUME IS AFFECTIONATELY DEDICATED TO THE MOTHER OF SIX LITTLE BOYS PREFACE IN September, 1908, I left New York as a delegate of the United States Government and of Yale University to the First Pan-American Scientific Congress, held at Santiago, Chile, in December and January, 1908-09. Before attending the Congress I touched at Rio de Janeiro and the principal coast cities of Brazil, crossed the Argentine Republic from Buenos Aires to the Bolivian frontier, rode on mule- back through southern Bolivia, visiting both Potosi and Sucre, went by rail from Oruro to Antofagasta, and thence by steamer to Valparaiso. After the Congress I retraced my steps into Bolivia by way of the west coast, Arequlpa, and Lake Titicaca. Picking up the overland trail again at .Oruro, L con- tinued my journey across Bolivia and Peru, via La Paz, Tiahuanaco, and Cuzco, thence by mules over the old Inca road as far as Huancayo, the present terminus of the Oroya-Lima Railroad. At Abancay I turned aside to explore Choqquequirau, the ruins of an Inca fortress in the valley of the Apurimac ; an excursion that could not have been undertaken at all had it not been for the very generous assistance of Hon. J. J. Nuiiez, the Prefect of Apurimac, and his zealous aide. Lieutenant Caceres of the Peruvian army. I reached Lima in March, 1909. The chief interest of the trip lay in its being an exploration of the most historic highway in South America, the old trade route between Lima, Potosi, and Buenos Aires. The more difficult parts of this VIU PREFACE road were used by the Incas and their conqueror Pizarro; by Spanish viceroys, mine owners, and mer- chants; by the Hberating armies of Argentina; and finally by BoHvar and Sucre, who marched and countermarched over it in the last campaigns of the Wars of Independence. Realizing from previous experience in Venezuela and Colombia that the privilege of travelling in a semi-official capacity would enable me to enjoy unusual opportunities for observation, I made it the chief object of my journey to collect and verify information regarding the South American people, their history, politics, economics, and physical en- vironment. The present volume, however, makes no pretence at containing all I collected or verified. Such a work would be largely a compilation of sta- tistics. The ordinary facts are readily accessible in the current publications of the ably organized Pan- American Bureau in Washington. Nevertheless, I have included some data that seemed likely to prove serviceable to intending travellers. Grateful acknowledgment for kind assistance freely rendered in many different ways is due to President Villazon of Bolivia, the late President Montt of Chile, and President Leguia of Peru; to Secretary, now Senator, Root and the officials of the Diplomatic and Consular Service; to Professor Rowe and my fellow delegates to the Pan-American Scien- tific Congress; and particularly to J. Luis Schaefer, Esq., W. S. Eyre, Esq., and their courteous asso- ciates of the house of W. R. Grace & Co. Although business houses rarely take the trouble to make the PREFACE ix path of the scientist or investigator more comfort- able, it would be no easy task to enumerate all the favors that were shown, not only to me, but also to the other members of the American delegation, by Messrs. Grace & Co. and the managers and clerks of their many branches. Acknowledgments are likewise due to the officials of the Buenos Aires and Rosario Railroad, the Peru- vian Corporation, and the Bolivia Railway; and to Colonel A. de Pederneiras, Sr. Amaral Franco, Don Santiago Hutcheon, Sr. C. A. Novoa, Sr. Arturo Pino Toranzo, Dr. Alejandro Ayal4, Captain Louis Merino of the Chilean army, Don Moises Vargas, Sr. Lopez Chavez, and Messrs. Charles L. Wilson, A. G. Snyder, U. S. Grant Smith, J. B. Beazley, D. S. Iglehart, John Pierce Hope, Rankin Johnson, Rea Hanna, and a host of others who helped to make my journey easier and more profitable. I desire also to express my gratitude, for unnum- bered kindnesses, both to Huntington Smith, who accompanied me during the first part of my jour- ney, and to Clarence Hay, who was my faithful com- panion on the latter part. Some parts of the story have already been told in the ** American Anthropologist," the "American Political Science Review," the "Popular Science Monthly," the " Bulletin of the American Geo- graphical Society," the " Records of the Past," and the "Yale Courant," to whose editors acknowledg- ment is due for permission to use the material in its present form. Hiram Bingham. Yale University, New Haven, Conn. 20 November, 1910. CONTENTS PAGE I. Pernambuco and Bahia 3 II. Rio, Santos, and Brazilian Trade . . . . i6 III. Buenos Aires 29 IV. Argentine Independence and Spanish-American , Solidarity 46 .^.i V. The Tucuman Express 60 VI. Through the Argentine Highlands .... 69 _ VI I. Across the Bolivian Fft(^TiER 81 VIII. TupizA TO Cotagaita 92 IX. EscARA TO Laja Tambo 104 X. PoTOsi 117 XI. Sucre, the dejure Capital of Bolivia . . 133 XII. The Road to Challapata 148 XIII. Oruro to Antofagasta and Valparaiso . .164 XIV. Santiago and the First Pan-American Scien- tific Congress 180 XV. Northern Chile 198 '\ XVI. Southern Peru 211 XVII. La Paz, the de facto Capital of Bolivia . 224 xii CONTENTS XVIII. The Bolivia Railway and Tiahuanaco . . 241 XIX. Cuzco 254 XX. Sacsahuaman 272 XXI. The Inca Road to Abancay 280 XXII. The Climb to Choqquequirau 296 XXIII. Choqquequirau 307 XXIV. Abancay to Chincheros 324 XXV. BOMBON TO the BATTLEFIELD OF AyACUCHO . 34 1 XXVI. Ayacucho to Lima 360 XXVII. Certain South American Traits 379 Index " . • 393 ILLUSTRATIONS PAGE Rio from the Corcovado (page 21) .... Frontispiece Looking down into the Lower City, Bahia .... 12 The Corcovado from Rio 20 The Harbor of Santos 24 The Docks of Buenos Aires 30 Avenida 25 DE Mayo, Buenos Aires 34 The Uspallata Pass 50 Our Coach leaving the Hotel at La Quiaca ... 82 The Angosta de Tupiza 86 Fantastic Pinnacles in the Valleys North of Tupiza 90 A QuicHUA Family going to plough 94 The Valley through which we had come 98 Our First Glimpse OF a Snow-clad Bolivian Mountain 112 View of the Cerro from the Roof of the Mint . .120 The Cerro of Potosi from the Spanish Reservoirs . 124 An Ancient Quichua Ore Crusher 124 The Market-Place of Potosi 128 Greener and more Populous Valleys 132 The Picturesque Old Church of Bartolo . . . .134 A Pasture for Sheep and Alpacas 138 xiv ILLUSTRATIONS A QuiCHUA Woman weaving at Quebrada Honda . .138 The Great River Pilcomayo 142 Our Hotel in Sucre 142 An Abandoned Tambo 150 Our First View of the Great Table-land of Bolivia . 150 A Friendly Llama Baby 160 My Mule on the Last Day's Ride 160 The Prefectura and Plaza of Cruro 166 A Quaint Old Balcony in Oruro 170 A Corner in Oruro 170 Battlefield of Maipo near Santiago 186 mollendo 212 The Cathedral of Arequipa and Mt. Chachani . .216 An Old Doorway in Arequipa 216 Chachani and Misti 216 Monolithic Image at Tiaiiuanaco 228 The Market-Place of La Paz 232 A Remarkable Stairway at Tiahuanaco 232 Balsas near Guaqui on Lake Titicaca 240 An Old Church near the Bolivia Railway .... 240 Great Platforms of Stone weighing ALxny Tons . . 250 Part of the Great Monolithic Doorway 250 Llamas of Cuzco 258 CUZCO FROM SACSAHUAMAN 258 ILLUSTRATIONS xv Sacsahuaman 266 The Plaza, Cuzco, with Cathedral and Jesuit Church 266 A Section of the Lower Terrace, Sacsahuaman . . 274 An Inca Vase from Cuzco 278 Articles of Dress and a Decorated Mule Halter FROM Cuzco 278 The Gobernador of Curahuasi and his Family . . 288 A Chasm down which plunged a Small Cataract . . 298 The Wonderful Canon of the Apurimac 298 Sunrise at Choqquequirau 302 The Frail Little Bridge over the Apurimac . . . 302 A Story and a Half High, built of Stones laid in Clay . 308 The Party Wall rises to the Peak 308 The Interior of the Buildings near the Outer Precipice 312 The Upper Six Steps of the Giant Stairway . . .312 Skulls, etc., from Choqquequirau 316 Interior of a Building at Choqquequirau . . . .316 Our Cavalcade on the Bridge of Pachachaca . . . 324 Some of the Sheep had very Long Curly Horns . . . 334 The Club at Chincheros 338 The Large Plaza of Ayacucho 342 The Bridge over the River Pampas 342 Ayacucho 346 The Courtyard of the Hotel 346 xvi ILLUSTRATIONS A Picturesque Corner in Ayacucho 350 Crossing the Pongora River on the Shaky Suspension Bridge 350 The Battlefield of Ayacucho 354 The Battlefield as it appeared to the Spaniards . . 354 The Bridge over the Huarpa 362 Urumyosi 366 The Hut near Paucara 366 The Toll-Bridge of Tablachaca 368 Sunday Morning in Huancayo 372 MAPS The Author's Route across South America .... 3 Southern Bolivia 81 Southern Peru 254 Choqquequirau and Vicinity 307 Lower Plaza Choqquequirau 310 Upper Plaza Choqquequirau 314 Cuzco and Neighboring Fortresses 318 The frontispiece and the illustration at page 20 are from photographs by Marc Fcrrez. Those at pages 50, 216, 228, 232, 258, 298, 302, 324, 342, 346, 3S0i 354. and 362 are from photographs by Mr. C. L. Hay; and those at pages 150, 160, 170 from photographs by Mr. H. Smith. ACROSS SOUTH AMERICA ACROSS SOUTH AMERICA CHAPTER I PERNAMBUCO AND BAHIA THERE are two ways of going to the east coast of South America. The traveller can sail from New York in the monthly boats .of the direct line or, if he misses that boat, as I did, and is pressed for time, he can go to Southampton or Cherbourg and be sure of an excellent steamer every week. The old story that one was obliged to go by way of Eu- rope to get to Brazil is no longer true, although this pleasing fiction is still maintained by a few officials when they are ordered to go from Lima on the Pa- cific to the Peruvian port of Iquitos on the Amazon. If they succeed in avoiding the very unpleasant overland journey via Cerro de Pasco, they are apt to find that the "only feasible" alternative route is by way of Panama, New York, and Paris ! Personally I was glad of the excuse to go the longer way, for I knew that the exceedingly comfortable new steamers of the Royal Mall Line were likely to carry many Brazilians and Argentinos, from whom I could learn much that I wanted to know. They proved to be most kind and communicative, and gave me an excellent introduction to the point of view of the modern denizen of the east coast whose lands have received the "golden touch" that comes 4 ACROSS SOUTH AMERICA from foreign capital, healthy immigration, and rap- idly expanding railway systems. I was also fortu- nate in finding on board the Aragon a large num- ber of those energetic English, Scots, and French, whose well-directed efforts have built up the in- dustries of their adopted homes, until the Spanish- Americans can hardly recognize the land of their birth, and the average North American, who visits the east coast for the first time, rubs his eyes in de- spair and wonders where he has been while all this railroad building and bank merging has been going on. If there were few Germans and Italians on board, it was not because they were not crossing the ocean at the same time, but because they preferred the new steamers of their own lines. I could have trav- elled a little faster by sailing under the German or the Italian flag, but in that case I should not have seen Pernambuco and Bahia, which the more speedy steamers now omit from their Itinerary. The Brazilians call the easternmost port of South America, Recife, "The Reef," but to the average person it will always be known as Pernambuco. Most travellers who touch here on their way from Europe to Buenos Aires, prefer to see what they can of this quaint old city from the deck of the steamer, anchored a mile out in the open roadstead. The great ocean swell, rolling in from the eastward, makes the tight little surf boats bob up and down in a dangerous fashion. It seems hardly worth while to venture down the slippery gangway and take one's chances at leap- ing into the strong arms of swarthy boatmen, whom the waves bring upward toward you with startling PERNAMBUCO AND BAHIA 5 suddenness, and who fall away again so exasper- atingly just as you have made up your mind to jump. Out of three hundred first-cabin passengers on the Aragon, there were only five of us who ventured ashore, — three Americans, a Frenchman, and a Scotchman. The other passengers, including sev- eral representatives of the English army — but I will say no more, for they afterwards wrote me that, on their return journey to England, the charms of Pernambuco overcame their fear of the "white horses of the sea," and they felt well repaid. Pernambuco is unquestionably one of the most interesting places on the East Coast. From the steamer one can see little more than a long low line of coast, dotted here and there with white buildings and a lighthouse or two. To the north several miles away, on a little rise of ground, is the ancient town of Olinda, founded by the Portuguese in the sixteenth century, a hundred years before Henry Hudson stepped ashore on Manhattan Island. By the time that our ancestors were beginning to consider es- tablishing a colony in Massachusetts, the Portu- guese had already built dozens of sugar factories in this vicinity. Then the Dutch came and con- quered, built Pernambuco and, during their twenty- five years on this coast, made It the administrative centre for their colony In northeast Brazil. Their capital, four miles north of the present commercial centre, is now a village of ruined palaces and an- cient convents. The Dutch had large interests on the Brazilian seaboard and carried away quanti- ties of sugar and other precious commodities, as is 6 ACROSS SOUTH AMERICA, set forth In many of their quaint old books. The drawings which old Nieuhof put In his sumptuous folio two centuries ago are still vivid and lifelike, even if they serve only to emphasize the great change that has come over this part of the world in that time. Now, three trans-Atlantic cables touch here, and it is a port of call for half a dozen lines of steamers. The old Dutch caravels used to find excellent shel- ter behind the great natural breakwater, the reef that made the port of Recife possible. No part of the east coast of Brazil possesses more strategical importance, and modern improvements have deep- ened the entrance so that vessels drawing less than fifteen feet may enter and lie in quiet water, although the great ocean liners are obliged to ride at anchor outside. Tugs bring out lighters for the cargo, but the passengers have to trust to the mercy of the surf boats. It took six dusky oarsmen to pull us through the surf and around the lighthouse that marks the north- ern extremity of the reef, into the calm waters of the harbor. On the black reef a few rods south of the lighthouse stands an antiquated castle, which mod- ern guns would make short work of, but which served its purpose admirably by defending the port against the sea rovers of the seventeenth century. Opposite this breakwater, on two or three "sea islands" whose tidal rivers cut them off from the mainland, the older part of Pernambuco is built. It was with a feeling of having miraculously es- caped from the dangers of a very stormy voyage, PERNAMBUCO AND BAHIA 7 that we clambered up the slippery stone stairs of the landing stage and entered the little two-storied oc- tagonal structure which serves the custom house as a place in which to examine incoming passengers. This took but a moment, and then we went out into the glaring white sunlight of this ancient tropical city and began our tour of inspection. Immediately in front of us was a line of ware- houses three or four stories high and attractively built of stone. They give the water-front an air of permanency and good breeding. Between them and the sea-wall there was a tree-planted, stone-paved area, the Rialto of Recife, where all classes, from talkative half-tipsy pieces of foreign driftwood to well-dressed local merchants, clad in immaculate white suits, congregate and gossip. Beyond the sea- wall a dozen small ocean steamers lay inside the harbor, moored to the breakwater; while numbers of smaller vessels, sloops, schooners, and brigantines were anchored near the custom house docks or in the sluggish Rio Beberibe, which separates Recife from the mainland. As we wandered through the streets past the Stock Exchange, the naval station, and the princi- pal business houses, we saw various sights: a poorly dressed Brazilian, of mixed African and Portuguese descent, carrying a small coffin on his head; bare- footed children standing in pools of water left in the paved sidewalks by the showers of the morning ; bareheaded women, with gayly colored shawls over their shoulders; neat German clerks dressed In glis- tening white duck suits; lounging boatmen in nonde- 8 ACROSS SOUTH AMERICA script apparel ; and everywhere long, low drays loaded with bags of sugar, each vehicle drawn by a single patient ox whose horns are lashed to a cross-piece that connects the front end of the thills. Those who moved at all moved as if there were abundant time in which to do everything, and as though the hustle and bustle of lower New York never existed at all. The scene was distinctively Latin- American. One must be careful not to say " Spanish- American " here, for if there is one thing more than another that the Brazilian is proud of, it is that he is not a Spaniard and does not speak Spanish. However, the difference between the two languages is not so great and the local pride not so strong but that the oblig- ing natives will understand you, even if you have the bad taste to address them in Spanish. They will reply, however, in Portuguese, and then it is your turn to be obliging and understand them, if you can. West of Recife, on another island and on the main- land, are the other public buildings, parks, and the finest residences. A primitive tram-car, pulled by mules, crosses the bridge and jangles along toward the suburbs, which are quite pretty, although some of the houses strive after bizarre color-effects which would not be appropriate in the Temperate Zone. There are fairly good hotels here, and there is quite a little English colony. But it is not a place where the white man thrives. The daily range of tempera- ture is very small, and it is claimed that the average difference between the wet and dry season is only three degrees. From Pernambuco there radiate three or four* PERNAMBUCO AND BAHIA 9 railways, north, west, and south. None of them are more than two hundred miles long, but all serve to gather up the rich crops of sugar and cotton for which the surrounding region is noted, and bring them to the cargo steamers that offer in exchange the manufactured products of Europe and America. If one may judge from the size of the custom house and the busy scene there, where half a dozen steam cranes were actively engaged in unloading goods destined to pay the annoyingly complex Brazilian tariff, the business of the port is very considerable. It seemed quite strange to see such mechanical activity and such a modern customs warehouse so closely associated with the narrow, foul-smelling streets of the old town. But it gives promise of a larger and more important city in the years to come, when the new docks shall have been built and still more modern methods introduced. Yet even now there are over one hundred and fifty thousand people in the city, and the mercantile houses do a good business. The clerks move slowly, and there is little appearance of enterprise; but one must always remember, when inclined to criticise the business methods of the tropics, that this is not a climate where one can safely hurry. Things must be done slowly if the doer is to last any length of time. The commercial traveller who comes here full of brusque and zealous activity, will soon chafe him- self into a fever if he is not careful. These are easy- going folk, and political and commercial changes do not affect them seriously. They are willing to stand governmental conditions that would be almost in- 10 ACROSS SOUTH AMERICA tolerable to us, and their haphazard methods of busi- ness are well suited to their environment. The Eu- ropean, although proverbially less adaptable than the American, is forced by keener competition at home to adjust himself as best he may to the local conditions here and elsewhere in South America. His American colleague, on the other hand, has as yet not felt the necessity of learning to meet what seems to him ridiculous prejudice. Emblematic of this Brazilian trade are the primi- tive little catamarans in which the fishermen of Recife venture far out into the great ocean. The frail little craft are only moderately safe, and at best can bring back but a small quantity of fish. They are most uncomfortable, and their occupants are kept wet most of the time by the waves that dash over them. Furthermore, a glimpse of them is as much of Pernambuco as most steamship passengers get. It is only by venturing and taking the trouble to go ashore that one can see the modern custom house dock on the other side of Recife, and learn the les- son of the possibilities of commerce here. We left Pernambuco in the afternoon and reached the green hills of the coast near Bahia the next morn- ing. The steamers pass near enough to the shore to enable one to make out, with the glasses, watering- places and pretty little villas that have been built on the ocean side of the peninsula by the wealthier citizens of Bahia. At the end of the promontory, just above the rocks and the breakers, is the picturesque white tower of a lighthouse. Unfortunately, it did not avail to save a fine German steamer that was PERNAMBUCO AND BAHIA ii lying wrecked on the dangerous shoals near the en- trance to the harbor when we passed in. As we steamed slowly around the southern end of the low promontory, the city of Bahia gradually came into view, its large stone warehouses lining the water-front, its lower town separated by a steep hill, covered with gardens and graceful palms, from the upper city, conspicuous with the towers and cupolas of numerous churches and public buildings. On the left, as one enters the harbor, rises the in- teresting island of Itaparica, which England once offered to take in payment of a debt due her by Portugal. It bears a resemblance to Gibraltar in more ways than one, but it was not destined to be- come a British stronghold. A favorite resort of the citizens of Bahia, it is called "the Europe of the poor," because it has a genial climate and is fre- quented by those who cannot afford to cross the Atlantic. As we leave It on our left, in front of us, and to the north, lies the magnificent bay that has given the city its name. It lacks the romantic mountains that make Rio so famous, yet Its beautiful blue waters are most alluring, dotted as they are here and there with the white sails of fishing-boats and catamarans. We have to anchor a mile from the shore, and a steam launch carrying the port officials soon comes alongside. The local boatmen, whose little craft, suited only to the quiet waters of the bay, bear no resemblance to the seaworthy surf boats of Pernam- buco, line up at a distance of half a mile, awaiting the signal which permits them to hoist sail and race for 12 ACROSS SOUTH AMERICA the steamer. It is a pretty sight, enlivened by the shouts of the boat crews. Some boats are loaded with delicious tropical fruits that are eagerly bargained for by our steerage passengers, most of whom are Spanish peasants on their way to harvest the crops of Argentina. Others are anxious to take us ashore. And after the usual delay, we make a deal with a boatman, a lazy fellow who wastes a lot of time try- ing to sail in against the wind while his more ener- getic competitors are rowing. On the way we pass half a dozen steamers and a few sailing vessels, and steer carefully between scores of huge lighters and dozens of smaller craft. In place of the steel steam cranes which we saw at Pernambuco, on the wharves are numerous wooden cranes worked by hand. We land on slippery wooden stairs, and hurry across the blistering hot pavements of the street to rest for a few moments in the shade of the large warehouses and wholesale shops that crowd the lower town. Some of the signs are decidedly bizarre and scream as loudly for patronage as the limits of modern Frenchified Portuguese art will permit. There is none of the picturesqueness of Pernambuco, and we soon betake ourselves to one of the cog rail- ways where, for a few cents, we are allowed to scram- ble into a bare little wooden passenger coach and be yanked up the steep incline by a cable that looks none too strong for its purpose. Once in the upper city, the narrow streets of commerce seem to be left behind, and we are in broader thoroughfares, with here and there a green park full of palms and other tropical plants. There are churches on every side, I LOOKING DOWN INTO THE LOWER CITY. BAHIA PERNAMBUCO AND BAHIA 13 some of them wonderfully decorated and most at- tractive. Bahia is not quite so old as Pernambuco, its foundation dating only from the middle of the sixteenth century; but it early became the religious and intellectual centre of Portuguese- America, and it is still noted forits literature and culture, although long ago passed in the race by Rio. The glaring white sunlight throws everything into bold relief and makes the shadows seem unusually dark and cool. On the corners of the streets are little folding stands bearing a heavy load of toothsome confectionery. Their barefooted coal-black owners, clad generally in white, lean against the iron posts of the American Trolley Car System and watch patiently for the trade that seems sure to come to him who waits. On every side one sees black faces. In fact, Bahia is sometimes popularly spoken of as the "Old Mulattress," in affectionate reference to the fact that more than ninety per cent of its two hundred thousand people are of African descent. For over two centuries Bahia monopolized the slave trade of Brazil. Her traders continued to be the chief importers of negroes down to the middle of the nineteenth century. It is said that as many as sixty thousand slaves were brought in within a single year. We took one of the American-made trolleys and soon went whizzing along through well-paved streets and out into the suburbs. Here villas, fearfully and wonderfully made, like the baker's best wedding cake in his shop window, attest to the local fondness for rococo extravagance. In general, however, the 14 ACROSS SOUTH AMERICA' principal buildings appear to be well built, and are frequently four or five stories in height. The architecture of Bahia is decidedly Portuguese, much more so than that of Pernambuco, which still bears traces of its Dutch origin and even reminds one of Curacao. Some of the villas in Bahia are strikingly like those in Lisbon. And there are other likenesses between the Portuguese capital and this ecclesiastical metropolis of Brazil. Both are situ- ated on magnificent estuaries, and present a fine spectacle to the traveller coming by sea. Both have upper and lower towns, with hills so steep as to re- quire the services of elevators and cog or cable rail- ways to connect them. The upper town of each commands an extensive view of the shipping, the roadstead, and the surrounding country. But here the similarity ends; for Lisbon is built on several hills, while Bahia occupies but a single headland, the verdure-clad promontory which shelters the magnificent bay. Bahia is the centre for a considerable commerce in sugar and cotton, cocoa and tobacco. These are brought to the port by land and water, but chiefly by the railroads that go north to the great river San Francisco and west into the heart of the state. There are many evidences of wealth in the city, and there is certainly an excellent opportunity for de- veloping foreign trade. One looks in vain, however, for great American commercial houses like those which mark the presence of English, French, and German enterprise. Nevertheless the electric car line, with its American equipment, gives a promise of PERNAMBUCO AND BAHIA 15 things hoped for. And there is a decided air of friend- Hness toward Americans on the part of the Brazil- ians whom one meets on the streets and in the shops. There is none of that "chip on the shoulder" atti- tude which the Argentino likes to exhibit toward the citizens of the ** United States of North America." The Brazilian appears to realize that Americans are his best customers, and he is desirous of maintaining the most friendly relations with us. CHAPTER II RIO, SANTOS, AND BRAZILIAN TRADE /rr^wo days' sail from Bahia brought us within A. sight of the wonderful mountains that mark the entrance to the Bay of Rio de Janeiro. As one approaches land, the first thing that catches the eye is the far-famed Sugar Loaf Mountain which seems to guard the southern side of the entrance. Back of it is a region even more romantic, a cluster of higher mountains, green to their tops, yet with sides so precipitous and pinnacles so sharp one wonders how anything can grow on them. The region presents, in fact, such a prodigious variety of crags and preci- pices, peaks and summits, that the separate forms are lost in a chaos of beautiful hills. The great granite rocks that guard the entrance to the harbor leave a passage scarcely a mile in width. At the base of the Sugar Loaf we saw a fairy white city romantically nestling in the shadow of the gigantic crag. It is the new National Exposition of Brazil. Once safely inside the granite barriers, the bay opens out and becomes an inland sea, dotted with hundreds of islands, a landlocked basin with fifty square miles of deep water. On the northern shores of the bay lies the town of Nictheroy, the capital of the state. Its name per- RIO, SANTOS, BRAZILIAN TRADE 17 petuates the old Indian title of the bay, "hidden water." The name of the capital of the RepubHc, on the south side of the bay, carries with it a remem- brance of the fact that when first discovered, the bay was mistaken for the mouth of a great river, the River of January. Since the early years of the sixteenth century, Rio has been conspicuous in the annals of discovery and conquest. Magellan touched here on his famous voyage round the world. The spot where he landed is now the site of a large hospital and medical school. French Huguenots attempted to find here a refuge in the time of the great Admiral Coligny. As one steams slowly into the harbor, one passes close to the historic island of Villegagnon, whose romantic story has been so graphically told by Parkman. Hither came the King of Portugal, flying from the wrath of Napoleon. Here lived the good Emperor Dom Pedro II, one of the most beneficent monarchs the world has ever seen. And into these waters are soon to come Brazil's new Dreadnoughts, about which all the world has been speculating, and which have made Argentina almost forget the necessities of economic development in her anxiety to keep up with Brazil in the way of armament. An elaborate system of new docks, that has been in the course of construction for a long time, has not been completed yet; so we anchor a mile or more from the shore, not far from a score of ocean steam- ers and half a hundred sailing vessels. Before the anchor falls we are surrounded by a noisy fleet of steam launches, whose whistles keep up a most in- I8 ACROSS SOUTH AMERICA fernal tooting. A score of these insistent screamers attempt to get alongside of our companion-way at the same time. In addition, half a hundred row- boats attack the ladder where some of the steerage passengers are trying to disembark. We had heard, before entering the port, that there were several hundred cases of smallpox here, besides other infectious diseases. Yet this did not prevent everybody that wanted to, and could afford the slight cost of transportation, from coming out from the shore and boarding our vessel. Such a chatter- ing, such a rustling of silk skirts and a fluttering of feathers on enormous hats, such ecstatic greetings given to returning citizens! Such ultra- Parisian fashions ! On shore we found the marks of modern Rio — electric cars, fashionable automobiles, well-paved streets, electric lights, and comfortable hotels — very much in evidence. Were it not for the blinding sun- light that fairly puts one's eyes out in the middle of the day, one could readily forget one's whereabouts. To be sure, if you go to look for it, there is the older part of the city which still needs cleaning up accord- ing to modern ideas of sanitation. But if you are content to spend your time in the fashionable end of the town or speeding along the fine new thorough- fares in a fast motor car, it is easy to think no more of Rio's bad record as an unhealthy port. The city of Rio is spread over a large peninsula that juts out from the south into the waters of the great bay. Across the peninsula, through the centre of the busiest part of the city, the Brazilians have RIO, SANTOS, BRAZILIAN TRADE 19 recently opened a broad boulevard, the Avenida Central. Fine modern business blocks have sprung up as if by magic, and the effect is most resplendent. The spacious avenue is in marked contrast with the very narrow little streets that cross it. One of them, the Rua Ouvidor, the meeting-place of the wits of Rio, Is in many ways the most interesting street in Brazil. Here one may see everybody that is any- body in Rio. At one end of the Avenida Central is Monroe Palace, which once did duty at an International Exposition, and more recently was the meeting- place of the third Pan-American Conference, made notable by the presence of Secretary Root. Beyond the showy palace to the east there are a number of little bays, semi-circular indentations in the shore, which have recently been lined with splendid broad driveways, where one may enjoy the sea breeze and a marvellous view over the inland sea to the moun- tains beyond. At the far end of the new parkway rises the ever- present Sugar Loaf, at whose feet are the buildings of the National Exposition. They are wonderfully well situated, lying as they do on a little isthmus wedged in between two gigantic rocks, with the ocean on one side and the beautiful bay on the other. The buildings themselves are not particularly remark- able, being decorated in the gorgeous style of elabo- rate whiteness that one is accustomed to associate with expositions. The crowds I saw there were composed exclusively of Brazilians, most of whom had apparently visited 20 ACROSS SOUTH AMERICA the grounds many times and accepted them as the fashionable evening rendezvous. Each of the states of Brazil had a building of its own in which to ex- hibit its products, and there was a theatre, a "Fine Arts" building, a Hall of Manufactures, and a sad attempt at a Midway. An entire building was de- voted to the manufactures and exports of Portugal. All other buildings were devoted to the states or industries of Brazil, making the prejudice in favor of the mother country all the more noticeable. A change is coming over the foreign commerce of Rio. Twenty years ago, the largest importing firms were French and English. Many of these have practically disappeared, having been driven out by Portuguese, Italian, and German houses. The marked leaning toward goods of Portuguese origin is very striking and naturally difficult to combat. Brazil has recently established in Paris an office for promoting the country and aiding its economic expansion. This office is publishing a considerable literature, mostly in French, and will undoubtedly be able to bring about an increase of European commerce and that immigration which Brazil so much needs. The completion of the new docks will greatly help matters. But besides new docks Rio needs a reformed cus- toms service. Every one is agreed that the most vexatious thing in Rio is the attitude of the custom house officials. Either because they are poorly paid or else simply because they have fallen into extremely bad habits, they are allowed to receive tips and gra- tuities openly. The result may easily be imagined. THE CORi I •ROM RIO RIO, SANTOS, BRAZILIAN TRADE 21 A few days after my arrival, an American natural- ist, thoroughly honest but of a rather short temper, was treated with outrageous discourtesy, and his personal effects strewn unceremoniously over the dirty floor of the warehouse by angry inspectors, simply because he was unwilling to bribe them. There was no question as to his having any duti- able goods. The population of Rio is variously estimated at between seven and eight hundred thousand, but her enthusiastic citizens frequently exaggerate this and speak in an offhand way of her having a mil- lion people. They are naturally reluctant to admit that Rio has any fewer than Buenos Aires. The suburbs of Rio are remarkably attractive. On the great bay, dotted with its beautiful islands, are various resorts that take advantage of the natu- ral beauties of the place, and cater to the pleasure- loving Brazilians. From various ports on the bay, railroads radiate in all possible directions, going north into the heart of the mining region and west through the coffee country to Sao Paulo. The ter- minus of a little scenic railway is the top of one of the highest and most remarkable of the near-by peaks, the Corcovado. The view from the summit can scarcely be surpassed in the whole world. The intensely blue waters of the bay, the bright white sunlight reflected from the fleecy cumulous clouds so typical of the tropics, the verdure-clad hills, and the white city spread out like a map on the edge of the bay, combine to make a marvellous picture. No account of Rio, however brief, would be com- 22 ACROSS SOUTH AMERICA plete without some reference to the "Jornal do Comercio," the leading newspaper of Brazil, whose owner and editor, Dr. J. C. Rodriguez, is one of the most influential men in the country. In addition to guiding public opinion through his powerful and ably edited newspaper, he has had the time to at- tend to numerous charities and to the collection of a most remarkable library of books relating to Brazil. He has recently taken high rank as a bibliog- rapher by publishing a much sought after volume on early Braziliana, basing his information largely on his own matchless collection. Another well-edited paper is "O Paiz," which like the " Jornal do Comercio " has its own handsome edifice on the new Avenida Central. A subscription to it for one year costs "thirty thousand reis" — a trifle over nine dollars ! As in the case of other South American newspapers, its offices are far more luxu- rious and elaborate than those of their contempo- raries In North America. These southern dailies give considerable space to foreign cablegrams, so much more, in fact, than do our own papers, that it almost persuades one that we are more provincial than our neighbors. Santos, the greatest coffee port In the world and the only city in Brazil having adequate docking facilities, Is a day's sail from Rio. It is separated from the ocean by winding sea-rivers or canals. The marshes and flats that surround It, and the bleaching skeletons of sailing vessels that one sees here, are sufficient reminders of the terrible epidemics that have been the scourge of Santos in the past. RIO, SANTOS, BRAZILIAN TRADE 23 Stones are told of ships that came here for coffee, whose entire crews perished of yellow fever before the cargo could be taken aboard, leaving the vessel to rot at her moorings. All of this is changed now, and the port is as healthy as could be expected. Yet the town is not attractive. It lacks the pic- turesque ox-drays of Pernambuco and the charming surroundings of Rio, The streets are badly paved and muddy; the clattering mule-teams that bring the bags of coffee from the great warehouses to the docks are just like thousands of others in our own western cities. The old-fashioned tram-cars, run- ning on the same tracks that the ramshackle sub- urban trains use, are dirty but not interesting. Prices in the shops are enormously high. In fact, on all sides there is too much evidence of the up- setting influence of a great modern commerce. A long line of steamers lying at the docks taking on coffee is the characteristic feature of the place, and a booklet that has recently been issued to ad- vertise the resources of Brazil bears on its cover a branch of the coffee tree, loaded with red berries, behind which is the photograph of a great ocean liner, into whose steel sides marches an unending procession of stevedores carrying on their backs sacks of coffee. It not only emphasizes Brazil's greatest industry, but it is also thoroughly typical of Santos. Most of the coffee is grown in the mountains to the north, and comes to Santos from Sao Paulo on a splendidly equipped British-built railway. The line is one of the finest in South America. It rises rapidly through a beautiful tropical valley by a 24 ACROSS SOUTH AMERICA gradient so steep as to necessitate the use of a cable and cogs for a large part of the distance. The power- houses scattered at intervals along the line are models of cleanliness and mechanical perfection. Notwithstanding the fact that America is by far the greatest consumer of Santos coffee, the greater part of the local enterprises are in British hands. The investment of British capital in Brazil Is enor- mous. It has been computed that it amounts to over six hundred million dollars. Americans do not seem yet to have waked up to the possibilities of Brazilian commerce, or to the fact that the ques- tion of American trade with Brazil is an extremely important one. It Is only necessary to realize that the territory of Brazil Is larger than that of the United States, that the population of Brazil is greater than all the rest of South America put together, and that Brazil's exports exceed her imports by one hundred million dollars annually, to understand the opportunity for developing our foreign trade. Brazil produces considerably more than half of the world's supply of coffee, besides enormous quan- tities of rubber. The possibilities for increased pro- duction of raw material are almost incalculable. It is just the sort of market for us. Here we can dis- pose of our manufactured products and purchase what will not grow at home. We have made some attempts to develop the field, even though our knowledge is too often limited to that of the delightful person who knew Brazil was " the place where the nuts come from ! " We have THE HAK < SANTOS RIO, SANTOS, BRAZILIAN TRADE 25 little conception of the great distances that separate the important cities of Brazil and of the dififtculties of transportation. A story is told in Rio of an attempt to go from Rio to Sao Paulo by motor, over the cart-road that connects the two largest cities in the Republic. The trip by railway takes about twelve hours. The automobile excursion took three weeks of most fearful drudgery. Needless to say, the cars did not come back by their own power. It is more difficult for a merchant in one of the great coast cities of Central Brazil to keep in touch with the Amazon, than it is for a Chicago merchant to keep in touch with Australia. Furthermore, to one who tries to master the situa- tion, the coinage and the monetary system seem at first sight to present an insuperable obstacle. To have a bill for dinner rendered in thousands of reis is rather confusing, until one comes to regard the thou- sand ret piece as equivalent to about thirty cents. Another and much more serious difficulty is the poor mail service to and from New York. To the traveller in South America, unquestionably the most exasperating annoyance everywhere is the insecurity and irregularity of the mails. The Latin-American mind seems to be more differently constituted from ours in that particular than in any other. He knows that the service is bad, slow, and unreliable. But it seems to make little difference to him, and the only effort he makes to overcome the frightfully un- satisfactory conditions is by resorting to the regis- tered mail, to which he intrusts everything that is 26 ACROSS SOUTH AMERICA of importance. Add to this fact the infrequency of direct mail steamers from the United States to the East Coast, and it may readily be seen where lies one of the most serious obstacles in the way of ex- tending our commerce with Brazil, A marked peculiarity of the Brazilian market is its extreme conservatism. Brazilians who have be- come accustomed to buying French, English, and German products are loath to change. American products are unfashionable. The Brazilian who can afford it travels on the luxuriously appointed steamers of the Royal Mail, and he and his friends regard articles of English make as much more fash- ionable and luxurious than those from the United States. This is largely due to the lack of commercial prestige which we enjoy in the coast cities of Brazil. The Brazilians cannot understand why they see no American banks and no American steamship lines. Our flag never appears in their ports except as it is carried by a man-of-war or an antiquated wooden sailing vessel. To their minds this is proof conclusive that the American, who claims that his country is one of the most important commercial nations in the world, is merely bluffing. Such prejudices can only be overcome by strict attention to business, and this attention our export- ers have in large measure not yet thought it worth while to give. The agents that they send to Brazil rarely speak Portuguese, and are unable to com- pete with the expert linguists who come out from Europe. Frequently they even lack that technical RIO, SANTOS, BRAZILIAN TRADE 27 training In the manufacture of the goods which they are trying to sell, which gives their German competitors so great an advantage. Still more important than commercial travellers In a country like Brazil, is the establishment of agencies where goods may be attractively displayed. An active importer told me that, in his opinion, the most essential thing for Americans to do was to maintain permanent depots or expositions where their goods could be seen and handled. Relatively little good seems to result from the use of catalogues, even when printed in the language of the country, owing to the insecurity of the mails and the absence of American banks or express companies which would Insure the delivery of goods ordered. Finally, it is disgraceful to be obliged to repeat the old story of American methods of packing goods for shipment to South America. This fact has been so often alluded to in many different publications that it might seem as though further criticism were unnecessary. Unfortunately, however, In spite of re- peated protests, American shippers, forgetful of the almost entire absence of docks and docking facilities here, continue to pack their goods as If they were destined for Europe. At most of the ports, lighters have to be used. These resemble small coal barges, Into which the goods are lowered over the side of the vessel. Often more or less of a sea is running, and notwithstanding all the care that may be used the durability of the packing-cases Is tested to the utmost. I saw a box containing a typewriter dumped on top of a pile 28 ACROSS SOUTH AMERICA of miscellaneous merchandise, from which it rolled down, bumping and thumping into the farther corner of the barge. Fortunately, this particular typewriter belonged to a make of American machines whose manufacturers have learned to pack their goods in such form as to stand just that kind of treatment. The result is that one sees that brand of machine all over South America. The American consul in Rio, Mr. Anderson, has been doing a notable service in recent years by sending north full and accurate reports of business conditions in Brazil, and our special agent, Mr. Lincoln Hutchinson, has written excellent reports on trade conditions in South America. To the labors of both these gentlemen I am greatly indebted for information on this subject. CHAPTER III BUENOS AIRES WE left Santos late on a Tuesday afternoon, and after two pleasant days at sea entered the harbor of Montevideo on Friday morning. It was crowded with ships of all nations, and we were particularly delighted to see the American flag flying from three small steamers. Could it be pos- sible that the flag which had been so conspicuous for its absence from South American waters, was regaining in the twentieth century the preeminence it had in the early years of the nineteenth? Alas, no; the boats were only government vessels in the light- house service, towing lightships from the Atlantic to the Pacific coast. They had stopped here to coal, for Montevideo is a favorite port of call for steamers bound through the Straits of Magellan. Ever since the days when it was the home of active smugglers, who were engaged in defying Spain's restrictive colonial policy, Montevideo has been a prosperous trading centre. To-day, clean streets, new build- ings, electric cars, fine shops, elaborate window dis- plays, well-dressed people, and excellent hotels mark it as modern and comfortable. It is difficult to realize that this is the capital of Uruguay, "one of the most tumultuous of the smaller revolutionary states of South America." The Amer- 30 ACROSS SOUTH AMERICA ican is chagrined to find that the Uruguayan gold or paper dollar is worth two cents more than our own. And the Englishman is most annoyed to find the "sovereign" at a discount. But chagrin gives way to frank amazement at the high prices which the Montevidean is willing to pay for his imported luxuries. The republic is small but there is no waste land, and the railroads bring in quantities of wool and food-stuffs destined for the European market. More than three thousand steamers enter the port an- nually. Most of them belong to the eighteen Brit- ish lines that touch here. No wonder the city is wealthy and has attractive shops and boulevards. To be sure, the harbor improvements, not completed yet, have been greatly retarded by the most flagrant kind of political graft. But what American city, from New York to San Francisco, has a clean record in this particular? Splendidly equipped steamers, resembling our Fall River boats, ply nightly between Montevideo and Buenos Aires, in order to accommodate the in- creasing numbers who wish to do business in both cities. A generation ago the traveller to Buenos Aires was obliged to disembark in the stream seven or eight miles from the city, proceed in small boats over the shallow waters, and then clamber into huge ox-carts and enjoy the last mile or two of his jour- ney as best he could. Since then, extraordinary har- bor improvements, costing millions of dollars, have been completed, and ocean steamers are now able i BUENOS AIRES 31 to approach the city through dredged channels. Yet such has been the phenomenal growth of the port that the magnificent modern docks are al- ready overcrowded and the handling of cargo goes on very slowly, retarded by many exasperating de- lays. The regular passenger and mail steamers are given prompt attention, however, and the customs house examination is both speedy and courteous, in marked contrast to that at Rio. In years to come, the two other important ports of Argentina — Rosa- rio, higher up the Rio de la Plata, and Bahia Blanca, farther down the Atlantic coast — are destined to grow at a rapid rate because of the better docking facilities they will be able to afford. r • Bahia Blanca in particular is destined to have a great future, as it is the natural outlet for the rapidly developing agricultural and pastoral region of south- ern Argentina. Buenos Aires, however, will always maintain her political and commercial supremacy. She is not only the capital of Argentina, but out of every five Argentinos, she claims at least one as a denizen of her narrow streets. Already ranking as the second Latin city in the world, her population equals that of Madrid and Barcelona combined. Hardly has one left the docks on the way to the hotel before one is impressed with the commercial power of this great city. Your taidcah passes slowly through crowded streets where the heavy trafhc re- tards your progress and gives you a chance to marvel at the great number of foreign banks, English, Ger- man, French, and Italian, that have taken pos- 32 ACROSS SOUTH AMERICA session of this quarter of the city. With their fine substantial buildings and their general appearance of solidity, they have a firm grip on the situation. One looks in vain for an American bank or agency of any well-known Wall Street house. American financial institutions are like the American mer- chant steamers, conspicuous by their absence. The Anglo-Saxons that you see briskly walking along the sidewalks are not Americans, but clean-shaven, red-cheeked, vigorous Britishers. In England they talk familiarly of "B.A." and the "River Plate"; disdaining to use the Spanish words Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay, and Buenos Aires. To hear them you might suppose they were speaking of something they owned, and you would not be so very far from the truth. What Mexico owes to American capital and enterprise, the countries and cities of the Rio de la Plata owe to Great Britain. British capitalists have not been slow to realize the possibilities of this great agricultural region. They know its potentiality as a food-producer, and they have covered it with a network of railways much as we have covered the prairies of Illinois and the plains of Kansas. Of the billion and a quarter dollars of British capital invested in Argentina, over seven hundred millions are in railways. Thou- sands of active, energetic young Englishmen, backed by this enormous British capital, have aided in the extraordinary progress which Argentina has made during the past generation. In some ways this is an English colony. The ma- jority of the people do not speak English, except in BUENOS AIRES 33 the commercial district, and the Englishman is here on sufferance. But it is his railroads that tie this country together. It is his enterprises that have opened thousands of its square miles, and although the folly of his ancestors a century ago caused him to lose the political control of this "purple land," the energy of his more recent forebears has given him a splendid heritage. Not only has he been able to pay large dividends to the British stockholders who had such great faith in the future of Argentina, he has made many native Argentinos wealthy beyond the dreams of avarice. Land-owners, whose parents had not a single change of clothes, are themselves considering how many motor cars to order. Their patronage sus- tains the finely appointed shops which make such a brave display on Florida and Cangallo Streets. These streets may be so narrow that vehicles are only allowed to pass in one direction, but the shops are first class in every particular and include the greatest variety of goods, from the latest creations of Parisian millinery to the most modern scientific instruments. Fine book shops, large department stores, gorgeous restaurants, expensive to the last degree, emphasize the wealth and extravagance of the upper classes. On the streets one may hear all of the European languages. In the business district it is quite as likely to be English as Spanish, and in the poorer quarters Italian is growing more common every day. The speech of the common people is nominally Spanish, very bad Spanish. In reality it is a hybrid 34 ACROSS SOUTH AMERICA into which Portuguese, Italian, and Indian words and accents have entered to disfigure the beautiful Castilian. When Rio cut her Avenida Central through the middle of her business district, she had in mind the Avenida 25 de Mayo of Buenos Aires, a typical imitation Parisian Boulevard that was opened not many years ago to facilitate traffic and beautify the city. On the Avenida, as in Rio, the leading news- paper has its luxurious home. All the world has heard of "La Prensa" and its marvellously well-appointed building where dis- tinguished foreigners are entertained, lectures are given, and all sorts of advertising dodges are fea- tured. It was "La Prensa" that had the news of President Taft's election two minutes after it was known in New York. Many Portenos, as the people of Buenos Aires are called, think the columns of "La Prensa" are too yellow and that its business methods are almost too modern. They prefer the more dignified pages of the "Nacion." The hotels on the Avenida are not up to the standard of three of those on the narrower thorough- fares. In fact, it would be hard to find more com- fortable hostelries than the Grand or the Palace. The new Phoenix Hotel, one of the first skyscrapers to be erected here, promises even greater comforts and is to be the rendezvous of the British colony. There are many theatres and they have a bril- liant season, which begins in June. The pleasure- loving Porteilos are willing to pay very high prices for the best seats, and managers can offer good BUENOS AIRES 35 salaries to tempt the best performers to leave Eu- rope. Variety shows are popular and carried to an extreme with which we are not familiar in the United States. Some of them are poor copies of question- able Parisian enterprises. But even these are not as bad as the moving picture shows that have cap- tured Buenos Aires. Public opinion is astonishingly lax in the southern capital. Exhibitions of shocking indecency are countenanced, that would no longer be tolerated in Europe or North America. In this matter Buenos Aires also offers a marked contrast to Santiago de Chile where morals are on a much higher plane, thanks to the Catholic Church, which unfortunately seems to have lost its grip here. The Porteiio has not only forgotten his religion, he seems also to have lost the pleasing manners of his Castilian ancestors. I have been in eight South American capitals and in none have I seen such bad manners as in Buenos Aires. Nowhere else in South America is one jostled so rudely. Nowhere else does one see such insolent behavior and such bad taste. Santiago, Lima, Bogota, and Caracas seem to belong to a different civilization. To be sure, none of them are as rich and prosperous. But in all of them good society is a much more ancient concern than in this overgrown young metropolis. Here the newly rich are in full sway and their ideas and instincts seem to predominate. On Sun- day afternoon, all the world dashes madly out to the race course, where it exercises its passion for gambling to the fullest capacity. In the Jockey Club inclosure are gathered the youth and beauty, the 36 ACROSS SOUTH AMERICA wealth and fashion of the city. And yet the ladies carry the artificial tricks of feminine adornment to such an amazing extent that it is almost impossible to realize that they belong to the fashionable world and not to the demi-monde. The races that I at- tended drew an audience of thirty thousand. One race had a first prize amounting to fifteen thousand dollars. The horses seemed to be of a rather heavier build than ours but they did not interest the spec- tators. Facilities for betting were provided on an elaborate scale. There were no bookmakers, and the odds depended entirely on the popular choice, as is commonly done in Europe. The gate receipts and the proceeds of the "percentage" are enormous and have enabled the Jockey Club to build one of the most luxurious and extravagant club houses in the world. After the races, hundreds of motor cars and car- riages promenade slowly up and down that part of the parkway which society has decreed shall be her rendezvous. Here one sees an astonishing display of paint and powder illuminating the faces of the devotees of a fashion which decrees that all ladies must have brilliant complexions. The effect is very unpleasant. I suppose it Is simply another evidence of the newness of modern Buenos Aires. Very few wealthy families have a long-established social position. Culture and refinement are at a discount. Otherwise it is difficult to Imagine how any society can tolerate such artificiality. This garish Sunday parade Is quite a swing of the pen- dulum from the old days when Creole ladies, mod- BUENOS AIRES 37 estly attired in lovely black lace mantillas, walked quietly to church and home again, as they still do in most South American cities. It is hardly necessary to speak of the more usual evidences of great wealth, palatial residences that would attract attention even in Paris and New York, charming parks beautifully laid out on the shores of the great Rio de la Plata, and a thousand luxu- rious automobiles of the latest pattern carrying all they can hold of Parisian millinery. One does not need to be told that this is a city of electric cars, telephones, and taxis. These we take for granted. But there is a characteristic feature of the city that is unexpected and striking: the central depots for imported thoroughbreds. Only a few doors from the great banks and railway offices are huge stables where magnificent blooded horses and cattle, sheep and pigs, which have brought re- cords of distinguished ancestry across the Atlantic, are offered for sale and command high prices. These permanent cattle-shows are the natural rendezvous of the wealthy ranchmen and breeders who are sure to be found here during a part of each day while they are in town. So are foreigners de- sirous of purchasing ranches and reporters getting news from the interior. The cattle-fairs offer ocular evidence of the wealth of the modern Argentine and the importance of the pastoral industry. There are over a hundred million sheep on the Pampas. Cattle and horses also are counted by the millions. The problems of Argentine agriculture and ani- mal industries are being continually studied by the 38 ACROSS SOUTH AMERICA great land-owners, who have already done much to improve the quahty of their products. During my stay in Buenos Aires, it was my privi- lege to visit an agricultural school in one of the neighboring towns. The occasion was the celebra- tion of its twenty-fifth anniversary. The festivities were typically Spanish- American. An avenue of trees was christened with appropriate ceremonies, being given the name of the anniversary date. To each tree a bunch of fire-crackers had been tied. At the beginning and end of the avenue a new sign-post bearing its name had been put up and veiled with a piece of cheese cloth. A procession consisting of the officials of the school and of the National University of La Plata, with which the school is affiliated, alumni and visitors, formed at the school-buildings after the reading of an ap- propriate address, and marched down the new avenue following the band. As we progressed, the signs were unveiled and the bunches of fire-crackers touched off. At the far end, in a grove of eucalyp- tus trees, a collation was served, and we were en- tertained by having the fine horses and cattle be- longing to the school paraded up and down. The school has an extensive property, is doing good work, and shows a practical grasp of the needs of the coun- try. ' Argentina has worked hard to develop those in- dustries that are dependent upon stock-raising. The results have amply justified her. The expor- tation of frozen meat from Argentina amounts to nearly twenty million dollars annually. Only re- BUENOS AIRES 39 cently one of the best known packing-houses of Chicago opened a large plant here and is paying tribute to the excellence of the native stock. Every year Argentina sends to Europe the carcasses of millions of sheep and cattle as well as millions of bushels of wheat and corn, more in fact than we do. Of all the South American republics, she is our greatest natural competitor, and she knows it. Nevertheless, she lacks adequate resources of iron, coal, lumber, and water power, and notwithstanding a high protective tariff, can never hope to become a competitor in manufactured products. Argentina exports more than three times as much per capita as we do, and must do so in order to pay for the necessary importation of manufactured goods. It also means that she will always find it to her ad- vantage to buy her goods from England, France, and Germany, where she sells her food-stuffs. Brazil can send us unlimited amounts of raw materials that we cannot raise at home, while at present Argentina has little to offer us. Yet we are already buying her wool and hides, and before long will undoubtedly be eating her beef and mutton, as England has been doing for years. The banks of Buenos Aires have learned to be extremely conservative. For a long time this city was a favorite resort of absconding bank cashiers from the United States, and stories are told of many well-dressed Americans who have come here from time to time without letters of introduction but with plenty of money to spend, who have been kindly received by the inhabitants, only to prove 40 ACROSS SOUTH AMERICA to be undesirable acquaintances. What we con- sider " old-fashioned and antiquated " English bank methods are the rule, and it frequently takes a couple of hours to draw money on a letter of credit even when one has taken the pains to notify one's bankers beforehand that the letter was to be used in South America. Personally, I have found Ameri- can Express checks extremely useful in all parts of South America and have had no difhculty in getting them accepted in Buenos Aires. In the interior it is more difficult unless one comes well introduced. But the necessity for letters of introduction is quite generally recognized all over the continent. Strang- ers who have "neglected to supply themselves with credentials," frequently turn out to be fugitives from justice. Another local peculiarity noticeable also in Chile, is that many of the citizens bitterly begrudge us our attempted monopoly of the title of "Ameri- cans." They catalogue us at all possible times un- der "N" instead of "A." They also speak of us as North Americans or as "Yankis, " and they call our Minister the "North American Minister," quite ignoring the existence of Mexico and Canada. Certain Americans who are desirous of securing an increase of our trade with South America and of placating in every possible manner the South Amer- icans, overlooking the practical side of the question, have acquiesced in the local prejudice and speak of themselves as North Americans, even though they do not address their letters to the "United States of North America." BUENOS AIRES 41 The fact that the South American refuses to grant us our title of "Americans" is really an indirect compliment. It is chiefly owing to the industry and intelligence of the citizens of the United States, that the word "American" has come to have a com- plimentary meaning, — far more complimentary in fact than it had fifty years ago when distinguished foreigners were wont to use that adjective as a peculiarly opprobrious epithet. With this change in the significance of the term has come a natural desire on the part of the South Americans to apply it to themselves. They reason that they have as good a right, geographically, to the term as we have, and they wilfully forget that each of their repub- lics has in its legal title a word which conveniently and euphoniously characterizes its citizens. The people of the United States of Brazil are called Brazilians, and those of the United States of Mex- ico are Mexicans by the same right that those of the United States of America are Americans. To be sure, the world generally thinks of our coun- try as the United States, quite forgetful that there are several other republics of the same name. It is a pity that a euphonious appellation cannot be manufactured from one or both of those two words. We cannot distinguish ourselves by the title " North American," as that ignores the rightful claim to that title which the denizens of the larger part of this continent, the Mexicans and Canadians, have in common with us. It is difficult to see how we are to avoid calling ourselves Americans even if it gives offence to our neighbors. It is not a point of 42 ACROSS SOUTH AMERICA great importance and it seems to me that in time, with the natural growth of Chile and the Argentine Republic, their citizens will be so proud of being called Chilenos or Argentinos that they will not begrudge us our only convenient and proper title. There is another point, however, in their criti- cism of us which is more reasonable and on which they might be accorded more satisfaction. I refer to that part of our foreign policy known as the Monroe Doctrine. Many a Chileno and Argentine resents the idea of our IVIonroe Doctrine applying in any sense to his country and declares that we had better keep it at home. He regards it as only another sign of our overweening national conceit. And on mature consideration, it does seem as though the justification for the Monroe Doctrine, both in its original and its present form, had passed. Eu- rope is no longer ruled by despots who desire to crush the liberties of their subjects. As is frequently remarked, England has a more democratic govern- ment than the United States. In all the leading countries of Europe, the people have practically as much to say about the government as they have in America. There is not the slightest danger that any European tyrant will attempt to enslave the weak republics of this hemisphere. Furthermore, such republics as Mexico, Argentina, Brazil, Chile, and Peru no more need our Monroe Doctrine to keep them from being robbed of their territory by Euro- pean nations than does Italy or Spain. If it be true that some of the others, like the notoriously lawless group in Central America, need to be looked after BUENOS AIRES 43 by their neighbors, let us amend our outgrown Monroe Doctrine, as has already been suggested by one of our writers on international law, so as to include in the police force of the Western Hemi- sphere, those who have shown themselves able to practice self-control. With our lynchings, strikes, and riots, we shall have to be very careful, however, not to make the conditions too severe or we shall ourselves fail to qualify. The number of "North Americans" in Buenos Aires is very small. While we have been slowly waking up to the fact that South America is some- thing more than "a land of revolutions and fevers," our German cousins have entered the field on all sides. The Germans in southern Brazil are a negligible factor in international affairs. But the well-edu- cated young German who is being sent out to cap- ture South America commercially, is a power to be reckoned with. He is going to damage England more truly than Dreadnoughts or gigantic airships. He is worth our study as well as England's. Willing to acquaint himself with and adapt him- self to local prejudices, he has already made great strides in securing South American commerce for his Fatherland. He has become a more useful member of the community than the Englishman. He has taken pains to learn the language thoroughly, and speak it not only grammatically but idio- matically as well; something which the Anglo- Saxon almost never does. He has entered into the social life of the country with a much more gracious 44 ACROSS SOUTH AMERICA spirit than his competitors and rarely segregates him- self from the community in pursuing his pleasures as the English do. His natural prejudices against the Spanish way of doing things are not so strong. His steamers are just as luxurious and comfort- able as the new English boats. It is said that even if the element of danger that always exists at sea is less on the British lines, the German boats treat their passengers with more consideration, giving them better food and better service. No wonder the Spanish-American likes the German better than he does the English or American. Already the English residents in Buenos Aires, who have re- garded the River Plate as their peculiar province for many years, are galled beyond measure to see what strides the Germans have made in capturing the market for their manufactured products and in threatening their commercial supremacy. And neither English nor Germans are going to hold out a helping hand or welcome an American commercial invasion. Meanwhile the Argentinos realize that their country cannot get along without foreign capital, much as they hate to see the foreigner made rich from the products of their rolling prairies. Politically, Buenos Aires and Argentina are in the control of the native born. They have a natural aptitude for playing politics, and they much prefer it to the more serious world of business. This they are quite willing to leave to the foreigner. They realize also that they greatly need more immigrants. The population is barely five per square BUENOS AIRES 45 mile, and as a matter of fact, is practically much less than that for so large a part of the entire popu- lation is crowded into the city and province of Buenos Aires. Consequently they are doing all they can to encourage able-bodied immigrants to come from Italy and Spain. And the immigrants are coming. My ship brought a thousand. Other ships brought more than three hundred thousand in 1908. Argentina is not stand- ing still. Nor is she waiting for "American enter- prise." During 1908 considerably more than two thousands vessels entered the ports of the republic. Four flew the American flag. CHAPTER IV ARGENTINE INDEPENDENCE AND SPANISH- AMERICAN SOLIDARITY ON the 25th of May, 19 10, the Argentine nation in general, and Buenos Aires in particular, observed with appropriate ceremonies the one hundredth anniversary of their independence. Great preparations were made to insure a celebration that should suitably represent the importance of the event. In 1 8 10 Buenos Aires had been a Spanish colony for two hundred and fifty years following her foun- dation in the sixteenth century. But the Spanish crown had never valued highly the great rolling prairies drained by the Rio de la Plata. There were no mines of gold or silver here, and Spain did not send her colonists into far-away America to raise corn and wine that should compete with Spanish farmers at home. Buenos Aires was regarded as the end of the world. All persons and all legitimate com- merce bound thither from Spain were obliged to go by way of Panama and Peru, over the Andes, across the South American continent, before they could legally enter the port of Buenos Aires. The natural result of this was the building up of a prosperous colony of Portuguese smugglers in southern Brazil. Another result was that no Spaniards cared to live ARGENTINE INDEPENDENCE 47 so far away from home if they could possibly help it, and society in Buenos Aires was not nearly so brilliant as in the fashionable Spanish-American capitals of Lima, Santiago, or Bogota. During the closing years of the eighteenth century the Spaniards became convinced of their short- sighted policy and made Buenos Aires an open port. The English were not slow to realize that this was one of the best commercial situations in South Amer- ica, and that far from being the end of the world, as the Spaniards thought, it was a natural centre through which the wealth of a large part of South America was bound to pass. The great Mr. Pitt, who was most interested in developing British com- merce with South America, felt that it would prob- ably be necessary to introduce British manufactures in the wake of a military expedition, and decided to seize Buenos Aires, which was so poorly defended that it could easily be captured by a small resolute force. Accordingly in June, 1806, an attack was made. The Viceroy, notwithstanding repeated warnings, had made no preparations to defend the city, and it was captured without difficulty. There was great rejoicing in London at the report of the victory, but it was soon turned to dismay by the news of a disgraceful and unconditional surrender. The sud- den overthrow of the English was due largely to the ability of a local hero named Liniers who played successfully on the wounded pride of the Portenos. ,The significance of the episode is that it gave to the Porteiios the idea that the power of Spain could 48 ACROSS SOUTH AMERICA be easily overthrown, and that they actually had the courage and strength to win and hold their own independence. Hardly had the city recovered from the effects of its bombardment by the English before events, destined to produce a profound change throughout South America, commenced to attract attention in Spain. Napoleon inaugurated his peninsula campaigns, and the world beheld the spectacle of a Spanish king become the puppet of a French em- peror. In July, 1809, a new Viceroy, appointed by the Spanish cortes then engaged in fighting against Napoleon, took possession of the reins of government in Buenos Aires. In the early months of 1810, Na- poleon's armies were so successful throughout the Spanish peninsula that it seemed as if the complete subjection of Spain was about to be accomplished. On May 18, the unhappy Viceroy allowed this news from Spain to become known in the city. At once a furor of popular discussion arose. Led by Belgrano and other liberal young Creoles, the people decided to defy Napoleon and his puppet king of Spain as they had defied the soldiers of England. On the 25th of May, the Viceroy, frightened out of his wits, surrendered his authority, and a great popular assembly that crowded the plaza to its ut- most capacity appointed a committee to rule in his stead. So the 25th of May, 1810, became the actual birthday of Argentina's independence, al- though the acts of the popular government were for six years done in the name of Ferdinand, the deposed king of Spain, and the Act of Independence ARGENTINE INDEPENDENCE 49 was not passed by the Argentine Congress until 1816. No sooner had Buenos Aires thrown off the yoke of Spain than she began an active armed propaganda much as the first French republic did before her. Other cities of Argentina were forcibly convinced of the advantages of independence, and the armies of Buenos Aires pressed northward into what is now southern Bolivia. It was their intention to drive the Spanish armies entirely out of the continent, and what seemed more natural than that they should follow the old trade route which they had used for centuries, and go from Buenos Aires to Lima by way of the highlands of Bolivia and Peru. But they reck- oned without counting the cost. In the first place the Indians of those lofty arid regions do not take great interest in politics. It matters little to them who their masters are. Furthermore, their country is not one that is suited to military campaigns. Hundreds of square miles of arid desert plateaux ten or twelve thousand feet above the sea, a region suited only to support a small population and that by dint of a most careful system of irrigation, sepa- rated by frightful mountain trails from any adequate basis of supplies, were obstacles that proved too great for them to overcome. Their little armies were easily driven back. On the other hand, when the royalist armies attempted to descend from the plateaux and attack the patriots, they were equally unsuccessful. The truth is that southern Bolivia and northern Argentina are regions where it is far easier to stay at home and defend one's self than 50 ACROSS SOUTH AMERICA to make successful attacks on one's neighbors. An army cannot live off the country as it goes along, and the difficulties of supplying it with provisions and supplies are almost insurmountable. The first man to appreciate this was Jos^ San Martin. It is not too much to say that San Martin is the greatest name that South America has produced. Bolivar is better known among us, and he is some- times spoken of as the "Washington of South America." But his character does not stand inves- tigation ; and no one can claim that his motives were as unselfish or his aims as lofty as those of the great general to whose integrity and ability the foremost republics of Spanish South America, Argentina, Chile, and Peru, owe their independence. San Martin was born of Spanish parents not far from the present boundary between Argentina and Paraguay. His father was a trusted Spanish official. His mother was a woman of remarkable courage and foresight. His parents sent him to Spain at an early age to be educated. Military instincts soon drew him into the army and he served in various capa- cities, both In Africa and later against the French in the peninsula. He was able to learn thoroughly the lessons of war and the value of well-trained soldiers. He received the news of the popular up- rising in Argentina while still in Spain, and soon became interested in the struggles of his fellow- countrymen to establish their independence. In 1812 he returned to Buenos Aires where his unsel- fish zeal and intelligence promptly marked him out as an unusual leader. The troops under him be- THE USP.- A PASS ARGENTINE INDEPENDENCE 51 came the best-drilled body of patriots in South America. After witnessing the futile attempts of the pa- triots to drive the Spanish armies out of the moun- tains of Peru by way of the highlands of Bolivia, he conceived the brilliant idea of cutting ofif their com- munication with Spain by commanding the sea power of the West Coast. He established his head- quarters at Mendoza in western Argentina, a point from which it would be easy to strike at Chile through various passes across the Andes. Here he stayed for two years governing the province admi- rably, building up an efi(icient army, organizing the refugees that fled from Chile to Mendoza, making friends with the Indians, and keeping out of the fac- tional quarrels that threatened to destroy all proper government in Buenos Aires. In January, 181 7, his army was ready. He led the Spaniards to think that he might cross the Andes almost anywhere, and suc- ceeded in scattering their forces so as to enable him to bring the main body of his army over the most practical route, the Uspallata Pass. The expedition was successful, and in 1818 San Martin had the satisfaction of administering such a decisive defeat to the Spaniards at Maipo as to in- sure Chilean independence. With the aid of a re- markable soldier of fortune, Thomas Cochran, Earl of Dundonald, and an interesting group of Anglo- Saxon seamen, San Martin drove the Spaniards from the West Coast and captured the city of Lima. The aid which was given him by Buenos Aires and Chile was not sufficient to enable him to penetrate 52 ACROSS SOUTH AMERICA the great Andes of the interior and totally destroy the last Spanish army. He sought Bolivar's aid, but that proud Liberator would only come as Comman- der-in-chief. So, rather than sacrifice the cause of independence, San Martin, with unexampled self- effacement, gave up his well-trained veterans to Boli- var and Sucre and quietly withdrew to his modest home in Argentina. His unwillingness to enter into political squabbles, his large-minded statesmanship, and his dignified bearing did not endear him to his fellow countrymen, and he was forced to pass the de- clining years of his life in Europe, an exile from his native land. The history of the period is full of petty personal rivalries and absurd political squabbles. Against these as a background the magnificent figure of San Martin, efficient soldier, wise statesman, and unsel- fish patriot, stands out plainly distinct. His achieve- ments are worthy to be remembered with those of the greatest heroes of history. His character, the finest that South America has ever produced, has few equals in the annals of any country. For many years he was disliked by his fellow pa- triots because he openly expressed the belief that they were not fit for pure democratic government. Since his day many South Americans agree with him. The most serious criticism, however, which we can lay at the door of the South American is his lack of political cohesion. The border provinces are ever- lastingly rebelling against the decrees of the central government. Furthermore, when the Spanish colo- nies secured their independence, they either did not SPANISH-AMERICAN SOLIDARITY 53 combine or else combining soon fell apart. The rea- son for this lack of solidarity may be found in the history of the Hispanic race and in the geographical conditions that exist in the southern continent. In criticising South American habits of mind and political tendencies, one must remember that the moral and intellectual characteristics that form the soul of a people have been developed by its entire past and represent the inheritance of its ancestors. For the motives of its conduct, one must look to its history. Historically, the Hispanic race was led to develop individualistic rather than cooperative action. The forces at work in the peninsula were centrifugal rather than centripetal. A small handful of brave mountaineers were almost the only inhabitants of the peninsula that were able to defy the Moorish con- querors. The process of the Christian re-conquest of Spain was so slow that it took nearly eight centur- ies for her to grow from the lonely, rocky fastness of Covadonga to the group of Christian kingdoms that embraced the entire peninsula. During these eight hundred years, preceding the Conquest of America, the Spaniards fought almost continuously against an ever-present enemy. This developed a strong municipal spirit, for the towns on the frontier were in constant danger of attacks from the Moors, and it was necessary to grant them very considerable pow- ers. As the boundaries of Christian Spain extended southward, new cities came to be frontier posts, but the old ones retained the powers and the semi-inde- pendence they had previously gained. 54 ACROSS SOUTH AMERICA The result was a race of men devoted primarily to their cities; only secondarily to the province or king- dom to which their city belonged, and quite incident- ally to Spain as a geographical and linguistic unit. Such a racial tendency could not help developing that disregard of large national interests in prefer- ence to petty local concerns which has been a most unfortunate trait in the history of the South Ameri- can republics. For while it may be true that the con- ception of the city as the soul of the native country has always been effective from the point of view of the development of civilization, it has been disas- trous in its effect on national progress. It was just that loyalty to the municipality that prevented the growth of the Greek Empire. Another result of the eight hundred years of Chris- tian warfare against the infidel Moor, was the devel- opment of moral and physical qualities that made possible the marvellously rapid conquest of America by small companies of coiiquistadores. Brave, big- oted, courageous, accustomed to continuous hostili- ties, ardently devoted to a cause for which they were willing to lay down their lives, fighting to the last ditch, it is not surprising that the ancestors of the South Americans were able to achieve such wonder- ful results in the early sixteenth century. Only a vigorous and rising nation could have ac- complished the great work of exploring, conquering, and colonizing America which was done at that time. ,. As a matter of fact, a wonderful transformation was then taking place in Spain. The marriage of Ferdinand and Isabella had united by personal SPANISH-AMERICAN SOLIDARITY 55 bonds what had formerly been a handful of detached kingdoms. These countries each had their own laws, their own peculiar customs and separate administra- tive systems. Some of the provinces were inhabited by people of different stock. The process of unifica- tion was almost contemporaneous with the conquest and colonization of America. For a career destined to be as great as that of any of the larger empires of history, Spain had at the be- ginning of the colonizing period an inadequate po- litical organization. Spanish racial unity and reli- gious uniformity were of recent growth. The Euro- pean progenitors of the conquerors did not fight for Spain as a whole, but rather as citizens of a munici- pality or as vassals of a petty king. The spirit of a centralized, unified government whose citizens are willing to sacrifice everything for the sake of their nation, did not run in their blood. They belonged to a fragmentary and embryonic group of nations. Spain did not adopt a policy of centralization long enough before the acquisition of her American col- onies to allow the results of such a change in meth- odsof government to affect popularhabits of thought. In the meantime, South America was being colo- nized by men who had no sense of racial unity and few tendencies towards concerted political action. [■ Hence it is not at all surprising that their descend- ants, the heroes of the Wars of Emancipation, did not find it easy or natural to unite under one gov- ernment. It was in accordance with the history of their race that they should form separate political establishments. It was also in accordance with that 56 ACROSS SOUTH AMERICA Spanish colonial policy which forbade communica- tion between the different colonies and in no way en- couraged a community of interests. Historically then, there was little to cause the South American colonies on achieving their inde- pendence, to unite, even had they not been sepa- rated by tremendous natural obstacles. Although the basins of the Amazon, the La Plata, and the Orinoco offered many thousands of miles of navigable highways, the masses of water were to6 copious and too irregular to be controlled until the era of steam navigation. In the great valleys east of the Andes, the excessive fertility of the soil has pro- duced an enormous area of continuous woodlands, a mass of vegetation that has defied the efforts of cen- turies to effect clearings and roads. This densely timbered and sparsely inhabited region keeps Vene- zuela from having any dealings with Bolivia more effectually than if an absolute desert lay between them. There is nothing that separates one of the United States from another that is at all comparable to the lofty chain of the Andes and the impenetrable jungle that lies for hundreds of miles on the eastern slope of the Cordillera. The more one considers the mat- ter, the more it seems as though nature could not have placed more impassable obstacles in the way of intercommunication if she had set out with that definite purpose in view. In comparison with the dif- ficulties of travelling from Lima, the centre of the old Spanish domain, to Buenos Aires, a journey from New York to Charleston in the days of the Ameri- SPANISH-AMERICAN SOLIDARITY 57 can revolution was a mere pleasure jaunt, and yet it seemed difficult enough at that time! Nowhere in the English colonies existed such impediments to communication as the deserts of northern Chile and southern Peru, the swamps of eastern Colombia and western Venezuela, the forests of Ecuador, Peru, and Bolivia, or the gigantic chain of the Andes whose lowest point for thousands of miles is ten thousand feet above the sea. # The founders of the original thirteen English colo- nies not only inherited racial unity but providen- tially built their homes on a short strip of coast and occupied a homogeneous country, no larger than a single Spanish colony. Their union followed as a matter of course. It was quite otherwise in South America. For, as though it were not enough that the tendency of the race was towards building up individual communi- ties rather than federations, as though the laws for- bidding the colonists from trading with one another and from travelling from one colony to another were not a sufficient preventive of union, all the forces of nature, mountains, rivers, deserts, swamps, and even winds, combined to promote the isolation of the new republics. The top of the highest mountain in the thirteen English colonies was not half as high as the lowest point in the ranges of lofty mountains that separated the Spanish colonies ; nor one third as high as the Uspallata Pass by which Chile is connected with Argentina. It is not for us to criticise the South Americans for having failed to unite and form a great nation. Our 58 ACROSS SOUTH AMERICA ancestors were favored by nature with a region that is comparatively accessible in all parts. It is not any more creditable to the English colonists that they united than it is discreditable to the Latin-Ameri- cans that they did not. In both cases, racial char- acteristics, aided by diverse policies of colonial ad- ministration made a foundation for growth which by an extraordinary coincidence, was in every possible way favored by local geographical conditions. The English colonists, on securing their independ* ence, had been acquainted with one another for gen- erations ; had fought side by side in the French and Indian wars; had intermarried, built up social and business friendships ; united in sending agents to the mother country and in sending representatives to Congresses where the leading men of each colony came to know one another's desires and aspirations. Placed by fate on a narrow strip of coast less in length than the seaboard of Chile alone, enabled by nature to communicate both by sea and land, sep- arated from one another by neither deserts nor lofty mountains, what more likely than that they should have followed their natural traditions and formed a single nation? The difficulties in the way of the South American colonists following such an example were stupendous. Scattered over an enormous area, separated by the greatest natural boundaries that nature has produced, it was scarcely to be expected that they too should not follow the traditions of their race and build up local governments instead of forming a federation. The historical and geographical reasons that pre- SPANISH-AMERICAN SOLIDARITY 59 vented the formation of confederations have also mitigated against the building up of strong national governments. The citizen Is still inclined to favor the affairs of his city rather than the good of his country. He finds It easier to be loyal to the local chieftain than to the central government. The cure for this, however, is already in sight. The energy and enterprise of English, French, and German capi- talists are overcoming the obstacles that nature has placed In the way of intercommunication. In time, aided by steam and electric systems of transportation, some of the Southern Republics may even unite with others. But before this comes about it may confidently be expected in the near future that the development of new transportation facili- ties will make possible the growth of strong national feeling and will prevent the states from falling apart. It will certainly make revolutions less frequent and bring a condition of stability that will even attract American capital and greatly augment European immigration. CHAPTER V THE TUCUMAN EXPRESS FOR nearly three centuries the most important trade-route in South America was the overland trail from Buenos Aires to Lima by way of the silver mines of Potosi. The system of travel for both pas- sengers and freight was well established. In 1773 there was published a little book called "El Laza- rillo," "The BHnd Man's Guide," which contains full information for travellers going from Buenos Aires to Lima with exact itineraries and "with some useful notes for those new business men who traffic by means of mules." The road with its post-houses, its relays of mules, and its provisions for the comfort of man and beast is well described. Buenos Aires is credited with having twenty-two thousand souls, of whom "ninety-nine are orphans and sixty-eight are in jail!" I should have liked nothing better than to have been able to follow "The Blind Man's Guide" from post-house to post-house along the entire distance. But alas, since the days of railways, many of the road-houses that formerly offered "good accommo- dations to travellers," have disappeared, and it is necessary to go as the world goes and take the train , — when there is one. On November 13, 1908, accompanied by Mr.] THE TUCUMAN EXPRESS 6i Huntington Smith, Jr., I left Buenos Aires for Boli- via. The first stage of the journey, seven hundred and twenty miles, was by train to Tucuman, over the tracks of the Buenos Aires and Rosario R. R., one of the oldest and richest railways in Argentina. Our train was made up entirely of vestibuled sleep- ing and dining cars. Among the first-class passengers was a newly arrived Spanish mercantile clerk and a French com- mercial traveller. I noticed more French in Argen- tina and Brazil than on the West Coast or in the northern countries. Especially in the large cities, they, with the Germans and English, have been very active in promoting local enterprises. In the first fifteen miles out from Buenos Aires we saw numbers of villas shaded by groves of euca- lyptus trees standing in the midst of the owner's broad acres. There is considerable evidence of mar- ket gardening and general agriculture. So far as we could see from the train, the roads are very bad and have not improved since the days of the woe-begot- ten travellers who had to cross these plains in ox- carts. When Edmund Temple, the breezy secretary of the Potosi, La Paz & Peruvian Mining Association, crossed Argentina on his way to Bolivia in 1825, he was struck with the immense number of "hoppers" that they passed on the Pampas. He says the lo- custs covered the road and adjacent parts for miles. In those days, pasturage was plenty, and cul- tivated fields were scarce, so nobody cared very much. It is only with the increasing importance of 62 ACROSS SOUTH AMERICA crops that the Argentlnos have come to regard the swarms of locusts as a great pest, and have spent many thousands of dollars fighting them. They are now planning to build a fence of sheet zinc, costing several million dollars, to keep back the "hoppers." Some modern travellers have had their trains de- layed by locust swarms on the tracks, but we saw comparatively few. Our first stops were at suburban towns, which are more attractive than one would suppose in a coun- try that is so flat. At one of them, on the River Tigre, the English colony has made boating fash- ionable, with festivals like those at Henley. We had showers in the course of the morning, but the country over which we passed looked rather dry. A characteristic feature of the Pampas are the modern windmills with their steel frames. Most of them are of American make, for despite our back- wardness in some lines, we have been peculiarly suc- cessful in supplying Argentina with windmills. In fact, we have almost monopolized that particular business. Fortunately, our manufacturers seem also to excel in the production of small and inexpensive motors, such as are particularly desired on farms and ranches where, owing to the extreme difficulty of getting workmen, there is an excellent market for labor-saving machinery. Notwithstanding this en- couraging feature, for every million dollars' worth of goods which Argentina imports from the United States, she imports six millions from Europe. • Many of the interior towns have their own elec- tric lighting plants. The agents of German manu- THE TUCUMAN EXPRESS 63 facturers have been far-sighted in following up new concessions and in getting large contracts for the in- stallation of German machinery. It takes a good many windmills to equal one electric lighting plant. Our train made a short stop at Rosario, the second largest city in Argentina. Owing to its advanta- geous situation at the bend of the Parana River, it has become a most important port. Accessible throughout the year to vessels drawing sixteen feet, it is the terminus of many trans- Atlantic lines which bring European manufactured goods here in exchange for wheat and cattle. Some ore from Bolivia is also shipped from here. On our mule trip in Southern Bolivia we saw hundreds of animals laden with huge packing-cases from Europe marked "via Rosario." The other important new port in Argentina is Bahia Blanca, which is situated several hundred miles south of Buenos Aires and is connected by rail- ways with the newly opened regions in northern Patagonia. There is no scarcity of good agricultural land as yet undeveloped. Were the government of Argentina as well managed for the interests of the individual farmer as the governments of our west- ern states, there is no question that Argentina would secure a much higher grade of immigrant. The op- portunities are truly magnificent, but I was re- peatedly told by foreign residents who are engaged in farming, that there are many unpleasant features. The truth of the matter is that the Argentino is too fond of keeping political power in his own hands. He does not understand all that is meant by a constitu- 64 ACROSS SOUTH AMERICA tional democratic form of government. It Is not his fault, for his race history, as we have seen, has given him other inheritances and prejudices. Neverthe- less he is learning. ( - Leaving Rosarlo we plunged Into the heart of a great agricultural and pastoral region. The heat and dust were rather trying. The humidity was con- siderable, being about eighty per cent in our car. In truth, we experienced all the various annoyances to which one is subject when crossing our western plains, in a moderately slow train. We had been told that this Tucuman express was " the finest train in America." Some of the young Englishmen on our steamer were extremely enthusiastic over it and as- sured us that we could have nothing so fine in the United States. Consequently we were somewhat disappointed to find the standard of comfort not any greater than it was on our western trains fifteen years ago. There is one thing, however, in which the "B. A. and R." is ahead of most American railroads. At each station are one or two very large sign-boards conveniently placed so that the stranger has no diffi- culty in ascertaining whether he has reached his des- tination or not. And there are other little things along the line that make one feel the presence of rail- way officials carefully trained In English railway methods. It goes without saying that the road is largely owned In England and has Anglo-Saxons for its principal officers. Argentina has about thirteen thousand miles of railway operated under some twenty companies. THE TUCUMAN EXPRESS 65 One thousand seven hundred miles are owned by the government, but by far the larger part of the railway system is controlled by British capitalists. A little more than half of the mileage consists of the very broad five and a half foot gauge. The remainder is one metre or less. The three gauges necessitate con- siderable transferring of freight and passengers. To one who is accustomed to thinking of Argen- tina as a rich but undeveloped region, it seems in- credible that she should have fifty thousand freight- cars and two thousand passenger-coaches. It is still more astonishing to learn that every year her railways carry thirty million passengers, and thirty million tons of freight, of which about one third are cereals. During the year 1906, the receipts from the passenger traffic amounted to more than $18,000,00, and from freight traffic to something over $55,000,- 000. Statistics are dry and uninteresting except as they open our eyes to conditions of which we have formed but a small conception. The extremely rapid growth of the Argentine railways is shown by the fact that while in 1884 the capital invested did not amount to $100,000,000, it now amounts to over $700,000,000. So far as killing people is concerned, the Argen- tine railways do not come up to our record, although they do fairly well. In 1905 they killed, all told, two hundred and eighteen persons, and in 1906, two hundred and fifty. This is a heavier percentage per passenger carried than in the United States. Towards evening we left the farming country and entered a barren region where great stretches of 66 ACROSS SOUTH AMERICA perfectly flat land seemed to promise splendid re- sults if it could be irrigated. The dust increased, and we were glad enough to be hauled over these dry pampas of Santa Fe and Santiago del Estero in a night, instead of being ob- liged to spend a fortnight on them following a slow- moving Spanish caravan. ' When we looked out of the car window the next morning all was changed. Sugar-cane fields waving attractively in the sunlight, big wheeled carts lum- bering noisily along drawn by oxen or mules, lithe horsemen riding strong little ponies through thickets of dry scrub, had transformed the scene from the everlasting prairies of the pampas into the highlands of the northwest. The hills beyond the fields of cane were covered with a scrubby growth. To the north- west and north arose green mountains that seemed to be forested to their tops. Some of the trees were in bloom with brilliant yellow flowers. The contrast between the dry, barren pampas and the green cane-fields of Tucuman is so striking that Argentine writers have been accustomed to speak of the latter in terms of the most extravagant praise. Even the well-travelled Sarmiento called it the "Eden of America," "where nature had displayed its greatest pomp!" As a matter of fact Tucuman is admirably situated in a very fertile and highly cultivated plain, and is the centre of the most im- portant sugar-growing region in Argentina. In its immediate vicinity we counted a dozen tall chimneys of sugar factories. We reached the city about ten o'clock. THE TUCUMAN EXPRESS 67 It was founded about the time that Sir Walter Raleigh was looking for Eldorado. Here in 18 16, the Argentine Congress passed their Declaration of Independence. Here Belgrano won a great victory- over the Spanish armies that had descended from Peru to crush the Argentine patriots. The Tucuman station, a large modern affair, was chiefly interesting because of the picturesque char- acter of the luggage that was lying about the plat- forms. Chairs and cots, pots and pans, spring mat- tresses, and hen-coops, all bore evidence to the fact that this is still a young country into which new set- tlers are coming, and that the Railroad Company has the good sense to make it easy for people to travel with all their possessions. Everything was checked and went in the luggage- van, as a matter of course, instead of being handed over to "slow- freight " or rapacious express companies, as with us. Most of the immigrants were Italians from Genoa and the north of Italy. A few came from Galicia, the home of Spain's most sturdy peasantry. Neither immigrants nor residents wore picturesque costumes. Even the Gauchos are dressed in civilized raiment and bear little resemblance to the South American Indian of our dreams. It is too progressive a coun- try to allow its clothes to get in its way. The facts relating to Buenos Aires and Argentina are at every one's elbow so it is all the more aston- ishing how ignorant the average American is regard- ing the great metropolis of the southern hemisphere. We are very fond of telling stories of our English cousins who imagine that our western states are 68 ACROSS SOUTH AMERICA overrun with wild Indians and desperadoes. And we think it inexcusable in them to judge from the frequent press reports of lynchings and "hold-ups" that we are an uncivilized, lawless people. Yet we judge the Argentino just as hastily. Not only are we quite ignorant of his material progress, we also fre- quently slander him for having an "unstable gov- ernment." "Revolutions" or struggles for govern- mental control occur, it is true, but they do not amount to much and hardly deserve the exagger- ated reports of them which are published abroad. In a country that has been bound together by such a network of railroads as Argentina, making it pos- sible for the government in power to send its troops rapidly wheresoever it will, the habit of playing with revolutions is sure to die out. In the old days when transportation was slow and difficult, it was possible for a popular leader to gather a considerable band of followers and prepare to march on the capital be- fore the government knew of his existence. Such uprisings, however, are necessarily the work of days or weeks, and it is becoming more and more difficult to bring them to a successful issue. As an evidence of the more stable condition of the government and as showing how Argentina has recovered from the setback which it got at the time of the failure of the Baring Brothers, it is well to note that in the ten years between 1895 and 1905, the foreign trade of Buenos Aires more than doubled, growing to more than half a billion dollars annually. CHAPTER VI THROUGH THE ARGENTINE HIGHLANDS AT Tucuman we left the broad gauge of the British-built Buenos Aires and Rosario R. R. for the metre gauge of the North Central Railway, an Argentine Government line, that runs to Jujuy and has recently been continued northward to La Quiaca, on the Bolivian frontier. The distance from Buenos Aires to La Quiaca is 1150 miles. Of this we had done 700 miles in the first twenty-four hours. The last 450 miles required another twenty- four hours, divided into two daylight periods, as sleeping-cars are not run on the North Central R. R. In this stretch the elevation rises from thirteen hun- dred feet to twelve thousand feet, and the journey lies entirely in the Argentine Highlands. Our train was mixed passenger and freight. The locomotive was a " Baldwin " and the cars were made in Wilmington, Del. We had, besides, an excellent dining-car that seated sixteen people and provided a table d'hote meal served in the usual Spanish style. The third-class passengers, however, patronized the enterprising women who sold flat loaves of bread, hard-boiled eggs, and native drinks at the stations where we stopped. Not long after leaving Tucuman, we passed through a tunnel, the first one in eight hundred miles. 70 ACROSS SOUTH AMERICA Rather a different experience from my journey in Venezuela, from Caracas to Valencia, where in the course of an hour we passed through sixty-five tun- nels, one every minute! With many windings we climbed up into the hills. Grass became scarcer and cactus and mimosa trees more common. We passed a small flock of goats. Dust and sand came into the train in clouds. Occa- sionally we passed lofty whirlwinds, but none of them troubled us. The humidity to-day was very much less, being under forty per cent. The streams seemed to be very low. We saw a few locusts. At many of the stations were carts drawn by mules harnessed three abreast, with a loose rope- tackle that is characteristic of this hilly region. The houses of some of the more well-to-do were built of corrugated iron and wood, but most were made of mud. As it was the dry season, the cots were usually out of doors. The evidences of prosperity at Ruis de los Llanos consisted of new stucco buildings of attractive con- struction with arcades in front and courtyards in the interior, a modern application of old Spanish architectural ideas. Other buildings were nearing completion, to accommodate the bakers and grocers who supply the quebracho cutters. There are great forests of quebracho on the plains of the Gran Chaco to the east and northeast. The wood is extremely hard and very serviceable for railway- ties. Owing to the difficulty that is experienced in cutting it, it has earned for itself the sobriquet of "axe-breaker." It is the chief article of export from this region. The THE ARGENTINE HIGHLANDS 71 bark is shipped to tanneries as far away as Cali- fornia. At Matan, another important station, there was a new hotel, the " Cosmopolita," a clean-looking Span- ish inn, near the railway station. Near by lay huge logs of quebracho awaiting shipment. The hills were well wooded, and we saw a number of agave plants and mimosa trees. Firewood is shipped from here to the treeless Pampas. Here we noticed, for the first time, riding-boots of a curious fashion, so very corrugated that we dubbed them "concertinas." They are much in vogue also in southern Bolivia. ■ At Rio Piedras, where a dozen of our third-class passengers alighted with many baskets and bundles, we heard the familiar hum of a sawmill. Near the track were more quebracho logs. A burly passenger who had joined us at Tucuman, ready dressed and prepared for a long horseback ride, left us here. With a large broad-brimmed hat, loose white jumper, large baggy white cotton trousers, and "concer- tinas,' ' he came very near being picturesque. Throw- ing over his shoulder a pair of cotton saddle-bags well stocked with interesting little bundles, he walked slowly away from the train with that curious shuffling gait common to those who spend most of their lives in the saddle. Not far away we saw some newly arrived Ameri- can farm machinery, a part of the largest item of Argentine imports from the United States. During the course of the afternoon, we wound out of the hills far enough to be able to see far over the plains to the east. Here there was more vegetation 72 ACROSS SOUTH AMERICA and some corn growing. On the left were jagged hills and mountains. The temperature in the car about four o'clock was eighty-five degrees. Our alti- tude was about twenty-five hundred feet. 5 As we went north through hot, dusty valleys, climbing up into the foot-hills of the Andes, the faces of the loiterers at the stations lost the cosmopolitan aspect that they have in and about Buenos Aires. We saw more of the typical Gaucho who is descended from the aboriginal Indians of the Pampas and bold Spanish cattle-drivers. Tall in stature, with a robust frame and a swarthy complexion, he possesses great powers of endurance and is a difficult person to han- dle. His tendencies are much like those of the fast disappearing American "cow puncher," but he has the disadvantage of having Inherited a contempt for manual labor and an excessive vanity which finds expression in silver spurs and brilliantly colored ponchos. His territory Is rapidly being invaded by hard-working Italians, more desirable because more dependable. Near Juramento the country grows more arid and desolate. A few scrubby mimosa trees, sheltering the white tents of railway engineers, offered but lit- tle welcome to intending settlers. Just at dark we reached Guemes, where we were obliged to change cars. The through train from Tucuman goes west to Salta, the most important city of the vicinity. We arrived at Jujuy shortly after nine o'clock. A score of ancient vehicles were waiting to take us a mile up into the town to one of the three hotels. We went to the Bristol and found THE ARGENTINE HIGHLANDS 73 it quite comfortable according to Spanish-American ideas. That means that the toilet facilities were ab- sent, that the room had a tile floor, and that there were beds and chairs. In the morning we got up early enough to look at the town for a few minutes before leaving on the semi-weekly train for La Quiaca. Jujuy was built by Spanish settlers a generation before the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth, and still preserves the white- walled, red- tiled-roof aspect of the old Spanish-i\.merican towns. Lying in a pleas- ant, well-watered plain, a trifle over four thousand feet above the sea, it is attractively surrounded by high hills. Beyond them, we caught glimpses of lofty barren mountains, the summits of the Andes. The near-by valleys were green, and there is some rainfall even in the dry time of the year. Although Jujuy produces a large amount of sub- tropical fruit, it really owes its importance to its strategical posi- tion on the old trade route to Bolivia. It is the last important town on the road because it is the last place that enjoys a salubrious situation. For cen- turies it has been the natural resting-place for over- land travellers. In fact, these northwestern highlands of Argen- tina, Jujuy, and Tucuman, were first settled by emi- grants from the mountains of Upper Peru now called Bolivia, of which they form the southern extension. Their political and commercial relations were with Potosi and Lima rather than Buenos Aires. The great prosperity of the mining regions of the lofty plateau created a demand for provisions that could 74 ACROSS SOUTH AMERICA not be met by the possibilities of agriculture in the semi-arid irrigated valleys of southern Bolivia. Beef and other provisions could most easily be brought from the fertile valleys near Tucuman and Jujuy. The necessity for some better animal than the llama, to carry not only freight but also passengers, caused a demand for the horses and mules which, raised on the Argentine Pampas, were brought here to be put into shape for mountain travel, and were an impor- tant item in the early fairs. When the railroad came, Jujuy was for many years the northern terminus. This only added to the im- portance of the town, and increased the reputation of its annual fair. But with the building of the con- tinuation to La Quiaca, its importance is bound to decrease. However, it will always be a favorite re- sort for Bolivians seeking a refuge from the rigors of their Thibetan climate. We met many families in southern Bolivia who had at one time or another passed the winter season here. Before leaving the Bristol we succeeded in getting eggs and coffee only with considerable difficulty as the train was due to leave at seven o'clock, and the average Spanish-American traveller is quite willing to start off on a long day's journey without even a cup of coffee if he can be sure of something substan- tial about ten or eleven o'clock. When we arrived at the station, we found a scene of great confusion. The line had been running only a few months, and many of the intending passengers were not accustomed to the ways of railroads. An official, and his family of three, had spread himself THE ARGENTINE HIGHLANDS 75 over one half of the car, with bags, bird-cages, bun- dles, rolls, and potted plants. He filled so many seats with his impedimenta that several of the passen- gers had to stand up, although that did not worry him in the least. Had we known how much luggage belonged to him, we should have dumped it on the floor and had a more comfortable ride, but unfor- tunately we did not discover how greatly he had im- posed on everybody until the end of the day. From Jujuy the train climbs slowly through a valley toward a wonderful vista of great mountains. At 6000 feet the verdure disappeared, the grass be- came brown, and on the barren mountains a few sheep and goats were trying to pick up a living. The railway had a hard time overcoming the diffi- culties of the first part of the way. The grade is so steep that for some distance a cog road was found to be necessary. In the first one hundred and four- teen miles, the line climbs up 8000 feet to an altitude of over 12,000 feet above sea-level. Notwithstanding the newness of the road and the steepness of the grade, we carried with us an excel- lent little restaurant car that gave us two very good meals before we reached La Quiaca. The cog railway begins at Leon at an altitude of 5300 feet and continues to Volcan, rising 1500 feet in a distance of eight miles. At Volcan there is sup- posed to be a mud volcano, but, as was pointed out some years ago by Mr. O'Driscoll in the "Geograph- ical Journal," there is no volcano at all. It is simply a mud avalanche, that comes down after unusually heavy rains from the rapidly disintegrating hillside. 76 ACROSS SOUTH AMERICA Although not a volcano, it Is nevertheless a difficult problem for the engineers. It has already com- pletely submerged a mile or two of track more than once. This Is on the line of the proposed Pan-American railway from New York to Buenos Aires. With a sufficiently vivid imagination, one can picture a New Yorker of the year 1950 being detained here by a mud-slide which will have put the tracks over which he proposes to travel two or three feet under ground. It it to be hoped that he will not be obliged to stay at the local inn where Edmund Temple stopped on his journey from Buenos Aires to Potosi. Temple was aroused in the middle of the night by a noise under his bed as if of a struggle between two ani- mals. To his astonishment (and to that of the reader of his charming volumes) he "discovered, by the light of the moon, a cat eating the head of a viper which she had just subdued: a common occurrence I was informed, and without any ill consequences to the cat, however venomous the snake!" Some effort had been made to plant a few trees In the sandy, rocky soil around the station of Volcan, which is not far from the mud-slide. They seemed, however, to be having a hard time of it, although, at a ranch near by, quite a grove of eucalyptus trees had been successfully raised by means of irrigation. The mountains round about are very barren and gave evidence of being rapidly wasted away by erosion, their summits assuming many fantastic forms. Twenty miles beyond Volcan Is Maimard, where THE ARGENTINE HIGHLANDS 77 there was further evidence of irrigation in the valley, the trees and green fruits being in marked contrast to the barren hillsides. As the road ascends, the country becomes more and more arid. Cactus is common. Sometimes it is used as a hedge ; at other times, by being planted on the top of a mud-fence, it answers the same purpose as a barbed wire. Great barren mountains on each side continue for mile after mile, making the scenery unspeakably dreary. Judging by the northward inclination of the cactus and the trees, the prevailing wind is from the south. Some of the valley is irrigated, but there is little sign of life anywhere. Nothing grows without irriga- tion. In the days before the railway it was abso- lutely necessary to have alfalfa and other animal fodder grown near the post-houses that supplied travellers and freight-carriers with shelter at night. This business has", of course, fallen off very much in the past few months, yet just before reaching Hu- mahuaca we stopped at Uquia, where enough hay is still raised to make it worth while to bale it and ship it north to the barren plateau beyond. Late in the afternoon, we saw a group of llamas, but they are not at all common in this region. At Tres Cruces, 1052 miles from Buenos Aires, we reached our highest elevation, something over 12,000 feet. It was a dreary spot with scarcely anything in sight except barren mountains, the two wire fences that everlastingly line the railroad tracks, and the mud-walled railroad station. The Httle "hotel" 78 ACROSS SOUTH AMERICA looked like an abandoned adobe dwelling in Arizona, and the region bore a striking resemblance to the un- irrigated part of our new southwest. Erosion has cut the hillsides into interesting sections of shallow gulches and semi-cylindrical slopes. The only green things to be seen are occasional clumps of bushes like sage-brush. From here to La Quiaca, sixty miles, we main- tained about the same altitude, although La Quiaca itself is 500 feet lower than Tres Cruces. We had, in fact, surmounted the great plateau of the Andes. South of us lay the desert of Atacama ; to the north the arid valleys of southern Bolivia and the Bolivian tableland. East of us, beyond many intervening ranges and the steep slopes of the eastern Andes, lay the Gran Chaco of Bolivia and the valley of the lower Pilcomayo with its wild Indian tribes and its trop- ical forests. To the west lay the still higher Andes of the great Cordillera, some of whose peaks rise at this point to an altitude of twenty thousand feet. Not- withstanding these interesting surroundings, the ex- treme bareness of this desolate region reacts on one's enthusiasm. We reached La Quiaca just before nine o'clock. The railroad offices were still incomplete, as the line had only been opened to traffic for a month or two. The old town of La Quiaca, a small mud-walled af- fair two miles away from the railroad station, is des- tined soon to be deserted for the thriving young set- tlement that is springing up near the terminus of the railway. There are two "hotels." Ours, the 25 de Mayo, had only just been opened. In fact, its ex- THE ARGENTINE HIGHLANDS 79 tenor walls had not yet received their proper coat of whitewash and stucco. All day long we had been travelling through an ex- tremely sparsely populated region, so dry, high, and inhospitable as to dispel any idea that this railroad can rely upon it for much traffic. In fact, the line was built by the Argentine Government, not so much to open up this part of the Republic as to tap the mining region of southern Bolivia, with the idea of developing Argentina's foreign com- merce by securing in Bolivia a good market for her food-stuffs and bringing back in return ore to be shipped to Europe from the ports of the Parana. An agreement was entered into between Argen- tina and Bolivia whereby Bolivia was to extend her system of national railways southeast from Oruro to Potosi and thence due south to Tupiza, fifty miles north of the Argentine boundary. The Argentinos on their part agreed to continue their railway north from Jujuy to Tupiza. By the time they reached La Quiaca, however, the English Company that owns the rich Oruro-Antofagasta line became alarmed lest such an arrangement as was proposed would inter- fere with their profits. By some means or other, the Bolivian government was persuaded to change its plans and decide to build the national railways so as to connect with the Antofagasta line rather than with the Argentine lines. This breach of faith on the part of the Bolivianos was naturajly resented not only in Argentina but also by the southern Bolivianos them- selves who would be much more benefited by hav- 8o ACROSS SOUTH AMERICA ing good connections with Buenos Aires than with the Chilean seaboard. As a result of this difficulty, the Argentinos, at the time of my visit, had not carried their railway be- yond the frontier. This makes La Quiaca the out- fitting point for mule-trains that now start here with merchandise destined for the cities of southern Bolivia. A stage-line has been opened, running once a week to Tupiza, where it connects with stages for Uyuni on the Antofagasta line and Potosi. This stage-line was owned and operated by that same energetic Scotchman, Don Santiago Hutcheon, who used to run stages between La Paz and Oruro before the completion of the Bolivia Railway. By great good fortune, we found him in La Quiaca where he had ar- rived that day on one of his own stages. I CHAPTER VII ACROSS THE BOLIVIAN FRONTIER SOON after our arrival at La Quiaca, at 9 P. M. on November 15, 1908, we received a call from two rough-looking Anglo-Saxons who told us hair-raising stories of the dangers of the Bolivian roads where highway robbers driven out of the United States by the force of law and order and hounded to death all over the world by Pinkerton detectives, had found a pleasant resting-place in which to pursue their chosen occupation without let or hindrance. We found out afterwards that one of our informants was one of this same gang of robbers. Either he decided that we were disposed to regard his " pals " in a suffi- ciently lenient manner to make our presence in Boli- via immaterial to them, or else he came to the con- clusion that we had nothing worth stealing, for we were allowed to proceed peaceably and without any annoyance wherever we journeyed in Bolivia. He put the case quite emphatically to us that it was necessary for them to make a living, that they were not allowed to do so peaceably in the States, that they desired only to be let alone and had no intention of troubling travellers except those that sought to get information against them. They relied entirely for their support on being able to overcome armed es- corts accompanying loads of cash going to the mines 82 ACROSS SOUTH AMERICA to liquidate the monthly payroll. This they claimed was legitimate plunder taken In fair fight. The only individuals who had to suffer at their hands were those who took up the case against them. Having laid this down for our edification, he proceeded to tell us what a reckless lot they were and how famous had been their crimes, at the same time assuring us that they were all very decent fellows and quite pleasant companions. Don Santiago, who in his ca- pacity as coach-master and stage-driver, has had to carry hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash over the unprotected Bolivian highv/ays, assured us that he had never been molested by any of these high- waymen because he never troubled them in any way either by carrying arms or spreading information of their doings. If the Bolivian bandits are half as bad as they were painted to us that night, Don Santiago must lead a charmed life for he and his stages cer- tainly offer an easy mark for any enterprising out- law. The view from our hotel the next morning across the sandy plaza of La Quiaca was anything but in- spiring. The plateau is so high and dry that nothing grows here. Even the mountains, whose tops are really higher than our own far-famed Pike's Peak, look stunted like low sand-hills. Partly finished adobe houses, which were gradually meeting the de- mands of the newly-born commercial life of La Qui- aca add to the forlorn and desolate appearance of everything. There was nothing to make us wish to stay any longer In Argentina, and we eagerly wel- comed Don Santiago and his eight-mule team that ACROSS THE BOLIVIAN FRONTIER 83 rattled up to the door a few minutes after six o'clock. A quarter of a mile north of the town we crossed the frontier and entered Bolivia. For the next four hours there was little in the landscape to relieve the monotony of the journey. As those who are familiar with stage travel know to their cost, bumping over rough roads of stone or sand, in a cloud of dust with nothing to see on either side except a brown, treeless, rolling plateau, is not exciting. Nevertheless the process of keeping eight mules on the go, up hill and down hill, is never absolutely devoid of interest. As it was quite impossible for the driver to reach the foremost mules with his long whip, he employed a strong-lunged boy to race alongside of the mules, pelt them with stones, curse them in his worst Span- ish, and frighten them into frantic activity with the lash of a short-handled whip which he laid on with no delicate hand. The mules became so afraid of his mad rushes that when they heard him coming they bolted in the opposite direction, sometimes pulling the stage-coach a rod or two off the road. In a rarefied atmosphere that would almost kill a foreigner who should try to run any distance, the In- dian boy only found it necessary to take short rests on the running-board of the coach, and even then he had breath enough left to keep up shrill whistling and loud shouting so as to make the mules remem- ber his presence. If he stopped this continuous per- formance he heard from the driver in no uncertain language. The result was that, notwithstanding the primitive cart-track, the stage was able to make the 84 ACROSS SOUTH AMERICA sixty miles between La Quiaca and Tupiza in twelve hours. To be sure, there are two changes of mules and the luggage is carried on a separate wagon. But the road is as bad as it possibly can be. So much of it is in the bed of a stream, the coaches can only run in the dry season, May to November. In the rainy season the road disappears under swollen rivers and resort has to be had to saddle and pack animals. In this extremely arid region the business of feed- ing the mules is a most difficult one. The rainfall is very slight. It is only by irrigation that fodder will grow at all. The ground is not sterile but it is so dry and parched that it does not look as if it would ever grow anything. The Indians in the vicinity are Quichuas, who speak the same language as did their former masters, the Incas. They are a patient race with little ambition and few wants. This does not pre- vent them, however, from charging all the traffic will bear when any one desires to purchase alfalfa or barley straw for his mules. Don Santiago told me that he had once been obliged to pay as high as forty dollars, gold, for enough fodder to give an eight-mule team a proper luncheon. Needless to say, transpor- tation is expensive. The coach-fare from La Quiaca to Tupiza was ten dollars, about sixteen cents a mile. A charge of two cents a pound is made for luggage. None is carried free. Our first stop was at Mojo, to change mules and eat a "breakfast" which consisted of the customary highly-spiced mutton and potatoes. We were not "favored by the addition of an excellent roasted guinea pig " as was Edmond Temple when he stopped ACROSS THE BOLIVIAN FRONTIER 85 here in 1826. Yet guinea-pigs are still common here- abouts and we saw several on the road. Mojo is a village of four hundred inhal)itants. There is a small branch office of the Bolivian cus- toms service here which is supposed to look after travellers and their baggage. The principal custom house for southern Bolivia is at Tupiza, a much more agreeable spot for the residence of the officials and a natural distributing point for the region. A short distance from Mojo we began an abrupt descent. In one place the hill was too steep to per- mit the road to make a proper turn, so we all had to get out and help lift the stage-coach around a "switch back." After this tortuous zigzag we came out on a broad plain over which we passed without difficulty to the banks of the river Suipacha. The water was low and the cart-track attempted to steer a straight course up stream. But as the shrunken current meandered over the sandy river- bed, we were obliged to ford it every three or four minutes. This entailed constant difficulties, for the leading mules would invariably stop to walk as soon as they entered the water, while the others trotted briskly in and tangled up the whole team. Perhaps the fault was mine, for I was having my first expe- rience in driving an eight-in-hand, and the hard- mouthed mules took particular delight in giving me a bad time. Notwithstanding our difficulties, we reached Suipacha on time, and stopped to change mules. This valley was the scene of one of the earliest vic- tories of the patriots in 1 810 at the beginning of the 86 ACROSS SOUTH AMERICA wars of independence. It will be remembered that after the glorious 25th of May, recently celebrated in Buenos Aires, the Argentinos attempted to free the province of Upper Peru from Spanish control. The result of the victory of Suipacha was to cause the Bolivians to rise and join the Argentinos against their oppressors. The patriot army marched joy- ously northward across the plateau, although the Argentinos suffered greatly from the cold and the high altitude. When they reached the southern end of Lake Titicaca, the Spanish army, augmented by hundreds of obedient Quichuas, attacked the pa- triots and practically annihilated them. Suipacha itself, situated on a slight elevation above the banks of the river, looks like all the other small villages of this arid region. Plenty of sand and stones, a few mud-walled hovels, some thorny scrub, here and there an irrigation ditch and a green field, and on every side barren mountains, A favorite form of fence here is a wall of adobe blocks, adorned with cactus or thorny mimosa branches. Suipacha is said to have six hundred inhabitants but it did not seem to be any larger than Mojo. From here a road goes east to the important city of Tarija, a pleasant, fertile town in southeastern Boli- via that enjoys a charming climate, and has often served as a city of refuge for defeated Argentine poli- ticians who are glad enough to escape to such a land of corn and wine after unsuccessful revolutions on the dreary pampas. The road to Tupiza took us northwest, and con- tinued to follow the bed of the Suipacha or Estarca, ** .' 1 -'ti*- Am:^ THE "ANGOSTA DE TUPIZA" ACROSS THE BOLIVIAN FRONTIER 87 and one of its tributaries. In the valley were several farms or fincas as they are called here, where small crops are raised by irrigation. Half-way from Sui- pacha to Tupiza we passed through a magnificent rocky gateway called the Angosta de Tupiza. Cliffs five hundred feet high rise abruptly on each side of the river, leaving barely room enough for the road even in dry weather. For a distance of seventy feet, the width is less than thirty feet. Beyond the gate the mountains form a spacious amphitheatre. Dur- ing the rainy season, from November to March, it is frequently impossible to pass through this gorge, even on good saddle-mules. Fortunately for us, the rains had not yet begun, and we had no difficulty. We reached Tupiza, a town of about two thou- sand inhabitants, just at six o'clock. It is only ten thousand feet above sea-level, nearly two thousand feet lower than La Quiaca, and is prettily situated in a plain less than a mile in width, that in this re- gion may fairly be called fertile, so great is the con- trast with the surrounding desert. Good use has been made of the water in the little stream, and there are many cultivated fields and trees in the vicinity. The plaza is quite an oasis in the wilderness. It is carefully cultivated and the shrubbery and willow trees make it a delightful spot. Around the plaza are a few kerosene oil street-lamps on top of wooden poles set in stone foundations. The white tower of a new church rises above the trees and makes a good landmark. Near by is the large two-story ware- house belonging to the Bolivian government and used as a post-office and custom house. 88 ACROSS SOUTH AMERICA In the early '8o's, before the construction of the Antofagasta railway, most of the commerce of South- ern Bolivia passed through Tupiza and the custom house had more importance than it has now. To- day it has less than a tenth of its former business. With the completion of the railway to La Quiaca and its contemplated projection to Tupiza, however, the local revenue business is bound to increase. Even at the time of my visit (November, 1908), the street in front of the custom house was blocked by scores of bales and boxes recently arrived from La Quiaca and awaiting examination prior to being shipped north to Potosi on the backs of mules. On the opposite side of the plaza was a branch of the National Bank of Bolivia. Here we found that the Bolivian dollar or peso is worth about forty cents in our money. The common currency consists of banknotes rang- ing from one to twenty pesos in value. These de- pend entirely for their value upon the solvency of the bank of issue. Several banks have failed, and the Indians are very particular what bills they accept. They dislike the bills of banks that have no agencies in the vicinity and prefer the bills of the National Bank of Francisco Argondano. The nickel subsidiary coinage Is usually genuine and is in great demand, but the smaller silver coins are frequently either counterfeit or so badly made that they do not ring true and are not accepted by the Indians with whom one has most to do on the road. Consequently it is the common practice to tear bills in two when change cannot be made in any ACROSS THE BOLIVIAN FRONTIER 89 other way. The result Is that perfect bills are grow- ing scarce and the expense of issuing new ones is be- ing felt by the banks. Several times when cashing checks at branches of these banks, I was paid en- tirely in half bills. They are accepted in almost all parts of Bolivia but are at a discount in La Paz and are not received at all in some localities. We are told that the scarcity of subsidiary coinage, and the relative frequency of counterfeit money, is due to the native habit of burying all coins of real value lest they fall into the hands of unscrupulous officials and rapacious soldiers. Since time imme- morial, enormous quantities of articles made of the precious metals have been burled by the Indians. Tupiza was the scene in 18 19 of one of those in- effectual skirmishes In which the unaided Bolivian patriots endeavored to secure their independence. In fact, this old trade-route from the Pampas to Po- tosi was the scene of numerous engagements during the Wars of Independence. There are two hotels in Tupiza, one of them being the headquarters of that section of the Bolivian army which Is stationed here to guard the frontier. The other Is more commonly resorted to by travellers. Our Inn, the Grand Hotel Terminus, a long, low building once white- washed, with a courtyard paved with cobblestones and a few bedrooms opening into the court, was run by an amiable rascal who I believe claimed to be an Austrian. However that may be, he belonged to the type that believes In charging for- eigners double the regular tariff. "For one roast fowl, $2.00, a bottle of vIchy, $1.25, one bottle of 90 ACROSS SOUTH AMERICA German beer, $i.oo, half pint of Apollinaris, $40." We were not able to get any discount. Instead of fighting our own battles we foolishly referred the matter to Don Santiago who lives at the hotel, has his office here, and depends upon the hotel proprietor for a number of favors. Our request naturally put him in an embarrassing situation, and all he could say was that the charges seemed to him to be regular. The proprietor appeared to be drunk most" of the time, but he was not too drunk to charge up all drinks to his American guests. There is a club here which was not In a very pros- perous^condition at the time of my visit. This may have been due to a patriotic celebration that had taken place a fortnight before. At that time a little poetical drama, reminiscent of the first conflict for independence in 18 10, was played in the club-rooms. The drama, written by a local poet, was dedicated to Seiior Aramayo, the Maecenas of Tupiza, a member of the wealthiest family of southern Bolivia, and the owner of several rich silver mines and a large im- porting warehouse. The shops of Tupiza were not brilliantly lighted although they contained quite an assortment of arti- cles of European origin. The trade which they ap- peal to is that of the mule-drivers, the arrieros, who congregate here while their cargoes are being in- spected by the revenue officers. The Indians of the vicinity, whose money comes chiefly from the pro- duct of their irrigation ditches, have little to spend. • Tupiza boasts two newspapers; one of them a bi- weekly, now in its third year, and the other a literary ACROSS THE BOLIVIAN FRONTIER 91 weekly that had recently been started by the author of the poetical drama just alluded to. The weekly refers to the celebration in most flattering terms. "Undoubtedly social life in Tupiza had increased so far that it is high time to commence to notice its faults and deficiencies. These could easily be re- moved with proper enthusiasm and good will. Tu- piza is a centre of social culture, but unfortunately it is not yet able to appreciate such worthy theatri- cal spectacles as have recently taken place!" CHAPTER VIII TUPIZA TO COTAGAITA E found that the BoHvian government had recently subsidized a weekly stage Hne from Tupiza to Uyuni on the Antofagasta railway and an- other from Tupiza to Potosi, our next objective point. The fare to Potosi is twenty-two dollars, and the journey takes only four days. But we had enough of being shaken to pieces in a stage-coach, and decided we could see the country better and be more independent if we used saddle mules. Two weeks before our arrival a couple of bandits, one of whom had been hunted out of Arizona by Pinkerton detectives, had held up a cart containing twenty thousand dollars, on its way to pay off the laborers in a large mine. The owners, wealthy Boli- vians, immediately offered a large reward for the cap- ture of the bandits, dead or alive, notwithstanding that the robbers and their friends, of whom there seemed to be a score or more, let it be carefully understood that they would take a definite revenge for any lives that might be lost in pursuit of the highwaymen. This did not deter the mine owners, however, and a party of fifty Bolivian soldiers went on the trail of the robbers, who were found lunching in an Indian hut. They had carelessly left their mules and rifles several yards away from the TUPIZA TO COTAGAITA 93 door of the hut and were unable to escape. After a fight, in which three or four of the soldiers were killed and as many more wounded, the thatch roof of the hut was set on fire and the bandits forced out into the open where they finally fell, each with half a dozen bullets in his body. Their mules were cap- tured and sold to Don Santiago who let me have one of them for my journey. He turned out to be a wonderfully fine saddle mule. When his former owner had had the benefit of his fleet legs and his splendid lungs, there was no question of his being caught by the Bolivian soldiery. In that part of the Andes where one is following the usual trade-routes, there are four modes of trav- elling. One may purchase one's own animals, em- ploy servants to attend to them, and sell them for a song at the end of the journey. This is the most ex- pensive, the most satisfactory, and the surest method of travel, provided always that one succeeds in get- ting a reliable, well-recommended arriero. A care- less arriero will soon drive you to despair and allow your mules to get into a state of semi-starvation and sore back that will speedily destroy their usefulness. The second method is to hire a professional carrier who, for a stipulated sum of money, will provide you with animals, go along with them, feed and care for them, and get you to your destination as speedily as possible. If your sole object is speed, this method is even surer than the first, for owing to the high price of fodder in the post-houses, the contractor may be relied upon to push the caravan forward as speedily as possible. The third method is by far the least ex- 94 ACROSS SOUTH AMERICA pensive, the most troublesome, and the least certain. This is to depend on the mules that are supposed to be in readiness for travellers at the post-houses. We frequently amused ourselves on our journey by im- agining what we could possibly have done had we attempted to rely on this last method. Repeatedly we reached post-houses where there was not a mule to be seen, or where the two or three that were there, were drearily hanging their melancholy heads In the corral, so worn out and broken down as to convince us of their inability to carry even an ordinary load at anything faster than a slow walk. The traveller who trusts to post-house mules rarely remembers much of the scenery or the nature of the country. His chief impression is that of unfortunate mules continually being beaten in order to reach the next post before dark. The fourth method, and the one we decided to adopt, Is to hire from a reputable contractor a number of his best mules and one of his most trusted arrieros at so much per day. In this way, you are not hurried faster than you want to go, the mules are sure to be well cared for, and the dis- comforts of mountain travel are reduced to a mini- mum. Except on a long journey, it Is not as expensive as buying one's own animals and is less risky. I*> Thanks to the energy of Don Santiago, the neces- sary mules and provisions were ready In two days. On his suggestion, we took with us as arrtero, one Mac, a wandering Scotchman who had seen service in the Boer War, had drifted thence to Argentina, and was now trying his luck In southern Bolivia. He seemed just the sort of person to make a good orderly, TUPIZA TO COTAGAITA 95 and we thought we were quite fortunate in securing his services. Relying on his past experience, we told him to purchase such provisions as were necessary for the next five days. He proceeded to purchase four dozen hard-boiled eggs and three roast fowls. These he packed carelessly in my leather saddle-bags, together with a bottle of Eno's fruit salts of which he was very fond. The expected happened. The eggs were reduced to an unrecognizable mass, the bottle of fruit salts was broken and the contents well rubbed into the chicken, so that our fare for the next two or three days was not much above the ordinary. We left Tupiza on a bright, clear morning and rode northward through a semi-arid region where we were continually reminded of Utah and southern Colo- rado. For two leagues we saw no house and met no one. The floor of the valley was broad and flat, covered with sand and pebbles, and occasionally intersected by small irrigating ditches. Almost the only green things were cactus and mimosa trees. Barren hills that appear to be crumbling rapidly away rose abruptly on each side. In some places, the eroded hillside took the form of chim- neys, ruined factories, or even forts. In others erosion had produced fantastic pinnacles, and often the buttressed hills looked very much like cathedrals. About nine o'clock we met a Quichua family, the wife carrying the baby and spinning, the man carry- ing his wooden plough on his shoulder and driving his oxen to an irrigated field where he proposed to do 96 ACROSS SOUTH AMERICA his spring ploughing. His wife had on as many gaudy-colored petticoats as she could afford. Such is the fashion of the country. Near one of the irrigating ditches under the shadow of the buttressed walls of the caiion, we came upon a hundred mules. Some of them were carry- ing huge packing-cases, large enough to hold the entire body of the patient mule, provided of course that it were properly cut up and the extremities shortened. In general the pack-mules were fine, large animals, well able to carry their three-hundred- pound loads. With such a caravan as this go a dozen arrieros who rise each day three hours before dawn and commence the everlasting task of saddling and loading. When this is done, the men eat a hearty breakfast, prepared in the meantime by one of their number, and then start out for an eight- hour march. About five o'clock in the afternoon, or earlier, if they have by that time reached a suit- able camping-place, the caravan stops and unload- ing begins, which is finished barely in time to give the men a few hours of slumber before the whole process has to be repeated. Fortunately, most of these cases of merchandise were packed in Germany where they know how to meet the exigencies of South American mountain travel, and although the great wooden boxes were banged against projecting rocks by the roadside and often allowed to fall with a crash when the saddle- ropes were untied at the end of the day, the contents were practically sure to reach their destination in good condition. TUPIZA TO COTAGAITA 97 At noon we came to a group of freshly white- washed adobe farm buildings, the property of an ab- sentee landlord. Here we were able to purchase green fodder for the mules, and luncheon, in the shape of very hot soup and tea, for ourselves. In one of the buildings was a district school with six or eight pupils, the scholars evincing their studiousness by learning their lessons out loud. The resultant noise would considerably jar on the ear of a highly strung New England "schoolmarm," but the good-natured Bolivian teacher did not know that he had any nerves, and only wanted to be sure that all his pupils were busy. After lunch our road continued up the same arid valley past flocks of goats that strove to get a living from the low-hanging branches of the mimosa trees. Some of the more adventurous had even gone up into the trees to secure a meal. In the middle of the afternoon, we climbed out of one valley and looked down into another. From the pass we had a fine view of the valley through which we had come. The prevailing color was brown with here and there a touch of dusty green. All around there was a confusion of barren hills and arid moun- tains without a single evidence of human habitation. The only sign of life was the long line of the mule caravan which we had passed earlier in the day. The country is so unfitted for the habitation of man that the general effect of this and of most of the scenery in southern Bolivia is oppressive and dis- piriting. Shortly before sunset, however, we came to a beau- 98 ACROSS SOUTH AMERICA tiful spring called the "Eye of the Water," which bubbled up by the roadside and flowed off into care- fully guarded irrigating ditches. As was to be ex- pected, there was a small Indian village in the vi- cinity. The villagers were Quichuas, wearing small felt hats, scanty shirts, and short loose pantaloons made of what seemed to be homespun cloth. It was rather attractive in appearance, and as it had the ro- mantic flavor of being made here by the Indians, we were inclined to purchase some until we discovered that it was only "imitation" and was made in great quantities in Manchester, England. These Qui- chuas are a humble folk, excessively polite to each other, doffing their hats whenever they meet. Both men and women wore their hair in long braids down their backs. The little village sprawled up the side of the canon just out of reach of the floods which occasionally pour through this valley in the rainy season. In one of the huts a kind of spring carnival was being cele- brated with a reasonable amount of drinking. Sol- emn singing and a monotonous tom-tomming of a primitive drum were the only signs of gaiety except a few bright flowers which they had gathered some- where and put in their hair. As no rain was to be expected and the village had the usual component of filth and insects, we set up our folding cots in the dry bed of the stream. The elevation was about ten thousand feet. The stars were very brilliant. The night was cool, the minimum temperature being 47° P., a drop of forty degrees from the afternoon's maxi- mum. TUPIZA TO COTAGAITA 99 The next morning, after a breakfast of cold chicken and Eno's fruit salts, all that our Boer War veteran could provide for our comfort, we pushed up the val- ley, and before long reached Totora, a typical Boli- vian poste or tambo. It consisted of a small inclos- ure surrounded by half a dozen low mud-huts with- out windows. In one of these was kept alfalfa fodder to be sold to passing travellers. In another lived the keeper of the poste and his family. Here also was a fire from which one had the right to demand hot water, the only thing furnished for the comfort of humans. In another, two or three well-baked mounds of earth, flattened on top, were intended for beds. A roof, an earth floor, and a wooden door were the only other conveniences at the disposition of travellers. These pastes, more or less dirty and uncomfort- able, may usually be found on the well-travelled roads in southern Bolivia at a distance varying from fifteen to twenty-five miles from each other. They are not picturesque, but after some little experience in travelling in that desolate region, one learns to welcome the little collection of mud-huts, with pos- sibly a green spot or two of alfalfa, as a perfect haven of rest. To be sure, the only thing to eat is the food you bring with you, but you may be always certain of having hot water, and your arriero (unless he hap- pens to be a veteran of the Boer War) will bring you a cup of excellent tea within twenty minutes after your arrival. The road from Totora continued to be the rocky floor of a valley in which from time to time little 100 ACROSS SOUTH AMERICA streams of water or Irrigation ditches appeared, only to lose themselves in fields of alfalfa or quinoa. Dur- ing the dry season carts attempt to use this road, and we overtook a dozen of them on their way north. Each cart was drawn by six mules driven three abreast by a driver who rode postillion on the nigh mule nearest the cart. Before noon we climbed out of this valley and descended Into a rocky, sandy plain through which flowed the river Cotagaita on its way eastward to join the great Pilcomayo. At this time of the year, the latter part of November, the river is a broad, shallow stream, easily fordable. On sandy bars left dry by the receding waters were cam.ped caravans of pack-mules and carts. Beyond them lay the little town of Cotagaita, where the Ar- gentine patriots were badly defeated in 1816. This place is, in a sense, the crossroads of southern Bolivia and is one of the main stations of Don Santiago's stage-lines. Uyuni, on the Antofagasta railway, is one hundred and fifteen miles west of here, three or four days by stage. The mines of Potosi are nearly the same distance north. Camargo, the capital of the province of CInti, Is a few days due east, while Tupiza Is fifty-four miles due south. There are sev- eral routes from Tupiza to Uyuni but the most im- portant and the only one practicable for coaches is by way of Cotagaita. The road is new and said to be very uncomfortable. There is not much to Inter- est the traveller, except a few mines. Not far away is Chorolque, a famous silver mine, at an altitude of over seventeen thousand feet. The town of Cotagaita is an old Spanish settle- TUPIZA TO COTAGAITA loi ment with the customary plaza, a few trees, a foun- tain in the centre and a church on one side; one story white-washed houses built of baked mud, the usual narrow streets crossing each other at right angles, their stone paving sloping toward the centre where a ditch does duty as a sewer; a few Indians and a few shops to minister to their wants. There are said to be twelve hundred inhabitants but I doubt it. The elevation is slightly lower than Tupiza. We left Cotagaita after lunch, hoping to make the tambo at Escara before dark, but we were des- tined to disappointment. Mac, our Scotch arriero, had decided that the pack-mules, which Don San- tiago selected for us at Tupiza, were not good enough to stand the march to Potosi, so he requested the coach agent here to give us two better animals. The latter allowed our veteran to go into the corral and take any mules he pleased. Rich in knowledge of the Boer War, but poor in experience with Bolivian mules, he picked out two strong-looking beasts that had been driven in the stage-coach but had never carried a pack in their lives. After being blindfolded they were saddled, with some difficulty, and we were about to start when it was discovered that one of them lacked a shoe on its nigh hind-foot. The black- smith, a half-drunk, strongly built Indian, was sum- moned. He brought a new shoe, a few nails, and a hammer out into the street. The blindfolded mule was held by Mac while an Indian tied the foot that was to be shod securely to the mule's tail. Then the blacksmith went to work. No attempt was made to fit the shoe, and when the second nail was driven, the 102 ACROSS SOUTH AMERICA mule kicked and struggled so violently as to throw itself and all three men in a heap in the middle of the road. Finally, after much tribulation, the shoe was securely fastened, and amid the cheers of the populace, we started briskly off for Potosi. The new pack-mules, lacking all road sense and missing the bridle, promptly ran away. One of them was secured without much difficulty, but the other one went up the hillside through a grove of young mimosa trees which attempted to detain the load with their thorny branches. They only succeeded in partly dislodging it, however, and the mule con- tinued his headlong career until his load turned com- pletely under him, tripped him up, and ended by rolling him down-hill. Fortunately the dunnage bags were new and no great harm was done. Mac insisted that he could drive this mule as well as any other — which may have been true — so the poor coach-mule was reloaded. Then four of us tried for over an hour to make the two wretched animals carry their packs properly and stick to the road as pack-animals should. But they declined to enter our service, and we were obliged to send them back to Cotagalta, minus their loads. Meanwhile the two mules which Mac had so thoughtfully discarded at lunch time were reengaged. The exhibition was useful, for It showed us that Mac knew even less about saddling pack-animals than we did and was perfectly useless in an emergency. Fortunately, an excellent fellow, a brother of Don Santiago, became our dens ex machina, helped us out of our difficulty, and promised to join us the next morning with a new TUPIZA TO COTAGAITA 103 arriero. By hard riding we arrived at the little tambo of Escara an hour after dark and had some difficulty in securing admittance. No one has any business to travel at night in this country, unless bent on mischief. CHAPTER IX ESCARA TO LAJA TAMBO WE got Up early enough the next morning to witness a phase of Bolivian life which we had heard of but had not as yet seen. An officer and two soldiers of the Bolivian army, travelling south- ward, had spent the night at Escara and desired to proceed promptly. The pastes are subsidized by the Government on the understanding that all travelling government officials shall be furnished with mules and a man. Each paste has three or four guides called postilions, connected with it. This morning things did not move fast enough to suit the officer. The mules were not ready when he wanted to start and the meek Quichua postilion was offering an explana- tion. In the midst of it, the officer lost his temper, and taking his strong riding-whip, commenced to lash the poor half-clad Indian across the face and shoulders. The latter stood it for a few minutes stolidly and then commenced to back off, followed by the officer who continued to lay on the blows as fast as possible. At length the postilion turned to run and the officer pursued him, beating him and cursing him until out of breath. It was a sickening sight, but the strangest part of all was the absolute meekness with which the Indian took his beating. There was not the slightest sign of resentment or ESCARA TO LAJA TAMBO 105 even annoyance. The strokes of the whip made the blood start and trickle down his face and sides, but he gave no evidence of feeling it. Later in the day at Quirve, another poste, we witnessed a similar exhibition, only in this case the Indian did not even run away. The son of the proprietor, a great hulking brute, six feet tall and powerfully built, found fault with one of the post- ilions for some trifling mistake and beat him across the face and chest with a rawhide thong until the blood flowed freely. Like the other Indian, his face remained perfectly stolid, and he showed no signs of anger or irritation. We had been furious with the ofiicer in the morn- ing and this exhibition was even more trying. Yet the Bolivianos thought nothing of it. As Mr. Bryce has so ably put it: "One must have lived among a weaker race in order to realize the kind of irritation which its defects produce in those who deal with it, and how temper and self-control are strained in re- sisting temptations to harsh or arbitrary action. It needs something more than the virtue of a philoso- pher — it needs the tenderness of a saint to preserve the same courtesy and respect towards the members of a backward race as are naturally extended to equals." There is no doubt about the Quichuas be- ing a backward race. From the earliest historical times these poor In- dians have virtually been slaves. Bred up to look upon subjection as their natural lot, they bear it as the dispensation of Providence. The Incas treated them well, so far as we can judge, and took pains to io6 ACROSS SOUTH AMERICA see that the irrigation works, the foot-paths over the mountains, the suspension bridges over the raging torrents and tambos for the convenience of travel- lers, should all be kept in good condition. The gold- hunting Spanish conquistadores, on the other hand, had no interest in the servile Quichuas further than to secure their services as forced laborers in the mines. The modern Bolivianos have done little to improve their condition. After seeing these two Indians meekly take such severe beatings, I found it easier to understand why Pizarro had been able to conquer the Empire of Peru with a handful of determined Spanish soldiers, and why the unfortunate Tupac Amaru could make so little headway in 1781 when he attempted to rouse the Indians to revolt against Spanish tyranny. Al- though he had sixty thousand men under him, the Spanish general easily defeated him with barely twenty thousand, of whom only a few hundred were Spaniards, the majority being friendly Indians. How much the extremely severe conditions of life that prevail on this arid plateau have had to do in breaking the spirit of the race is a question. It is a generally accepted fact that a race who are depend- ent for their living on irrigating ditches, can easily be conquered. All that the invading army has to do is to destroy the dams, ruin the crops, and force the inhabitants to face starvation. The Quichua shows few of the traits which we or- dinarily connect with mountaineers. His country is too forlorn to give him an easy living or much time for thought. He is half starved nearly all the time. ESCARA TO LAJA TAMBO 107 His only comfort comes from chewing coca leaves. Coca is the plant from which we extract cocaine. It is said that the Quichua can go for days without food, provided he has a good supply of coca. It would be extremely interesting to determine the ef- fect on his intelligence of this cocaine habit, which seems to be centuries old. If a man can stand up and take severe punishment for trivial offences with- out getting angry, showing vexation, or apparently without bearing any grudge against his oppressor, there must be something constitutionally wrong with him. I believe that the coca habit is answerable for a large part of this very unsatisfactory state of affairs. Coca has deadened his sensibilities to a de- gree that passes comprehension. It has made him stupid, willing to submit to almost any injury, lack- ing in all ambition, caring for almost none of the things which we consider the natural desires of the human heart. In travelling through Bolivia and Peru, I found it repeatedly to be the case that the Quichua does not care to sell for money either food or lodging. Pres- ents of coca leaves and tobacco are acceptable. A liberal offer of money rarely moves him, although it would be possible for him to purchase with it many articles of necessity or comfort in near-by towns. As a rule he prefers neither to rent his animal, nor sell you cheese or eggs, or anything else. The first Qui- chua words one learns, and the answer which one most commonly receives to all questions as to the existence of the necessaries of life, is "mana canca,'' "there is none." io8 ACROSS SOUTH AMERICA This condition of affairs is not new. When Tem- ple travelled through Bolivia in 1825, he was struck by the prevailing ''no hay nada" (there is nothing at all). Poverty, want, misery, and negligence are the story that is told by the melancholy phrase. The truth is, the Quichua not only has no ambition, he has long ago ceased to care whether you or he or any- body else has more than just barely enough to keep body and soul together. Needless to say, the Quichuas have no concern with the politics of Bolivia, although they constitute a large majority of the inhabitants. From Escara our road continued to follow a semi- arid valley. We passed a caravan of mule-carts bound for Potosi and Sucre. In one of the carts was an upright piano; in another, pieces of mining machinery, while still others contained large cast- iron pipes destined for Sucre's new waterworks. Nearly all of the carts carried bales of Argentine hay as this region is so arid that it is extremely difficult to secure any fodder for the animals, and the barley or alfalfa, when procurable, is often too expensive. The weather continued to be fine. After a hot, dusty ride of twenty miles, we stopped at the poste of Quirve. Just before reaching Quirve, we crossed the Tu- musla River, the site of the last battle of the Bolivian wars of independence. After Sucre's great victory at Ayacucho, in 1824, the only Spanish troops which remained unconquered in all South America were the garrison of Callao and a small band under Gen- eral Ollaneta in southern Bolivia. His men were ESCARA TO LAJA TAMBO 109 badly disaffected by the news of the battle of Ayacu- cho, and an officer who commanded a small garrison at this strategic point, came out openly for the pa- triotic cause. Ollaneta tried in vain to suppress the revolt. The result was a battle here on the first of April, 1825, in which the Spanish general was de- feated and slain. The garrison of Callao held out for a few months longer, but this was the end of active warfare. We found the tamho of Quirve to be of the most primitive sort, not even affording shelter for man or beast. The weekly Potosi stage-coach came in from the north about six o'clock carrying one passenger. He soon spread his bed under the wagon and made himself comfortable for the night. The luggage from Potosi was shipped on pack-animals and was in charge of an Argentine Gaucho named Fermin Chaile. This man we took in exchange for Mac, whom we were glad enough to get rid of. Fermin, the Gaucho, tall and gaunt, round-shouldered and bow- legged, his dark Mongolian-like features crowned by a mop of coarse, black hair, proved to be a god- send. His loose-fitting suit of brown corduroys, far better raiment than most arrieros can afford, bore witness to the fact that he was sober, industrious, and trustworthy. No one ever had a better mule- teer. Like Rafael Rivas, the faithful Venezuelan peon who had guided my cart across the Llanos in 1907, he took excellent care of the mules, yet drove them almost to the limit of their endurance, was de- voted to us, and proved to be reliable and attentive. He was a plainsman, as different in spirit and achieve- no ACROSS SOUTH AMERICA ment from the wretched mountaineers through whose country we were passing, as though he had be- longed to a different continent. As we continued northward from Quirve, the val- ley grew narrower and our road continued to be in the dry river course. All the water that was visible was collected in little ditches and conducted along the hillsides fifteen or twenty feet above the bed of the stream. On some of the hillsides of this valley are terraces or andines where maize, quinoa, pota- toes, and even grapes are made to grow, with much painstaking labor. These terraces, common enough farther north, were the first we had seen. The sta- ple food of the Indians is chuno, a small potato that has been put through a freezing process until its nat- ural flavor is completely lost. One of the principal dishes at this time of the year is the fruit of the cac- tus. Everybody seems to be very fond of the broad- leaved edible species, a thornless variety of which we are developing in Arizona and New Mexico. Farther up the valley I was struck by the inge- nuity which had been exercised in carrying the irri- gation ditches along the side of precipitous cliffs. Numerous little tunnels, connected by small via- ducts, enabled a tiny stream of water to travel three or four miles until It reached a level space sufficiently above highwater mark to warrant the planting of a small field. The only animals to be seen beside mules and horses, goats, pigs, dogs, and a very few birds, were the little wild guinea-pigs of a color closely re- sembling the everlasting brown hills. I was sur- prised not to see any llamas. ESCARA TO LAJA TAMBO in Soon after leaving Quirve, we came to the little village of Toropalca, in every way as brown and dusty as the guinea-pigs. In fact, it melted into the landscape as perfectly as they did. About noon we reached another hillside village, Saropalca, its houses placed so closely one above another on the steep slope as to give the appearance of a giant stairway. We climbed up through the irregular lanes of the little village, until we found a wretched little tambo where we bought a few bun- dles of alfalfa and a bowl of soup. Whenever we could secure sufficient alfalfa for the mules and a bowl of hot chupe for ourselves in addi- tion to the customary pot of hot water for our tea, we considered ourselves most fortunate and were willing to admit that the poste was well provided with "all the necessaries of life." Chupe is a kind of stew or thick soup consisting of frozen potatoes and tough mutton or llama meat. In its natural state, its taste is disagreeable enough, but when it is served to the liking of the natives it is seasoned so highly with red pepper as to be far too fiery for foreign pal- ates. In the course of the afternoon, the valley nar- rowed to a gorge in which we passed more heavily- laden mule-carts making their way along with the utmost difficulty. Beyond the gorge we found sul- phur springs and some banks of sulphur. One of the hot springs gushed up close by the roadside. "El Lazarillo," the eighteenth century Baedeker, says there was once a "modest thermal establishment" here, intended to attract bathers from Potosi. 112 ACROSS SOUTH AMERICA At the end of the day we reached Caisa, after hav- ing made nearly forty miles since morning. Caisa is an old Spanish town and looks like all the rest. One- story houses, narrow streets, badly paved, a city block left open for a plaza, on one side of it a church and the house of the priest, on the other three sides, a few shops where we bought newly-baked hot bread, beer, cheese, and candles. The tambo was called "La Libertad" and bore the legend '' Muy barato" (very cheap) . We surmised this meant that the proprietor would charge all the traffic would bear; and such proved to be the case. In fact, we had a very dis- agreeable dispute with the landlady the next morn- ing. Fermin indignantly declared she had tripled the usual prices. At Caisa the road from Argentina to Sucre branches off to the right, going due north to Puna and thence to Yotala, where it joins the road from Potosi to Sucre. Leaving Caisa on November 22, we went north- west and soon had our first glimpse of a snow-clad Bolivian mountain. The snow was not very deep, however, as it had fallen during the night, and be- fore noon it was all gone. Our road crossed several ridges and then descended into a partly cultivated valley near an old silver mine and a smelter called Cuchu Ingenio. The road here was unusually good. Even in 1773 " The Blind Man's Guide " says it was a "camino de Trote, y Galope." As we ascended a gorge, I was attracted by a little waterfall of crystal clearness that came tumbling down from the heights above, and was tempted to '^ ^ \" .•'• * ^-/ './."••* ♦* ESCARA TO LAJA TAMBO 113 take a hearty drink of the delicious cool liquid. A Boliviano from Tupiza, who was travelling with us for company, warned me against such a rash act as drinking cold water at this altitude. I had noticed that no one in this region ever touches cold water, and I thought the universal prejudice against it was founded on a natural preference for alcohol. So I laughingly enjoyed my cup of cold water and as- sured him that there could be no harm in it. An hour later we reached Laja Tambo, a wretched little poste, standing alone on the edge of a tableland twenty miles from Potosi. The altitude was about thirteen thousand feet. The sun had been very warm, and soon after alighting on the rough stone pavement of the inn yard, I arranged the thermometers so as to test the difference in temperature between sun and shade. The temperature in the sun at noon v/as 85° F. In the shade it was 48° F. Scarcely had I taken the readings when I began to feel chilly. Hot tea followed by hot soup and still hotter brandy and water failed to warm me, notwithstanding the fact that I had unpacked my bag and put on two heavy sweaters. A wretched sense of dizziness and of long- ing to get warm made me lie down on the warm stones of the courtyard. I grew rapidly worse, and was soon experiencing the common symptoms of soroche, puna, or mountain sickness. The combina- tion of vomiting, diarrhoea, and chillswas bad enough, but the prospect of being ill in this desolate poste, twenty miles from the nearest doctor, with nothing better than the usual accessories of a Bolivian tambo, was infinitely w^orse. Somehow or other, I man- 114 ACROSS SOUTH AMERICA aged to persuade Fermin to saddle and load the ani- mals and put me on my mule, where I was deter- mined to stay until we should reach Potosi. The last thing to do before leaving the tambo was to pay the bill, and this I proceeded to do in the Boli- vian paper currency which I had purchased in Tu- piza. Alas, one of the bills was on a bank situated two hundred and fifty miles away in La Paz, a bank, in fact, in which the postilion did not have much confidence. The idea of having a servile Quichua postilion decline to receive good money was extremely irritating, and I tried my best, notwithstanding my soroche, to force him to take it. He persisted and I was obliged to find another bill in my wallet. I sup- pose my hand trembled a little with chill or excite- ment and in taking out the bill I partly tore it. This would not have mattered had the tear been in the middle, but it was nearer one end than the other and the Indian refused to accept it. I had no other small bills and was at a loss to know what to do. In the meantime, Fermin and the pack-mules had left the inclosure of the tambo and started for Potosi while Mr. Smith was just outside of the gate waiting for me. So I rolled up the sound bill which the Indian had declined to receive, gave it to him, and while he was investigating it, made a dash for the road. He was too quick for me, however, and gripped my bridle. Exasperated beyond measure, I rode him against the wall of the tambo and made him let go long enough to allow me to escape. It seemed on the whole a lawless performance, although the bank-note was perfectly good. I fully expected ESCARA TO LAJA TAMBO 115 that he would follow us with stones or something worse, but as he was only a Quichua he accepted the inevitable and we saw no more of him. In the face of a bitterly cold wind we crossed the twenty-mile plateau that lies between Laja Tambo and the famous city of Potosi. On the plain were herds of llamas feeding, but these did not interest us as much as the conical hill ahead. It was the Cerro of Potosi, the hill that for two hundred and fifty years, was the marvel of the world. No tale of the Arabian Nights, no dream of Midas, ever equalled the riches that flowed from this romantic cone. Two billion ounces of silver is the record of its output and the tale is not yet told. Rounding the eastern shoulder of the mountain, we passed several large smelters, some of them aban- doned. Near by are the ruins of an edifice said to have been built by the Spaniards to confine the poor Indians whom they brought here by the thousands to work in the mines. The road descends a little val- ley and runs for a mile, past the ruins of hundreds of buildings. In the eighteenth century, Potosi boasted a population of over one hundred and fifty thousand. Now there are scarcely fifteen thousand. The part of the city that is still standing is near the ancient plaza, the mint, and the market-place. Our caravan clattered noisily down the steep, stony streets until we reached the doors of the Hotel Colon where an attentive Austrian landlord made us welcome, notwithstanding the fact that one of the party was evidently quite ill. I could not help won- dering whether an American hotel-keeper would ii6 ACROSS SOUTH AMERICA have been so willing to receive a sick man as this be- nighted citizen of Potosi. The paved courtyard was small, but the rooms on the second floor were com- modious and so much better than the unspeakably forlorn adobe walls of Laja Tambo, that I felt quite willing to retire from active exploration for a day or two. Fortunately, I fell into the hands of a well- trained Bolivian physician, who knew exactly what to do, and with his aid, and the kind nursing of Fer- min and Mr. Smith, I was soon on my feet again. \ CHAPTER X POTOsi WE had not been in Potosi many hours before we realized that it was a most fascinating place with an atmosphere all its own. By the time we had been here a week we were ready to agree with those who call it the most interesting city in South America. The prestige of its former wealth, the evidence on every side of former Spanish magnificence, the pic- turesquely clad Indians and the troops of graceful, inquisitive llamas in the streets, aroused to the ut- most our curiosity and interest. Our first duty was to call on the Prefect who had been expecting our arrival and was most kind during our entire stay. A Bolivian prefect has almost un- limited power in his department and is directly re- sponsible to the President. His orders are carried out by the sub-prefect who is also chief of police and has a small body of soldiers under his immediate con- trol. We found the Government House, or Prefectura, to be a fine old building dating back to colonial days. Probably the most interesting person that has ever occupied it was General William Miller, that pic- turesque British veteran who fought valiantly through all the Peruvian Wars of Independence, re- Ii8 ACROSS SOUTH AMERICA celving so many wounds that he was said to have been "honeycombed with bullets." At the end of the wars he was appointed Prefect of Potosi, and it was during his incumbency that the great liberator Simon Bolivar made his visit. There is a vivid de- scription of it in Miller's ** Memoirs." When Bolivar arrived in sight of the far-famed mountain, the flags of Peru, Buenos Aires, Chile, and Colombia were un- furled on its summit. As he entered the town, twenty- one petards were exploded on the peak, an aerial salute "that had a very singular and imposing ef- fect." "Upon alighting at the Government House, under a grand triumphal arch, decorated with flags, the reception of His Excellency was according to the Hispanic-American taste. Two children, dressed as angels, were let down from the arch as he approached, and each pronounced a short oration! Upon enter- ing the grand saloon, six handsome women, repre- senting the fair sex of Potosi, hailed the arrival of His Excellency, crowned him with a wreath of laurel, and strewed flowers, which had been brought from a great distance for the occasion." This was followed by seven weeks of bull-fights, grand dinners, balls, fireworks, illuminations, and other signs of public re- joicing, which would seem to have surfeited even a person so fond of pomp and adulation as the great liberator. Opposite the Government House, on the east side of the plaza, is a curious many-arched arcade which incloses a new plaza, the work of an ambitious pre- fect. The tall column surmounted by a statue, that stands as the only ornament in the new plciza, once POTOSI 119 stood in the centre of the old, but was moved to its new position by the Prefect who decided that his work would be incomplete unless properly graced by a monument. On a corner of the new plaza is Potosi's only book- shop. Judging by the stock in trade, the principal customers are school children and lawyers. The book trade was dull when we were there, but con- siderable interest was shown in other departments of the store where toys and picture post cards were on sale. Near by is the "University" where second-rate secondary instruction is given to poor little boys who sit on damp adobe seats in badly-lighted, foul-smell- ing rooms. It was once a convent, but the church connected with it has long since been transformed into a theatre. The only attractive thing about the "University" is the charming old convent garden where rare old flowers still try to bloom. Opposite the ** University" is the club. Here there are billiard tables (it is really remarkable how many billiard tables one finds scattered all over South America, even in the most inaccessible places) and a bar. The custom of serving a little felt mat with each drink is resorted to, and when a member chooses to stand treat, he goes about and gathers up all the mats in sight and takes them to the bar where he cashes them with his own money, or some that he has recently won. The bar was well patronized. And no one is to blame but the climate, which is the worst in South America. Although Potosi is in the Tropics, the highest re- 120 ACROSS SOUTH AMERICA corded temperature here in the shade on the hottest day ever known, was 59° F. The city is nearly thir- teen thousand five hundred feet above the sea, al- most as high as Pike's Peak. Every afternoon cold winds sweep down through the streets striking a chill into one's very marrow. A temperature of 22° F. is not unknown, yet none of the houses have stoves or any appliances (except soup) for warming their shivering inhabitants. As the prevailing tem- perature indoors is below 50° F., almost every one wears coats and hats in the house as much as out- doors, or even more so, for a brisk walk of a block or two at this altitude makes one quite warm, and in the middle of the day the sun is hot. Wherever we wandered in this fascinating city, our eyes continually turned southward to the Cerro, the beautifully colored cone that raises itself fifteen hundred feet above the city. It is impossible to de- scribe adequately the beauty of its colors and the marvellous way in which they change as the sun sinks behind the western Andes. I hope that some day a great painter will come here and put on canvas the marvellous hues of this world-renowned hill. Pink, purple, lavender, brown, gray, and yellow streaks make it look as though the gods, having finished painting the universe, had used this as a dumping- ground for their surplus pigments. In reality, the hand of man has had much to do with its present variegated aspect, for he has been busily engaged during the past three hundred years in turning the hill inside out. Much of the most beautifully col- ored material has been painfully brought out from POTOSI 121 the very heart of the hill through long tunnels, in man's effort to get at the rich veins of silver and tin which lie within. The discovery of silver at Potosi was made by a llama driver about the middle of the sixteenth cen- tury. It was soon found that the mountain was tra- versed by veins of extremely rich ore. After the gold of the Incas had been gathered up and disposed of, Potosi became the most important part of all the Spanish possessions in America. At the beginning of the sevententh century, when New York and Bos- ton were still undreamed of, Potosi was already a large and extremely wealthy city. It attracted the presence of hundreds of Spanish adventurers includ- ing many grandees. In short it had taken on all the signs of luxury that are common to big mining camps. Grandees in sumptuous apparel rode gayly capari- soned horses up and down the stony streets, bow- ing graciously to charming ladies dressed in the most costly attire that newly-gotten wealth could pro- cure. On feast days, and particularly on great na- tional holidays, like the King's birthday, elaborate and expensive entertainments were given. If it were not for the great expanse of ruins and the very large number of churches, it would be diffi- cult to realize to-day that for over a century this was the largest city in the Western Hemisphere. The routes which led to the Bolivian plateau became the greatest thoroughfares in America. Money flowed more freely than water. In fact, the Spaniards found great difficulty during the dry season in supplying the city with sufficient water to use in washing the 122 ACROSS SOUTH AMERICA ore and in meeting the ordinary needs of a large population. Consequently, they went up into the hills above the city and built, at great expense, a score of dams to hold back the water that fell during the rainy season and preserve it for the dry. Immediately following the Wars of Independ- ence and the consequent opening of the country to foreign capital, a wild mining fever set in among London capitalists. Greedy and ignorant directors took advantage of the cupidity of the British public to enrich themselves, while incidentally working the mines of Potosi with disproportionately expensive establishments. So eager was the public to take stock in Potosi that shares which at the outset were quoted at 75 or 80, rose incredibly in the short space of six weeks. Some of them went up above 5000. As was to be expected, this speculative fever was fol- lowed by a panic which ruined not only the stock- holders but those unfortunates like Edmund Tem- ple, who had gone to Potosi in the employ of one of the wildcat companies, and those South Americans that had honored their drafts on London. Then followed a long period of stagnation. But as railroads came nearer and cart-roads began to multiply, transportation became cheaper and new enterprises sprang up. |: Any one is at liberty to secure a license from the proper authorities to dig a mine in the side of the mountain, provided he does not interfere with the property of someone else. The records show that since the Cerro was first discovered licenses have been issued for over five thousand mines. It is easy POTOSI 123 to imagine what a vast underground labyrinth ex- ists beneath those many-colored slopes. Most of the openings, however, have been closed by ava- lanches of refuse from mines higher up the hill. One day I was invited to visit several new mines that had recently been opened by a Chilean Com- pany. In one mine, at an altitude of about fifteen thousand feet, I undertook to crawl into the depths for five hundred yards in order to see a new vein of silver ore that had recently been encountered. The exertion of getting in and out again at that altitude was terrific, yet the miners did not appear to feel it. They wear thick knitted caps which save their heads from the bumps and shield them from falling rocks. Their knees are protected by strong leather caps. Their feet they bind in huge moccasins. Those that carry out the ore frequently wear leather aprons tied on their backs. The workmen are a sordid, rough- looking lot who earn and deserve very good wages. Sometime ago when tin was higher than it is now, a large number of new mines were opened and un- heard-of prices were paid for labor. Now that the price of tin has fallen, it is extremely difficult to get the Indians to accept a lower scale of wages. Con- sequently, most of the new mines have had to be closed. In the old days, the tin was discarded as the eager Spanish miners thought only of the silver. But now the richer veins of silver have become exhausted, and although some are being worked, most of the activ- ity is confined to the tin ore. At the top of the cone there is an immense quantity of it; the only diffi- 124 ACROSS SOUTH AMERICA culty is how to get it down to the smelters in the val- ley between the hill and the city. ' In this valley runs a small stream of water that comes from the hill reservoirs. Attracted by its pre- sence, most of the smelters have located themselves on one side or the other of the little gorge. There are innumerable small ingenios worked by the Indians in a very primitive fashion. Some of them are scarcely more than a family affair. Besides these there are twenty-eight large smelters, and all of them devoted more to tin than to silver. Not one of these is owned by a Bolivian. A few belong to English capitalists, more to Chileans, and the largest of all to a French- man who has constructed an aerial railway to bring the ore from high up on the mountainside to his fur- naces. The never ending line of iron buckets adds a curiously modern note to the ruins over which they pass. Ore is also brought down on the backs of don- keys and llamas. The workmen are mostly Quichuas. Some of them are evidently not city bred, for they dress with the same pigtails and small clothes that they wore when Spanish conquistador es forced them to take the precious metal out of the hill without any thought of reward other than the fact that they were likely to die sooner and reach heaven earlier than if they stayed quietly at home. The product of this smelter is shipped both as pure tin in ingots and also as highly concentrated and refined ore. The most picturesque feature of the valley was a small chimney smoking lustily away all by itself, high up on the opposite hillside, like a young volcano with a smoke stack. In order to get a good draft for THE CERRO OF POTOSI FROM THE SPANISH RKSKRVUIRS AN ANCIENT QUICHUA ORE CRUSHER POTOSI 125 the blast furnaces, the smoke is conducted across the stream on a stone viaduct, enters the hill by.a tunnel, and ascends a vertical shaft for one hundred and fifty feet to the chimney which then carries it thirty feet further up into the air. The tunnel does just as good work in the way of producing a draft as though it were a modern brick chimney, two hundred feet high, but the effect is uncanny, to say the least. We found among the boarders at the Hotel Colon a group of young Peruvian and Chilean mining engi- neers who were very congenial. They made the best of their voluntary exile, and although none of them enjoyed the fearful climatic conditions, they man- aged to make their surroundings quite tolerable with hard work, cheerful conversation, birthday dinners, and social calls. The courtyard of the hotel was a fine example of the prevailing mixture of old and new. The roof was covered with beautiful large red tiles whose weight had crushed down the rafters in places so as to pro- duce a wavy effect. Meanwhile the shaky old bal- cony that ran around the court connecting the rooms on the second floor, was sheltered from the rain by strips of corrugated iron! The fine old stone-paved patio was marred by a vile wainscoting painted in imitation of cheap oil-cloth. In one corner stood a little old-fashioned stove where arrieros, who need to make an early start, cook their tea without disturb- ing the hotel servants. An archway running under the best bedrooms of the second floor, led out to the street. Another archway led in to the filth of the backyard where, amid indescribable scenes and 126 ACROSS SOUTH AMERICA smells, six-course dinners were prepared for our con- sumption. It was a miracle that we did not get every disease in the calendar. Opposite the hotel was a fine old building with a wonderfully carved stone gateway and attractive iron balconies jutting out with stone supports from each second-story window. It is now the residence and warehouse of one of the largest importers in Bol- ivia. Once it was the abode of a Spanish marquis. The exquisitely finished exterior bears witness to the good taste of its builder and the riches and extrava- gance that once ran riot in Potosi. So also do the beautiful towers, all that are left standing of the Jesuit church. The church itself has disappeared, but the solidly constructed, exquisitely carved stone towers remain as silent witnesses to the power of that Christian order that did most to ad- vance the cause of civilization in South America. Unquestionably the most picturesque part of Po- tosi is the market-place and the streets in its im- mediate vicinity. Hither come the miners and their families to spend their hard-earned wages. Here can be purchased all the native articles of luxury: coca, chupe, frozen potatoes, parched corn, and chicha (na- tive hard cider made from anything that happens to be handy). The streets are lined with small mer- chants who stack their wares on the sidewalk against the walls of the buildings. There are no carriages and few horseback riders, so that one does not mind being crowded off the sidewalks by the picturesque booths of the Quichua merchants. In the streets flocks of llamas driven by gayly- POTOSI 127 dressed Indians add a rare flavor not easily forgot- ten. The llamas move noiselessly only making little grunts of private conversation among themselves; quite haughty, yet so timid withal, they are easily guided in droves of fifty by a couple of diminutive Indians. To see these ridiculous animals stalking slowly along, looking inquisitively at everyone, continually reminded me of Oliver Herford's verses about that person in Boston who "Looked about him with that air Of supercilious despair That very stuck-up people wear At some society affair When no one in their set is there." In the immediate vicinity of the market-place every available inch on each side of the street is used by the small tradesmen. They are allowed to erect canopies to protect their goods from the sun and rain, and the general effect is not unlike a street in Cairo. On one corner are piled up bolts of foreign cloth, their owners squatting on the sidewalk in front of them. On another corner, leaning against the white- washed walls of a building, is a native drug store. The different herbs and medicines exposed for sale in the little cloth bags are cleverly stacked up so as to show their contents without allowing the medi- cines to mix. The most conspicuous article offered for sale is coca, which is more to the Quichua than tobacco is to the rest of mankind. The market-place itself is roughly paved with ir- 128 ACROSS SOUTH AMERICA regular stone blocks and is surrounded by arcades where are the more perishable European goods. The vendors of Indian merchandise squat on the stones wherever they can find a place and spread out be- fore them their wares, whether they consist of eggs or pottery, potatoes or sandals. It is the custom to arrange the corn and potatoes in little piles, each pile being worth a real, about four cents in our money, the standard of value in the mar- ket-place. Under umbrella-like shelters are gath- ered the purveyors of food and drink, their steaming cauldrons of chupe surrounded by squatting Indians who can thus get warmed and fed at the same time. [ The Quichua garments are of every possible hue, although red predominates. The women dress in innumerable petticoats of many-colored materials and wear warm, heavy, colored shawls, brought to- gether over the shoulders and secured with two large pins, occasionally of handsome workmanship, but more often in the shape of spoons. Generally they are content with uninteresting felt hats, but now and then one will have a specimen of a different design, the principal material of which is black velveteen, ornamented with red worsted and colored beads. On their feet the women usually wear the simplest kind of rawhide sandals, although when they can afford it, they affect an extraordinary footgear, a sandal with a French heel an inch and a half high, and shod with a leather device resembling a horse shoe. Near the market-place is an interesting old church, its twin towers still in good repair. Services are rarely held here, and it was with some difficulty that POTOSI 129 we succeeded in finding the sexton, who finally brought a large key and allowed us to see the histori- cal pictures that hang on the walls of two of the chapels. They are of considerable interest and ap- peared to date from the sixteenth century. We com- mented on the fact that a large painting had re- cently been removed and were regaled with a story of how a foreign millionaire had bribed some prelate or other to sell him the treasured relic ! In the eighteenth century Potosi boasted of sixty churches but of these considerably more than half are now in ruins. The ruined portion of the city lies principally to the east and south. A few strongly built churches or church towers are still standing amid the remains of buildings that have tumbled down in heaps. Several of the old convents and monasteries, how- ever, are still in a flourishing condition. To us the chief interest consisted of their collections of fine old paintings and their beautiful flowers. Nothing was more refreshing in this mountainous desert than to walk in their lovely green gardens. The principal object of interest in the city, how- ever, is the Casa Nacional de Moneda, the great mint, which was begun in colonial days to receive the plunder that the Spaniards took out of the hill by means of the forced labor of their Indian slaves. It covers two city blocks, and is really a collection of buildings covered by a massive roof and surrounded by a high wall with only one entrance. The front is striking. At regular intervals along the roof are little stone ornaments like funeral urns. The few 130 ACROSS SOUTH AMERICA windows are carefully guarded with iron bars. On either side of the elaborately decorated fagade of the two-storied portal are wooden balconies over which projects the heavily timbered roof covered with large red tiles. As one enters the great building from the street and passes between heavy doors into a large court- yard, the first thing that attracts one's attention is an enormous face, four feet in diameter, which looks down at the intruder from over an archway that leads to a second courtyard. The gigantic face has a malicious grin yet bears a distinct resemblance to Bacchus. Who put it here and what it signifies does not seem to be known. Suffice it to say that many of the Quichuas before starting on a journey, come to this courtyard and make obeisance to the face, throwing down in front of it a quid of coca leaves just as they used to do to the rising sun in the time of the Incas. The courtyard is surrounded by an arcade with massive arches over which runs the carved wooden balustrade of the second-story balcony. In the sec- ond patio, which is also paved with cut stones, a tiny narrow-gauge railway is used to carry silver ingots from the treasure-room to the stamping-machines. In one of the buildings is a physics laboratory. In another a little gymnasium. In still a third, a collec- tion of minerals. All of which are evidences that here are the beginnings of a school of mines that is be- ing built up under the able direction of an intelligent young Bolivian engineer who received his training at Notre Dame University in the United States. In POTOSI 131 one old building are still standing the great wooden machines that were formerly used in the process of hammering out the silver. In a large room on the second floor of another building are kept the vellum- bound records of the mint and all the dies which have been used for the past two hundred years* Accord- ing to the records, the value of the silver taken from here in the colonial days amounted to about one billion dollars. Most of the stamping was done by hand. The Bolivian government has cleared out two or three of the buildings and installed modern ma- chinery, imported from the United States. One of the most remarkable features of the mint is the size and condition of the huge timbers that sup- port the roof. They are as sound to-day as they were two hundred years ago when, with infinite labor, they were brought across the mountains from the distant forests of the Chaco. The roof is surmounted by a number of small sen- try-boxes which are connected by little paths and stairways that lead to all parts of the structure. In the old da^/s, it was necessary not only to protect the "money-house" against possible attacks from with- out, but to make sure that the Indians, who were as- signed to work in the mint, did not escape from the attics where they slept at night. I crawled through several of these attics where not even an underfed Indian could stand upright. The roof was scarcely four feet above the floor. In the corners were rude fireplaces where they may have cooked their chiipe, with dried llama dung as their only fuel. The rooms were dark, even in mid- 132 ACROSS SOUTH AMERICA day. The tiny peek-holes that served as windows ad- mitted scarcely any light. Altogether it was as wretched a dormitory as could possibly be imagined. The view from the roof was most interesting. The romantic cone of the mountain-of-silver rises to the south beyond the graceful towers of the cathedral. East of it are the hills where the Spaniards built their famous reservoirs. Further east are higher hills which have been the scene of several bloody en- counters in the unprofitable civil wars that have devastated Bolivia. ' Here on the battle-field of Kari Kari, several hundred unfortunate Indians, fighting for revolutionary leaders with whose selfish aims they had little sympathy, fell victims to the unfor- tunate habit of appealing to arms instead of ballots. North of us, in the foreground, is the picturesque market-place, while northwest, in the distance, the old trail for Oruro and Lima winds away through the barren hills. To the west the far extending vista discloses a wilderness of variegated hills and moun- tain ranges. While all around, the quaint old arched roofs, rolling like giant swells of the Pacific, are sur- rounded by the narrow streets, the red-tiled houses, and the ruinous towers of the ancient city. CHAPTER XI SUCRE THE DE JURE CAPITAL OF BOLIVIA POTOsf was an irresistible attraction to thousands, but the dreadful climate, the high altitude, the cold winds, and the chilling rains drove away those who could afford it to the more hospitable valleys a few days' journey eastward where, with an abund- ant water-supply at an elevation of eight thousand feet, charming villas sprang up surrounded by at- tractive plantations, the present suburbs of Sucre. A fairly good coach road has recently been com- pleted, and a weekly stage carries mail and passen- gers between the two cities. We preferred, however, to continue on our saddle mules and followed the older route. The new road is a hundred miles long. The old trail Is only seventy-five. With good ani- mals it need take but two days. We were In no hurry, however, and decided to do it in three. The valleys through which our road descended, at first arid and desolate, gradually became greener and more populous. The views were often very fine and extensive and we saw a few snow-covered moun- tains. In the middle of winter, that Is June and July, the snow frequently covers everything. Now, on the 29th of November, the prevailing color was a tawny brown. On the road we met long strings of llamas, don- 134 ACROSS SOUTH AMERICA keys, and mules laden with every conceivable shape of basket, bag, and bundle bringing from the fertile valleys to the eastward, potatoes, maize, wane, green vegetables and fruits, the produce that feeds Potosi. Further evidence of the extent of this traffic and the number of arrieros that continually pass over this road is the frequency of little chicherias , wretched little huts built of stone and mud, baked in the sun, and thatched with grass or bushes, w^here *'chicha " can be bought for a penny a gourd. On the bare ground in front of one of them a wo- man had pegged down the framework of a hand loom and was beginning to weave a poncho. Near her the family dinner of chupe was simmering away in a huge earthenware pot, supported on three stones, over a tiny fire of thorns and llama dung. Other picturesque jars filled with chicha awaited her cus- tomers. We lunched at what Baedeker would call "a primitive thermal establishment," a favorite week- end resort for German clerks in the importing houses of Potosi. A swimming-pool that affords opportun- ity to luxuriate in the warm sulphur water attracts many visitors, as it is practically the only place in southern Bolivia where one can get a hot tub bath. The proprietor of the Baths, a type of English- man that in the Pacific Ocean is called a "beach comber," was an amusing old vagabond who made a great fuss ordering his half-starved Indians to pre- pare us a suitable meal. Our expectations were aroused to a high pitch by his enthusiasm, but the quality of the food was not any better than that of ^m a ^^^H^^^^H ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^*^ ^^^iK^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^I SUCRE 135 the ordinary native inn. There was one very marked difference, however. We were not met by any dec- laration of ^'no hay nada.'' Our second stopping-place was Bartolo, a small town of a thousand inhabitants, chiefly Quichua In- dians, and a picturesque old church surrounded by a wall made of stone arches. We arrived on a Sun- day evening and found the tambo already so full of travellers that there was no room for us or our beasts. The Prefect of Potosi had given us a circular letter requesting the masters of all the post-houses on our route to accord us "every facility for our journey." We soon found the letter to be of little avail, for when there was any difficulty such as lack of accom- modation or of fodder we were invariably informed that the master of the poste was away attending to some business in another village. As our letter, how- ever, included also the governors of towns, we now asked to be directed to the house of the Gobernador of Bartolo and found that worthy gentleman bidding good-bye to some Sunday visitors with whom he had been partaking freely of brandy and chicha. He was at first inclined to be insolent, and although he had a comparatively large house, declared that he had no room for us and that we must return to the inn. As the situation approached that point where it was be- coming necessary to use force in order to secure shelter for the night, an obliging guest, who had pos- session of the largest room in the inn, learning from Fermin, the Gaucho, that we were delegados, offered us the use of his quarters while he sought accommo- dation among his acquaintances in the town. 136 ACROSS SOUTH AMERICA In the meantime, the family of the tipsy governor had sobered him up enough to make him realize that he had shown discourtesy to the bearer of a govern- ment passport and he came to the inn with profuse offers of entertainment which we unfortunately could not accept. We left Bartolo early the next morning. The dust had been laid by thunder-showers in the night and the crisp mountain air was most refreshing. Occa- sionally we passed the ruins of a rude stone cairn erected in colonial days to measure the leagues be- tween Sucre and Potosi. Fermin had never been beyond Potosi, so we were obliged to fall back upon the service of guides or postilions from here on. They cannot be taken farther than from one poste to another, generally six leagues or twenty miles. They receive a regular tariff of four cents per league, and a small gratuity besides. For this munificent sum of a little over a cent a mile, they are supposed to assist in catching and sad- dling the animals, to hold the packs while they are being loaded, and then to run beside the trotting pack-animals, ready to help if the loads become loosened, constantly at hand, a willing slave to the arriero and a guide to the traveller. Generally lightly clad with the regulation Quichua small clothes, that look as though made of meal-sacks, they march or lope along cheerily, now and then blowing lustily on an ox-horn, which they carry slung over the shoulder as a badge of their position. The postilions will not budge unless their tariff is paid in advance, for they have learned through cen- SUCRE 137 turies of experience that while the traveller with a stout whip, mounted on a good animal, with the authority of the government at his back, can force them to go the required distance after the fee has been paid, they have no means whatever of forcing him to pay after he has arrived at his destination and has no further need of their services. The first postilion we had, recognizing the fact that our arriero was a stranger in this part of the country and that we were foreigners, ran far ahead of the little cara- van, and would have disappeared among the thorny shrubs of the arid hillside had we not galloped after him and threateningly ordered him to return to his post at the heels of the mules. The next one proved to be a good fellow and did his work well, notwith- standing the dust which was his portion during most of the day. This morning we passed a field in which alpacas that looked like overgrown woolly dogs were feeding. As the sparse foliage increased, we met numerous flocks of sheep watched over by diminutive children in shawls and ponchos who ran away and hid be- hind rocks when they saw us coming. About the middle of the morning we came to the edge of a plateau and enjoyed a wonderful view of fertile valleys, whose waters flow rapidly down to the Pilcomayo. It seemed difficult to realize that a Bolivian landscape could have any other color than brown. Our descent was now rapid, and the tem- perature grew warmer except when we encountered a small hail-storm. After passing the scene of a battle in the unsuc- 138 ACROSS SOUTH AMERICA cessful revolution of General Camacho, a militant politician with whom Bolivia had considerable diffi- culty in the '90's, we stopped for lunch at a tumbled- down hostelry called Quebrada Honda, in honor of a deep little valley whose steep sides rise abruptly from a roaring mountain torrent. Squatting on the ground in front of the tambo was a Quichua woman weaving a bright-colored poncho. In the afternoon we passed some primitive dwell- ings which consisted of huge flat boulders under which excavations had been made leaving them par- tially supported by piles of stones at the corners. The method did not seem to have proved success- ful, for in most cases, the roof, too heavy for the supports, was lying on the ground. About five o'clock we arrived at the poste of Pampa Tambo. We found a postilion in charge; the "mas- ter of the poste was absent" as usual. The postilion decided to charge us three times the regular rate for forage and Fermin protested vigorously, but in vain. Although it was a matter of only a dollar or so, I de- cided to see whether my letter from the Prefect of Potosi would make any difl"erence with his attitude toward us. The sight of the official seal, and an em- phatic threat that he would get himself into trouble if he persisted in his outrageous demands, gradually brought him to lower the price until it came within two or three cents of the regular tariff. Hardly had we settled the dispute when a violent thunder-storm came up. This was the last day of November and the rainy season was beginning. From now on we had showers nearly every afternoon. , »* ^ |l^|i-jr^" 'kf^' ^^ I -* ^m- r^ r^- A PAStURE FdR .SHEEP AND ALPACAS A QUICHUA WOMAN WEAVING AT QUEBRADA HONDA SUCRE 139 In the evening a party of foreigners arrived, con- sisting of a wealthy Franco-BoHviano and his two sons who were on their way home from Paris. They amused us by their elaborate preparations to supply themselves with drinks and edibles. Little alcohol stoves were kept busy making hot toddy, and drinks without number soon produced a very drowsy party. We got an early start the next morning and, in an hour after leaving Pampa Tambo, came in sight of the great river Pilcomayo which is associated with the tragic death of the French explorer, Creveaux. The Pilcomayo rises west of Potosi, receives the tur- bid waters that have passed through Potosi's smelt- ers, flows east and then southeast towards Para- guay, finally joining the Paraguay River just above Asuncion. Were it not for the gigantic morass, the Estero Patino, which interrupts its course for about fifty miles, it would serve as a convenient means of communication between the mining region of Boli- via and the Rio de la Plata. Most of its course is through the Gran Chaco, a debateable land that har been only partly explored. East of the Andes, where the afifluents of the Pil- comayo are almost interlaced with those of the Ma- more, in the watershed between the basins of the Amazon and the Parana, lies a region of rich trop- ical forests with possibilities of development that appeal very strongly to far-sighted Bolivianos. The conditions are tropical, the soil is fertile, and there is an abundance of rain. There are, however, in this region, many tribes of wild Indians of whom little is known and who have shown no desire to encour- 140 ACROSS SOUTH AMERICA age the advent of strangers. Transportation is ex- ceedingly difficult. We found that a suspension bridge had been built across the Pilcomayo at its narrowest and deepest point, but owing to the tardiness of the wet season, we were able to ford the stream lower down and save a detour of several miles. After crossing the river we rode up a dry gulch in which an attempt at culti- vation by means of irrigating ditches was produc- ing both pomegranates and peaches. An hour's ride beyond the river brought us to Calera, a little hamlet of Indian huts with a very primitive tambo. We had counted on resting here during the middle of the day, but there was abso- lutely nothing to be had either for man or beast. We could have unloaded and unpacked our own supplies, but there is no point in eating when your mules can- not eat, and so we pushed on, twelve miles further, to the town of Yotala. Our path crossed a low range of barren hills and then descended a thousand feet or more by a steep, winding path to the river Cachi- mayo which we forded without difficulty. In this little valley we found many attractive plantations, the fincas or country houses of the wealthy resi- dents of Sucre. Extensive irrigation has trans- formed the bed of the valley into what seems like a veritable paradise, so great is its contrast with the barren region around about. Yotala is an old Spanish town, much more dead than alive. There was an inn, misnamed a "res- taurant," where there was nothing to be had in the way of food for any of us. Fermin finally succeeded SUCRE 141 in finding a poor widow who had a little fodder for sale and was willing to let the mules eat it in her back yard. As for ourselves, we had to fall back as usual on canned goods, just as though this were an isolated poste, twenty miles from anywhere, instead of being a town of several thousand inhabitants. We spread out our little lunch on the stones of the plaza under two trees. As it was noon, and the sky cloudless, the sun shone with considerable ferocity. Presently a slov- enly official with an expression on his face that said plainly he was not quite sure whether we were dis- tinguished travellers who ought to be looked after or only vagabonds who should be driven off, came and inquired if we were French merchants. On re- ceiving a negative reply he seemed rather relieved and withdrew to the shade of his own house. Of course if we had whispered the magic words " dele- gados de los Estados Unidos," all would have been different. After the mules had had a rest we covered the re- maining six miles to Sucre, passing on the way a number of leiVgefincas. One of them seemed to bear a distant resemblance to a pleasure park. Statues of men and animals, summer houses, pagodas, and a small intramural railway whose imitation locomo- tive was a small automobile in disguise, lent the place a festive air which was increased by one or two minarets and other fantastic tourers. We learned afterwards that this was La Glorieta, the seat of the Prince and Princess of Glorieta. The story, as told us by a pleasant old lady in Sucre, is as follows : — 142 ACROSS SOUTH AMERICA It seems that the head of the richest family in Bolivia, who is also the leading banker of Sucre, wearying of republican simplicity, decided to make a large donation to the Pope. Soon afterw'ards his great generosity was rewarded with the title of "Prince of Glorieta." Unfortunately, our presence in this part of the world was not properly made known to this Bolivian royal house and I am unable to give an adequate description of the beauties of Glorieta. They have, however, been published by the owners in a pamphlet, and from all that I could hear, Glorieta has a distant resemblance to Coney Island. After passing Glorieta, w^e crossed a small cafion, climbed the sides of a deep gorge, and suddenly found ourselves at the city gates. Sucre has a population of twenty thousand souls, including fifty negroes, and two or three hundred foreigners, a large number of whom are Spaniards engaged in mercantile business. There are tw^o or three hotels here, and we were in some doubt as to which might offer the best welcome. After a vain effort to locate the Prefect and get his advice, we decided to go to the Hotel Colon where we found large comfortable rooms on the second floor, facing the plaza. The proprietor was most polite and at- tentive. The only fault that we had to find with him was his continual spitting. The fact that there were no cuspidors and that he was ruining his own carpet did not deter him in the least. Perhaps he had rented the furnishings. It is superfluous to speak of the filth of the kitchen THE GREAT RIVER PILCOMAYO il.a li ihltri%^ iilMlh#* *il «