*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 74660 ***
Transcriber's Note
Italic font is indicated by _underscores_.
Bold text is indicated by +plus signs+.
Superscripted letters are indicated by a preceding ^ sign.
_Panama to Patagonia_
[Illustration: A Mountain Bridge]
_Panama to Patagonia_
_The Isthmian Canal_
_And the West Coast Countries of
South America_
_By_
_Charles M. Pepper_
_Author of “Tomorrow in Cuba”_
_With Maps and Illustrations_
[Illustration]
_Chicago_
_A. C. McClurg & Co._
_1906_
Copyright
A. C. McClurg & Co.
1906
Entered at Stationers’ Hall
Published March 24, 1906
THE UNIVERSITY PRESS, CAMBRIDGE, U. S. A.
THIS BOOK IS AFFECTIONATELY DEDICATED
to
+My Wife+
KITTIE ROSE PEPPER
and to
+My Daughter+
NORITA ROSE PEPPER
COMRADES IN MANY TRAVELS
PREFACE
My purpose in this work is to consider and describe the effect
of the Panama Canal on the West Coast countries of South America
from the year 1905. At this period its construction by the United
States may be said to have begun. If my own deep conviction that
this influence makes powerfully for their industrial development
and their political stability be an illusion, the pages which
follow may afford the disbelievers grounds for pointing out wrong
premises or false conclusions. “We doubt” long has been the dogma
of the North American and the European in everything relating to
the permanency of progress in the Spanish-American Republics. “I
believe” is yet only the creed of the individual. A huge material
fact obtruding itself may secure a listening ear from the doubters.
The Canal obtrudes.
The severely practical Northern mind finds itself in a brain-fog
with reference to the Southern Continent. Speculative reasoning
regarding new forces of civilization does not appeal to it. It wants
the concrete circumstances. Now the Canal is not an abstraction.
The industrial and commercial energies which it wakens are not
abstractions. The interoceanic waterway is a national undertaking,
but it shows the way to individual enterprise. More than the gates
of chance are opened to American youth. They are the gates of
opportunity. Consequently the need of knowledge.
The number of recent books relating to the history of South America
seems to indicate a demand for this knowledge in its primary form.
They open the path for a volume which may be limited more strictly
to industrial, fiscal, and political information. For that reason,
while not overlooking the historical element in the institutions and
governmental systems, I have not thought it necessary to consider
them chronologically from the colonial epoch or even from the era
of independence.
The effort to divorce economic and social forces from places and
peoples in order to analyze a principle usually is so barren
that I have not attempted it. Places have their significance,
and people are the human material. Customs and institutions are
only understood properly in their environment. So many excellent
descriptive works have been written about South America that I have
sought to subordinate these features; yet since the information
applies to localities something about them could not entirely be
omitted. Moreover, I have that abounding faith which leads me to
look forward to the time when the engineering marvels of the Canal
construction may prove enough of a magnet to draw thither the
travelled American who would know what his country is doing and
who, once on the Isthmus, will be likely to continue down the West
Coast with a view to determining the relative attractions of the
noble Andes and the Alps. Yet I have made no attempt to preserve
the form of continuous narrative. The treatment of the subject
does not demand it.
To South American friends who may be offended at the frankness or
the bluntness of the views expressed, a word may be communicated.
The confidences extended me while on an official mission widened
my own vision of the aspirations of their public men. At the same
time they conveyed the idea that the economic evolution to which
all look forward will come more swiftly if reactionary tendencies
are combated more openly and aggressively. Opinions on the policy
of the United States being uttered with freedom, I have not thought
it necessary to adopt the apologetic attitude in regard to other
Republics. In seeking the constructive elements in the national
life and character of the South American countries, it has been
with the undisguised hope that the contact and the impact of North
American character may be a reciprocal influence.
Acknowledgment of material for the general map, which amplifies
that of the permanent Pan-American Railway Committee, is due its
chairman, Hon. H. G. Davis, whose faith in the future relation of
the United States to the other American countries is an example to
the generation which will share the benefits both of the Canal and
of railroad construction.
C. M. P.
Washington, D. C.
January, 1906.
CONTENTS
CHAPTER I
ECONOMIC EFFECT OF THE CANAL Page
Philosophic Spanish-American View--Henry Clay’s
Mistaken Population Prophecy--The Andes Not a Canal
Limitation--Intercontinental Railway Spurs--Argentina and
the Amazon as Feeders--Centres of Cereal Production--Crude
Rubber--Atlantic and Pacific Traffic--Growth of West
Coast Commerce--North and South Trade-wave--Distances via
Panama, Cape Horn, and the Straits of Magellan--Waterway
Tolls and Coal Consumption--Ecuador and Peru--Bolivia and
Chile--Isthmian Railroad Rates--Value of United States
Sanitary Authority--American Element in New Industrial
Life 1
CHAPTER II
TRAVEL HINTS
Adopting Local Customs--Value of the Spanish
Language--Knowledge of People Obtained through Their
Speech--English in Trade--Serviceable Clothing in
Different Climates--Moderation in Diet--Coffee at its True
Worth--Wines and Mineral Waters--Native Dishes--Tropical
Fruits--_Aguacate_ and _Cheremoya_ Palatal Luxuries--Hotels
and Hotel-keepers--Baggage Afloat and Ashore--Outfits for
the Andes: Food and Animals--West Coast Quarantines--Money
Mediums--The Common Maladies and How to Treat Them 21
CHAPTER III
THE ISTHMUS OF PANAMA
Canal Entrance--Colon in Architectural
Transformation--Unchanging Climate--Historic Waterway
Routes--Columbus and the Early Explorers--Darien
and San Blas--East and West Directions--Life along
the Railway--Chagres River and Culebra Cut--Three
Panamas--Pacific Mouth of the Canal--Functions of
the Republic--Natural Resources--Agriculture and
Timber--Road-building--United States Authority on the
Zone--Labor and Laborers--Misleading Comparisons with
Cuba--The First Year’s Experience 37
CHAPTER IV
A GLIMPSE OF ECUADOR
Tranquil Ship Life--Dissolving View of Panama Bay--The
Comforting Antarctic Current--Seeking Cotopaxi and
Chimborazo--Up the Guayas River--Activity in Guayaquil
Harbor--Old and New Town--Shipping via the Isthmus and
Cape Horn--Chocolate and Rubber Exports--Railway toward
Quito--A Charming Capital--Cuenca’s Industries--Cereals
in the Inter-Andine Region--Forest District--Minerals
in the South--Population--Galapagos Islands--Political
Equilibrium--National Finances 57
CHAPTER V
PERUVIAN SHORE TOWNS
Pizarro’s Landing-place at Tumbez--Last Sight of the
Green Coast--Paita’s Spacious Bay--Lively Harbor
Scenes--An Interesting and Sandy Town--Its Climatic
and Other Legends--Future Amazon Gateway--Sugar and
Rice Ports--Eten and Pacasmayo--Transcontinental
Trail--Cajamarca--Chimbote’s Naval Advantages--Supe’s
Attractions--Ancon’s Historic Treaty--Callao’s
Excellent Harbor--Importance of the Shipping--Customs
Collections--Pisco’s Varied Products--Rough Seas at
Mollendo--Bolivian and Peruvian Commerce for the Canal 73
CHAPTER VI
LIMA AND THE CORDILLERAS
Pleasing Historic Memories--Moorish Churches and Andalusian
Art--Pizarro’s Remains in the Cathedral--Transmitted
Incidents of the Earthquake--The Palace, or Government
Building--General Castilla’s Humor--Decay of the
Bull-fight--Cultured Society of the Capital--Foreign
Element--San Francisco Monastery--Municipal
Progress--Chamber of Commerce--A Trip up the Famous
Oroya Railway--Masterwork of Henry Meiggs--Heights and
Distances--Little Hell--The Great Galera Tunnel--Around
Oroya--Railroad to Cerro de Pasco Mines--American
Enterprise in the Heart of the Andes 89
CHAPTER VII
AREQUIPA AND LAKE TITICACA
Capital of Southern Peru--Through the Desert to the
Coast--Crescent Sand-hills--A Mirage--Down the
_Cañon_--Quilca as a Haven of Unrest--Arequipa
Again--Religious Institutions--Prevalence of
Indian Race--Wool and Other Industries--Harvard
Observatory--Railroading over Volcanic Ranges--Mountain
Sickness at High Crossing--Branch Line toward
Cuzco--Inambari Rubber Regions--Puno on the Lake Shore 109
CHAPTER VIII
THE REGIONS AND THEIR RESOURCES
Topography a Key to Economic Resources--Coast, Sierra,
and Montaña--Cotton in the Coast Zone--Piura’s High
Quality--Lima and Pisco Product--Prices--Increase
Probable--Sugar-cane as a Staple--Probability of
Growth--Rice as an Export and an Import--Irrigation
Prospects--Mines in the Sierra--Geographical Distribution
of the Deposits--Live-stock on the High Plains--Rubber
in the Forest Region--Iquitos on the Amazon a Smart
Port--Government Regulations for the Gum Industry 123
CHAPTER IX
WATERWAYS AND RAILWAYS
Importance of River System--Existing Lines of
Railroads--Pan-American Links--Lease of State Roads
to Peruvian Corporation of London--Unfulfilled
Stipulations--Law for Guaranty of Capital Invested in New
Enterprises--Routes from Amazon to the Pacific--National
Policy for Their Construction--Central Highway, Callao to
Iquitos--The Pichis--Railroad and Navigation--Surveys in
Northern Peru--Comparative Distances--Experiences with
First Projects--Future Building Contemporaneous with
Panama Canal 137
CHAPTER X
THE PEOPLE AND THEIR INCREASE
Density of Population in Time of the Incas--Three Million
Inhabitants Now Probable--Census of 1876--Interior
Country Not Sparsely Populated--Aboriginal Indian
Race and Mixed Blood--Fascinating History of the
Quichuas--Tribal Customs--Superstition--Negroes
and Chinese Coolies--Immigration Movements of the
Future--Wages--European Colonization--Cause of Chanchamayo
Valley Failure--Climatic and Other Conditions Favorable--An
Enthusiast’s Faith 151
CHAPTER XI
PERU’S GROWING STABILITY
Seeds of Revolution Running Out--Educated Classes Not the
Sole Conservative Force--President Candamo’s Peacemaking
Administration--Crisis Precipitated by his Death--Triumph
of Civil Party in the Choice of his Successor--President
Pardo’s Liberal and Progressive Policies--Growth in
Popular Institutions--Form of Peruvian Constitution
and Government--Attitude of the Church--Rights of
Foreigners--Sources of Revenue--Stubborn Adherence to
Gold Standard--Interoceanic Canal’s Aid in the National
Development 164
CHAPTER XII
ALONG COAST TO MAGELLAN STRAITS
Arica, the Emerald Gem of the West Coast--Memorable
Earthquake History--A Future Emporium of Commerce for
the Canal--Iquique the Nitrate Port--Value of the
Trade--Antofagasta’s Copper Exports--Caldera and the
Trans-Andine Railway to Argentina--Valparaiso’s Preëminence
among Pacific Ports--Extensive Shipping and Execrable
Harbor--Plans for Improvement--No Fear of Loss from the
Interoceanic Waterway--Coal and Copper at Lota--Concepcion
and Other Towns--Rough Passage into the Straits--Cape
Pillar--Punta Arenas, the Southernmost Town of the
World--Trade and Future 180
CHAPTER XIII
LIFE IN THE CHILEAN CAPITAL
Railway along Aconcagua River Valley--Project of Wheelright,
the Yankee--Santiago’s Craggy Height of Santa Lucia--A
Walk along the Alameda--Historic and Other Statues--The
Capital a Fanlike City--Public Edifices--Dwellings of
the Poor--Impression of the People at the Celebration
of Corpus Christi--Some Notes on the Climate--Habits
and Customs--“The Morning for Sleep”--Independence of
Chilean Women--Sunday for Society--Fondness for Athletic
Sports--Newspapers an Institution of the Country 201
CHAPTER XIV
NITRATE OF SODA AN ALADDIN’S LAMP
Extensive Use of Nitrates as Fertilizers--Enormous
Contributions to Chilean Revenues--_Résumé_ of
Exportations--Description of the Industry--How the
Deposits Lie--Iodine a By-product--Stock of Saltpetre in
Reserve--The Trust and Production--Estimates of Ultimate
Exhaustion--A Third of a Century More of Prosperous
Existence--Shipments Not Affected by Panama Canal--Copper
a Source of Wealth--Output in Northern Districts--Further
Development--Coal--Silver Mines Productive in the
Past--Prospect of Future Exploitation 217
CHAPTER XV
CHILE’S UNIQUE POLITICAL HISTORY
National Life a Growth--Anarchy after Independence--Presidents
Prieto, Bulnes, Montt, Perez--Constitution of 1833--Liberal
Modifications--The Governing Groups--Civil War under
President Balmaceda--His Tragic End--Triumph of his
Policies--Political System of To-day--Government by the
One Hundred Families--Relative Power of the Executive and
the Congress--Election Methods Illustrated--Ecclesiastical
Tendencies--Proposed Parliamentary Reforms--Ministerial
Crises--Party Control 232
CHAPTER XVI
PALPITATING SOCIAL QUESTIONS
Existence of the Roto Discovered--Mob Rule in
Valparaiso--Indian and Caucasian Race Mixture--Disquieting
Social Phenomena--Grievances against the
Church--Transition to the Proletariat--Lack of Army and
Navy Opportunity--Not Unthrifty as a Class--Showings of
Santiago Savings Bank--Excessive Mortality--Need of State
Sanitation--Discussion of Economic Relation--Changes in
National Tendencies--Industrial Policies to Placate the
Roto 248
CHAPTER XVII
CHILE’S INDUSTRIAL FUTURE
Agricultural Possibilities of the Central Valley--Its
Extent--Wheat for Export--Timber Lands of the South--Wool
in the Magellan Territory--Grape Culture--Mills
and Factories--Public Works Policy--Longitudinal
and Other Railway Lines--Drawbacks in Government
Ownership--Trans-Andine Road--Higher Levels of Foreign
Commerce--Development of Shipping--Population--Experiments
in Colonization--Internal and External Debt--Gold
Redemption Fund--Final Word about the Nitrates 262
CHAPTER XVIII
WAYFARING IN BOLIVIA--THE ROYAL ANDES
Old Spanish Trail from Argentina--Customs Outpost at
Majo--Sublime Mountain View--Primitive Native
Life--Sunbeaten Limestone Hills--Vale of Santa
Rosa--Tupiza’s People and Their Pursuits--Ladies’
Fashions among the Indian Women--Across the Chichas
Cordilleras--Barren Vegetation--Experience with Siroche,
or Mountain Sickness--Personal Discomforts--Hard
Riding--Portugalete Pass--Alpacas and Llamas--Sierra of
San Vicente--Uyuni a Dark Ribbon on a White Plain--Mine
Enthusiasts--Foreign Consulates 278
CHAPTER XIX
WAYFARING IN BOLIVIA--THE CENTRAL PLATEAU
A Hill-broken Table-land--By Rail along the
Cordillera of the Friars--Challapata and Lake
Poöpo--Smelters--Spanish Ear-marks in Oruro--By Stage
to La Paz--Fellow-passengers--Misadventures--Indian
Tombs at Caracollo--Sicasica a High-up Town, 14,000
Feet--Meeting-place of Quichuas and Aymarás--First Sight
of the Famed Illimani Peaks--Characteristics of the Indian
Life--Responsibility of the Priesthood--Position of the
Women--Panorama of La Paz from the Heights--The Capital
in Fact--Cosmopolitan Society 297
CHAPTER XX
THE MEXICO OF SOUTH AMERICA
Depression and Revival of Mining Industry--Bolivia’s Tin
Deposits and Their Extension--Oruro, Chorolque, Potosi,
and La Paz Districts--Silver Regions--Potosi’s Output
through the Centuries--Pulacayo’s Record--Mines at
Great Heights--Trend of the Copper Veins--Corocoro a
Lake Superior Region--Three Gold Districts--Bismuth
and Borax--Bituminous Coal and Petroleum--Tropical
Agriculture--Some Rubber Forests Left--Coffee for
Export--Coca and Quinine--Cotton 313
CHAPTER XXI
BOLIVIAN NATIONAL POLICY
Panama Canal as Outlet for Mid-continent Country--Railways for
Internal Development--Intercontinental Backbone--Proposed
Network of Lines--Use Made of Brazilian Indemnity--Chilean
Construction from Arica--Human Material for National
Development--Census of 1900--Aymará Race--Wise
Governmental Handling of Indian Problems--Immigration
Measures--Climatic Variations--Political Stability--General
Pando’s Labors--Status of Foreigners--Revenues and
Trade--Commercial Significance of Treaty with Chile--Gold
Legislation--A Canal View 331
CHAPTER XXII
NEW BASIS OF THE MONROE DOCTRINE
John Quincy Adams’ Advice--Canning’s Trade Statesmanship--Lack
of Industrial and Commercial Element--Excess of
Benevolent Impulse--Forgotten Chapters of the Doctrine’s
History--The Ecuador Episode--President Roosevelt’s
Interpretation--Diplomatic Declarations--Spectres of
Territorial Absorption--Change Caused by Cuba--Progress
of South American Countries--European Attitude on
Economic Value of Latin America--German and English
Methods--Proximity of Markets to United States Trade
Centres--Conclusion 351
APPENDIX--Hydrographic Tables of Distances 373
INDEX 379
TABLES 399
ILLUSTRATIONS
Page
A Mountain Bridge _Frontispiece_
Scene on the Chagres River 10
Swamp Section of the Canal 10
The Atlantic Entrance to the Canal 10
Abandoned Machinery--Two Views 18
Pineapple Garden 28
Banana Grove 28
The De Lesseps House, Colon 44
Caribbean Cocoa Palms 44
Panama Natives from the Swamp Country 50
Panama Natives from the Mountains 50
Ruins at Panama--Two Views 54
The Waterfront at Guayaquil 60
The Wharf at Duran 60
Weed-killer Plant, Guayaquil and Quito Railway 64
Railway Spraying Cart 64
Cacao Trees 70
View of Mollendo Harbor and Railway Yards 86
Interior of Cathedral, Lima 92
Church of San Francisco, Lima 94
Church of San Augustin, Lima 94
Scene on the Oroya Railway, Chicla Station 98
Scene on the Oroya Railway, San Bartolomew Switchback
and Grade 102
Pyramid of Junin 106
Independence Monument, Lima 106
View of Arequipa and the Crater of El Misti 114
Ruins of an Inca Fortress at Cuzco 120
A Farmhouse in the Forest Region 130
View of Oroya, the Inter-Andine Crossroads 142
Group of Peruvian _Cholos_ 154
Portrait of José Pardo, President of Peru 170
View of Arica 182
Scene in the Harbor of Valparaiso, showing the Arturo
Prat Statue 190
View of Talcahuano 194
Scenes at the Straits of Magellan; Cape Pillar, the
Evangelist Islands, and Cape Froward 198
Scene on the Aconcagua River 202
View of Los Andes 210
The Roman Aqueduct on Santa Lucia, Santiago 214
Group of Araucanian Indian Women 250
“Christ of the Andes” 270
Sandstone Pillars near Tupiza 286
Bolivian Indian Women Weaving 292
Aymará Indian Woman and Child 292
Scene in the Plaza at Oruro 302
Ancient Tombs at Caracollo 302
Primitive Methods of Tin-crushing 302
A Drove of Llamas on the Pampa 306
View of the Cathedral, La Paz 310
Gathering Coca Leaves in the Yungas--Two Views 328
Portrait of Ismael Montes, President of Bolivia 344
MAPS
Page
I. The United States and other American Countries--Transportation
Routes 2
II. General Plan of the Panama Canal 38
III. Peruvian Waterways and Railways 138
IV. Bolivian Railway Routes 334
PANAMA TO PATAGONIA
CHAPTER I
ECONOMIC EFFECT OF THE CANAL
_Philosophic Spanish-American View--Henry Clay’s Mistaken Population
Prophecy--The Andes Not a Canal Limitation--Intercontinental
Railway Spurs--Argentina and the Amazon as Feeders--Centres
of Cereal Production--Crude Rubber--Atlantic and Pacific
Traffic--Growth of West Coast Commerce--North and South
Trade-wave--Distances via Panama, Cape Horn, and the Straits
of Magellan--Waterway Tolls and Coal Consumption--Ecuador and
Peru--Bolivia and Chile--Isthmian Railroad Rates--Value of United
States Sanitary Authority--American Element in New Industrial
Life._
The effect of the Panama Canal on the West Coast industrial
development and the reciprocal influence of this South American
progress on the waterway are economic facts. The citizen of the
United States who would know the subject in a wider range than the
mere gratification of his patriotic impulses and his national pride,
should turn to the study of commercial geography, the potential
political economy of unexploited natural resources. The European
statesman, jealously watchful of trade conditions in the New World
and the causes which modify them, will follow these channels without
suggestion.
Whether the digging of the Canal take ten, fifteen, or twenty years,
does not affect its industrial value. The Spanish-American, with
his inherited inertia and his lack of initiative, in waiting for
to-morrow would be content if the work consumed half a century. What
Humboldt prophesied of the Southern Continent as the seat of future
civilization, what Agassiz predicted of the Andean and the Amazon
populations, he is sure now will be realized. He even reverts to
his favorite method of comparing the square miles of Belgium with
the square miles of his own South American country, whichever one
it may be, and exhibits the latter’s possibilities for the human
race by explaining the number of people it can sustain when it
shall have as many inhabitants to the square mile as has Belgium.
Yet while he believes that the destiny of the Southern Continent
is at the threshold of realization, Yankee impatience only would
amuse him. Since the interoceanic waterway and all its benefits are
to be, what matter a few years? Time, says the Castilian proverb,
is the element. This philosophic Latin view may serve as a curb to
fault-finding if the construction work on the Canal seems to halt
while the engineering obstacles are studied and experiments are
made in order to determine the best means to overcome them.
But though the Spanish-American, who is of the race that controls
the West Coast countries of South America, is patient in his waiting
for ultimate results, he does not fail to grasp the immediate
effect. All the processes of the economic evolution unroll before
his mental vision. For Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Chile, and Bolivia,
the standard already has been set, and the goal towards which
they must work has been fixed. Their national policies and their
commercial and industrial growth at once come under the stimulus
of the waterway. “The Panama Canal,” said the leader of public
thought in one of the Republics, “will precipitate our commercial
evolution.” It is the spring from which will gush the streams of
immigration.
[Illustration:
MAP
OF
THE UNITED STATES
AND
OTHER AMERICAN COUNTRIES
SHOWING THE CHIEF OCEAN AND RAIL
TRANSPORTATION ROUTES
1906
]
In the present volume I shall have little to say of Colombia, for
though the Isthmus of Panama is the reception-room of that country,
the Canal is to be considered jointly with relation to the Caribbean
and the Pacific shores. I include Bolivia because, while as a
political division it is not ocean-bordering, geographically it is
a Pacific coast country on account of its outlet through Chilean
and Peruvian seaports.
Population in South America is not marked by periods of phenomenal
increase. Henry Clay, in his generous pleas for the recognition of
the struggling Republics, was led in the warmth of his imagination
to foresee the day when they would have 72,000,000 and we would
have 40,000,000 inhabitants. The population of the United States
was then less than 10,000,000. Clay spoke when the resources of the
Louisiana Purchase were still distrusted by many conservative public
men, and long before Daniel Webster had delivered his celebrated
philippic against the Oregon region as a worthless area of deserts
and shifting sands. Mindful of the slow growth in the Southern
Hemisphere, I make no predictions of sudden leaps, but merely seek
to indicate what proportion of the present and future inhabitants
comes within the sphere of the Canal.
The population of western Colombia and of Ecuador, Peru, Chile, and
Bolivia is approximately 11,000,000, dwelling chiefly along the
seacoast. It has been assumed that only this long slope of almost
continuous mountain wall from Panama to Patagonia is subject to the
direct influence of the Canal, and that the barrier of the Andes
makes all the rest of the South American continent dependent on
Atlantic outlets. The assumption is presumptuous. It is based on
an unflattering lack of geographical knowledge and on a complete
ignorance of political and economic conditions.
The primary mistake is in considering the Coast Cordilleras as the
principal chain. The great rampart of the Andes in places is hundreds
of miles across. Productive plains and fertile valleys lie on the
western side of the Continental Divide as well as on the Atlantic
slope. Besides, there are many bifurcations of these lofty ranges
which must be pierced toward the Pacific. The mineral belt with
its incalculable wealth, after centuries only partially exploited,
has its basis of profitable production and export by means of the
water transport of the Pacific. And greatest of all the facts is
the certainty that railways will bore through the granite ramparts
in a westerly direction. The central spine or backbone of the
Intercontinental or Pan-American trunk line is not all a dream, and
from its links spurs will shoot out toward the Pacific. It would
have been as reasonable to imagine that the Rocky Mountains could
forever shut in the region between them and the Sierra Nevadas,
barring all outlet to the Atlantic and the Gulf of Mexico, as to
suppose that the Pacific Ocean from Panama south is everlastingly
restricted to the fringe of coast for its commerce. This is in the
industrial sense and aside from the reasons of national polity which
by railway enterprises on the part of the various governments are
causing the Andes to disappear.
The grain fields and pastures of Argentina lie close to the Pacific.
How close? Within less than 200 miles. The pampas of the western
and northwestern provinces are from 500 to 1,200 miles distant from
the Atlantic seaboard. The pressure of the agricultural population
is westward. A generation--perhaps a decade--will bring it to the
slopes of the Andes. The first railway to join the Atlantic and the
Pacific, that from Buenos Ayres to Valparaiso, will be completed by
means of a spiral tunnel long before vessels are propelled through
the Canal.
But Valparaiso is far south, so far that, in the opinion of some
authorities, it is the limit of the Canal radius. Let this be
granted momentarily while the map is scanned. Place the thumb on
the Chilean port of Caldera, 400 miles north of Valparaiso; the
index finger on Tucuman, and the middle finger on Cordoba. The
lines forking from these Argentine cities forecast the next chapter
of railway expansion. Let it be known also that Nature, in kindly
mood, has formed a saddle in the mountain range in this section,
and that engineering surveys of routes through the depression are
the basis of projects which only await a larger agricultural area
under cultivation in order to become railway enterprises with an
assured commercial basis. Both Cordoba and Tucuman will be in rail
communication with the Pacific coast some years before the waterway
is finished. Nor are these the only trans-Andine lines in prospect.
They serve the purposes of illustration, so that a description of
the others may be omitted. I cite the first two in order that it
may be known there is an Argentine relation to the Canal, and a
highly important one as to population and as to the exports and
imports which are the foundation of maritime and rail traffic.
If this suggestion is new and strange, I follow it by a more
startling proposition. As one result of the Panama Canal, a measure
of Amazonian commerce will flow to and from the Pacific.
To begin with, there is the nearness. By several trans-Andine routes
the navigable affluents of the Amazon are less than 300 miles from
the coast. Steamships of 800 tons navigate as far as Yurimaguas on
the Huallaga River, which was the historic route of the Spaniards
over the Continental Divide. Steam vessels also go up the Marañon
from Iquitos, 425 miles to the Falls of Manserriche, which by several
practicable railway routes are within less than 400 miles of the
Bay of Paita. Minor Peruvian ports below Paita are able to offset
its shipping advantages by shorter trails. Not more than 225 miles
of difficult railway construction are necessary to open to a large
section of the vast Amazon region the commerce of Callao, Peru’s
chief port.
In relation to the Amazon as a feeder, it has to be recognized
that the Andes form a greater obstacle than in Argentina, and that
the river basins will be populated much more slowly and never so
densely as the Argentine pampas and sierras. But the mighty stream
is within the sphere of the Canal, as I shall have occasion to
explain more fully in subsequent chapters. For the present purpose
a single illustration, perhaps fanciful, will answer.
It may seem a far cry from the 200,000 telephones used by the
farmers of Indiana, the trolleys which tangle their way through
that State, and the automobiles and bicycles which traverse the
country roads, to the gum forests of South America. But the world’s
hunger for crude rubber is a growing one. Bicycles, the infinite
variety of motors, electric lighting, and telephones, all demand
more of this article; and the 55,000 tons, which was substantially
the world’s production in 1905, is insufficient for future needs.
This increasing demand will stimulate the rubber production of an
extensive region in northeastern Peru, and Peru has imperative
reasons of national policy for wanting to turn that traffic down her
own rivers, and across and over the Andes to the Pacific, instead
of letting it flow out through Brazilian territory. Iquitos, the
centre of this commerce, is 2,300 miles up the Amazon from Para,
and Para is 3,000 miles from New York, a total of 5,300 miles by
the all-water route. By river and future rail Iquitos is, at the
furthest, 800 miles from Paita, and Paita, via Panama, is a little
short of 3,100 miles from New York; so that the total distance is
less than 4,000 miles. New Orleans by the isthmian route is within
3,300 miles of the Peruvian rubber metropolis.
Instead of the Pacific commerce being limited to the seashore strip
after the Panama Canal is dug, the view which receives attention
in South America is the probable influence of the waterway in
diverting traffic from the Atlantic to the Pacific. Trade may not
be turned upstream, and commerce is slow to leave established lines
of transportation, but trade-waves are not so fixed as isothermal
lines. They may show variations until the current finds its natural
course to the newer markets created.
I do not mean from this to infer that the aggregate commerce of
the Atlantic coast countries of South America will be lessened by
the Panama Canal. Tropical Brazil, for an indefinite period, will
continue to supply the bulk of the coffee consumed, and the maritime
movement will follow the existing courses of navigation. Temperate
Brazil, the Argentine Republic, and Uruguay will develop as the
granary and the grazing-ground of the world in proportion as the
United States consumes its own wheat and beef. Their exports increase
with the widening of the market for these staple products. Political
economists and crop statisticians have been slow to perceive that
the extension of the area of agricultural cultivation and the
growth of population in this great cereal region depend more on the
ability of Europe to take the surplus grain, beef, and mutton than
on the demands for home consumption. Public men, especially in the
Argentine Republic, in their measures for encouraging immigration
also have neglected to take into account this overshadowing economic
factor. But it explains why during certain periods immigration
has been almost stationary, while at other periods the incoming
of settlers for the field and farm has been a rushing one. As a
natural balance, therefore, for the diversion of traffic to the
Pacific coast through the agency of the artificial waterway, the
Atlantic slope has the certainty of steadily growing exports of
agricultural products.
As regards Argentina, the coming railways to the Pacific, of which
I have made mention, mean that a quantity of the cereals, wool,
and hides will find their outlet by these routes; and a larger
volume of the exchange for them--farm tools, cottons and woollens,
mineral oils, and miscellaneous merchandise--will obtain the
cheaper and shorter transit through the Canal and down the West
Coast. Thus, without damage to the Atlantic commerce, the Pacific
coast traffic will form a larger proportion in the total of South
American commerce than in the past. This is especially true with
reference to the United States. The trade-wave north and south may
be accounted one of the phenomena of international intercourse. It
is not tidal, but a brief comparison shows its growing volume. In
1894 Argentina took from the United States goods to the value of
$4,863,000, and sent in return products worth $3,497,000. In 1904
the exports were $10,751,000, and the imports $20,702,000, and in
the following year they were increasing.
The commercial relation of the West Coast countries may better be
exhibited by tabulation in the following form:
+---------+-----------------------------+---------------------------+
| | Exports to United States[1] |Imports from United States |
+---------+------------+----------------+-------------+-------------+
| | =1894= | =1904= | =1894= | =1904= |
+---------+------------+----------------+-------------+-------------+
| Chile |$3,536,000 |$10,685,000 | $2,272,000 | $4,880,000 |
| Peru | 491,000 | 3,008,000 | 591,000 | 3,961,000 |
| Ecuador| 816,000 | 2,347,000 | 761,000 | 1,354,000 |
+---------+------------+----------------+-------------+-------------+
| Total |$4,843,000 |$16,040,000 | $3,624,000 |$10,195,000 |
+---------+------------+----------------+-------------+-------------+
| 1 See _Foreign Commerce of the United States, Annual Review, |
| 1904_. |
+-------------------------------------------------------------------+
Here, within the extremes of the eleven years, is an increase in
the foreign commerce between the West Coast countries named and the
United States from $8,467,000 to $26,235,000 as measured by the
annual volume. The growth continued in the subsequent twelvemonth.
It is a forcible illustration of the north and south trade-wave
movement. Under the further stimulus of the Canal for industrial
development and commercial growth the contribution to traffic for
the waterway will be not inconsiderable.
[Illustration: Swamp Section of the Canal--The Atlantic Entrance
to the Canal--Scene on the Chagres River]
An analysis of the West Coast foreign commerce for a given year
shows it to have exceeded $211,000,000, with a rising tendency. The
intercoast trade, which is included under the foreign head, may be
placed at $11,000,000 to $12,000,000. There is left, therefore,
approximately $200,000,000 of international traffic for Europe and
the United States.
If the international traffic were to remain stationary, the amount
that would be diverted from the Cape Horn or the Magellan route
through the Canal would be important, but the overshadowing element
in the waterway as an economic factor is the certainty of an
increase in the foreign trade. The marked feature of the West Coast
countries in recent years is the growth in consumptive capacity as
shown by the imports, for the increase in population has not been
large. Oriental trade may be diverted from other channels through
the Canal, but western South American commerce may look for growth
in volume on account of internal development of the countries which
are tributary to it. In this view it may be doubted whether the
estimate that 75 per cent of the Canal traffic will be between ports
north of the same parallels of latitude will prove correct. The
north and south trade-waves may be watched for an indication of
the proportion of waterway freight that will go south, keeping in
mind that New York is almost on a direct line north of the western
South American ports.
These West Coast markets may be studied with reference to the
shortening of distance. We may take the fact that from Colon to New
York is 1,981 miles, and from Colon to New Orleans 1,380 miles; add
the 48 miles of future waterway and then make our comparisons of
the ports along the coast--Guayaquil, Callao, Valparaiso--with the
distance through the Straits of Magellan or around Cape Horn. We
also may figure on the national policy of the United States, which
will not be to treat the Canal as strictly a commercial proposition.
The fixing of the toll rates is not near enough to furnish the
basis of definite calculation any more than is the possibility of
estimating the total prospective tonnage each year, though the
guesses have ranged from 300,000 to 10,500,000 tons.
The steamers which ply between New York, Hamburg, or Liverpool and
the Pacific coast ports vary from 3,000 to 6,500 tons. That hardly
may be taken as the measure of carrying capacity of the major part
of the vessels which will pass through the Canal, but on such a
basis the estimate may be made of the saving in coal consumption,
and the radius within which it will be cheaper to use the Canal
than to double Cape Horn or thread the difficult and dangerous
passage through the Straits. For New Orleans, Mobile, and the other
Gulf ports, the element of distance is not comparative, because
heretofore no direct maritime movement between them and the West
Coast of South America has been maintained. With the waterway once
open the whole Mississippi Valley becomes the beneficiary. Nor does
the talk of carrying coal and other cargoes from Pittsburg through
Panama to Patagonia without breaking bulk appear fantastic.
Variations in the steamers’ courses are responsible for the
differences in the tables of distances usually given, but they
are not important.[1] The relation in nautical miles of the chief
shipping-ports on the West Coast to trade centres may be set forth
as follows:
Miles
New York to Colon 1,981
Colon to Panama 48
Panama to Guayaquil 835
“ “ Paita 1,052
“ “ Callao 1,569
“ “ Mollendo 1,928
“ “ Arica 2,161
“ “ Iquique 2,267
“ “ Antofagasta 2,418
“ “ Valparaiso 3,076
1 See Appendix for tables of the Hydrographic Office of the United
States Navy.
This brings Valparaiso within 5,100 miles of New York by way of
Panama; but with the omission of all the intervening ports except
Iquique, Callao, and Guayaquil, it would be less than 5,000 miles.
By way of the Straits the distance from Valparaiso is usually
accounted 9,000 miles, touching at Montevideo and the Brazilian
ports. When the Straits are avoided and Cape Horn is doubled, from
the Cape to Pernambuco is 3,468 miles, and from Pernambuco to New
York 3,696 miles. Either by the Straits or around the Cape the
total is almost twice the distance via Panama.
Colon is 4,720 miles from Liverpool, and the relative advantages of
the West Coast ports between Valparaiso and Panama may be calculated
in the proportion of their respective distances. From Valparaiso
to Liverpool via Panama is 7,600 to 7,800 miles according to the
vessel’s schedule of wayports on the Pacific. From Valparaiso to
Liverpool, through the Straits of Magellan, is 9,800 miles, touching
at the Falkland Islands, and about 300 miles shorter by omitting
them.
For Hamburg the saving in distance by the isthmian route may be
placed at 2,400 miles. Proceeding north from Valparaiso, the loss by
Cape Horn is in inverse proportion. Fifteen hundred miles north of
Valparaiso is the central Peruvian port of Callao, which therefore
has 3,000 miles’ gain in distance by Panama to Hamburg instead of
by Cape Horn.
I have given these general figures before reciting details on the
maritime commerce of the various countries. They show how the
economic value of the Canal to them is primarily a question of
subtraction,--the difference between the coal needed on the longer
sea voyage and the Canal tolls. But the question of the return cargo
also enters into the calculation and is distinctly in favor of the
waterway, as is also that of the duration of maritime insurance.
No statistics are available which show the commerce of the western
departments of Colombia; and the unsettled state of that country
for years past gives no index of what its potential traffic may be.
But the valley of Cauca in its variety of agricultural and mineral
resources is a kingdom in itself. It is a future commercial feeder
to the Canal.
The foreign trade of Ecuador amounted in the latest available year to
$19,000,000.[2] Substantially all of it constitutes what might be
called light freight, and a part of it now goes across the Isthmus
by transshipment. Yet the portion which follows the longer route
around Cape Horn or through the Straits is not small. The traffic
flows through Guayaquil as in a single stream. Guayaquil, by way
of Panama, is 2,864 miles from New York and 2,263 miles from New
Orleans; by the Cape Horn route it is 11,470 miles to New York.
The entire foreign commerce of Ecuador in the future is for the
Panama Canal, except the excess which follows up the coast to San
Francisco and beyond.
2 Statistics obtained by New York Chamber of Commerce for 1904.
The foreign commerce of Peru may be placed above $40,000,000
annually.[3] The bulk of the traffic is now via the Straits of
Magellan and Cape Horn. From Callao to New York, by way of Cape
Horn, is 10,700 miles. By way of Panama it is 3,600 miles, only a
little longer than from New York to San Francisco or from New York
to Mexico City by the transcontinental railroad lines. In reference
to Peru, it also is to be noted that the heaviest exports are from
the ports north of Callao. Sugar is the largest marine freight in
quantity, and this comes from Salaverry and other ports fully 500
miles north. Much of this raw sugar is now carried around Cape
Horn, though some of it is left at the Chilean ports to be refined
for the West Coast consumption. When the Canal is opened, with the
exception of this Chilean traffic, all the raw sugar of Peru will
be shipped through it to New Orleans, New York, or Liverpool.
3 Estimated on the basis of the calendar year 1904, when the total
was $41,000,000, according to the report of the British Consul
General.
Through the port of Mollendo, 360 miles south of Callao, come the
ores, the metals, and the wools, both of southern Peru and of
Bolivia. Some of the minerals may continue their course around the
Horn, and also the guano which Peru in the future may export, but
not all of these cargoes will find the longer route cheaper. All the
wools will take the shorter route. Some wool is sent up the coast
and transshipped across the Isthmus by the railways. This method
is also followed in the shipment to Liverpool of some of the raw
cotton raised in southern Peru. The whole of this light freight is
traffic for the interoceanic waterway.
Bolivian commerce finds its outlet and inlet, chiefly through
Chilean and Peruvian seaports, to the amount of $18,000,000 a year.
Small as this is, the bulk of it follows the Cape Horn and Magellan
routes, though some of the European merchandise is imported on the
Atlantic slope through Argentina. The silver and copper ores are
transported principally through the port of Antofagasta, which is
650 miles north of Valparaiso. For the mineral freights, Canal tolls
may neutralize the advantage of the shortened distance via Panama to
Liverpool, or may not compensate for the lessened coal consumption.
But whether they do or not, the general merchandise from England
and from Germany, not being bulky, will have the shorter course and
probably the cheaper one on the return voyage through the Canal.
But Antofagasta, though of growing importance, is not likely to be
indefinitely the chief port of export for Bolivia. The building of
a railway from the great central plateau to Arica makes it certain
that the copper output of Bolivia, much of the tin, and part of the
silver product in time will be shipped through that port, while
it will be a natural inlet for imported merchandise. Arica is so
close to Mollendo--only 233 miles--that with regard to distances it
may be considered on the same basis. The mineral and other internal
developments, which are to fix the industrial status of Bolivia and
which I shall have occasion to discuss in subsequent chapters, have
a very direct relation to the facilities that will be afforded by
the isthmian waterway.
Formerly it was thought that Chile would be seriously harmed by the
Panama Canal. In the commercial sense this supposition does not
bear scrutiny. Chile’s foreign trade is approximately $130,000,000
annually, with a tendency to reach $150,000,000. By far the heaviest
proportion of this commerce is the shipments of the nitrates of soda
or saltpetre fertilizers. Iquique is the principal shipping-point.
The sailing-ships are the cheapest carriers for these bulky cargoes,
and tolls based on tonnage may make it unprofitable to transport a
large portion of them through the interoceanic channel. There is
also the other consideration that the vessels which bring coal to
the Chilean ports from Australia and from Newcastle secure their
return cargoes of nitrates. These fertilizers being a natural
monopoly, Chile will have the benefit of the industry, and the
Panama Canal in no way can lessen this traffic. In its permanent
effect the waterway can have little influence on the nitrates,
because the deposits will be worked out not many years after its
completion. Within a third of a century, or forty years at the
furthest, the exhaustion of the saltpetre beds will have begun, and
the cargoes of fertilizers will be lessening before that time.[4]
In any aspect of the broad future of the Canal and its effect on
the West Coast, the nitrates of Chile need not be considered as an
influencing factor.
4 See Chapter XIV, Nitrate of Soda.
But it may be said that until the interoceanic canal is actually open
these subjects are too remote to call for immediate consideration.
This view does not hold when analysis is made of the swift
recognition of its effect by South American countries. There are
present-day influences which are clear enough to be taken into
account.
For the entire West Coast there is at once a beneficial result in
having the Canal an enterprise of the United States government. This
is the equal treatment which must be accorded all the steamship
companies in transshipping freight over the Panama Railway. The line
was operated in the interest of the transcontinental railroads to
prevent competition. Under this arrangement little regard was shown
for the traffic from the coast south of Panama. The result of the
control of the isthmian railway line by the transcontinental roads
was against encouraging the steamship lines to seek to increase
their freight between Valparaiso and the intervening ports to
Panama for transshipment, because the Panama Railway exacted what
it pleased.[5] With the stock of the company vested in the United
States, hereafter all traffic agreements must be made on the basis
of equality. This is a very important factor in the tendency of the
West Coast countries to mould their national policies for industrial
development and commercial expansion. It enables them to enjoy some
of the benefits of the Canal without waiting for its completion.
It means more shipping from the year 1906 on.
5 In the memorial presented in 1905 to the United States government
by the diplomatic representatives of various South American
Republics, asking for fair treatment in Panama railroad rates,
these statements were made:
It may be calculated that the most distant ports of our respective
Republics are from New York, 4,500 miles, via Panama. From those
same ports to New York there is a distance of over 11,000 miles,
via Magellan; and, nevertheless, the transportation by this last
route and the transportation by steamer from our ports to Europe,
are on an average from 25 to 30 per cent cheaper than our commerce
with New York via Panama.
The Peruvian sugar pays, by the Isthmus, 30 shillings sterling a
ton, and 23 shillings sterling a ton via Magellan.
The cacao of Guayaquil, via Panama, pays to Europe from 52 to 58
shillings a ton, and to New York 65 to 68 shillings a ton.
From Hamburg shipments of rice from India are constantly being made
to Ecuador, via Panama, at the rate of from 30 to 33 shillings
sterling per ton of 2,240 pounds, or, say, from $7.50 to $8 per ton;
while the same article from New York pays at the rate of $0.60 per
100 pounds, or, say, $13.20 per ton,--an overcharge of almost 75
per cent. Twelve coal-oil stoves, which in New York, free-on-board,
cost from $45 to $48, pay on the coast of Ecuador and of Peru 30
and 37½ cents, respectively, per cubic foot, or, say, $19.20 to
$21, which represents 42.66 per cent upon the cost price. The same
article bought in Germany would pay a freight of from $6.40 to
$6.75.
An international good also comes from the presence of the United
States on the Isthmus in the capacity of a sanitary authority. It
will not be hampered, as at home, by state quarantine systems. The
example of what it is doing at Panama will be of immense benefit to
all the ports south to Valparaiso. Its resources and its assistance
will be at the disposal of the various governments which may seek
its aid. With them power is centralized, and they will be able to
coöperate effectually. The International Sanitary Bureau, with
headquarters in Washington, for which provision was made by the
Pan-American Conference held in Mexico, may become a vital
force through this means. Epidemics and plagues, of which the most
malignant is the yellow fever, may never be entirely wiped out,
but that their area can be restricted and their ravages infinitely
lessened will be demonstrated by a few years’ experience. Commerce
will be immensely the gainer, and the trade of the West Coast may
look for a steady and natural growth in proportion as the epidemic
diseases of the seaports are controlled.
[Illustration: Abandoned Machinery]
The influence of the gold standard of Panama will be helpful to
commerce, though it will not in itself cause the several Republics
which are on a silver or a paper basis to change to gold. But
they will be benefited by being neighbors to financial stability.
Uniformity of exchange will be promoted, and the inconveniences
of travellers will be lessened. The fact that the currency of the
United States is legal tender in the Panama Republic will help
merchants and shippers at home, who heretofore have had to make their
transactions entirely on the basis of the English pound sterling
or the French franc.
In an outline of the general subject some attention should be
paid to the inevitable overflow of energy and capital after they
once become engaged in building the waterway and in supplementary
projects. No one who understands the constructive American character
doubts that the capitalists and contractors enlisted in the work
will fare forth to seek other fields. It happens that coincident
with the beginning of the Canal construction by the United States,
the West Coast countries are entering upon definite policies of
harbor and municipal improvements and other forms of public works,
including railway building. There is also the new era of the mines.
The industrial impulse is one of the immediate economic effects
of the Canal. It appeals to the American spirit. It will find a
quickening response. In subsequent chapters I therefore venture to
indicate its field of activity, with such suggestions as may be of
practical worth.
CHAPTER II
TRAVEL HINTS
_Adopting Local Customs--Value of the Spanish Language--Knowledge
of People Obtained through Their Speech--English in
Trade--Serviceable Clothing in Different Climates--Moderation
in Diet--Coffee at its True Worth--Wines and Mineral
Waters--Native Dishes--Tropical Fruits--Aguacate and Cheremoya
Palatal Luxuries--Hotels and Hotel-keepers--Baggage Afloat and
Ashore--Outfits for the Andes: Food and Animals--West Coast
Quarantines--Money Mediums--The Common Maladies and How to
Treat Them_
To live as they live; to travel as they travel;--that is about
all there is to living and travelling in South America and on the
Isthmus.
All the customs will not be adopted by Northerners, nor all the
habits followed. More comfort will be demanded and more cleanliness.
But the general fact holds that the people living in any country
have acquired by experience the knowledge of what is required by
climatic and other conditions in regard to food, drink, dress,
shelter, and recreation. There is reason for all things, even for
the adobe tomb dwellings of the aboriginal Indians of Bolivia, or
the mid-day siesta of the busy merchant of Panama.
First of all, it is desirable to know the language. Spanish is
the idiom of South America, with the exception of Brazil. At the
outset let me say that the chance traveller who wants to go down
the coast or even take an occasional trip into the interior can
get along with his stock of English. In all the seaport towns are
English-speaking persons, merchants or others. On the ships English
is as common as Spanish, and in some of the obscurest places the
tongue of Chaucer may be heard. In one of the most out-of-the-way
and utterly forsaken little holes on the coast, I found the local
official who was sovereign there teaching his boy arithmetic in
English. He had been both in England and in the United States, and
while his own prospects now were bounded by the horizon of the
cove and the drear brown mountain cliffs that shut it in, he was
determined that his son should have a wider future. There are also
many young South Americans who have been educated in the United
States and some of whom are met at almost inaccessible points in
the interior.
I state this so that no one who contemplates a journey may be turned
away from it by any supposed difficulty in getting along through
inability to speak the prevailing idiom. He can do very well. Yet
with all his faculties of observation alert he will miss much through
his ignorance of the readiest mode of conveying and receiving
thought. To know any country it is necessary to know the people, and
the people are only known through the medium of their speech. Their
customs are better understood, their limitations are appreciated,
and their strivings for something better, if they have any, are
interpreted sympathetically. The paramount local topic becomes a
living theme into which the visitor can enter understandingly and
add to his stock of knowledge.
Let me say, also, that wherever trade is, there is the English
language, and as commerce grows it will spread. The terse English
business letter is the admiration of the Latin-American merchant.
Yet there is no wilder notion than that trade will advance itself
without the knowledge of the language of the country into which it
is pushing. Many native mercantile houses have English-speaking
clerks, or occasionally a member of the firm knows the idiom. But
the commercial traveller from the United States who does not speak
Spanish never will compete with his German rival who talks trade
in all known tongues.
This, in brief, is the commercial situation as to the English
language. The business man who waits for Spanish America to come
within its sphere as the world language, will not achieve success
in this generation.
For those who look forward to a future in South America, either
in trade or in industrial enterprises, there is only one word of
advice to be given: that is, to learn Spanish and to learn it at
once. Diffident as the North American is about foreign tongues and
badly as he speaks any language except his own, there is little
reason why his self-distrust or his contempt for other nationalities
should keep him from acquiring Spanish. “It is pronounced as written
and is written as pronounced.” Colloquially it is the easiest of
tongues to master. Since every letter is sounded and is always
pronounced the same, there is no trouble with the syllables and there
are no such difficult sounds as the German umlaut or the French
“en.” The high-sounding expressions, while they seem very formal
and complicated, are quickly acquired, and the habit of thinking
of the greetings of the day and similar commonplace topics in the
strange tongue comes more easily than is imagined. With practice
any fairly persistent person can get enough of Spanish to avoid
the cumbersome process of thinking in English and then translating
his thoughts. A vocabulary of 2,000 words is an ample one for the
purposes of every-day life.
The oaths need not be learned. The English expletives are expressive
enough not to need translation, and they lack the suggestive
obscenity of the Spanish objurgations. It is good to learn
“_Caramba!_” in all the tones and inflections and to stop there.
The phrase-book may be studied without ridicule, and every
opportunity be taken for putting its precepts to the test. I do not
mean from this to indicate that a thorough knowledge of Spanish can
be gained in such manner, or that the Yankee ever will master the
noble and stately literary language of Cervantes, Calderon, and Lope
de Vega. He will not need to use the literary language. If he have
a chance to secure his first training in Bogota or Lima, that will
be an unusual advantage, for it is in those capitals that the purest
Spanish of the New World is spoken. But this is not necessary, and
if it be his misfortune to learn the rudiments through an uneducated
Chilean or Argentine source, even that harsh and choppy Spanish
will be understood. By all this I mean the practical tool of the
tongue in common use, and not the melodious Castilian that may be
desirable in polite society.
It is a very decided advantage to know enough of the written language
to read the newspapers, an occasional book by a native author, the
steamship schedules, the railway time-tables, the proclamations
and official decrees, and the advertising posters. All serve their
purpose to the man who has business or who would be in touch with
his surroundings. It is true that in the interior the Indian tribes
adhere to their own dialects and the majority of South American
Indians do not understand Spanish. But the officials everywhere speak
it, and in the Indian villages there is a head man, or _cacique_,
who knows the idiom of the master race. If they are not familiar
with Spanish, the sounds of English are even more strange to them.
Dress for sea voyages is easily determined, but clothing for land
and sea is a more difficult question. My own experience, and I think
it is the experience of other travellers, has been that woollens are
the most serviceable in all climates. In the cold regions they are
essential. In the tropics, when loosely woven, they are comfortable.
Where the pure wool is disagreeable to the wearer, a mixture of
cotton in the garment may serve. Flannels are the best protection
against an overheated body and quick changes of temperature. These
hints apply to all places, all times, and all conditions.
For the rest, although the Anglo-Saxon newcomer sometimes assumes
otherwise, the people of all the West Coast cities are civilized and
accustomed to the usages of polite society. Men wear the conventional
dress suit, or _traje de etiqueta_, on formal occasions. The six
o’clock rule does not hold in Spanish-American countries. Official
functions, weddings, and similar social gatherings call for the
dress suit as early as ten o’clock in the morning. But the visitor
in this matter may consult his own convenience to some extent,
regardless of local customs. The professional classes, doctors and
lawyers especially, have a habit of upholding their dignity by
wearing the tall hat and the frock coat in the hottest seasons.
It is rather a tradition than a requirement of good breeding. The
traveller may ignore it without losing social caste.
In the matter of eating and drinking moderation is a rule which
slowly impresses itself on foreigners. As to drinking, the Englishman
on the West Coast has not yet learned temperance. He absorbs vast
quantities of brandy and soda, or of whiskey and water, with the
soda or water always in infinitesimal amounts. He has his excuse for
it,--the loneliness of his exile, the climate, and so forth. But
he also has a counter-irritant for the drink habit in his fondness
for the manly outdoor sports which he practises as regularly as at
home.
French wines may be procured anywhere in South America, but it is
not always well to trust the labels. A fair native wine is made in
Peru, and Chile produces an unusually good article. If the quality
of the claret is not quite equal to Medoc, it is good enough for
any one except a connoisseur. English ales also are to be had, and
of recent years bottled St. Louis or Milwaukee beer can be obtained
at all the larger places. I have found St. Louis beer up in the
Cerro de Pasco mining regions of Peru. All of the countries have
local breweries, but Americans do not like the brew.
Mineral waters, which are to be had everywhere, in time come to
pall on the palate. They may be alternated with the wines or other
beverages satisfactorily. There is a native drink called _chicha_,
a distillation of corn fermented in lye, which is refreshing and
strengthening and tastes like fresh cider. The subjects of the Incas
refreshed the Spanish conquerors with this drink. It is celebrated
in song,--“_O nectar sabroso._” Yet a word of warning--to enjoy
_chicha_ a second time and other times, make no inquiry and take
no thought of how it is prepared. Always imbibe it from a gourd.
The aboriginal thirst of the Indians and also of the _mestizos_, or
half-breeds, is for raw alcohol. This thirst is satisfied by the
_aguardiente_, or cane rum. It demoralizes the native population,
and is a curse with which the governments are unable to cope. When
the rum cannot be obtained, some other form of alcoholic spirits
is provided.
The Continental custom as to meals obtains both in the tropical parts
of the West Coast and in the colder climates, as in Bolivia and
Chile. There is simply breakfast, or the mid-day meal, and dinner. In
the morning coffee and rolls--or with most of the Spanish-Americans,
coffee and cigarettes--are the sole refreshment which is expected
to carry one through till noon. Americans, however, usually procure
fruit and eggs. Coffee-making and coffee-drinking are arts unknown
to the Yankee. Travel in South America is a liberal and much-needed
education in this respect.
The _almuerzo_, or mid-day breakfast, is fully as substantial a meal
as the six or seven o’clock dinner. Both begin with soup and fish,
the best of the latter being the _corbina_. At the breakfast eggs
invariably are served, and usually rice. The latter is prepared as
a vegetable with rare art, retaining the form and whiteness of the
grain. Meat courses, beginning with the fowl, follow in procession,
and a salad always may be had.
The Spaniard and his descendants in South America approach roast
pig as reverently as Charles Lamb did. For them it is a poem. A
very good dish transplanted from Spain is called the _puchero_, and
is something like a New England boiled dinner, having a variety of
vegetables cooked with the meats which are its foundation.
In the interior, where reliance has to be had on the Indian
population, the standard dish is the _chupé_, though it bears
different names. This is a rich soup, highly seasoned by dried
red peppers, with plenty of vegetables, and with a meat stock as
the basis. Sometimes the meat is the vicuña or llama, sometimes
goat, sometimes mutton, and once in a while beef. It is wholesome
and satisfying. The only caution to be observed is not to see its
preparation by the Indian women.
Two luxuries among the fruits of the tropics make oranges, bananas,
and pineapples seem commonplace. These are the alligator pear and
the _cheremoya_. The Northern appetite cloys at the preserved
sweets which the tropical palate demands, but it never loses the
enjoyment of these fruits. The alligator pear (_Guanabanus Persea_)
in the West Indies and in Mexico goes by the name of _aguacate_ or
_avocat_. In South America it is called the _palta_. It is eaten
as a salad, and French genius never concocted a delicacy equal to
this natural appetizer.
[Illustration: Banana Grove]
[Illustration: Pineapple Garden]
The _aguacate_ looks like a small squash rather than a pear. It
has a kernel, or hard stone, as big as the fist. The flanks are
laid open, the stone removed, and the fruit is ready to serve
in its own dressing. Some prefer it with just a pinch of salt.
Others add a touch of pepper. Many like a little vinegar with the
salt and pepper, and a few even prefer a regular French dressing
with oil, though that is apt to spoil the natural flavor. Epicures
like it with sugar and lemon juice. The _aguacate_ is one of the
undisguised palatal blessings of the tropics and the semi-tropics.
It should be sought after and insisted on at every occasion. The
imported fruit loses the poetic savor. The most careful packing
and tenderest care cannot preserve its delicate taste. I tried it
once in bringing some from Honolulu to San Francisco. They looked
well, but something was lacking in the taste. A similar experience
between Jamaica and New York was the reward for my efforts. I was
convinced after these experiments that the _aguacate_ is one of the
real luxuries which it pays to go abroad in order to enjoy. Young
persons who travel will be interested in knowing that it is said
to germinate the tender sentiment.
The _cheremoya_ is not unlike the pawpaw of the temperate climates.
The fibre is harder and not so juicy. But the fruit is very rich, so
rich that the palate does not crave much. A mouthful lingers like
the dream of the poet. The _cheremoya_ is called the _anona_ in
Cuba. Several varieties of it differ from one another only in the
delicacy and richness of the flavor. Cracked ice is the complement
of the fruit. They should be introduced to each other an hour before
serving.
A delusion which the adventuring North American should get rid of
is that no decent hotels are found on the West Coast and in the
interior. Everywhere are passable ones and in some of the cities
exceptionally good ones. In the ordinary coast towns they are not
much more than stopping-places, yet almost invariably an excellent
breakfast or dinner can be obtained. As to the lodging conveniences
the old Spanish tradition still obtains that a place to sleep in
is all that is called for, and clean linen and similar comforts
should not be demanded by the traveller who is moving on. But even
in this respect improvements are being made.
Most of the hotel-keepers are of foreign nationality,--French,
Germans, Italians, and Spaniards. It is rare to find anything of a
higher grade than an inn kept by a native. The best hotels are those
under the control of the Frenchmen, and when a choice is to be made
they should be given the preference, for there is not only good
eating but cleanliness and some consideration for the conveniences
of life. A Frenchman keeps the hotel at La Paz in Bolivia, and it
is a good one. Another passably fair house of entertainment in the
same place is kept by a Russian. At the mining-town of Oruro a North
American of German descent provides excellent accommodations. In
the remote town of Tupiza in the fastnesses of the Andes, where of
all places one would hardly look for a foreigner, I found a Slav
hotel-keeper and a decent kind of a resting-place. The proprietor was
from one of the Danubian provinces. In Lima a very well appointed
hotel is managed by an Italian. In Santiago the best one is under
the control of a Frenchman.
In the interior palatial inns are not to be expected, though a young
French mining engineer who came out telegraphed along the Andes trail
which he was to follow to have room with bath reserved for him. The
telegram is still shown. Such inns as exist are called _tambos_.
Even in the poorest of these, while the lodging is wretched, a good
meal usually can be had.
The practice obtains nearly everywhere of charging separately for
the lodging, but in some of the larger cities the hotels now are
conducted on the American plan. The visitor is apt to be puzzled
by the annexes. Naturally he assumes that the annexes to a hotel
are part of it, but usually they are separate and under a distinct
management. In Valparaiso there are a Hotel Colon and a Hotel Colon
Annex, a block or two apart and altogether different. In Santiago
are the Hotel Oddo and the Annex to the Oddo, and so on. This causes
confusion, and the traveller should make inquiry in advance so as
to know where he is going. While the sanitary conveniences in most
of the hotels are poor, improvements are being made, and there is
something of an approach to the demands of civilization.
A simple rule as to baggage holds good. Take as little as practicable
and pack it as conveniently as possible. That means a good deal
of loose luggage; but since trunks are charged by weight and very
few of the railroads make any allowance for free baggage, it is
desirable to have one’s belongings arranged so that they can be
piled up around him. One soon becomes accustomed to this and to
providing himself with an armful of rugs and blankets.
Railroad fares are about one-third less than in the United States.
The accommodations are not luxurious, but they are fair. Night trips
are unknown. Chile is the only country on the West Coast which
provides a through night train with a sleeper. This is on the line
between Santiago and Talca.
An addition to the regular expense of travel is that for embarkation
and disembarkation. It is not covered in the steamship ticket, and
since, with few exceptions, in the different ports the vessels do
not go to wharves of their own or put their passengers ashore in
lighters, each makes his choice of the small boats and pays the
bill. These charges are not high, yet in the course of a long voyage
they mount up, and it always is desirable to make the bargain with
the boatman in advance.
For travel in the Andine regions it is necessary to provide one’s own
outfit. For those who have to go about much it is not practicable
to have their own pack and riding animals, though occasionally a
mining engineer will keep a pair of horses or mules and transport
them from place to place. Usually the mules and burros, or donkeys,
have to be hired. In every case it is advantageous to own the
_montura_, or saddle, and other accoutrements, with especial regard
to the capacity of the saddle-bags. Though in the United States the
McClellan is the favorite for hard travelling, Americans engaged
in mining or in exploration work in the Andes prefer the Mexican
saddle. A mining company in southern Peru after various trials
discarded everything except Mexican saddles, and had these made
especially in San Francisco. In my own experience I found them the
most comfortable.
The _petacas_, or leather trunks, are used by all the South
Americans. These are small, and a pair of them balance nicely on
either side of the pack animal. Yet during a long mountain journey
I managed to transport an ordinary trunk. The Andean mule is bred in
northern Argentina. It is not the society pet that is its cousin of
the United States Army, and it will carry a burden of two hundred
pounds in the upper altitudes.
A supply of canned goods and similar provisions is essential, for
it is not possible to rely solely on such wayfaring entertainment
as may be had at the Indian huts, even when the trip is short
enough to keep within the limits of human habitation. _Charqui_,
or jerked beef, is the mainstay of the stomach for a long journey,
but dried mutton sometimes may be had, and is less likely to become
unpalatable. _Chuni_, the dried and frozen potato which nourishes
the Bolivian Indians, has nutritive virtues, but palatability is
not one of them.
The chief problem in mountain travelling is fodder for the animal
rather than food for the man. In the valleys and part way up the
_punas_, or table-lands, fresh alfalfa may be had. But in the higher
sierras this is lacking, and it is necessary to carry a stock of
barley. In some places where barley can be raised it runs to straw
and does not mature into the grain, so that the local supply is
not to be depended on.
A hammock is useful in the forest regions. A tent and other camping
outfit are sometimes desirable, yet where it is possible to keep
within the range of population it is better to risk shelter in the
Indian huts, the traveller carrying his own blankets or sleeping-bag.
A Western frontiersman or miner has little difficulty in outfitting
for the Andean regions.
The quarantine is one of the serious annoyances of travel on
the West Coast, though the interruption which it causes often
is exaggerated. At times one may have to postpone a landing or
a departure because of the restriction, and in that case there
is nothing to be done but go on to the next open port and wait
in patience. The regulations of the different governments are
similar, though they are not always enforced with discretion and
common-sense. Yet they are no more severe than the regulations of
New Orleans or other Southern ports of the United States. Their
purpose of self-protection is justifiable. The objection is that the
application of the measures taken is unreasonable. The steamship
companies insist on the exaction of charging the passengers an
extra sum for the time in which the vessel is held in quarantine.
So many sorts of money are in circulation that it is impossible
for the traveller not to lose through exchange. The United States
dollar is known well enough, but it has not yet made its way down
the coast sufficiently to insure being taken for its full worth.
Letters of credit and bank drafts would better be in English money,
for the banks and exchange houses insist on counting the $5 gold
piece as equal only to the pound sterling, or $4.85. It will take
some years for the full result of the Panama money system to be
felt on the West Coast, though ultimately that will help to extend
the use of United States currency.
A calculation is made every quarter by the United States Mint of
the value of the coins representing the monetary units of the
various Latin-American countries. This serves as an index of values,
though in actual transactions it cannot always be insisted upon.
The universal coin on the West Coast is the Peruvian _sol_, equal
to 48½ cents gold. It is the size of the American silver dollar.
Since Peru has the gold standard and coins a Peruvian pound called
the _inca_, exactly the weight and fineness of the English pound
sterling, there is no fluctuation. Ten _soles_ make a pound. For
local purposes along the coast the Peruvian _sol_ is therefore the
best medium of exchange.
I have left for separate consideration the subject of the diseases
incident to West Coast travel and residence. Their mention frightens.
Why, I do not know.
Pneumonia and typhoid in the temperate climates cause greater
ravages than tropical diseases in their field, nor is malaria in
its manifold manifestations limited to a given area. Fever and ague
in the United States, _calentura_ in the West Indies, _terciana_
in the forest regions of the Andes,--it all is essentially the
breakbone fever. Quinine and calomel remain the tonic preventives.
Tropical dysentery is to be guarded against by common-sense in diet.
The social vices bring their inexorable penalty more swiftly than
in the North, but their remedy is the moral prophylactic. Yellow
fever, since the demonstration of the mosquito as the active agent
in its propagation, is losing its terrors, but its avoidance comes
under the sphere of epidemic quarantines rather than of individual
measures. The exceptional conditions which will prevail on the
Isthmus during the Canal construction and the exceptional means
adopted to combat disease are not to be taken as representative of
the West Coast. Yet the benefit of this experience will be great.
But whether along the coast, on the plateaus of the Andes, or in
the tropical valleys, one general rule is more valuable than a
medicine chest. It is that of a healthy, fearless mind which does
not magnify ordinary ailments and which keeps its poise in the
shadow of more serious illness.
CHAPTER III
THE ISTHMUS OF PANAMA
_Canal Entrance--Colon in Architectural Transformation--Unchanging
Climate--Historic Waterway Routes--Columbus and the
Early Explorers--Darien and San Blas--East and West
Directions--Life along the Railway--Chagres River and Culebra
Cut--Three Panamas--Pacific Mouth of the Canal--Functions
of the Republic--Natural Resources--Agriculture and
Timber--Road-building--United States Authority on the Zone--Labor
and Laborers--Misleading Comparisons with Cuba--The First Year’s
Experience._
[Illustration:
GENERAL PLAN
OF THE
PANAMA CANAL
From the plans of the Panama Canal Company]
When the Caribbean is restive, restless is the voyager. After
tossing in misery one April night I peered through the port-hole of
the steamer’s cabin at what seemed a cluster of swinging lanterns
dipping into the sea. They were the lights of Colon. The vessel
was riding at anchor to await the morning hour when the approach
to the quays could be made.
Daybreak unfolded through the mist, disclosing green foliage ridges
and broken forest-clad hills sloping to a shallow bowl. This circular
basin is the island of Manzanillo. The town lies as in the bottom
of a saucer. Colon is not a harbor in the usual sense, for the
curving Bay of Limon which it fringes is an open roadstead. The
improvements by the United States will make it a commercial haven.
For all the years to come the blue horizon will be swept by the
eager eye of the traveller for the Canal entrance. Seen from the
ship’s deck, it is like the smooth surface of a sluggish river,
broad and open. The artistic instinct of the French engineers found
expression even in the prosaic work of earth excavation. They planted
a village in the midst of cocoanut groves, and the palm-thatched
cottages charm the eye. The bronze group of Columbus and the Indian,
Empress Eugenie’s gift, allegorical of the enlightenment of the
New World, may be seen through glasses, while the showy residence
built for De Lesseps is discerned.
[Illustration: The De Lesseps House, Colon]
Little is noted of the town till the wharves are approached.
There is a group of warehouses, a glimpse of railroad yards, a
conglomeration of frame houses with peaked roofs and outside
balconies and stairways, and then swamps, marshes, and hills beyond.
The great transatlantic liners stretched along the docks are far
more imposing than the port town itself.
Ashore, the frame structures give an impression of all that is
temporary and unsubstantial. Some have been streaked with deep
indigo blue, but the sun and the salt air have worn the pigment to
a faded azure. Colon has little that is typically and traditionally
Spanish, because when the insurgents burned it in 1885 they left
only a few brick and mortar buildings. The town which then sprang
up was built with economy in view, though pine lumber was not very
cheap. The newer city which gradually will replace the aggregation
of shanties will be more substantial and more like a permanent
seaport. The Gothic brownstone church in which the Jamaica negroes
and the whites who profess the Anglican form of faith worship,
is the one edifice in Colon that in the transformation should be
allowed to remain.
The cocoanut grove in front of the hotel, facing the Caribbean,
is a pretty bit of landscape, and the statue erected to William
H. Aspinwall, John L. Stephens, and Henry Chauncey, associates in
the building of the Panama Railroad, if not a monument of taste,
at least serves a praiseworthy purpose as a tribute to indomitable
American enterprise. Ornate homes, tropical in the extreme, line
the sea-front, but the residence district is a very limited one
and will remain so until the swamp is filled in and the marshes
cleared away. Colon may be regarded as in the process of hygienic
architectural transition, and its lack of attractiveness need not be
deplored. The work of reconstruction would be immensely facilitated
if another fire could sweep across the marshes and leave nothing
but the brownstone church, the hotel, and the wharves.
Colon is the most typically cosmopolitan place upon the Isthmus, and
will continue so until the world’s commerce begins to flow through
the waterway. Then the city of Panama will share with it in this
respect. But Panama does not have in so full a degree the European
mixture as Colon, for the crews of the transatlantic vessels seldom
get across to the Pacific port. In all the mingling of tongues in
Colon--German, Spanish, Italian, French, Chinese, dialect Indian,
Greek, Swedish, and many varieties of English--nothing is so mellow
and so distressing in whining intonation as the broad cockney accent
of the Jamaica blacks.
The work accomplished by the Panama Railroad Company, hygienically
and otherwise, serves as a basis for the physical regeneration of
Colon which must accompany the Canal construction. Its provisions
for its employees, its hospitals, and its general sanitary
regulations were so well conceived and carried out that their
value as an example and a precedent is very great. The engineering
problem is comparatively simple. It is to raise the level of the
island of Manzanillo, and then to provide sanitary conveniences
and enforce hygienic principles both for the community and for the
individual. The question of water supply is one of gathering the
plentiful showers of heaven in cisterns and distilling them. A
system of waterworks which will bring pure water from the springs
of the Cordillera is not impracticable.
Colon is hot and humid. Its climate cannot be modified by artificial
devices. During the dry season, which is from April to July, the
mean temperature is nearly 90° Fahrenheit in the shade, while in
the sun it is 110°. The humidity is about 77 per cent. In the
rainy season the mean temperature is 85°, and the humidity varies
from 86 per cent to complete saturation. The annual rainfall is
seldom less than 125 inches. A man six feet in stature standing on
the shoulders of another man of equal height, would just about be
able to keep his shoulders above water if the two were placed in
a reservoir which would catch and hold the entire rainfall of the
year. But in spite of heat and humidity and precipitated moisture,
existence can be made passably comfortable.
As the traveller takes his way across the Isthmus, he may wish also
to view in retrospect the waterways that have been conceived in
the brains of men who were ahead of their times, and the paths of
trade and travel that have been followed; for now, in the presence
of actual construction along a determined course, these pioneer
routes quickly fade into oblivion.
The projects have been many. They were to unlock the key of the
universe and to throw open a gateway to the Pacific. Columbus
explored the Mosquito coast in search of the passage to the Indies,
and thought he had found another Ganges, though the strait which
he sought was obstinate in hiding itself. He planned colonies at
the Gulf of Uraba, or Darien. Balboa and his companions, among
whom was Pizarro, from near the same place, 200 miles east of the
Chagres, hewed their way through tropical forest jungle and over
mountains till they reached the summit of Piuri, from which they
saw the Pacific and named the ocean inlet San Miguel Bay in honor
of St. Michael. A few years later Balboa had “the little boats”
carried over this path from the Atlantic to the Pacific. Long
afterward, more than a century and a half, Sir John Morgan led his
loyal buccaneers in Balboa’s footprints to the bloody sacking of
the opulent city of Panama.
But the early Spaniards found a shorter route for their traffic.
At different periods the Chagres was followed from its mouth till
within twenty miles of Panama, and then the jungle was pierced by
paths. Yet this was not the _camino real_, or king’s highway. That
royal road was a cobble-paved mule trail from Portobello, twenty
miles east of what is now Colon, to Santes on the upper Chagres,
and thence to Panama. This is the route over which the traffic
passed for two centuries. The land trails could be tested. The canal
courses could only be dreamed or projected in the imagination.
Of the three interoceanic routes which have become historic, the
early explorers, Spanish and Portuguese, thought most of the Darien
or Caledonian cross-cut channel. It was to start north of the Gulf
of Darien, near the bay which afterward became known as Caledonian
Bay, and follow a general direction southwest to the Pacific.
Señor Don Angel Savedro, one of the first petitioners to Charles
V for an interoceanic waterway, had this general direction in his
mind. This was the route advocated by the Scotch banker, William
Patterson, in his broad scheme for Great Britain to save control
of the Antilles, by seizing Havana, acquiring the Isthmus, and
constructing an isthmian canal in order to carry the blessings of
commerce and civilization to the Sandwich Islands.
During the nineteenth century the Darien general route was no less
earnestly advocated than in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries,
and the mythical low level had many believers. Frederick M. Kelley,
the New York banker, who gave fortune and a life’s ambition to the
project of an interoceanic waterway, also based his hopes on the
Darien route. It required the explorations of Commander Selfridge and
subsequent American expeditions, as well as the investigations of
Reclus and Wyse for the French company, to dissipate the unfounded
hopes regarding Darien.
The San Blas route, being the shortest, should have had more
advocates, for it is only thirty-one miles across from ocean to
ocean, but the solid mountain wall of the Cordillera discouraged
most of the early explorers. Its merits and demerits were made
familiar to the public through the discussions in Congress.
It was of the upper Chagres route that the intrepid Frenchman,
Champlain, whose voyage to the West Indies and the Isthmus in 1602
seems to be historically established, wrote: “At Panama is a little
river which rises in the mountains and descends to Porte Bello,
which river is four leagues from Panama ... and being embarked
on the said river there are but eighteen leagues to Porte Bello.
One may judge that if the four leagues of land which there are
from Panama to this river were cut through, one might pass from
the South Sea to the ocean on the other side and thus shorten the
route by more than 1,500 leagues; and from Panama to the Straits of
Magellan would be an island, and from Panama to the Newfoundlands
would be another island, so that the whole of America would be in
two islands.”
The Raspadura channel, by which the Jesuit Fathers were said to
have made the passage from ocean to ocean in canoes with a very
short portage, lacks historical verification.
The Chagres route was included in the broad vision of the future
which Lopez de Guevara had in the middle of the sixteenth century.
The realization of his dreams may be for the twenty-fifth century.
He proposed the union of the two oceans by three canals opening in
three points,--the Chagres in Panama, Nicaragua, and Tehuantepec.
Before following the jungle-screened railway line or tracing
the course of the Canal with its luxurious border of tropical
vegetation, it is desirable to clear away geographical confusion.
The Isthmus of Panama extends almost directly east and west. It is
the contour of the two continents as formed by a neck not simply
awry but completely twisted,--in popular language, a gooseneck.
The entire West Coast of South America, except a slight bulge near
the Equator, lies east of the longitude of Cleveland, Ohio. Panama
City is about on the north and south line with Pittsburg. It is
southeast of Colon, and the general direction of the Canal from
the Atlantic entrance, therefore, will be southeast.
The route selected by the French engineers, and which with some
variation will be continued by the United States, does not need
detailed description. The course of the Canal can be observed in
the railroad journey to Gatun, where the first view is had of the
defiant Chagres fed by its twenty-one tributaries. I have seen
the Chagres a tame, sleeping brook, losing itself in the tropical
jungle or the narrow gorges, and again have looked on it when it
was a wild, resistless torrent. The engineering problems never can
be fully appreciated until one has seen the Chagres sweeping on in
its conquering career.
Native customs and the mixed life of Canal construction are seen at
the stations along the railway. Every village has its collection
of parrots and monkeys. The sights differ from the scenes in other
parts of the Isthmus, because of this intermingling of foreigners,
largely Chinese and Jamaican. But the inhabitants are so markedly
of the local type that they may be easily distinguished from the
foreign mixture. The aboriginal Indian race, of which there are
various branches, forms a third of the inhabitants. The Panameñan is
about three-fourths Indian blood and one-fourth Spanish, although
farther away from the Canal Zone a very strong negro element
exists, due to the introduction of African slavery by the early
Spaniards. The natives, from their familiarity with the jungles
and their ability to withstand the hardships of the climate and the
exposure, are useful principally to the exploring parties and the
pioneering expeditions. They are too indolent for the actual work
of excavation.
The Culebra Cut is not seen to full advantage from the railway,
yet a fair idea may be obtained of the task involved in cutting
the spine of the Cordillera or the Continental Divide at this the
lowest depression, 272 feet. The excavation and removal of the
material from this section is said to be the controlling factor in
the Canal construction. The valley with the city of Panama huddled
at the foot of Mt. Ancon, and Taboga Isle in the bay, are seen to
advantage from Culebra.
There are three Panamas. One is primitive Panama, in jungle-covered
ruins, a few miles from the present port. This was the city whose
opulence was the envy of the world until its treasures awakened the
greed of Morgan and his fellow freebooters and became their spoil.
Then the new town was built and fortified. It is gloriously mediæval
with all its Spanish and Moorish buildings, its cluster of emerald
rocks in the bay, its high tides and its mixed nationalities, with
little Italy and modernized China side by side. But the present
Panama attracts only at a distance, and will be attractive only at
a distance until modern sanitation can be installed and some of
its picturesqueness be destroyed in the interests of public and
private hygiene.
Rivalry exists between Panama and Colon over their relative climatic
attractions. Panama is much drier than the Caribbean seaport, the
annual rainfall usually being not more than 70 inches and the
humidity of the atmosphere not so great. But 90° Fahrenheit in
the shade is the average mean temperature, and the humidity is
penetrating enough to serve all practical purposes of discomfort.
The new Panama is at La Boca, the Pacific mouth of the Canal. This is
the railway terminus, and it is there the United States authorities
created the port of Ancon and then abandoned the plan of collecting
customs duties in competition with the Isthmian Republic. Wharves
are located there, and for shipping the place offers some advantages
over the port of Panama. The present Panama with its population of
25,000 is congested. Its old buildings are overcrowded. They are
solid, substantial, and will last for centuries yet; but the natural
movement of population, especially in view of the enormous rents
demanded in Panama, will be to seek the new city which will grow
up as a frame town with elements of stability. Much business is
certain to drift to the Canal mouth, some of it in American hands.
The mercantile community in the days when Colombia controlled the
Isthmus was anything but Colombian. It was West Indian, Italian,
Chinese, German, French, American, and English. It is the same
to-day and will be the same to-morrow.
The United States is the paramount authority on the Isthmus, the
control of the Canal Zone making it such, and its duty to itself
and its responsibility to the world could be discharged in no other
way. Yet there is also the government of the Republic of Panama,--a
protected commonwealth. All that needs to be understood is Article
I of the Hay-Varilla Treaty. This says that the United States
guarantees and will maintain the independence of the Republic of
Panama.
In its political relations the Spanish term may be adopted, and the
Republic may be said to be “in function” within the sphere of the
United States. I omit particulars of the governmental system in
order to examine the industrial resources and prospects. Details of
administration are unnecessary, because the authority exercised by
the American officials in the Canal Zone, and the supervising power
over sanitation in Colon and Panama, take the subject out of its
local limitations. The liberality shown by President Roosevelt’s
administration in adjusting the jurisdiction of the United States
on the broad lines laid down by Secretary Taft, left the Panama
government free to work out its commercial and industrial growth
through its own measures and to the full extent of its own abilities
as a commonwealth. A full account of fiscal policy may be omitted,
with the general statement that international traffic in transit
as taxed by port dues is not subjected to heavy burdens, while the
imposts on domestic trade are not severe. While a tariff in the
protective sense may not be said to exist, the system of _ad valorem_
valuations secures a customs revenue which places all merchandise
under tribute. Internal taxation has many forms, modelled, as it is,
after the Spanish system. In addition the income from the $10,000,000
received from the United States assures that the government will
continue to be a “going” concern, in practical operation as well
as in legal phraseology.
For the student of political institutions the interest is in
the moulding of the inheritance of Spanish laws and Spanish
administrative system to American models and the influence of an
environment so pronounced as the American control of the Canal
Zone. The evolution of the civic spirit, instead of being under the
shadow of an unfriendly Power, is in the sunshine of a big genial
Republic.
In its soil of decayed vegetation the Isthmus, with an area equal to
the State of Indiana, has natural wealth enough for the subsistence
of a continent. But it is tropical natural wealth, much of which
exists under conditions unfavorable for development. Timber
exploitation may one day open the longitudinal path eastward from
the Canal Zone through the health-destroying jungles to the Gulf
of Darien. Mahogany and others of the precious hardwoods offer the
temptation. But the trail will be blazed slowly, a score or so of
miles each decade. The mineral deposits also lie to the east. They
will aid in the conquering of this hitherto unconquered region,
yet gradually.
[Illustration: Caribbean Cocoa Palms]
The territory which will be developed most rapidly is that lying
principally west of the Canal Zone and extending to the limits of
Costa Rica. Tropical agriculture in the hands of natives of the
temperate countries is entirely practicable in this region, much
of which has a climate markedly superior to the belt lying between
Colon and Panama in the valleys of the Chagres and the Grand Rivers.
The fruit industry, and in particular banana culture, has made
rapid strides, but its possibilities are only in their beginning.
Coffee cultivation was becoming a profitable business until the
political disturbances ruined it. The revival may be expected
within the five years necessary to bring the trees to the point of
commercial production. Ivory nuts, rubber, and the infinite variety
of minor tropical products will be stimulated by the market that
will be opened. In the extreme west along the Pacific slope, where
grazing has been enough of an agricultural industry to create the
flourishing town of David, an enduring basis will be given to the
live-stock industry.
But none of this agricultural growth can precede the building
of roads. These are totally lacking in the interior. The Panama
government made sensible provision out of its first revenues for
this form of internal improvement, and the policy may be looked upon
as a continuous one. The railroad line of development will be from
Bocas del Toro on the Atlantic slope to David on the Pacific coast.
Bocas del Toro will reach the Canal Zone by a railway through the
banana-producing lands, and David in time may be connected with
Panama.
In the general sense the prosperity of the Isthmus for many years
depends more on the excavation work and on the international commerce
than on its internal resources. It is this which will swell the
trade of $2,000,000 or $2,500,000 annually to greater figures.
Yet the waterway is the sure harbinger of the exploitation of the
productive founts. The Canal community and the Canal construction
are the potent economic factors.
When all is said, the Zone is the thing. The laws administered may
not in their entirety be American laws, but they are such in spirit.
Actually, the Canal Zone is a semi-military camp. It must continue
such for purposes of sanitation and law and order during the entire
period of Canal construction. What follows is the establishment
of a colony within the Republic of Panama, yet not of it. This
colony, which includes laborers, civilian officials, occasional
detachments of marines, and a police force, is not apt at any time
greatly to exceed 25,000 persons. The early estimates of the very
large number of laborers who would be required were reduced when the
engineers began to make closer study of the degree to which improved
machinery could be used in the excavation and other work. It will
be a conglomerate mass,--Jamaican and other West Indian negroes,
Chinese coolies, Mexican and Central American peons, possibly a few
American blacks, Italian railway workers, and similar elements. In
spite of all scepticism and detraction, the Jamaica and Barbadoes
negroes will do the bulk of the work on the Canal. They did the
most of what was accomplished by the French company. They built the
railroads along the unhealthy coast of Costa Rica. They have shown
the greatest adaptability to the climate and the best capacity for
hard labor. The Panama Canal will be the monumental contribution
of the despised black race to civilization.
[Illustration: Panama Natives from the Swamp Country]
[Illustration: Panama Natives from the Mountains]
Aside from determining the engineering conditions of the Canal, which
I have no purpose of discussing in this volume, the most important
functions of the United States on the Isthmus are in regulating
sanitation and hygiene. This regulation could not be restricted
merely to the inhabitants of the Canal Zone, for to guard them
against epidemics Colon and Panama had to be protected.
I never shared the enthusiasm over the rose-colored comparisons
of the region lying between Colon and Panama with Havana and
Cuba. Measures of hygiene, public sanitation, and even individual
cleanliness will be secured on the Canal Zone and in the seaport
cities. This will be valuable in decreasing the danger from yellow
fever, bubonic plague, or other epidemics. And it also may be
assumed that the strict supervision given by the medical officers
will in a measure serve as a preventive against dysentery and
enteric diseases, which are common to the tropics and especially so
to the moist lands. But the Canal Zone topographically is vastly
different from the island of Cuba. The Atlantic Ocean sweeps across
Cuba. Every day of the year a healthful breeze is felt in the great
central belt of that island. This not only purifies the northern
coast, but it also invigorates the interior region, and its effect
is felt even on the south coast. But in the Canal belt are the
dead calms of the Pacific on one side and the limited area of the
Caribbean winds on the other side. The Atlantic breezes are lost in
the marshes before they reach the ridge of the Cordillera, while
the zephyr which sometimes springs up in the Bay of Panama rarely
extends as far as the Culebra Cut. When the Canal is completed, it
will not serve as a tube through which the breezes of one ocean
will whistle to the other ocean.
I write these opinions without the purpose of opening a controversy
with enthusiastic scientists, medical officers, or meteorologists,
but merely as a statement of climatic conditions which cannot be
changed by the agency of man. There is the peculiar configuration
of the Cordillera that causes the moist blankets to hang over the
Isthmus and precipitates the enormous quantities of rain. Cuba has
its wet season during certain months, but these rains are normal
phenomena and are not supercharged with disease.
Miasma must result from the excavation of the decayed vegetation
of a thousand years which constitutes the waterway line with the
exception of the Culebra Cut, and yet the central belt of the
Isthmus has enough of pernicious malaria even with the earth
undisturbed. Experiences at Havana and elsewhere will be utilized,
and the mosquito, if not exterminated, will have its harmfulness
curbed. Whatever can be accomplished by artificial means to combat
disease-breeding Nature will be accomplished, and no doubt need be
felt regarding the efficiency of the sanitary corps as organized
under the Canal Commission. But when all is not simply said but
done, it comes to this: the inherent unhealthy conditions of the
Canal Zone will be reduced to a minimum. The climate will not be
conquered. What may happen will be to reconcile it to the presence
of a larger number of inhabitants than the region heretofore has
had.
For those who will dwell and work on the Isthmus the suggestions of
the sanitary corps are so complete that I can add nothing except to
advise to follow these instructions and to take a vacation either
to the healthful mountains of Costa Rica or down the Pacific coast
or back home as often as possible. The population which will be
living in the Canal Zone for the next twenty years in relation to
health is to be taken in the mass, and the experiences of a few
individuals who have been able to regulate their own occupations with
a special view to conserving their strength are not to be accepted
as applying to thousands of other individuals. Nor is the result
of a few months’ life on the Isthmus in its effect on the human
energies to be accepted as the index of what may be expected after
several years, during which the mental and the physical faculties
are concentrated on one task.
The lessons of the first year’s experience are easily learned. In
the beginning was the buoyant, hopeful American temperament which
goes straight forward to the task and, once determined that it
shall be done, takes no note of obstacles. The Canal never would be
built if the spirit of pessimism obtained at the outset. Optimism
is always better in a great national undertaking. A large number
of cheerful and confident Americans flocked to the Isthmus to fill
positions in the engineering, the clerical, the sanitary departments
and on the railroad. That there were confusion and cross-purposes
in administration and complaint of red tape was not important.
Actually the Washington authorities cut far more of the red tape
than ordinarily can be done safely in government enterprises. But
within a few months loud complaints were heard about low wages,
the high cost of living, the long hours of labor, and the lack of
recreation and amusement. Then the discouraged employees began to
come home. They were of two classes. Many of the early home-comers
were the adventurous fellows who had gone to Panama wanting a new
experience and having had it more rapidly than they had anticipated,
returned to spread the discontent. There was the other, and perhaps
the more numerous, class who had gone in good faith, expecting to
find conditions as to health and personal comfort similar to the
United States, and intending to stay. It is likely, too, that both
classes, working as they were for the government, expected easier
conditions than would obtain in private employment.
The unvarying tendency of the returning employees was to discredit
the glowing official and semi-official reports which had been
made, and the promises held out of immunity from even the common
ailments, including lassitude and homesickness. Then came the yellow
fever epidemic of the Summer of 1905 and the long period during
which the health authorities were baffled in locating the focus of
infection. There was also the disagreeable evidence that pernicious
malaria had had time to work havoc in many strong constitutions.
The picture of the panic-stricken groups struggling to get away
from Colon with every vessel may have been a little overdrawn, but
that the feeling throughout the Isthmus was one of illy suppressed
and contagious terror was undeniable. Yet to those experienced
in tropical diseases the mortality was not an excessive one, nor
were the general health conditions bad, allowance being made for
surroundings. The permanent hospital records and vital statistics
unquestionably will show that wonders were really worked under a
scientific and systematic sanitation and provisions for conserving
the health of employees. But the medical officials in their spirit
of hopefulness had predicted freedom from the inevitable diseases of
the Isthmus of Panama, and the failure of their prophecies caused
the disappointing results to be exaggerated.
[Illustration: Ruins at Panama]
Generally, during the first year the United States suffered
from too much expert opinion and advice regarding engineering
and administrative work of the Canal and too little practical
application to the task in hand. This was not true of the
sanitary authorities, who worked harmoniously and effectively. If
only they had been more conservative in their original statements,
it would have been better for their reputations as prophets of
health. It always is to be remembered that ditch-digging in the
most humid and rainiest section of the tropics cannot be made an
entirely healthful occupation, and as fast as the subsoil is turned
up by the steam-shovel the earth’s resentment at being disturbed
will make itself felt. The procurement of the permanent class of
employees and laborers with the physical stamina and the moral fibre
which the work of Canal construction requires, is necessarily an
evolution and not the creation of a single year. But that class
will be evolved, and the undertaking will go forward.
My own point of view is twofold. The Canal insures the industrial
development of the Isthmus of Panama along the lines of tropical
agriculture. It creates an international commerce and it adds to the
domestic trade. It will secure an increased permanent population to
replace the army of construction when the work of excavation shall
be completed. This is the certainty in relation to the resources
and the people. It will be good for Panama. But there is a wider
good which is not local. For ten or twenty years the Canal will be
a training-school in which to test and strengthen the constructive
energy of the American character. Nowhere will the initiative
faculty make greater demands on the individual. For those “who die
victorious” the tribute of Time will be the completed Canal. For
those who live the task will be from year to year out of their
abundant experience to help on the industrial development of
adjacent lands, among them the West Coast countries. And that is
the civilization which will sweep from the Atlantic through the
Canal and down the Pacific.
CHAPTER IV
A GLIMPSE OF ECUADOR
_Tranquil Ship Life--Dissolving View of Panama Bay--The Comforting
Antarctic Current--Seeking Cotopaxi and Chimborazo--Up the Guayas
River--Activity in Guayaquil Harbor--Old and New Town--Shipping
via The Isthmus and Cape Horn--Chocolate and Rubber
Exports--Railway toward Quito--A Charming Capital--Cuenca’s
Industries--Cereals in the Inter-Andine Region--Forest
District--Minerals in the South--Population--Galapagos
Islands--Political Equilibrium--National Finances._
Ship life along coast from Panama south is dreamful, placid,
nerve-soothing.
“This South Sea,” wrote the Augustine Friar Calancha, in his
chronicle of the early Spanish voyagers, “is called the Pacific
because, in comparison with the Atlantic and the Mediterranean, its
storms are less violent and fewer and its calm is more tranquil.
It is also called the sea of drunkards because a drunken man might
navigate in it. Both oceans and ships are ruled over by five
beautiful stars in the form of a cross, in a happy prognostic of
holy domination over sea and land--at the sight of which the devil
even when most enraged retreats and leaves all in tranquillity.”
This is surely a happy description of the quiet ocean and a devout
poet’s image of the Southern Cross.
The steamers are commodious floating Summer homes. The smooth
waters of the Pacific make it possible to have a type of vessel
that would be impracticable for transatlantic voyages. Deck cabins,
a dining-saloon on the upper deck, and ample room are properties
of them all. Some of the steamers are twin screw, though such
enterprise hardly was demanded by the traffic and this type is not
so comfortable as the single screw. From Panama to Valparaiso, 3,100
miles by the stops, there is rarely enough of a ripple to send the
most sensitive traveller below with symptoms of sea-sickness.
The voyage is a marine trip along a great winding Continental street,
with stops at many corners and turns up many lanes. Up and down
the coast means putting into innumerable wayports. This makes them
more or less acquainted with one another, and one coast community
feels an interest in what is happening in a neighbor port a thousand
miles away. The vessels bring the gossip,--usually of trade, of
the value of the last cargo, of quarantine, of troubles with the
native longshoremen, of disputes with the minor officials, and of
political events or the latest revolution. The through freight is
not yet sufficient for the big steamers to omit the minor landings
and make quick time, which could be done if Guayaquil, Callao, and
Valparaiso were the only ports touched. This should be a matter of
eight or ten days from Panama to Valparaiso, whereas now it takes
from twenty-one to twenty-three days. The time will be shorter when
the through traffic developed by the Panama Canal has had a chance
to grow.
As the steamer threads its way out into the ocean through Panama Bay,
the vista is of cone-shaped, vivid green-clad volcanic mountains
rising sheer out of the water. On a disappearing view they look like
gopher mounds on the prairies. At sunset the sky is of indigo-blue
and the waters are a maroon expanse, but the next night the great
copper disk in the west burnishes the liquid plain, which seethes
at its embrace.
For two days the voyage is apt to be disagreeably hot, though the
air rarely becomes so stifling that the deck cabins have to be
abandoned. The weather is decently comfortable in the daytime. The
nights may be choking, but this does not last long. The third day
the equatorial line is crossed, not very far out at sea yet out of
sight of land. The Humboldt, or Antarctic, current is met as it
sweeps up from Cape Horn, and its refreshing coolness is enjoyed
for the remainder of the voyage. The only unpleasant feature is
that during the season from April to August the fogs which hang
over the mainland charge the atmosphere with too much moisture,
and there is no relief by their precipitation into rain; yet the
discomfort from this cause is not serious.
Only the small coasting-vessels put into the minor Colombian
and Ecuadorian ports. On the Pacific side Colombia has but one
shipping-point of consequence--Buenaventura, where the bay bends
in a deep inlet. It is the gateway to the immensely rich country
of the Cauca and of the overland route by Cali and the mountain
passes through the Cordilleras to Bogota.
“It is a strange thing,” says my Lord Francis Bacon, “that in sea
voyages where there is nothing to be seen but sky and sea, men
should make diaries.” But down the West Coast, after crossing the
equatorial line, much more than sky and sea is to be seen and the
diary-maker need not be furtive in his occupation. On the larger
steamers one is always straining the eyes for Ecuador’s famous
volcanoes, Cotopaxi and Chimborazo. They are not often visible from
the sea, though Cotopaxi is sometimes to be discerned. One evening
I thought I caught a glimpse of one of these giant summits. It was
towards sunset. Off shore was a seeming range of peaked clouds, then
through a pink mist a sloping green and brown profile disclosed
itself; after that bolder conical elevations, a dim fringe of
them, and finally an unmistakable crown. “It is Monte Cristo,” the
ship’s mate told me. “We are in the Bay of Caracas.” The chalk-like
surface was of sheer cliffs sliced as by a knife and with a fleece
spreading alongside half-way up to the summit. “Snow?” “Oh, no;
only the surf.”
We are not more than ten miles off shore, but Monte Cristo dominates
as though it were one of the colossal volcanoes. The vapors close
in, the ribbons of gold in the western sky unroll themselves and
are lost. It is night, and our last chance of seeing Cotopaxi is
gone.
The voyage up the Gulf of Guayaquil and the Guayas River gives a
vista of conical and pinnacled hills of living green, sparkling
in their verdure like raindrops on the leaves when the sun comes
out after a thunder shower. The gulf narrows, and the point is
rounded at the island of Puna, which is the Ecuadorian customs
and quarantine port. There are bathing-houses and pretty Summer
or Winter homes,--we do not know which, for we realize that under
the Equator there are no seasons. Beyond Puna the river is hardly
more than half a mile across from one low bank to the opposite low
bank. These are bordered with _algaroba_ trees and cocoanut
palms. There are open pastures and some neat houses, with ridges of
mountains in the background, brown and green. The borders of the
river are pleasant, but the miasma seems to hang over the land like
a steaming blanket, and one gets the impression of malaria,--which
impression is a correct one.
Lower Guayaquil is first seen, then the sloping part of the city
proper. The big rectangular building in the saddle of the hills, the
most prominent of all the structures, is the famous hospital,--a
comforting reflection for strangers who have heard of Guayaquil’s
yellow fever record and are told grewsome tales of the epidemics.
Fewer than eight cases in the hospital count as a cipher, and ships
get a clean bill of health. The profile of peaks back of the town
apparently is not very high, and the valleys open gently between
them. A closer view of the city from the ship’s deck shows that it
is not such a bad sort of tropical port. Church spires and domes
are many, and some very handsome buildings are discernible.
[Illustration: The Waterfront at Guayaquil]
The harbor is full of maritime life. Pointed shoe-like canoes and
sail-boats are constantly shooting around, while farther down the
river are the _balsas_, or house rafts, with their tenants, including
men and women, children, poultry, pigs, and other accessories. The
timbers of these house rafts are from a native wood of the cork
variety, said to be unsinkable. Apparently the living occupants
of the rafts also are of cork, tumbling off into the water and
bobbing about just as easily. I did not hear of any of them, even
the smallest, being drowned. I noted the old American river-boat
patterns, and could imagine myself on the Mississippi or the Ohio,
except that this craft is even more blunt as to outline and more
tub-like than anything that ever floated down from Pittsburg or
St. Paul.
The crooked old part of the city is attractive in its
picturesqueness, and is inviting at a distance. The newer section is
so regular as to be uninteresting. The Guayaquil climate is trying
to foreigners, though many of them manage to acclimate themselves.
The mean temperature is 81° Fahrenheit. The extremes in the shade
are 90° and 65°. During two or three days in the harbor it seemed
to me that there was but one extreme and that the maximum.
The city, in addition to its commerce, has a number of local
industries which include sugar-mills, breweries and distilleries,
tanneries, foundries, saw-mills, and shipbuilding and repair shops.
Besides the _balsas_ small vessels built of the native timber are
constructed in Guayaquil.
Guayaquil is a city of 60,000 inhabitants, the most populous port
south of San Francisco, with the exception of Valparaiso. About 300
foreign vessels, with a tonnage varying from 360,000 to 375,000,
enter and clear the port every year. The coasting commerce employs
a considerable number of small vessels,--2,000, whose tonnage
aggregates from 22,000 to 23,000. The relation of the port to a
waterway across the Isthmus appears very clearly from the statement
of the distances, which may be repeated. From Guayaquil to New
York around Cape Horn is 11,470 miles, and the time required for
the steam cargo vessels varies from 60 to 74 days. From Guayaquil
to Panama is 835 miles, and to New York by this route it will be
2,864 miles, or to New Orleans 2,263 miles. The time now required,
allowing for transshipment by the railway and the consequent
unloading and reloading of the freight, varies from 14 to 20 days.
With through water communication and the advantages which will
justify supplying coal for faster trips, the time need not exceed
eight or nine days. From Guayaquil to Liverpool via Cape Horn is
10,795 miles; to Havre, 10,577 miles; to Hamburg, 11,203 miles. The
difference in maritime advantage is exhibited by the subtraction
of the distance from Panama or Colon to those ports.
In years when no long-continued quarantine interrupts the commercial
movement, the imports vary from $7,000,000 to $7,500,000, and the
exports are $9,000,000 to $9,300,000. In 1904 the imports were
$7,670,000, and the exports $11,642,000. Relatively, 90 per cent
of the foreign commerce of Ecuador passes through Guayaquil. It is
the _entrepôt_ for the interior region and also for much of the
coast. Esmeraldas in the north has a little foreign trade, and also
Machala in the south. But their imports and exports hardly affect
the volume of commerce that is concentrated in Guayaquil.
One-third of the world’s supply of cacao, or chocolate, is had
from Ecuador, and this is measured by shipments through Guayaquil
of 450,000 to 550,000 quintals, or 45,450,000 pounds to 55,550,000
pounds. In one year, of a total crop of 499,000 quintals, 456,000
were exported through this port. In a later year the value of the
cacao exported was $7,624,000. A large section of the cacao-producing
region is directly tributary to the city. The exportations of
vegetable ivory--the tagua or ivory nut of commerce--vary from
39,000,000 pounds to 44,000,000 pounds annually, valued at from
$600,000 to $750,000, according to the market price. In one very
successful year the value was $1,100,000. For the last year given
the exports of crude rubber reached 1,100,000 pounds, valued at
$600,000. The United States takes 75 per cent and upwards of the
rubber product. The coffee shipments were worth $500,000. There is
also a considerable export trade in the various kinds of straw and
felt hats which are manufactured in the interior. Hides are also
an article of export.
[Illustration: Cacao Trees]
The statistics of production and of the foreign trade are compiled
by the Guayaquil Chamber of Commerce, a very progressive institution
in a country that is not excessively enterprising in exhibiting the
natural resources. From the figures supplied me by the Chamber,
I found that the United States enjoyed a fair proportion of the
Ecuador commerce. France takes the larger portion of the chocolate
and coffee, but the United States furnishes Ecuador a market to
the amount of $2,250,000 to $2,600,000 annually, and ships goods
in about the same proportion. Germany received in one year about
$2,150,000; Great Britain, $2,000,000. In the imports England has
the advantage over all others in cottons and woollens. The heaviest
item in the exports from the United States to Ecuador is provisions,
which amount to $500,000 yearly. Petroleum, lumber, machinery, and
hardware also find a market.
This United States trade and all the foreign commerce of Guayaquil
are so essentially a Panama Canal traffic that their details do not
call for analysis. In the increase of the future the largest
proportion belongs to the United States.
[Illustration: The Wharf at Duran]
The ambitious project of a railway to connect Guayaquil with Quito,
the capital, was many years in assuming form, but the narrow-gauge
line is creeping to Quito. The railway starts at Duran, on the
bay across from Guayaquil, and runs eastward through a very rich
agricultural plateau to Alausi, 80 miles distant, where it bends
to the north. The tropical vegetation of foliage and weeds along
the roadbed is so very luxuriant that the railway company has found
it necessary to erect a plant midway in the hothouse belt for
preparing and distributing, by a process of spraying, a solution
composed of arsenic and nitre. By means of vats and steam-pipes
the ingredients are boiled and dissolved into a strong solution,
which is drawn off into a large tank, similar in construction to a
regular railway water-tank, from which the spraying-car is filled.
When the rainy season opens, the weed-killing plant begins its
operations, spraying the roadbed at regular intervals. This is a
very interesting feature of tropical railway operation.
[Illustration: Weed-killer Plant, Guayaquil and Quito Railway]
[Illustration: Railway Spraying Cart]
The road surmounted the greatest engineering difficulties when it
reached Guamote, 115 miles from Guayaquil; and the mountain section
was completed so that trains could be hoisted from the coast level to
the Andine plateau, a sheer vertical distance of almost two miles.
The railway will cheapen the traffic both for imported merchandise
and for exports.
The corporation had an up-and-down financial history. The railway
construction was begun, or rather a local line was continued, by
Americans who secured the concession from the government of Ecuador,
the money being furnished mainly by Glasgow and London capitalists.
The Americans who held the concession had frequent difficulties,
not only with the bondholders but with the contractors and the
laborers. The work of excavation and grading was done by Jamaica
negroes. The nation guaranteed the bonds of the railway, and by a
somewhat subtle process the government debt was funded into these
railway bonds which are a second mortgage on the customs duties. The
obligations were issued as the respective sections of the railway
were completed. Notwithstanding the frequent financial difficulties
of the contractors and of the English bondholders, the government
paid the interest, 6 per cent, regularly.
Quito is accounted by all travellers, in what relates to climate
and picturesqueness, one of the most charming capitals in South
America. It lies in the central plateau, at an elevation of 9,371
feet. Though an ancient and historic capital, it has been modernized
by electricity. The city has a population of 80,000, and supports a
variety of local industries, including flour-mills, woollen mills,
potteries, sugar refineries, and small manufactories of Indian felt
hats; yet it is chiefly interesting as the seat of government.
Forty years ago a German-American, Frederick Hassaurek, who had
represented the United States as Minister and Consul-General, wrote
his impressions of Quito and its people,[6] and there has been
little to add since then.
6 _Four Years among the South Americans_, by F. Hassaurek,
Cincinnati, 1865.
One leaf from the Quito municipal records may be worth extracting.
The _Cabildo_, or Council, under date of August 16, 1538, adopted
this resolution:
“Since the arrival at Quito of a certain attorney, Bachiler
Guevara, many suits have been stirred up whereby, as there was no
other attorney in the town, many persons might lose their legal
rights; and therefore the said Bachiler Guevara is forbidden to
exercise his profession, or to give advice or his opinion on any
controversy or matter of litigation, under penalty of 100 pesos for
the first offence and one year’s banishment for the second offence.”
Cuenca, in southern Ecuador, is an important industrial and
commercial centre. It has between 25,000 and 30,000 inhabitants, and
is surrounded by a rich agricultural and stock-raising district.
It is seeking a railway outlet to Machala on the coast; but in the
course of years it will have railway communication with Quito, for
the route is a natural one for commerce along the central plateau.
This location is a link in the ultimate Pan-American Railway trunk
line. From Cuenca to a junction with the railway already built from
Duran beyond Guamote is less than 100 miles.
Misunderstanding of the topography of Ecuador causes the country’s
resources to be underestimated. By many persons no account is taken
of any section except the humid and productive coast lands. But
there is the vastly productive inter-Andine region between the two
chains of the Cordilleras. The transverse ranges between these two
Cordilleras have the appearance of knots, and are generally described
as the _nudos_. They do not offer insuperable obstacles to railway
construction and other interior development, though ordinary roads
are lacking.
All the cereals are grown in this central plateau lying under the
torrid zone at an altitude of 10,000 feet. It is the growing
of corn, wheat, and other grains at these heights which causes
the Spanish writers, with their warm imaginations, to write so
enthusiastically of cultivation in the clouds. The region offers
great opportunities for stock-raising, and generally it may be said
to be the field for future immigration and colonization. Public
officials of Ecuador glow with enthusiasm over this section of
their country. A cabinet minister, in his official report, thus
poetically and prophetically voiced the national aspiration:
“Not much time will have passed when the inter-Andine railway,
vanquishing all the obstacles which have halted our progressive
march, will salute the wall of the Andes and come with the whistle
of the locomotive to awaken the spirit, almost dead, of our mountain
populations to the civilizing influence of industry and commerce,
giving easy outlet to the richness of our fertile zones, and
assuring us a broader life by placing us in immediate contact with
the coast and bringing us nearer to the exterior at will, multiply
the relations of common interest, break the yoke of preoccupations
and routine custom to which we have submitted blindingly, and will
stimulate us for work, and supply the deficiencies of our education.
“The line of iron and steel will traverse our climates and will
go collecting in its train diverse productions, to bear them to our
ports and deliver them to the commerce of the world. The struggle for
subsistence will then be borne among the peoples of the interior,
and from province to province will be established reciprocally the
interchange beneficial to their respective provinces.”
The Montaña, or forest region lying on the eastern slope of the Andes
and with its network of river basins stretching to the Amazon, is
less exploited in the Ecuadorian than in the Peruvian territory. The
rubber in these tropical forests will be secured in the process of
time. The development of this region on the part of Ecuador is not
remote. But there must be means of communication. The government,
realizing this, decided to build a railway from Ambato, on the
Guayaquil and Quito Railroad, 100 miles to the Curarey River, a
branch of the Amazon with head-waters near Iquitos in Peru. This line
will enable that district to export its rubber through Guayaquil
instead of out through the Atlantic Ocean. The railway route lies
east of the Andes.
Tobacco is grown in the north near the coast for home consumption.
Sugar-cane is cultivated successfully on the nearer border of the
Montaña and also nearer the coast, but it will be a long time
before Ecuador exports sugar in appreciable quantities. This may
be less true of cotton, which is becoming a national industry. A
fine quality is grown in the northern districts, of which Ibarra
is the centre, and the cotton tree thrives in other sections. The
mills, which employ the cheap labor of the native Indian women,
have proven successful, and they find a profitable home market,
though it will be many years before Manchester is seriously hurt
by their output.
The minerals of the country are principally in the southern zone,
though there are rich placers in the rivers of the north. The
southern province, of which Zaruma is the centre, in the last
century was famous for its gold-mines, and it is still known as
El Oro, or the gold country. In late years little has been done,
though the quartz veins have been worked intermittently and in
some of the streams gold-washing has been carried on. Minerals
are abundant farther south in the district of which Loja is the
centre. Some copper is found, and there are deposits of iron and
anthracite coal, silver, and lead. The engineers who made the
Intercontinental Railway survey were impressed with the richness of
this district, but its development awaits the building of the links
in the Pan-American railroad, for the lack of transport facilities
under present conditions renders exploitation of the mines too
costly to be attempted except with large capital.
In proportion to its size Ecuador, though sparsely populated, is as
well inhabited as other South American countries. The population is
very largely Indian, with the usual Spanish intermixture. The total
number of inhabitants is 1,275,000. The whites and the _mestizos_,
or mixed bloods, comprise about 25 per cent of the population. The
central plateau easily could sustain an agricultural population of
twice that number.
The volcanic Galapagos Islands, lying 600 to 700 miles west of
the mainland, on the equatorial line, usually are considered an
Ecuadorian asset. They are not, however, a source of revenue, and
the 300 or 400 people who inhabit them are not likely to increase
to a larger number. At different times the government has been
willing to dispose of the islands under the form of a perpetual lease
for coaling or naval stations. Tentative offers have been made in
Europe, but European governments hardly would seek to lease them
for naval purposes without ascertaining the wishes of the United
States. Since the Monroe Doctrine as interpreted under President
Roosevelt’s administration forbids military establishments of
foreign Powers to be set up in the Southern Hemisphere, no European
country is likely to come into their possession. Naval officers
on various occasions have urged the purchase of the Galapagos
group by the United States, but the high price at which they are
held by Ecuador, or opposition in Washington, prevented a bargain.
The last negotiation was by Secretary Blaine during the Harrison
administration. With the authority of the United States established
on the Canal Zone and with the Pearl Islands in Panama Bay under
the same authority, the necessary naval base in the Pacific is
secured, and no further suggestions for purchasing the Galapagos
group are likely to be favored by public sentiment. The only ground
would be that, through the control by the United States, European
intrigues and, possibly, complications would be avoided.
Chile at different times has been credited with wanting to control
the Galapagos Islands and establish a naval base at the Equator.
Since the Chilean national policy is no longer one of unlimited
naval expansion, it may be doubted whether that country now would
care to undertake the expense of establishing and maintaining a
station off Ecuador. But should Chile take this course, probably
there would be no objection on the part of the United States, which,
in the broad sense, as related to Europe, is a party in interest
with Ecuador.
Of recent years Ecuador has maintained political equilibrium, if not
absolute political stability. President Alfaro during his term was
compelled to combat the reactionaries and the Church party, but his
programme of Liberal measures was sustained. The greatest progress
that has been made is toward financial stability. The money of the
country was put on the gold basis, and that having been maintained
for several years, the promise of its continuance is encouraging.
The standard of coinage is the gold _condor_, equal to the English
sovereign in weight and fineness. The common circulating medium is
the silver _sucre_, ten of which constitute the _condor_, or the
pound sterling. The _sucre_ is equal to 48.66 cents. Paper money
is circulated, but the outstanding issue is not very large. There
are two banks of emission, each of which has a capital of 3,000,000
_sucres_. By the last report the total amount of bills emitted was
6,356,000 _sucres_.
The Ecuador banks do a profitable business in international
exchange. The Guayaquil institutions regularly pay 14 and 15 per
cent dividends. Their deposits in the period from 1898 to 1904 rose
from 20,688,000 to 31,492,000 _sucres_.
CHAPTER V
PERUVIAN SHORE TOWNS
_Pizarro’s Landing-Place at Tumbez--Last Sight of the Green
Coast--Paita’s Spacious Bay--Lively Harbor Scenes--An
Interesting and Sandy Town--Its Climatic and Other
Legends--Future Amazon Gateway--Sugar and Rice Ports--Eten
and Pacasmayo--Transcontinental Trail--Cajamarca--Chimbote’s
Naval Advantages--Supe’s Attractions--Ancon’s Historic
Treaty--Callao’s Excellent Harbor--Importance of the
Shipping--Customs Collections--Pisco’s Varied Products--Rough
Seas at Mollendo--Bolivian and Peruvian Commerce for the Canal._
We steamed out of the Guayas River and into the Zambelli Channel
for Tumbez by moonlight one evening. A hazy ridge lay directly in
front of us, “Isla de Plata,” or little Silver Island, where the
Spanish pirates buried their plunder. The gold and silver have not
yet been found. So many treasure islands with the buried booty of
the buccaneers lie off the Pacific coast that one does not have
time to stop and exploit them all.
I always take a long look at Tumbez. There is not much to see,--a
low crest of mountains somewhere inland; a long line of sandy beach
bordered by mangroves and _algaroba_ trees; a slit in the fringe of
foliage, which is the mouth of the river; and a monotonous stretch
of watery greenness. Back among the bushes, hidden, is the port.
A few small sail-launches are hovering around, and after a time
the port official comes out to the ship in one of them.
Tumbez is historic. Somewhere among these mangrove trees Pizarro and
his hardy followers penetrated with their boat one day and began
that wonderful march known as the Conquest of Peru. And Tumbez
lies just over the line from Ecuador in what is still Peru and
what was then the Empire of the Incas. Pizarro stretched his iron
claws not only south to Cuzco but north to Quito. But I shall not
recount history. Tumbez may be viewed to revive historic memories,
but also it should claim a lingering look in order to keep alive
a sense of the freshness of Nature. After it there is no green on
the coast,--only rugged mountain masses, sand-hills, and towering
snow-peaks. After Tumbez the coast chains of the Andes and the
sublimity of Nature at rest, frowning but always majestic. Sometimes
the brown cliffs with cavernous mouths rising sheer from the water,
and then the plateau between this wall and the Coast Range. Oftener
the sandy plain stretching from the shore to the lower flanks of the
Cordilleras; beyond, the table-land; and then the lofty profiles
of everlasting hills made loftier to the sight by the one range
having another for its background.
The view of Paita after entering the expansive bay is a vision ranged
by sand-hills. To the left are a hazy mountain, and a long reach
of earth platforms, rocks, sand, and clay, rising longitudinally.
To the right the land mounts to one level with torn sides like
gravel viscera. The whole forms the rim of a bowl. The town hangs
over the water’s edge like a drooping willow tree. The buildings
are cream-colored.
The harbor is full of life. There are many small schooners and
floats for loading cattle, sail rafts, and bobbing canoes with
keg-like anchors. A cloud of whirling sea-gulls hangs over the
bay seeking the spoils of the kitchen refuse. The captain of the
port in brilliant uniform comes out with his crew in their white
caps, blue blouses, and red trousers, as though they were manning a
Roman emperor’s barge. The steamer is received, and then twoscore
rowboats make for the vessel. The pirates board it. They are the
_fleteros_, or boatmen, who must be braved and pacified at every
port on the Pacific, for there is no other means of getting ashore.
“_A tierra, a tierra, Señor_,--To land, to land, Sir,” they cry.
One of them has you before you know it, and you are in the town.
Meantime the women pirates have swarmed over the ship. They have
all kinds of wares for sale, clay drinking-vessels, knick-knacks,
limes and other fruits, and the Panama hats, for the manufacture
of which this district is celebrated. But we may leave them while
we go ashore. There are a custom-house and government warehouse,
good piers and wharves, and a passable hotel. A group of stocky
soldiers, in part police and in part army, are in blue uniforms
with heavy cartridge belts. All their faces are of the Indian type.
The life of Paita is seen in the market-place among the chattering
women venders and their customers. All is animated, good-natured,
obliging, but it is chiefly Indian with very little of the Spanish
trace. The houses are of mortar, adobe, wild cane, or bamboo laths,
some having mud roofs, and they are not bad dwellings. We go on
a trip of exploration and find a really clean town--that is, as
clean as a town can be that is swept by constant sand-storms--and
evidences of good local administration. A hum like all the bees
of the universe proves to be merely the murmur from the open
school-room. There are two churches, one of cathedral architecture
and a more modern one with a wooden steeple like a Congregational
meeting-house in New England. In the plaza a forlorn but determined
effort is made to coax Nature. Some palm blades are enclosed, and
around the borders are scraggy carnations and scrub roses, while in
the centre are Kansas sunflowers. Many of the dwellings also have
climbing vines, dusty yet still green.
Paita is historic in the annals of the West Coast on account of
the legends that have been grouped around it. Most of them relate
to its dryness. The rain is said never to fall. This is not quite
correct, but difficulty is experienced in finding when a shower
may be expected. On my first visit after returning to the ship I
casually mentioned at the dinner-table the information given me
by an old inhabitant that it rained every seven years. The polite
German merchant from Lima corrected me with an apology. “You didn’t
quite understand the gentleman,” he said. “He told you that it
hadn’t rained for seven years and they didn’t look for rain for
another seven years.” After a while the Swiss drummer came aboard
just in time for coffee. “Think of it,” he remarked, “it only rains
in this place once in twenty-one years.” From later and reliable
sources of information I learned that rainfall can be looked for
with a reasonable degree of expectation about every fourteen years
in the Piura desert, though the moisture sometimes dries before it
reaches Paita and the coast. The mean annual temperature is 77°
Fahrenheit.
One of the legendary libels which has clustered around Paita is
that of the endless flock of goats. The basis of this legend is
that the goats are driven down to the port to water, and by the
time they get back in the foothills they are so thirsty they have
to return, and thus the procession is continuous. Seeing a long
flock of them filing through one of the town streets and waiting
in vain for the rear-guard to pass, the legend does seem to have a
basis in truth, but it is a perversion or exaggeration of facts.
Another libel is that the little dwarf palm which is seen at the
top of the highest hill is not a palm at all, but only a slab of
boards painted in imitation, so that the inhabitants may believe
that a tree can grow in that soil. Actually it is a palm and not a
painted post. Moreover, there are real trees. I found a group of
the hardy pepper trees just back of the town, where the foothills
branch off, and also some acacias, or thorn bushes.
But while it is libelled, Paita also accepts some of the stories
which are circulated concerning it. One is that of the English
consul or commercial agent who had lived there forty years. When his
pension and retirement came, he went to his old home in England,
announcing that he would spend his remaining days in the grassy
downs where his boyhood had been passed and would be laid away in
the green cemetery of his native village. In six months he was back
in Paita, declaring that it was the only place in the world in which
to live and die. In the course of nature the old gentleman passed
away at a very advanced age, and was given the largest funeral that
Paita ever had known.
Passing from these legends, Paita, which is now a town of 5,000 or
6,000 inhabitants, has a future as the emporium of northern Peru.
It will be the Pacific gateway to the Panama Canal for the Amazon
country. Its splendid sheltered bay, with all the facilities for
docks and wharves and sea-room for the commercial fleets of a dozen
nations, assures its future greatness. It once was the rendezvous of
the Yankee whaling-fleets. The railroad runs 60 miles back to Piura,
the largest interior city of northern Peru, which has a population
of 15,000. Piura is the centre of the cotton-growing district, and
with the extension of the irrigating systems the cotton product
alone will give Paita a considerable commerce. The total of its
imports and exports is between $1,400,000 and $1,500,000 annually.
The certainty of the railway being extended as far as the Pongo, or
Falls of Manserriche on the Marañon River 400 miles distant, is to
be viewed as one means of diverting the rubber and other commerce
of the Amazon from the Atlantic to the Pacific. The railway may be
built before the Canal is completed.
Paita is the petroleum port. The oil fields lie between it and Tumbez
at Talara. The Pennsylvania oil-drillers whom I met on two visits
were graphically frank. They thought the petroleum possibilities
were great, but they had a poor opinion of the English and French
companies. The sulphur beds are near the Bay of Sechura, and are
connected with the port of Bayovar by a railway thirty miles long.
A night out from Paita and the morning discloses a sandy shore with
round bluffs. After traversing what seems a causeway, there are
rocks with a salt crystalline surface. “Guano,” briefly says the
experienced traveller, “the Lobos Islands.” “But where is the port
of Eten?” “Eten is over there,” pointing to a shell-like side of
the hill. A smashing surf is beating, and nothing can be seen but
the outline of a pier. Finally heavy surf-boats with strong-armed
crews to handle the long oars make their appearance. The passengers
are disembarked by means of crane and basket and are hauled up
to the pier by the same agency. Eten is the outlet for the sugar
and rice of the Lambayeque region, and a railroad spur runs a few
miles back in the interior to Ferrenafe. Its yearly commerce is
$1,300,000. The Yuncas Indian dialect is spoken in this region. It
antedates the Quichua, which was the language of the Inca tribes.
From Eten to Pacasmayo there is a low beach or no beach at all,
with the mountains humped up at the foot of conical jagged peaks,
beyond which are more peaks in regular order, the Coast Range of the
Andes. Pacasmayo bathed in the sunlight and lying at the foot of a
high mountain, presents a very pretty picture. The surf is heavy,
but the _caballitos_, or grass canoes, of the natives, are at home
in the tumbling waves, and the going ashore is not an unpleasant
experience barring the ever present possibility of an upset. The
jetty which aids commerce was built by an American company. Pacasmayo
ships large quantities of sugar from the valleys beyond and also
some rice and fruits. Its oranges are famous. I never saw so many
sea-birds as are in this vicinity. The pelicans hang like clouds,
and often they dash for the water like an inverted whirling pyramid.
Porpoises are numerous, while some seals and whales are found in
these waters.
Pacasmayo was the seaport for the transcontinental trail or route
to the Amazon which was followed both by the natives and the early
Spaniards. The road led over the Cordilleras to Yurimaguas on the
Huallaga River. Various projects have been attempted for the purpose
of securing through steam and river navigation. An American company
has received liberal land grants and other concessions from the
Peruvian government. The traffic is large enough to justify building
a railway line from Cajamarca to connect with one of the existing
coast spurs.
Cajamarca lies across the Continental Divide in the valley of the
Marañon River. It is a town of 12,000 or 15,000 inhabitants, and
is the centre of a large commerce. Freight rates by burros to the
coast, the only present means of transportation, amount to $7 per
ton. Historically Cajamarca has an attractiveness all its own. It
was here that the usurping Inca emperor Atahualpa, who seized his
brother Huascar’s birthright, hospitably received Pizarro, and,
simple savage that he was, propounded the question which puzzled
other untutored minds in other parts of the world during that epoch
of discovery and conquest: By what right could the great man called
the Pope give to the other great man called the King of Spain power
and jurisdiction over land where he himself held no control?
Beyond Pacasmayo is the little sugar-loading port of Huanchaco.
When the vessel puts in there, it is worth while going ashore and
taking the diligencia (stage) or a horse across to Trujillo, for
the road leads through a _huaca_, or ancient burial and treasure
ground of the Incas. There is not much to see except the mud
walls, but the short journey is a good introduction to the old
civilization. Trujillo is a very pretty and active little place on
a small river. The railroad runs down to Salaverry on the jutting
slope of the mountain, the summit of which is marked by a cross.
It is the fourth port of Peru in point of trade, the commerce
being about $2,500,000 each twelvemonth. There is a cemetery which
tourists seek in order to read the inscription, “_Se prohibe pasar
la muralla los botes_--boats are forbidden to pass over the wall.”
From this it may be understood that this graveyard sometimes is
under water. From the sea Salaverry is an open roadstead nestling
by a little cub of a mountain which crouches at the feet of a big
mother mountain. All the time the towering peaks of the Andes are
growing in grandeur.
Chimbote, the next port, as yet has little commercial importance,
because the coal and other mineral wealth of the country back
of it have not been developed. It has great prospects in the
future, possibly as an American naval station, for the Peruvian
government, it is understood, is anxious to grant the United States
certain privileges there. It lies nearly midway between Panama
and Valparaiso. The Bay of Ferrol, of which Chimbote is the port,
is protected by a large number of islets. Its waters are always
tranquil and seem more those of a lake in the interior than of
the sea. The bay measures seven miles by five, and at all points
offers anchorage of the first order. It is deep and a very large
number of vessels of the heaviest tonnage could at all times find
a shelter. Quays and wharves could easily be erected. The railway
extends to Suchiman, a distance of thirty-two miles. It is to be
prolonged to Recuay, and some day may form an important link in
transcontinental communication to the affluents of the Amazon. The
ruins of the Inca aqueduct at Chimbote possess an interest alike
for tourists and for engineers.
Farther down the coast is the landing-place of Supe. I know Supe
well. Five days were passed there once, not, the officials said, in
quarantine, but simply under observation for the bubonic plague. The
hamlet has artesian wells and a lighthouse, due to the public spirit
of the planters. It ships cotton, sugar, cane rum, and rice. It also
has a _huaca_. Several of my fellow-voyagers went ashore and dug in
the graveyard. They came back with their finds,--pottery vessels
looking suspiciously new and some of which, as they afterwards
admitted, they bought from the natives. The visitor is allowed to
dig up the pottery himself. The villagers are hospitable. They made
no objection when the ship’s doctor unearthed a skeleton and left
them a gratification, or hush money, for the privilege of carrying
it off. His bribery was fruitless, for the captain of the _Tucapel_,
complaining already of ill-luck and sailors’ superstitions, gave him
the choice of dropping the skeleton overboard or of being dropped
overboard himself.
Ancon is one of the minor ports sometimes utilized for commerce when
Callao is under quarantine. When the fog rises, a perspective is
disclosed of sandy mountains and of palm trees along the shore. The
bay is a fine one. Seals and whales frequent it without disturbing
the bathers, for Ancon is a resort to which all Lima comes by
taking the railroad for thirty miles through the winding paths that
penetrate and surmount the overlapping white sand-hills. Ancon is
famous historically as the place in which the treaty of peace with
Chile was signed when that victorious nation was exacting terms,
and it is the Treaty of Ancon to which reference is so often made
in the discussion of the still unsettled Tacna-Arica question.
To enter the port of Callao, the vessels follow a semicircular course
around the rocks to get within the shelter of the island of San
Lorenzo and the long sandy tongue of land. It is sometimes stated
that the island of San Lorenzo was split off from the mainland by
an earthquake, but geology gives no support to this assumption. Of
recent years the government has initiated many improvements in the
bay. One of the best is a fine new navy mole, and as the warships
of all nations make Callao their frequent station, this improvement
is appreciated. There are also the _darsena_, or system of wharves
and piers, controlled by the government, and the floating iron dock
which was constructed by a French company. This dock has a capacity
of 5,000 tons. A new contract between the government and the company
in 1905 relieved commerce of many burdens. Callao is a fine port.
The plaza in the centre, with its blending of tropical trees and
statuary, forms a refreshing picture. The custom house is the most
pretentious building, but there are other tasteful structures. The
population of Callao is 30,000, but in the daytime it seems to be
larger, as many of the people doing business at the port live at
Lima, which is only nine miles inland and is connected by an electric
trolley and two steam railways. The foreign commercial colony is
a large one. Much of its social life centres in the English Club.
All the commerce of central Peru passes through Callao. The shipping
is extensive. Enterprising Chinese merchants have established a
direct line to Hongkong via Panama, but the ships flying the English
flag exceed all the other nations. Callao is visited annually by
more than 1,000 coasting-vessels, steamers, and sailing-ships,
with a cargo tonnage of 175,000 to 200,000 for discharge. England
is first in the shipping, Chile next, and Germany third. The
maritime movement is more active than at any port south of Panama
except Valparaiso. With the completion of the Canal its commercial
importance will be prodigiously enhanced. At present nearly half
the trade of Peru pays tribute to its shipping, and the bulk of
the revenues of the country are collected in its custom house. For
the last year for which statistics are given, its foreign commerce
amounted to $16,908,000 out of a total for the whole Republic of
$37,058,000. The imports were about $13,000,000 and the exports
$4,350,000. The coastwise traffic, in which foreign vessels are
permitted to engage, centres in this port.
From Callao south are a large number of open roadsteads which hardly
deserve to be called vessel landings, for they are entirely without
harbor facilities. By means of lighters and small craft, freight
and passengers are loaded and unloaded through the surf. Cerro de
Azul means “blue hills,” but the place is not very blue except for
ship-captains. It is a shipping-port for sugar and cattle which
are driven in from the interior. Lomas is another wretched little
place. Chala is an attractive coast village, chiefly a cattle-loading
port. The region is noted for the production of the granadilla
fruit. The granadilla is similar to the mandrake, or May apple.
Pisco is a thriving port, with an open bay sheltered by rocky
islets. Among these are the Chinchas, or guano islands, which are
yet capable of exploitation. The beach, with smooth rounded hills
in the background, bends like a scythe. There is green vegetation,
which is always grateful, and palm, olive, pine, and other trees.
The beach is possible for bathing, but the sharks are too numerous
to make it enjoyable.
The town lies about a mile back from the port, with which it is
connected by a mule tramway. The commerce exceeds $1,100,000 yearly.
A railroad runs from Pisco to Ica, forty miles. It follows a rich
valley in which there are many fine haciendas, or plantations. The
products are both tropical and temperate. They include cotton,
sugar-cane, alfalfa, and corn. A big cotton field on the edge of
the port looks like a small section of North Carolina. Pisco is
noted especially for the vineyards, which extend to Ica and beyond.
From these grapes is made the wine called Italia. It is enclosed in
queer-looking oval-shaped earthen jars, some of them of enormous
size. The best brandy that is to be had anywhere in South America
takes its name from Pisco. It is a grape brandy. The pure article
is superior to French cognac, but, alas! the art of adulteration
has been learned, and the real distillation of the grape juice is
not often procured.
The district around Pisco is famous for its variety of tropical
fruits, including bananas and _paltas_, or alligator pears. The
Pisco watermelons also are noted. In the markets of Lima they are
what the Georgia watermelons are in the markets of New York. I never
tasted finer ones. The whole of the surrounding country, when it can
be watered, is of enormous fertility. A vast irrigation scheme has
been projected for the region which extends south. There is a high
range of blue-veiled, cloud-shrouded mountains, and then the plain
of Noco, which spreads down to the gentle bluffs that overlap the
sea. This plain parallels the coast as far as Tambo de Mora, and
all of it is capable of irrigation. Tambo de Mora has some ancient
tombs or burial-grounds and high mounds marked with crosses right
on the edge of the village. Its shipments are cotton in bales, and
liquors in casks and barrels.
Mollendo, which is the railway outlet of southern Peru and of
northern and central Bolivia, is one of the three worst ports on the
West Coast. Iquique and Antofagasta farther down dispute the claims,
but it is impossible to see on what grounds. They are positive and
comparative while Mollendo is simply superlatively worst. Seen
from the sea, the town looks well enough, spreading on the flat
slope of the hill, with its party-colored houses glistening in
the sunlight. On a feast day or national holiday the many foreign
flags flying indicate the presence of numerous consuls, which is a
sure indication of commercial importance. It is the getting into
the port through the open roadstead that is terrifying. There is
a causeway, and in order to land it is necessary to pass through
this rocky opening. Sometimes the vessels have to wait several days
before they can transfer their cargo to the lighters.
[Illustration: View of Mollendo Harbor and Railway Yards]
For voyagers there is only one way, and that is to risk life and
the hope of further voyaging to the care of the strong-armed native
rowers. Long practice has enabled them deftly to grab the passenger
from the ship’s ladder and stow him or her in their craft. The
manœuvres are repeated until all who are courageous enough are in
the boat. Then it is a question of breasting the breakers. The first
time I went ashore there were three Peruvian women aboard. One was
an old lady who made the trip to Lima twice a year; the others were
wives of local merchants. The dame began her “Ave Marias.” The
younger women were less devout. Every moment they exclaimed, “_Jesu
Maria_” and “_Madre de Dios_,” but in the tone of a man swearing.
A huge breaker swept over the boat and gave us all a bath. Then
the craft danced on the crest of the next one like a cork. The
aged lady became more calm, though she continued to pray. Later,
when we were safely ashore, she confided to me that she always was
terrified till the first ducking, and after that she felt that the
shore would be reached.
The sea is not always quite so bad, but it cannot be counted on two
hours in succession to be what the natives call “_consolodora_.”
By that they mean, not tranquil or consoling, but comparatively
calm. “Comparatively” is the difference between a raging sea and
a roaring surf.
Around the point from Mollendo is the Bay of Islay, calm, sheltered,
and deep. It was once a place of importance. Now its population
consists of a few fishermen. Everyone inquires why it was not made
the port, to which one answer is that when the railroad was built
the land-owners became exorbitant in their demands, and there
was no way for the line to secure terminal facilities except by
paying more than the road was worth. Another explanation is that
the property-owners of Mollendo, by liberal subsidies and other
inducements, persuaded the railway to stop at the causeway. Whatever
the reason, Mollendo now has vested rights as a port, and the change
could not be made to Islay without encountering the most strenuous
opposition. Consequently it will not be made. Recognizing this,
the government in 1905 undertook harbor improvements for Mollendo
at an initial expense of $500,000.
Mollendo has a kind of double-jointed custom house, the first for
imports into Peru, and the second for imports which are to be
carried through Peruvian territory up to Bolivia. The exports which
come from the interior are chiefly alpaca and other wool. The last
year for which figures are given, these amounted to 71,000 Spanish
quintals, or approximately 7,200,000 pounds. A considerable quantity
of borax and minerals are exported and a small amount of coffee.
The shipments of crude rubber amount to 500,000 pounds. Mollendo
is second only to Callao in its exports and imports, the total
commerce averaging $5,000,000 annually according to the figures
of the Peruvian officials. When the Panama Canal is opened, the
major portion of the shipments from this district, which are light
freight, will have the benefit of competitive ocean rates through
the waterway with the tolls added, or around Cape Horn without
tolls but with heavier coal bills and longer time in transport.
The traffic will tend toward Panama.
CHAPTER VI
LIMA AND THE CORDILLERAS
_Pleasing Historic Memories--Moorish Churches and Andalusian
Art--Pizarro’s Remains in the Cathedral--Transmitted Incidents
of the Earthquake--The Palace, or Government Building--General
Castilla’s Humor--Decay of the Bull-Fight--Cultured
Society of the Capital--Foreign Element--San Francisco
Monastery--Municipal Progress--Chamber of Commerce--A Trip up
the Famous Oroya Railway--Masterwork of Henry Meiggs--Heights
and Distances--Little Hell--The Great Galera Tunnel--Around
Oroya--Railroad to Cerro de Pasco Mines--American Enterprise
in the Heart of the Andes._
Pleasant Lima! Fairest of transplanted capitals! The Moorish memories
of Andalusia linger over the City of the Kings which Pizarro founded.
The stern monuments of the Inquisition are yet with her. Seek them
in the Senate Chamber, where the inquisitors sat in judgment;
search for them just over the bridge, where the doomed victims
after condemnation awaited their fate; or in the Plaza Mayor, where
the _autos de fe_ were celebrated and the condemned were burned or
hanged. Reflect, the last victim of the stake was a woman, Madame
Castro. She was burned, in 1736, “for being a Jewess.” She would
talk heterodoxy!
Historic Lima! Seat of the viceroyalty; throbbing heart and
scourging soul of the Spanish colonial empire; home of the Royal
Audiencia, centre of law-giving and delegated authority, whence the
Ordenazas--the minute code of government and administration alike
for subjugated savage and freebooting colonist--were promulgated for
all the vast territory from Panama to the Straits of Magellan and
from the Pacific far beyond the Andes to the Amazon and La Plata!
But the glory of rulers perishes. Few can name their quota of those
forty-four viceroys of Spain who held the sceptre on the Pacific
coast. After Pizarro, the Conquistador, of the iron fist and will
of steel, and as his superior, came--who? Blasco Nuñez Vela was the
first of the viceroys,--a harsh, haughty, obstinate servant of the
Crown, whose blundering nearly overwhelmed Spain with the sunset
of the splendid colonial empire at its very dawn. Who came between
and who was the last?
The sentimental antiquarian grieves over the destruction of the
viceregal residence of this last delegated ruler. It lay in a grove
of palms and orange trees under the shadow of Mt. San Cristobal,
with the ancient garden of the Descalzos, or Barefoot Friars,
neighboring it. The mansion was mediæval and tropical. But the big
brewery encroached on it. The horses and mules of the big brewery
had to be stabled; the beer wagons had to have room. Mr. Champion
Jones, the English manager of the industry, gave a breakfast to
foreign and resident society one Sunday morning. We revived the
memories of the viceroys over an exquisite French menu, and some of
us carried away a few mementos. The next day the vandal destroyer
pulled down the walls. The mules are stabled there now.
Yet there is cheer for the sentimentalist who mourns over departed
glories. The mansion never really was the residence of the viceroy.
It was only the bower of his favorite mistress, who dispensed
hospitality and received the recognition that the stern society of
the times gave to power and place without questioning the private
morals of the high and mighty. Besides, it was long after the
Inquisition, for the viceroyalty lasted till the young years of
the nineteenth century.
But the fourscore churches, with their minarets and towers, their
tessellated mosaics and blending of bright colors,--they are
Andalusian adaptations of Moorish art. Very shabby are most of
them and not kept in good repair. There are too many mosque-like
worship-places, and too few devout and open-pursed worshippers.
From the roof of the American Legation I counted thirty of these
churches. The artist might preserve all the charm of antiquity
and yet satisfy the craving for the picturesque if the means were
provided and the disposition to do it existed. These edifices are
of Spain in the colonial epoch, and Spain never repaired church
or castle or dwelling. Let them rust and fall apart, for have not
crumbling stone and fading colors a graphicness of their own? Yet
with these decaying and neglected Moorish churches in Lima the ruin
discloses too much that is tawdry, too much veneer.
The Cathedral is modern, not moth-eaten or weather-rusted within
or without. It took the place of the old structure, which was
destroyed by earthquake. The interior is tile-paved and clean; there
are antique mural paintings, fine examples of wood-carving in the
pulpit, solid silver altar fixings, the money value of which the
guide recites with swelling pride; and, greatest of all memorials,
the bones of Francisco Pizarro.
On my first visit to Lima, in the hurry of business matters and
social engagements, I indulged in no sightseeing. The hotel runner
who was piloting me about was puzzled. The Cathedral was only a block
distant. “Won’t you go to the Cathedral,” he said, “and see the
bones of _Mister_ Pizarro?” The lingering and respectful emphasis
on the “Mister” was almost too much for my gravity. The Pizarros,
as my recollection runs, were swineherds, and the appellation Don
never was theirs. But if respect were lacking for their family tree
in their lifetime, no descendant could complain of irreverence or
want of courtesy in this volunteer guide who sorrowed because of
my apparent indifference regarding the late Mr. Pizarro.
On a subsequent visit I went to view the remains. The caretaker
irreverently draws the curtains from the niche in the little chapel
of the Virgin. I am sure the hotel runner would not do so. But
habit in satisfying tourist curiosity has made the Cathedral guide
a showman. The remains are in a marble casket. The skeleton is well
preserved. The frame is that of a big man; the brains are kept apart
in a jar. Rolled in a metal case is the parchment certificate of
authenticity. This is what was the mighty conqueror, the most heroic
of the Conquistadores, the peer of the indomitable Cortez. Shall
we muse curiously, or shall we give way to the physical sensation
of being in the anatomical museum of a medical school? It depends
on the temperament.
The Cathedral has more than Pizarro’s remains. It possesses the
manuscript records of the Municipality of Lima. They are bound in
modern calf, though the original parchments are sear and rusty
and yellow. There is also a modern library which is open to the
public. I found among its attractions, in one of the stairway
vestibules, a unique painting on the wall typifying life in Lima
in the sixteenth century. It represents a scene in the plaza. It
pictures the gay cavalier of Spain in his fancy habiliments; the
sedate matron demurely wearing the historic mantilla; the maid in
the same head-dress, but coquettish and answering the sly glances
of the cavalier; the native Indian race in groups of individuals;
women market-venders; the Indians from the country with the llamas
and burros,--all as we may guess it was in the sixteenth century
and much of it as it is to-day with the native race.
[Illustration: Interior of Cathedral, Lima]
Lima’s earthquake record is a continuous one from 1683, when the
great trembling was experienced, until the present day. One of the
most memorable of these seismic disturbances was that of October,
1746. The memoirs of the viceroy, Count Superunda, tell a curious
story of those days of wonder and terror and the scenes enacted,--how
debtors sought for their creditors in order to pay them; how
enemies became reconciled and embraced one another in fraternal
forgiveness; how slanderers on their knees besought the pardon of
those whom they had slandered; and how courteous cavaliers, seeking
injured husbands who until then had been ignorant of their wives’
transgressions, asked forgiveness, which the injured husband, in
spite of his surprise, would grant with an effusive embrace. A
strange picture of morals--ten years after the Inquisition had
burned Madame Castro for being a Jewess!
The balconies and arcades of Lima, the _façades_ and graceful arches,
are Andalusian, yet there is a trace of Greece in the adaptations
of Doric and Ionic columns. The _paseos_, or walks and drives, the
parks and gardens, in their grace and symmetry are Moorish again;
so are the kiosks.
The Palace, or Government Building, which is to be supplemented by
a new structure, is neither archaic nor modern. It is somewhere
midway between two epochs. The tree which Pizarro planted, a fig, is
in one of the inner courts. I saw the tree, but was more interested
in the pictures in the anteroom of the Foreign Office--old prints
of American subjects. One of them was of Washington crossing the
Delaware.
In the Palace is a portrait of Joaquin Castilla, one of the sturdy
characters in Peruvian history. He was a Spanish soldier without
education but of great natural ability who joined the patriots in
the struggle for independence and afterwards became President. He
had the humor of Sancho Panza. Once a delegation of women waited
on him. The request they had to make related to some matter of
administration to which an answer would be embarrassing. The old
warrior, though he was of low birth, had all the courtesy of a
Castilian hidalgo. “Why, ladies,” he said, “you chatter like birds,
all trying to talk at once. Now let’s have silence and let one
of you speak for all.” A pause. “Let the oldest lady speak.” The
tradition is that the delegation at once filed out and bothered
the grim soldier no more.
I have encountered many evidences of poverty in Lima, but the
poorer classes seem to be contented. When the nights are chilly,
they gather their blankets or shawls around them, according to the
sex, and huddle in the Plaza. When the day is bright, they bask in
the sunshine. The beggars are a nuisance in their obtrusiveness,
but they are tolerated.
On a down voyage a party of young foreigners persuaded the captain
to hurry the ship into Callao Saturday night, so that they could
get ashore and go over to Lima to attend the Sunday bull-fight. The
spectacle did not meet their expectations, which had been whetted
by what they had seen in Spain. Once the bull-fight in Lima was
a recognized social institution and was very brilliant, but its
glory has faded. Humane impulses have found place in the municipal
regulations, and the horrible spectacle of the bull goring a few
poor old horses is not permitted. This takes away much of the
excitement. The bull-fight has to be tolerated, and the President of
the Republic attends the function given in his honor, but I noticed
in the newspaper accounts that it was an indifferent affair. In
time the bull-fight will entirely disappear. The races, which are
popular, will take its place.
The lottery will stay longer. The drawings are held on the public
square every week. The lottery is legalized, and a portion of the
proceeds goes to the charitable institutions. That is why it is so
difficult to grapple with this evil which demoralizes all classes.
Lima always has been noted for its cultured society. The Spanish
spoken is the purest heard in South America. It is as pure as that
of Andalusia or Madrid. Music, art, and literature,--these always
have had their place. At the hospitable board of Dr. Isaac Alzamora,
the former Vice-President, the wittiest host in Peru, I met many
persons whose talents and accomplishments hardly could be equalled.
The life of the rich families is refined, and notwithstanding its
seclusion comes nearer to the American ideal of home than anywhere
else in Spanish America.
Lima has two leading clubs. The National is the more conservative,
and is where all that is solid in business, politics, and
professional life is met. The Union Club is composed of the younger
element, and one of its attractions is that more liberty is permitted
in gambling.
The foreign society of Lima I found to be more in sympathy with
the native society than almost any other place. Its dean, and the
most popular foreigner, is Mr. Richard Neill, for twenty years
the Secretary of the American Legation, affectionately called Don
Ricardo by his Peruvian friends. French, Germans, Italians, even the
English, find something in common with the Peruvians. The British
colony is numerous enough to be split into factions. The Scotch
element, very masterful in business, predominates.
Among the Europeans the Italians are by far the most numerous. They
have very largely the retail trade and they are property-holders
in an unusual degree. A Little Italy lies across the Rimac River.
A very large Chinese population exists in Lima. Much of it is the
second and third generation. Originally the Chinese were brought to
Peru as contract coolie laborers, but of late years the immigration
has been of a normal kind. The Chinese of this period have discarded
the queue and have adopted the conventional dress. Some wealthy
Chinese merchants have an appreciable influence in the commerce
of the country. These rich merchants are antagonized by another
faction which objects to their assumptions of superiority. This
element also is getting rich. China keeps a Consul-General in Peru
with semi-diplomatic functions, and usually he has enough to do.
I went one day in company with Minister Dudley to call on one of the
notable figures in the cultured life of Lima. This was Dr. Ricardo
Palma, Director of the National Library, the learned author of an
instructive History of the Inquisition and of many other books,
both historical and literary. Dr. Palma, during the war with Chile,
lost his own library and had the anguish of seeing the accumulated
historic treasures of the National Library sacked by the victorious
invaders, but he set to work at once to form a new collection. He
has gathered together 400 manuscripts, and the Library itself is
the best arranged and most easily accessible that can be consulted
on the West Coast.
The University of San Marcos also has played a notable part in the
intellectual life of Peru.
Of the many churches, convents, and monasteries, the most interesting
is that of San Francisco. I went there one afternoon with Mr.
Alejandro Garland, the best-informed man in Peru, to learn in a
scant half-day something of the ancient institution, though a week
would not have been long enough to wander through the cloisters.
[Illustration: Church of San Francisco, Lima]
[Illustration: Church of San Augustin, Lima]
The monastery covers several squares. The contemplative, meditative
life of the Middle Ages no longer exists. The friars are engaged
chiefly in charitable work. The jovial priest who was assigned
to be our guide enjoyed having visitors. He explained that the
incandescent electric lights had been adopted because they were
cheaper than candles, and the Order, being poor, had to economize.
But the monks in their cells are still restricted to the tallow
dips. He courteously asked us to take afternoon tea with him. Here
certainly was an innovation. We hesitated, but he pressed us so
heartily that there was no escape. When the bell sounded, we passed
into the refectory, were seated on a wooden bench alongside the
board table, and were served with coffee and a slice of bread. The
friars filed in, bowed politely, and took their places. Some of
them looked with evident surprise at our host and his guests, but
none with reproof. To ourselves our presence seemed incongruous,
yet as a variation of the monotonous routine of their daily life
it did not appear unwelcome to the Franciscans. We chatted in an
undertone for a while, and on our departing the monks all rose and
bowed. My companion, though a _persona grata_ to the monastery and
well acquainted with the priests, was as much surprised at our novel
experience as myself. He never had heard of a layman or a visitor
taking afternoon tea or coffee with the friars.
The patron saint of Lima was Father Francis Solano, the founder of
the Franciscan Order in Peru, and the missionary who went through
toils unutterable in seeking to Christianize the Indians. I was shown
the cell in which he died, and then (a somewhat rare privilege)
was permitted to see his skull. Newspapers are received within the
walls of the monastery, because, as the good father explained to
me, in these stirring days it is necessary to be _en rapport_ with
what is going on in the outside world in order to do good works.
Some of the friars read English.
[Illustration: Independence Monument, Lima]
Until recently Lima was not a progressive municipality. It preserved
the old Spanish traditions of dirt and indifference. But it had
an awakening. Public works, such as befit a city of its political
and commercial importance, were initiated. A loan for municipal
improvements was taken by the local banks. This was gratifying,
but the improvements themselves were more gratifying. The town is
becoming an industrial centre, with many small factories as the
basis.
A very important factor in the progress is the Lima Chamber of
Commerce, whose members include all the leading merchants, both
native and foreign. The Chamber has exercised a marked influence on
the fiscal policy of Peru, and the Government with its coöperation
has been able to strengthen the credit of the country abroad and to
carry through the measures which are the basis of the commercial and
industrial revival that has been enjoyed. Without the aggressive
support of this body the establishment of the gold standard scarcely
would have been secured. Its advice with regard to the negotiation
of commercial treaties to which Peru aspires is valuable, and its
suggestions concerning administrative reforms in the customs usually
receive respectful attention. I do not know any nation where the
business man in public affairs--not in partisan politics--fulfils
his proper functions so well as in Peru, and this is done through
the concentration in the Chamber of Commerce.
In the public works municipal sanitation is a leading feature. That
is good. The death rate of Lima, in spite of a healthful climate,
is disproportionately high. The returns show a birth rate of 28.37
as compared with a death rate of 37.43. The ignorance of the poorer
classes of the proper means of living is not the only cause of this
high death proportion, but they have to be taught hygiene, and the
municipality has to lead the way.
The climate of Lima merits the praises given it, yet the Winter
season from June to September is raw and disagreeable and especially
bad for rheumatism. Tuberculosis claims many victims. The legend
is that rain never falls, that the dews and the moisture from the
clouds, which is not precipitated, and the fogs on the coast, take
the place of rain. This is not quite true. Sometimes there is actual
rain and sometimes a drizzle. Minister Dudley and I had the proof
two successive evenings, when we were out to dinner and had our
high hats spoiled through our failure to carry umbrellas.
Peru, as far as the main Cordillera of the Andes, is bisected by the
Central Railway, which runs from the seaport of Callao to Oroya,
following the course of the Rimac River. The distance is 138 miles.
In these later days of mechanical triumphs it is still possible to
declare that this railroad is the engineering marvel of the world.
It is an often told story, but one that bears re-telling.
The name of Henry Meiggs in the Yankee mind is vaguely identified
with something big in South America and with something wrong in the
United States. Meiggs was a fugitive financier from California. He
had been the treasurer of San Francisco County, had loaned the public
funds to his friends, and when they failed to pay up had been forced
to flee as a defaulter. He afterwards made good the defalcation. He
first went to Chile, but in a few years settled in Peru. He built
the Southern Railway from Mollendo to Lake Titicaca, which is itself
a marvellous work. But his fame as a captain of industry and his
reputation as a benefactor to Peru rest on the Central Railway.
Meiggs was not an engineer. He was a financial genius with a bold
imagination and daring mind. He had the capacity to get other men
of genius, among them the Polish engineer Malinowski, to carry out
his ideas on the side of construction. He could win the confidence
of the money-bags of London and float South American bonds at good
prices, when the countries issuing those bonds could not give them
away.
In 1869 Henry Meiggs signed the contract with the Peruvian government
to build the Oroya Railway for $29,000,000 in bonds, which he took
and floated at 79, thus making the actual price $22,000,000. He
carried the railroad construction as far as Chicla, 88 miles, and
built the great Galera tunnel ready for the rails, though they were
not laid through it till years after his death, when the extension
of the road from Chicla was carried to the terminus at Oroya by the
Peruvian Corporation. The road climbs to its greatest elevation in
a distance of 88 miles without a single down grade. The ascent is
from the tropical ocean border to everlasting snow, through the
sublimest scenery that the eyes of man ever dwelt on. There are
curves, tunnels, bridges, viaducts, switchbacks, almost without
number.
[Illustration: Scene on the Oroya Railway, Chicla Station]
What the railway is as a marvel of engineering construction can
be exhibited in no better way than by a simple table giving the
distances and heights above sea-level and the “V’s” and “V V’s,”
or switchbacks and double switchbacks.
DISTANCES AND ELEVATION ABOVE SEA-LEVEL OF THE CENTRAL RAILWAY OF
PERU
+----------------------------------------+----------+-----------+
| Name of station | Distance | Elevation |
| | in miles | in feet |
+----------------------------------------+----------+-----------+
| Callao | 0.0 | 8.7 |
| Lima | 7.7 | 499.9 |
| Santa Clara | 18.3 | 311.7 |
| Chosica | 33.6 | 2,800.6 |
| Cocachacra | 45.0 | 4,622.6 |
| San Bartolomew, station and switchback | 47.1 | 4,959.4 |
| Agua de Verrugas, bridge | 51.9 | 5,839.4 |
| Cuesta Blanca, tunnel | 52.8 | 6,001.1 |
| Surco | 56.5 | 6,660.9 |
| Challapa, bridge | 61.8 | 7,504.1 |
| Matucana | 63.9 | 7,788.8 |
| Quebrada Negra, bridge | 65.5 | 8,054.1 |
| Tambo de Viso, bridge | 68.8 | 8,706.5 |
| Chaupichaca, bridge | 73.0 | 9,472.6 |
| Tamboraque, switchback | 74.9 | 9,826.9 |
| Aruri, switchback | 76.3 | 10,094.5 |
| San Mateo | 78.7 | 10,534.1 |
| Infiernillo, bridge, and tunnels | 80.4 | 10,919.9 |
| Cacray, double switchback | 81.6 | 11,033.1 |
| Anchi, bridge | 83.9 | 11,306.4 |
| Copa, bridge | 84.8 | 11,638.8 |
| Chicla, lower switchback | 88.0 | 12,215.5 |
| Chicla, upper switchback | 90.0 | 12,697.1 |
| Casapalca | 95.5 | 13,606.2 |
| Galera, tunnel | 106.4 | 15,665.0 |
| Yauli | 120.5 | 13,420.8 |
| Oroya | 138.0 | 12,178.7 |
+----------------------------------------+----------+-----------+
I travelled up the road tourist fashion in the regular passenger
train, but that gives only a faint idea of the wonders of the
railway or the splendor of the scenery. The down trip is the best for
observation. This can be taken on an open flat car which is used for
the bags of ore. Sometimes the railway officials transport favored
guests part of the way down in hand cars, but while the experience
is thrilling enough to satisfy the craving of the most exacting
nature, the pace is too swift to give a chance for observation. I
repeat, the proper way is on an open freight car.
[Illustration: Scene on the Oroya Railway, San Bartholomew Switchback
and Grade]
The tunnel and bridge, or viaduct it might be called, like a cobweb
reaching from the gorge up to the sky, which generally is most
sought after for experiences, is Infiernillo, or Little Hell, also
called the Devil’s Bridge. The elevation here is 10,920 feet. The
road plunges out of one tunnel and across the great cobweb of steel
and iron into another tunnel.
The principal station is Casapalca. It is here that the biggest
smelting-works are located. Both silver and copper are treated.
Black Mountain Peak is the dominating spur in this neighborhood. Its
height is 17,600 feet. San Bartolomew and Verrugas are the places
that have a sad fame for the peculiar malady known as _verrugas_,
or bleeding warts. It is a deadly and malignant disease of the
blood, is of native origin and confined to a limited area. Its
ravages were frightful among the laborers who built the road, but
it rarely is heard of now.
The most glorious views of the valleys shut in by the colossal
precipices are at San Mateo and Yauli. On the up trip, until
Chosica is reached, the valley of the Rimac is broad and regular, a
panorama of green and yellow and white,--alfalfa, corn, sugar-cane,
and cotton. Here, too, the ruined terraces on the steep mountain-sides,
vestiges of the Inca system of aqueducts and irrigation,
are numerous.
Mt. Meiggs, 17,575 feet high, is the marker for the Galera tunnel.
The mountain is snow-clad. Ordinarily the flagstaff on the peak is
visible. The tunnel is three-quarters of a mile long. On the down
trip I noticed that we were four minutes in passing through it. The
time, it might be supposed, would seem longer than it is, yet my
guess was three minutes, and I was surprised when the watch showed a
minute more. The cold air draughts were invigorating, like tempered
blasts from an ice furnace, and there were to me no disagreeable
sensations. I merely wondered when and how we would get out.
Many persons who take this journey complain of the _siroche_, or
mountain sickness, the nausea and headache destroying their pleasure.
For those who suffer from this distemper a good plan is to allow
two days for the trip and stop over night at one of the stations
half-way up, Matucana being the most convenient.
Night trains never have been run on the line, but this innovation may
be made. Practical railroad men say that there is no more danger in
the night than in the day, for in the daytime, with so many abrupt
curves and tunnels, it never is possible to see very far ahead, and
the locomotive headlight might really be an advantage. The chief
trouble of the railway management is in preventing landslides, but
the greatest damage has been wrought by cloudbursts.
The Central Railway was built in order to cheapen the transportation
of the ores and the minerals to the seaboard. The bulk of the traffic
always will be in one direction, though with the development of
the Andine region a considerable increase in agricultural products
and general merchandise in both directions may be expected. The
management has not always been alive to its own opportunities as
a freight carrier. Various companies formed to exploit the coal
deposits were discouraged by the railway officials on the ground
that the railroad would be put to too much trouble in hauling the
output if the mines proved successful!
Oroya is snuggled in among four _cañons_, which branch off almost at
the points of the compass. There are gigantic granite and limestone
wedges which split the town into triangles and have resulted in two
distinct villages on the bends of the river. The elevation of Oroya
is 12,179 feet, but the peaks around are easily a thousand feet
higher, and a climb up one of them gives the most splendid view of
mountain grandeur that I have seen in any quarter of the world. I
have pleasing memories of several days spent in this neighborhood
in amateur explorations.
Oroya is a good place in which to observe the native life, both
that of the _cholos_, or mixed race, and the pure Indians. All that
is characteristic of civilization or partial civilization in the
heart of the Andes may be seen here. The Quichua, or aboriginal
Indian race, seems to have preserved its identity side by side
with the tincture of Spanish or Caucasian blood which has produced
the _cholo_. They appeared to me a reasonably industrious people,
especially the women.
Oroya is the mining-centre for all this district and is the outlet
for Cerro de Pasco. It used to be a vastly interesting trip by
the highway from Oroya to Cerro de Pasco, and the interest is not
greatly lessened now that the American syndicate which controls
the copper and silver mines has built a railway 87 miles long. The
railroad follows the _cañon_ for 15 miles, and then strikes across
the great level plain, or pampa, of Junin, which it leaves at the
foothills in order to climb up to Cerro de Pasco. The elevation of
this mining-town is 14,200 feet.
A pyramid on this plain catches the eye, and the inquiry is made as
to its significance. It is the historic monument marking the last
battle between the Spanish forces and the patriots in the war for
Independence. The town of Junin near the lake of the same name,
while it is one of mud huts and grass-thatched dwellings, is clean
and pleasing in appearance.
[Illustration: Pyramid of Junin]
I never met quite so many weather changes as were encountered in
riding across this pampa of Junin. We were in the midst of clouds
so thick that they wet us through. Just ahead was a broad level of
sunlight, and beyond that a driving snow-storm, and we found the
sunlight and the snow exactly as they had appeared. There was a
hail-storm which we also saw ahead of us. When it was pelting us,
we could look back and through the snow see the sunlit plain and
then the violet mantle of the clouds.
Cerro de Pasco is a cold place, but the Montana people who are
engaged in developing the mines say that they like the climate, and
they compare it approvingly to that of their own State. Heretofore
the silver output has been the great source of the wealth of this
region. It is a story of the romance of always romantic mining
history. It was in 1630 that an Indian shepherd, having made a fire
to cook his humble meal and warm his hands, found the stones
covered with silver threads. That was the beginning of the silver
mining, and since then 450,000,000 ounces are known to have been
taken out. The quantity was probably much larger, because the Spanish
tax of one-fifth was so heavy that it put a premium on evading it.
The American capitalists who invested in the Cerro de Pasco region
did so chiefly with the purpose of developing the copper deposits.
By the burros and other pack animals the freight for the copper
ore down to the railway at Oroya amounted to $40 per ton. That is
why the first move of the Americans was to build the railway to
connect Cerro de Pasco with Oroya. The coal outcroppings also gave
encouragement that the smelters which were erected could secure cheap
fuel. The money actually paid out in buying the mining properties
and in building the railway was understood to be $8,000,000. The
probability is that at the present time the cash investment is not
less than $10,000,000, and the capitalists are considering another
outlay to the amount of $15,000,000, to build a railway paralleling
the Oroya road down to the coast, unless the London directors of
the Peruvian Corporation make satisfactory traffic arrangements for
freighting the copper and the bullion turned over to their line.
Should the yet untouched mineral wealth of the Cerro de Pasco
district prove a fraction of what the mining-experts have declared
it to be, the output of ore will be only in its initial stages when
the interoceanic canal is opened and the advantages of this route
are set off against the long course around Cape Horn to Liverpool
or New York. American private enterprise in the heart of the Andes
will respond to American national enterprise on the Isthmus of
Panama, and the pleasing historic memories of Lima will be blended
with the more pleasing prospect of the Cordilleras’ contribution
to the material progress of Peru and her people.
CHAPTER VII
AREQUIPA AND LAKE TITICACA
_Capital of Southern Peru--Through the Desert to the Coast--Crescent
Sand-hills--A Mirage--Down the Cañon--Quilca as a Haven of
Unrest--Arequipa Again--Religious Institutions--Prevalence
of Indian Race--Wool and Other Industries--Harvard
Observatory--Railroading over Volcanic Ranges--Mountain Sickness
at High Crossing--Branch Line toward Cuzco--Inambari Rubber
Regions--Puno on the Lake Shore._
Arequipa is the commercial, ecclesiastical, and political capital of
southern Peru. It has a university, several colleges, an Institute
of Agriculture, and a School of Arts. A fairer city never bloomed
in volcanic desert. The valley of the river Chili is so vividly
green that it seems alive. The snow-cap of the extinct crater of
El Misti is ever in sight, while the fleecy dome of Coropuna and
the glistening pinnacle of Chachani stand out like sentinels in
white robes, all of them above 19,000 feet. Their icy breath is
seldom felt, for Arequipa enjoys the balmiest climate that mortal
could long for. It banishes pulmonary diseases. Life is gentle in
this soft atmosphere, yet some persons complain that the night air
chills the marrow. The mean temperature is 57° Fahrenheit, but
water freezes in June and July.
Arequipa, which is in south latitude 16° 24′, is 7,500 feet above
sea-level, about the altitude of the City of Mexico. The railway
from Mollendo winds along the shore and through the volcanic soil
for 106 miles to reach the city, climbing almost spirally. This
road was the first experience of Henry Meiggs as a railway builder
in Peru. He took it as a subcontractor, and spent $500,000 in
supplying fresh water to the laborers and the animals during the
eighteen months which its construction required. The length of the
entire main trunk from Mollendo to Lake Titicaca is 330 miles.
A better idea of the region which lies between Arequipa and the
coast is had by the slower mode of travel with horse or mule. I made
this journey in company with two others during one of those periods
when the port of Mollendo was closed on account of the bubonic
plague, and when in order to get out of the country it was necessary
to reach the little port of Quilca forty miles north of Mollendo.
Leaving the railway at Vitor, an hour’s run from Arequipa, we took
the animals and started across the sand-hills to the ranch of Santa
Rosa. It is the only habitation in fifteen miles, for there is no
possibility of human dwelling amid those dunes. Stone heaps have
been placed at various points to mark the route which is followed
by the llamas and the burros and the occasional wayfarer, but the
frequent wind-storms cover the mounds and they are not always to
be discerned.
It is the region of the famous moving sands and travelling hills.
An experienced desert traveller, if he should be without a pocket
compass, might “sense” the direction for the first half of the
distance from the contour of the mountain range on the horizon.
After that his danger of losing himself would not be so great,
for there is an ascent to the top of a ridge of hills, and the
landmarks here are more stable. The descent is down the flank of the
_barranca_, or ravine, into the river valley. This is diversified
by several pretty _fincas_, or farms. The dwellings are of adobe
or bamboo. Alfalfa is raised and is the common fodder. There are
also vineyards, some of them quite extensive.
We put up for the night at the _finca_ of the former prefect of
the Department. The owner of the estate was away, but the Indian
tenants in charge gave us the hospitality of their dwellings,--the
privilege of spreading our blankets in one of the cabins while they
prepared for us the always appetizing broth, or _chupé_.
We were up with the stars in the morning, for fifty miles had to be
covered in order to reach the ocean, and there was no intervening
shelter, no camping-place,--only billowy sand-plain, rugged ravine,
and sombre _cañon_. One of the Indian lads acted as our guide till
we had wound our way up through the steep ravine and again out on
the open. Then he gave us some hints to keep from losing our way
and bade us “_adios_.”
The pampa was spotted with many curious formations of white sand in
half-moon and crescent form, geometrical figures, as the whims of
the winds had willed it. Some of these had gaps or circular passes;
others could be passed by circling around the foothills, while still
others could be surmounted only by a straight-away ride ahead to
the crest and down the slope. The sand was packed so tight that
it withstood the animal’s heels as readily as a paved road. This
vista of crystal crescent sand-hills impressed me as of a gigantic
Turkish scymitar beginning in the limitless desert and stretching
to the unbounded horizon.
There was no vegetation, not even a blade of tuft grass or of the
common cactus, nothing for the sight except the half horns of sand
and the unbroken level of the pampa stretching ahead to the sloping
mountain wall which seemed to lie straight across the path. But
though the plain was absolutely barren, experiments have shown that
this sterile soil is capable of producing in infinite variety, if
only it is given water. The rain, if it could fall, would bring the
oasis in a single season. Provide artesian wells, bring the snow
rivulets down from Coropuna by the methods of modern irrigation,
and this desert becomes carpeted with the verdure of growing green
grain and yellow ripening fruit.
In bargaining at Arequipa for the animals, we had been fortunate
enough to secure cargo mules for our baggage and good horses for
ourselves. At every level stretch the horses took the bridle and
cantered off, racing for miles until checked by the riders. Then,
after a few minutes of slower pace, again the canter and the
exhilaration of the Arab on his Sahara steed. In this manner the
snow-peaks of Coropuna and the crystal apex of Chachani were lost
to sight before the mid-day rest, and the sheet of glistening water
ahead ceased to fret us or puzzle us to determine how a lake came
there. It was the mirage, the quavering effect of the hot and dry
atmosphere on the white sands.
When the base of the mountain spur was reached, we found it an
easy climb to the ridge, and then plunged down a long ravine and
up again to another plain partly shut in by the hills. The woman
member of our party claimed the privilege of her sex to question
and doubt. She was sure we were getting lost. The glint of the
sea far off did not reassure her. She insisted that we were going
in the wrong direction. We should be headed southwest in order to
reach the coast, and she had satisfied herself that we were going
northeast. I took out my pocket compass to convince her. Our actual
direction was north. We had made one turn, and the gorge through
which we had to descend in order to reach the sea required another
turn, but she maintained to the end that we might have got there
by some other route.
The _cañon_ had many crevasses, clefts, and gashes, but none of
these was wide enough to turn us aside, and after a time we reached
the willow marshes and forded the Vitor River. Then a very steep
climb to the hill, which was crowned by the church, and we were in
Quilca. The _caleta_, or cove, which constitutes the port, lies
below, and it took a half-hour’s winding ride to get there.
The vessel for Callao which we had hoped would be waiting had put
in and out four hours earlier. When another ship would be along,
no one could tell. The last passengers who had come overland had
waited for two weeks. Every day we climbed the outjutting cliff and
scanned the sea, watched some vessels go by without heeding our
signals, and said harsh things of them. Then we dug into some of
the aboriginal huts. The work was hot and not interesting enough to
be pursued. The villagers had some relics, but the most valuable
ones and those which indicated the highest lost civilization had
come from the interior. Mica deposits abounded in the vicinity,
and a passing American miner had posted up the legal denunciation,
or claim, to them. The copper and gold mines were a hundred miles
back somewhere in the red volcanic hills.
The people were a kindly folk, and a vacant house was put at our
disposal. They loaned us chairs, and our own sleeping-bags and
blankets were all the rest of the furniture that was necessary.
But the fleas! Neither Texas, Havana, nor San Francisco ever bred
fleas equal to those in the sands of Quilca. Fortunately for us a
big shipment of cattle was coming down from the interior, and the
owner had more influence with the steamship company than we had.
I had spent a small fortune in cables. Mr. Meier, our consul at
Mollendo, had reënforced me, and our minister in Lima was enlisting
the full influence of the government. But all this would have been
without avail if the steamship managers had not decided to put in
and take the cattle away and the waiting passengers with them.
Consequently instead of a fortnight our stay was less than a week.
But back to Arequipa. It is a blending of old and new towns, a
grouping of sandstone houses and eucalyptus or camphor trees
surrounded by greenish-white hills. The streets are fairly wide,
and have open drainage, which is facilitated by the slope. They are
not kept too clean. Blue is the dominant color of the dwellings
and other buildings. Ambitious and somewhat gaudy decoration is
attempted in the way of painting the outside walls. The subject and
the execution generally are more novel than artistic. The place
has a peculiarity that I did not note elsewhere. The _tiendas_,
or stores, the dwellings of the poorer classes and of some of the
fairly well-to-do, are tent-shaped with whitewashed mortar roofs.
These give to the section of the town lying along the river the look
of a permanent camp. The public institutions, the Carmen Monastery,
the hospitals, are shut in by mortar walls. The thermal springs of
iron and sulphur are a few miles distant at Yura.
[Illustration: View of Arequipa and the Crater of El Misti]
Arequipa is a city of churches. One side of the plaza of San
Francisco is taken up by the Cathedral. It is a new structure,
rebuilt after the earthquake of 1868, and was consecrated in 1893.
It is roomy, but not notable as an example of ecclesiastical
architecture. There are twin spires, and an arch at either end, the
front being of smooth white lava rock. The Cathedral is not meant to
be an earthquake tempter; that is the reason for its simplicity of
construction. Other churches are much more mediæval and therefore
much more picturesque. One of them has been partly wrecked by a
seismic disturbance.
Arequipa has been noted for its religious intolerance. This has
entered into political affairs and has made it the centre of
reactionary influences. Sometimes this reactionism has been the
basis of revolutions or attempted revolutions against governments of
liberal tendencies. But this spirit is slowly yielding. Ex-President
Edward Romaña, who, notwithstanding his education at a Jesuit college
in England, antagonized the reactionary clerical influence, has an
estate near Arequipa and makes it his home. His administration was
of immense good in carrying Peru through a critical period.
Despite its inheritance of Spanish blood and customs, Arequipa still
illustrates the predominance of the Indian type. Natives with their
burros and llamas fill the streets, gossiping and sometimes working.
The official and higher classes show their Spanish origin. In the
morning the women on their way to church with their black shawls and
mantillas wrapped around them are followed by the servants carrying
chairs, but in the afternoon and evening the sombre mantillas are
changed for Paris hats and smart gowns, and the brightness of
Andalusia sparkles in those piercing black eyes.
Like Lima, Arequipa was founded by Pizarro; and, like Lima, it has
its earthquake history. The record runs quite evenly.
The population is 35,000. There are a number of local industries,
including a cotton factory and flour-mills, and it is the
mining-centre for all the region that extends up to Lake Titicaca
and beyond. It also is beginning to be a possible centre of the
rubber export. The Inca Company, which controls the Santo Domingo
gold-mines and which has valuable concessions for opening up the
Inambari rubber region, has its headquarters in Arequipa. But the
chief trade comes from the wool industry. All the alpaca and other
wools are marketed here. The alpaca wools are divided into two
grades, the production of the superior being about two and a half
times as large as the inferior. Much of the wool is handled by
American firms and is shipped to New York and Boston. The vicuña,
or finer grade, is shipped to France, and some of it finds its way
back to the United States in the form of expensive rugs.
The foreign colony of Arequipa includes a number of Americans
engaged in mining, wool, railroading, and miscellaneous business.
The Harvard Astronomical Observatory, half-way up the slope of El
Misti, insures the presence of cultured Americans. During my visit
Professor Bailey, the director, was off on a trip to the rubber
country, and I did not have the privilege of meeting him.
The journey from Arequipa up to Lake Titicaca affords a day of varied
mountain scenery. The valley of the Chili is like a green thread
looped or knotted somewhere far down amid the volcanic mountains.
Conical and domelike snow-peaks, cupolas, apexes, pagodas, and
pinnacles are scaled, gorges entered, and cross-chasms passed.
These do not have to be bridged. Since there is no rainfall and no
snow-slides from the distant peaks, the abysses are filled in and
ballasted for the roadbed. Besides the long viaduct at Arequipa and
a bridge across the gorge at Sumbay, there are no bridges on this
railroad, hardly any culverts, and no long tunnels. The earth’s
surface is igneous soil, ridges of lava and plains of pumice stone.
In some places the lava bowlders stand out in isolated, grotesque
forms, the play of the fancy to name them. I amused myself for an
hour in this manner. The sulphur deposits ought to have a distinct
commercial value. There is brimstone enough for a continent.
The railroad, in the parlance of the South, “coons” the ridges at
a maximum grade of 4 per cent. A gentle slope is reached, and we
are on the edge of a plain intersected with clear streams over
which hover many beautiful species of water-fowl. I have not seen
elsewhere so great a variety. The pampa has some coarse grass and
mosses, but no fir brush or even cactus. Patches of melting snow
diversify it. Droves of llamas, alpacas, sheep, and even the rare
vicuñas with their ruddy skins are seen; the latter seem to me more
like red deer. The sun is bright, and though the air is sharp the
cold is not penetrating; when the train pauses, one can step out
on the platform without shivering.
A hill covered with brown bowlders in the background, rounded
and sloping mountains a little farther away, an ordinary railway
station house, some huts close by with groups of Indian women and
children huddled in the doorways, and the sign-post says, “Crucero
Alto--14,660 feet.” It is High Crossing, the summit of the Divide.
From Vincocaya, at a height of 14,360 feet, to Crucero Alto, the
distance is 20 miles, and the approach to the summit is so gentle
that it scarcely is perceptible as an up-grade.
Several of the passengers have been complaining for an hour of
headache and nausea, the unmistakable _siroche_, or mountain
sickness. They tell those of us who are exempt that they always
have it at this point. They are relieved when the descent has been
begun. The railway follows through many turns and twists along
the flanks of volcanic precipices until a chain of lakes lying in
the basin breaks on the view,--a fine sight, the placid surfaces
soothingly suggestive for irritated nerves and rebellious stomachs.
No more _siroche_! These mountain mirrors are Lakes Saracocha and
Cachipuscana, 13,600 feet above sea-level, 1,000 feet higher than
Lake Titicaca. The smelter for the silver mines is located at
Maravillas in this lake region.
At Juliaca the branch road runs off to Sicuani, 87 miles away, whence
a cart-road, now traversed by a traction automobile, continues to
Cuzco, the historic Inca capital and still the seat of all that is
most interesting in Peru, both in ruins and in whatever relates to
the descendants of the Incas. Ancient Cuzco’s future as a modern
city will commence when it becomes a station between Buenos Ayres
and Lima on the Intercontinental Trunk Line. An important step in
this development was taken in 1905, when the government contracted
with the Peruvian Corporation for the extension of the line from
Sicuani and the first section, as far as Checcacupe, was finished.
The route is along the river Vilcanota through a populous and
well-cultivated valley, where the products of the temperate zone
abound. There are rich tributary districts which will be benefited
by the lowering of freight rates, and encouragement also will be
given to immigration through the easier access to Puno and Mollendo.
[Illustration: Ruins of an Inca Fortress at Cuzco]
The station of Tirapata is the starting-point for the Santo Domingo
gold-mines in the Province of Carabaya, which have been developed
by an American company, the Inca, composed of California miners and
Pennsylvania oil-men. Some of the ore runs $4,000 to the ton. The
journey to the mines occupies five days. The company, in opening up
a through line of communication to the railway, has accomplished
some daring engineering work in building cable suspension bridges
across the chasms. They are narrow, and the newcomer who knows he
is under observation and wants to show his nerve, rides his mule
along the frail suspended framework and makes a pretence of looking
with unconcern into the gaping abyss. But after one demonstration
of his physical bravery he usually develops moral courage enough
to get off and lead the animal.
The mining company has extended its operations and has acquired
privileges of rubber exploitation from the Peruvian government. Under
the contract it opens roads and mule trails into the forest region,
and receives land grants and rubber concessions in compensation.
Ultimately a route will be opened to the head-waters of the Inambari
River, and this district will add to the output of crude rubber
through the port of Mollendo.
The opening of the river basins of the Inambari and the Madre de
Dios is essential to the future traffic of the Southern Railway.
In a message to Congress in 1905 the President of Peru stated that
the bridle-paths and cart-roads under construction, or contracted
for, aggregated 1,300 miles. A grant of 2,000,000 acres of land
was authorized with the chief purpose of securing 200 miles of
wagon-road. Besides the American syndicate a Peruvian company has
extensive rubber interests along the left bank of the San Gaban.
There are extensive gold washings in Carabaya and Sandia. Heretofore
the rubber product of this region has followed the river courses
till the Amazon was reached and it could be exported to Europe by
way of Para, the time occupied in getting it to market being from
six to eight months. By the cart-roads to Tirapata, ten to twelve
days are required, and three days more by railway to Mollendo,
whence the transit to Europe after the completion of the Panama
Canal may be made in thirty days or less.
From Juliaca, a distinctively Quichua Indian collection of adobe
cabins, to Puno, the railway line is again straight up and down over
the mountains, cooning the ridge once more, till the road begins to
follow the more crooked courses of the waterways. It winds through
a rich agricultural district, plain and valley where there are many
pretty farms. The live-stock industry seems to be a flourishing
one, for there are great herds of sheep, alpacas, llamas, and some
cattle.
Puno, on the shore of Lake Titicaca, is 12,540 feet above sea-level.
It is a town of blue buildings lying in the concave side of the
mountain. It is the head of the Department, has a population of
5,000, and is the customs port and the commercial centre. The
vigilance of both Peruvian and Bolivian customs officials is
constantly exercised to prevent contraband trade in alcohol, of
which the people are inordinately fond. Indian life is seen in many
phases, especially on Lake Titicaca, where the natives with their
balsas, straw boats with square grass sails and grass hoods that
open and shut like an umbrella, lead a half-shore, half-sea life,
fishing and trading. They did not seem to me an idle class, but
rather good-naturedly willing to work if the labor were not too
strenuous.
Lake navigation begins at Puno, and since the place is the terminus
of the railroad the shipping causes an unusual degree of activity
for an inter-Andine town. Bolivian commerce comes up the Desaguadero
into Lake Titicaca or directly across from the terminus of the
Bolivian Railway line at Guaqui. The lake is interesting because
it is the highest large body of fresh water on the globe that has
steam navigation, but I saw no evidences of the peculiar properties
attributed to its waters. The captains of these little steam-vessels
are either Scotchmen or Scandinavians. I learned to my discomfort
that when the winds were blowing Titicaca could become as unruly
as Lake Michigan and could cause sea-sickness. A daring conception
of engineering genius is to tap the waters of Lake Titicaca for
the purpose of securing electric power and utilize them to supply
motive force for the railways.
Puno formerly had a considerable trade in the highly prized vicuña
rugs which are brought there by the Indians, but the industry has
lagged in recent years due to the scarcity of the skins. A Chilean
established a factory at Arica, and most of the pelts are carried
across the Cordilleras to his market. The mineral deposits of the
district include silver, mercury, copper, lead, and bituminous coal.
The latter is lignite, but the existence of coal-oil or petroleum
appears to be well established. The Americans who control the Santo
Domingo mines had arranged to sink wells, but the failure to secure
satisfactory transportation rates from the railroad company caused
them to give up their project.
CHAPTER VIII
THE REGIONS AND THEIR RESOURCES
_Topography a Key to Economic Resources--Coast, Sierra, and
Montaña--Cotton in the Coast Zone--Piura’s High Quality--Lima
and Pisco Product--Prices--Increase Probable--Sugar-Cane as
a Staple--Probability of Growth--Rice as an Export and an
Import--Irrigation Prospects--Mines in the Sierra--Geographical
Distribution of the Deposits--Live-Stock on the High
Plains--Rubber in the Forest Region--Iquitos on the Amazon a
Smart Port--Government Regulations for the Gum Industry._
To know the topography of Peru is to understand her economic outlook.
The key to her industrial growth and to the mastering motives of her
national policy is found in the knowledge of the three zones into
which the country naturally divides itself. A lesson in physical
geography is a study of the Peruvian aspect of the Panama Canal.
The zones are the Coast Region, relatively 1,500 miles in length,
varying in width from 20 to 80 miles, and extending from the foot
of the Coast Range to the Pacific; the Sierra, or Cordilleras of
the Andes, including the vast table-lands, averaging 300 miles in
breadth; and the misnamed Montaña, or mountain region, actually
the land of tropical forest, and plains extending from the eastern
slope of the Andes to the Amazon basins. The settlement of the
boundary disputes with Ecuador, Colombia, Brazil, and Bolivia may
reduce the 500,000 square miles of territory which Peru claims as
her area, yet when the limits finally are fixed this trans-Andine
region will still comprise more than one-half the total extent. Its
wealth is in rubber and the varied products of tropical agriculture.
The Sierra, in the future as in the past, is for the minerals, with
alpaca wools and live-stock as an agricultural addition.
The Coast Zone is for tropical and temperate products. The
principal ones are the vegetable family,--beans, potatoes; the
cereals,--wheat, corn, oats; grapes and the generality of fruits;
rice, tobacco, sugar, and cotton. Except in reference to two great
world staples, they may be viewed almost solely in the light of
domestic consumption. Sugar and cotton are on a different plane.
Peruvian cotton production cannot become large enough to affect the
world’s markets, yet it may be a gain to the national wealth in the
quantity which can be raised for export and also for the domestic
spindles. The sands of Piura which stretch from the coast at Paita
back to the Cordilleras have in them possibilities that are yet
barely dreamed. The cotton tree of Piura amazes the beholder when
he sees it in all stages of production,--in bud, in fleecy blossom,
and in seed. The quality surprises the expert. It is finer than
the finest Egyptian and is equal to certain grades of wool. It is
known variously as vegetable wool and as wool cotton. Irrigation
is employed to a limited extent. One ambitious scheme which was
to bring 60,000 acres under cultivation was stopped for lack of
capital. In the Chira valley between 90,000 and 100,000 acres will
be utilized for production when a canal 56 miles long is completed,
and the crop will be increased by 50,000 bales. An American company
experimented on a project of watering the Piura lands by means of
pumps to be driven by electric power from the river Quiros. The
native field-labor in this region is reliable, and probably is as
efficient as that of the negroes on a Mississippi plantation.
Cotton of good quality is raised in the central district of Lima and
in the southern region of Pisco and Ica. While rains are not common
in these districts, the fogs at certain seasons are heavy enough to
be accounted rainfall, and the moisture in the air is precipitated
in quantities sufficient for the product, taken with the somewhat
restricted means of irrigating employed on the plantations. The
cotton plant, no longer the cotton tree as in Piura, is met with
for fifty miles north of Lima, and especially in the neighborhood
of Ancon. The plantations lie under and between the overlapping
sand-hills, side by side with fields of sugar-cane. Cotton is also
grown from the north along the river Rimac to the lower slope of
the Cordilleras.
Farther south from Pisco the region extends as far as the little
port of Cerro de Azul, where an excellent quality is obtained. This
is sent north to Panama for transport across the Isthmus and then
to Liverpool instead of through the Straits of Magellan or around
Cape Horn; but the cargoes will be larger when the Canal is opened
and the expense of transshipment by railway across the Isthmus can
be avoided. The cotton possibilities of the Pisco region are as
yet in their infancy. They will begin to unfold when the projects
for irrigating the great plain of Noco are put into effect.
Taken as a whole, the advantages of Peru as a cotton-producing
country are a suitable climate, the alluvial soil of the valleys,
the facilities for irrigating the sandy plains, and a sufficiency
of fairly cheap labor. The price of the land is a fraction of the
value of similar soil in Egypt. An official publication of the
government places the yield per acre at 630 pounds, of which 250
pounds is lint cotton.
The Peruvian cotton is free from boll weevil. When that pest was
ravaging the Texas plantations, a thorough inquiry was made by
Minister Dudley under instructions from Washington, and the universal
experience of the cotton-growers established that their fields
never were visited by it.
Gins for baling the product are imported both from England and
the United States. Encouragement has been given the manufacturing
industry in Peru by the cotton production. Some of the factories
have paid fair returns, though, as in the case of Mexico, capital
went into mills somewhat heedlessly and in advance of the demand
which could be created for the manufactured goods. Factories, making
chiefly the cheaper calicoes, are in operation at Lima, Ica, and
Arequipa, where the natives prove satisfactory mill-hands. Part of
the manufactures find a market in Bolivia. The total exports of the
manufactured goods for a given year were $110,000, while the imports
for the same period reached $2,240,000. The exports of raw cotton
in the present state of production are approximately $1,500,000 to
$1,600,000 annually.
What is known as the hard cotton, rough, is produced in the Piura
region, and in the dry years varies from 20,000 to 30,000 bales
of 200 pounds. The moderate rough, chiefly from the Ica district,
amounts to 40,000 bales. The hard cotton with some of the moderate
rough goes to the United States, but the greater portion of the
latter is shipped to Havre and Liverpool. The production of the
Egyptian, or soft cotton, is about 80,000 bales per year. It is
governed by the American price, usually with a premium of 1 to
2 cents per pound over New Orleans middling. The home factories
consume 25,000 bales, the bulk of the balance going to Liverpool,
though Barcelona obtains 6,000 bales and Genoa 2,000.
From these figures it will be seen that the Peruvian production is
about 150,000 bales, or 30,000,000 pounds. An estimate by a leading
authority of the increased production when idle lands are brought
under cultivation by means of irrigation is 375,000 Peruvian bales
(160,000 American), or 75,000,000 pounds. Other authorities double
this estimate.
Peru has produced sugar for many years, and the industry has had
the usual ups and downs, but it has capabilities of increase. About
125,000 acres were under cultivation in 1905, and 25,000 persons
found employment on the plantations and in the mills. Both natives
and Chinese coolies form the field hands. The production for export
in recent years has varied from 100,000 to 125,000 tons, and it
is gradually advancing to 200,000, reflecting the decrease of
the beet-sugar crop in Europe and some enhancement of the price,
though that is subject to the customary fluctuations. The average
production may be placed at 140,000 tons, of which between 20,000
and 25,000 tons are consumed at home.
The raw sugar exported in the period from 1900 to 1905 inclusive
ranged in value from $5,000,000 to $7,000,000 annually. The
by-products, particularly the _aguardiente_, or cane rum, add
substantially to the value of the staple. The alcohol, in addition
to the local consumption, finds a profitable market in Bolivia.
The production of sugar-cane per acre in Peru is in the proportion
of 56 quintals of sugar from 700 quintals of cane. The plantations
are in the valleys of the streams which flow from the foot of the
Coast Cordilleras to the ocean. Though the sugar industry is an
old one and though partial irrigation is employed, it is doubtful
if Peru’s present product is more than a fraction of what the soil
can yield under universal irrigation. The cane-producing area is
not confined to the coast. In the valley of Chanchamayo in the
inter-Andine region are productive regions, and also in the valley
of the Apurimac River in southern Peru. It may reasonably be said
that within the next quarter of a century, provided the material
development of the country goes forward without interruption, Peru
will be producing 400,000 tons of sugar-cane, the major portion of
which will be freighted through the Panama Canal to New Orleans or
Brooklyn refineries at lower rates than can be had by shipments
through the Straits of Magellan. Of the output some goes down the
coast to Chile and some up the coast to San Francisco, a relatively
small quantity around Cape Horn to Liverpool, and a large quantity
across the Isthmus for transshipment to New York. The freight via
the Straits is about 23 shillings per ton. The Canal is a positive
factor in Peruvian sugar production.
Peru imports rice for her own consumption and exports it for
foreign consumption. The great rice fields are in the north, in
the Lambayeque valley, and from this district in one year 4,100
tons were exported. But much larger imports came from China. The
industry is capable of development, yet chiefly with a view to local
consumption. The normal expansion of this agricultural industry
would appear to be in fully supplying the home demand and then in
cultivation for the export trade.
Cotton, sugar, rice,--all call for an artificially watered soil.
Irrigation is ancient in Peru. No new system for intensive
cultivation and for ordinary crops can be expected to surpass the
marvels secured by the Incas. Whether the ruins of the artificial
waterworks be those still observed at Cuzco, the ancient seat
of empire, or in the great passes of the Central Cordillera now
traversed by the railway, or the old aqueduct at Chimbote, the
wonder does not lessen. Can the moderns do as well as the ancients?
They must do better. While they may not excel the Inca system of
aqueducts and of packing water up the perpendicular slopes of the
mountains, they may surpass them in inducing production in the arid
plains. The topography and hydrography favor artesian wells in some
sections and in others complete systems of irrigating ditches. The
artesian wells may tap those lost rivers which, starting from the
Cordilleras, dry up and reach the sea through subterranean channels.
The arid tracts are fertile, probably due to the damp which is
retained for a certain depth underground.
Peru has a very excellent irrigation law, the practical workings
of which are satisfactory and from which good results have been
obtained. The government has given wise attention to this subject.
The future growth of the Coast Region in wealth and population
may be said to be largely one of irrigating ditches and artesian
wells.[7]
7 On this general subject United States Consul Gottschalk quotes
C. Reginald Enock, an English engineer, as follows:
“Peru possesses a valuable element in the yet undeveloped hydraulic
power which exists on both the eastern and western slope of the
Cordillera of the Andes. The source of this water supply is the ice
cap above the line of perpetual snow which crowns the summit of the
range and the continual and exceedingly heavy snow and rain storms
of the high plateaus. All along this vast chain, from Ecuador to
Chile, there exists a series of lakes, practically astride the summit
of the Andes, at altitudes varying from 12,000 to 17,000 feet above
sea-level, and these, together with the streams to which they give
rise, form the source of enormous hydraulic energy. The volumes
of water which descend upon the Pacific side are not necessarily
very great, but they are numerous and constant, and their fall is
exceedingly rapid.
“As an example, the river Rimac, which rises in the ice cap of the
Cordillera, at an elevation of more than 17,000 feet, debouches on
the coast at Callao, with a course not more than 80 miles long. This
river is already used as motive power for generating electricity for
the railway between Lima and Callao, and could furnish constant and
unlimited power over any portion of its course. Similar conditions
exist, more or less, with the numerous other rivers and streams
all along the 1,500 miles of Pacific littoral belonging to Peru.”
The treasure beds of the Andes, as they have been exploited for
centuries, are in the Sierra, though the output of the precious
metals in the Coast Region has been great. The Department of
Ancachs, which comes down to the sea, has enormous mineral wealth.
The district lies within the two Andean chains which parallel
the Pacific, and which are known as the White Cordillera and the
Black Cordillera, the latter being nearer the coast. Raimondi,
whose studies and surveys were the basis of much subsequent
exploitation, estimated that this Department could supply for export
700,000 tons of minerals annually for an indefinite number of years.
Silver, gold, and copper are the chief sources of mineral wealth.
In the Cerro de Pasco district, since control was secured by the
American syndicate, the copper output is more important than the
silver production. Yet it is doubtful whether, notwithstanding the
possibilities of the nobler metals, Peru has not more to hope from
coal as a new industry during the next few years and especially
during and after the Panama Canal construction period, than from
gold and silver.
The petroleum deposits are in the north between Tumbez and Paita,
around Talara, Zorritos, and Cape Blanco. Several of the English
companies were not very successful, owing to bad management. The
French company seemed to have the promise of better results. No
contention is made that the oil is not there. In 1905 the output
of the districts of Amotope and Tumbez was placed at 12,000,000
gallons. The supply which is now obtained is utilized as fuel on
the railways and in many of the smelters. The value of the annual
production is approximately $750,000.
Government data regarding mining often are tinctured with the
enthusiasm of the private prospector, yet for guidance the
distribution of the minerals as they are given in official
publications may be quoted. I have not undertaken to present
the complete statistics of production, not only because they
are confusing and unsatisfactory, but also because local and
temporary conditions destroyed their value as an index of the
normal output.[8] An example of this was afforded by the practical
suspension of silver and copper mining in the Cerro de Pasco
properties of the American syndicate until the new railroad could
be completed and the smelters built and put in operation. But for
the prospector and the capitalist the preliminary information that
is desired may be accepted in the form adopted by the government,
that is, the geographical distribution of the minerals:
Gold--Paucartambo, La Mar, Union, Angaraes, Cajamarca, Otuzco,
Luya, Huamachuco, Arequipa, Aymaraes, Huamalies, Carabaya, Sandia,
Tayacaja, Ica, Huanuco.
Gold Washings--Marañon, Inambari, and nearly all the rivers that
flow from the eastern side of the Andes.
Silver--Hualgayoc, Recuay, Yauli, Huancavelica, Pallasca, Pataz,
Cailloma, Castrovirreyna, Cerro de Pasco.
Copper--Huaylas, Huaraz, Camana, Yauli, Cerro de Pasco, Ica.
Mercury-Cinnabar--Huancavelica, Chonta, Dos de Mayo, Puno.
Iron--Piura, Larez, Calca, Huaraz.
Sulphur--Tumbez, Paita, Chancay, Huaraz, Huarochiri, Cangallo,
Arequipa, Camana, Moquegua, Tarata.
Coal--Huamalies, Dos de Mayo, Yauyos, Huarochiri, Canta, Tarma,
Huaylas, Cerro de Pasco, Caylloma, Puno, Recuay.
Petroleum--Tumbez, Lambayeque, Piura, Puno.
Lead--Yauli, Huarochiri, Pallasca, Huari, Chilete (Ancachs).
8 The mineral output for a recent year when there was little
activity was placed at the following figures:
+--------------------------+-----------+-----------------+
| | Kilograms | Value in |
| | | pounds sterling |
+--------------------------+-----------+-----------------+
| Gold | 1,078 | 145,205 |
| | | |
| Silver | 170,804 | 580,000 |
| | | |
| Copper | 9,496,583 | 477,000 |
| | | |
| Lead, chiefly in | 1,302,365 | 5,141 |
| argentiferous minerals | | |
+--------------------------+-----------+-----------------+
The production of borax was 2,466 tons; crude petroleum, 25,440
tons, and its by-products 11,639 tons.
The Peruvian mining-code and the corps of engineers which is
maintained under it are of very great value. The annual tax on
_pertenencias_, or mine claims, is 15 _soles_ ($7.50), but in
the administration of the law frequent complaint is made of the
encouragement given to claim-jumpers. Unlike most other countries
of South America, Peru lays no export tax on minerals except gold.
The future of the mining industry depends so largely on cheapening
and increasing the facilities of transportation, that it will be
better understood in connection with the explanation of the Peruvian
railway system and the plans of the government for further railroad
development.
Live-stock or grazing may be said to be one of the industries of
the Sierra, but in relation to the foreign commerce of the country
it does not promise to be an appreciable source of national gain.
Sheep-raising--alpacas, vicuñas--is of the high plains. With the
increase in the population at these altitudes through mining
settlements, the flocks are not likely to grow extensively. The
vicuña, not being domesticated, is more apt to recede before the
advance of civilization. Such growth as the live-stock industry
may have in the Cordillera region may be looked upon chiefly as a
means of supplying local consumption. The exports of hides and wool,
while not necessarily stationary, do not indicate a heavy increase.
The exports of hides are $750,000 per annum, and of wools, chiefly
alpacas, $2,000,000.
The world does not yet fully grasp the possibilities and limitations
of the Amazon rubber production, but the Peruvian government has a
proper conception of it and has enacted legislation both to secure
the development of the gum forests and to preserve them from heedless
destruction. The rubber region within Peruvian territory has its
main extension in the Department of Loreto and in the provinces of
that interior country, but the area reaches almost to Cuzco and Lake
Titicaca. All of it is within the Montaña, or forest region. In the
Loreto district the population does not exceed 100,000 inhabitants,
if it reaches that number. The productive forests lie along the
banks of the rivers. The crude rubber that is of the best quality
is known as _jebe_. The coarser article is called _caucho_. The
_jebe_ is obtained from the incisions made in the tree, while the
_caucho_ is the sap that is had from cutting down the tree which
produces it and then extracting the milk. It is claimed also that
the rubber tree can be sown and cultivated, but for many years, or
until the supply grows scarcer, this effort is not likely to be
made.
It is the aim of the authorities to prevent wanton waste and to
preserve the trees. These are not allowed to be cut down. Two
forms of contract are adopted. Under the first form the government
leases to the grantees a certain number of acres for the term of
ten years on condition of receiving a royalty approximately of 1
cent per pound in addition to the export duty. Under the second
form it leases the rubber walks (_estradas_) of groups of 150 trees
at an annual rate of about 10 cents plus another 10 cents for each
2½ acres (1 _hectare_) on which they are situated. A decree was
issued in 1900, in pursuance of the law passed two years previously,
fixing the manner in which the _estradas_, or rubber groves, could
be located. Land in the forest region can be bought outright, can
be located under rental, or acquired under contract of colonization.
[Illustration: A Farmhouse in the Forest Region]
Iquitos is the centre of the rubber trade for Peru, and substantially
all the product now goes out from it to the Atlantic coast under the
name of Para rubber; but with the completion of the central highway
or transcontinental railway much of the product unquestionably will
come to the Pacific coast and pass through the Panama Canal. In
1858 Iquitos was founded by the Peruvian government as a strategic
outpost. In 1885, the year in which the rubber exploitation began,
it was an obscure settlement. In 1905 its population was 20,000,
and it was agitating municipal sanitation, electric lighting, and
inviting bids for sewers. It is the third port of Peru in point of
its foreign commerce, which amounts to $3,575,000 to $4,000,000.
The exports of rubber from Peru for the year 1904 were $2,142,000,
and they passed almost entirely through Iquitos. Since a contraband
commerce is carried on in order to escape the export tax, the full
production in a stated year is not obtainable. The quantity exported
ranges from 1,200 to 1,500 tons each year. The exports are divided
about equally between Havre and Liverpool.
When Bolivia settled her controversy with Brazil over the Acre
territory, she transferred a boundary dispute with Peru. The latter
country and Brazil, after some threatening passages of diplomatic
arms, agreed on a _modus vivendi_, and that the extent of rubber
territory belonging to each Republic should be fixed by arbitration.
This dispute did not relate so much to the territory contiguous to
Iquitos as to the Yavari River frontier. This basin has an annual
known production of 1,500 tons and a large contraband output. The
southern districts as yet are in the initial stages of exploitation.
The Inambari River basin, including the Marcapata valley, is an
almost virgin field.
The Peruvian government, having adopted effective measures for the
protection of the rubber forests from prodigal destruction, also
has sought to aid the various private enterprises by supervising
the supply of labor. This is a much more difficult problem. The
native Indians and the _cholos_ are hardly numerous enough to meet
the needs of the industry in its present state, and both persuasion
and compulsion are exerted in order to force them to work. Its
ultimate solution and the full exploitation of the rubber wealth of
Peru must rest on the colonization of the trans-Andine region, and
a gradual transformation into tropical agriculture of the districts
which are not rendered unfit for habitation and cultivation by the
annual high-water overflows of the Amazon’s affluents. But for
this river region, as for the other regions of Peru, there is no
artificial aid which can compare with the Panama Canal.
CHAPTER IX
WATERWAYS AND RAILWAYS
_Importance of River System--Existing Lines of
Railroads--Pan-American Links--Lease of State Roads to Peruvian
Corporation of London--Unfulfilled Stipulations--Law for Guaranty
of Capital Invested in New Enterprises--Routes from Amazon to the
Pacific--National Policy for their Construction--Central Highway,
Callao to Iquitos--The Pichis--Railroad and Navigation--Surveys
in Northern Peru--Comparative Distances--Experiences with First
Projects--Future Building Contemporaneous with Panama Canal._
Neither the economic future of Peru nor the prospect of realizing
the national aspirations can be understood without turning to the
map and studying the waterways and the railways. The Marañon,
having its source in Lake Lauricocha within the inner slope of
the Central Cordilleras, flows in a northwesterly direction till
about south latitude 40°, when it turns abruptly northeast. The
Ucayali, receiving its initial waters farther south and east of
the eastern range of the great Cordilleras, flows north until it
joins the Marañon below Iquitos and the two form the mighty Amazon.
Between them flows the Huallaga, smaller than either, yet a great
river. It empties into the Marañon. The general parallelism of the
Marañon, the Huallaga, and the Ucayali afford alternative routes
from the Amazon basin to the Pacific coast. The Huallaga was on
the transcontinental trail of the early Spaniards, who crossed
the mountains from Pacasmayo to Cajamarca and then continued to
Yurimaguas on its banks.
The existing railroad lines of Peru extend from the coast toward
the Andes, the only practicable system in the first stages of
national development. The second stage is to secure a spine for these
disjointed ribs by means of a main trunk line north and south--the
Intercontinental or Pan-American idea--and to fill in the lacking
links in rail and water transport from the Amazon or trans-Andine
region to the Pacific. The intercontinental project contemplates
rail connection to the shores of Lake Titicaca, so that ultimately
there will be through communication with Buenos Ayres, and also the
gradual and necessarily slower plan of joining railroad and water
links north to the boundary of Ecuador. All of this will make for
mineral development.
[Illustration: PERUVIAN WATERWAYS AND RAILWAYS]
The rubber industry of the Iquitos and tributary territory is to
Peru what the fur trade of Oregon was to the United States in the
period between 1830 and 1850. The populating of the vast inlying
country, the trans-Andine slopes and the river basins, means to
Peru what the settlement of the Rocky Mountain region extending
to the Pacific meant to the people of the United States. If the
hardy pioneer class is lacking, and it is, the Peruvian national
instinct is not wanting. Enlightened public men are seeking to
find expression for it. Immigration, colonization, are the only
means. Access, transportation facilities, ways of getting in and
out, must precede colonization. Therefore the railway policy. But
imperative reasons of state polity require that the development
shall converge from the Amazon toward the Pacific instead of from
the Continental Divide toward the Atlantic. Hence the inestimable
value of the Panama Canal as an incentive, a stimulating cause, an
influencing factor in the national advancement. It fixes the Pacific
coast as the unchanging goal toward which all Peruvian industrial
growth must tend.
It is desirable to have an intelligent grasp of the present railway
systems of Peru, their management, and their bases of extension.
The total length is about 1,400 miles. Most of them are of the
standard gauge of 4 feet 8½ inches, and with few exceptions they
are the property of the State. However, substantially all of them
are operated by the Peruvian Corporation of London under the
sixty-five years’ lease executed by the government in 1891, when
the English bondholders assumed the foreign debt and took over the
railways in compensation. This was the substance of the contract
that relieved Peru from a crushing burden, though it also entailed
heavy responsibilities which were viewed with misgivings that
afterwards were justified. The contract included huge land grants,
a practical monopoly of the guano deposits for a long period,
exclusive rights of navigation on Lake Titicaca, and freedom from
burdensome taxation.
Some of the provisions in this agreement were very evil for Peru,
and some were bad for the bondholders. Always it will be a subject
of controversy whether the government or the Peruvian Corporation
has been most at fault in the non-fulfilment of the conditions. The
disinterested observer must admit that both have been to blame. Both
entered on obligations which they could not meet,--the Peruvian
government to pay annually £80,000, or approximately $400,000, to
the corporation; and the corporation to make important extensions
of the railways, particularly toward the Amazon, and to plant
colonies. For the latter purpose it received a grant of 1,100,000
_hectares_, 2,750,000 acres of land, in the fertile Chanchamayo
valley.
The corporation taunted the government that but for its lease of
the railways they would have been abandoned and have become nothing
more than trails over the mountains. On its part the company was as
monumental an exhibition of English incompetence and mismanagement
as can be found in foreign lands, where there are so many monuments
of incompetence made possible by confiding English investors and
dull-witted London directors. When the disagreements with the
government got acute, its officers exerted themselves principally
to blacken Peruvian credit in London and to keep other capital out.
Their success for several years was satisfying to the resentful
sentiment of the managers and stockholders, if not profitable to
their pocketbooks.
The Peruvian Corporation, not on account of progressiveness of its
own, but through the enterprise of the American capitalists who
acquired the Cerro de Pasco mines and built the railroad to connect
with the line to the coast, and whose industries are furnishing
it with traffic, began to earn money. Nominally it represents a
capital of $100,000,000. While this capital is inflated, in the new
and improving conditions of Peru there is a prospect for earning
a reasonable return on the actual value of the leased railways.
The corporation and the government have reconciled some of their
differences, and the remaining ones may be compromised and the
coöperation which is so essential be secured.
I have noted that the physical feature of the Peruvian railway
lines is their general direction from the coast straight to the
Andes, and that the policy of the government is to supply them with
a backbone by filling in links along the intercontinental location
and to extend the transcontinental outshoots so as to secure the
through rail and water outlet from the Amazon to the Pacific.
Definite measures of legislation have been adopted in furtherance of
these plans. The law passed in 1904 with the purpose of encouraging
foreign capital, set aside the proceeds of the tobacco tax to the
amount of $1,000,000 annually after 1905 as a guaranty for capital
invested in railway building. The returns do not indicate that the
income from tobacco will reach this amount for some years, yet the
value of the legislation in establishing a fixed railway fund is
very great.
The government took energetic measures, and the extension of the
existing line from Oroya to Huancayo was assured, as also the one
from Sicuani to Cuzco. That leaves between 300 and 400 miles to
be built across savagely broken country from Huancayo to Cuzco,
in which the engineering difficulties are serious. But while it
is ultimate rather than immediate, the closing up of this section
is inevitable, and though the local traffic will not pay the
government can afford to aid the enterprise just as the United
States government helped the transcontinental lines by subsidies
and bonds. The impetus given to railway building in Bolivia which
insures through connection from Lake Titicaca to the border of
Argentina makes it imperative that Peru, for strategic reasons of
the greatest significance, shall reach Titicaca in time to become
linked with the general system.
[Illustration: View of Oroya, the Inter-Andine Crossroads]
The extension of the line from Oroya south to Huancayo, the
first dozen miles of which was coincident with the other railway
construction, insures the progress of a very rich section.
Well-populated valleys rich in agricultural products are traversed,
while mineral veins, especially copper and coal, are tapped. The
famous quicksilver mines of Huancavelica are in this zone. The region
as a whole, from the variety of its climate, offers encouraging
prospects for immigration. The valley of Jauja is one of the most
inviting fields for irrigation that is to be found within the limits
of Peru.
Routes from the Amazon to the Pacific are many. The one which
promises the earliest realization is that known as the Pichis, or
the central highway. When the contract was made with the Peruvian
Corporation, this was one of the proposed extensions in which the
greatest faith was felt, and the enormous land grant was chiefly
to insure its construction. Disappointment at the failure to carry
forward this line was one of the causes of the resentment of the
government toward the corporation and of the friction that followed.
The surveys and explorations of Arana, Werthemann, Tucker, Wolfe,
Barandiaran, Father Sala, Carlos Perez, and others, showed the
feasibility of navigation from Iquitos to the Pichis, a total
distance of 900 to 1,000 miles according to the river courses
followed. Navigation was established. Then came the greater problem
of climbing the clinging eyebrow of the Eastern Cordilleras
through untried passes and scaling mountain walls to the _puna_,
or table-land.
Plans formed during the term of President Prado in 1879 were
inaugurated by President Caceres, and under the administration
of General Pierola in 1896 the government undertook to open
communication from the terminus of the present road at Oroya to the
Pichis. The central highway was laid out and made passable for man
and beast. “The mule path grows to a trodden road”--but not in the
Andes. For much of the distance the highway meant only a trail, yet a
way was opened chiefly through the genius of the Peruvian engineer,
Joaquin Capelo. It was enormously expensive, especially since, on
account of the controversies with the Peruvian Corporation, the
government made a detour to avoid crossing the lands granted to that
company, and by pushing straight up the steepest mountain-sides
ignored the engineering basis of road-making.
The history of the central highway has been written by Señor Capelo
and other Peruvians. It is a brilliant chapter in hardy enterprise.
Like so many State projects, the full benefits were not reaped
immediately, and much costly engineering work was allowed to fall
into disuse. But in spite of misuse and disuse the achievement
stands out that the Pichis road was opened and communication with
the Amazon established. This helped to preserve and strengthen
the national spirit when the territorial integrity was threatened
by the abortive movements for the separation of Iquitos and the
Department of Loreto.
The methods of locomotion employed and the means of following the
central highway from Lima to Iquitos are given below:
ITINERARY FROM LIMA TO IQUITOS
+------------+---------------------------------+----+--------------+
| Method | | |Total distance|
| of travel | Place of transit |Days| from Lima in |
| | | | kilometres |
+------------+---------------------------------+----+--------------+
| By railroad| Lima to Oroya | 1 | 206 |
| “ horse | Oroya to Tarma | 1 | 236 |
| “ mule | Tarma to Huacapistana | 1 | 280 |
| “ “ | Huacapistana to La Merced | 1 | 314 |
| “ “ | La Merced to Vista Alegre | 1 | 348 |
| “ “ | Vista Alegre to Tambo Enenas | 1 | 390 |
| “ “ | Enenas to Tambo kilometro 93 | 1 | 432 |
| “ “ | Tambo kilometro 93 to Azupizu | 1 | 482 |
| “ “ | Azupizu to Puerto Yessup | 1 | 524 |
| “ canoe | Puerto Yessup to Puerto Bermudez| 1 | 544 |
| “ steamer | Puerto Bermudez to Iquitos | 7 | 1,500 |
| | +----+--------------+
| | Total | 17 | 2,044 |
+------------+---------------------------------+----+--------------+
In English terms the distance is 1,265 miles. The return journey
requires five days more, as it is upstream from Iquitos to Port
Bermudez. Variations of this route are possible. With a through
railway from Lima to Port Bermudez, Victoria, or other navigable
point, and the improved navigation which will follow, the time will
be ten days. A telegraph line extends from Lima to Bermudez, and an
irregular postal service is carried on with Iquitos. Under present
conditions the traveller who makes the entire trip is rare, and
there is no through traffic. Officials who may be ordered from Lima
to the Department of Loreto prefer to make the trip by steamer from
Callao to Panama, 1,570 miles, by rail and steamer to New York,
2,030 miles, by steamer from New York to Para at the mouth of the
Amazon, 3,000 miles, and up the Amazon, 2,300 miles, to Iquitos. A
journey of 8,900 miles in order to cover a distance of less than
1,300 miles is the most graphic illustration that can be given of
the compelling force of through rail and water communication on the
part of Peru with its Amazonian territory. It also is an example
of the prospective advantage of traffic by the Panama Canal route,
since the productive and undeveloped region of the Ucayali basin
rivers is nearer to the Pacific than to the sources of the Amazon.
The route traversed by the central highway with some modifications
is feasible for a railway. The government recognized this, and under
the authority conferred by the law of 1904 put surveyors in the
field to determine which is the most practicable and cheapest in
the engineering sense of several alternative routes. The reasonable
belief is that the distance to be covered need not exceed 250
miles, at a maximum cost of $10,000,000. The calculation made by
Monsieur A. Plane, the representative of French commercial societies
who studied the region with a view to determining the prospective
capacity of the rubber production, was $13,000,000.[9] But this was
a general estimate and not an engineering reconnaissance. While
it would not pay at once as a commercial proposition, he believed
that the government would be justified in undertaking it. Some
of the estimates have been as low as $7,500,000. Unquestionably
the Peruvian government can afford, though not in a short period,
to spend $10,000,000 or $11,000,000 to secure this connection to
the forest regions and the development of the rubber and other
resources which lie there. The rich Chanchamayo valley is within
the zone of productive tropical agriculture and offers an incentive
to colonization. The settlement of the boundary dispute with Brazil
regarding the frontier territory is a further motive for securing
transportation facilities for that portion of the region which may
be conceded to Peru, and for improving the unsatisfactory navigation
of the Ucayali and its tributaries.
9 Le Perou, par Auguste Plane, Paris, 1903.
When the government took measures for bringing the Pichis line
within the sphere of early realization, representatives of the
northern Departments sought to secure similar advantages for their
localities which had been reconnoitred by Von Hassel and other
explorers. Various surveys were ordered, and concessions in force
were amplified.
A project related to the central highway is that which contemplates
prolonging the short spur of railway which runs from Chimbote so
that it will reach Recuay, 137 miles from the coast, and then
some point on the Cerro de Pasco line. The mineral deposits which
exist along this proposed route include anthracite coal, and are
exceedingly rich, but heretofore they have not been alluring enough
to draw the full amount of the capital needed for the railroad
construction. When the central highway is converted into a railroad,
the connection of Cerro de Pasco with Recuay will be more easily
secured, and the Amazon region and the Ucayali basin may obtain an
outlet to the seaboard through Chimbote as well as through Callao.
Another route which has received official sanction is from Cerro
de Pasco to Huanuco and beyond, following the course of the river
Huallaga along the Pan-American location.
An American company, the Pacific, which had valuable mining and
railway concessions in the North, and which among alternative routes
had made engineering reconnaissances for a line from Pacasmayo
through to the affluents of the Amazon, secured additional exclusive
privileges of navigation and exploitation of the rivers.[10] However,
the selection of Paita as the seaport is more probable, and the
government authorized a liberal law for this location, though the
terms did not carry a financial guaranty. The project of a railway
from Paita to the Falls, or Pongo of Manserriche, has captivated the
imagination of the explorers and engineers who have reconnoitred
this route to the Amazon, and who have foreseen the certainty of
an outlet to the Pacific as one result of the Panama Canal. Large
vessels navigate the Marañon 425 miles above Iquitos.
10 Under the terms of the concession the Pacific Company was given
the right to construct branch lines north to Ecuador and south to
latitude 10°, along with trading and water rights on the Amazon and
its tributaries. Construction of the railroad lines was to begin
in 1907 and to be completed within ten years.
The railroad necessary to connect the Pongo de Manserriche or Borja
with Piura and Paita would be less than 400 miles. The extension of
cotton cultivation in Piura might prove of more utility in securing
the railroad than the iron ore deposits, the commercial value of
which capitalists may distrust. An advantage of this route is that
the engineering difficulties are not serious, and the highest pass
to be surmounted is not more than 7,200 feet. By one survey the
Marañon is 310 miles from Paita, though this is at a point above
the Falls of Manserriche, the power from which it is proposed to
utilize for electric traction. The railroad now covers the distance
from Paita to Piura, and leaves the following distances along the
proposed location:
Miles
Piura to Vinces 30.0
Vinces to Chalaco 30.0
Chalaco to Cumbicus 19.5
Cumbicus to Huancabamba 27.0
Huancabamba to Tabaconas 30.0
Tabaconas to Tambo-botija 25.5
Tambo-botija to Perico 34.0
Perico to Jaen 42.0
Jaen to Bellanista 12.0
-----
Total 250.0
Whenever this rail connection from Paita to the navigable waters
of the Marañon shall be made, Iquitos will be at least 1,000 miles
nearer to New York by way of the Pacific and the Panama Canal than
by the Amazon and the Atlantic.
Other tentative locations are one from the port of Eten through Jaen
to Bellanista on the Marañon, about 240 miles, and from Salaverry via
Cajamarca to Balzas on the Marañon, 200 miles. From through Suchiman
to the Huallaga River are several trails which make the distance
about 185 miles. From Pacasmayo several engineering reconnaissances
have been made. One of these through Cajamarca reaches the Marañon
at Balzas over a route which is asserted to be only 138 miles in
length. Other routes vary from 140 to 150 miles. But it is to be
remembered that Balzas is farther than Bellanista above the Falls
of Manserriche, that is to say, above the waters of the Marañon
open to steam navigation.
It may be that the waiting for the full fruition of the Peruvian
waterway and railway projects will be a long one. The public men
who are guiding the policy of the nation in the present progressive
channels will have their spells of dejection, and the checks, and
discouragements will cause periods of doubt. That is the history
of most countries in their measures for material development, but
it more especially is the history of Spanish-American republics.
The Southern Railway, which was to cross the volcanic Cordilleras
and reach Lake Titicaca, was long a dream. Then the enterprise
took form, was abandoned, reinaugurated, halted, and finally the
government pushed a line of rails through the desert to the town
of Arequipa. After Arequipa was reached came the longer and more
formidable extension to Titicaca. But in time the work was done.
The Central Railway, the Oroya, was a huger task. Henry Meiggs
carried it forward, with reckless confidence and superb courage,
half-way up the gigantic Cordilleras, and died. Destructive war
came. Peru was prostrate amid industrial ruins and political chaos,
yet the forces of recuperation were not dead. After years they were
vitalized. The Oroya line was pushed through to the mining-region
for which it was meant to be the outlet, and there only remains
the extension, in the face of lesser engineering and commercial
obstacles, to the navigable waters which reach the Amazon. The
Southern and the Oroya roads were contracted for in the times of
riotous national wealth, the era of the guanos and the nitrates,
when the saying “As rich as a Peruvian” was the common way of
describing the opulence of the country and its favored classes.
They were built extravagantly, as national luxuries.
Future railways can have none of this profuseness. They can be
had only by husbanding the revenues; by strict retrenchment, even
parsimony; by outrunning at hardly more than a hare’s pace the
industrial and commercial development of the country in order
that greater growth may follow. But they can be built for sound
economic conditions, and patriotic reasons are their basis. If not
simultaneous, their construction at least may be contemporaneous
with the Panama Canal.
CHAPTER X
THE PEOPLE AND THEIR INCREASE
_Density of Population in Time of the Incas--Three Million
Inhabitants Now Probable--Census of 1876--Interior Country
Not Sparsely Populated--Aboriginal Indian Race and Mixed
Blood--Fascinating History of the Quichuas--Tribal
Customs--Superstition--Negroes and Chinese Coolies--Immigration
Movements of the Future--Wages--European Colonization--Cause
of Chanchamayo Valley Failure--Climatic and Other Conditions
Favorable--An Enthusiast’s Faith._
In the times of the Incas the territory which is now Peru supported
a dense population. The vestiges which remain of the intensive
cultivation of the land show that it must have sustained a very
large number of inhabitants. This population extended from the
Sierra and its sides to the coast, and took little account of
the forest region stretching to the Amazon. The enumeration made
by the Spanish colonial officials in 1793 has little value as a
basis of estimating the increase, because it was not limited to
the present Peru. It is interesting only as showing that out of a
total of 1,077,000 inhabitants there were 618,000 Indians, 241,000
_mestizos_, 136,000 Spaniards, and 82,000 negroes and mulattoes.
Another estimate made at that period was of 1,250,000 persons.
It is difficult to figure out that the population of Peru at the
end of 1905 exceeded 3,000,000 to 3,250,000, though an estimate of
4,000,000 was attributed to the Geographical Society of Lima a
few years ago. The last census was taken in 1876. It gave a total
of 2,673,000 persons. The enumeration admittedly was deficient,
and an open question was whether the semi-civilized tribes in the
trans-Andine region had been underestimated or overestimated. In
subsequent years the Province of Tarapacá was ceded to Chile, and
Peru suffered not only the losses caused by the war with that
country, but also from the complete industrial prostration which
supervened and from the intestine struggles of the revolutionary
factions.
Only within the last decade a basis of normal growth of population
may be said to exist, and, with reference to the natural increase,
the high rate of infant mortality both in the cities and in the
Sierra has to be kept in mind. A long period of comfortable existence
and of hygienic education must elapse before this mortality will
be sensibly diminished. In many communities the birth rate and the
death rate are evenly balanced, while there are districts in which
the grave claims more than the rude cradle.
By the national census of 1876 Lima had 101,000 inhabitants. In
November, 1903, a municipal count fixed the population at 131,000.
Lima has received the cream of the immigration in recent years,
and has drawn to itself all the floating elements. The smaller
coast cities have shown no such growth, while in the interior the
towns appear almost stationary as to their inhabitants. If the
rate of increase were 30 per cent for the whole country, as with
Lima, and if the census of 1876 could be accepted as a safe basis
of calculation, the total population to-day would be approximately
3,500,000. The notable increase of Peru’s foreign trade in recent
years is evidence of improved consumptive capacity, due to industrial
prosperity, rather than of an increased number of consumers. It
came too swiftly to be accounted for by the growth in population,
and therefore does not support the theory of upward of 3,500,000
inhabitants.
I have taken into account the statement of travellers in the
interior, who have found the people more thickly distributed than
they had thought. Two young Americans, Messrs. Whitehead and
Peachy, who in 1902 travelled through northern Peru to the Amazon,
encountered a relatively dense population. The engineers who in
1895 made the Intercontinental Railway Survey from the border of
Ecuador to Cuzco, calculated the number of inhabitants along the
route to be 482,000, substantially in agreement with the national
census and with no signs of a marked increase. The location was
through the Sierra and directly on the line of many of the most
populous Andine towns. Engineers for private companies who made a
reconnaissance of a route along the left bank of the Marañon, were
surprised to find every little stretch of plain or valley between
the glaciers occupied and cultivated by an Indian family, yet when
they came to estimate the aggregate of the inhabitants the total
was not a large one. This inter-Andine population may be numerous
enough to justify the belief that the census of thirty years ago was
not wide of the mark, but it is impossible to find grounds for the
assumption of an increase of 30 per cent since then. The population
of Peru at the beginning of the Panama Canal epoch reasonably may
be placed at 3,250,000.
In the enumeration of 1876 the estimate was that of the inhabitants
57 per cent were pure Indian, 23 per cent _mestizos_, and, except
for a fraction of negroes, the remaining 20 per cent was Caucasian,
chiefly Spanish. The aboriginal proportion is now smaller than it
was thirty years ago, since European immigration has added to the
white population, and the mixed blood also has been augmented.
[Illustration: Group of Peruvian _Cholos_]
There is no more fascinating history than that of the Quichuas, the
aboriginal population of Peru which still survives. The distinctions
are yet marked between this basic race and the races which were
subjected, such as the Yuncas, who dwelt in the northern part
and along the coast and whose language is still spoken by their
descendants. Some of the tribes around the shores of Lake Titicaca
are not of pure Quichua descent, being sprung from the rival race
of the Aymarás, while in the forest region the Chunchos and others
of the uncivilized tribes have little of the Quichua traditions
or customs and speak dialects of their own. But the great mass of
the population of Peru to-day is Quichua. The Spanish and other
intermixtures which have produced the _cholos_, or half-breeds,
have had four centuries to work out the blood mingling, and the
_cholo_ in every community is very easily distinguishable from the
pure Quichua.
The Quichua is of the soil. Under the Incas the communal system of
land cultivation prevailed, and the natives, even in the loftiest
recesses of the mountains, were agriculturists. They found means
to irrigate the most barren spots. On the plains and valleys they
cultivated the land. The fondness for the freedom of the country
still survives, and many of them prefer this life to being grouped
in villages.
On some of the great haciendas the crops are apportioned on shares
almost as in the times of the Incas. The natives are born shepherds,
and the pastoral life suits them. In the Cordilleras, wherever there
is a pass or a valley, the cabins of the Indians are scattered about
as thickly as the producing qualities of the land will permit.
Much of the work in the mines is done by the _cholos_ or _mestizos_.
These also are the freighters who handle the droves of llamas,
burros, and mules that bring the ore from the mines and take back
the supplies. On the coast the population might be called chiefly
_cholo_, for here the intercourse with other races has made the
conditions different from those in the Sierra.
In the forest region the tribal customs are observed almost as
before the Spaniards came. Many of the tribes are still restricted
to bows and arrows, and as they are hostile to the government and
accept its rule unwillingly, the authorities take pains to see
that they are not encouraged in procuring fire-arms and learning
the use of modern weapons. The marriage relation is primitive, but
the traditions are rigidly maintained. An Englishman who had spent
some years in the basin of the Ucayali told me that in one tribe
polyandry was practised. An epidemic of smallpox had left many more
men than women.
The owner of an hacienda on the edge of the forest region gave
me an account of the marriage customs which had prevailed almost
immemorially. One instance which had come to his attention was
of a girl of nine who was married to a boy of eleven. When the
child-wife was eleven years old, she was a mother. The gentleman
had verified this incident himself and had no question of the age
of the husband and wife.
The native is deeply attached to his surroundings and does not take
readily to labor elsewhere. The climate has something to do with
this unwillingness to move. It has been found by experience that
the inhabitants on the _punas_, or table-lands 5,000 feet above the
sea-level, do not work well when taken up another 5,000 feet. They
are not only homesick; they suffer from real physical illness. It
is the same with those who are brought down to the lower plains.
Alcohol is the worst drawback to their physical well-being and moral
advancement. The coca leaf, the essential principle of cocaine,
which they use as a food, is far less responsible for their lack
of physical stamina than cane rum.
In many of the villages of Peru which I visited I formed an
impression that the natives were further advanced than in similar
villages in Bolivia and Chile. There was more cleanliness, more
evidence of good order and of wise local administration. They are a
brooding, solitude-loving race, though not altogether spiritless.
How far they still preserve the traditions and sorrow over the
Incas I do not profess to know, but their gentle resistance makes
it more difficult to impose civilization on them than would be
sullen opposition.
While the army is distasteful to the Indian population, and while
they evade the conscription wherever possible, it is one of the
strongest civilizing forces. The discipline is good, and the change
of environment also is advantageous. Obedience has been so fixed
a habit of the natives since the Spanish conquest that they never
think of questioning authority. As to the degree of superstition
which is mingled with the nominal adhesion given by the Indian
populations to the Church, I do not profess to judge.
The Peruvian government seeks to enforce a good school system, and
in the larger towns and villages with some success. But on the
part of the mass of the Quichuas there is still inextinguishable
hostility to learning Spanish, not the less effective because it is
passive. The suggestion has been made that the authorities provide
a system of primary schools where Quichua shall be the language
and shall be taught systematically. It is the _lingua general_, or
common speech, of a large majority of the inhabitants.
At Huanuco, where a German agricultural colony was established forty
or fifty years ago, the sons of the early colonists still speak
German, and many of the Quichuas in the neighborhood have acquired a
smattering of that language. Apparently they distinguished between
the tongue of the conqueror and another strange tongue.
Under good industrial and administrative conditions a natural
increase on the basis of the present Quichua and _cholo_ population
may be expected. More comforts of life, a little rudimentary
knowledge and practice of hygienic conveniences, will help to
alter the disproportion between the birth rate and the death rate.
Somewhere in their nature a spark of ambition may be kindled.
The negro element in the population in Peru is sometimes remarked
by strangers. They are told that it has become thoroughly intermixed
with the native race. In the early days of the viceroys, when African
slavery was exploited by the two great Christian powers, England
and Spain, many Africans were brought to Peru. It is thence that
the name Zambo or Sambo came. They are yet called Sambos. Though
the Spanish and Indian intermixture is said to be thorough, there
seems to be much of the African racial identity still preserved.
One day in Lima I watched the religious procession in honor of
Our Señor of America. Nearly all the processionists were negroes,
unmistakably so.
The Chinese coolies were brought to Peru in the fifties. They still
work in the sugar plantations and the rice fields and a few of them
also in the cotton fields. The coolie in the second generation,
however, becomes a storekeeper and a property-owner. On some of
the sugar estates the Chinese steward in the course of a few years
leases the plantation and later becomes the owner. There are many
wealthy Chinamen in Peru, and not all of them made their money as
merchants at Lima. The policy of the government is not to encourage
coolie immigration.
For the industrial and political future of which Peru dreams there
must be immigration as well as the natural increase of the present
native population. The potter’s clay is not all at hand. Some of
it must be brought in. This immigration will be along three lines,
which may be called topographical or geographical,--first, on the
coast; second, in the Sierra; third, in the trans-Andine country and
the vast basin of the rivers that feed the Amazon. A phenomenal
growth in the population of the latter region during the present
generation is not probable, though it has enormous colonization
possibilities which gradually will be utilized, especially with
the opening up of the means of communication. Some of them, too,
are European or Caucasian possibilities, for the explorations of
numerous scientists and their studies have shown that the European
can live and thrive in these regions. These climatic and similar
observations may be had from a score of books giving the experiences
of individuals.
In the development of its mines Peru necessarily must add to the
population of the Sierra. Mining labor now is hardly sufficient,
and the preference of the natives for agriculture and for service
as freighters makes the problem one of increasing difficulty. The
wages in the mines are good, varying according to locality. In
the Sierra day labor can be had for about half a _sol_, which is
equivalent to 25 cents gold. The American syndicate, in building
the Cerro de Pasco Railway, paid the natives a _sol_, or 50 cents,
and got satisfactory returns. But for the mining development of the
future miners from Spain and Italy should supply the deficiency
that will exist so long as sole reliance is placed on the natives.
They may come in considerable numbers.
Irrigation of the region between the Sierra and the coast is
assured, and this is going to furnish the basis for the largest and
earliest increase in population. A portion of this increase should
also come from Italy and Spain and perhaps also from Germany, for
the Germans are highly successful in semi-tropical agriculture.
The Italians have been very successful in Peru in retail trade
and in some of the mechanical employments, but the conditions also
are favorable for them in the agricultural pursuits. The vineyards
in the region around Pisco and Ica seem to afford an especially
inviting field for them. By the time the Panama Canal is open the
big transatlantic liners from Genoa and Naples which now come to
Colon should be bringing a full quota of Italian immigrants through
the waterway to the Peruvian ports.
The government has enacted liberal legislation providing for
immigration and colonization, but it does not follow the theory of
government-aided colonies. Its course is sound. It grants lands to
private enterprises for colonization, and in the industrial plans
which are now a part of its political policy there is a certainty
of an increased population to be drawn from abroad. An old law
authorizes an annual appropriation of $50,000 for encouraging
immigration, and the passage of immigrants may be paid, but this
is the limit of state aid.
Colonization plans by private enterprise received a check a few years
ago, when the Peruvian Corporation abandoned its efforts. Of the
total grant of 2,750,000 acres in the region of the rivers Perene
and Ene and the Chanchamayo valley, more than a million acres were
set aside for immediate peopling. The corporation began to attract
settlers to the lands, but the movement was feeble and was not
sustained. The complaint made was that instead of inviting fresh
and virile European immigration it drew the dregs from neighboring
countries, taking colonists who had proven their own worthlessness
in the places where they first settled. The experiment was still
another instance of ignorant London directors and incompetent
management.
Many of the earlier colonists in this district went into
coffee-growing with fair success. The climate, the soil, the slopes
of the Cordilleras, all were favorable. Good crops were raised and
found a profitable market. But this market was obtained at the
period when Brazil was changing from the Empire to the Republic, and
when through that and subsequent disturbances the supply to meet
the world’s demand was interrupted. When the Brazilian crop became
abnormal in its productiveness, weighting the price down below the
level of profitable production, coffee-raising no longer was business
for the colonists in Peru. They themselves did not clearly perceive
the cause of their distress. Many of them, instead of turning to
other products, got discouraged and went away. But merely because
of this failure there is no ground to believe that in the future
colonizing movements in this region, intelligently directed by the
Peruvian Corporation or by any private company, will not succeed.
The climatic and soil conditions are inviting, and the only question
is the means of utilizing these gifts of Nature. The entire Pichis
zone is favorable to European colonization. When it is connected
with the Pacific by the extension of the present railroad to Port
Bermudez or some other river point, its colonization capabilities
will be appreciated; for the lack of access has been the drawback.
This rich region lies within 300 miles of the coast.
A similar observation may be made concerning the northern districts.
From any one of half a dozen little seaports the valleys of the
Marañon and its tributaries are less than 200 miles distant. But
the Continental Divide lies between, and this mass of mountain wall
must be pierced by the railroad. Once this is done, the immigration
possibilities of northern Peru will develop rapidly.
For all this there must be faith, and resolution, and definite
measures. It is not a question of settling a new land, for Peru
is an old, old country. Nor is it the problem of reconstructing
the ancient civilization of the Incas, or the civilization which
twentieth-century iconoclastic antiquarians charge the Incas with
stealing from other races. In its economic aspect the matter is
simply one of getting more people into a country which has plenty
of room for them.
During a stay in Lima I spent an afternoon with the Rev. Dr. Wood,
a Methodist Episcopal missionary, who had been in South America for
thirty years, and who had made the most discriminating study of
social conditions of any Yankee living in the Andes. I came away
permeated with some of Dr. Wood’s enthusiasm and, I hope, with some
of his devout faith. The South American continent, he declared, had
been held in reserve by Providence for a time when the population of
other countries would press for room and for means of subsistence.
The present Peru, he thought, was easily capable of supporting
20,000,000 inhabitants in conditions of life and comfort similar
to those enjoyed by dwellers in the Alps and the Apennines.
But if, in the years pending the completion of the Panama Canal,
Peru by natural increase and by immigration can add 1,000,000 to
her population, that modest addition will determine her industrial
future. A million more people during the next ten years will mean
an extra 2,000,000 in the decade that follows. The horizon does
not need to be extended farther.
CHAPTER XI
PERU’S GROWING STABILITY
_Seeds of Revolution Running Out--Educated Classes Not the
Sole Conservative Force--President Candamo’s Peacemaking
Administration--Crisis Precipitated by his Death--Triumph
of Civil Party in the Choice of his Successor--President
Pardo’s Liberal and Progressive Policies--Growth in
Popular Institutions--Form of Peruvian Constitution and
Government--Attitude of the Church--Rights of Foreigners--Sources
of Revenue--Stubborn Adherence to Gold Standard--Interoceanic
Canal’s Aid in the National Development._
When Professor James Bryce wanted an apt illustration of the numerous
elections in the United States, he compared them in their frequency
to revolutions in Peru. The comparison was not unjust. Civil wars
have occurred almost as often. The bloodiest drama was enacted as
recently as 1895. In that year the streets of Lima were choked with
corpses and ran with the blood of brother shed by brother. No one
to-day can give a rational cause for it. A few years earlier, when
Peru yet was prostrate at the feet of Chile, there were revolutions
and counter-revolutions.
But the seeds of revolution do run out after centuries. The soil
grows barren. The soil in this case is the mass of aboriginal
population, the Indians and the mixed bloods, who have known only
blindly to follow one chief or another. Slowly they learned that
in the revolving of rulers they were no better off. An English
monarchist repeated to me the story of an old Indian at Chosica.
He was bent with age and hard work, was in rags and was a beggar.
This was after the Spanish power had been broken and independence
established. He came one day to the group of political chiefs
who were then in control and were controlling for the benefit of
themselves. They were eulogizing Liberty and the glory of having done
with kingships. The old fellow listened and then meekly remarked:
“But, sirs, it is all the same. Under the viceroy I was a beggar.
Under the Republic and your Honors, I am a beggar. I don’t see that
Liberty means anything to poor old Juan Martinez.”
For the bulk of the inhabitants it has not been quite so bad,
because even the republican semblance of government has been better
training for them than the monarchical rule. Yet in the uprisings
and counter-uprisings they were like the old beggar. Whatever
dictator was in and was promulgating high-sounding proclamations
of liberty, they were no better off than under his predecessor.
They followed one _cacique_ (chief or boss) or another, killed one
another at his behest, and then settled back in the old way. But
of late years the condition of the mass of the Indian and mixed
population has improved. I take this statement on the evidence of
discriminating foreigners, and not as a conclusion from my own
observations, which were made within too short a period to afford
a basis for comparison. It is the testimony of the Europeans that
more than one ambitious leader has been willing to lead revolt
when his faction lost, but he could not get followers or dupes,
and therefore he acquiesced.
It is true also that the educated classes have become more stable and
have put forth a stronger influence against political disturbances.
Yet over-credit should not be given them, for the hot Spanish blood
in all of them has not been brought down to an even temperature.
This was very forcibly impressed on me during the Spring of 1903,
when the presidential election was pending. Señor Miguel Candamo,
for several years president of the Lima Chamber of Commerce, was the
only candidate who had a political party back of him. He had been
an influential supporter of the liberal administration of President
Romaña. He was the choice of the Constitutionalists and Civilistas.
There was another aspirant whose canvass was entirely personal.
Besides the Civilistas the only important political organization
was the Popular Democrats, who were supposed to represent the
popular element, or the masses. They nominated no candidate, but
they sought to control the Congress.
One of their leaders, Señor A----, calmly explained to me that
they would get control of Congress, would declare the election
null and void, and substitute their own man for Señor Candamo. He
looked on this as perfectly legitimate politics. Señor A---- had
been educated in the United States in order to have the benefit of
free government, had spent his youth there, and after returning
to Peru had held important public offices. When he was explaining
to me the plans of his faction, the future of Peru hinged on the
peaceful succession to President Romaña.
After Señor Candamo had been chosen for a faction which had not even
proposed an opposing candidate, to seek to prevent his inauguration
and put in its own man--who never had made even a pretence of
seeking the suffrage of the electors--meant to precipitate, if not
actual revolution, a condition fully as bad. It meant to destroy the
confidence of foreign capital, and to take from Peru the prestige
which she slowly was regaining among South American nations. It
was inconceivable how a patriotic Peruvian could harbor a purpose
of encouraging such a condition, and yet Señor A---- was intensely
patriotic and ready to fight for his country.
The election was held, and some of the hot-heads, among whom was
Señor A----, did undertake to question the result, and for a brief
period the fate of Peru trembled in the balance. It was settled by
the stern displeasure of General Nicolas de Pierola, the former
President, himself the chief actor in many revolutions and at that
time the leader of the Popular Democratic party. He told his radical
followers that insurrection against the government would be treason
to the nation, and Señor Candamo was inaugurated with his support.
In this incident I do not mean to lose sight of the real
significance, which was that patriotism did triumph, but it was in
spite of Señor A---- and a group of highly educated Peruvians, like
himself, who would have revolted if they could have been sure of
enough followers. It showed that Peru’s educated classes were not
yet educated to the point where they alone could be trusted with the
destinies of their country, but that the bulk of the population,
this common clay, was acquiring a conservatism which insured the
future. Let hard times come and there may be some discontent among
this mass, yet it will not be moulded to the ambitious purposes of
selfish leaders so easily as formerly. The national policy on which
Peru has entered is one that, by the material development which
it promises and the industrial and agricultural prosperity which
its carrying out assures, is a guaranty, so far as administrative
measures can be, against economic depression, and consequently of
conservatism among the mass of the people.
Another test came when, a few months after President Candamo’s
inauguration, he was taken ill and in May, 1904, died. He had been
conspicuously and honorably identified with the history of Peru, had
the confidence of the whole people, and especially of the commercial
classes both foreign and native. His programme had been purely a
civilian one. All the political parties had been harmonized and were
supporters of his administration. His death inevitably brought on
a contest for the succession. In this struggle there was to be an
alignment of political organizations. Again Peru was approaching a
crisis which would test her stability, and show the world whether
confidence could be placed that the progressive career on which
she had entered would be uninterrupted by domestic dissensions.
Under the Peruvian Constitution a first and a second vice-president
are chosen, but the vice-president has not exactly similar functions
to that official in the United States. The first vice-president,
in the absence of the president or his temporary retirement from
official cares, discharges the responsibilities of the executive
office, and in the absence or disability of the first vice-president
the second one acts. But in the event of the death of the Executive,
the vice-president fills the office only until an election can be
called and a successor chosen. It happened in 1903 that Señor Acorta,
who was chosen first vice-president, died before the inauguration.
On the death of President Candamo, Señor Serapio Calderon, the
second vice-president, discharged the executive functions and
issued the call for the election of a new chief magistrate. If the
emergency had been pressing, he could have called the Congress in
extra session.
The administration between the death of President Candamo and the
inauguration of his elected successor was in essence a provisional
one. Judge Alberto Elmore was called from the Supreme Bench to
become Minister of Foreign Affairs and president of the Council
of State. By Peruvian law the nation can have the services of its
jurists in political positions temporarily without the necessity of
their leaving the bench permanently. I had known and esteemed Judge
Elmore as a colleague in the Pan-American Conference in Mexico, and
in common with other friends of Peru was reassured on reading the
news that he would be at the head of the cabinet during the period
of uncertainty that was to ensue. His firmness and equipoise were
a pledge of public order, if not of complete tranquillity. Mr.
Manuel Alvarez Calderon, the Peruvian minister in Washington, in
announcing that the death of President Candamo would cause no halt
in the progress of Peru, had spoken with the voice of authority.
After some delay nominations were made by the opposing political
parties. The Civilistas united on Señor José Pardo as their choice,
and the Constitutionalists endorsed him, he becoming the candidate
of this coalition. The Popular Democrats and a political group
known as the Liberals named General Nicolas de Pierola, the former
President, as their candidate. His career in the stormy periods of
Peruvian history for forty years had made him a leading character and
he had strong influence with the masses. On his retirement from the
presidency he had become the head of a business enterprise in Lima.
His old opponent, General Caceres, one of the Constitutionalists,
supported Señor Pardo.
[Illustration: Portrait of José Pardo, President of Peru]
José Pardo is a member of a distinguished family, one of several
brothers influential in the business and politics of the country,
sons of the President who founded the Civil party in 1872. He was
educated for the law, and had been in the diplomatic service in
Europe, but had returned to Peru and was occupied as a sugar-planter
when Miguel Candamo was chosen President. He was one of Señor
Candamo’s active supporters, and entered the latter’s cabinet as
Minister of Foreign Affairs. He was generally recognized as the
coming leader of the Civilistas, and was surrounded by a group
of young men who were aggressive in their advocacy of civilian
policies. His speech in accepting his party’s nomination was
singularly free from the generalities and the apostrophes to
Liberty with which presidential candidates and dictators in the
Spanish-American Republics are accustomed to season their discourses.
Instead it was a plea for a school system, internal improvements,
railways, irrigation, harbor works, fiscal reforms, and economical
administration.
General Pierola also made industrial measures the leading feature
of his programme.
The campaign caused anxiety, though the tension clearly was less
than in the previous year in the period between Señor Candamo’s
election and his inauguration. Demonstrations by the rival political
groups resulted in bad blood, there were collisions with the police
in which several persons were killed or injured, and election riots
after the manner of some sections of the United States. But these
incidents were not numerous enough to show the existence of a
revolutionary spirit, and they were dismissed with the euphemistic
designation of “electoral effervescences.”
Meanwhile the real electoral contest was going on in the newspapers,
in meetings, and by manifestoes and addresses to the public. It
soon became evident that the Civil party with Señor Pardo as its
leader would triumph. The Pierolistas asked the government for a
postponement of the election. This was refused on the ground that
under the laws and the Constitution no authority existed for such
postponement. Then the Pierola ticket was withdrawn by the Popular
Democrats and the Liberals, and their followers were advised not
to vote. This action was a resort to the minority method practised
in Spain and her offshoot countries in America. It is an admission
in advance that the other party will win.
After General Pierola’s withdrawal the Civilistas and their allies
exerted themselves against what in the United States is called
apathy. To comply with the law and make the election valid, it
was necessary to have one-third of the registered vote cast. The
proportion of the ballots was much larger than that. Señor Pardo
was elected in August and inaugurated in September. He formed his
cabinet with young blood tempered by experience. Señor Leguia, who
as his colleague in President Candamo’s cabinet had been Secretary
of the Treasury and had been the warm advocate of the new industrial
policy, was called to the Treasury again and became president of
the cabinet. Other members of the cabinet selected also had the
confidence of the public. The continuance of civil administration
and the dominance of civilian measures were reaffirmed, and it was
shown that Peru had taken another stride toward stability by the
acquiescence of the defeated party. The opposition made no effort
to question the election.
Peru’s growth in genuine popular institutions and the recognition
of public sentiment has been shown in the caution with which the
executive power has been exercised by the presidents during the
last twelve or fifteen years. There has been little of the dictator
either in disguise or in proper person. Under President Pardo
representative government is certain to make further progress.
I have given the substance and the spirit of the government of Peru
as it exists to-day, leaving only brief space for an analysis of
the form. The Constitution now in force was adopted in 1860 and was
modelled after that of the United States. Power is centralized,
though there is a reasonable measure of local self-government or
local administration. Geographical isolation of the different
sections is one cause of the centralized authority. The political
division of the Republic is into 21 departments, which are subdivided
into 97 provinces, and these into 778 districts. The source of
administrative authority in each department is the prefect, who is
named by the central government. In many of the departments the
prefect is an officer of the regular army. Each of the provinces
has a sub-prefect, and the districts have their local rulers or
governors, depending from the higher power. In the municipalities
the _alcalde_ is appointed, but the members of the Council are
elected. The Amazon Province of Loreto has a system of administration
somewhat different from the other departments. It is more under
military administration. The customs administration at Iquitos also
requires a close supervision by the national authorities.
The powers of the Executive are defined with clearness. They are
complete, though there is something of a limitation in the Council
of State and the cabinet. Members of the cabinet occupy a position
midway between constitutional advisers and clerks of the Executive.
The Council of State, which was created by law in 1896, is in some
respects an executive body. When the cabinet is in full sympathy
with the President, the Council of State is his instrument. But
when this body is made up of warring political elements, the
President is not always able to have his way. The system obtains
of having the various political groups represented, and when there
is a hostile majority in the Congress that is the only means by
which the government can be carried on. Frequently it results in
an administration of cross purposes. The cabinet members may be
also members of the Congress, and may be summoned before either
branch of that body to give explanations and may take part in the
debates. The Peruvian Congress is peculiar in one respect. This
is in the election of _suplentes_, or deputy representatives and
deputy senators. When the election is held, it is both for members
and for deputy members. Thus it happens that the Congress never
need be without a quorum in either branch, and no district or
department need be deprived of representation temporarily by the
death or absence of the senator or representative. His deputy can
be counted on to attend the sessions.
The Church is a part of the state in Peru, and has been usually an
unprogressive part. The ecclesiastical organization consists of an
archbishop, resident in Lima, and eight suffragan bishops for the
various dioceses. The Church as an institution has opposed movements
to liberalize Peru, and has instigated revolutions against reforms.
Roman Catholicism is intrenched in the Constitution, not only as
the religion of the state, but by the prohibition of other forms of
worship. The Protestant congregations are not numerous, and it is
still necessary to call their places of worship halls instead of
churches. Yet under liberal administrations no real difficulty is
experienced by the missionaries who temper good sense with zeal.
In remote districts the central government cannot always insure
protection against local prejudices, but its authority is exerted
to that end. The testimony of the missionaries themselves is that
they are meeting fewer and fewer difficulties, and even in the
strongholds of intolerance, such as Cuzco and Arequipa, they are
able to carry on their proselyting labors without interference.
In the passing of years the Constitution of Peru will be amended so
as to welcome Protestantism, though the Roman Catholic Church will
remain the state church. This constitutional amendment is somewhat
cumbersome, since it requires consecutive action by two Congresses
in order to become effective; but the sentiment in favor of it is
spreading and propositions already have been presented to Congress.
Wise Protestants do not believe in urging it too rapidly. They
realize that, with a succession of liberal governments and with
the toleration that already is manifest, Protestantism can afford
to wait and work.
The provisions of the Peruvian Constitution and the laws with regard
to foreigners are liberal. Foreigners may be naturalized after
two years’ residence. The government at Lima through the prefects
extends every possible protection to those who are travelling or
who seek to engage in mining or other industries. The trouble which
arises generally is with the local authorities, and Europeans or
Americans who have a reasonable degree of tact and are willing to
adapt themselves to their surroundings usually can make themselves
_personas gratas_. Where they start in with the disposition to
flaunt their foreign citizenship and to override the natives, not
even the central authority can prevent local antagonisms. In four
cases out of five the foreigner in Peru who gets into trouble with
the local authorities has only himself to blame.
The government in the laws it has promulgated for the mining
industry, for the exploitation of the rubber forests, for irrigation,
and for the navigation of the waterways has sought especially to
protect and encourage foreign capital and individuals. Foreigners may
be members of the deputations or delegations which are provided in
the mining-code, and they also may serve in the municipal councils.
On the aldermanic ticket at Cuzco and other places I found English
and German names, and was told that these candidates had not been
naturalized and had no intention of being. This provision should
be of particular value in colonization movements where communities
may be established without the native Peruvians.
In relation to income and outgo there are three sources of
revenue,--general, municipal, and departmental. The general revenues
are had from the customs import and export duties, from the stamp
tax, and from the internal revenues on tobacco, alcohol, sugar,
matches, and similar articles of consumption. Salt is a natural
monopoly. The departmental revenues are from the land tax (which
is very light), from the imposts on property transfers, from the
inheritance tax, and from a variety of industrial sources. The
municipal taxes are obtained from local tolls, licenses, surveys,
and like means. They are not heavy.
Somewhat curiously in this age, the collection of the internal taxes
is farmed out by the national government. A joint-stock company
known as the National Tax Collection Society, _Compania Nacional
de Recaudacion_, by an agreement with the government collects all
these revenues and turns them in, retaining its percentage and
providing loans when needed for current purposes. The stock of this
company was taken mainly by the Lima Chamber of Commerce. There is
also in Lima a provincial tax collection association, which takes
charge of the local revenues in the same manner that the national
company collects the general revenues. Contrary to what might be
supposed, this system works very well, and is satisfactory to the
taxpayers, while the government gets a larger return than if it
itself were the collector.
Peru is almost exceptional among the South American Republics for
establishing and maintaining the gold standard. This is a brilliant
and instructive chapter of financial history. The beginning was
made in 1897, following the presidential election in the United
States. General Pierola was President and was strongly in favor of
the gold basis. Though Peru was a silver-producing country, a law
was passed providing that gold should be the sole standard, that
the customs duties should be thus paid, that there should be no
further silver coinage, and that the ratio should be ten _soles_ of
silver, equal to the English pound sterling, or the Peruvian pound
sterling, which is the exact equivalent in weight and fineness of
the English pound and is known as the _inca_. It also was provided
that silver should not be legal tender in amounts greater than $100,
that no person should be permitted to bring more than ten _soles_
into the country, and that the export duties on silver should be
repealed.
Subsequent legislation strengthened this law, and the government by
an arrangement with the banks called in and melted into bullion the
redundant _soles_, itself taking the loss. There was opposition,
especially in the Cerro de Pasco mining-region, where the output of
silver was greatest. In the interior also the Indians, who had been
accustomed to silver, could not be made to understand gold. But as
they have few transactions in which a yellow coin is necessary, this
was not a serious drawback. Silver enough remains in circulation,
and at Arequipa and other interior commercial points gold yet can
be had only by paying a slight premium. In the natural processes
of commerce a considerable quantity of the minted gold of other
countries is imported, the amount having reached $1,900,000 in 1903.
No question exists that Peru’s gold standard has been immensely
beneficial in maintaining the credit of the country abroad and in
facilitating commerce at home.
Paper money, either bank emissions or national notes, is prohibited
by the law of 1879. The currency which was in circulation in 1881
was converted into the internal debt. This internal debt grew out
of the calling in of the paper currency and the liquidation of old
accounts. The total is approximately $15,000,000. A small yearly
disbursement is required for its service. Part of this so-called
internal debt earns 1 per cent yearly interest, and the remainder
receives no interest, being provided for out of a redemption fund
which amounts to $125,000 annually. The liquidation has been
regularly carried on since the bonds were issued under the terms
of the law of 1888. The yearly fund appropriated for interest and
the sinking fund remain stationary unless increased by Congress.
In the ten years following 1895 the banking capital of Peru increased
at the rate of 150 per cent, while the deposit accounts ran up from
$4,500,000 to $14,000,000. The banks pay dividends of 14 to 16 per
cent. Volumes might be written about the causes which are leading
to the commercial and industrial prosperity of the country and
contributing to the political stability. The convincing evidence
of the fact is the growth in the bank deposits.
In the chapters on Peru I have sought to show something of the
country and the people, of the resources and the commerce, of the
economic prospects and the political conditions, for all of them
must be known if the country’s future is to be judged. What the
joining of the Amazon to the Pacific means, what the new industrial
life promises, what the governmental stability signifies, may find
an answer in what has been written, for I believe in the destiny of
Peru, but not an iridescent, dazzling destiny to be realized within
a twelvemonth or a decade. Instead, a gradual growth to be attained
by a plodding policy, sympathetic to the popular aspirations yet
rock-rooted in sound principles of national progress. The Panama
Canal helps to develop the Amazon section of Peruvian territory,
vivifies industries, and strengthens already stable governments
by contributing to their commercial prosperity. Its impression on
Peru is deep and lasting, for under its beneficent influence the
seeds of revolution will cease to germinate.
CHAPTER XII
ALONG COAST TO MAGELLAN STRAITS
_Arica the Emerald Gem of the West Coast--Memorable Earthquake
History--A Future Emporium of Commerce for the Canal--Iquique
the Nitrate Port--Value of the Trade--Antofagasta’s
Copper Exports--Caldera and the Trans-Andine Railway
to Argentina--Valparaiso’s Preëminence among Pacific
Ports--Extensive Shipping and Execrable Harbor--Plans for
Improvement--No Fear of Loss from the Interoceanic Waterway--Coal
and Copper at Lota--Concepcion and Other Towns--Rough Passage
into the Straits--Cape Pillar--Punta Arenas, the Southernmost
Town of the World--Trade and Future._
The emerald gem of the West Coast is Arica, a day’s voyage from
Mollendo. After days and weeks of rocky coast without vegetation and
of the long chain of the naked Andes farther inland, the clumps of
green trees and the bushy fringe of verdure along the sandy beach
are a seeming paradise and a close one too. The huge cliffs which
beetle over Arica do not appear so barren as those farther north,
and the flat-topped hills do not limit the vision so entirely as to
shut out the thread of valley which marks the line of the railway
back to Tacna and the desert. On the highest hill is a great cross,
but down on the level are ancient and modern windmills. The train
is slowly puffing its way across the plain, while the bay is filled
with rowboats and small launches. In all it is a charming, reposeful
sight. The island fort at the base of the cliffs is rugged and
stern, but it does not spoil the picture.
[Illustration: View of Arica]
Ashore are a handsome little plaza with an elliptical enclosed plot
of shrubbery in the centre, blue morning-glories and purple vine
trees. Lieutenant Commander de Faramond, the French naval officer
who went ashore with me, stopped to look at the flowers a moment.
“Aha!” he remarked, “they have the fever here. This is the purple
fever flower of Algiers. Wherever it grows you find sickness.” Later
I made inquiries and learned that he was correct. Arica, while a
most charming spot, is peculiarly subject to malarial influences.
But a walk through the town deepens the pleasing impression. There
is a well-built custom house, the sloping cobble-paved streets are
clean, and the dwellings are very attractive. The latter are neat
one-story structures. Some are blue as to exterior, some subdued
green, others brown or orange,--a real prismatic blending. Most
of them have arbor-arched entrances, and the passing view of the
interior is delightful. The church is the biggest building, and
at a distance it is not unattractive, though it does not improve
architecturally on near approach. Glimpses of native life are
afforded by the Indian women coming in from the country. Some of them
are mounted astride their donkeys, while the panniers, or baskets
which contain their merchandise, almost smother them. Others trudge
along by the sides of their animals. The buildings in Arica are of
galvanized or corrugated iron. They are of one story, so that they
will not be shaken down by the earthquakes.
Arica’s history has been a memorable one. Sir Francis Drake and his
sea-hawks from the _Golden Hind_ who touched there in 1579, found a
collection of a score of Indian huts. The earthquake record begins
in 1605. The most celebrated of these convulsions of Nature was
that of 1868, when the United States frigate _Wateree_ was carried
a mile inland by the tidal wave, and left there to become the
dwelling of a number of Indian families, until another earthquake
and tidal wave drew it back toward the beach without harm to the
inmates. The companion ship, the _Fredonia_ was destroyed.
Commerce passes through Arica chiefly for Bolivia. Mules and burros
transport the freight from the railway terminus at Tacna into
the interior. The imports are mining-supplies and miscellaneous
merchandise. The exports are saltpetre, salt, sulphur, and some
minerals. There is a shop on shore in which are sold the noted
vicuña rugs. These are brought down from Bolivia. The skins of the
guanaco, much coarser, are vended to unwary buyers for vicuñas.
For several years the annual commerce of the port at the maximum
was $1,000,000, but it will grow rapidly.
The railroad from Arica to Tacna is of the standard gauge and 39
miles long. It was among the first constructed in South America,
the concession having been granted by the Peruvian government in
1851 and the line completed six years later. The aspiration then
was to continue it over the pampas along the route followed by the
ancient highway of the Incas and across the igneous Cordillera
of Tacora to La Paz in Bolivia. A waiting of half a century was
necessary before the project could be considered as tangible, but
by the terms of the treaty negotiated between the Bolivian and
the Chilean governments in October, 1904, it approached realization.
The distance from Tacna to La Paz is about 300 miles, but the
Corocoro copper mines, which will furnish much of the traffic, are
60 miles nearer to Tacna. The freight carried over this route by
pack animals--mules, burros, and llamas--of recent years has not
exceeded 20,000 tons annually, but in the earlier years the quantity
was much larger.
When the railway from Tacna to Corocoro and La Paz is completed,
the commercial importance of Arica as a West Coast seaport will
be greatly enhanced. This railroad will be an artery of commerce
which will bring the heart of Bolivia to the Pacific, for it will
lead to and from the most populous and most productive regions of
that country by the shortest and most direct route. The line will
be finished long before the Panama Canal is opened, but the result
will be the same. Arica is 2,200 miles from Panama, relatively 4,200
miles from New York, and less than 3,600 miles from New Orleans.
To New York around Cape Horn and Pernambuco is approximately 9,500
miles. From Arica to Liverpool via Panama is 6,900 miles; by way of
the Straits of Magellan is 10,400 miles. Can a doubt be entertained
as to the course of the commerce which will flow without ebb through
the future great port of Arica?
The afternoon on which we left Arica we had a rare privilege. It
was the sunlit view of the snow-cap of the distant Mt. Tacora in
Bolivia. The summit is 19,000 feet above sea-level. Though the other
snow-ridges often are seen, Tacora rarely shows her ghostly face.
In the late afternoon the azure mist gathered over the plain and
lower mountain range; the shadows fell on the shell-like hillsides;
the sun glistened on the chalky, beetling bowlders; the brown cliffs
became browner; the faintest suggestion of twilight hovered for a
moment; the snow-caps disappeared, and it was night and we were
steaming out of the bay.
From Arica south the cliffs rise from the sea almost perpendicularly.
In the morning Pisagua is sighted. This is a centre of the nitrate
industry and of what remains of the guano traffic. Colonel North,
the hotel-keeper who became the nitrate king, had his beginnings
as a captain of industry here. The mountains come down to the
sea in parallel ridges. Pisagua is like a little Pennsylvania
mining-town, except that it seems likely to slide into the sea. A
fearful visitation of fire and plague depopulated it in 1905.
Double-header engines drawing short trains climb the steep walls as
though they were going up a ladder. After a time they wind their
way to the nitrate plains and then across the dreary desert to
Iquique. There is not much to be seen on the railway route, and
travellers prefer to keep the ship along the sheer cliffs till
Iquique is sighted through the masts of the sailing-vessels which
are clustered in the harbor waiting for their cargo. Sometimes a
hundred of these are gathered.
There is really no harbor, and scarcely what can be called docks, for
the vessels must anchor outside and the rude breakwater is hardly
more than a pretence. To get ashore the reef has to be crossed in
a small boat. Upsets are frequent, and fatalities are not unknown.
Iquique is a fragile city of frame and corrugated iron buildings.
In the plaza are a reasonably tasteful monument and a pretty
municipal building. There is a brown wooden church with a wooden
effigy of the crucified Saviour, which is far from attractive to
look at. The town has a population of 40,000. Iquique has a history
which surpasses that of the bonanza mountain towns of the West in
swiftness, for in the first days of the saltpetre riches nothing
was allowed to be slow. It is more staid and sedate now, but the
Englishmen--younger sons and some of the earlier generation--do
not let life become too dull. They are terrific brandy and whiskey
drinkers, showing a nice discrimination in not exhausting the wealth
of the nitrate beds by taking too much soda with their brandy.
There is a Country Club and a convenient _café_ at Camache, just
out of the town proper. An American missionary school is maintained
by the Methodist Episcopal denomination. When I was in Iquique,
besides the school instructors there were only two Americans. One
was a mining prospector, and the other was waiting for something to
turn up. But North American enterprise was threatening to invade
the nitrate industry.
The municipal administration of Iquique under the Chilean authorities
is excellent; that is the common testimony of all foreigners. The
population which has to be dealt with is a rough and ready one; the
nitrate laborers are like the miners in their rude independence,
and the longshoremen and harbor workers are as burly and aggressive
as the same class in the United States.
In commercial importance Iquique ranks with the leading ports of
the Pacific, all due to the nitrate trade. Its saltpetre shipments
about equal those of all the other coast towns, and are valued at
from $28,000,000 to $30,000,000 annually. In a single year the ships
entering the port, many of them sailing-vessels, aggregate from 850
to 1,200, with a tonnage varying from 1,250,000 to 1,800,000. As the
nitrate beds are being worked on a more extensive scale, it is safe
to assume that almost any given year in the future will disclose
the presence of not fewer than 1,200 vessels in the roadstead.
Since the industry is largely in British hands, the English flag
is by far the most common, though the German ensign is seen with
growing frequency.
It is not probable that the Panama Canal will have a marked
influence, either beneficial or detrimental, on Iquique. What
nitrate freight may exist by the time the waterway is ready for
traffic will be governed by the conditions that obtain to-day. The
saltpetre fertilizers form a bulky cargo. Part of the profits of
the ocean carrying-trade lies in transporting coal from Australia
or Newcastle to the Chilean coast and then taking on the nitrates.
That brought from England scarcely would find it profitable to pay
the Canal tolls. Nor would the distance be shortened sufficiently
to secure an advantage for the nitrates as return cargo. Their
ocean route, in the future as in the past, is through the Straits
of Magellan or around Cape Horn, and Iquique remains an unimpaired
port so long as the nitrate beds are unexhausted. Some shipments
may be through the waterway direct to Charleston, to mix with the
phosphates and thus fertilize the Southern cotton fields.
At various times projects have been agitated for extending the
nitrate railways in a manner to form a through line into Bolivia, but
the preference given by the Chilean government to the Arica route
seems to end the probability of such an enterprise. In view of the
raw materials right at hand, it is surprising that neither native
nor foreign capital has established manufactories of explosives.
Twenty-four hundred miles from Panama, geographically on the Tropic
of Capricorn, is Antofagasta, a fair sort of town, with regular
streets, rectangular warehouses, and a graveyard on the hillside. Its
pride is the plaza, which has been coaxed from unwilling Nature and
made to bear evidences of grass and trees. It is the starting-point
of the two-foot six-inch gauge railway which runs 575 miles up into
the interior of Bolivia, and brings the mining products down to the
shore. The railway pays a 6 per cent annual dividend, and is said
to earn more. The gross receipts are about $9,000,000 per year.
Antofagasta is a shipping-point for the nitrates as well as for
bullion and ores. The nitrate shipments are increasing rapidly, and
promise to rival Iquique. The harbor is a wretched roadstead. To
get ashore it is necessary to brave a lashing, dangerous surf. The
Chilean government is promising extensive improvements. They are
badly needed. When made, they will enhance the commercial importance
of Antofagasta. The foreign vessels entering and clearing annually
have a tonnage of 1,000,000.
Antofagasta is the centre of the chief copper-producing district of
northern Chile, and also it is the outlet of Bolivian tin, silver,
and copper. The reduction works built by the Huanchaca Company of
Bolivia are located near here, and a large quantity of the ores are
transported to these works to be treated. It always will be their
outlet, but in the future Antofagasta will have sharper competition
than at present with Arica and Mollendo, as the shipping-port of
Bolivian products. The Canal will be of some benefit in lessening
ocean freights, more particularly for the general merchandise
imported.
Below Antofagasta is Taltal, a passably well-sheltered nitrate
shipping-port. Then the coast toward Chañaral begins to vary; the
mountains are lower, more broken and jagged, with more cross ranges.
Chañaral has copper-smelting works.
Caldera is a small town, with substantial warehouses, fronting on
a big, fine bay. It has a Panama potency, for it is the beginning
of the Copiapo Railway that in time will cross the Andes and make
the plains of northwestern Argentina tributary to the Pacific.
This trans-Andine route was the dream of William Wheelright, the
Yankee pioneer railroader of Chile and the Argentine Republic, often
called the father of public works in South America. The passes are
low and easily traversed, as compared with those farther south.
The gradual extension of population in the northwestern provinces
of Argentina, the increase in the areas under cultivation, are
followed--or, better said, are preceded--by railroad extensions. A
few years will bring her lines to the boundary of the Andes. In the
meantime the Chilean government is encouraging the prolongation of
the railway from Copiapo to the dividing line of the Cordilleras.
The time cannot be far distant when Tucuman, the railway cross-roads
of northern Argentina, will have rail communication with the West
Coast at Caldera, and an extensive district will be weighing the
comparative advantages of the Atlantic transport and the Pacific and
Panama transport for its agricultural products and the merchandise
brought to the people who grow those products for export.
Coquimbo is a port of considerable importance. From the sea it is
attractive. One main street extends along the water front, while
the others branch off up the hill at right angles. There is the
cemetery, somewhat suggestively prominent. A neat frame dwelling
in the seaside, peak-roofed style, hollowed out of the hillside,
and surrounded by needle-pointed pine trees, secures attention.
Coquimbo ships large quantities of manganese and copper, and formerly
a British coaling-station was maintained.
We arrived in Valparaiso one morning late in May. The American woman
whose home it was, had promised we should see another Bay of Naples.
The fogs lifted slowly. They showed apparently a city afloat, for
the vessel masts were first visible and then the port proper, which
seemed to lie flat to the sea. Later the skies were sapphire, yet
it was not Naples. That morning there was a celebration in honor of
the arrival of the Brazilian warship _Almirante Barroso_, and the
bay was alive with small craft and stately ships, while the people
swarmed over the heights and along the shore like ants.
Valparaiso (vale of Paradise) is the largest place on the Pacific
coast, with the exception of San Francisco, and it is equally as
fine a metropolis. Its population is 140,000. The city lies at the
foot of high hills, which no one climbs because there are ascensors,
or elevators, as in Pittsburg and Quebec. Unhappily it has not a
golden gate and a sheltered harbor. The finest part of the city is
the Avenida, or Avenue Brazil, at once shaded boulevard, business
thoroughfare, and promenade.
The city has many fine business blocks of modern construction, and
the government buildings are unusually tasteful and harmonious. All
bear the impress of Italian architecture. The commemorative spirit
finds expression in a group celebrating the heroism of Arturo Prat,
the young naval commander who gained unfading laurels in the war
with Peru. On the Avenue Brazil is a bust of William Wheelright,
the son of Massachusetts, who provided steam navigation as well as
built railways for Chile. There is also a statue to Lord Cochrane,
the Scotchman who took command of the Chilean fleet in the contest
for freedom from Spain and helped to bring victory. It cannot be
said that Chile is unmindful of the strangers who have served her,
whether in arms or in peaceful progress.
[Illustration: Scene in the Harbor of Valparaiso, showing the Arturo
Prat Statue]
The port, as is natural, is cosmopolitan. The German colony is
largest, and after that the Italians in numbers, though in influence
they are hardly so strong as either the English or the French. The
French community is self-contained and is an important factor in
commerce. The Britishers, chiefly from Scotland, are in everything
except retail trade. Though the English language is common,
Valparaiso is the one city in South America in which I heard German
spoken oftener.
The shipping of Valparaiso is vast and varied, a floating panorama of
many nations, like a miniature Hamburg. The English lines maintain a
regular fortnightly service of cargo and passenger vessels, and
also a special service of cargo vessels to Liverpool. The steamers
are of 5,000 tons and upward. The distance to Liverpool by way of
the Straits is 9,500 to 9,800 miles, and the sailing schedule is 35
days. The vessels touch alternately at the Falkland Islands, both
for mail and for the cargo of wool. They coal at Montevideo, Rio
Janeiro, and in the Madeiras. They bring out to Valparaiso general
merchandise, and they take away products of the country.
The Bay of Valparaiso is a discouraging one. It is surprising that
so extensive a commerce can be handled with such poor facilities.
The shipping approximates 1,000,000 tons yearly. The engineering
difficulties in the way of creating a real harbor are well
understood, though not easily overcome. The rains wash the hills
down into the sea, but the detritus, or silt, does not fill in what
seems to be the bottomless bed of the ocean, so profound is it.
There is no breakwater.
At the beginning of every Winter season the question is raised,--what
will be the harvest of disaster? It seems incredible that vessels
of 3,000 tons could be lost in this bay, but that is what has
happened. In May, 1903, voyaging down the coast in the _Tucapel_,
we were told that the _Arequipa_ of 3,000 tons burden was the next
ship following us. She arrived two or three days later, and took
on passengers and cargo for the return trip. One night a savage
tempest arose, many of the smaller vessels were wrecked, and the
_Arequipa_ foundered and went down with the loss of a hundred
lives. Two weeks later from my hotel window I watched the wild bay
and waited three days for a chance to get off on the _Oropesa_,
one of the big ships which run between Valparaiso and Liverpool.
Smoke from the funnels showed that the large vessels were keeping
steam up, and they frequently steamed out into the open to avoid
the dangers of the harbor. This storm was a norther which came in
a circular path from the south. The immense floating docks tossed
about as if they were eggshells; the buoys bobbed like dancing
water-sprites; the schooners plunged their noses into the angry
breakers until the mastheads dipped; again the masts and yardarms
would be as a stripped forest in Winter bending before the blasts.
And the wreckage of the hurricane of a fortnight earlier was still
visible,--two big schooners driven hard against the rocks, their
masts under water.
In July, 1904, another destructive storm swept along the coast. The
lower part of the city was completely covered with mud and water,
the sea-wall was destroyed, and the railroad badly damaged. The
loss of life was not great, but the destruction of property was
serious.
In the period from 1823 to 1893 the shipping statistics show the
loss of 378 water-craft in the Bay of Valparaiso, of which 100 were
rowing and sailing boats. The money value was incalculable.
The Chilean government after many discouragements accepted the
plans of Mr. Jacob Kraus, the Holland engineer, for conquering
the difficulties which Nature had placed in the way of making
Valparaiso Bay hospitable instead of hostile to the ships that
bear the commerce of many seas. The estimated cost of the harbor
improvement is $15,000,000 gold, though the initial provision was
for $11,000,000. The scheme contemplates the construction of a
series of sea-walls in the bay. The water is so deep that it is
considered impracticable to build a single breakwater across the
mouth of the harbor. It is believed that the several sea-walls
constructed in the manner proposed will protect the vessels and the
merchandise from the terrific seas which drive in during the storms
of the Winter months. A dry dock is included in the proposition.
The calculation is that the shipping of the port will be benefited
annually to the extent of $1,250,000 and upward by the projected
improvements. The Chilean Congress approved the Kraus plans at the
Autumn session of 1904.
These harbor improvements will lay some additional charges on
maritime commerce, but they can be borne in view of the increased
security and the better facilities. If the Panama Canal were likely
to impair the commercial prestige of Valparaiso, they would serve
as a means of retaining it. Not improbably the Congress had this
contingency in mind when sanction was given the government projects
for making the dangerous bay a safe shelter. The only loss from
vessels which will pass through the Canal instead of making the
voyage through the Straits or around Cape Horn, touching at Chilean
ports, will be in coaling them and providing other supplies. This
is not an important factor in Valparaiso’s trade. The imports and
exports of the port are based on the products and the wants of the
country. Its maritime movement, which is estimated at 3,000,000 tons
annually, is measured by the facilities provided for this foreign
commerce.
Trade with the United States grows regularly, and agricultural
implements and mineral oils, which are among the chief imports,
will pay the Canal tolls and still have cheaper ocean transport from
New York or New Orleans than down the Atlantic and up the Pacific.
It is not an unreasonable assumption that for a proportionate share
of the merchandise imported from Great Britain 9,500 miles’ water
carriage from Liverpool through the Straits of Magellan may be
offset by 7,800 miles via Panama plus the Canal tolls and other
commercial considerations. The same holds true of Hamburg and the
trade with Germany.
On two visits to Valparaiso I found that the shipping interests
were not worrying over a dimly prospective loss of commerce through
the construction of an isthmian waterway. Instead they were looking
forward to it as an incentive to making the bay a genuine harbor,
and as a stimulus to closer trade relations with the United States.
That appears to be a sound interpretation of the economic relation
of the Panama Canal to the port of Valparaiso.
After leaving Valparaiso one feels the pertinence of the suggestion
that far enough south the Pacific is not always pacific. The sea
is not excessively rough, yet it heaves and rolls uncomfortably.
The tops of the Cordilleras, covered with snow, are very clear in
the bright sunlight. At Lota there are trees and Winter vegetation
on the high hills. Lota and Coronel are really twin ports. They
both lie alongside the great vein of coal and copper, and are
coaling-stations for the vessels. Most of the steamers come down
to Lota for the fuel which will be needed in returning to Panama,
while those passing through the Straits of Magellan or around Cape
Horn take on enough to serve them to Montevideo. It crops out of
the hillside and is mined in primitive and inexpensive manner.
The copper mining is also primitive.
Lota has a good bay, but hardly a harbor. The town is not a bad
one. Its main street is well paved. It has an attractive plaza, a
club, a shabby church, a _fundicion_, or copper-smelting works in
which old processes are used, and pottery and brick factories. It
is also noted for the coal tunnel under the sea. Until they were
turned into a stock company, Lota and Coronel were the property of
the Cousiño family, and the company is still controlled by that
family. The widow Cousiño at one time was the richest woman in the
world. Cousiño Park at Lota is the pride of Chile. It is bizarre,
and blends English and French landscape gardening with some original
ideas of Nature improved and unimproved. There is a French chateau
on the hill, and there are ravines, grottoes, fountains, statuary,
artificial lakes, arbors, terraces, flower gardens, and a small
zoo. A lighthouse in the corner commanding the sea has a history.
It was brought from Paita in Peru as the spoil of war.
Indian faces are numerous in Lota. They are the strongest type I
have seen, and are of the unconquerable Araucanian stock. These
Indians and half-Indians, besides being engaged in fishing and
water traffic, are mingled with Europeans as mine-workers. It is
a half-savage mining population, among which strikes, bloodshed,
and murder are not unknown.
For those who wish to visit the Chilean Annapolis, the train may be
taken from Coronel to Concepcion, and then to Talcahuano, which is
the naval port. The journey does not occupy more than an hour. The
Chileans have a patriotic pride in this naval school. Talcahuano
is a principal port and has much shipping. It is about the only
good harbor on the Chilean coast.
[Illustration: View of Talcahuano]
Concepcion, after Santiago and Valparaiso, is the largest city in
Chile, and has a decided importance as the outlet for the great
central valley. Many passengers come by the railway from Santiago
through the central valley to Concepcion, and take the ship at
either embarkation. The English and the Germans divide the foreign
trade, which is large and profitable.
Continuing down the coast on a voyage on the _Oropesa_, we passed
the briefest day of the year, June 21, out of sight of land. The
day was clear and cold. The seas were very heavy. At sunset the
navigating officer told us we were in south latitude 41°. The
Milky Way never seemed so luminous, nor the evening star, set in
the dark southern sky, so bright. The following day was alternate
rain and shine, with just a sight of the Chiloe Archipelago through
the mists. Few of the vessels now take the more picturesque route
into the archipelago and through Smythe’s Channel. The wrecks have
become too common.
Heavier seas were encountered in the afternoon and at night. What
a night! The _Oropesa_, a ship of 7,000 tons, was pounded as with
an anvil, tossed like a chip, knocked, hammered, slammed and banged
about, chased by huge seas astern, struck obliquely by mountain
waves, caught horizontally and spun around like a top. First she
went at half speed and then at quarter speed, but with plenty of
sea-room no one worried.
The next morning at daybreak the lighthouse which marks the
Evangelist Islands was sighted. The name, Islands of Direction,
which is sometimes given them, is a better description. They fix
the entrance into the Straits of Magellan. They are four rocky
heaps,--Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. After they are sighted
the rough seas become gentler, and the ocean is like a rolling,
gently swelling prairie. A knob of brown earth is seen. It is Cape
Pillar. The gray clouds change into violet and purple, a blinding
snow-storm of three hours follows; then the sun lifts a little,
and discloses on the right Desolation Islands and the great snow
fields. By mid-day the land on either side is quite close. The
channel does not appear to be more than a quarter of a mile across.
There is some brush, but no trees. The blue glaciers of which we
have read are not blue, but are white against the water-green sky.
In the afternoon a gauze spreads over the glaciers like a veil of
mist, and they are blue.
[Illustration: Scenes at the Straits of Magellan
Cape Pillar--The Evangelist Islands--Cape Froward]
A look astern shows that we are passing through the narrowing neck of
a long channel with snowy crags and slopes on either side. We are in
south latitude 54°, no twilight, a black night, not a star visible,
the water not to be seen from the lower deck, the ship groping
for anchorage like a blind fisherman. “Two hundred sixty fathoms,
no; thirty-six fathoms, yes.” We have conquered the treacherous
currents, have turned the dangerous elbow corners, and learn that
we anchor for the rest of this black night off Cape Coventry. I
thought of Ferdinand Magellan and his sail-ships threading those
unknown channels nearly four centuries ago.
We are under way at four o’clock in the morning, and come out on deck
to find the sun hooded and cloaked in the snow clouds. It clears
later, showing the straits much broader and the hills on either
side lower but still under a white mantle. We round Cape Froward,
latitude 53° 54′, at times losing sight of Tierra del Fuego. We get
a sight of Punta Arenas, the most southerly town on the American
Continent or on any continent, 1,600 miles farther south than Cape
Town, 900 miles nearer to the South Pole than Christ Church, New
Zealand. It is the world’s cross-roads for ocean travel.
The first view is of wide streets running back to forest-clad hills
which are almost lost in the snow clouds. Everything about the
town is brisk and bright. Ashore the snow crunches under our feet,
and we have the buoyant feeling of the Hudson’s Bay trapper. There
is a Chilean cruiser in the bay, and German, English, French, and
Spanish ships. Even rarer is one bearing the American flag. There
are hotels, _gasthauses_, _posadas_, and other signs which tell in
many languages of sailors’ lodging-houses. The mingling of many
tongues is also heard, for the sailors are ashore.
Punta Arenas has very good wharves and warehouses, substantial bank
buildings, some private residences that look like Swiss chalets,
and a somewhat pretentious plaza in which on this day the fountain
has become a beautiful ice crystal. The town also has sailors’
bar-rooms. There is a new church, and a few vacant lots are left
in the business section. A troop of urchins come chattering from
school, leap into the snow-drift, and pelt the passers-by, the
universal privilege of boyhood. Though it is Winter the women are
bareheaded, or most of them are, and the black alpaca shawls thrown
carelessly over their shoulders do not indicate that the cold is
penetrating. The men wear vicuña robes like blankets, or many of
them have the skins made up into overcoats. The steamer has brought
the fortnightly mail, and every one gathers at the post-office
waiting for letters. The talk is of new sheep companies and gold
washings in Tierra del Fuego.
Punta Arenas has no custom house. It is a free port,--a very wise
policy considering that its trade is of an international character,
selling to the passing ships and buying from them only such articles
as are needed for local consumption. The commercial movement reaches
$2,250,000 per year, the exports exceeding the imports by $250,000.
The export commerce is of wool, hides, tallow, ostrich feathers,
foxskins, guanaco and vicuña rugs. The imports are alcohol for the
Patagonian Indians, cereals, and general merchandise. The best
fur store is kept by a Russian woman. The town is the seat of the
territorial government of Magellans, and is the official residence
of the Governor. There is also an army barracks and a weather bureau
office. It is a station of the Chilean navy, which has rendered much
service to navigation in the hydrographic work of the Straits. Punta
Arenas has its daily newspaper, filled with shipping intelligence
and containing cable news which is transmitted by land wire from
Buenos Ayres. Wireless telegraphy finds it a convenient station.
Punta Arenas thinks it has a cloud on its future. This is the
Panama Canal. It now is an important coaling-station, the coal
being brought both from Australia and from Newcastle, and it has
a good business in supplying passing vessels. Some of this trade
will be lost when the Hamburg and the New York ships which follow
this route to San Francisco are able to take the shorter course
through the waterway. But by that time the improvements which the
Chilean government is making in the navigation of the Straits, and
the natural development of trade in the far southern regions will
have more than compensated for the diminution from the diversion
of the through ocean traffic to other channels. As the centre of
the sheep industry of Tierra del Fuego and of the Chilean mainland,
the southernmost town has a stable future.
CHAPTER XIII
LIFE IN THE CHILEAN CAPITAL
_Railway along Aconcagua River Valley--Project of Wheelright,
the Yankee--Santiago’s Craggy Height of Santa Lucia--A
Walk along the Alameda--Historic and Other Statues--The
Capital a Fanlike City--Public Edifices--Dwellings of the
Poor--Impression of the People at the Celebration of Corpus
Christi--Some Notes on the Climate--Habits and Customs--“The
Morning for Sleep”--Independence of Chilean Women--Sunday for
Society--Fondness for Athletic Sports--Newspapers an Institution
of the Country._
In places the river Aconcagua is like the Platte of Nebraska, which
is famous for spreading out so that it is all bed and no depth. Yet
the stream is more picturesque than the flat top of Mt. Aconcagua,
22,425 feet high, for the monarch of the snow-covered Cordilleras
lacks the majesty of the apex peaks, which are 2,000 or 3,000 feet
lower. The railroad creeps along the valley from Valparaiso, cuts
across the ravines and transverse spurs into a narrow pass, following
the watercourse and clinging to the mountain-side like the rim of
a wheel. The vegetation is both temperate and tropical. In making
the journey on a June day I passed from the balminess of perpetual
Spring to the chill of Winter, but Nature was not stern and there
was no bleakness. A little back from the seacoast were short and
stocky palms, fields carpeted with yellow cowslips, milk-white nut
trees, green willows, silver poplars, young apple orchards side
by side with orange groves, firs, and the taller forest trees.
[Illustration: Scene on the Aconcagua River]
After the main valley is left and the gorge entered, it is a steady,
curved climb to Llai-Llai. The place is an eating-station, and a
very good one too. The name is Indian and not Welsh. Though it was
midwinter, the breath of the tropics lingered and the dews had
freshened the vines and trees. The railway splits at this point,
one branch going south to Santiago and another straight on to Los
Andes, where the mule-path leads across the _cumbre_, or summit,
but where in a few years the big spiral tunnel will complete the
through rail connection via the Uspallata Pass between Valparaiso
and Buenos Ayres. In this region I had glimpses of vineyards, of
pretty farms, and of pasturing cattle and sheep. The valley below
is an agricultural Arcadia. Coming out of the gorge in the wildest
part, the beauties of the scenery were temporarily lost, for a big,
staring coffin sign greeted my eye. Sometimes the Chileans call
themselves the English of South America; sometimes the Yankees.
The advertiser’s art here is both English and Yankee--it stops at
nothing.
[Illustration: View of Los Andes]
But the snow-peaks, the overhanging vaporous milky masses on the
summit, and the darker purple masses on the mountain-sides, make it
possible to forget the coffin man and his wares, though his sign
at first jars the æsthetic sensibilities so disagreeably.
Railroad travel is comfortable on the line from Valparaiso to the
capital. There are Pullman cars and other conveniences. But though
it is midwinter, the cars are not heated. Every one unrolls blankets
and robes. The women settle back to a nap or a little gossip.
The men light their cigars, and between the intervals of newspaper
reading, talk politics and the weather. Two or three peruse French
novels. The five hours consumed in the journey pass quickly.
This railroad was projected by William Wheelright. The opposition
the enterprise met in the Chilean Congress reads like a chapter of
George Stephenson’s struggles with the English Parliament. Wheelright
carried the line as far as Llai-Llai. Then came a long wait, till
Henry Meiggs arrived in the first flush of his exile, and with his
extraordinary mental activities thirsting for a field for their
employment. For ten years the government had been deciding to have
the remaining sections of the railway completed “to-morrow.” It
was in 1861 that they made the contract. They had no idea of quick
work. Meiggs, shrewd California Yankee, got a clause inserted giving
a premium if Section A should be finished within one year instead
of three years, and so forth. Then he built the railroad in the
shortest period and collected the largest premium. The authorities,
wondering, paid, but allowed no rush clauses in subsequent contracts.
Few big cities can boast the possession of a craggy mountain.
Santiago has such a treasure in Santa Lucia, an alluvial outcropping,
isolated, and apparently not kin to the granite spur of San Cristobal
near by. After waiting many years, the municipality converted it from
a sterile mass of rugged rock into a park with drives and gardens,
serpentine paths, statues, terraces, parapets, bowers, grottoes,
basins, cascades, and aquariums. There is a statue to Pedro Valdivia,
the first of the Spanish conquerors, whose conquering career was
ended by the unconquerable Araucanians, and a chapel and monument
to the public-spirited Archbishop Vicuña. A theatre, a _café_,
and some other structures also have been erected. Their value in
beautifying the mountain is not great, yet art and advertising have
not been allowed altogether to spoil Nature.
Santa Lucia is Santiago’s crown jewel, her Kohinoor. Every day during
my stay I went to walk there, often through the clouds, but always
with a freshened sense of enjoyment. The approach is like Chapultepec
in the City of Mexico, but this isolated mountain mass, while less
extensive, is more dominating than Mexico’s pride. Though it does
not afford the splendid sight of two volcanic snow-clad peaks, as
Chapultepec does in the vista of Popocatepetl and Ixtaccihuatl, yet
the circular snow profile of the Andes through the violet mist is
an always pleasing vision.
[Illustration: The Roman Aqueduct on Santa Lucia, Santiago]
A morning or an evening stroll along the Alameda de las
Delicias--Delicious Walk, in English--shows much of Chilean life.
It is a shaded avenue with a central _paseo_, or walk, a roadway
on either side between rows of poplar trees,--the roadway being
given over to the trolley cars, and then the main thoroughfares
which form the street. There are some handsome residences and many
commonplace ones. The stores are not fine. The Alameda is too long
(three miles) and too broad for trade, and the shopping district
locates itself elsewhere.
Chilean patriotism is rampant on the Alameda, though it is not always
artistic. The avenue has statues to O’Higgins and other national
heroes, with groups commemorative of incidents in the war for
independence. A statue has been erected to the international hero,
San Martin, the Argentine chieftain who led the allied armies of
the patriots to victory against Spain. An unambitious monument to
Buenos Ayres typifies the completion of the telegraph line between
Chile and the Argentine Republic across the Andes in 1865.
While many of the groups on the Alameda commemorate war heroes
and war incidents, peace also is recognized. There is a statue to
Benjamin Victor MacKenna, the historian, with the inscription that
the heroes thus pay tribute to the chronicler of their prowess. He
was defeated for the Presidency by a soldier. I like even better
the memorial to Father Molina, the Jesuit naturalist, who rendered
distinguished service to science. It is an obscure little statue,
yet it shows that the warlike nation has thoughts of the sacrifices
and the achievements of science as well as of arms.
Santiago is an ancient capital, for when the Boston tea party was
held, its population was larger than that of either Boston or
Philadelphia. With its suburbs included, it numbers about 300,000
inhabitants. It was laid out by the old Spanish town-makers with
the customary regularity of streets and plazas, but not in the
usual checkerboard form. The Alameda and the Mapocho River form a
triangle which encloses the most densely populated sections like
a fan, so that the east and west streets are not parallel. Santa
Lucia is at the vertex or the rivet. The fan opens from the Alameda,
and spreads over Cousiño Park, the race-track, and various public
institutions.
The principal square is the Plaza of Arms, one corner of which is
occupied by the Cathedral. Nothing about the Cathedral is especial,
nor are the churches themselves particularly striking, for they
are not mediævally ecclesiastical. Some of them are Florentine.
Santiago as a whole has less of the typical Spanish architectural
appearance than any other large city in South America. The business
blocks are substantial structures of two and three stories, with many
arcades and portals. The private residences have fronts with many
_façades_, and are quite ornate. The _patios_, or courts, within
are paved with variegated tiles. The glimpses of the fountains and
of green trees and yellow oranges afford a pleasing picture to the
stranger. He longs to enter and be at home in these secluded orange
groves, set, as they are, in the amphitheatre of the snow-covered
Cordilleras.
Some of the public edifices are comparatively new, while many
are of the Spanish and colonial epoch. The Moneda, or Government
Building, belongs to the latter class. It is rambling and old, with
no exterior pretensions, but with many courts, circular balconies,
and grilled windows. The President occupies a smaller house for his
residence. The Congress building is new, and is of the architecture
of the Renaissance. It is on the site of the Jesuit Church that
was burned in 1863,--one of the world’s holocausts, in which 2,300
persons lost their lives. In front of the Supreme Court building
is a statue to Andre Bello, the author of the Chilean Civil Code
and an eminent authority on international law.
The National Library is housed in the old Congress hall. It has a
very extensive collection of manuscript records of the Inquisition,
brought from Lima, and of other rare historical documents, including
the colonial archives. I visited the Library one afternoon,
and was shown some of its treasures by Director Montt. But the
atmosphere of secluded scholarship did not come upon me until in a
remote recess I met the Orientalist of the institution, a priestly
bookworm in his clerical _sotana_, a skull-cap covering his tonsure,
keen eyes peering from the spectacles across a large inquisitive
nose,--altogether a striking figure of the recluse in the midst of
the musty wisdom of the past.
Some sections of the capital city are shabby. A walk in the poorer
parts--and they cover much territory--disclosed to me even more
than shabbiness, grinding poverty. Across the Mapocho, the walled
and bedded river, is a church with a gaudy blue front and a dreary
triangular plaza. Penury stretches on all sides. The dwellings are
low, with floors below the street level and in the cold and rainy
season under water. The interiors are repulsively forbidding and
unsanitary. The comforts of life, let alone the decencies, cannot
be acquired in such squalid surroundings. No subject of municipal
legislation is more pressing than that of sanitary tenements, and no
municipality has shown greater indifference to it heretofore than
Santiago. Until something is done in this direction, the palpitating
social question will continue to palpitate, and purely political
issues will have to be decided under the scowl of the proletariat.
The women conductors on the Santiago tramways have been often
described. They are not many, and they are not all of them the
loveliest of their sex, but they are faithful and obliging. They
collect the fares about as rapidly as men would do. The motorists
on the trolleys are men.
A pleasing view of the poorer class of the population may be had on
a national holiday or a Church celebration. I had it one day when
the festival of Corpus Christi was commemorated. Both Church and
State took part. In the Plaza de Armas were altars with burning
candles. There were the troops in their gayest trappings; the
infantry in blue breeches with yellow stripes, wearing white plumes;
the cavalry with blue plumes, and the military bands with red
plumes,--a gorgeous grouping of colors. It was a fine army showing,
more imposing than the priestly conclave which, approaching from the
adjoining streets, entered the plaza in front of the Cathedral. The
parade was led by the Procession of the Cross, composed of various
societies. Delegations from the different parishes followed. Next
came the religious communities,--the Franciscans, the Dominicans,
the Capuchins, the Mercedarios, and the Augustinians. After them the
parochial clergy brought up by the prebendary under the pallium,
the archbishop being unable to occupy that place on account of
illness. The pallium was preceded by the archbishop’s cross, and
was conducted by local notabilities.
During the procession some of the women and many of the boys knelt
in the streets and a few men doffed their hats, but the crowd as
a whole was not devout and the ceremony was not impressive. It
partook more of the nature of a perfunctory official function.
Though the snow of the Cordilleras is always in sight, Santiago
does not have a snow-storm oftener than once in ten years. But it
rains. During June, early Winter, I saw clear skies on not more than
half a dozen days. My Chilean friends told me this was exceptional,
and to prove it they brought the verified weather statistics. These
showed an average of only 35 rainy days out of 365. The largest
proportion was in August, when there were ten days on which rain
fell. But the sky is overcast much oftener than this. There are
very many days which are described by the expressive Spanish word
_triste_, that gives to Nature the element of personality and means
sombre and sorrowful. Besides, while the actual rainfall is not so
great, there are seasons when the humidity is very disagreeable,
and this is in Winter instead of in Summer. In January the relative
humidity was 64.6, while in July (midwinter) it was 83.7. The
average for the year was 73.29. The temperature is quite variable,
and the difference between sun and shade is marked. In January the
maximum in the shade was 68° Fahrenheit, and in the sun 85°. In
July it was 46° in the shade and 57° in the sun. The mean average
for the year was 69°.
The Chilean of the upper class is as indifferent as he thinks the
humbler class ought to be to mere physical comfort. He resents the
statement that not more than half a dozen dwellings in the capital
have chimneys, and he is right in doing so, for that is a libellous
exaggeration. Yet the majority of them are without chimneys, and
their occupants get through the villanous Winter season with
oil-stoves or perhaps even without this means of artificial warmth.
I went an afternoon in midwinter to call on one of the local
captains of industry. He had a handsome residence, and, happily, a
parlor upholstered in warm colors. No other means of getting warm
were provided. He came down to see me in his overcoat, and I had
gained experience enough not to think of removing mine. “It is only
a few months,” is the smiling explanation of shivering through the
Winter. But the means to provide comfort during those few months are
coming. The wealthy citizen now builds his residence with chimneys
and open grates.
Life in Santiago--that is, social, professional, and business
life--is only for the classes. The gulf between comfort and
poverty--for it is simply comfort, since there are few great
fortunes--is bridged by ignoring poverty. And it has to be confessed
that, with wretchedness blinked out of sight, existence in the
Chilean capital is agreeable. The city is both the heart and the
pulse of the nation. The commercial habit--hardly industrial, for the
factories are few--limits itself to an hour in the morning before
breakfast and rather resents intrusion during that hour. Though
he is at his office, the business man would rather have you come
around after breakfast, since it spoils his mid-day meal to take up
the work of the day before then. Some humorous experiences of my
own, some polite postponements, satisfied me of the fixedness of
this custom. In the afternoon there is real activity, concentration
which in a few hours makes up for apparent slackness.
In professional and official affairs it is the same. An official
appointment or a call of any nature on a public functionary should
be made somewhere between half-past two and half-past four. I
discovered that the official urbanity was greatest if the call
could be made between three and four o’clock.
The social life is more of the clubs than of the home, yet there
are many fine homes where a charming hospitality is dispensed. The
breakfast, preferably on Sunday, is a favorite social function,
beginning at mid-day and conducted with all the formality of an
evening dinner. At a breakfast in the home of Mr. Emilio Bello
Codecido, a colleague in the Pan-American Conference at Mexico, I
met many of the leading people of Santiago, among them Mr. Auguste
Matte, another colleague in that conference. Madame Bello is the
daughter of former President Balmaceda. Again, Mr. Juan Walker
Martinez, the brother of the Chilean minister in Washington, desiring
to give me an opportunity to meet some of the principal men of
the city, arranged a breakfast at the Union Club. When given on
week days, these social breakfast functions presuppose no pressing
business or professional engagements during the afternoon.
The Santiagonian is a night-hawk. His club life, and when he is not
at the club his family life, does not begin till two or three hours
after sundown. Every evening he is found at the Union Club, one of
the best associations of gentlemen in South America. It may be that
he is going to forego this practice for a few hours and accompany
his wife and daughters to the opera or the ball, which celebrates
some charity or a public function. Female society is satisfied
with these diversions and with church-going. At the opera it is
resplendent in Parisian costumes. Charity draws all its members. At
a charitable performance in the Municipal Theatre one night I was
assured I saw all that was lovely in the capital--and very lovely
it was.
The Chilean women are less restricted by traditional Spanish
formalities than their sex in other South American countries. They
shop by themselves, and many are employed in the stores and similar
places, but man is the master, and the women take pleasure in
recognizing this. They go to the ball or the opera to be admired,
and the strangers admire and continue to admire.
The chivalry of the male Chilean, while formal and precise, is rather
commonplace. He gives the lady the inner side of the street, and
will politely describe the arc of a great circle and cheerfully step
off into the sewer that his gallantry in this matter of etiquette
may not be questioned. But this is the limit of his concession,
except that if he be of a literary turn he may write sonnets to
her black eyes. He extends the first greeting. Without it his most
intimate female acquaintance must not manifest the faintest sign of
recognition. This custom is intensely exasperating to the visitor,
who finds the Chilean women look so much alike that he may have
calmly ignored his _vis-à-vis_ at a social function while he has
greeted with effusive politeness a lady who makes it apparent,
though not disagreeably, that she never saw him before.
At the theatre the _zarzuela_, or one-act comedy, is as popular as in
Spain. After the performance the clubs find all the men congregated
there. The gambling is high. It has been said that the Chilean who
forms a part in the social life of the country must be either a
soldier, a priest, or a farmer. With the predominance of the army
and navy, the first class would be certain. The priest is less an
element than formerly, but the farmer is the constant factor. The
latter class includes the professional men, lawyers and doctors,
and the business men, for all are landed proprietors.
Sunday is the day for society, for drives to Cousiño Park, and to
the Quinta Normal or Agricultural Experiment Station, which is also
a zoölogical garden. The grounds are extensive and well wooded
with sycamores and cypresses, but they impressed me as being badly
neglected. Cousiño Park also had the appearance of unkemptness.
Chile long ago abolished the bull-fight, and she does not permit a
national lottery, though there is no interference with the sale of
tickets for the Buenos Ayres drawing. Football and other athletic
sports are in high favor. Santiago in this respect is an English
town. The great attraction is the racing, and on a Sunday afternoon
in the season the Carrera, or Club Hipico, gathers all that is
fashionable and all that is animated.
Though Santiago has a delightful Summer climate,--the thermometer
never gets above 85° Fahrenheit,--every one who is anybody has a
_fundo_, or country estate, to which the family flits at the first
approach of the heated season. Later in November all move to the
seashore resort of Viña del Mar, near Valparaiso, and play golf.
The English group in Santiago is the largest of the foreign colonies,
but it is not so extensive as the many English and Scotch names
would lead one to suppose. These names are borne by Chileans whose
great-grandfathers were from the British Isles, or a very few of
whom were from the United States.
Newspapers in Chile are as much an institution as in the United
States. This is true both of Santiago and of Valparaiso. _El
Mercurio_, “The Mercury,” which is published in both cities, has
fine buildings, superior in their conveniences to newspaper offices
in the United States, and with provisions for editors, reporters,
printers, and other employees that the Land of Journalism (I mean the
United States) is a century behind in. Dining-rooms, private parlors,
working-offices with baths, bedrooms, chess, for the working-staff of
a daily newspaper! The Santiago office of _El Mercurio_ is notable
not only for its own facilities, which are very complete, but for
its salons and other rooms which are maintained for the benefit of
the public. In a newspaper office in the United States the patron
is lucky if he can get standing-room against any kind of counter or
railing in order to write his advertisement. In Santiago he may have
a table and chair and take his time. In consulting the files he has
all the luxury of a modern library reading-room. The salons in the
“Mercury” building are thrown open to the public for receptions and
similar functions. One afternoon I attended by invitation a concert
given by the members of the visiting Italian Opera Company in the
music-room. Members of the Diplomatic Corps, public functionaries,
and all that was distinguished in professional and social life in
the capital were present by invitation of the newspaper management.
The owner of _El Mercurio_, Mr. Augustin Edwards, is a young man. He
is of the banking family of that name, is a member of the Congress,
and has been Minister of Foreign Affairs. His journals publish more
foreign and cable intelligence than any two newspapers in any
city of a quarter of a million inhabitants in the United States.
While a large amount of telegraphic and local news is printed,
the leader, or editorial on the foremost topic of the day, is a
prominent feature of the daily issue, and one that carries great
weight with the reading public. One evening at dinner, at the house
of Mr. Alejandro Bertrand, the distinguished Chilean civil engineer,
who was his country’s expert commissioner in the boundary dispute
with Argentina, the talk turned on the negro question. There are
no blacks in Chile, and one of the guests, a man of prominence
in finance and politics, who had lived much in Europe, confessed
his perplexity over the negro issue, and wanted to know something
about the African race. The clearest exposition that I ever heard
of the life-work of Booker Washington, and the most discriminating
explanation of the race problem in the United States, were given by
Mr. Silva, the leader writer on _El Mercurio_. Though he had spent
some years in England, he never had visited the United States,
yet he was thoroughly conversant with our national perplexity. It
therefore may be understood that the leading problems of the United
States are discussed with intelligence in Chile, though Chilean
subjects may not always receive the same treatment in the journals
of the United States.
Besides _El Mercurio_, Santiago has other vigorous papers. One of
them is _La Lei_, “The Law.” The name is misleading, for it is
merely a daily journal devoted to current topics. It represents
radical political tendencies. Its editor, Mr. Phillips, was declared
to me to be either feared or loved by every public man in Chile,
and the alternations of fear and love were said to be as regular
as the seasons. Here, then, was the ideal editor. In a call on
Editor Phillips I was impressed with this feeling. His aggressive
personality would be bound to make friends and enemies, and his
independence in discussing public questions would be certain to
insure ideal journalism.
CHAPTER XIV
NITRATE OF SODA AN ALADDIN’S LAMP
_Extensive Use of Nitrates as Fertilizers--Enormous Contributions
to Chilean Revenues--Résumé of Exportations--Description of the
Industry--How the Deposits Lie--Iodine a By-product--Stock of
Saltpetre in Reserve--The Trust and Production--Estimates of
Ultimate Exhaustion--A Third of a Century More of Prosperous
Existence--Shipments not Affected by Panama Canal--Copper
a Source of Wealth--Output in Northern Districts--Further
Development--Coal--Silver Mines Productive in the Past--Prospect
of Future Exploitation._
Is nitrate of soda, the saltpetre of commerce, a national blessing
or a national curse?
After the war with Peru and Bolivia, by which Chile added to her
territory 1,200 miles of seacoast, including the Bolivian Province
of Antofagasta and the Peruvian Province of Tarapacá, a Chilean
naval commander was credited with the foreboding prophecy that the
nitrates would ruin Chile as they had ruined Peru.
In its political phase the question may be answered according to
the bias of the individual. It enters into the subjects concerning
which Chileans engage in heated controversies when discussing
policies and tendencies, or criticising government expenditures.
But this aspect has no direct bearing on the naked economic facts
of production and the addition to the nutritious substances of the
world’s soil.
Nitrates are among the most extensively used fertilizers known to
agriculture, and the demand for them grows. Their relation to the
fiscal system of Chile may be understood when it is known that from
85 to 87 per cent of the total revenues is derived from the export
tax on the saltpetre products. This impost is, in terms of English
currency, at the rate of 28 pence per 46 kilograms or Spanish
quintal of 101.4 pounds, relatively 55 cents for each 100 pounds.
Their ratio of contribution to the national wealth is shown by an
analysis for a given year, when the total value of the exports
was $73,786,000 gold, of which $53,565,000 was nitrates and the
by-product of iodine, while the balance of $20,221,000 was composed
of mineral and agricultural products and manufactured articles.
In Chilean currency the figures were $202,153,000, of which the
nitrates constituted $146,756,000. In the last quarter of a century
the nitrate beds have yielded to the Chilean government $273,000,000
gold, and it is estimated that during the next twenty-five years,
on the basis of the present export tax, the revenue will amount to
$436,000,000.
The first exportations were made in 1832. They continued on a small
scale until the war in which Peru lost the Province of Tarapacá, and
their exploitation on a large scale may be said to have begun in
1882 under the Chilean administration. In that year the exportations
amounted to 10,701,000 Spanish quintals. In the period inclusive
from 1832 to 1904 the total reached the enormous sum of 602,438,000
quintals, or 61,087,213,200 pounds, equal to 27,271,077 long tons of
2,240 pounds. The personal histories of the individuals who engaged
in the exploitation of the saltpetre deposits are as romantic as
the experiences of the bonanza mining-kings. Nitrate kings have
risen and thriven and have held their courts with titled courtiers
in their train. Colossal fortunes have been made and plain commoners
have become peers of England treading the golden path which was
paved with saltpetre.
So little is known about the nitrate industry that I venture
to repeat the substance of a description which I found at once
entertaining and instructive.[11]
The saltpetre or nitrate zone embraces the extension comprehended
between the Camarones in south latitude 19° 11′ on the north and
parallel 27° to the port of Caldera on the south, 450 miles in
length. The distance which separates it from the coast varies. In
the northern part the sea is only 15 miles away; in the South it
is 93 miles distant.
11 For the facts here given I am indebted, through the courtesy
of Minister Walker Martinez, to Mr. J. J. Campana, of Iquique; but
the opinions are my own.
The deposits of saltpetre situated in the Province of Tarapacá
occupy the small folds and the gently rising hills which extend
from the west of the pampas of Tamarugal. To the south of the Loa
River these deposits follow no lode, and they are met with in the
midst of the great pampas as well as in the folds of some hills.
But they extend always in a zone which runs to a distance varying
from 37 to 93 miles from the coast. The short space that separates
them from the sea makes easy the access to the neighboring ports
by means of the railroads through the ravines which traverse the
Cordillera of the coast.
The saltpetre is found mixed with other substances and forming an
irregular layer, frequently broken up into barren parts, in which
generally common salt dominates, or simply a conglomeration of
clay, gravel, and sulphate of soda.
The layer or covering which contains the nitrate is encountered
at a very slight depth, covered by a fold of the conglomeration
indicated, and which in general is altogether sterile, though in
some parts, principally in the North, it contains a regular vein
of nitrate.
The vein of nitrate of soda in the layer which contains it is quite
variable, the highest proportion being in the Province of Tarapacá,
where in some points the medium quality amounts to 60 per cent. In
the southern region this quality of _caliche_, or crude material,
diminishes, and does not exceed an average of 30 per cent.
The name _caliche_ is given to the raw material which contains the
saltpetre that is found in the beds of deposits mixed with common
salt, sulphate of soda, clay, and other foreign substances. The
thickness of the layer is decidedly variable, and fluctuates between
a few inches and three feet. Deposits of greater thickness exist,
but these never have a great extension.
The height above sea-level at which these deposits are met with
varies from 3,600 to 13,000 feet.
The layers composing a saltpetre deposit are:
1st. _Chuca._--This is formed by clay mixed with earth very fine
and evenly spread. The thickness of the _chuca_ generally does not
exceed an inch and a quarter.
2d. _Costra._--This layer, which forms the immediate covering for
the _caliche_, has a thickness fluctuating between four-fifths of
an inch and several feet.
3d. _Caliche._--This is the layer which contains the saltpetre,
and its thickness varies greatly in different places.
4th. _Conjelo_ and _cova_.--This is the last layer, which rests
upon the rock. It is formed by a mixture of common salt, various
sulphates, and other salts, but contains no saltpetre. Its thickness
is also very variable.
The limpid _caliche_ is taken to the finishing establishments,
where it is submitted to a process of purification which is founded
on the great solubility of nitrate of soda, superior to the other
salts which are in combination with it, in water heated to the
boiling-point. The solutions which result are carried by means of
troughs to great vats, where the nitrate of soda crystallizes along
with the potash, which exists in small quantity together with a
little common salt and a small amount of sulphates and impurities.
The quality of the saltpetre thus crystallized is 95 per cent
of nitrate of soda, and it is known by the name of ordinary or
current saltpetre. Refined saltpetre of the grade of 96 per cent
is also obtained by submitting the warm solutions to a light and
short decantation, by which there is left a part of the salt and
the impurities. The refined product is passed immediately to the
crystallizing vats. For this process powerful machinery is used
which can refine 1,000,000 pounds of saltpetre daily. The residue of
the nitrate of soda is known by the name of _ripio_. Its percentage
of saltpetre is estimated below 15.
The saltpetre zone is served with railways. These leave the various
ports and ascend to a height of 4,000 feet above sea-level, with
the exception of those of Caleta Buena and Junin, which stretch
from the summits of the neighboring Cordillera to the sea and are
united with the ports by means of automotors. The automotor _plano_
of Junin has a vertical height of 2,145 feet, and those of Caleta
Buena 2,430 feet.
The Granja or Challorcollo road traverses the pampas of Tamlugal,
and reaches the foot of the hill of Challorcollo. From this point
there is a hanging railway, which reaches the mines in the summit
of the hill at a height of 4,600 feet and is two miles long.
An important factor in the production of nitrates is coal, which
is used in large quantities, the consumption being not less than
400,000 tons annually. The prices fluctuate from 22 to 28 shillings
per ton. Generally English coal or that from Australia is used.
Chilean coal is not employed to any extent. The home production is
hardly sufficient for the needs of the railroads and the industries
in the southern part of the country. Besides, the ships which
carry the nitrates to foreign ports return with coal as the cargo.
The freight rates to Europe for the nitrates vary from 20 to 30
shillings per ton.
In all the deposits iodine is found formed of salts with the base of
soda. The salts of iodine dissolve along with the nitrate of soda,
and later are extracted from the mother waters which have remained
after the crystallization of the saltpetre. The process is simple
and cheap, and the iodine is obtained in the metallic state and
perfectly pure, in which condition it is a commercial commodity.
The small consumption of iodine in the industry has caused the
producers of the entire world to form a combination to limit the
production and fix its relation to consumption. The agreement
obliges all the saltpetre establishments of each country to withdraw
only a very small part of the iodine which their properties contain.
At some future period the refuse of the saltpetre will be worked
to extract the iodine.
The annual production of iodine is approximately 4,200 Spanish
quintals. The price of the substance is about 5½ pence per troy
ounce. The total export tax varies from $150,000 to $100,000.
To the east of the ports of Punta de Lobos and of Hurmillos is a
great salt field extending over an area of 32,000 _hectares_, or
80,000 acres. It is covered with common salt, or chloride of sodium.
The salt is perfectly pure and crystallized. The analyses have
given 99.99 per cent of chloride of sodium. The thickness of this
salt layer is not known. The deepest wells have reached 82 feet.
In a recent year 220,000 quintals were exported to the interior of
the country. The good quality of this salt allows it to be used in
every class of industry and also for domestic purposes. Besides
the great salt bed named, there are various others, but these are
not so important.
The number of laborers employed in the nitrate industry varies from
20,000 to 25,000 according to the activity of the season. Production
in some years has been curtailed through the scarcity of labor or
through strikes and similar causes.
The principal application of saltpetre is in agriculture, it being
employed as manure for land worn out by many years of continuous
cultivation. Some crops give 25 per cent to 30 per cent more than
those which are raised without fertilizing the ground with nitrates.
In special cases the returns have been much larger, and it is on
this account that this fertilizer has obtained so considerable an
increase in all markets.
The stock of saltpetre was calculated for the entire nitrate zone
as of January 1, 1900, approximately as follows:
Spanish Quintals
Tarapacá--Private properties 407,160,000
State properties 165,888,513
-----------
Total 573,048,513
Toco--Private properties 138,112,000
State properties 87,726,769
-----------
Total 225,838,769
Aguas Blancas and Antofagasta--Private
properties 153,000,000
Taltal--Private properties 151,984,500
-------------
Grand total of nitrates 1,103,871,782
To this calculation should be added the nitrates which may exist
in the pampas without having been discovered up to this time both
in Tarapacá and in the districts of the South. In Tarapacá are the
pampas of Orcoma, in which have been found layers of saltpetre of
low grade, but which later may prove worth developing, though not
while deposits of greater importance exist and while the present
prices are maintained.
There are also deposits of saltpetre to the north of Pisagua in
the pampas of Tacna, but in small quantity and in isolated beds.
Deducting the output from the time the calculation was made to
1905, the total would be 951,754,000 quintals then untouched.
The nitrate fields which have not been reconnoitred have been
estimated at 500,000,000 quintals, but that is rather a guess than
a calculation. A safer assumption would be 300,000,000 quintals.
The Antofagasta district has come up to expectations. Approximately,
then, it may be said that in 1905 Chile had a nitrate reserve of
a billion and a quarter (1,250,000,000) quintals of fertilizing
material for the world’s needs. That is a prodigious quantity, but
not an inexhaustible one. In the eleven years from 1894 to 1904
inclusive the exports increased at an average rate of 1,000,000
quintals annually. They were 23,947,000 in 1894; in 1904, 32,387,000
quintals.
The industry is in every sense a modern one, for it is controlled
by a combination, or trust. This arrangement has one good feature:
it insures reliable statistical data. The prospect as to production
may be readily grasped when the explanation is made that the output
for the year which ended with the first quarter of 1905 was placed
at 36,000,000 Spanish quintals as against 32,387,000 the previous
year. This means a direct revenue of $20,000,000 gold as long as the
rate of production is maintained. A lowering of prices might cause
the output to be lessened a few million pounds, but the world’s
demand is steady enough to assume that for the present period these
figures may stand substantially without change.
In the entire nitrate zone there are about 100 _oficinas_, or
clarifying establishments. The original combination of the producers,
or trust, was for five years, and began March 31, 1901. The amount
of saltpetre which the _oficinas_ may produce is fixed annually by
a directorate. The exportation cannot be less than the previous
year’s consumption.
If the rate of production fixed by the combination during recent
years should be maintained without further change, there would remain
33 to 35 years more of nitrate exploitation on the present scale.
Nothing, however, is more improbable. The product will be increased
as rapidly as good prices can be obtained, and the experience of
the last ten years has shown that the consumption grows fast enough
to justify the larger output. No combination of producers can keep
new capital from coming into the nitrate fields, for no vague fear
of the future will be strong enough to cause the government to
withdraw from rental for an indefinite period its nitrate properties.
The new capital wants quick returns on the investment. It urges
advertising, spending more money in the propaganda maintained to
educate the world in the value of saltpetre as a fertilizer.
Against constant pressure for widening the market may come
competition from artificial products, or new discoveries of nitrate
fields in the desert of Sahara or in California that will terminate
the monopoly of production and cause the export tax to be lowered.
But while the profits might be lessened from some such cause, it
does not follow that the production would be curtailed. It would
the more likely be swollen. Expert opinion is that the existing
_oficinas_ could double their output. The profit which now accrues
from an annual production of 35,000,000 or 36,000,000 quintals
could be spread over 50,000,000 quintals and still show a margin
of gain. Thus in any view the quantity of saltpetre extracted is
likely to grow with each year, subject only to temporary checks or
fluctuations.
Studied in every light, Chile’s Aladdin’s lamp flickers, for the
life of the nitrate industry as a national wealth producer draws
to a close. A third of a century to forty years reasonably may be
fixed as the term of its existence. After that will remain the
debris of the industry, and possibly before the beds approach
exhaustion, irrigation will make the dead pampas blossom with the
luxuriance of tropical agriculture, and the present sparse and
artificially sustained population will be supplanted by populous
farming communities.
In the opening chapter I have stated that the Panama Canal in its
ultimate economic influence will not affect the nitrates or be
affected by them, because their life is limited to the infancy of
the waterway, while, during the period of their existence that may
remain after it is opened to traffic, the bulky nature of the cargo
which must pay the tolls counteracts the possible shortening of
the distance. It may develop that other commercial considerations
will cause some diversion of the nitrate carrying-trade through the
Canal, but this will be chiefly for the gulf ports and the Atlantic
coast of the United States. It is not likely to become important,
since the market for saltpetre fertilizers is mainly in Europe.
England takes directly and for the Continent between 7,000,000 and
8,000,000 quintals annually, Germany about 1,000,000 more, and
France 5,000,000 quintals. Other European countries import from
500,000 up to 2,000,000 quintals. The east coast of the United
States imports 5,000,000 quintals, or not more than 15 to 20 per
cent of the total production, though the consumption is a growing
one and is stimulated by systematic advertising. This proportion
may increase without materially lessening the cargoes of nitrates
which will be transported through the Straits or around Cape Horn
to Liverpool, Hamburg, and Havre.
After the nitrates, copper is the most productive source of mineral
wealth, and is the most important element in metal mining. The
output ranges from 30,000 to 35,000 tons each year. The heaviest
output is in the northern region, where the outlet is through the
ports of Coquimbo and Antofagasta, but the single district of Lota
in the South has a larger output than either of them. It contributes
from 7,000 tons upward in bars and ingots. The Guayacan mines in
the Department of Ovalle have a similar output. In the district of
Chuquicamata, which is in the volcanic Cordilleras, 160 miles from
Antofagasta by the railway and 9,000 feet above sea-level, are half
a dozen copper mines producing 18,000 to 20,000 tons of ore which
averages 18 per cent. The area is 8 square miles of country rock
of pure granite with true fissure lodes, and it is estimated that
there are 15,000,000 tons of decomposed rock averaging one-half of
1 per cent of copper. In the Capopo district are a group of copper
mines which have a monthly output of 2,500 or 2,600 tons of ore,
the sulphides predominating in most of them.
The copper industry of Chile has been a reasonably profitable and
steady one, and without doubt it is capable of a considerable
expansion by the application of modern methods and the more general
adoption of improved machinery. The bulk of the shipments is in
the form of fine bar copper, though both regulus and copper ores
are exported.
The coal mines are located in the Provinces of Concepcion and
Arauco, the most productive veins being at Lota and Coronel. This
is utilized on the railways and in local industries as well as in
coaling vessels, but the output does not equal the demand, and
Chile may be looked upon as an importer of coal for an indefinite
period. There is lignite to the south toward the Straits, but its
commercial value has not been demonstrated.
Iron ore has been found in the Province of Coquimbo and elsewhere,
but the production is light. The government made valuable concessions
to a French company which agreed to establish an iron industry in
Valdivia.
The gold that exists in the North, where the lodes are quartz, and
the _lavaderos_, or washings, in the alluvial soil of Tierra del
Fuego are not likely to become important sources of national wealth,
though new discoveries which prove worth working are reported from
time to time.
In times past, Chilean silver mines have been quite productive.
The most famous were the Chanarcillo and Chimbote in the Copiapo
district, which a few years ago were declared to be worked out.
A group in the Iquique region includes the mineral section of
Huantayaja. The total output from this group during the ten years
preceding 1892 was placed at $22,000,000. After that the production
decreased, though it was said to average $400,000 annually. The
depth of workings in these mines varies from 200 to 2,000 feet.
The general character of the ore is chlorides, and the formation
of the rock is porphyritic and calcareous. White silver about 95
per cent pure and the very rich ores are found in pockets near the
contact of the calcareous porphyritic rocks. Near these mines is the
mineral section of Santa Rosa which includes the Consequencia and
the Pansio. The latter is said to have produced $1,600,000 during
the last ten years.
In the Province of Antofagasta are the two silver districts known
as Caracoles and Inca Caracoles. The former is 110 miles from the
coast. These mines were discovered so recently as 1869. The lodes
were of extraordinary richness. The ores were chiefly chlorides,
iodides, and mixtures of chlorides and sulphides. The ore deposits
were superficial, and the ore generally was found in pockets. The
shafts were from 300 to 600 feet deep, though one of them had a
depth of 2,500 feet. Deep mining was abandoned, as it was shown
that the veins split up into small fissures. The output of the
Caracoles group was estimated at 60,000,000 ounces of fine silver up
to the time when the mines were practically abandoned. At present
the output is said not to exceed a few thousand ounces.
The Inca Caracoles mines are situated near the town of Calama, 150
miles from the port of Antofagasta. The country rock is porphyry,
and the lodes range from 3 to 6 feet in width. The ore is chiefly
chloride, and averages 40 ounces to the ton. Heavy freights and the
absence of water have prevented the development of this group, and
the prospective output cannot be accurately estimated. However, it
seems to have great possibilities.
Neither copper nor silver ever will suffice to make up the deficiency
in the national wealth caused by the gradual exhaustion of the
nitrate beds, yet increased transportation facilities and the
application of the newer processes give promise of a revival of
the mineral industry and an appreciable addition to the productive
resources of the country.
CHAPTER XV
CHILE’S UNIQUE POLITICAL HISTORY
_National Life a Growth--Anarchy after Independence--Presidents
Prieto, Bulnes, Montt, Perez--Constitution of 1833--Liberal
Modifications--The Governing Groups--Civil War under
President Balmaceda--His Tragic End--Triumph of his
Policies--Political System of To-day--Government by the
One Hundred Families--Relative Power of the Executive and
the Congress--Election Methods Illustrated--Ecclesiastical
Tendencies--Proposed Parliamentary Reforms--Ministerial
Crises--Party Control._
Chile has a political history that marks an isolated chapter among
the Spanish-American Republics. Its unique and significant feature
is four successive and peaceful presidencies of ten years each.
The phenomenon is worthy of study. The tributes which the Chileans
pay themselves are merited. Their national life has been a growth
and not a series of spasms.
After independence was achieved through O’Higgins in 1818, the
Liberator was sent into exile, because he sought to exert kingly
powers as a dictator under the merest crust of republican forms.
The riot of liberty followed for ten or twelve years with frequent
revolutions, changes of rulers, and unavailing efforts to form a
stable government. The anarchy of license under the mask of popular
institutions reached its height during the period from 1828 to
1833, when the Liberal party--that is, liberal in name--was in
power. Then came the Conservatives, or reactionists. They forced
the adoption of the Constitution of 1833, which remained unchanged
for thirty-seven years. Order and tranquillity was the motto, and
genuine republicanism was choked in order that a government of law
might live.
Under this Constitution the colonial despotism differed only from
that of Spain in that it was exercised by family groups, who
controlled the Executive, rather than by a viceroyal representative
of the distant monarchy. It was easy to suspend the Constitution
and to put the whole country under martial law. The promptness with
which this was done in the emergencies undoubtedly prevented the
series of revolutions that cursed other South American countries.
It was constitutional for the Executive to abrogate the organic law
when the opposition got too active. The party in control under this
Constitution of 1833 always was known as the Conservatives, and the
opposition in a general way as the Liberals. Sometimes a faction
of the Conservatives would split off and attempt a revolution;
sometimes the conservative element was really liberal in character,
but not in name.
From 1833 to 1873 Chile had four presidents, all elected and
reëlected under constitutional forms. These chief magistrates were
Joaquin Prieto, Manuel Bulnes, Manuel Montt, and José Joaquin
Perez. During General Bulnes’ administration an army uprising was
attempted; during that of President Montt a revolution started at
Copiapo in the North. There were also other disturbances. But all
of them were suppressed without long periods of civil dissensions,
and though liberty seemed to be smothered under councils of war
and the absolute suspension of individual rights, it was a hardy
plant and after a brief period would begin to grow again.
Under the Constitution of 1833 the presidential term was five years,
and there was no prohibition against a second term. In this manner
each president reëlected himself and enjoyed a ten years’ tenure. But
he could not have done this if the privileged classes, the family
groups, had not sustained him. They were aggressive in defending
their share in the oligarchy, and their individual independence
they maintained as sturdily as did the English barons who forced
the Magna Charta from King John. With the national development
assured, the country began to chafe under the recognition of the
autocratic power which was vested in the Executive, and to feel that
the growth which would not have been possible without the colonial
despotism under republican form had now reached the full measure.
Consequently the agitation for liberalizing the Constitution began
and was continued persistently instead of intermittently. In the
decade from 1860 to 1870 the Conservative reactionaries were pressed
so vigorously and were on the defensive so constantly that the
harsh features of the Constitution were modified in the spirit if
not in the letter.
During the life of this old parchment and the four Executives who put
it into practice,--for there never was a dictator among them,--Chile
consolidated her domestic interests, inaugurated the building of
railways, and by the navy and other means prepared for the war
which it was felt one day would be had with Peru and Bolivia. In
view of all that was accomplished, it can hardly be said that the
Constitution of 1833 and the power of the one hundred families as
exerted under that instrument, were bad for the country. But a change
was inevitable, and in 1870 the Constitution was reformed in a manner
to bring it within the sphere of modern principles of government
and remove its aggressive antagonism to republican institutions.
Greater independence was conceded to the judicial power, and larger
liberty of action to the municipal authorities, while the electoral
right of the citizen was broadened. The presidential term remained
at five years, but successive elections were prohibited so that
the ten-year tenure could not continue.
Frederico Errazuriz was the first of the Executives to serve under
the amended Constitution. His term was peaceful and progressive,
but was devoted chiefly to preparing for war by ordering the
construction of the armored cruisers which rendered the Chilean navy
so formidable. He was succeeded by Anibal Pinto, who had served in
the cabinet as Minister of War. A financial and economic crisis
supervened during his administration, and in its closing year was
fought the war of the Pacific, with Chile as the antagonist of
allied Bolivia and Peru. Chile’s sweeping victories not only gave
her the nitrate territory which she exacted as war indemnity; it
made her the most aggressive and the most feared Power in South
America.
It is only with the internal political history that I propose to
deal. A Chilean historian naively remarks that it had been the
practice for the outgoing president to intervene in the elections
in order to insure the election of a candidate of his own choosing.
President Pinto announced his purpose of repudiating this practice,
yet he was succeeded by Domingo Santa Maria, who had held the
portfolio of Foreign Relations in his cabinet. President Santa
Maria found himself antagonized by the Conservatives and one wing
of the Liberals. He tried to organize an administration party and
to control the election of senators and deputies in the Congress,
but failed. This was a clear manifestation of the inability of the
Executive to rule without the consent of the families who composed
the various political groups. But the issue between the Executive
and the families was to be forced by a more resolute hand. Its
outcome was dramatic, a tragedy for the nation and a tragedy for
one of the country’s greatest men.
José Manuel Balmaceda was chosen president in 1886, after a sharp
electoral struggle in which the Conservatives and the reactionary
faction of the Liberals opposed him. He sought to conciliate the
latter by calling some of them to his cabinet. He had grand plans
for the development of the nation, and he wanted a united support.
President Balmaceda strengthened the naval and military establishment
out of the nitrate proceeds; but his guiding ambition was to apply
them to public improvements, railways, roads, harbors, and schools.
The Conservative-Liberal fusion thwarted him. It prevailed in the
Congress, and demanded that he name ministers satisfactory to the
majority. This he claimed was in violation of his constitutional
prerogatives. The Congress refused to authorize the taxes and
appropriations necessary for carrying on the government. When for
any reason this was not done at the regular session, the practice
had been to convoke the Congress in extra sessions. President
Balmaceda, wearied with the controversy, abstained from taking this
action. On January 1, 1891, he announced that the appropriations
for the current year would be the same as during the previous year.
Bloody, merciless civil war followed. The Congressionalists
proclaimed that their contest was against Executive usurpation. They
removed to Valparaiso, and took refuge on the warships which had
been prepared for them. They named Captain Jorge Montt as Commander
of the National Squadron. President Balmaceda declared Montt and
the naval commanders who obeyed his orders traitors. The President
organized an army, while the navy sailed for Iquique and seized
the nitrate provinces.
The Congressionalists instituted their provisional government there
to carry on the war against President Balmaceda. They organized
troops which were transported to Valparaiso and defeated the
garrison. A second victory at Placilla and they were in control of
the capital, welcomed by the populace as liberators.
Balmaceda took refuge in the Argentine Legation. Flight across the
Andes was open to him, but he disdained it. He waited calmly till
September 19, the day on which his constitutional term as president
ended, wrote farewell letters to his family and friends, arrayed
himself in black, pointed a revolver at his right temple, discharged
it, and died instantly. His policies live.
I have recalled these swiftly tragic events without any intention
of opening up controverted subjects. My purpose has been to sketch
them only in their relations to the political system of Chile as
it exists to-day, for they influenced it and caused modifications
of the Constitution restrictive of the Executive power.
By the books the form of Chilean government is popular
representative. To the foreign observer the wonder grows that a
system which gives such inordinate power to small groups of families,
who call themselves political parties, and which binds the Executive
hand and foot, can prove satisfactory. But it suits Chile, or has
suited her, and the country progresses. That is the conclusive
answer. If Chile chooses to make a strait-jacket for herself, that
is her own concern, and if in that strait-jacket she expands and
develops a progressive national life she may be permitted to take
her own way and her own time for freeing herself.
But what of the governing classes? Who compose them? The Chilean
professional man or merchant or government official will tell you,
as he told me, that there are no class distinctions, and at the
same time will take pride in drawing himself and his fellows far
apart from the masses. It has been said that a hundred families have
ruled Chile for seventy-five years. The numeral might be doubled or
trebled, but the truth would not be changed. The landed interests,
the commercial community, and the Church have ruled the country,
and it must be said that they have ruled well. They may accuse
one another of being false to their trusteeship, but the foreign
observer is not impressed with this charge. All of them have worked
together to make Chile the powerful and aggressive little nation
that she is, and have secured her the respect that the rest of
South America has given her. But they have taken all the benefits
for themselves,--the honors and emoluments of public office, the
opportunities for wealth that came from the nitrate fields, the
chances for careers that have been afforded by the army and the
navy. It may almost be said that the army and navy exist for the
employment of the one hundred families.
Chile herself is not a country of great private fortunes. One or two
families have been enriched by mines, a half-dozen by banking and
commercial development, a larger number by the nitrates. But when
it is all said, the Chilean hundred families are kin of moderate
means. Their main sources of income are from their landed estates.
These land-owners do not tax themselves heavily. As in the majority
of countries of Spanish America, the government imposts are laid on
the revenue from the land and not on the land itself. The landed
proprietors contrive that these imposts shall be light.
The existing regimen, as studied on paper, is almost a complete
reversal of the regimen under which for nearly half a century Chilean
nationality was developed and the little ribbon of a republic
was consolidated and made strong. The old form was a colonial
despotism, with monarchical powers for the Executive. The present
system is congressional despotism without republican powers for
the Executive, but under both forms the one hundred families have
ruled. The president is selected by electors chosen in the provinces
through direct suffrage, since there is no such thing as provincial
legislatures.
Intense jealousy of the power of the Executive is shown. Politically
the president of Chile is a cipher, though he has vast power
in relation to public contracts. But he can rule only as the
instrument of the Congress. Not only does the ministerial system
prevail in its most extreme form, so that it is not unusual for the
cabinet to be changed half a dozen times within a short period, as
happened in 1903 and 1904, but a further limitation is put on the
president’s authority by the Council of State. He governs through
this body, which is composed of eleven members, the majority of
whom are selected by the Congress, each branch naming three. The
remaining five can be chosen by the president only from designated
functionaries, one of them always being the Archbishop. Thus it
cannot be said that there are three coördinate powers, legislative,
executive, and judicial, in the Chilean government.
In operation there is no equilibrium of executive and legislative
powers, because Chile is governed, ruled or misruled, by the
legislative branch. The authority of the Congress is very extensive,
and it never sleeps on its rights. Usually it keeps the president
awake seeing how they can be respected and executive policies at
the same time be carried out. An election for Congress is not
greatly different from a similar event in the United States.
The parties nominate their candidates, usually after a caucus.
Minority representation obtains. Electioneering is done through the
newspapers, through meetings, and through placards. The placards
cut a very extensive figure. The manifestoes of the candidates,
their allocutions and appeals to the voters, are printed in type
so big that the one-eyed man must see and stop to read.
Election methods in many respects are patterned after the United
States, and it is considered fair politics for the party which
gets control of the voting machinery to use its advantage without
particular regard for the will of the voters as manifested in
the ballots. An example of this was given me which showed that
Chilean politicians have a fine sense of humor,--one which would be
appreciated by Tammany or by Philadelphia. Mr. George Asta-Barragua,
who related the incident, had lived in Washington when his father
was minister to the United States, and could enjoy the pleasantries
of politics in either country.
The contest was very bitter between two candidates who might be
disguised as Lopez and Martinez, those names being as common as
Smith and Jones. The friends of Martinez secured a majority in the
election board, but Lopez had the privilege of naming the minority
member, one Rodriguez. The ballots deposited were evenly distributed.
The majority of the board calmly counted all of them for Martinez.
Rodriguez protested, but without avail. The Martinez faction had
determined that in this precinct there should not be one vote for
Lopez. After numerous energetic and violent protests, Rodriguez saw
that the game was against him, and only varied the proceedings by
violent protests in the nature of shaking his fist under the noses
of his co-judges. Finally he contented himself with shrugging his
shoulders, and the proceedings went on good-naturedly. His co-judges
joked him, and he jested with them.
The last thing to be done was for the judges themselves to cast
their ballots. Then Rodriguez made his final stand and delivered a
little speech to the other judges. It was in substance as follows:
“Gentlemen, I recognize that you are two against one. I won’t say
that we wouldn’t have done the same if we had been two against one.
But now that the farce is nearly over, I have one request to make,
which as honorable gentlemen you surely will grant. It would be
scandalous if, with myself as the representative of Lopez, the word
was circulated that I did not vote for him. Therefore my request,
honorable associates, is that I may cast my ballot and have it
counted for Lopez.”
His honorable associates conceded that it was his duty to cast
his ballot. He did it with the name LOPEZ in great black letters.
His honorable associates calmly counted the ballot for Martinez.
Rodriguez protested energetically. Colleague No. 1 picked up the
ballot, remarking, “There is no vote here for Lopez,” Then he held it
up and said to Colleague No. 2, “Do you see anything of the name of
Lopez here?” Colleague No. 2 slowly spelled out, “M-A-R-T-I-N-E-Z.”
Rodriguez then gave it up, and the vote of the precinct as returned
showed, for Martinez, 267; for Lopez, 0.
I was assured that this was an actual occurrence, and it certainly
was a fine exhibition of campaign humor.
The Roman Catholic Church is a part of the political system, and
is a political power in Chile, although there is no discrimination
against Protestant forms of worship. In 1813, during the struggle
for independence, Bishop Villadres preached in the name of God
war against the patriots. Bishop Andreu preached war against the
King’s soldiers. Thus the Church was not arrayed wholly against the
patriots. They recognized it in the Constitution, and it receives
State aid.
While the influence of the hierarchy in the main has been
reactionary, the ecclesiastical authorities have been politic enough
not to antagonize the ruling family groups. When they have sought
to do so, they have been worsted.
The Chilean government is measurably independent of ecclesiastical
dictation. It always has insisted on its right to nominate the
Archbishop, and when Rome has been unwilling to recognize this
nomination the Archbishopric has remained vacant. That was the
condition for several years previous to Balmaceda’s election as
president. Then a compromise was effected by the Vatican recognizing
the choice of the administration. A Papal legate is maintained at
Santiago, and the intrigues and manœuvres to give him precedence have
caused unpleasantness in the Diplomatic Corps. Of late years the
Church influence has been decidedly reactionary. This was accentuated
on the death of Pope Leo, when the Bishop took occasion to preach
a political sermon, aimed not only at the Italian government but
at Liberal governments everywhere. The leading public men resented
this reactionary tendency. When the priests expelled from France
sought an asylum in Chile, they were frigidly received.
The efforts to reform the political system relate both to the
executive and to the legislative branches. One group wants the
vice-president chosen, as in the United States, to succeed to the
Executive functions on the death or incapacity of the president.
Under the present form there is no elected vice-president. That
functionary is the Minister of the Interior, and usually he is a
member of the House or of the Senate. When the president desires to
forego temporarily the responsibilities of office or becomes ill, he
can withdraw and turn the administration over to the vice-president.
The latter official during the interim exercises all the powers
of the chief magistrate, but in case of the president’s death a
new Executive is chosen to fill out the term. The agitation for an
elective vice-president is not very pronounced, though it may be
made a part of the programme of one or the other of the political
groups.
The movement for a change with regard to the Congress is more
definite. One phase of it relates to the form. Some want to dispense
with the formality which takes place at the opening of Congress
when the president is escorted to the hall of the Sessions by the
troops, is attended by the cabinet, and delivers his message in
person in the presence of the Diplomatic Corps and of distinguished
officials. It is not a live question. I attended an opening session
in company with Minister Wilson, and thought that the message
acquired dignity through its ceremonial delivery.
The vital reform which many Chilean public men think necessary
in order that national policies may be carried forward and the
government placed in harmony with popular sentiment, is a complete
overturning of the present parliamentary system, with its frequent
and ridiculous ministerial crises, the consequent cabinet changes,
and the interruptions in the Executive’s policy. The theory of
parliamentary government is carried to an extreme which hardly
could be conceived of in England. It would make a Frenchman envious
of the ease with which ministries can be upset and new ministries
set up to be overthrown in their turn.[12] It is a panorama of
lightning parliamentary changes. The consequence of the present
system is to continue the power of the family groups who call
themselves by various names and who may or may not reflect distinct
political tendencies. All of them must be represented in the cabinet.
Occasionally by means of a coalition or a fusion the Executive may
secure something like a political majority, but it does not hold,
because the elements composing it have too many selfish interests
and too many individual ambitions to gratify. Sometimes, too, the
House may be satisfied with the cabinet, while the Senate refuses
to accept it. That was the condition in the Fall of 1904, when the
Liberal Alliance was the power behind the ministries.
12 The Chilean correspondent of a London newspaper gave this
illustration: “Valparaiso, February 11. The changes effected in the
composition of the Chilean Ministry, and especially the Finance
Department, have at times been so frequent that not very long ago
both the British and the United States Ministers informed the
President that for the future they would be unable to recognize
any change. They complained, not without sufficient reason, that
no sooner had they entered into arrangements with one Minister of
Finance than these had to be suspended and commenced _de novo_ with
his successor, who, again, at the final stages, referred the foreign
representatives to his successor at the Treasury Department.”
The leading men who are agitating for a reform are radical in their
programme, for they want Chile to adopt the practice of the United
States, and nothing can be more opposite than our own system and
that which now obtains in Chile. These reformers would have the
Executive sustained by a political party in the Congress; but
even when he may not have a partisan majority back of him, they
would have his administration, chosen as it is for five years,
assured the voting of the necessary appropriations and the power
to continue the policy on which he was elected. That, they argue,
would give continued internal tranquillity and strength abroad.
This was lacking to Balmaceda, and its lack caused him to defy the
Congress and go outside the Constitution. A long time must pass
before Chilean public sentiment can be educated up to the point
where a hostile partisan majority in the Congress will not dare to
refuse to vote the ordinary appropriations of the government. When
that point is reached, there will be simply two political parties
instead of half a dozen groups centring around individuals.
When I was in Chile in 1903, there were four parties who were
recognized, and these were split into so many sections that it
was hard to distinguish them. The parties were the Liberals, the
Radicals, the Conservatives, and the Social Democrats, or Populists.
But the Liberal party was composed of middle-of-the-road Liberals,
moderate Liberals, and liberal Democrats, while the Conservatives
were divided into regular Conservatives and clerical Conservatives,
with a shading off into minor groups. The general tendencies were
clear, and an alignment was forming between Liberals of all shades
in order to combat the Conservatives. The growth of the Liberals is
a revival of the Balmaceda policies. Their success means reforms
in the parliamentary system, more freedom for the Executive, and
perhaps a broader foreign policy including the frank recognition
of the influence on the Panama Canal on all the Pacific coast of
South America. It is generally assumed that no president can now
be elected in Chile who is not satisfactory to the Balmacedists.
President Jerman Riesco, who was chosen in 1901, gave a liberal
and temperate administration.
But these tentative suggestions of reform in the political system,
and even the tendencies in regard to public policies are only surface
ebullitions if they are studied without an insight into the deeper
social and economic conditions, for Chile has social and economic
questions of a more pronounced character than any other country in
South America. I defer their analysis for another chapter.
CHAPTER XVI
PALPITATING SOCIAL QUESTIONS
_Existence of the Roto Discovered--Mob Rule in Valparaiso--Indian and
Caucasian Race Mixture--Disquieting Social Phenomena--Grievances
against the Church--Transition to the Proletariat--Lack of
Army and Navy Opportunity--Not Unthrifty as a Class--Showings
of Santiago Savings Bank--Excessive Mortality--Need of State
Sanitation--Discussion of Economic Relation--Changes in National
Tendencies--Industrial Policies to Placate the Roto._
In the fabric of Chilean social organization the warp is the
individual unit known as the _roto_. The roto constitutes the mass.
_Pelucon_, aristocrat, is a term transmitted from the old _régime_.
Violent objection is made to its use at the present day on the
ground that there are no privileged classes and that it never had
more than a restricted meaning. But it describes the antithesis
of the roto since his evolution into the proletariat began, and
it typifies a recognized social distinction, so that its use is
permissible. _Pelucon_ comes within the designation of the governing
classes and the one hundred families, and does not require further
explanation.
One morning in May, 1903, the Chilean government and the foreign
residents awakened to the existence of the roto as an organized
element in society, with destructive capabilities and the courage of
destructive tendencies. Disputes with the steamship companies had
resulted in a strike. That morning the mob seized Valparaiso and
took to burning property, pillaging, and killing. It was a wild mob,
but it had perception and direction. It burned the offices of the
Chilean corporation known as the South American Steamship Company,
and undertook to sack one of the newspapers, but it left unharmed
the property of the Pacific Steam Navigation Company, which was a
British corporation. Its grievances against both companies were
the same, but this Chilean mob would give no ground for foreign
intervention.
The authorities were blamed for the demoralization which the strike
developed. It was charged that the forces were at hand to quell the
disorder, and that a firm show of strength would have saved the
hundred lives which were sacrificed before the rioting and sacking
were ended. The inquiry was made why five hundred marines who were
available were not utilized. The sinister reply was that they had
refused to be used, that they had been on the point of mutiny when
it was attempted to use them. They were of the roto class, recruited
from the same ranks as the strikers. The exact truth never got to the
public. The Chilean government vindicated its ability to maintain
order and by the presence of warships and of troops silenced the
clamor of the timid English and French residents who were calling
for cruisers to be sent by their own governments.
Ultimately the strike was adjusted. But the conditions along
the coast as far as Pisagua also were bad. They were especially
threatening at the nitrate shipping-ports. The national authorities
kept a cruiser at Iquique, and moved down from farther north
additional troops. An outbreak of bubonic plague and the practical
cessation of all industry helped to prevent the repetition of the
scenes that had been witnessed at Valparaiso. Yet months afterward
the embers of unrest at Iquique were smouldering, and official
commissions were reporting “remedies for the grievances of the
working-classes.” A chain of trades unions under various names,
coöperative labor societies, mutual aid associations, brotherhoods of
workingmen, seamen’s unions, was in existence. The social question
was the palpitating one. The restlessness of the masses of the
population, including the roto classes, found another exemplification
in October, 1905, when Santiago for a time was under the control of
rioters. The immediate cause was the agitation against the tax on the
importation of cattle from Argentine. Back of it was the old-time
discontent and the feeling that the government was being managed
for the classes at the expense of the masses. The high cost of meat
was something that came home to the bulk of the population, and it
took to rioting, killing, and wounding as well as to destroying
property as the means of showing its dissatisfaction. The rioting
was not stopped until the police had been reënforced by the troops.
A generation ago J. V. Lastarria, the Chilean diplomat and historian,
asserted: “The Chileans are the most homogeneous, most enlightened,
most patriotic, and most united people of Spanish America, and they
know how to use in the most practical and most prudent manner their
political rights.” He also declared that the physical and social
elements of his country explained her salvation from the disastrous
anarchy which the other Republics had suffered and her progress in
all spheres of human activity.
This complacent judgment was not unjust, but in describing his
countrymen Señor Lastarria meant chiefly the higher stratum, the
governing classes. When he wrote, the robust race mixture was yet
going on, the amalgam of peasant northern Spain and of the Basque,
after two centuries of transplantation, with the fierce Araucanian
Indian blood. Not all of the aboriginal amalgam has been Araucanian.
There are ten distinct aboriginal tribes known in Chile, and in
the northern part the mixture has been more that of the Indians of
the historic Upper Peru or Bolivia. All of these tribes have been
habituated to hardship, and the grosser qualities of civilization
have been developed aggressively.
[Illustration: Group of Araucanian Indian Women]
The Chilean lower stratum of to-day is far from the refinements
of civilization. Its vices and its virtues are equally strong.
Among the virtues is native independence. The vices are of crude,
half-conscious brute power, with little restraint of the passions.
Out of the race mixing--the mingling of European blood not always of
the best and the Indian stock, with the Araucanian predominating--has
come the roto. I studied him in various places and under varied
conditions. He is not an individual for parlor-car company, or an
agreeable companion as to the physical senses in a journey in a
second-class train, nor yet so unpromising as usually he is painted.
In the ports he is found as a coast product. He is a longshoreman,
stevedore, boatman. The English word roustabout in a measure helps
to describe the Chilean roto, but insufficiently. It gives too
transitory an idea of the personality. The roto is no wharf rat.
He is a permanent quantity, a fixture in the social fabric of the
State, and he is a trade unionist.
In the agricultural regions the roto class is peon and is not so
marked, but it is the basis of the population. The day laborer in
the towns of the North who has more of the Aymará Indian blood
than of the Araucanian, and who possesses less instinct of class
organization than the longshoreman, also shows discontent. This
_wanderlust_ is one of the characteristics of the Chilean laborer.
He is born a nomad. Even the most highly paid laborers in the
nitrate fields refuse to be content and to stay. They are forever
moving on.
The outcome of the events of 1903 was that Chile discovered she had
a palpitating social question, and began to seek the horizon which
might bound the zone of unrest. Among the social phenomena observed
were the disproportion between the deaths and births, the excessive
child mortality, the emigration of Chilean peons to Argentina, the
constant movement of the migratory mass apparently without aim, and
the popular fever for striking. In these phenomena were discovered
conditions which showed the actual state of the lower stratum, but
the horizon was not complete. The Chilean observers did not note
the phenomenon of the roto’s slow perception of his own power, and
his dawning conviction that there were classes in the State, and
that in some way his class was down in the abyss. He was becoming
a proletariat.
The roto has many qualities in common with the higher classes. His
patriotism is fully as deep. Heretofore he has been willing to fight
at the dictation of the military commander, but the threatened mutiny
of the marines was a warning. At that very time the conscription was
going on, and an uncommon sullenness was shown by the conscripts
in the interior, and a vague resentment against being enlisted to
fight their brothers. This was when the necessity of employing the
army to break the strike was most openly discussed.
In relation to the nitrate fields the roto fails to see that the
high wages at one time prevailing there helped him, and now that
the pay is dictated by the trust his resentment grows. He has a
vivid grievance in the payment of his wages in scrip. In the early
days fortunes were made out of the saltpetre beds by officials and
private individuals who already were comparatively rich. English
parvenus little better than day laborers also gained riches. But
the Chilean laborer developed no successful nitrate operator, no
earner of day wages who became a millionaire. He seems to have been
treasuring this up until the culmination has come and he is asking
the question, How have the nitrates helped _me_? Though he furnishes
the chief revenues of the State and though he is not heavily taxed,
the proportion he bears is not in ratio to his wealthy employer.
This belief, undoubtedly, is one basis of the discontent. It may be
summed up that the roto feels that he is no better off than if Chile
did not draw an enormous income from the export tax on saltpetre.
He also cherishes a grievance against the Church. Heretofore his
devoutness or his superstition has been one of the bulwarks of the
hierarchy. It interfered little with his crude morality, his notions
of private vengeance, or his general conduct in the affairs of life.
In a certain manner he venerated the priest and the symbols of
ecclesiastical authority, and could be depended on to do whatever
was put upon him. But this submissiveness has gone. The Church is
a very large property-owner, and does not pay taxes in proportion
to the burdens of the nation. The proletariat has become imbued
with the belief that its aggressions are directed specially against
him.
This feeling in part may be due to the spread of socialistic
doctrines, though the socialistic propaganda in itself in Chile is
weak. So far as it has a standing, this is because the roto in his
protest finds the movement the only available vehicle of utterance
for his dissatisfaction. He is not socialistic by nature, because
what he takes by brute force from his weaker neighbor he expects to
keep for himself and not to turn over to the vague entity known as
society. The falling away of the roto from the Church is because
of its goods and property which escape taxation, because of the
feeling that his back is bent to the pack in order that a greedy
ecclesiastical power which claims spiritual dominion over him may
exist and pamper its ministers in luxurious idleness.
Another cause of dissatisfaction, which a foreign observer may note
more quickly than a native one, is the feeling of resentment that
there is no opportunity for him in the army and navy. He forever must
be of the ranks. He must fight the battles, but always in inferior
station. The enlisted man never can be anything else. Both army and
navy draw the line as severely as in the most exclusive military
organization of Europe. The common soldier or sailor is clay, a
mud ball, something to be kicked, but never to be recognized as a
human being with aspirations and ambitions. Yet it is the sailors
of this class, as much as the daring commanding officers, who by
their bravery and endurance have given glory to the Chilean navy.
But neither naval commander nor army officer yet realizes that this
clay is beginning to think, and to feel that something is wrong in
the political organization of the State when he who sustains the
State is nothing.
Among the qualities of the roto, whether in the army or the navy or
in the mass of the population, is persistence in his prejudices.
He is not easily changed from that which is taught him. I was in
Santiago during the celebration of the peace pacts with Argentina.
The governing classes and the merchants entered heartily into those
festivities. They knew that the prevention of war by the treaties
had saved the country from bankruptcy, even though war might have
brought territorial extension. But it was noticed everywhere that the
masses took no part in the demonstrations. They either were surly
or indifferent. They had been taught to believe that Argentina was
an enemy with whom they would have to make war and from whom they
would have a chance to take spoils. They could not readily change
about and join in the celebrations of peace.
If the roto in such a persistent manner retains the lesson that
has been taught him, how much greater will be his doggedness in
adhering to his self-taught lesson that something is wrong in the
social order, and that he is the one who is wronged?
In the economic discussion of the social movement, citations will
be made of the lack of thrift on the part of the roto classes, and
their unwillingness to do anything for themselves. This is loose
assumption, which is not warranted. On the seacoast he may be
reckless with his wages, but in the interior this is not true, and
I question myself whether it is true to the extent claimed even in
the seaports. In Santiago the _Caja de Ahorros_, or Savings Bank,
has between 49,000 and 59,000 accounts. The total deposits, as shown
in a late annual report, amounted to $3,625,000. Out of nearly
50,000 depositors, only 355 had balances of $1,000 and more. Of the
depositors under that sum, 1,409 were soldiers; 730 were private
employees; 311, servants; 1,020, students; 342, seamstresses; 255,
merchants; 102, farmers; 144, shoemakers; 67, laundresses; and
3,225 were set down as without profession. Presumably this meant
unskilled laborers. Santiago and its suburbs have a population of
300,000. While the aggregate of the deposits is not great, the very
fact that the Savings Bank carries 50,000 small accounts, and some
of them very small indeed, indicates no lack of thrift on the part
of the mass of the population.
In seeking the horizon of the social question one blot which may
be remedied has been laid bare. This is the excessive mortality. A
cause of the physical sturdiness of the roto who reaches manhood
is undoubtedly to be found in the survival of the fittest. That
brutal doctrine is exemplified in him. He endures harsh conditions
of life, lack of comforts, want of everything that is decent and
helpful, and when he does grow up it is as a robust animal only
half tamed by nature.
The figures on this subject are startling. The annual death rate
has been placed as high as 70 per 1,000 and frequently it is given
as 50 per 1,000. This is correct for the majority of the towns and
cities, but does not apply to the country as a whole. The official
statistics for a period of ten years, which I examined, did not
exceed an average of 35 per 1,000. But even that is nearly double
the normal death rate in temperate countries; and Chile, not being
in the torrid zone, is not subject to yellow fever and similar
tropical epidemics. The figures showed that the birth rate and the
death rate were almost balanced, since the birth rate ranged from
35 to 37 per 1,000. In 1895 the total births reported were 110,000,
and the deaths 92,000, leaving an excess of 18,000 births over
deaths. In 1898 the birth excess was a little larger. But in 1901
the births were 116,000 and the deaths 111,000, giving an excess of
only 5,000. In previous years the births were not larger and even
have fallen below the deaths. In a subsequent year a more normal
condition was shown, the births numbering 115,813 and the deaths
88,607. In the two big cities no natural increase was contributed
to the population. In Valparaiso Province with 243,000 inhabitants,
during a twelvemonth period there were 9,475 births and 9,674 deaths.
One year an epidemic of measles caused frightful ravages. In the
year 1900, in the city of Valparaiso, the births were 5,610 and
the deaths 7,170, and of the latter 2,245 were infants under one
year of age. During this annual period the death rate per 1,000 in
Valparaiso was 54.4. In Santiago Province, with a total population
of 434,000, the births numbered 16,074, and the deaths 17,798. This
excess was due to the city of Santiago, where there were 11,000
births and 12,500 deaths in a total urban population of 262,000.
The mean average death rate is a little higher than in Valparaiso,
though the latter is subject to the vicissitudes of seaports. In a
given year only one city of more than 10,000 inhabitants showed a
death rate of less than 50 for each 1,000. This was Antofagasta,
in which the proportion was 44 out of every 1,000.
Indifference to personal comfort and the inevitable results of
unsanitary living have helped to brutalize the roto, but it is
wide of the mark to say that he prefers this existence. Cleanly
and sanitary living are not so repugnant to him. What he needs is
guidance and example.
On the part of the State there is a remedy for this condition.
University settlements and similar movements for bettering the
condition of the poor through individual initiative are not yet
practicable. In a government where Spanish paternalism is inherited,
hygiene and sanitation are emphatically the province of the State
and of the municipalities which depend on it, since they do not
enjoy a large measure of home rule. A perception of this truth
has been shown in the disposition to treat the roto’s grievances
as a social question rather than as a political issue. When this
perception is translated into definite measures, his discontent with
the existing order will become less menacing. For the government
the lowering of the death rate and the increase of the birth rate
per thousand has both economic and political significance.[13]
13 A cabinet minister was thus quoted on this subject in a foreign
journal:
“‘You may put in the most up-to-date drainage, and introduce the
most admirable sanitary improvements, but you cannot induce the
low-class peons, such as form the bulk of the residents of this
and other Chilean cities, to use them. The housing arrangements of
the poorer classes are simply indescribable, and they live like
animals, crowded together in miserable rooms for which they pay an
exorbitant price. The people--and especially the respectable class
of employees--find it is impossible to secure clean and wholesome
accommodation. Even the smallest rooms in the most unattractive
houses are set out at absurdly high rentals--say from $10 to $15
(15_s._ 10_d._ to 22_s._ 9_d._) a month each room.
“‘Does the Government, then, do nothing to improve or control the
conditions of the poor classes and protect them from the extortions
and ill-treatment of the landlords?
“‘Unfortunately, no kind of sanitary or habitation laws exist at
the present moment; but I have often talked over the matter with
the President of the Republic, and both he and I are determined to
do something, if we can, later on. Things move slowly in Chile, you
know, and, although it may appear rather strange to you, coming
from a European country, Chileans are not accustomed to see, and do
not expect, radical alterations effected in their country. However,
you have touched upon a most important social question, and one
which I have had much at heart myself. Perhaps we may be able to
do something in the direction of improvement.’”
But is the economic and industrial relation of the roto to the
State understood? Yes. How often I heard it discussed, how often I
listened to the assertion made by Chileans, that Chile as a nation
has a rotten core, that the anomaly of a government riotously rich
through a single source of revenue and of a people superlatively
poor, cannot long continue!
I sat through one night with Señor A, and listened to his eloquent
and passionate indictment of his country and of the class of which
he was the exponent, for he was of the ruling families. Another
night it was with Señor B until the sun was breaking, and a third
time it was with Señor C until the lingering _habitués_ of the club
were calling for their morning coffee. The talk ran in the same
vein. The condition of the poor must be bettered. There must be a
change in economic policies; dreams of conquest must be given over;
the national revenues must be devoted to internal improvements;
foreign capital must be encouraged to go into other industries
than the nitrate gamble; the military party must be curbed.
“Then, Señor, there is a military party in Chile?”
“Ah, my friend, there is. Who can deny it?”
The military party was not a partisan organization, for it was only
reflected in the different political groups which were at variance
among themselves as to the details of their programme, though not
as to the main purpose. This was territorial accretion, and the
indefinite application of the nitrate resources for military ends
as the means for continuing the supremacy of the army and navy
elements. The reliance was the aggressive and sacrificing patriotism
which is part of the being of every Chilean, whether high or low;
hence the difficulty of combating it. But it took no thought of
the roto; therefore its weakness.
A series of swift events--some domestic, some international--checked
the militant military tendency. Through the peace pacts with
the Argentine Republic, Chile found the opportunity of freeing
herself from naval expenditures that were weighing her down. In
the construction and control of the Panama Canal by the United
States, her conservative statesmen were enabled to establish the
definite lines of both commercial and political relations with the
other countries of South America. By reason of the acuteness of the
financial and industrial crisis which prevailed in 1903, the depth
of the popular discontent was revealed, and the imperative need of
finding a remedy was disclosed. The roto had to be conciliated,
propitiated, humored, perhaps bamboozled a little, but always
with a view to bettering his material condition. A comprehensive
system of public works, railways, harbors, rivers, roads, and also
municipal improvements, was recognized to be the channel into which
the national income should flow.
It is the slow process of years during which the palpitating
problems sometimes may throb with pregnant intensity, but their
solution progresses in the degree that Chile adheres to industrial
and commercial policies, and recognizes the true function of the
masses in the political and social fabric of the State.
CHAPTER XVII
CHILE’S INDUSTRIAL FUTURE
_Agricultural Possibilities of the Central Valley--Its Extent--Wheat
for Export--Timber Lands of the South--Wool in the Magellan
Territory--Grape Culture--Mills and Factories--Public Works
Policy--Longitudinal and Other Railway Lines--Drawbacks in
Government Ownership--Trans-Andine Road--Higher Levels of Foreign
Commerce--Development of Shipping--Population--Experiments
in Colonization--Internal and External Debt--Gold Redemption
Fund--Final Word about the Nitrates._
Trade and industry in the future will have a broader scope in
Chilean national policies. The passing of the era of unlimited
naval expansion assures this result. After the peace pacts with
Argentina were made effective, and the building of new battleships
was stopped, it was estimated that $1,000,000 went into industries
of the soil. By the sale of other superfluous naval armament to
European Powers, more funds can be released for public works and
agricultural development.
The basis of the agriculture of Chile is the great central valley.
This lies between the Cordillera of the Andes and the Coast Range.
It begins at the hill of Chacabuco in latitude 33°, and extends
to the estuary at the head of the Gulf of Ancud known as the Bay
of Reloncavi, latitude 41° 30′. Santiago is in the plain at the
upper end of the valley. At the lower end is the bed of lakes and
gulf channels. The central valley is 580 miles long, and has an
average of 31 miles in width, though in the northern section it is
not more than 15 miles across, and at the Angostura de Paine in
latitude 34° a stone may be tossed from one side to the other. The
area is approximately 18,000 square miles.
In this valley are the chief centres of permanent and growing
population, as distinguished from the floating population of the
nitrate provinces. The region favors all kinds of farming, both
temperate and semi-tropical, for the grape, the orange, and the
apple are found together. It grows the products which supply the
inhabitants of the whole country, and it also has a surplus for
export. Wheat and barley are regularly shipped to England in
steadily increasing quantities, the £250,000 worth of wheat which
Great Britain received from Chile in 1904 having come from this
district. Corn, or maize, and linseed also are exported, and some
wool is sent abroad. The live-stock industry is a successful one,
but its products are chiefly utilized for home consumption.
The central valley is capable of a very large extension of the area
under cultivation. The total of land given over to the production
of the cereals, alfalfa, and vegetables, is about 9,000,000 acres.
One drawback to increase is the tendency of the land-proprietors
to keep their holdings intact and to prevent a material addition
to the number of small farmers. There are no vast single estates,
as in the wheat-growing regions of the United States. But there
are many large haciendas, whose owners are content to receive a
relatively small return from them rather than sell a part in order
to secure capital for developing the remainder. This question
enters into the relation of the roto or peon to the State, though
not in an acute degree.
When the government and the individual Chilean land-owners succeed
in bringing a larger area under cultivation, it will be by means
of the small farmers. They will add enormously to the productive
resources. While the central valley may not be said to have anything
like the present wealth of the deserts of Atacama and Tarapacá,
with their saltpetre deposits, yet its founts of production are
enduring, and they will broaden and spread while the nitrate beds
are being exhausted. This is both an economic and a political fact
of vast importance to Chile.
The forest lands in the southern provinces are being gradually
developed. Here is another source of national riches, for timber on
the Pacific coast is not plentiful, and southern Chile has forests
which are capable not only of supplying her own demands, but also of
supplementing the needs of neighboring countries. In the Provinces
of Arauco, Valdivia, and Llanquihue, the exploitation of the native
timber has caused a lessening of the quantity imported from Oregon
and California.
Below the central valley is the territory of Magellan, stretching
to the Straits and across to the Chilean section of Tierra del
Fuego. It comprises 47,500,000 acres, a large portion of which
is unusually well adapted to sheep-raising. At the close of 1904
there were 4,250,000 head of sheep in this region. The animals
furnish a strong, silky white wool, and there is some commerce in
sheepskins. The wool exports range from 120,000,000 to 140,000,000
pounds annually. Great Britain and the United States take the
bulk of the merinos, while France shares with them the common and
mixed wools. The value of the annual commerce in wool, hides, and
skins is about $2,000,000. In a recent year the estimate was that
$24,000,000 was invested in new enterprises, chiefly mining companies
and cattle-ranches in the Magellan district.
Grape culture is both a profitable and a promising agricultural
industry. The capital invested in it is estimated at $17,000,000 to
$20,000,000 gold. The area under cultivation is 60,000 acres, and
the vineyards have a production of 1,062,000 _hectolitres_. In a
twelvemonth the value of the product was $3,250,000. The government
encourages the industry by an export bounty on wines and grape
alcohols.
Efforts have been made to introduce the cultivation of beet root
into Chile, and government favor has been shown these projects. Yet
it is very doubtful whether the outcome is worth the forced aid
necessary to nurture the beet-root industry. It is more profitable
for Chile to follow along the lines of the agricultural products
which do not require a highly artificial stimulus.[14]
14 A different view is taken by Chilean authorities. An article
in the _Boletin de la Sociedad de Fomento Fabril_ (Bulletin of the
Manufacturers’ Association) stated:
“The soil and climate of Chile indicate that the sugar industry
would prosper in the Republic, if properly exploited, not only to
the extent of supplying the domestic needs of the nation with that
important product of prime necessity, but also in such quantities as
would leave a considerable surplus for export to foreign markets.
The sugar beet is one of the tubers that flourish most luxuriantly
in the lands of the central zones of the Republic. In addition to
the natural adaptability of the soil and climate of Chile for the
growth of this tuberous root, the country also possesses deposits
of nitrate and guano which are recognized to be the best and
most appropriate fertilizers in the cultivation of this highly
saccharine-producing tubercule.”
The duty on the raw sugar is 6.50 _pesos_, or Chilean dollars, per
100 kilograms, equal to nearly one cent per pound in gold. The duty
on refined sugar is about two cents per pound. The output of the
refinery at Viña del Mar is 53,000,000 to 54,000,000 pounds, much
of which is exported. This refinery, with a capital of $1,500,000
gold, through a period of ten years, paid annual dividends of 10½
per cent.
Agricultural exports, in the decade from 1893 to 1902, ranged from
$2,000,000 to $4,500,000 annually. The latter sum seems likely to
prove the minimum basis for the future.
The industrial resources of Chile are mirrored, though not with
completeness, in the Permanent Industrial Exhibition which was
opened in 1904. This covers not only the products of the soil,
but also the home manufactures that are fabricated either from
imported raw material or from half-manufactured products brought in
to encourage the home industries. The Chilean policy is protective
both by bounties and by duties. The sugar refineries, which import
the raw cane sugar from Peru, are among the most stable of the
industries. The flour-mills are also profitable enterprises. They
grind the native wheat, and have a market for the flour for export
in Bolivia and Peru, as well as farther up the coast.
The country has about 8,000 industrial establishments. Among these
are 400 engaged in tanning and curing hides, 430 in various kinds
of wood-working, 308 in metallurgy, 268 in chemical products, 560
in ceramics or pottery, 1,900 in food products, 1,920 in cloth
manufacture and tailoring, 700 in building, and so on. Car-shops are
maintained in connection with the State railways. A disposition on
the part of foreign capital to engage in textile manufactures has
received encouragement, and woollen and cotton mills may result.
The native labor, judged by the experiments, is competent.
The public works policy has become the programme of all political
groups, though the Congress sometimes is laggard in voting the
appropriations recommended by the Executive. Railways are its most
important feature. No chapter in Chile’s history is more creditable
to her people than the sacrifices made for building railways, and
nothing shows the national instinct better than the perception
that was demonstrated of the part which railroads play in both the
industrial and the political development of a nation. In 1905, 3,100
miles were in operation, with many new lines under way. The majority
of the lines are owned by the government, with the exception of
the nitrate roads and the Chilean section of the Antofagasta and
Bolivian Railway.
This State ownership is at once an advantage and a drawback. The
policy of government proprietorship has made possible the building
of links that have been of great value in internal development,
and that will be of greater value when they become joined together
as parts of one system. The disadvantage is in operation. When a
Buenos Ayres railroad president was considering the extension of the
Southern Railway of Argentina through the lower Andes to a junction
with the Chilean roads,--all of which will come some day,--he made
inquiries about the earnings of the Chilean system under government
control. He was told that they had amounted to $18,000,000. That
was very good indeed, considering the mileage and rolling-stock.
“And how much did it cost to operate them last year?” he inquired.
“$20,000,000,” was the reply. This meant that under State management
roads which would have paid dividends showed a healthy deficit.
The deficit is not invariable, for in 1903 the government railways
showed a surplus of $1,360,000 Chilean currency.
This government administration illustrates the evils of the use
of patronage. The management is expensive; there is favoritism,
discrimination, losses, unnecessary employees by the hundred. When
the national policy is matured, and the country has the railways
which are necessary and which would not have been constructed except
by the government, the political evils can be overcome easily. The
lines can be leased to private companies under a rental which will
insure profit to the lessees and a steady revenue to the government.
The State railways have an annual traffic of 3,000,000 to 3,500,000
tons of freight, and carry from 7,000,000 to 7,500,000 passengers.
The Chilean aspiration has been shown very clearly in the dogged
determination with which the longitudinal line paralleling the coast
and the Cordilleras has been carried forward. This policy already
has given a section of the central valley the benefits of railway
transportation, and in a few years undoubtedly the gaps will be
closed so that the through journey can be taken from Santiago to
Puerto Montt at the entrance of the Chiloe Archipelago. Also it will
bring Iquique and the nitrate provinces of the North into through
railway communication with the capital and the South. These northern
links will be of marked value in reviving copper and silver mining.
The trans-Andine road, completing the gap from Los Andes through the
Uspallata Pass to the Argentine boundary, when completed, will open
a new chapter of intercontinental transportation. Promise is held
out that the line may be in operation by the end of 1907, but the
great spiral tunnel, which is the engineering device for breaking the
back of the Cordilleras, may require a longer time. The important
fact is that after delays of forty years the Chilean government
guaranteed capital to the amount of $7,500,000 an annual return
of 5 per cent for twenty years, and let the contract. A colossal
bronze statue, resting on a granite column, the Christ of the Andes,
at the very pinnacle of the Cordilleras, is a striking monument
along this railway line. It is just on the boundary between Chile
and Argentina, and commemorates the peace treaty without which the
railroad systems of the two Republics would not have been joined.
The idea of the commemorative statue was due to Señora Angela de
Costa, of Buenos Ayres. The influence of this trans-Andine railway
on the mutual commerce of Chile and Argentina by establishing
through communication between Valparaiso and Buenos Ayres will be
considerable, but it promises to be even more beneficial in bringing
the western pampas of Argentina to the Pacific and to Panama.
[Illustration: “Christ of the Andes”]
Chilean foreign commerce reaches to higher levels with each year.
Naturally the nitrates form the bulk of the exports, and assure a
balance of trade in favor of Chile. On this account, by England and
Germany an advantage is maintained; but since the United States
is not a large consumer of the saltpetre, the balance of trade is
in its favor. For the ten years from 1895 to 1904 inclusive, the
United States products imported into Chile aggregated $41,610,000,
while her exports to the United States amounted to $26,100,000.[15]
Farm implements, builders’ hardware, machinery, and mineral oils
composed the larger part of the shipments.
15 The figures are on the basis of Chilean export and import
valuations. The United States Treasury statistics place a higher
value on the imports from Chile, chiefly nitrates.
This commerce is likely to grow to much larger proportions in the
degree that railway building, municipal improvements, and harbor
works are carried forward by Chile. A government agent who visited
Europe and North America in 1905 in connection with contracts which
were to be let, suggested to Pittsburg manufacturers the formation
of a company that should give special attention to iron and steel
products, railway and road supplies, for the Chilean market. The
commerce is certain to grow after the Canal is constructed, because
the agricultural machinery, mineral oils, and other products of which
Chile is a heavy importer, will best be furnished by the United
States, more especially in view of the cheapened transportation.
An American bank in Valparaiso, in order to make the United States
trade independent of English banking relations, is one of the
probabilities of the future.
Chile’s dependence on the sea makes foreign trade a vital element
of her growth and prosperity. She has an encouraging future in the
development of her own shipping. With the hardy marine population
of the Chiloe Archipelago and the other seafaring population of the
coast as the basis, her advantage on the Pacific is manifest. She
will have in the future a much larger share in the coast-carrying
trade which will result from the Panama Canal. Efforts to run
Chilean vessels as far as San Francisco failed a few years ago,
because of obstacles which competitors were enabled to throw in
the way. This was a temporary check. The shipping along the coast
as far as Vancouver will not always be denied her, but after the
Canal is opened there will be a more pronounced advantage in passing
through it to the Atlantic, and the flag of the Chilean merchant
marine will be seen in New Orleans and New York.
The existing navigation has a substantial base for developing
the maritime commercial movement. In a recent year the number of
sailing-vessels calling at the Chilean ports was 549, and the total
registry of these vessels was 797,000 tons. Most of them were
British, the number being 302, and the tonnage 447,000. After that
came Germany, with 92 ships and 146,000 tonnage. The United States
sailing-ships numbered 17, and their aggregate tonnage was 15,000.
Chile had the same number, but with a tonnage of 13,000.
The steamships numbered 1,255, with a total registry tonnage of
2,741,000. Of these Great Britain contributed 685, whose total
tonnage was 1,477,000; Germany, 381, with a tonnage of 946,000;
the United States, 15, with 39,000; and Chile 149, with a tonnage
of 224,000. The Chilean government pays a small subsidy to the
companies which carry the mails along the coast and to and from
Panama. The Chilean merchant marine consists of 136 vessels, with a
total registry of 67,936 tons. Next to Chile herself, the greatest
volume of the coast trading is done by ships under the English flag.
The population of Chile is between 3,000,000 and 3,100,000. In 1796
an enumeration showed 350,000 inhabitants. In 1810, almost at the
threshold of the struggle for independence from Spain, the number
was 500,000. In 1866 it was estimated at 2,000,000. The census of
1895, which was taken with care, gave 2,712,000 inhabitants, nearly
equally divided between town and country. The urban population was
1,250,000, and the rural 1,472,000.
Measures for adding to the number of inhabitants by means of
colonization and other forms of stimulated immigration have not given
very encouraging results. The public men and political economists who
analyze the causes which prevent the natural increase of population
from being normal, also find that the artificial propagation is
unsatisfactory. During the ten years ending in 1902 the government
spent $100,000, Chilean money, a year in its colonization efforts,
and maintained an agency in Paris. The result of that work and the
expenditure of half a million dollars was the arrival of 7,000
persons, some of whom went back and many of whom drifted to other
countries. During the same period the Manufacturers’ Association,
the _Fomento de Fabrica_, secured 2,000 individuals. That is to
say, in ten years government agency and private enterprise did not
succeed in bringing 10,000 permanent immigrants to Chile.
Yet colonies have not always been failures. The German revolutionists
of 1848 who settled around Valdivia, Osorno, and Lake Llanquihue,
took root and flourished. With their tanneries and breweries they
have made Valdivia the industrial centre that it is. After the war
with Peru the Colonial Department sought to establish frontier
colonists on the lands south of the river Bio-bio and also in
the archipelago of Chiloe, where cereals grow in spite of the
ceaseless rain. It is doubtful if large groups of foreigners ever
can be settled permanently among those islands, but on the mainland
there is no reason why colonization should not succeed. The forest
clearings in the South and the opportunities for sheep-raising and
wool-growing should induce an appreciable immigration in those
localities.
The Chilean government is seeking more especially immigrants from
northern Europe, Scandinavians, who would find the climate cold
enough for them but much less severe than that of their own country.
The climate of Chile has its eulogists, and the eulogies are not
undeserved. There are, as the books say, the three climates,--the
dry heat of the North, the tropical warmth of the Central region,
and the temperate climate of the South. Actually two-thirds of
Chile might be called temperate, and the South, even in the Straits
of Magellan, is not frigid, for the warm winds of the ocean, not
having a whole continent but only the tapering end to sweep over,
modify what otherwise might be Antarctic cold.
Whether the Boer colonies which were established after the war in
the Transvaal will spread is uncertain. The first colonists were
pleased with their surroundings. But there is no _veldt_ in southern
Chile, no limitless stretch of level country, and the probability
is that the Patagonian plains and the pampas of Argentina will
absorb most of the Boers who elect or who have elected to leave
South Africa for good.
Hitherto colonization has been conducted by Chile as a government
project, but it is an open question whether better results would
not be obtained by making the state ancillary to private enterprise.
It also may be assumed that universal education in hygiene and
observance of sanitary principles, along with the improvement in
the physical condition of the working-classes, by lessening the
mortality, in a single generation would result in a large addition
to the permanent population through the simple processes of natural
increase.
The foreign debt of Chile in 1905 was £16,650,000, or $222,000,000
in Chilean currency. This debt was created under refunding and
other laws passed subsequent to 1885. Of the total, 83 per cent
is held by the Rothschilds and 8 per cent by the Deutsche Bank of
Berlin, the balance being distributed among various creditors. Chile
has paid very liberal commissions in securing loans, whether they
were temporary or for refunding purposes. She always has preserved
her credit, but this credit often has been a too ready excuse for
further borrowing.
In the period of unlimited naval expansion and war preparations, in
spite of the regular income from the nitrates, Chile kept piling
up her obligations, and, abandoning the gold standard, began
issuing paper notes. The latest issue of $30,000,000 made under
the law of December 29, 1904, brought the outstanding paper up to
eighty million _pesos_, the value of the _peso_ being 36.5 cents
United States currency. With the view to getting back to the gold
standard, a conversion fund had been established, and when this
paper issue was authorized the gold redemption reserve was close
to $13,500,000. The hope had been to reëstablish the gold basis in
1907, but this law specifically fixed the date for the conversion
of the paper currency at January 1, 1910. The gold reserve is to
be strengthened from the proceeds of the sale of nitrate grounds,
the sale of public lands in the Straits of Magellan territory,
and a reserve of $500,000 in gold monthly, which the government
undertakes to hypothecate for the conversion scheme, all of which
is to be deposited in first-class European banks and in those of
the United States. To these deposits will be added the interest as
it accrues.
The Chilean Minister of Finance, at the time of the passage of this
law, estimated that on January 1, 1910, the supply of gold would
amount to $86,000,000, which would leave the government a surplus
of $6,000,000 after the retirement of the paper notes; but there
is no assurance that further issues of currency may not be made
in the interval; and this keeps foreign capitalists and investors
nervous, although, since the nitrate taxes are payable in gold, as
are also the customs receipts, the position of the country is not
a perilous one financially.
The basis of further debt on the part of Chile may be found in
providing funds for the Valparaiso harbor improvements and also for
the railroad from Arica into Bolivia. The latter project and the
guaranty of the payment of interest on other railroads to be built
by the Bolivian government, may be considered justifiable, because
these railroads are expected to make Chile commercially dominant
in Bolivia and to increase her trade very largely.
Notwithstanding the conditions which were held to justify the
country in increasing the amount of paper currency, the system,
while very profitable to the banks and the money-changers, is
unequivocally bad for the merchants. They have to buy abroad in
gold and also to pay the customs duties in the same manner, while
they must sell on a fluctuating paper basis. With decreasing naval
and military expenditures, with improving industrial conditions,
and with widening commerce, Chile should return to the gold basis
and maintain it.
After this outline sketch of the resources, industries, commerce,
and finances of Chile, I am brought back to the question of the
nitrates. They form more than 75 per cent of the exports, and
they contribute more than 85 per cent of the government revenues.
Because their exhaustion is foreseen and the time calculated, does
it follow that the Republic rests on quicksand, that the foundation
will disappear and leave no solid national superstructure behind?
One answer might be found in an historical review of the growth and
consolidation of the national life during the seventy-five years
before the nitrate provinces were acquired.
Another answer may be found in the newer industrial and commercial
life on which the country is entering. The fertilizers have yet
in them the means of internal development--roads and railways,
harbors, municipal improvements--sufficient for a century’s growth.
The central valley, the forests of the South, the sheep pastures
of the Magellan territory and Tierra del Fuego, the coal of Arauco
and Concepcion, the copper and silver of the northern provinces,
all have potencies of production while the nitrate exhaustion goes
on, and their development may be contemplated with equanimity while
awaiting the advance of scientific irrigation to make green at
some future period the white refuse of the saltpetre beds. Closer
commercial relations with the neighboring countries of South America
and wider trade with all the world, the expansion of the native
merchant marine until it becomes an international factor in the
ocean transport trade, offer the natural outlet for the national
energies while assuring the national integrity. With these economic
forces recognized and given their proper sphere, the collisions
and the cross-purposes of domestic politics need have no deterrent
influence on the industrial future of Chile. Agriculture, mining,
and trade are better for her than battleships.
CHAPTER XVIII
WAYFARING IN BOLIVIA--THE ROYAL ANDES
_Old Spanish Trail from Argentina--Customs Outpost at Majo--Sublime
Mountain View--Primitive Native Life--Sunbeaten Limestone
Hills--Vale of Santa Rosa--Tupiza’s People and Their
Pursuits--Ladies’ Fashions among the Indian Women--Across
the Chichas Cordilleras--Barren Vegetation--Experience with
Siroche, or Mountain Sickness--Personal Discomforts--Hard
Riding--Portugalete Pass--Alpacas and Llamas--Sierra of
San Vicente--Uyuni a Dark Ribbon on a White Plain--Mine
Enthusiasts--Foreign Consulates._
I journeyed into Bolivia, the heart of South America, from northern
Argentina with pack animals over the old Inca and Spanish trail.
The Pacific coast routes for reaching the imprisoned country are
by the railroad from Mollendo to Lake Titicaca, and then across
the lake and by the little railway from Guaqui to La Paz; by the
railroad from Arica to Tacna, and from Tacna by mules to Corocoro,
whence a stage may be had to La Paz, 60 miles farther on; and by
the railroad from Antofagasta to Oruro, 575 miles, and then by
stage to La Paz, 160 miles.
The ancient and historic route from the Atlantic is the one that is
followed in the prolongation of the Argentina Railway lines, and in
joining the new Bolivian links so as to form a complete section in
the Intercontinental or Pan-American system from Buenos Ayres to
Lake Titicaca. From Jujuy, 1,000 miles distant from Buenos Ayres,
up through northern Argentina, the course is in a double funnel
along the great _cañon_, or _quebrada_, of Humahuaca. The trail
widens in the valley of Tupiza, and then contracts from Tupiza
west and north into difficult mountain passes through the Chichas
Cordilleras and the sierras of San Vicente, until the Altiplanicie,
or great Bolivian table-land that lies between the granitic Oriental,
or Royal, Cordilleras and the volcanic Occidental, or Western,
Cordilleras, is reached.
The boundary between Argentina and Bolivia is the Quiaca River.
The town of La Quiaca on the Argentine side is the frontier custom
house. On the Bolivian border is a big ranch with a row of willow
trees. There is a fair road through an alternation of gravelly
mountain-sides and rounded tops. The first Bolivian settlement is
Majo in the valley, an adobe village of a few hundred inhabitants.
This place is the customs outpost. Majo has a government post, or
inn, which is called a _tambo_. The _tambo_ consists of a corral for
the animals and an adobe hut for the accommodation of strangers.
Lodging is free. The traveller spreads his blankets on the earth
floor or on the mud benches along the wall. The innkeeper, who is a
government official, provides him with food. I got chicken, rice,
and bread, which was luxurious feasting after ten days’ hardships.
Fodder was supplied the animals at a fair charge, and a smithy,
which was part of the inn, was free for the use of the _arriero_,
or muleteer.
It was September when I was at Majo. At five o’clock in the afternoon
the thermometer marked 76° Fahrenheit, and at seven o’clock, when
the sun had gone down, it marked 46.5°, a noticeable change. At
mid-day at this season the temperature was about 86°. In the early
morning before sunrise I had broken a film of ice on one of the
rivulets in a sequestered gulch.
But Bolivia is not seen from the little valley in which the hamlet
of Majo lies. After two hours of going down and up steep hills the
eminence on the edge of an extensive gorge is reached. It is the
first view of the Royal Andes and their sierras. A sublime sight it
is. The change from the arid, half-desert scenery is startling. The
mountains in the foreground lie in irregular, transverse black and
gray masses, and through the mists the fleecy peaks and pinnacled
precipices are visible. The dominating one is Guadalupe, 18,870
feet above sea-level, the Pike’s Peak of Bolivia. Closer at hand
the sierras are covered with some appearance of vegetation,--pale
green cacti and russet brown thorn-bushes or acacias. I followed
the ravine down along the banks of the dried-up river, which was
bordered with pepper trees and willows. In this valley are a number
of attractive small farms. After leaving it there is another hill
climb. Yuruma, the hill village, is a dilapidated collection of
adobe cabins.
Genuine Bolivian life, the primitive and patriarchal existence,
I encountered in the villages of Nazarene and Suipacha. They lie
on either side of the Grand, or San Juan, River, which is easily
forded in the dry season. It was a rural scene that would have
delighted the poet or the philosopher who wants to go back to
Nature. Nothing more tranquil in all the world than this secluded
nook in the Andes. The women were washing clothes in the streams,
the men and boys were working in the fields, the flocks of sheep
and cattle grazed placidly in the valley and on the hillside, and
everybody had a respectful greeting to the stranger, sometimes in
Spanish, sometimes in the Quichua tongue. The donkeys wandered
about bearing clay water-jars and apparently without a driver until
a small and wrinkled old man with most wonderfully patched and
brilliantly colored trousers, screamed to them, and they stopped
where a customer waited. The cabins were of adobe, or unbaked brick.
Some were quite neat and were half hidden in gardens surrounded by
mud walls covered with thorn-bushes.
I never met so many very old people as in these two primitive
villages. Far from the carking cares and ambitions of the world, they
follow their uneventful course until the sands of life literally
run out. In front of one cabin was an old woman crooning over her
bowl of porridge. She appeared to me a vitalized mummy. I reined
my mule before a dwelling a little farther on and asked, “What is
the age of _la viejicita_ (the little old woman)?” “We don’t know,
sir,” replied the occupant, civilly. “We think she is more than
one hundred and fifteen years old. Her great-grandchildren say she
is one hundred and twenty-five.” I might doubt the family records
of the crone as preserved by the great-grandchildren, yet seeing
her it was easy to believe that her life may have spanned three
centuries,--born in the late years of the eighteenth and stretching
through the nineteenth into the twentieth,--for she certainly was
more than one hundred. When the Bolivian census was taken a few
years ago, the enumerators reported 1,261 persons whose age passed
the century mark, and many of these centenarians dwelt in this San
Juan valley.
The gold-hunters at various times have ruffled the placid life of
the inhabitants. A ledge of quartz cropping out from the side of
the sierra near Suipacha has been attacked viciously, but more
promise has been held out by the placer yields. Its sands are not
all golden, yet they have yielded enough to encourage the investment
of a large amount of capital in companies formed for the purpose of
dredging the river-bed. These enterprises have their headquarters
in Buenos Ayres. During my journey I found the people impatient
for the arrival of the heavy dredging machinery which was at the
seaboard awaiting transportation. It arrived later.
After leaving Suipacha there was a very hot and dusty hill climb of
three hours, although most of it was along a fine piece of mountain
highway, really a splendid triumph of road engineering. The hills
all around here seemed to be limestone, and the sun beating on them
created the most intense heat that I experienced anywhere. In the
morning at sunrise my thermometer registered 50° Fahrenheit. In the
early afternoon in the midst of these limestone cliffs it marked
110° Fahrenheit. This was 15 degrees higher than at any other point
in the journey. I might have questioned the correctness of the
thermometer, but its previous and its subsequent registrations I
was able to verify, so that there was no reason to doubt its verity
in registering this locality.
But though the glaring sun and the choking dust made the afternoon
very uncomfortable, there was compensation. It was almost dusk when
we--myself, the muleteer, and the pack animals--descended into
the vale of Santa Rosa and found it gloriously restful. A model
ranch spreads through the valley. The bed of the river is among
spur cliffs and broken mountain walls on either side, out of which
plunge miniature Niagaras. The stream is bordered by willows. It
narrows until its course is forced through a cliff which rises
sheer in front to the height of 700 or 800 feet and is known as the
Angustora, or Narrow Way. The needle-point chasm made by the river
has been enlarged by artificial means, and the narrow way is wide
enough for ox-carts.
After the Angustora the course broadens again into the valley. The
stream is very crooked and has to be forded often. At this season
the fording was not difficult, but in January and February, when
the rains come, the only passage is along a trail well up the side
of the precipice, for the river-bed is a tumultuous torrent.
Tupiza lies in this vale of Santa Rosa, the brook being an affluent
of the San Juan and sometimes called the San Juan. I entered the
village by moonlight. I left it early one morning by starlight. The
night of my arrival fourteen hours continuously in the saddle had
wearied me greatly, yet the physical sensation disappeared in an
instant on entering the beautiful valley, bathed as it was in the
soft moonlight. When taking a last look at it, there was the same
impression of charm. The river is fringed by drooping, feathery
willows of the softest and most velvety green. They seem to be
taking a perpetual bath in the dews. There are also the pepper
trees. After a long desert ride the sober verdure of these trees
is always refreshing. It is a harbinger of revivified Nature, but
here in contrast with the glistening green willows they are the
merest drabs.
The mountains which shut in the valley are brown, with granite flanks
exposed; and the sunsets--ah! the artist would have to penetrate this
lovely region to see whether the miracle of silver gray changing
into impalpable azure and then flaming into red prairie fire can
be transferred to canvas.
Tupiza is the most important place in southern Bolivia. It is
the gateway north, south, east, and west. It is 9,800 feet above
sea-level. The town has 5,000 inhabitants, and is the head of
administration for the department. The church edifice has twin towers
and a blue front, with much gaudy and gingerbread ornamentation
inside and out. The government building, which includes the custom
house, post-office, and telegraph office, is more tasteful. It is
of two stories, with brown front and with arcade windows. There
are a few two-story houses with narrow window balconies, but the
dwellings are mostly of one story, with sloping grass-thatched roofs
and whitewashed or dark blue fronts. They have square inner courts,
or _patios_, and are without windows opening on the streets. As
the street door is kept closed, there is complete seclusion from
outside life.
The plaza is ornamented with feathery willow trees, under one of
which in the heat of the day the public business is transacted,
the desks and chairs being moved out from the government building.
I watched the process for a couple of hours one day, and found it
a not unpleasing picture of local and patriarchal administration.
A fountain in the centre of the plaza at all hours is thronged by
the men and women with their earthen water-jars, gossiping and
quarrelling. There are many small shops for the sale of fruits,
vegetables, and gaudy handkerchiefs. The women venders exercise
squatter sovereignty on every street corner.
Ladies’ fashions are of so world-wide an interest that I digress
to describe them as they were seen at Tupiza, as I had seen them
in the primitive villages of Nazarene and Suipacha, as I saw them
afterward at Uyuni and other places, including the capital.
The prized possession of the Bolivian Indian woman, and her chief
pride also, whether she is pure Indian or _chola_, is her petticoat.
Her dowry is in this garment. Like the Dutch woman of tradition,
she carries her wealth about her. These petticoats are of all the
colors of the rainbow and divers other hues not found therein. I
first noticed them at Nazarene, and remarked the love of color,
which must be inborn, for the garments were of purple, violet, fiery
red, crimson, scarlet, subdued orange, glaring saffron, blue, and
green. They were very short, reaching barely below the knee, and
no difference was observed between childhood, maidenhood, matronly
middle life, and wrinkled old age. Glancing from my window in
Tupiza, I thought it was a parade of perambulating balloons.
The more well-to-do of the Indian women have stockings and shoes,
but the love of color does not extend to the hosiery. Most of this
wear is of ordinary brown or black. There is, however, pride and
something like social distinction with regard to the footwear. I
was amused on seeing the number of russet gaiters. Later at Uyuni I
remarked that the prevailing fashion was high-heeled French gaiters,
but in Tupiza and the other villages the extreme was not so great.
Nor does the possession of the shoes make stockings necessary. Many
of the Indian women with their plethora of petticoats apparently
consider the acme reached if they can also have shoes, and do not
fret themselves over hosiery.
These women have a habit which the bashful traveller does not
at first understand. When he sees one of them calmly removing a
petticoat, he is apt to turn away, but he need not do so. It may
be that the advancing heat of the day has caused the wearer to
discard the outer skirt, but more likely it is the vanity of her
sex, and the desire to make her sisters envious by showing what is
beneath, for each new vesture disclosed is more brilliant than the
one which overlapped it. I sat in the plaza at Tupiza and watched
two Indian women try to make each other envious. The first one
removed the outer petticoat, which was of purple. This divestment
disclosed another garment of blazing red, and after that came a
brilliant yellow. The other woman started with a green petticoat,
and gradually got down to a mixture of blue and yellow. By that
time I had begun to fear for the consequences, and made a pretence
of turning my back by strolling to the hotel.
From Tupiza to Uyuni is three days’ hard riding with horse or
mule, and usually it is nearer four. The region is graphic in its
grandeur of conical peaks, Chorolque, Guadalupe, Cotaigata, Ubina,
eternally snow-covered, which hold beneath their granite domes a
mass of mineral wealth that is for the centuries. The trail by which
one passes is along the torn flanks and through the harsh passes
of the Chichas and the San Vicente ranges.
[Illustration: Sandstone Pillars near Tupiza]
The morning we left we followed the river-bed, passed some good
farms and mud huts, and continued through a pasturage on which were
grazing goats, llamas, and sheep. The vegetation was of yellow
mustard flowers in bloom, pale cactus stalks, brown thorn-trees,
and clumps of russet grass. There are a big, gaudy ranch-house,
which looks like an imitation French castle, and an ornate little
chapel at the head of the valley before it narrows into a chain of
crooked gorges. The mountains seem to lie squarely across the way
in irregular masses, like gigantic wedges, but there are abrupt
hatchet gashes in the sides and many defiles, crevasses, and chasms.
A few miles from Tupiza the geological formation is very curious.
At a distance the appearance is that of an old city of crumbling
brown cathedrals, towers, buildings, and solitary sentinels. The
sandstone formations resemble brown instead of crystal stalagmites.
Some of the figures are strikingly grotesque. It is really a series
of crenellated mud mountains which have been worn by the atmosphere
and the water cutting down and washing away the earth.
The first stopping-place is the hamlet of Ingenia. This place has
a _tambo_ and a mud chapel and church. The Indian natives were
blear-eyed, dirty, and the most repulsive that I met anywhere, but
they were devout and hospitable. They escorted me to the chapel to
see the image of the Virgin, which had some special history, and they
got some fresh eggs for me. The altitude of Ingenia is 10,200 feet.
I set out in the early morning with my pack animals and muleteer,
all of us in ill humor because of a bad night’s entertainment. The
day’s journey to Escariano, the next lodging-place, was not a long
one. Beyond Ingenia the river course is narrow, and allows no room
for ranches or even farms of the ordinary size, though there are
some pasturage and a weedy kind of grass, scrub fir, or juniper. I
was surprised at the number of quail which started up from every
bush, and also at the variety of song-birds that hardly would be
looked for in a treeless country.
Two or three hours from Ingenia the thread of the trail along the
margin of the ravine narrows until it is not possible for animals
or persons to pass. On entering the long _cañon_ it is necessary
to call out and make sure that no one is coming from the opposite
direction. The echoes rumble through the gorges and finally die
away. If no answering call is heard, it is safe to go forward along
the edge of the sloping precipice. Sometimes _tropas_, or droves
of burros and llamas, get into this gorge from both entrances, and
then there is a controversy, and also a difficulty about backing
out until space can be found for passing.
The _cañon_ opens into a circle of slaty limestone hills, which
have to be climbed and descended with considerable care. There
are some white cactus bulbs with yellow flowers, and also in this
locality some abandoned mine shafts. The cost of fuel and of freight
transport made it necessary to close the mines until a railroad
shall be built.
An incident of the day is thunder and a threatened rain. A ragged
purple curtain hangs over the summit of Guadalupe, but that is far
away and the clouds pass. They are followed by a soft wind which
grows almost into a gale.
These winds are said by the Indians to cause the _siroche_, which
is the dread both of the natives and of travellers. Some authorities
claim that the illness is due to the presence in the earth of
minerals, which are exhaled like gases and poison the atmosphere.
I had been warned especially against this sickness when crossing
the sierras between Tupiza and Uyuni, but during my travels in the
Andes I experienced only one attack of _siroche_, and this was
before reaching Tupiza. It had been a long morning climb and ride
across sandy plains and among the cactus and fir underbrush. Coming
up gradually from the sea-level and by slow stages, I had not felt
any serious apprehension, though somewhat troubled by a neuralgic
headache and by just the appearance of bleeding at the nostrils.
That morning the wind was blowing so softly that it seemed to cradle
itself. A feeling of intense depression came over me. It was purely
mental, because the day had not advanced far enough for the physical
fatigue to manifest itself. I was out of temper, and my nerves were
on edge. At noon, taking the observation of the temperature by means
of a Centigrade thermometer, I found myself in a hopeless muddle in
trying to reduce it to Fahrenheit. The method was absolutely clear
in my mind,--“divide by 5, multiply by 9, add 32,”--but at every
calculation the result was different, though I was certain I was
following the rule. Finally I turned to the muleteer and asked him
crossly, “Loreto, what’s the matter with me?” “It’s the _siroche_,
sir,” he explained. “The wind is very bad to-day, but if you can
keep on for a few hours we’ll be all right.” Then he looked at me
a little suspiciously and said, “I don’t think we had better stop
here.”
I had no desire to stop there under the savage sun, while the wind
was forming white mantles of sand on the fir bushes, and told him we
would go on. We kept on, and I began to feel myself again, though
for a period of perhaps six hours I was in a condition of collapse
similar to that which I often had experienced following attacks
of sea-sickness. In my own case, however, there was none of the
nausea which accompanies that distressing malady, and which with
most persons is also an incident of _siroche_. My muleteer’s fear
was that I would insist on stopping or on turning back. He had had
that trouble with two or three persons whom he had guided over the
mountains, and, as he told me, they had given him a great deal of
worry by their whims.
Having had this attack, I was a little apprehensive with regard to
crossing the _punas_, or table-lands, from Tupiza to Uyuni, and I
could see that my _arriero_ also was watchful. But I felt not the
slightest symptoms. Mining engineers who make that journey two
or three times a year told me that they always suffered from the
_siroche_. Animals likewise suffer from it. The horse is of little
use in these altitudes, and the mules are not immune. My own pack
animals gave out twice.
My greatest annoyance was from the blistering and bleeding of the
lips due to the dry wind. The natives grow expert enough to save
themselves by means of scarfs while riding, but I found that this
method gave me no protection. My lips were swollen unnaturally, and
local applications did not reduce the swelling or the pain except
temporarily at night. It was weeks before they became normal, and
this I found was the gravest inconvenience in traversing the
_punas_. My nerves also were under intense strain. That tension is
unavoidable so high up, but it is something that gradually can be
overcome. After living a month at an altitude of 12,000 to 14,000
feet, I experienced little annoyance from keyed-up nerves.
The increased heart movement is something which no one can escape,
and it varies only in degree according to the individual. Jogging
along comfortably on the back of a mule, the accelerated action is
not appreciated, but let the traveller get off to rest the animal
by walking and he quickly discovers the limit of his exertion. In
my own case I found it easier to climb the hills afoot than to
descend them, the heart apparently pumping with more regularity on
the up-grade. But at night, after a hard day’s travel, on lying
down to sleep it would be half an hour to an hour before the
trip-hammer beating would lull itself away into slower and more
regular palpitations.
From Escariano to Tambilla is a wearying ride. The course is across
gorges and chasms, up the dry river-bed, then down for a good many
hundred feet and again up into white plains covered with scrub. The
longest climb is up the corkscrew height of Portugalete. It would
be not only cruelty, but physical impossibility, to surmount this
summit on the back of a mule, and I trudged it at an even pace with
the panting pack animals. The pass or gateway of Portugalete is
14,137 feet above sea-level. Through this pass the railroad will
wriggle its way.
After the divide was reached the descent was fairly steady, though
abrupt. Guadalupe was in sight part of the day, and there were
also glimpses of other peaks, snow-covered, while in some of
the transverse gorges which the sun did not penetrate I saw the
perpetual ice and snow. I stopped two or three times to gather a
handful of snow, and then climbed back on the mule, passing in a
very brief space of time from temperature below freezing to 90°
or 95° Fahrenheit. On this slope were pasturing many alpacas and
other sheep as well as goats and llamas.
During that long day we passed just two human dwellings, adobe huts,
and reached Tambilla after nightfall. Tambilla lies in a valley,
but its altitude is 12,900 feet. The Indians who kept the _tambo_
were very indifferent to our comfort. They were having some kind of
a celebration, and at first professed not to understand Spanish.
As the _arriero_ knew a little Quichua, he went after them in the
Indian vernacular, and I swore some Spanish oaths, which were not
nice but which brought out sullen rejoinders and the promise of
something to eat. This was prepared in time,--the usual _chupé_,--but
having seen its preparation, my stomach revolted, and I went to
bed after partaking of hot coffee and crackers. During the night a
freight train arrived, burros laden with dynamite for the mines,
and I felt satisfaction in hearing the freighters, all of whom were
natives, take possession of the sleeping quarters of the inmates
of the _tambo_.
It was a relief to get away in the early morning long before sunrise.
The sun disclosed the edges of a vast mountain plain, with sand-dunes
and scrub breaking its monotonous stretch and a rim of chalk-white
mountains enclosing the whole basin. This was the Sierra of San
Vicente. Again I noticed the presence of both quail and song-birds.
About noon we reached a bend in the dry river-bed and even a
rivulet of water. A ruined cabin and a corral fallen into disuse
were here. In front were two graves marked by stones and a rude
cross. My muleteer mused a moment. He pointed to the cabin, then
to the graves, and shook his head. “I was here a year ago, Señor,”
he said, “and they [pointing to the graves as though he could see
their tenants] were there [pointing to the cabin] then.”
The afternoon was a gradual but steady climb among vast sheep
pastures which were still peopled with many flocks, although nearly
all the huts had been abandoned by their human dwellers. Toward
evening after another long ascent we crossed an easy gradation of
summits and then down to Amachuma. It is 12,444 feet above sea-level.
The Indians at Amachuma were indifferently hospitable. At first they
professed ignorance of any language except Quichua, but later, when
the government innkeeper appeared, we got passable accommodations,
one of the mud benches along the wall being cleared of the dogs
and the natives in order that I might spread my blankets.
From Amachuma the next morning we rode for two hours up and across
the chalk-white hills, and then a dark ribbon forked out on a vast
plain below. “That is Uyuni,” said Loreto, my muleteer, simply. It
lay against the horizon like a frozen sea. For the first time in
weeks Loreto became enthusiastic. “There [to the north] is Oruro;
there [to the south] is Antofagasta; there [to the east] the Potosi
silver mines; here, Huanchaca silver mines; but, Señor, there is no
water in Uyuni for my mules. I shall have to lead them back here
to-night.”
Uyuni is a waterless oasis on the salt pampa.
Two hours descending through the white sand and scrub and we were
on the outskirts of the place. The most prominent spot which we had
seen proved to be the cemetery. The town is a staked, plain kind of
settlement, without shrub or tree. The railroad yard, enclosed by
a corrugated iron fence stockade, takes in most of the municipal
territory. Caravans of llamas and droves of burros and mules filled
the streets. Much of the freighting is done by the llamas. There are
many small shops and several very extensive warehouses and supply
stores.
Uyuni is an outfitting and shipping centre. It is on the edge of
one of the most productive and varied mineral districts in Bolivia.
In 1885 there was almost no settlement, but the development of the
Huanchaca and the other mines made a town necessary. Huanchaca is
nine miles away on the railroad spur. Though the company a few years
ago was compelled to spend a large amount of money in pumping out
the Pulacayo mines, the output was diminished only temporarily. It
furnishes the bulk of the freight down the railroad to the coast
at Antofagasta.
Everybody in Uyuni is an enthusiast on mines. I felt myself in
Colorado or the Black Hills when the local judge and a party of
citizens came to welcome me. The judge drew a rough map of the
district. “Here,” he said, “is tin; there, gold; yonder, silver; over
there, copper; out this way, borax; off here, bismuth; this way,
lead; a little beyond, antimony.” He and his fellow-citizens were
very anxious for the railroad to be built to Guadalupe and Tupiza,
so that the mineral industry could be assured of transportation
facilities.
In strolling about I observed all the characteristics of the native
Indian race, and of the _cholos_. The fondness of the women for
bright petticoats and French gaiters I have recounted. It affords a
lesson to the political economist by showing that artificial wants
can be created and goods sold in remote communities. Not only were
French gaiters in demand, but gaudy handkerchiefs for head-dresses
and also much jewelry that was not gaudy. Many of the women had
finger-rings and ear-rings of gold. They appeared superior to the
men, who are given to imbibing alcohol. But I would not be too
censorious. I had seen these men in the desolate, lonely passes
and on the dreary sand-plains, and was not sure, if my life from
New Year’s to New Year’s had to be passed in the same way, that
whenever I got into Uyuni with a chance for human companionship,
I also would not get drunk.
Uyuni is intensely cold, lying, as the town does, at an altitude
of 12,100 feet under the snow mountains which send down their icy
breath, and on the salt plains which, when the rays of the sun
are off them, are scarcely less chilling. The legend told every
newcomer is of going to bed with a bottle of hot water to keep the
feet warm, and waking up to find the glass in fragments and the
ice retaining the perfect form of the bottle. I did not have this
experience, but in September, which is in the beginning of Spring,
the cold was penetrating enough to make me believe the story.
I noted on Sunday several foreign flags flying over various
consulates; and this was a reminder that Uyuni, through its
commercial and mining interests, is a kind of international centre.
The Italians, French, Germans, and Chileans have the largest
interests among the foreigners, though a fair proportion of the
business is in the hands of Bolivians. Some of the foreigners
originally came over the trail from Argentina. More of them followed
the routes of travel from the Pacific.
CHAPTER XIX
WAYFARING IN BOLIVIA.--THE CENTRAL PLATEAU
_A Hill-broken Table-land--By Rail along the
Cordillera of the Friars--Challapata and Lake
Poöpo--Smelters--Spanish Ear-marks in Oruro--By Stage to
La Paz--Fellow-passengers--Misadventures--Indian Tombs at
Caracollo--Sicasica a High-up Town, 14,000 Feet--Meeting-place
of Quichuas and Aymarás--First Sight of the Famed Illimani
Peaks--Characteristics of the Indian Life--Responsibility of
the Priesthood--Position of the Women--Panorama of La Paz from
the Heights--The Capital in Fact--Cosmopolitan Society._
The Altiplanicie, or Great Central Plateau, because of its mineral
riches, was called by the geographer Raimondi a gold table with
silver legs. Once the bed of a vast inland sea, the table-land now
forms the Titicaca basin and lies between the Oriental and the
Occidental Cordilleras. Its surface is broken by many conical hills
and small sierras, supposedly the result of volcanic eruptions, yet
it comes within the definition of level country as level country
is understood in the Andine regions. The southern zone of the
Altiplanicie has been aptly described as a solid cape of salt.
From Uyuni, in the lower corner of the great plain, the railway
skirts along the mountain range known as the Cordillera of the
Friars. The road crosses the salt pampas and winds among the
foothills and along the Marques River into agricultural lands,
chiefly grazing, with pasturage for some cattle, donkeys, and
llamas, and many sheep. There are a number of villages, always
with a little church in the centre. The September day on which I
took the trip the people were making a _romeria_, or pilgrimage,
from hamlet to hamlet, to celebrate one of the numerous religious
holidays.
During the first three hours weather changes were swift and
sharp,--heavy clouds, thunder, the first rain I had experienced for
weeks, a whirling dust-storm, thunder again with looped lightning,
pelting hail, and finally blinding snow. My fellow-passengers were
Bolivian business men and their families, and English and German
mining superintendents. An excellent breakfast was served in the
station at Sevaruyo.
The principal town on the line is Challapata, near the borders of
Lake Poöpo. Challapata is a starting-point for Sucre. Sucre is the
old capital of Bolivia,--an historic city and a very rich one, lying
in a fertile valley but very remote from the highways of travel.
Few foreigners or natives in Bolivia know how to find it. The most
confusing directions are given in regard to reaching it. A trail or
cart-road of a very hard kind to travel runs from Tupiza to Sucre,
and in La Paz I was gravely told that to get there I would have
to go to Tupiza. Other directions are as vague. The shortest way
from either La Paz or from the coast is to proceed to Challapata
and then procure mules to Sucre, though for two days the journey
may be followed by means of a stage or similar vehicle.
Lake Poöpo is a teacup beside a soup-tureen in comparison with Lake
Titicaca; yet it receives the waters of that lake, which is not
an evaporating pan, through the Desaguadero River, and then loses
them in the Laca-Amra, a disappearing and reappearing stream. Only
one gallon in a hundred of the water drained into Lake Poöpo by the
Desaguadero is carried off by other streams. The Titicaca current
is 23.73 metres per minute, and the volume of the Desaguadero is
4,822.5 cubic metres per minute.
From Poöpo on to Oruro I noted a succession of smoke-stacks from
the smelters, and very apparent evidences of the mining industry.
After that it was all mine sights and mine talk. There is a large
foreign colony, which includes Yankees, Englishmen, Germans, and
Chileans. The town is a bare sort of place, with the shafts gaping
from the mountains all around. It has a population of 10,000, a
newspaper, two banks, and some extensive commercial establishments.
Oruro is an old town, and still shows many Spanish ear-marks. The
Jesuit chronicles say that in the height of the mining fever, in
the seventeenth century, it had 70,000 inhabitants. The streets are
narrow, and the buildings have balconies and overhanging eaves. The
local administration is progressive, and the plaza is an evidence
of local public spirit. It has a fountain in the centre, and some
effort at adornment has been made by fencing in the flower-plats.
The pilgrimage of women and children to and from the fountain with
their water-jars is an endless one. There is a military garrison and
a _Cabildo_, or municipal headquarters. In the market are the women
venders, decked out in their brilliant petticoats, selling onions,
fruits, fish, rock salt, and the other commodities of humble life.
Here, as in Uyuni, I observed many kindly and intelligent faces
among them, and they seemed to me superior to the men. The latter
are the _cargadores_, or burden-bearers. They travel around with
their backs bent, pedler fashion, even when they have no burden.
[Illustration: Scene in the Plaza at Oruro--Ancient Tombs at
Caracollo--Primitive Methods of Tin-crushing]
Oruro’s climate cannot be made a subject of local pride. It is
raw and rainy, with snow in the morning which melts quickly under
the sun. The mean average temperature as I gleaned from the local
records is 43° Fahrenheit, but in the month of November the extremes
are 68° and 34°. An ordinary year has 54 days of rain, 8 days of
heavy snow, and 52 days of sleety winds. The mineral resources of
the sub-Andine region, of which Oruro is the centre, compensate for
its lack of genial temperature. The most important of the mines is
the San José, which produces both tin and silver.
La Paz by the stage route is 160 miles from Oruro. When the railroad
is completed, the distance will be shortened a little, though the
same general course will be followed. I left Oruro one September
morning in the diligencia. The transportation had been controlled by
a pair of Scotchmen, and it was generally praised for the service,
but they turned it over to local management and then there was
nothing to praise. We had a dozen passengers, though only room
for ten. They included a Peruvian gentleman and his Chilean wife;
two Chilean rotos, or rough-and-ready workers who were going to
La Paz to take jobs; a party of Italian pedestrians who walked in
this manner; a German drummer; a native merchant, and myself. The
route followed the pampa along the edge of the mountain range,
and as there had been local snow-storms the regular line of white
silhouettes glistening in the sunlight presented a most exquisite
sight. But the road was very heavy, and our six mules had difficulty
in pulling the stage from one mud hole to another.
At noon we were mired. It rained and hailed throughout the afternoon.
One of the Italians, after a long parley with the driver and the
Indian postilion, took a mule from the traces and started for the
hamlet, which lay eight miles farther on, to see if means could
not be found for transferring us.
About nine o’clock through the darkness we heard shouts, and found
that a _carreta_, or two-wheeled cart, with four mules had been
sent to our rescue. No promise was held out to us of reaching the
village, but the stage was so uncomfortably crowded that some of
us felt bound to make room for those who preferred to remain. We
clambered out, and the outrider took us on his shoulders and waded
through the mud till he was able to drop us into the cart. He had
been picked up somewhere along the way. Without him we would have
had to pass the hours till morning in the open _carreta_. The wind
was biting, and though wrapped in heavy overcoats and blankets, we
could not keep the chill from our marrow-bones.
The night was so black that nothing could be seen ahead except the
moving silhouette of the Indian guide. I learned on this occasion of
the endurance of this class of natives. Our postilion was barefoot,
clad only in thin cotton trousers and some kind of shirt, yet he
plunged through the ponds, waded the creeks, and marked out a
course for the mules, urged by their hoarse, screeching driver,
to follow. When they got mired, he was at their heads or at their
heels, yelling at them in the Aymará tongue with the heartiness
that a muleteer on the Western frontier will put into his coaxing
of the same animals. After seeing him set the pace, I could readily
understand how these men could travel all day on foot and keep the
animals going at a good pace. Two or three times we thought we
were hopelessly lost, but at last he brought us into the village
of Caracollo and to the _tambo_, or inn. The breakfast had been
waiting since eleven o’clock in the morning. We sat down to it at
a quarter of an hour before midnight. After enjoying the repast we
went to bed commiserating our companions who were huddled together
in the stage somewhere back on the pampa.
The next morning I made a little study of native life as seen at
Caracollo, chiefly in the plaza, which was more in the nature of a
market-place. It was under water, but the Indian women were squatted
about selling their wares with stoical indifference to personal
comfort. The priest was fat, good-natured, and more intelligent than
others of his class whom I met. He told us that the Indian tombs
or tomb dwellings which we saw on the edge of the village were at
least four centuries old and were still venerated by the natives. I
strolled up the hillside to have a closer view of them, and found
that they are now put to baser uses. The veneration of the natives
apparently is shown by finding the shady side in order to take a
snooze at mid-day. Half a score of the Indians were enjoying their
siestas.
The tombs are oblong in form, from six to twelve feet high, and
are hollow. Some are open at the top, but more are closed and have a
kind of arched roof. All that I noticed opened or faced toward the
east. Some have openings on each side. The straw and mortar seemed
to be so fresh that it was hard to conceive of these monuments of
the past being centuries old, but of the fact there is no question.
The stage managed to pull itself out of the mud and reach Caracollo
at noon. We set off at once. At Villa Villa, a dreary spot, the
eating-house had nothing ready for us because we were running off
schedule time. Yet the Frenchman and his wife who kept it managed
to provide us a mouthful. They were from Marseilles. “How did you
get away off here?” I incautiously asked him. He shrugged his
shoulders.
We reached Pandura at nightfall to find that the stage coming from
La Paz, also running off schedule time on account of the rains
and the bad roads, had arrived there ahead of us. Pandura, which
consists of three or four mud structures, by squeezing itself
could just shelter one set of passengers. There was no possibility
of accommodations for us, nothing we could do except to continue
our journey over dangerous roads. The more fortunate passengers,
however, were very considerate. We could not ask them to give up
their beds, but they themselves volunteered to forego their dinner.
It had been ordered before our arrival and would be ready in an
hour. Since they had the whole night before them, they could wait
for another dinner to be prepared. We accepted their offer, and
after the meal had been eaten with gluttonous appetites, we plunged
off in the darkness. The animals were utterly worthless and could
barely drag us along. Where fresh mules were in waiting they were
already blown, and the local _tambo_-keepers refused to let us have
the animals which were reserved for the government mail. Usually
after alternate threatening and cajoling we would get the post
mules, sometimes taking them forcibly, and then proceed a little
better. But it was a nightmare of a journey.
In the morning we reached Sicasica. Sicasica is a town of consequence
and the centre of a silver-mining district. It is one of the highest
inhabited places in Bolivia, the altitude being 14,000 feet. It
has an old Jesuit church, built in 1622, notable for the fantastic
carving on the lava stone exterior and for some passable paintings
on the interior walls as well as a fine altar.
Sicasica is notable in another way. It is the meeting-place, as
it were, where the two distinct Indian races, the Aymarás and the
Quichuas, come front to front. Heretofore in southern Bolivia it
was the Quichua race I had met and their language I had heard, but
from Sicasica on the Aymarás were my study. Both these Indian idioms
are spoken, and neither race learns the tongue of the other, nor do
they have a common medium in Spanish. The local innkeeper told me
that few of them knew any Spanish, and that the little intercourse
they had with one another was more sign language than anything else.
Aymará was predominant, and its barking sounds were heard in sharp
contrast to the softer accents of the Quichua. I wandered into a
girls’ school, where the little maids were seated on vicuña skins
and, rocking forward and backward, were conning their lessons aloud
while the woman teacher accompanied their sing-song, standing. There
was neither bench nor desk of any kind. The primer was in Aymará,
and seemed to correspond to Noah Webster’s spelling-book.
[Illustration: Bolivian Indian Women Weaving]
[Illustration: Aymará Indian Woman and Child]
In the afternoon we reached Ayoayo, where a small garrison of
soldiers is maintained. Ayoayo is historic for an uprising which
was instigated by the priests against foreigners. It resulted in
a massacre. The place also was the headquarters of a stubborn
Indian uprising against the authority of the Bolivian government.
That was many years back, and I do not know that the maintenance
of a garrison at this time has anything to do with past history.
The officers were bright, fine-appearing men; the soldiers were
stolid-looking, but apparently were under excellent discipline.
There are Indian tombs in the neighborhood of Ayoayo, though not
so many as at Caracollo.
After leaving Ayoayo is the sublime sight of the peerless
Illimani,--a vision to my mind equal to that of the famed Sorata
seen from Lake Titicaca, and unsurpassed among the many glorious
panoramas of mountain grandeur which the Bolivian Andes afford.
The Continental Andes fork northwest of Lake Titicaca in latitude
14°. The Occidental Cordilleras trend south to the Pacific coast. The
Oriental Cordilleras extend in a general direction from northwest
to southeast. They are marked by three series of peaks,--the
Cololo, which is in Peru; the Illampu; and the Quisma Cruz, or
Three Crosses. The greatest of these are the Illampu, which begin
with the towering glacier peak of Sorata and end with the grouped
pinnacles of the Illimani. The heights of the summits according to
the best estimates vary from 21,200 feet to 21,700 feet. It is this
region which entitles Bolivia to be called the roof of the world
fully as much as Thibet.
On the Illimani the snows of yesterday are the snows of to-morrow.
Their sublimity cannot be grasped at close view. It is necessary to
see them at a distance such as that afforded after leaving Ayoayo
in order fully to appreciate their magnificence, for from this
point the lower flanks, brown and barren, are not visible. A great
wall of marble whiteness, with turrets and minarets surmounting
it, stretches along the horizon. When the turn in the road is made
and the sloping sides are in sight, the view is grand enough, but
nothing like the first vision. The chain extends more than a hundred
miles. The cold from the Illimani is felt very sensibly, yet it is
a clear and crisp cold and is not disagreeable.
The night was spent at Calamarca, where we found an unusually
good _tambo_ with the rarest of innovations--two or three camp
bedsteads--and excellent food, well cooked by the wife of the
innkeeper, a very intelligent _chola_.
We left Calamarca on the fourth day, though we should have been in
La Paz at the end of the second day. The approach to the capital is
across a great _meseta_, or mountain plain. It swarms with Indian
life. All the region between Oruro and La Paz seems to be as thickly
populated as the land will sustain. The stage road not only passes
through many villages, but there are more of these to the right
and to the left a short distance from the highway. Some of them
are not unattractive collections of adobe huts, and several of the
groups are rendered picturesque by the big oval ovens or kilns
almost as large as the cabins themselves.
The life is a primitive, pastoral one. Sheep and some cattle,
alpacas, llamas, and burros are raised and graze on the plain and
in the valley. Maize, or Indian corn, and a little wheat are grown
along with barley, and the native cereal known as _quinua_, which
is like millet. The crops appear scanty, and the vegetation at this
height is not exuberant.
[Illustration: A Drove of Llamas on the Pampa]
The native existence, while not a joyous one, does not appear to be
too sombre. The religious festivals are celebrated with undeviating
punctuality. No matter how small the collection of huts, somewhere
among them is a church, and each group of cabins has its own _curé_.
I remarked everywhere the grass cross over the dwellings. It was very
rare to find a hut without this symbolism. It seemed to indicate
great devoutness, but what I had already seen of the _curés_ and
their flocks made me doubt whether this was the correct explanation.
The cross, I was told, was blessed by the priest, and then it kept
out the rain, which at times is very heavy. One old man, who, after
pretending that he knew nothing but the Aymará tongue, had talked
very well in Spanish, was asked if the crosses really did keep out
the rain. He replied gravely, “Yes, if the roof is a good one.”
Whether the orthodoxy of the Indians is more than a crust of
superstition I do not profess to know, but I have the conviction
that a true missionary priesthood would work a vast improvement
in their condition, and would produce the evidences of genuine
belief in the doctrines of the Church which is demonstrated by the
practice of those doctrines. They have had Roman Catholicism for
four hundred years, and another form of worship would be meaningless
to them; but what they need is the vital principles of the Catholic
worship, and not the abuses of unfaithful servants of the Church.
I had heard that the Indians in the depths of their natures preserved
the old traditions, and that they still secretly worshipped the
White Spirit of the Illimani. Several persons whom I asked replied
that they knew nothing of this belief. One of them, a Peruvian who
had spent much time among the Indians, said the only spirit they
worshipped was the spirit of alcohol.
Among the native population the _cholos_ are easily distinguished.
They are the migratory classes who live in the larger towns and
some of whom work in the mines. Many of them are freighters. They
have charge of the pack trains to and from the mines. They have a
distinctive dress,--the loose cotton trouser, widening below the
knee and with a V-strip of different cloth in either side. They
are a political power, for, while they take little part in the
elections, they are not unready to share in a disturbance.
The aboriginal native yet preserves many customs distinct from the
_cholo_. He wears a cap, or _gorro_, which was worn in the time
of the Incas, and he contents himself with a blanket instead of
trousers if he cannot afford the latter. The pure-blood Indians are
the best for the freight caravans where the llamas are employed,
for they can manage those whimsical beasts of burden as no one
else can. The llama feeds as it goes along, and a born manager of
animals is needed to handle a _tropa_, or drove, of them, and keep
them moving in regular order. The life of the freighter is a hard
one, tramping all day and at night sleeping in the corral with the
beasts.
The Indian woman in Bolivia occupies a plane on an equality with
the man. She has no lord and master, as has the American Indian
woman in the noble red man of the West. She works, but he also must
work. She accompanies him with the pack trains, all the while that
she is trudging along twirling her spools and winding the wool
into yarn. It is rare to see an Indian woman without her spools
unless she is weaving at the loom. Walking and talking, gossiping
and scolding, shouting at the llamas, tramping over the sharpest
mountain-pass or plunging down into the gorges, she manages to keep
the spool always twirling. It is a most peculiar process, and would
drive a small boy who has a notion of spinning a top on the end of
his finger wild with emulation, though he hardly would be able to
imitate the process.
Marriage bonds among these Indians are not loose ties. In all the
settled communities where the little church has been planted, the
priest sees that the ceremony is performed, for it means a fee to
him. But when the man wanders away for work and is gone for years,
as sometimes happens, it is no interruption to the family bond
that on his return a brood of children greet him. He resumes the
matrimonial relation and accepts the children without question.
There is a prevalent delusion that in these altitudes the birth
rate is very low, and, moreover, that many of the children come
into the world deaf or lose the sense of hearing soon after birth.
While the families are not so large as in the tropics or lower
altitudes, they are numerous enough, and I was not surprised to be
told that the report about deafness and the excessive rate of infant
mortality does not bear the scrutiny of scientific investigation.
To reach La Paz from Calamarca it is necessary to cross several
_quebradas_, or wide ravines. Then the gravelly plain spreads out
and stretches to the precipice of the circular basin in which
lies the city. La Paz spreads along the inner sides of a rocky
amphitheatre, a panorama of red roofs, blended blue and white
buildings, church towers, and parks of willow and eucalyptus trees.
The greenest and most refreshing spot in the mountain bowl, the one
which gladdens the eye and rests the mind while filling it with
pleasing anticipations, is the cemetery. But from the Heights no
one guesses that this oasis is a graveyard.
A splendid highway leads down to the city, which is 1,400 feet below
the level of the great plain. At first it is a straight slanting road
at an angle of 45 degrees. Then it winds and becomes very crooked
and abrupt. This is the coachman’s hour of triumph. He sends the
mules at a full gallop, and if a spill does not happen the plaza is
reached in half an hour. In passing, there is a blurred impression
of steep mountain-sides with burros, llamas, and men and women
slowly climbing the precipitous paths. This vision becomes more
substantial when the level is reached and it is possible to look
back and see what appear to be countless processions of two-legged
and four-legged ants losing themselves on the ridges and steep
slopes.
La Paz has a plaza and an alameda and two or three smaller parks
which are not uninviting. The Chuquiyupu, or La Paz, River winds
through the town. The hillsides on which the buildings are located
are very steep. The Plaza Murillo is a sort of terrace or level
between the river and the ridge. There is an old cathedral,--one of
the few in South America about which I know nothing, for I did not
even enter it. The market-place in front affords the best examples
of native life. La Paz, notwithstanding it is the commercial centre
and has the largest Spanish and foreign element, is still the home
of the native race. The town has a population of 60,000, of whom
40,000 are said to be Aymarás, 10,000 _cholos_, and the remainder
of European, chiefly Spanish, origin. The _cholos_ learn to speak
Spanish, but the Aymarás will not.
[Illustration: View of the Cathedral, La Paz]
Though no act of Congress has formally made effective the provision
of the Constitution which allows the capital to be shifted, Sucre no
longer is the seat of government. The President has his residence in
La Paz, it is the headquarters of the army, the national custom-house
is there, and the Congress meets there. When Sucre was the actual
capital, it was isolated from the rest of the country. The foreign
ministers lived at La Paz. Some of them during their term of office
never visited Sucre, but contented themselves by sending their
credentials by messenger or through the mails.
La Paz is notable for the international character of its society.
At a dinner at the home of Minister Sorsby I met a Bavarian mining
capitalist and his wife, an English railway manager married to an
Argentine lady, the wife of a Greek mining engineer who had come
out from Constantinople on her bridal trip, a French financier, a
Spanish merchant, two or three Peruvian gentlemen, as many Americans,
and a Brazilian. This is the cosmopolitanism of a mining country
in any part of the world. Mr. Mathieu, the Chilean Minister, I
had known in Washington when he was Secretary of the Legation.
Mr. Ignacio Calderon, afterwards Bolivian Minister to the United
States, at the time of my visit was the Secretary of the Treasury.
A pleasant incident was a breakfast with his family and a talk of
home affairs, for his wife was a Baltimore lady.
A resting-place after weeks of wayfaring, a vantage point for
digesting information and maturing impressions of the imprisoned
country and her people, a preparation place for further
wayfaring,--all these La Paz was for me.
CHAPTER XX
THE MEXICO OF SOUTH AMERICA
_Depression and Revival of Mining Industry--Bolivia’s Tin Deposits
and Their Extension--Oruro, Chorolque, Potosi, and La Paz
Districts--Silver Regions--Potosi’s Output through the
Centuries--Pulacayo’s Record--Mines at Great Heights--Trend
of the Copper Veins--Corocoro, a Lake Superior Region--Three
Gold Districts--Bismuth and Borax--Bituminous Coal and
Petroleum--Tropical Agriculture--Some Rubber Forests Left--Coffee
for Export--Coca and Quinine--Cotton._
Bolivia, in the character, variety, and extent of her resources, is
the Mexico of South America. Her mines yielded the precious metals
for hundreds of years. She was the casket of gems held in pawn by
the Spanish Crown. She poured the riches of prodigal mother Nature
into the lap of the mother country.
Nor was the largess limited to the colonial epoch. The prosperity
continued until world conditions, the fall in the price of silver,
the depression in the baser metals, bore with crushing weight on an
industry which after centuries of ceaseless exploitation must show
exhaustion. Lack of transportation facilities discouraged capital
from meeting the stress of lowered prices by replacing primitive
processes with modern methods. Mining was not abandoned, but it did
not advance. Fresh discoveries did not follow exhausted ore beds.
But the dawn of the mining revival came. It was heralded by the
basis of all modern industrial development,--railways. The country
will have means of communication. The impulse will be given to
working old mines and developing new ones, and the progress for
the next quarter of a century promises to parallel that made by
Mexico during the last twenty-five years. Much of it will be due
to the policy initiated by General José M. Pando, and followed by
his successor, President Ismael Montes. The understanding of the
prospect will best be had after knowledge of what constitutes the
mineral resources of the country. From 83 to 85 per cent of the
exports are of this class.
Bolivia has not only the precious metals. She also possesses tin. So
few countries in the world produce tin, and the article maintains so
steady a price, that it is surprising enterprising capital has not
made greater efforts to exploit the Bolivian deposits. This mineral
is found all through the eastern fold of the plain lying between
the Oriental and the Occidental Cordilleras. It extends from the
vicinity of Lake Titicaca to the southern boundary of the Republic.
The richest and most productive zone of this region is between
south latitude 17° and 19°, but the tin fields cover an extent of
300 miles. The most common formation is of slate and gravel, tin
being found in the igneous rocks. The best-known districts are
Milluni; Huayna-Potosi, where the mines are worked more than 17,000
feet above sea-level; Colquiri, where the early Spaniards found
tin concentrates, and other sections of the Province of Inquisivi;
Oruro; parts of the Province of Poöpo, and the districts of Chayanta,
Potosi, Porco, Tacna, Chorolque, Chocaya, and Cotagaita. The three
latter deposits are in the vicinity of Uyuni.
The productive districts are known as La Paz, in the north; Oruro,
in the centre; Chorolque, in the south; and Potosi, in the east.
Some of the deposits are superficial and thinly spread out over a
great extent, while others have been followed to a depth of 1,000
feet and are still continued. The thickness of the veins varies
from a few inches up to 10 feet. In some of the mines the mineral
is found comparatively pure, containing 40 or 50 per cent and even
as high as 65 per cent of the metal. In others the oxide of tin
nearly pure is encountered in the form of crystal grains and nodules
of a kind of sticky iron sand.
In the northern district between the Illimani and Sorata, and not
more than 20 miles from La Paz, is the beginning of the tin deposits
of Huayna-Potosi. The tin is found in combination with bismuth, iron
pyrites, silver, galena, and even with gold. Milluni is a few miles
north of Huayna-Potosi. It has a group of parallel lodes, running
east, north, and south, which are composed of quartz impregnated
with fine earth, more or less crystallized, and oxides of iron
pyrites. There are also veins, running in a westerly direction,
which have galena, blends, and carbonates of iron. The greater part
of the workings have been at slight depths where the mineral is
easily extracted. Chocaltaga, which is within 12 miles of La Paz,
is operated under similar conditions. It forms part of the single
deposit of Huayna-Potosi and Milluni. The ore extracted from this
group is exported by way of Lake Titicaca and Mollendo.
The Oruro region is the most important, as appears from the
comparisons of production. The output of the different districts
for a series of years is shown in the following table, in terms of
metric quintals of 220.46 pounds:
+-----------+--------------------------------------------------------+
| District | Metric quintals |
| +--------+--------+--------+---------+---------+---------+
| | =1897= | =1898= | =1899= | =1900= | =1901= | =1902= |
+-----------+--------+--------+--------+---------+---------+---------+
| Oruro | 14,256 | 17,215 | 44,256 | 82,269 | 100,206 | 96,981 |
| | | | | | | |
| Chorolque | 8,680 | 10,960 | 20,615 | 40,146 | 68,998 | 56,201 |
| | | | | | | |
| Potosi | 8,361 | 9,153 | 19,826 | 29,979 | 39,175 | 13,365 |
| | | | | | | |
| La Paz | 6,198 | 6,632 | 8,097 | 9,948 | 10,780 | 9,536 |
+-----------+--------+--------+--------+---------+---------+---------+
| Total | 37,495 | 43,960 | 92,794 | 162,342 | 219,159 | 176,083 |
+-----------+--------+--------+--------+---------+---------+---------+
This shows that the production rose from 37,495 metric quintals, in
1897, to 176,083 in 1902. The value as expressed in _bolivianos_
mounted from 2,986,000 to 8,783,000, or from $1,255,000 to
$3,689,000. Since then the output has grown continuously. The Potosi
district has increased its production steadily, but the greatest
development is in the Oruro zone. The tin is exported mainly to
Liverpool, though a variable quantity goes to Hamburg. It is subject
to a small export duty, the rate being 1.60 _bolivianos_ for each
46 kilograms of bar tin and 1 _boliviano_ for the mineral in the
spongy form known as _barilla_, or black tin. For the bar this is
about 70 cents per 100 pounds, and 43 cents for the _barilla_.
The latter is the form preferred for export. In a recent year the
exports through the port of Antofagasta were: _barillas_, 29,583,000
pounds, and bars, 4,686,000 pounds.
In every sense the tin-mining industry may be said to be one of the
future, notwithstanding that it has been worked for years chiefly
with a view to securing the pure tin and without much regard to
the silver associated with the deposits. In the Oruro region some
oxidized ores from near the outcrops are operated for tin, but the
bulk of the mineral comes from the sulphide zone. From 2 to 4 per
cent of tin has been obtained by concentration and lixiviation
tailings. In Potosi there are also silver amalgamation tailings.
The past development of the industry was due to the building of
the railroad from Antofagasta to Oruro. This provided means of
transportation which made it profitable to work the tin deposits
within the limited zone where lower freights could be assured. The
company granted a special tariff for the transport of machinery,
fuel, and ores. By the llama or other pack animals it cost about
$1.25 per ton for each mile of transportation to the concentration
mills. The freight to Europe for each metric ton of 2,204 pounds
averaged 35 _bolivianos_, or $14.90, the proportion charged by the
railroad from Oruro to Antofagasta being about 4.89 _bolivianos_
per metric quintal of 220 pounds. Other transport and shipping
charges were about 3 _bolivianos_ for each quintal.
Of the world’s total tin output, say 100,000 tons, the Bolivian
production under present conditions may be placed at from 9,000
to 10,000 tons, or more than equal that of Cornwall and Australia
combined. Since the United States consumes 43 per cent of the
entire production of tin, the importance of the development of the
deposits in Bolivia and of the transportation facilities should be
appreciated.
The richest silver-producing districts of Bolivia are in the western
part and along the metalliferous zones of the central plateau which
form the base of the great plain. Toward the north, south, and east
the ore deposits crown the summits of the Andine sierras sloping to
the west. The region is divided into three sections which differ
fundamentally in their geological composition. The Department of
Potosi is the most abundant in silver ores. In it are situated the
deposits of Huanchaca, Aullogas, Colquechaca, Porco, Guadalupe,
Chorolque, Portugalete, and Lipez.
The famous, though not fabulous, silver field of Bolivia was the
Potosi. It is said that there may be people in the world who never
have heard of Bolivia, but there can be no one to whom the name
Potosi is unknown. “Were I to pay thee, Sancho,” said Don Quixote to
his squire, when the servitor was bargaining to inflict lashes on
himself in order to disenchant the knight’s Dulcinea, “in proportion
to the magnitude of the service, the treasure of Venice and the
mines of Potosi would be too small a recompense.”
The discovery was made by an Indian herder, named Gualca, who was
pasturing his drove of llamas when he came upon what seemed to be a
white metal cord. It was silver. The _cerro_, or conical hill, of
Potosi at the apex is 4,780 metres, 15,675 feet, above sea-level.
The configuration is volcanic. The veins run from north to south,
with an average inclination of 75 degrees crossing to the east. The
igneous rock which composes the interior mass of the _cerro_ is
impregnated in all directions with metallic substances,--lead, tin,
copper, and iron. It is distinguished principally by the abundance
of silver in the state of chlorides and sulphides. The great system
of lagoons or canals was finished in 1621, and cost $2,500,000, or
what would be equivalent to-day to $12,000,000. Originally there
were thirty-two of these canals.
A chain of authorities from Humboldt to Soetbeer have estimated the
silver production of the Potosi district through different periods.
From 1545 to 1800 these mines rendered to Spain $163,000,000,
which was the tribute that the Crown exacted of one-fifth of
the production. This would fix the taxed output at more than
$800,000,000, but historians are agreed that this was far from the
actual amount. In 1611 the Spanish authorities tabulated 160,000
inhabitants in this district. In 1905 the population was 12,000.
This measures the decadence of the industry.
The carved stone head which marks the entrance to the old mint,
the one established by the Spaniards in 1585 and kept in operation
for more than two centuries, now grins on the few Indians who
gather around the fountain under it with their droves of llamas.
The grinning head seems to mock their present meagre burdens with
the memories of the silver caravans of the past. But it does not
follow that those days have gone forever. The Potosi mines await
the railway to replace the llama, and they want also modern methods
to restore the riches that defy the old processes of mining.
The most productive silver mine in South America is the Pulacayo.
It is located in the Province of Porco in the Huanchaca district,
and is operated by the Huanchaca Company. The height is 15,153 feet,
and the entrance is through a tunnel, or _socavon_, known as the San
Leon. The claim is made that this mine as a silver producer is the
second in the world, the first being the Broken Hill of Australia.
From 1873 to 1901 the production was 4,520 tons of silver, and the
value of the output was estimated at $116,000,000. Formerly the
ore was smelted at Huanchaca, Asiento, and Ubina, but now much of
it is carried down to Playa Blanca, near Antofagasta. The company
employs 3,200 laborers.
In the Chorolque district is said to be the highest mine in the
world, 18,696 feet above sea-level. The altitude of the colossal
conical peak is 21,156 feet. In this mountain and its environment
are veins of silver, tin, bismuth, lead, copper, bronze, kaolin, and
wolfram. It is in the region of eternal snows, of never-ending winds,
of intense cold, and of rarefied atmosphere. It is operated through
a tunnel known as the San Bartholomew and an aerial railway, half a
mile long, by means of which the workingmen descend and return to
outer earth. A drawback to the exploitation of this region is the
lack of transportation facilities, the nearest railroad junction,
at Uyuni, being 95 miles. This difficulty will be overcome when the
railway is built from Uyuni to Tupiza, as a short spur will enable
connection to be made with Chorolque.
The mines in the neighborhood of Oruro were discovered in 1575.
In the beginning of the eighteenth century, just before the War
of Independence, in three years they paid to the Spanish Crown as
the tax of one-fifth, $40,000,000, which would mean an admitted
production of $200,000,000. In the district of Oruro are said to be
nearly 5,000 abandoned silver mines. In the immediate vicinity of
the city a score of silver and tin mines are in operation. The most
important of these is the Socavon of the Virgin. This is owned by
a Chilean company. The smelting, or amalgamation, works are located
at Machacamarca. Since 1898 the process employed has been the use of
hyposulphide lixiviation. The San José mine is located in a basin
two miles from Oruro. It is controlled by a Bolivian company, is
electrically lighted, and has a smelting establishment employing
the Wetherill system by means of electro-magnetism. During several
years the value of its annual output amounted to $1,000,000.
Under the law the mines are obliged to deliver in silver bullion the
fifth part of the exploitation to the national mint for coinage,
and the price is fixed monthly by the Secretary of the Treasury.
When the drop in silver continued, Bolivia lowered its export duty,
and finally, in December, 1902, silver bullion and minerals were
freed from export payment. The present Bolivian silver production,
which is 8,000,000 to 9,000,000 ounces annually, forms a very small
proportion of the world’s total output. But with the building of
railroads and the assured decrease of transportation charges, it is
a safe prophecy that within a few years the output will be doubled,
if not quadrupled. Here Mexico again furnishes the illustration.
In 1877 Mexico’s total silver production was $25,000,000, while in
1902, or a quarter of a century later, it had risen to $73,000,000,
and this increase had been brought about very largely through the
facilities afforded by the railroads, causing many old mines to be
worked profitably and new ones to be discovered.
The copper deposits follow principally the course of the Andes from
the Atacama desert through Lipez, Porco, Chayanta, and Calchas,
northeast to Corocoro. The most important field is that of Corocoro
in the Department of La Paz, 13,000 to 13,200 feet above sea-level.
It is the Lake Superior region of Bolivia. The form in which the
copper is most commonly met with is in small, irregular, spongy
grains which are called _barilla_, and which are from 70 to 80 per
cent pure. The native metal varies from the microscopic grains, or
_barilla_, to great masses of almost pure copper which the miners
call _charqui_. Other metals are found in combination. An analysis
made in Hamburg gave the following results:
Copper 329
Nickel 175
Silver 9
Zinc 117
Other substances 370
-----
1000
At times the mines of Corocoro have been exploited chiefly for the
silver deposits, and their auriferous character also has been an
element in their value. The claim is made that enough gold exists in
the copper ore to pay the freight charges to Europe. The town has
15,000 inhabitants, and is the capital of the Province of Pacajes.
The copper layers of this region are known in an extension of 35
miles. The mines are owned by Chilean, French, English, German,
and Bolivian capitalists, to whom American syndicates make regular
offers.
The production of the Corocoro district, in spite of discouraging
markets, has mounted steadily. In 1879 it was 20,240 metric quintals,
but in 1886 it had dropped to 10,000. In 1900 it was 25,636, and
in 1902, 42,014 quintals, or nearly 1,000,000 pounds. The freight
charges have been a heavy drawback to the industry. The two outlets
from Corocoro are through Desaguadero River to Nazacara on Lake
Titicaca, across the lake to Puno, and thence by the railroad to
Mollendo and by ship to Europe; by pack animals to Tacna, and thence
by rail to Arica and by ship to Europe. To Mollendo the cost of
freight and insurance was 1.87 _bolivianos_ (78 cents), while to
Arica it was 2.24 _bolivianos_ (96 cents) per quintal. The ocean
freight to Europe from either point was about 2.78 _bolivianos_
($1.17). The building of the railroad from Corocoro to Tacna will
afford the copper mines cheaper freights.
The government exacts a small export duty on the copper ore. The
industry has promising possibilities in other regions, in addition
to the increased development that may be looked for in the Corocoro
district. The best paying of these is in Lipez, where the white
native copper is produced and the ore treated simply by concentration.
There are three gold regions. The first extends from the western
borders of the Republic, beginning in the basin of the Inambari
River, to the upper Paraguay. It includes the mountain zone of
Caupolican, Munecas, Larecaja, Cercado, Yungas, Inquisivi in the
Department of La Paz, continues through the Department of Cochabamba,
and is prolonged through Santa Cruz. There are some famed placer
washings in this district, including the Suches and the Tipuani.
The Suches is promising both for quartz and for placers. American
gold-miners undertook to dive for the gold washings in the Tipuani,
and they are said to have had a fair degree of success.
The Larecaja placers of Tipuani are historic. They have been worked
since the time of the Incas. The Portuguese began to test them in
the middle of the sixteenth century, and introduced negro laborers
from Brazil. The Villamil family from 1818 to 1867 obtained 151,000
ounces of gold from the Larecaja properties controlled by them. The
placers of the Yani River are also given considerable importance.
The best-known mine in this section is the Elsa. The German mining
engineer, Stumpff, estimated the quartz here at 61,000,000 tons,
giving 36 cents of gold for each ton.
The city of La Paz lies in the gold gulch of the river Chuquiyupu.
This is an Aymará name, meaning inheritance of gold.
The second gold-producing region, generally called the Chuquisaca,
commences at Atacama and Lipez on the border of Chile, and runs
through the southern section of the district of Chayanta, Sur
Chichas, Mendez or Tarija, and Chuquisaca, extending to the plains
of Santa Cruz. The best-known placers are in the bed of San Juan
River, known as the Gold River of St. John. A large amount of money
is invested in dredging machinery for the exploitation of this
river. In the Province of Chayanta many gold-mining claims have
been filed, but few are worked.
The third auriferous region, and the one believed to be the richest,
is in the far north of the Republic, along the limits of Peru, and
following the watercourses of the Madre de Dios, the Acre, and the
Purus Rivers. As this zone is occupied entirely by savages, its
wealth of gold has not been exploited and is more or less fabulous.
The gold production of Bolivia which is accounted for is very small,
though the calculation of Humboldt and others is that from 1540 to
1750 it amounted to £420,000,000. No reliable statistics regarding
present production are obtainable, for, notwithstanding the very
light export duty, which is 20 cents per ounce, there is reason to
believe that full reports are not made by the mines. In 1901 the
output of which the government had account was 550 kilograms, and
in 1902, 580 kilograms.
In the production of bismuth Bolivia claims to lead the world.
The King of Saxony takes the product in order to protect his own
monopoly. The geological formation and the geographical distribution
of bismuth follow the same direction as tin, the deposits being
in the transverse folds of the eastern slope of the Andes. It is
found mixed with the veins of tin and silver, and occasionally
it is encountered in the native state. The tin and silver beds
of Chorolque contain bismuth. The deposits in this district have
sulphurs of copper and iron which are easily separated. The most
recent discoveries have been in the Province of Inquisivi. The
production in 1901 was 4,925 metric quintals; in 1902, 3,450. The
value the latter year was about $350,000. The government imposes
a very slight export duty.
Among the mineral substances not metallic, which Bolivia counts as
a source of wealth, is borax. The chief deposits are situated in
the Province of Carangas, in the Department of Oruro. The principal
field there is the Chilcaya, which has an extent of 30,000 acres.
The Chilcaya borax is said to be of the best quality, with 47 per
cent water. Its exploitation is quite primitive. Chilcaya is 120
miles from Arica, which is the export port for it.
Geologically, and in general terms, the carboniferous zone is
described as extending south toward the Pilcomayo. Bituminous coal
and petroleum exist, but their commercial possibilities have not
been established. Petroleum is found in the peninsula of Copacabana
and other points along the shores of Lake Titicaca, but these
deposits are not important. Coal veins of uncertain value exist in
the northern chains of the Cordilleras, extending from the Tinchi
River to the border of Peru. In the Province of Caupolican the
crude petroleum is used by the local population.
Coal and petroleum also are found in some districts of Tarija,
Cochabamba, and Santa Cruz. An analysis was made in 1904 by the
French geologists, under direction of the government, of the coal
beds in the Chimoré and Apilla-pampa districts. It showed for the
Chimoré samples volatile substances, 24 per cent; carbon, 47.5
per cent; ash, 28.5 per cent. In the Apilla-pampa specimens an
appreciable quantity of sulphur was found. Specimens from both
districts burned well, although not free from slate. Preference was
given the Chimoré coal as containing a greater quantity of coke and
volatile substances. It was declared to be capable of utilization
in industries and particularly in the production of gas. Since the
central plateau and the most thickly populated regions are above
the timber line, and recourse has to be had to the llama droppings
for fuel, if further exploitation of the Chimoré region shows the
presence of coal in large quantities, it will be a decided economic
gain to the country. But the indications do not favor it.
As regards tropical agriculture, Bolivia is also similar to Mexico.
Rubber was a great fount of prospective income until the value was
compounded in the form of a cash indemnity of $10,000,000 from
Brazil, when all title to the Acre territory was yielded. But there
are other regions yet left, and Bolivia may still look upon rubber
as a source of national wealth. She retains some gum forests in the
Madre de Dios zone, which has its outlet through Villa Bella at the
confluence of the Beni and Mamoré Rivers, and which includes the
Madidi, Orton, upper and lower Beni, and Manuripi Rivers. Another
region is comprehended in the districts of Chalanna, Songo, Mapiri,
Huanay, Coroico, and a part of the Province of Caupolican. This
district has its outlet through Puerto Perez on Lake Titicaca. Its
rubber product already is exploited to a fair degree. The Germans
have large interests in this region.
A district which is practically unexploited is in the northern and
eastern part of the Department of Santa Cruz, formed by the provinces
of the Velasco and Magdalena, and bordering on the Brazilian State
of Matto Grosso. The gum forests here are along the rivers Paraguay
and Verde. They are very remote and practically unexploited, but in
time undoubtedly they will be opened up. In the region of Yuracares,
in the Department of Cochabamba, there is also a species of rubber
tree.
Bolivia has a complete code of legislation governing the production
and export of rubber, including the imposts to be paid. The gum
trees are national property, and neither natives nor foreigners
have the right to exploit them without special license, preference
being given the one whose discovery claim is filed first. In the
Territory of Colonias, which included Acre, each person was permitted
to acquire 500 trees, while companies could acquire 1,000.
Of Bolivian agricultural products for export, coffee is entitled
to a chief place. Its cultivation is carried on chiefly in the
district known as the Yungas, or hot lands, but the shipments for
the world’s consumption cannot be large in competition with Brazil
and other countries. Coffee is exported to northern Argentina and
to Chile with profit. The European shipments of late years have
been unimportant, notwithstanding that the excellent quality of the
exported product had given it a trade standing. With the coffee
lands given railroad transportation, the Yungas product, whose
flavor is as fine as that of Arabia, may regain its foreign market.
It is a question whether coca is a blessing or a curse to Bolivia.
This is the plant from which cocaine is had, and from the similarity
in name is often confused with cacao, or chocolate. The natives
have chewed the leaves for hundreds of years, and the students of
racial atavism profess to see in its qualities stupefying effects
which have brutalized the existing Indian race. It is, however, an
important agricultural industry. The shrub grows from two to eight
feet high. It is cultivated in the lower plains of the eastern
slope of the Andes at heights varying from 1,100 to 5,300 feet.
Its cultivation is the leading industry of the Yungas district,
in which there are many fine plantations. A plantation lasts from
thirty to forty years if handled with care and intelligence. The
last year for which figures were given, the coca product was placed
at 3,450,000 kilograms (7,890,000 pounds), valued at $1,250,000.
The government taxes the production, and draws considerable revenue
therefrom, since the home consumption is so common. The exportation
is through the ports of Mollendo, Arica, and Antofagasta, and also
through Argentina by way of Tupiza. France is the chief buyer. The
exports amount to 556,275 kilograms on an average each twelvemonth,
but the foreign market is uncertain, and in some years the quantity
sent out of the country is much smaller.
[Illustration: Gathering Coca Leaves in the Yungas]
Sometimes it is forgotten that when the British government secured
the cultivation of the cinchona tree in Ceylon and India, the quinine
industry was not entirely transplanted from Peru and Bolivia.
Annually from 250,000 to 325,000 kilograms, or 715,000 pounds, of
cinchona bark are shipped through the ports of Mollendo and Arica.
In the eastern Andine region 6,000,000 trees are said to be under
culture, there being a large number of the groves on the broken
mountain-sides at altitudes of 3,200 to 6,500 feet. The Bolivian
product gives from 30 to 32 grammes of sulphate of quinine for each
kilogram, and, it is claimed, is superior to other South American
bark.
Cotton-growing without question has a future in the Santa Cruz and
Chimoré region. It has been claimed that this district can produce
375,000,000 kilograms,--at least, this was the pretension of some
enthusiastic railway promoters. They estimated that one _hectare_,
or 2½ acres, would grow 1,600 plants, each of which would yield two
pounds of ginned cotton, and that 50,000 families could be colonized
in this region who would cultivate each six months 15,000 pounds.
While experienced cotton-growers smile at these fanciful figures,
the experts who have studied the possibilities of the soil and
climate in this region credit it with undoubted cotton capabilities.
It is another illustration of Bolivia’s varied resources and of
her similarity to Mexico.
CHAPTER XXI
BOLIVIAN NATIONAL POLICY
_Panama Canal as Outlet for Mid-continent Country--Railways for
Internal Development--Intercontinental Backbone--Proposed Network
of Lines--Use Made of Brazilian Indemnity--Chilean Construction
from Arica--Human Material for National Development--Census
of 1900--Aymará Race--Wise Governmental Handling of Indian
Problems--Immigration Measures--Climatic Variations--Political
Stability--General Pando’s Labors--Status of Foreigners--Revenues
and Trade--Commercial Significance of Treaty with Chile--Gold
Legislation--A Canal View._
Mid-continent country though she is, Bolivia realizes the value to
her of the Panama Canal. For a great many years the larger part of
her exports must be ores and metals. The mineral regions lie chiefly
on the Pacific side of the Royal or Oriental Andes. A portion of
the output in the southern district may find its way profitably
down through Argentina, but the overwhelming bulk of the mineral
products will have the shortest transit, and therefore the cheapest
outlet by the West Coast, through Antofagasta, Arica, and Mollendo,
all within the waterway radius. This also will be the route for
the machinery and the merchandise imported.
The future of Bolivia is so intensely an industrial one, that
the public men who came into power when General Pando became
President keenly appreciated that they must secure the means of
internal development. This could be fostered only by building
railways. In relation to the general subject of rail communication
and transportation the Bolivian plans fit intimately with the
Intercontinental or Pan-American railroad idea. To have a complete
national system of railways it is essential that there shall be
a through trunk line from Lake Titicaca to Argentina, though the
branches toward the Pacific themselves partake of the nature of main
lines. In the political aspect the motive is to secure such domestic
progress as in time will enable Bolivia to obtain a seaport of her
own. Yet a patriotic policy of forethought for all contingencies
forbids her to be dependent entirely on the Pacific outlet. Out
of this feeling grew not only the determination to complete the
connection with the Argentine system, but also the purpose of
combining railroad and water transportation, so that the great river
basins of the northeastern region shall have through communication
with the capital and with the interior of the country, and afford
an Atlantic outlet by means of Villa Bella and the Amazon River.
In this manner Bolivia helps to maintain her independence and
to free herself from too heavily leaning on her Pacific coast
neighbors. Nevertheless, geography decrees that her earlier stages
of development for a quarter of a century, perhaps for half a
century, shall be to obtain the fullest advantage of the extension
of the Panama Canal zone along the West Coast.
The political, geographical, and economic conditions which, in
the view of President Montes and the progressive public men of
Bolivia, are necessary for the development of the nation, involve
the construction of railway lines somewhat as follows:
1. Viacha to Oruro.
2. Uyuni to Tupiza and Quiaca.
3. Oruro to Cochabamba.
4. Cochabamba to the Chimoré River.
5. Chimoré to Santa Cruz.
6. Uyuni or Sevaruyo to Potosi.
7. Potosi to Sucre.
8. Sucre through Padilla and Lagunillas to Santa Cruz and Yacuiba.
9. Tarija to junction with Argentine lines.
10. La Paz to head-waters of the Beni at Puerto Pando.
11. La Paz via Corocoro to Tacna and Arica.
12. Oruro to Potosi.
13. Potosi to Tupiza.
This scheme is very general, yet it has a solid basis. When visiting
Bolivia in the Autumn of 1903 on an official mission, the plans were
explained to me, and the prospective events on which were founded the
expectations of realizing them. Concurring circumstances followed
swiftly. At the beginning of 1905 Bolivia was in the possession of
cash capital of $10,000,000,--the indemnity received from Brazil for
the Acre rubber territory; Chile, for patent reasons of national
policy, by a treaty agreement had obligated herself to construct the
line from Arica to La Paz, and also to advance funds to Bolivia, as
a guaranty for further railway building; the Peruvian Corporation,
to insure its share of future traffic to the Pacific, was engaging
in various projects, and minor enterprises were advancing under
the encouragement given by the government.
A rough calculation of the cost of railway building was $20,000 per
mile in the central plateau, $24,000 in the valleys, and $32,000
in the mountain regions. The latter estimate was too low, but
taking the topography of the country in its entirety and making a
general engineering reconnaissance of the proposed routes with a
maximum grade of 3 per cent, it may be assumed that the 700 miles
of railway which are reasonably sure to be constructed can be built
for an average cost of $35,000 per mile, or $25,000,000. Half that
amount of capital might be said to be in the control of the Bolivian
government at the beginning of 1906. The ultimate extension projected
in order to league all the parts of the country together is about
1,700 miles, but that is a matter of many years.
When the 128 miles of the Pan-American system between Viacha and
Oruro are completed, there will remain only 125 miles from Uyuni to
Tupiza, and then the through links will exist from Lake Titicaca
to Buenos Ayres, for the Argentine government will have completed
the prolongation of its line to Tupiza, the section within Bolivian
territory, 55 miles in length, being constructed and operated under
a special treaty. Three-fourths of the traffic of the Southern
Railway from Puno to Mollendo is furnished by Bolivia, and it is
important for the Peruvian Corporation, which operates that railroad,
to make sure that its Bolivian freight shall not be diverted. The
traffic by way of Lake Titicaca and Mollendo is about 25,000 tons
annually.
The network of railways in project includes the section between
Uyuni and Tupiza, and the line from Uyuni or Sevaruyo to Potosi,
and from Oruro to Cochabamba. The commerce of Cochabamba is
considerable, yet the most pressing national need is to furnish the
Potosi mines with transportation facilities. After the convention
with Chile for the construction of the line from Arica to La Paz
the American engineers who were making the reconnaissance indicated
a preference for the routes from Oruro to Potosi and from Potosi
to Tupiza as the complement of that system.[16]
16 _Reconnaissance Report upon the Proposed System of Bolivian
Railways_, by W. L. Sisson, C. E. La Paz, 1905.
[Illustration: BOLIVIAN RAILWAY ROUTES]
How soon the territory of the Yungas, that is, the head-waters of
the Beni, will be opened up may be a matter of conjecture; but the
very great advantage resulting to the Bolivian government from having
this rich tropical territory developed, which among other things
would help to provide the capital with fuel, insures the building
of a railway of some kind. The success attending the electric road
from the Heights of La Paz down into the city may afford some test
of the feasibility of using the waters of the Inquisivi River as
the means of traction to Puerto Pando, for the water-power of this
stream is almost unlimited. Once the head-waters of the Beni are
reached, the way will be open for navigation to the confluence
at Villa Bella of the Mamoré and the Madre de Dios, which later
reach the Amazon. When the Brazilian government carries out the
long-postponed plan of building a railway around the Madeira Falls,
Bolivia’s course to the Atlantic will be shortened.
This Amazon outlet is likely to become practicable long before the
route by way of the Paraguay and the Plate is opened.
The Antofagasta and Oruro railway, with its 2½ feet gauge for
the whole 575 miles, has been a very profitable enterprise, and
indicates the prospective profit of other railways. The government
guaranteed 6 per cent annually on the cost of the Bolivian section,
that cost not to exceed £750,000, but it never has been called on
to meet the guaranty, the net earnings being sufficient to pay all
fixed charges and handsome dividends. The railway between Viacha
and Oruro, when built, will be of the 1 metre gauge (3 feet, 3⅜
inches) which is the gauge of the line between La Paz and Viacha.
Ultimately the Oruro and Antofagasta line is bound to be widened
in conformity with it.
There may be halts in the policy of the Bolivian government. Changes
may occur. Unexpected obstacles may postpone the fruition of all
these national hopes. Yet during the period when the Panama Canal
is building between $35,000,000 and $40,000,000 is likely to be
employed in railroad construction, and this will mean collateral
expenditures in other directions. It may be guessed that $50,000,000
will be spent in internal development during the next twenty or
twenty-five years. That would not seem much in the United States,
but in a country such as Bolivia it is an enormous sum.
What is the human material for this development, the mineral and
other physical resources being understood? Taking the Acre region
from it, and averaging the territory which will be given Bolivia
in the settlement of the boundary disputes with Peru and Paraguay,
the country may be said to have an area of 400,000 square miles.
A reasonably trustworthy census was taken in September, 1900, and
this placed the total number of inhabitants at 1,816,000. Of these
the classification was made:
Aboriginal Indian race 1,028,000
_Mestizos_, or mixed blood 560,000
Whites 215,000
The remainder was composed of negroes and blended nationalities.
The relative number of inhabitants in the different political
divisions of the country was:
Department Inhabitants
Chuquisaca 196,434
El Beni 25,680
Oruro 86,081
Tarija 67,887
Cochabamba 326,163
Santa Cruz 171,592
Potosi 325,615
La Paz 426,930
Territory of Colonias 7,228
---------
1,633,610
Not enumerated 182,661
---------
Total 1,816,271
A curious circumstance is the even ratio of the sexes. Of the
1,633,610 enumerated population, the males were 819,247 and the
females 814,363. The Indian woman fills so important a function in
the industrial economy of the country that her numerical standing
is of consequence.
This census of 1900 showed that the foreigners domiciled in Bolivia
were few. The total was 7,400, and it was made chiefly of Argentinos,
Peruvians, and Chileans. The Europeans--Italians, Spanish, Germans,
French, Austrians, and English--numbered 1,500. Substantially it
might be said the Republic up to the present is without a foreign
population large enough to influence its national character and
development. The native inhabitants are the economic element of
growth.
The whites are of Spanish origin. The _cholos_ are more Indian than
Spanish, but they have shown considerable capacity for civilization
and progress. The Indians are very largely the Aymará race. Possibly
one-fourth may be of Quichua stock, but certainly not more. Included
in this aboriginal people are a large number of unclassified
Indian tribes, and some of these, particularly the savages, have
no affiliation with Aymarás or Quichuas. The number of savages is
placed at 91,000, though that is hardly more than an estimate.
They are found in the river regions of the East and Northeast. The
Quichuas are in the South along the Argentine border, and in the
North along Lake Titicaca. The great central belt is Aymará, and
the mixed blood there is Aymará and Spanish, somewhat more virile
than the Spanish Quichuas.
The Aymarás, though conquered by Spain and recognizing that they
were vanquished, have resisted absolutely the imposition of more
than the thin layer of Caucasian civilization upon them. They are
said to have aspirations for independence, but the uprisings which
have taken place never have been general and usually have been due
to local causes. Their most marked characteristic is the tenacity
with which they have held to their language. It would seem absurd to
say that a majority of the inhabitants of La Paz do not understand
Spanish, because their intercourse with the Spanish-speaking classes
must be assumed to give them some knowledge of that language, yet
some experiences of my own showed that it was useless to depend
upon Spanish. In the interior there are a few persons among the
Indians who understand the language of the government, but the
mass of them resolutely refuse to know it. The wife of a mining
engineer, whose camp was only a few miles away from La Paz, told me
her experience with the household servants. She had had to acquire
enough of the Aymará tongue to give the ordinary household orders,
and her children had picked up more, so that they got along very
well. But no persuasion had been sufficient to secure the consent of
the Aymarás to learn a little Spanish. In other mining camps there
was the same difficulty. The miners always master a few phrases of
Aymará and get along in that manner.
It is not unusual to hear reports of uprisings, or attempted
uprisings, by the Indians. I witnessed one of these occurrences
at Guaqui, on Lake Titicaca. The Indians were said to be coming
down a thousand strong. But when the local authorities exerted
themselves, and made a show of a few extra soldiers, what had been
a noisy, drunken demonstration quieted quickly. However, there are
instances in which the Indians give trouble, but in most cases the
disturbances are purely local. The testimony is that the Indian
population is to be feared only during periods of political tumult,
when the government is divided into factions, or when one leader
is fighting against another leader, and the bonds of authority are
loosened. Then there is danger. The Indians make a pretence of
joining one faction or the other, but it is only with the purpose
of freeing themselves from restraint.
Considering that the European race is relatively so small a part
of the population, the Bolivian government has handled the Indian
problem very well,--much better than it has been handled in the
United States. Without question, the army, which is an army of
conscription, has been of great benefit, not only in the military
control of the natives, but in the training it gives the Indians
and the _cholos_. Military service is compulsory, but it is evaded
by many of the Aymarás, and discriminating state policy does not
seek to enforce it too rigidly.
In spite of the commonplace and stereotyped talk about the
worthlessness of the aborigines and their laziness, all my
observations led me to believe that the Bolivian Indians are an
appreciable element in the economy of the State, and are capable
of assisting the national development. In the _puna_, or mountain
regions, where most of them are found, Nature has not been so
prodigal that they can live without work. They do labor in the mines,
in tilling the fields, in tending their flocks, and as freighters.
Their endurance is remarkable.
But this native population is not enough for the development of the
mines which may be expected during the next ten or twenty years.
A mining population will have to be brought from other lands, and
if not from neighboring countries, then from Europe, possibly
Galicia, in Spain, and the northern districts of Italy. The white
race endures the cold, and works in the rarefied air of the mines,
12,000 to 15,000 feet above sea-level, without serious impairment
of its vital powers. I noted this from individual experiences and
from what mining superintendents told me.
The Bolivian government has a very liberal policy with respect to
immigration and the public lands. Hopes are entertained that a scheme
of European colonization on an extensive scale will be inaugurated
within a few years. This must come with the development of the
_chaco_, or tropical prairie and forest region, which extends from
the eastern slopes of the Royal Andes to the Paraguay River. Some
of the _chaco_ is swamp desert, and some is baked soil, covered
with thorny scrub; but much of it is fertile, and the climatic
conditions are not unfavorable. Several years ago the government
granted a railway concession, known as _L’Africaine_, to the French
Bank of Brussels, with the special purpose of securing the peopling
of this region. The railway enterprise has not advanced rapidly.
In time it may be carried forward and bring the _chaco_ district
into railway communication, not only with Santa Cruz, which is the
tropical capital, but also with Sucre and the whole network of
railways. Santa Cruz has encouraging possibilities for the European
immigrant.
The agricultural region in the Southeast, of which Tarija is the
capital, is now partly settled, but there is room for a much larger
number of tropical farmers in that locality. In proportion as the
mining population grows, colonization may be encouraged, because
there will be the inducement to the agricultural production which
supplying the mining camps will demand. There also will be an
overflow into farming and pastoral industries.
The climate of Bolivia is so modified by the configuration of
the country that more than a general statement is not possible.
Lying within the torrid zone, the altitudes are to be taken into
consideration as modifying influences. Fully 80 per cent of the
population lives at altitudes above 10,000 feet, and not less than
60 per cent may be said to exist above 12,000 feet. That is the
height above sea-level of La Paz, which is the largest city, and
of the central plateau. The mean temperature between 12,000 and
13,000 feet varies in different years from 57° Fahrenheit to 59°.
Above 15,000 feet it is 43°. The seasons, wet and dry, are of more
consequence than the temperature. The central plain, the regions
of the Cordilleras, and the _chaco_, are all in their climatic
character hospitable to natives of the temperate zone.
There are three distinct climatic belts or zones in the Bolivian
territory, according to the altitude of the respective regions.
These are called _yungas_, or hot valleys; _valles_, or valleys;
and _punas_, or cold lands. _Cabecera de valle_, or head of valley,
is a subdivision of the main valley division. The _puna brava_ is
also a subdivision of the _puna_. The mean temperature and the
production of the several zones are as follows:[17]
+------------+---------+---------+--------------------------------------+
| | | Mean | Products |
| Zones |Altitude | temper- +--------------------+-----------------+
| | | ature | Vegetation | Animal life |
|------------+---------+---------+--------------------+-----------------+
| | Metres | C. | | |
|Snow region | 5,000 | 1.3° |Valerian and other |The condor or |
| | | | Umbelliferæ | Andean eagle |
| | | | | |
|Puna Brava | 4,787 | 6.4° |Cryptogamia |Llama, vicuña, |
| | | | | alpaca, |
| | | | | chinchilla |
| | | | | |
|Puna | 3,614 | 12.1° |Stipa bromus, |Cattle, sheep, |
| | | | bacaris, bolax | horses, donkeys,|
| | | | glebaria, ocsalis | bears |
| | | | tuberosa, | |
| | | | quenopodium | |
| | | | | |
|Cabecera de | 3,058 | 15.2° |Wheat, vegetables, |Improved species |
| Valle | | | trees | of the same |
| | | | | stock |
| | | | | |
|Valle | 2,500 | 17.9° |Fruit-bearing trees,|All kinds of |
| | | | corn, pulse, etc. | domestic animals|
| | | | | |
|Yungas | 1,688 | 21.0° |Thick woods, coffee,|Puma, tapir, and |
| | | | cacao, sugar-cane, | and birds of |
| | | | coca, rubber, | beautiful |
| | | | cinchona bark, and | plumage |
| | | | fruits of all kinds| |
+------------+---------+---------+--------------------+-----------------+
17 _Sinopsis Estadistica y Geografica de la Republica de Bolivia_,
La Paz, 1903.
The average annual rainfall is shown in the following table:
+-----------+-------------+----------+
| Latitude | Temperature | Rainfall |
+-----------+-------------+----------+
| | C. | mm. |
| 0 | 38.00° | 836 |
| 5 | 35.34° | 818 |
| 10 | 32.68° | 800 |
| 15 | 30.02° | 782 |
| 20 | 27.56° | 764 |
| 25 | 24.90° | 746 |
+-----------+-------------+----------+
Bolivia has only had one revolution in a quarter of a century, that
is, since the Constitution of 1880 was adopted. The revolution took
place in 1898, when General José M. Pando, the head of the army,
superseded President Alonso. It was not a very serious affair, and
the tranquillity of the country was not long disturbed. The foreign
interests favored the change, for the one issue was whether the
populous and progressive Department of La Paz should be held back
by the unprogressive sections of the country. Since then the Pando
policy has prevailed, and has been continued by President Ismael
Montes, who was elected as the candidate of the Liberal party with
many evidences of popular approval, and was inaugurated in August,
1904. Previous to that time he had been Secretary of War in Pando’s
cabinet. He has made the policy of railway and industrial development
the principal programme of his administration. Señor Villazon,
the Vice-President, was formerly Minister of Foreign Relations,
and his election was very satisfactory to the foreign interests.
Señor Fernando Guachalla, former minister to Washington and one of
the leaders of the Liberal party, is looked upon as a prospective
president. He has had wide experience in European diplomacy and in
conducting negotiations with neighboring South American Republics,
and enjoys an international reputation. His success at some future
election would be very satisfactory to the foreign interests.
[Illustration: Portrait of Ismael Montes, President of Bolivia]
The president is elected by popular suffrage, or, in case there
is no election by the voters, by the Congress. His term is for
four years. A body of 35,000 electors substantially constitutes
the political power of Bolivia. The vote for president in the last
three or four elections has varied little from these figures. The
Congress is composed of 16 senators and 72 deputies.
The country is divided into eight political divisions, called
departments. These are La Paz, Oruro, Beni, Santa Cruz, Potosi,
Chuquisaca, Tarija, and Cochabamba. There is also the national
territory of Colonias, which is of lessened importance since the
Acre district that was part of it has been yielded to Brazil. The
departments are subdivided into provinces, and these in turn into
cantons or counties. The administration is highly centralized. Each
department is governed by a prefect, the provinces by sub-prefects,
and the cantons by officials known as _corregidores_, or magistrates.
There are also _alcaldes_ in the municipal divisions known as the
vice-cantons. Municipal councils are elective, but the administrative
officials are named by the higher authorities.
The school system I thought, from observations in different
places, a creditable one. The country has 700 schools, with more
than a thousand teachers and with between 35,000 and 36,000 pupils.
It has 15 institutions called colleges, the pupils of which number
2,200. There is also the national university. President Montes hopes
to have an American school established as one of the measures of
his administration, and has been assured by Washington officials
of the coöperation of educators in the United States.
Bolivia now observes only one national holiday. This is the 6th
of August, the anniversary of independence from Spain. The Church
takes many days for its celebrations, and General Pando, when
he was President, thinking that they formed sufficient rest and
recreation for the population, abrogated various occasions which
were celebrated as national holidays.
The Bolivian legislation with regard to foreigners is satisfactory.
They enjoy all the civil rights of natives, and are not subject
to military service. They may acquire political privileges and be
naturalized after a year’s residence in the country. The recognition
of the rights of non-citizens with reference to mining claims is
quite specific in the revised mining code. Foreigners get along very
well in Bolivia, even in the remote localities, when they choose
to adapt themselves to their surroundings.
There is no prejudice against North Americans, who, in fact, are
preferred to Europeans. For a while Englishmen were not welcome,--it
was after one of the dictator presidents had set the English minister
on a donkey, with his back to the animal’s ears, and sent him out
of the country. Great Britain did not feel that she could afford to
land forces and cross the Andes in order to secure reparation for
the insult, but for many years thereafter she refrained from sending
a minister. Diplomatic relations, however, never were suspended,
because the interests of British citizens were looked after by the
ministers of the United States. In 1903 Great Britain accredited
Mr. Beauclerc, her minister to Ecuador and Peru, to Bolivia also.
He presented his credentials and was warmly received. The aggregate
of English investments in Bolivian mines is large. In 1905 Germany
accredited a minister to Bolivia.
The national revenues are derived from internal taxes and from both
export and import duties. The chief source of internal revenue
is alcohol, which is farmed out to a private company as in Peru.
Under this arrangement the government does much better than when it
itself undertook to collect the alcohol duties. As the export taxes
were on the minerals and on rubber, the low state to which they
fell during the world-wide depression of silver and copper is not
difficult to understand. The controversy with Brazil cut off almost
completely the returns from the rubber district. Now that source
of revenue is gone for good, yet there is enough rubber territory
left for Bolivia to expect a fair return from the domestic impost
and the export tax. With the revival of the mining industry, the
country may expect that the financial condition will improve, because
a small export tax on the various minerals will bring in a good
revenue. The weakness of the Bolivian fiscal resources, however,
comes from the nation’s isolated position without a seaport. Under
its treaties with Peru and Chile, their products, both natural and
manufactured, were admitted free of duty, but in 1905 Bolivia gave
notice of her intention to terminate the commercial arrangement
with Peru, this being a result of the convention with Chile for
railroad construction.
The international commercial movement shows a balance of trade in
favor of Bolivia. For a ten-year period, ending in 1905, the total
foreign commerce ranged from 34,000,000 to 54,000,000 _bolivianos_
annually. In a recent year the value of the exports was 25,170,000
_bolivianos_, and of the imports 16,253,000 _bolivianos_, or, on the
computation of 1 _boliviano_ as equal to 42.6 cents, $10,571,000
and $6,826,000, respectively. Germany and Great Britain have even
shares in the foreign commerce, but Germany’s advantage is in the
merchandise she exports to Bolivia. Sometimes the United States does
not appear in statistical abstracts as an exporter, but this is
because consular invoices are made out for the Peruvian and Chilean
ports through which the merchandise is entered. According to the
Bolivian figures, goods to the amount of $400,000 to $500,000 are
imported annually from the United States, but it is doubtful if
this is anything like the full sum. Railway enterprises carried on
by American capitalists would mean largely increased importations
of equipment, mining machinery, and merchandise.
The treaty between Bolivia and Chile which was ratified in 1905 and
put into effect, has a highly important commercial and industrial
significance. By its terms Bolivia formally yielded all claim to
the littoral, or coast strip of territory, which was taken from her
by Chile as a war indemnity in 1881. The principal feature of the
treaty is the agreement of Chile to construct at her own cost a
railway from the port of Arica to La Paz, the Bolivian section to
be transferred to Bolivia at the expiration of fifteen years from
the date of completion, Chile also giving Bolivia, in perpetuity,
free transit through Chile and the towns on the Pacific. Bolivia is
authorized to constitute customs agencies in the ports which may
be designated for her commerce. Under this treaty Chile further
agreed to pay to Bolivia a cash consideration of £300,000, and to
discharge various liabilities recognized by Bolivia for certain
claims both Chilean and American.
Another provision of the treaty is that Chile will pay the interest,
not exceeding 5 per cent, which Bolivia may guarantee on the capital
invested in the construction of railways from Uyuni to Potosi, Oruro
to La Paz, and via Cochabamba to Santa Cruz, La Paz to the region of
the Beni and Potosi via Sucre, and Lagunillas to Santa Cruz. It is
stipulated, however, that Chile shall not be required to disburse
more than £100,000 a year, that the aggregate disbursements shall
not exceed £1,600,000, and that the undertaking shall be void at
the end of thirty years. The terms of this guaranty are somewhat
indefinite, and their vagueness may give rise to controversy in the
future. The present, immediate, and prospective value of this treaty
to Bolivia is in securing a railway outlet from the interior to the
Pacific at Arica, and thus being assured of a commercial artery
which is bound to become a great highway of commerce. Its relation
to the Panama Canal through the port of Arica I have explained in
previous chapters.
In order that the country’s fiscal growth may keep pace with its
industrial and political development, the government has sought to
insure financial stability by recognizing the gold standard, somewhat
after the manner of Peru. An important step in this direction was
taken when, notwithstanding the silver production and the coinage
of the white metal by the national mint, a monetary commission was
created. This body matured a plan for the adoption of the gold
standard. The report was accepted and recommended by the government
to Congress at the Autumn session in 1904, and was enacted into
law.
The financial system of Bolivia, as fixed by this legislation, may
be said to be an approach to the gold standard. The basis of the
currency is the silver _boliviano_ of 25 grammes, 900 fine, and
supposed to equal 100 _centavos_, or cents. In United States terms
the _boliviano_ is equal to 42.6 cents. In a recent year 19,187,610
kilograms of silver were coined into 866,592 _bolivianos_. The law
of November, 1904, fixed the value of Bolivian silver currency in
terms of the English pound sterling. It declared that the pound
sterling, or English sovereign, should thenceforth have a cancelling
value of 12 _bolivianos_, 58 _centimes_; also that from January
1, 1905, 50 per cent of the customs duties should be paid in gold
coin at this rate, or, if a whole or part should be paid in silver,
this quota should be subject to a surcharge of 5 per cent. Amounts
less than one pound sterling may be paid in silver without being
subject to the surcharge. By this law the Executive was empowered
to suspend, should it become necessary, the mintage of silver
coin; the exportation of silver coin was declared free, and its
importation into the Republic was prohibited under the penalty of
confiscation.
This gold approach law apparently caused no inconvenience to domestic
trade, while it was a great help to Bolivia’s international commerce
and to her credit abroad.
In 1905 the outstanding issues of the four banks which had the
authority to emit notes was 9,144,000 _bolivianos_. The paid-up
capital of these banks was 7,350,000 _bolivianos_. German and
Chilean banks established branches in Bolivia in 1905. By a law
passed in November, 1904, an issue of bonds was made to the amount
of 2,000,000 _bolivianos_, to cover government obligations to the
banks. They bear 10 per cent interest, and the amortization, or
refunding, is to be at the rate of 6 per cent each year, 320,000
_bolivianos_ being included in the national budget for interest
and amortization.
The chapter is becoming long. The conclusion shall be short. The
treatment of the topics has been paragraphic. If it were not so,
further chapters would be necessary for the exposition of the
guiding motives of the Bolivian national policy. Much of it is as
yet only national aspiration. But the basis is industrial and,
therefore, sound. Bolivia shares with her West Coast neighbors the
stimulating influence of the Panama Canal. Its economic effect is
her industrial and commercial opportunity.
CHAPTER XXII
NEW BASIS OF THE MONROE DOCTRINE
_John Quincy Adams’ Advice--Canning’s Trade Statesmanship--Lack
of Industrial and Commercial Element--Excess of Benevolent
Impulse--Forgotten Chapters of the Doctrine’s History--The
Ecuador Episode--President Roosevelt’s Interpretation--Diplomatic
Declarations--Spectres of Territorial Absorption--Change
Caused by Cuba--Progress of South American Countries--European
Attitude on Economic Value of Latin America--German and
English Methods--Proximity of Markets to United States Trade
Centres--Conclusion._
When John Quincy Adams was Secretary of State, he issued instructions
to the minister accredited to Colombia after that country’s
recognition as an independent Republic. They related to the
negotiation of a commercial treaty with a single nation, but their
blunt advice might have been given to all Spanish America. “Let
Colombia,” wrote Secretary Adams, “look to commerce and navigation,
and not to empire.”
I have shown in the preceding chapters how the West Coast countries
are looking to navigation, and to the commerce that comes from
the railway which was undreamed when Secretary Adams issued his
instructions to the minister to Colombia. They have laid the bases
of industrial development in public works and private enterprise.
They have prepared the approach to financial stability which is
demonstrated by the adoption of the gold standard and the very
marked success of some of them in maintaining it. They have given
a hint of the possibility of refunding national obligations and of
the profitable employment of reproductive savings. They have sought
to induce the currents of immigration, which in the case of South
America never will rise with the phenomenal flood of the great
West, but which may be expected to grow in depth and movement. They
have given the proofs of political progress in the substitution of
civilian presidents, bankers and sugar-planters, for the old-time
military dictators, and they are working out their own destinies
after their own manner.
But what of the United States?
The United States, in its relations with South American countries
during the eighty years since the monitory words of John Quincy
Adams were written, has not dreamed of political empire, and,
unfortunately for its international prestige, has not looked to
trade dominion. The lack of a commercial and industrial basis for
the Monroe Doctrine never has been fully appreciated by the nation
which promulgated it and accepted the responsibility for maintaining
it, though some understanding of this defect has been felt in the
countries to which the Doctrine applies, and a keener realization
has been shown in Europe.
Canning, by patient and adroit manœuvres, was able to consolidate
the mercantile classes as a counter-irritant to the prejudices of
the English aristocracy, which sympathized with the Holy Alliance in
its war against republican institutions. His cold and calculating
intellect perceived that the commerce which Spain had monopolized
in her colonies was drifting to Great Britain as a result of their
revolt, and he was resolved that it should be held. The threat
was made to France that the independence of the colonies would be
recognized in case Spain should seek to restore her former monopoly
system and should attempt to stop the intercourse of England with
them. When the British trade instinct began to manifest itself, the
edifice of aristocratic intrigue crumbled. England supported the
United States in the recognition of the revolted Spanish colonies,
the Holy Alliance failed, and British merchants and manufacturers
sought the channels which Canning’s statesmanship had opened for
them. They never have ceased to follow those channels. Much later
came Germany. But the United States always has been indifferent.
If they gave the subject any thought, public men failed to grasp why
there was not invariably a warmer welcome to their promulgations,
and why the grateful South Americans did not buy more goods in the
United States. Now, sentiment alone does not bring trade. The Monroe
Doctrine, beneficent as it has been, at no period has caused the
sale of a dollar’s worth of merchandise in Southern markets. Nor in
their most benevolent and belligerent moods, when ready to fight all
Europe in behalf of some other Republic, have the North American
people ever ordered an extra ship’s cargo from these markets.
Fraternal sentiment does not change the currents of commerce, but
commerce sometimes strengthens brotherly relations. And in this
manner it will strengthen the Monroe principle by increasing the
material interests of the United States, which in the past have
been so immaterial in comparison with Europe. When they see and
come in contact with the concrete Yankee nation as represented
by trade and by industrial investments, the South Americans will
understand better what the Monroe Doctrine is and why it is. The
Panama Canal extends the responsibility of the United States. It
enlarges the commercial opportunity commensurate with the increased
responsibility, and the rest remains for the enterprise and the
initiative of the individual citizen.
Since these commercial and industrial elements cannot be entirely
divorced from political subjects and international policies, a
brief review of the Monroe Doctrine in its historic and political
aspect may be permitted.
Has national polity ever been more bragged about and less understood
than this Doctrine? It was dogma, creed for the American people, but
with the vaguest ideas of what it meant. Heretofore one fundamental
error has obtained in the United States,--an error which explains
why South America did not always welcome our paper assertions of
it. In the loose discussion and affirmation of the principle we
usually assumed that it was purely philanthropic, and that our
national benevolence was to be exerted solely for the good of the
weaker nations of the hemisphere,--an altruistic, even quixotic,
mission on our part. Internationally our motives are benevolent,
but the Monroe Doctrine was asserted in the first place for the
welfare and the self-protection of the United States. When John
Quincy Adams told Russia that the Western Hemisphere was not to be
used territorially for the extension of monarchical institutions,
he made the declaration for our own safety. When that official
pronouncement was applied to the Spanish colonies which lately had
secured their independence, the fear that the establishment of
kingships on this continent would threaten the United States was
what gave the declaration force as the will of the American people.
Protection of the neighboring infant Republics was secondary. The
United States was no more disinterested than was Canning in giving
effect to the will of British commercial interests rather than
to the prejudices of the British aristocracy against republican
government.
Nor were the revolted colonies themselves in that formative period
so averse to European alliances. Some of them began their republican
careers under dictatorships, but others turned to Europe. O’Higgins,
the liberator of Chile, would have had another viceroyalty with
a deputy monarch from some European Power. La Plata, which is
the Argentine Republic of to-day, sent the Rivadavia mission to
Europe to borrow some member of a reigning house. It was Canning’s
perception that the effort to maintain a balance of South American
power by lending European princes as rulers would only add to the
difficulties of preserving the European balance that caused the
Rivadavia mission to be discountenanced.
I recall this forgotten chapter of history very briefly in order
to show that in their infancy not all the South American countries
were averse to monarchical institutions, and that therefore the
objection by the United States to such institutions because of the
danger to itself was the more marked. The Monroe Doctrine in the
beginning was enlightened and necessary national selfishness, with
incidental benefit to the nations protected. It is only within the
last half-century, since Maximilian was overthrown in Mexico, that
the American people have learned they have nothing to fear from
kingdoms and empires in the New World, and it is during this period
that the Latin-American Republics have reaped the substantial and
most disinterested results of the original assertion of the policy
of the United States.
Nor has aggressive South American support of the Monroe Doctrine
been lacking. It was during the French occupation of Mexico that
the Peruvian Foreign Office invited an interchange of views and an
agreement on a general policy repudiating European interference.
Argentina and monarchical Brazil did not at that time join heartily
in the proposed concert of action, and Ecuador actually was trying
to consider herself under a French protectorate. A coterie of
individuals there had proposed an arrangement with Napoleon III,
the Dictator-President of Ecuador favored it, and the Emperor had
assumed that the protectorate was a fact. When a proposition was
made to incorporate Ecuadorian territory into Colombia, the French
minister at Bogota formally protested, under directions from his
government, that this could not be done, because France had paramount
interests of sovereignty in Ecuador. This episode is one of the
most interesting of all the forgotten chapters in the history of
the Monroe Doctrine.
In Chile in 1864, at the period of Maximilian’s attempted usurpation
of Mexico, the Chamber of Deputies passed a resolution asserting
the historic Doctrine.
The Monroe principle, as it has been interpreted by President
Roosevelt’s administration, has two phases. One was asserted quietly
and without calling out special comment. It was that no European
military power should be established within striking distance of
the American Continent. This assertion would apply to the Galapagos
Islands and to naval coaling-stations in the Caribbean.
The second phase, and the one which received more attention, was the
President’s declaration that the Doctrine was not to be used as a
shield to prevent the collection of just debts. This interpretation
sometimes has met with prompt acceptance, and sometimes has been
received with mild interrogation. The direct statement was given
most specific endorsement by the distinguished public man who has
had so much to do with shaping the policy of the United States in
recent years. This was in the address of Mr. Elihu Root, when, as
a private citizen, he proclaimed the rights of the United States
as a police power over the affairs of all other Republics on the
American Continent.[18] He was referring especially to claims and
international obligations, and the responsibility of the United
States for redressing wrongs. In substance this was not different
from Secretary Olney’s declaration during the administration of Mr.
Cleveland, that the United States is practically sovereign on this
continent, and its fiat is law upon the subject to which it finds
its interposition. At that time Lord Salisbury could find no support
in international law for the Monroe Doctrine, but Great Britain
afterward, for reasons affecting her policy in other parts of the
world, became willing to accept the Olney-Root interpretation, even
to the point of letting her holders of Latin-American bonds look to
the United States for the collection of their debts, though that
responsibility never has been accepted by the United States, and
never should be.
18 Annual dinner of the New England Society in New York, November,
1904.
Germany’s acquiescence in the Monroe Doctrine has not been so
complacent or so sudden, but this acquiescence may be accepted as
a fact. A statement was attributed to Baron von Sternberg, the
German Ambassador in Washington, that the Kaiser would not accept
territory within the Monroe Doctrine’s jurisdiction if brought to
him on a silver platter. An interview with Chancellor von Bülow,
published in a South American organ of German interests, was even
more positive.[19] “We know,” the Chancellor was quoted as saying,
“that commercial relations are cemented by peace and confidence....
We have absolutely no political aspiration in the New World, but
since we possess extensive industrial interests we desire to obtain
the greatest possible participation in South American commerce.”
19 _Deutsche La Plata Zeitung_, 1903.
While the declarations of diplomats sometimes may be accepted
with reservation, the conditions in South America are such that
no reason exists why their pronouncements with reference to the
Monroe Doctrine should not be given full force. Except as to debts
and debt collections, at most the question is an academic one and
has little practical bearing. In the matter of the international
obligations, while the American people approve President Roosevelt’s
position that the Doctrine shall not be construed to enable debtor
countries to avoid paying their just obligations, nevertheless in
practice probably they would expect the national administration
to question whether it is necessary for a European government to
occupy any portion of the territory of a Latin-American Republic
for debt collection.
The United States is justified in fearing that the repression shown
by the landing of troops for purposes of debt collection might
assume the form of indefinite territorial occupation by a Power not
American, and that would be acquisition. The actual circumstances
would have to be considered; but official disclaimers of such
intention might not be sufficient. Nor would the experience in the
reference of the Venezuela claims to The Hague Court be likely
to convince the American people that territorial occupation and
administration could be permitted pending the settlement of the
disputed questions.
The excessive timidity with which the United States Senate
approached the sane and sensible provision for a receivership in
Santo Domingo, which was a sure way of preventing this question of
European occupancy from arising, indicated that further education was
necessary before this perplexing phase of the Monroe Doctrine could
be assured of full support along the lines proposed by the national
administration. But speaking in terms of actuality rather than of
speculation, the perplexity relates chiefly to the West Indies, the
shores of the Caribbean, and possibly some of the Central American
countries. The West Coast republics, in their great industrial
strides and their immense advances toward financial and political
equilibrium, give little reason to expect that the question will
arise with reference to them.
The Venezuela imbroglio in its influence on South American sentiment
has to be understood in the light of the agitation which had been
going on for the abrogation of the Monroe Doctrine. This movement
had supporters in the United States as well as in Europe. The
argument was, that, since we had gone to the Philippines, and since
Europe had great interests in South America, we no longer had a
right to say to the European Powers that they should keep hands off.
Instead, they were to be told to carry out their colonizing aims,
which only could be successful by territorial acquisition. Until the
United States undertakes to exercise sovereignty on the European
Continent or along the Mediterranean, there can be no comparison.
And until the continental Powers adjust their balance of greedy and
mutually distrustful ambitions, so that the Balkan States may enjoy
the privileges of civilized government, their mission to civilize
South America and establish a balance there cannot be expected to
receive serious attention.
And let not the notion obtain that there can be a geographical
limitation of the responsibility of the United States. After the war
with Spain, when our new duties pressed heavily on us, the suggestion
was made that we might draw the line, say at the Equator, and that
we should not go farther afield. It was an impracticable suggestion,
and does not need discussion now. Having the isthmian canal to
protect, we could not, if we would, limit our responsibilities by
a line anywhere through South America.
Another aspect of the same subject may be considered in brief
space. This is the figment of territorial ambition and territorial
absorption on the part of the United States. It is a phantom to the
well-informed Northern mind, yet to the South American imagination
it is a spectre. In the Republic of Washington and Lincoln are two
classes. One talks vaguely on the Fourth of July, and other occasions
of national boasting and self-gratulation, about the destiny of
the rest of this hemisphere to become a territorial appanage of
the United States. The majority of these talkers have the vaguest
possible notion of the geography of the Southern Continent, of the
physical conditions, and of the political relations. If they knew
more, they would talk less. At home their outgivings receive little
attention, but in South America they are given undue importance,
and often distorted into supposed policies of the government.
The other class not only entertains no idea of territorial
absorption, but dreads the notion of the due and just exercise of
our influence. It looks on South America as a nest of revolutions
with which the United States should have nothing to do, ridicules
the possibilities of commerce, and professes disbelief in the
capacity for progress.
After the war with Spain, in Latin America the same idea was
entertained of the good faith of the United States that was held in
Europe. The belief was that in relation to Cuba it would be a case
not only of England in Egypt, but of outright annexation. This class
of prophets have not fully recovered from the staggering effect of
the withdrawal of the United States from Cuba. It made a deeper
impression in dissipating their jealousy and fear of the giant
Republic of the North than any of them were ready to admit. Yet I
have heard South American public men of the reactionary group, who
would have been loudest in condemning the United States for staying
in Cuba, and would have used it as an object lesson to terrify their
people with the shadow of the North American Colossus, seriously
argue that we should have remained, that annexation is inevitable,
and that this should have taken place at once instead of being
allowed to await the normal evolutionary process. My friend Don X,
whom I had known in Mexico, when I met him in Buenos Ayres pointed
out to me the errors of my own contention, that in getting out of
Cuba we had kept the national faith and had done our duty. “Cuba,”
he said, “belongs to you. You should have taken her. We would have
used it as an awful example against you, but we would have known
you were only doing what you had a right to do.”
Thus it appeared that the reactionary South Americans held it as
a grievance against the United States, that we did not give them
an example of overweening territorial ambition. But the proof that
we were not greedy permeated all classes; helped to convince the
intelligent population, and even the unintelligent mass, that there
could be such a thing as a nation with disinterested purposes, and
that nation the Yankee Republic.
The position of the United States with reference to absorption was
set forth so fully in the letter of Secretary Hay to Minister Leger
of Haiti, and this position was approved so fully by the American
people, that no further declaration is required.[20]
20
Department of State, February 9, 1905.
Dear Mr. Minister,--In answer to your inquiry made this morning,
it gives me pleasure to assure you that the government of the United
States of America has no intention of annexing either Haiti or Santo
Domingo, and no desire of acquiring possession of them, either by
force or by negotiations, and that, even if the citizens of either
of these republics should solicit incorporation into the American
Union, there would be no inclination on the part of the national
government, nor in the sphere of public opinion, to agree to any
such proposal. Our interests are in harmony with our sentiments in
wishing you only continued peace, prosperity, and independence.
Very sincerely yours, JOHN HAY.
Mr. J. N. LEGER, &c.
That the attitude of the United States is better understood and
better appreciated in the farthest countries of South America was
shown during the presidential campaign of 1904, in an article on the
views of the two candidates, which was published by an influential
Chilean paper.[21]
21 “In reality, it is to the interests of the United States that
the South American Republics should look up to them as their best
friend, so that they may gradually open their markets to the enormous
products of North America, and that the overflow capital of the
great Republic may find good investments, so that they may hope
some day to expel entirely European capital. All violent measures
which may bring forth the distrust of South Americans and European
intervention are entirely against the best interests of the United
States, and would be considered in that country a great political
blunder and an attempt against its economic development.”--_El
Mercurio, Santiago._
In considering the economic effect of the Canal on the West Coast
countries it has not been my thought to discuss in detail its
political influence. Moral influence is the better term. This is one
of the great forces that counts in their industrial development. The
United States is on the Isthmus. It is there to stay for all time.
Its presence, rightly understood, gives no support to those who
dream of territorial aggrandizement, or to the other class who see
spectres and have nightmares. But its authority, fully established
in the control of the Canal Zone, does give assurance of increased
stability to the various governments, and this stability is the
greatest inducement that they can offer to the investment of foreign
capital. The Monroe Doctrine became automatic from the ownership of
the interoceanic waterway by the United States; yet the influence
on the Pacific coast countries will be even more beneficial in
relation to their internal affairs than with reference to their
protection from possible European aggression. What is needed is
for the Fourth of July orator who ignorantly hints at territorial
absorption, either to inform himself on the subject and to understand
how the Panama Canal becomes the greatest factor in enabling the
Spanish-American Republics to work out their own destinies, or else
for him to confine his ambitious dreams to Canada. Let Canada be
his theme, while Latin America solves her own problems.
In the analysis of the South American countries credit should be
given them for what they have accomplished and are accomplishing
among themselves. A very competent observer in an exhaustive volume
has noted the change in the Spanish character in the South American
countries, the modifying influence of environment, and the growth
of the constructive element.[22]
22 Charles E. Akers, _South America, 1854-1904_, London, 1904.
It may be said that every boundary dispute is either settled or
in process of settlement. The inheritance of these controversies
from the Spanish and Portuguese colonial epochs was a grievous one,
because in the vast interior regions it was impossible to have
positive knowledge of the limits. The doctrine of _uti possidetis_
was wittily translated by a Spanish diplomat as meaning that the
territorial possession of the discovering nation extended from the
coast as far as the eye could not see, to whatever frontier the
discoverer could imagine. But no serious difficulties have arisen
over the application of this principle. The respective parties
in interest are settling these border disputes without going to
war. All the boundaries will be delimited before the interoceanic
waterway is completed.
Their limits fixed beyond dispute, the question of the permanent
relation of the countries to one another becomes important. South
America for South Americans is a wholesome doctrine, so long as they
are willing to work in their respective spheres for the advancement
of the whole continent. As some of their writers have pointed out,
it never can mean a continental alliance.
While much is made at times of the distrust of the United States, a
state of mind which is disappearing, it is usually overlooked that
there is just as much distrust of one another among themselves.
Though it cannot be said that racial antipathies exist, there are
national jealousies. The little Republics fear the big ones. When
the talk was loudest about an alliance of Chile, Argentina, and
Brazil, the other South American commonwealths refused to believe
that such an agreement would not mean their own destruction. At least
one of them caused representations to be made to Washington, asking
whether it could not be taken under a United States protectorate.
And it was a far-away Atlantic coast country, too. The smaller and
weaker nations feel that, like the fowl in Voltaire’s fable, they
might express their preference as to how they should be carved up,
but in objecting to be carved up at all they would be told they
wandered from the question.
There is really only one acute South American question, which is
that between Chile and Peru relative to Tacna-Arica, and since it
does not enter into the economic conditions of political progress
I omit its discussion here.
In the European attitude with regard to the commercial and industrial
bases of the Monroe Doctrine has been much that is both grotesque
and humorous. But at the bottom of it all is the full appreciation
of the economic value of Latin America. France frequently chides
herself for her failure to profit more by the moral influence of
Latin ideas and literature on the neo-Latin countries. “We know,”
wrote one authority,[23] “the grand scheme of economic absorption
of the Latin Republics by the imperialism and the industrialism of
the North.”
23 _La Vie Latine_, Paris, 1904.
The imperialism may be dismissed, but the industrialism of the
United States, when it once ventures into South America and becomes
rooted, is worthy of the attention which European economists give
it.
Though Germany and Great Britain are engaged in a ceaseless struggle
for supremacy, the French writer bewailed the Anglo-Teutonic
commercial movement as if it were a joint one. He proposed
Latin-American leagues; the Spanish moral and economic re-conquest
of the colonial empire with the aid of France; a kind of family
pact, Hispano-Americanism as opposed to Pan-Americanism or
Germanic-Anglicism. On their side the Germans complain of the loss
of German prestige in South America, and some of their writers
advocate a European trade combination against the Yankee invasion of
the Southern Continent, just as a similar combination is proposed
in Europe. Each nation in the international trust would expect to
get the lion’s share of the benefit. John Bull occasionally has a
tearful period of brotherly affection, and asks Uncle Sam to poke
his long fingers into the hot coals where the English walnut has
been dropped.
With regard to these suggestions it may be said that in international
commerce racial affinity counts for as little as do sentimental ties.
The presence of English, German, or French capitalists and immigrants
in any foreign country naturally draws some home trade, but this
has little influence on the general volume. European colonization
of South America need not mean Europeanizing it commercially any
more than politically. In spite of the large German colonies in
southern Brazil, Germany lost commerce with that nation, while she
gained it with other South American countries. It is often remarked
that much of Germany’s profitable traffic is with British colonies.
In an analysis of European interests in South America it is necessary
to distinguish between the securities or various forms of national
debts and the actual investments in trade and industry, including
railways and mines. While the statisticians vary widely in their
estimates, it is reasonable to conclude, from an examination of the
leading ones, that Great Britain has $2,000,000,000 in South American
investments, of which $300,000,000 to $350,000,000 may be assigned
the West Coast; Germany has from $475,000,000 to $500,000,000,
with possibly $150,000,000 in the Pacific countries; and France,
with about the same amount, has West Coast investments reaching
$100,000,000, her Chilean holdings amounting to $42,000,000.
The relative characteristics of the two principal European
competitors in South America are very marked. The Germans are slow,
cautious, persistent; taking few pioneering risks, but always on the
ground, filching markets and industries on a thoroughly scientific
system. They are very largely in the commission trade and in banking.
It may be said without injustice, that, in proportion to the amount
of actual capital risked, Germany has contributed the smallest share
of all the leading European nations to South American development,
and has done least for industrial projects.
Great Britain on her part has gone in with her capital, roystering
and swaggering, and always has blundered boldly and courageously.
The personnel of her enterprises has been honeycombed with younger
sons, dependants of the London directors, and the whole class of
inefficient parasites which clog the administration of English
industrial undertakings abroad. Her capitalists have built railroads
in the mountains, where the tropical torrents require enormous
resisting works, just as though they were constructing lines across
the plains of India or from London to Liverpool. The stolid and
dogged British investor has paid for it all, and has kept on pouring
more money into these enterprises. So it came that he floundered
into the untold wealth of the Peruvian guanos, stumbled into the
nitrates with their incalculable riches, drifted into the golden
stream of mining lotteries, and even fell upon fortunate and
undeserved surprises in the way of profitable railway projects; while
the expansion of his banking facilities, sometimes undertaken with
a recklessness that would paralyze conservative bankers, brought
him returns that justified further plunges into doubtful financial
enterprises. As a whole, this blundering, or even stupid, English
policy of investments has paid pretty regular dividends,--in all
probability greater in proportion to the capital than the timid
and over-cautious German investor has received. When the United
States fully appreciates the field which the Panama Canal opens on
the West Coast of South America, her captains of industry will be
as bold as the Britishers, but not so recklessly stupid, in their
preliminary plunges.
These observations bring the subject back to the point that
in international rivalry the country does best that meets its
competitors on the vantage ground of better and cheaper goods, rather
than by dependence on racial sympathy or fraternal sentiment. The
great point for the United States is the very marked advantage in
which it is placed with reference to the West Coast countries of
South America by the Canal. The trade centres of the Eastern States
and of the Mississippi Valley will front on the Pacific, as they
now front on the Atlantic and the Caribbean. Proximity of markets
is a clear gain, and it will help the commerce of the United States
to adventure abroad. In that sense, for a section of South America
it definitely enlarges the commercial basis of the Monroe Doctrine.
But proximity alone is not enough. The United States enjoys no
extensive barter with the Caribbean countries, notwithstanding
their nearness. Brazil and Argentina are as close to Europe as to
the United States. The need of expanding the home market will be
stronger in the future, and when that is felt more keenly the north
and south trade-wave will deepen its channel.
Always there will be resourceful, persistent competition. The
Pacific coast does not become a _mare clausum_. The United States
would not and could not make it a closed sea. The foreign commerce
of South America is approximating $1,000,000,000. Of this amount
relatively $600,000,000 is exports and $400,000,000 imports. The
ratio of the West Coast to the entire continent is about 25 per cent;
that is, on the basis of $1,000,000,000 it will have $250,000,000
foreign commerce. The United States is in this trade to the amount
of $175,000,000. In one year its exports were $53,000,000 and its
imports $140,000,000. The disproportionate balance was caused
largely by the coffee and rubber imports from Brazil. But on the
West Coast the balance is in its favor.
I have written this chapter as though the admonition of John Quincy
Adams had been addressed to my own country instead of to another
commonwealth. But it again may be said that empire is not the
national thought of the United States, and lust of territorial
dominion is not a serious malady with the strongest South American
republics. Commerce and navigation are based on agricultural and
industrial development. The interoceanic waterway renders certain
the permanent influence of United States capital on the industrial
and commercial life of its southern neighbors. It is for them
to reap the larger benefit in the increased development of the
national resources and the more stable political institutions. Some
of them chafe under the implication that the Monroe Doctrine will
be necessary in the future, and view it as a shadow rather than a
shield. The new basis, the economic basis, of that doctrine which
is provided by the Panama Canal furnishes the foundation on which
its evolution may begin, so that they may get out from under the
shadow while enjoying the sheltering protection of the shield.
The lessons in physical and commercial geography embraced in these
chapters have shown that the geographical sphere of the Canal
includes the Amazon basins, the Argentine wheat plains, and the
Andes treasure box of mines from Panama to Patagonia. They have
shown how railroad progress is crowding mule-trail civilization,
how the arteries of trade are lengthening, how fresh commercial
currents are developing, how the new industrial life is unfolding,
and how the problems in the political conditions of the Western
Hemisphere are being solved. They give promise of the deferred
realization of Henry Clay’s population prophecy. Finally, they bid
the citizen of the United States to look out from the windows of
his own self-contained nation down the South American Canal line,
and, accepting the responsibility which that grand enterprise has
brought, to share in the opportunity which it has created for
contributing to the civilization that comes through the spread of
commerce and industry.
APPENDIX
_The relation of the Panama Canal to ocean transportation routes is
best exhibited in the painstaking tables prepared by the Hydrographic
Office of the United States Navy. These show, in terms of nautical
miles, the comparative distances, which are as follows_:
WEST COASTS OF NORTH AND SOUTH AMERICA
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------+
|San Francisco |
| |Monterey |
| | |Santa Barbara |
| | | |San Diego |
| | | | |San Blas |
| | | | | |Guaymas |
| | | | | | |Acapulco |
| | | | | | | |Salina Cruz |
| | | | | | | | |San José |
| | | | | | | | | |Corinto |
+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+-----------------------+
| 0| 90| 295| 451|1430|1510|1836|2189|2446|2671| San Francisco |
| | 0| 220| 376|1355|1435|1805|2124|2371|2596| Monterey |
| | | 0| 164|1166|1246|1616|1935|2182|2407| Santa Barbara |
| | | | 0| 843| 923|1493|1812|2059|2284| San Diego |
| | | | | 0| 500| 520| 780|1074|1310| San Blas |
| | | | | | 0| 954|1251|1508|1774| Guaymas |
| | | | | | | 0| 300| 563| 799| Acapulco |
| | | | | | | | 0| 291| 529| Salina Cruz |
| | | | | | | | | 0| 238| San José |
| | | | | | | | | | 0| Corinto |
+====+====+====+====+====+====+====+====+====+====+=======================+
|Puntarenas (Costa Rica) |
| |Panama |
| | |Esmeraldas |
| | | |Guayaquil |
| | | | |Paita |
| | | | | |Pacasmayo |
| | | | | | |Callao |
| | | | | | | |Pisco |
| | | | | | | | |Islay (Mollendo) |
| | | | | | | | | |Arica |
+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+-----------------------+
|2916|3277|3395|3608|3552|3709|4012|4115|4451|4579| San Francisco |
|2841|3227|3320|3528|3477|3634|3937|4040|4376|4504| Monterey |
|2652|3038|3131|3339|3288|3445|3748|3851|4187|4315| Santa Barbara |
|2529|2965|3008|3216|3165|3322|3635|3728|4064|4196| San Diego |
|1534|1948|2033|2254|2210|2374|2680|2784|3126|3254| San Blas |
|1968|2382|2467|2668|2644|2808|3114|3218|3560|3688| Guaymas |
|1023|1437|1532|1762|1720|1889|2189|2303|2647|2775| Acapulco |
| 765|1160|1302|1538|1535|1615|1989|2109|2317|2493| Salina Cruz |
| 474| 888|1026|1298|1281|1453|1759|1871|2193|2354| San José |
| 284| 698| 830|1130|1126|1302|1608|1720|2042|2203| Corinto |
| 0| 490| 640| 947| 948|1125|1431|1543|1866|2026| Puntarenas |
| | 0| 475| 842| 849|1031|1337|1449|1771|1932| Panama |
| | | 0| 409| 416| 600| 906|1018|1340|1501| Esmeraldas |
| | | | 0| 226| 415| 721| 833|1155|1316| Guayaquil |
| | | | | 0| 200| 506| 618| 940|1101| Paita |
| | | | | | 0| 316| 430| 754| 913| Pacasmayo |
| | | | | | | 0| 127| 452| 622| Callao |
| | | | | | | | 0| 335| 511| Pisco |
| | | | | | | | | 0| 139| Islay (Mollendo) |
| | | | | | | | | | 0| Arica |
+====+====+====+====+====+====+====+====+====+====+=======================+
|Iquique |
| |Antofagasta |
| | |Copiapo |
| | | |Coquimbo |
| | | | |Valparaiso |
| | | | | |Talcahuano (Concepcion B.) |
| | | | | | |Lota (Concepcion B.) |
| | | | | | | |Valdivia |
| | | | | | | | |Punta Arenas |
| | | | | | | | | (Sandy Pt., Chile) |
+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----------------------------+
|4645|4770|4885|5036|5140|5272|5287|5410|6199| San Francisco |
|4570|4695|4802|4964|5065|5197|5212|5335|6124| Monterey |
|4381|4506|4620|4745|4870|5002|5017|5142|5945| Santa Barbara |
|4258|4368|4501|4626|4747|4879|4894|5019|5822| San Diego |
|3321|3444|3582|3713|3724|3993|4008|4139|4976| San Blas |
|3755|3878|4016|4147|4285|4427|4442|4573|5410| Guaymas |
|2842|2973|3113|3253|3398|3554|3569|3708|4580| Acapulco |
|2688|2794|2966|3086|3254|3412|3424|3566|4510| Salina Cruz |
|2421|2550|2704|2864|3224|3203|3218|3378|4295| San José |
|2270|2399|2553|2713|2879|3069|3084|3255|4186| Corinto |
|2093|2222|2376|2538|2702|2894|2909|3071|4019| Puntarenas |
|1999|2128|2282|2444|2608|2801|2816|2979|3932| Panama |
|1568|1697|1851|2013|2177|2370|2385|2548|3501| Esmeraldas |
|1383|1512|1666|1828|1992|2185|2200|2363|3316| Guayaquil |
|1168|1297|1451|1613|1777|1970|1985|2148|3101| Paita |
| 990|1109|1267|1442|1608|1808|1823|1987|2949| Pacasmayo |
| 689| 807| 965|1139|1309|1514|1529|1697|2666| Callao |
| 578| 703| 861|1033|1204|1413|1428|1597|2550| Pisco |
| 222| 428| 604| 790| 967|1196|1211|1384|2370| Islay (Mollendo) |
| 110| 323| 538| 697| 881|1102|1129|1301|2294| Arica |
| 0| 222| 437| 600| 784|1005|1032|1204|2185| Iquique |
| | 0| 229| 392| 576| 797| 824| 996|1981| Antofagasta |
| | | 0| 179| 361| 582| 609| 781|1705| Copiapo |
| | | | 0| 198| 426| 450| 623|1613| Coquimbo |
| | | | | 0| 240| 266| 437|1425| Valparaiso |
| | | | | | 0| 39| 222|1210| Talcahuano} Concepcion |
| | | | | | | 0| 207|1194| Lota } Bay |
| | | | | | | | 0 |1011| Valdivia |
| | | | | | | | | 0| Punta Arenas |
| | | | | | | | | | (Sandy Pt., Chile) |
+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----------------------------+
EAST COASTS OF NORTH AND SOUTH AMERICA
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------+
|New York |
| |Portland |
| | |Boston |
| | | |Quebec |
| | | | |Halifax |
| | | | | |Charlottetown, P. E. I. |
| | | | | | |Philadelphia |
| | | | | | | |Baltimore |
| | | | | | | | |Newport News |
| | | | | | | | | |Charleston |
| | | | | | | | | | |Savannah |
| | | | | | | | | | | |Bermuda |
+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+-------------+
| 0| 362| 300|1404| 581| 828| 229| 404| 281| 629| 699| 676| New York |
| | 0| 111|1161| 343| 575| 529| 693| 567| 901| 971| 739| Portland |
| | | 0|1205| 383| 627| 477| 641| 515| 849| 919| 696| Boston |
| | | | 0| 861| 570|1558|1739|1613|1904|1978|1505| Quebec |
| | | | | 0| 273| 735| 836| 710|1077|1147| 758| Halifax |
| | | | | | 0| 982|1137|1011|1323|1393| 852| Charlottet’n|
| | | | | | | 0| 355| 229| 594| 664| 729| Philadelphia|
| | | | | | | | 0| 156| 550| 620| 759| Baltimore |
| | | | | | | | | 0| 424| 494| 633| Newport News|
| | | | | | | | | | 0| 88| 816| Charleston |
| | | | | | | | | | | 0| 830| Savannah |
| | | | | | | | | | | | 0| Bermuda |
+====+====+====+====+====+====+====+====+====+====+====+====+=============+
|Key West |
| |Habana |
| | |Saint Thomas |
| | | |Port Castries |
| | | | |Demerara |
| | | | | |Pernambuco |
| | | | | | |Bahia |
| | | | | | | |Rio de Janeiro |
| | | | | | | | |Montevideo |
| | | | | | | | | |Buenos Ayres |
| | | | | | | | | | |Punta Arenas |
| | | | | | | | | | | (Sandy Point) |
+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+------------------+
|1171|1215|1428|1746|2209|3696|4096|4778|5768|5868|6890| New York |
|1400|1444|1562|1853|2289|3701|4101|4783|5773|5873|6895| Portland |
|1348|1392|1516|1808|2253|3666|4066|4748|5738|5838|6860| Boston |
|2377|2421|2340|2574|2935|4171|4571|5253|6243|6343|7365| Quebec |
|1568|1612|1613|1873|2279|3575|3975|4657|5647|5747|6769| Halifax |
|1807|1851|1790|2028|2437|3662|4062|4744|5734|5834|6856| Charlottetown |
|1093|1137|1437|1762|2225|3746|4146|4828|5818|5918|6940| Philadelphia |
|1049|1093|1414|1743|2204|3758|4158|4840|5830|5930|6952| Baltimore |
| 923| 967|1287|1617|2086|3622|4003|4780|5750|5853|6826| Newport News |
| 598| 642|1194|1554|1984|3631|4031|4713|5703|5803|6825| Charleston |
| 569| 613|1212|1566|2202|3660|4060|4742|5732|5832|6854| Savannah |
|1090|1141| 853|1134|1724|3037|3437|4119|5109|5209|6231| Bermuda |
| 0| 90|1040|1360|1797|3814|4214|4896|5886|5986|7008| Key West |
| | 0|1019|1360|1869|3509|3909|4591|5581|6681|6703| Habana |
| | | 0| 346| 802|2469|2869|3551|4541|4641|5663| Saint Thomas |
| | | | 0| 461|2155|2555|3237|4227|4327|5349| Port Castries |
| | | | | 0|1788|2188|2870|3860|3960|4986| Demerara |
| | | | | | 0| 400|1100|2065|2183|3340| Pernambuco |
| | | | | | | 0| 745|1717|1835|2992| Bahia |
| | | | | | | | 0|1056|1162|2228| Rio de Janeiro |
| | | | | | | | | 0| 104|1312| Montevideo |
| | | | | | | | | | 0|1386| Buenos Ayres |
| | | | | | | | | | | 0| Punta Arenas |
| | | | | | | | | | | | (Sandy Point) |
+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+------------------+
DISTANT PORTS
+------------------------+------------------------------------------------+
| | By Cape of Good Hope |
| |-------+-------+-------+-------+----------------+
| |Full powered steam vessels |
| | |Auxiliary steam N. E. monsoon |
| Ports | | |Auxiliary steam S. W. monsoon |
| | | | |Sail alone N. E. monsoon|
| | | | | |Sail alone |
| | | | | | S. W. monsoon |
+------------------------+-------+-------+-------+-------+----------------+
| New York to Bombay | 11250 | 12670 | 11820 | 13310 | 12460 |
| “ “ “ Colombo | 10950 | 11730 | 11730 | 12370 | 12260 |
| “ “ “ Calcutta | 12180 | 13710 | 13140 | 14390 | 13780 |
| “ “ “ Singapore | 12150 | 12850 | 13120 | 13490 | 13760 |
| “ “ “ Hongkong | 13590 | 14750 | 14560 | 15430 | 15200 |
| “ “ “ Shanghai | 14340 | 15560 | 15370 | 16510 | 16010 |
| “ “ “ Yokohama | 15020 | 16450 | 16120 | 16900 | 16760 |
| “ “ “ Melbourne | 12670 | 12840 | 12840 | 13480 | 13480 |
| “ “ “ Sydney | 13140 | 13310 | 13310 | 13950 | 13950 |
| “ “ “ Wellington | 13710 | 14240 | 14240 | 14880 | 14880 |
+========================+=======+=======+=======+=======+====+===========+
| | | By |
| | By Suez Canal | Panama |
| +-----------+-----------+------------+-----------+
| | Auxiliary | Auxiliary |Full powered| Full |
| Ports |steam N. E.|steam S. W.| steam | powered |
| | monsoon | monsoon | vessels | steam |
+------------------------+-----------+-----------+------------+-----------+
| New York to Bombay | 8370 | 8120 | 8120 | 15130 |
| “ “ “ Colombo | 8610 | 8610 | 8610 | 14230 |
| “ “ “ Calcutta | 10460 | 9830 | 9830 | 14300 |
| “ “ “ Singapore | 10170 | 10170 | 10170 | 12670 |
| “ “ “ Hongkong | 12110 | 11610 | 11610 | 11260 |
| “ “ “ Shanghai | 12920 | 12410 | 12360 | 10720 |
| “ “ “ Yokohama | 13820 | 13160 | 13040 | 9670 |
| “ “ “ Melbourne | 15030 | 15010 | 12790 | 10020 |
| “ “ “ Sydney | 14480 | 14460 | 13320 | 9710 |
| “ “ “ Wellington | 15680 | 15660 | 14230 | 8530 |
+========================+===========+===========+============+===========+
| | By Magellan | By Cape | By |
| | Strait | Horn | Panama |
| +------------+----------+------------+-----------+
| |Full powered|Auxiliary | Sailing | Full |
| | steam | steam | vessels | powered |
| Ports | vessels | vessels | | steam |
| | | | | vessels |
|------------------------+------------+----------+------------+-----------+
|Melbourne to New York| 12880 | 13120 | 13760 | 10020 |
|Sydney “ “ “ | 12700 | 13050 | 13750 | 9710 |
|Wellington “ “ “ | 11500 | 11850 | 12550 | 8530 |
|Valparaiso “ “ “ | 8460 | 8680 | 9400 | 4640 |
|S. Francisco “ “ “ | 13090 | 14670 | 15420 | 5300 |
|Esquimalt “ “ “ | 13840 | 15330 | 16060 | 6080 |
|Honolulu “ “ “ | 13200 | 14170 | 14970 | 6690 |
|New York to Valparaiso | 8315 | 9130 | 9420 | 4640 |
| “ “ “ S. Francisco| 13090 | 15350 | 15660 | 5300 |
| “ “ “ Esquimalt | 13920 | 15980 | 16290 | 6080 |
| “ “ “ Honolulu | 13200 | 14650 | 15480 | 6690 |
+========================+============+==========+============+===========+
INDEX
Aconcagua, Mt., 201
Aconcagua River valley, 201
Acorta, Señor, first vice-president of Peru, 1903, 169
Acre rubber territory, 136, 327, 328, 333, 336, 344, 346
Adams, John Quincy, his advice to Colombia, 351;
and the Monroe Doctrine, 354
Advertising, Chilean, 202, 204
Agassiz, 2
Agriculture, factor in growth of population, 8;
“cultivation in the clouds,” 67, 68;
development in Peru, 124-130, 134-136, 146, 147, 154, 158-161;
in Chile, 262-266;
in Bolivia, 307, 327-330, 341, 342
_Aguacate_, or alligator pear, 28, 29
_Aguardiente_, or cane rum, 27, 128
Akers, Charles E., 364
Alameda de las Delicias, Santiago, 204, 205
Alausi, Ecuador, 65
Alcohol, thirst of Indians for, 27, 121, 308;
by-product of sugar, 128;
injurious to Indians, 156;
source of revenue, 176, 346;
a possible excuse for its use, 295
Alfaro, ----, former president of Ecuador, 71
Alligator pear, 28, 29, 86
_Almirante Barroso_, Brazilian warship, 189
_Almuerzo_, mid-day breakfast, 27
Alpaca wools, 116
Altiplanicie, or Great Central Plateau, 279, 297
Alzamora, Dr. Isaac, former vice-president of Peru, 96
Amachuma, Bolivia, 293
Amazonian, commerce affected by Canal, 6, 78;
outlet to coast, 120, 137-139, 141, 142, 145, 147, 179, 335;
railroad extension into Amazon country, 140;
Pichis road opened, 143
Ambato, on Guayaquil and Quito Railroad, 69
Americans, in Canal Zone, 53-56;
as railway builders in Ecuador, 65, 66;
builders of jetty at Pacasmayo, 79;
in Peruvian railway projects, 80, 106, 147, 159;
in silver mines, 107, 131, 132;
at Arequipa, 117;
composing Inca Company, 119;
irrigating Piura district, 125;
relations with local authorities, 175;
in Iquique, 185;
project a bank in Valparaiso, 270;
resident at La Paz, 312;
syndicates interested in Corocoro mines, 322;
miners at Tipuani placers, 323;
projected American school, 345;
not unwelcome in Bolivia, 345;
advantages from Americans’ investments, 347
Amotope district, Peru, oil-producing, 131
Ancachs, Department of, mineral wealth, 130, 133
Ancon, Mt., 45
Ancon, Port of, 46, 82, 83, 125
Andes, 4, 6, 79, 81, 100, 118, 123, 130, 262, 269, 280, 321
_Otherwise called_ Cordilleras
Angaraes district, Peru, gold-producing, 132
Angostura de Paine, narrowest part of central valley, 263, 283
Annexes to hotels, 31
Anona, _same as_ Cheremoya
Antarctic current, _see_ Humboldt current
Antofagasta, distance from Panama, 12;
commerce, 15;
bad harbor, 86;
sketch of, 187;
copper output, 228;
silver in district, 230;
town seen from hills, 293
Apilla-pampa coal district, 326
Apurimac River valley, southern Peru, 128
Arana, surveys and explorations of, 142
Araucanian Indian stock, 251, 252
Arequipa, capital of southern Peru, 109, 110, 114-117;
district is gold-producing, 132;
sulphur-producing, 133
_Arequipa_, lost in Valparaiso harbor, 191
Argentine, 5, 6, 8, 9
Arica, distance from Panama, 12;
minerals exported from, 16;
vicuña rug industry, 122;
sketch of, 180-182;
export port for Chilcaya borax, 326
Army life, effect on native conscripts, 156;
the Chilean roto in the army, 254
Aspinwall, William H., statue to, 39
Asta-Barragua, Mr. George, 241
Athletic sports popular in Santiago, 213
Aullogas silver deposit, 318
Avenida, or Avenue Brazil, Valparaiso, 190
_Avocat_, or alligator pear, 28
Aymará Indians and dialect, 154, 252, 302, 304, 307, 311, 338-340
Aymaraes district, Peru, gold-producing, 132
Ayoayo, Bolivia, 305
Bacon, Francis, on sea voyages, 59
Baggage, care of, 31
Bailey, Professor, director of Harvard astronomical observatory,
117
Balboa crossed Isthmus, 41
Balmaceda, José Manuel, former Chilean president, 236, 237, 243,
246
_Balsas_, or house rafts, 61, 121
Banks and banking, 34, 72, 99, 177, 178, 256, 270, 274-276, 368
Barandiaran, surveys and explorations of, 142
Beauclerc, Mr., English minister to Bolivia, 346
Beer, 26
Beet-root industry, 265
Beggar and political chiefs, incident concerning, 165
Bello, Andre, author of Chilean Civil Code, 206
Beni, territory at head-waters of, 327, 335, 344, 348
Bertrand, Mr. Alejandro, civil engineer, 215
Birds, on the coast, 79;
in a treeless country, 288, 292
Birth and death rates, in Lima, 100;
in Peru, 152, 157;
in Chile, 252, 256-258;
in Bolivia, 310
Bismuth production of Bolivia, 325
Black Mountain Peak, on Central Railway, 103
Blaine, Secretary, concerned in Galapagos Islands negotiations, 71
Boer colonies in South America, 273
Bogota, pure Spanish spoken, 24
Bolivia, relation to Canal, 2, 3;
population, 4;
commerce, 15, 16, 86, 88;
customs, 27;
market for Peruvian goods, 126, 128;
railroad building, 141, 187;
natives, 156;
shipping points, 187, 188;
description, 278-350
_Boliviano_, United States and English equivalents, 316, 317, 323,
347, 349
Boll weevil, Peruvian cotton free from, 126
Borax deposits, 132, 325
Brandy, Pisco, 85
Brazil, (tropical) coffee trade, 8;
(temperate) cattle and wheat industries, 8;
boundary disputes, 136, 146;
coffee product, 161, 328;
controversy over Acre rubber territory, 327, 333
Bronze in Chorolque district, Bolivia, 320
Bryce, Professor James, 164
Buenaventura, 59
Bull-fight, at Lima, 95;
abolished in Chile, 213
Bulnes, General Manuel, former Chilean president, 233
Business-letter, the terse English, 23
_Caballitos_, or grass canoes, 79
_Cabildo_ of Quito, resolution adopted by, 66
Cacao, or chocolate, Ecuador’s production of, 63
Caceres, President, his plans concerning central highway, 143, 170
Cachipuscana, Lake, 118
Cailloma district, Peru, silver-producing, 132
_Caja de Ahorros_, or Savings Bank, Santiago, 256
Cajamarca, 80, 132
Calamarca, 306
Calancha, Friar, concerning the South Sea and the Southern Cross,
57
Calca district, Peru, iron production, 133
Calchas, Bolivia, copper deposits, 322
Caldera, 5, 188
Calderon, Mr. and Mrs. Ignacio, of La Paz, 312
Calderon, Señor Manuel Alvarez, Peruvian minister to Washington,
1903, 169
Calderon, Señor Serapio, second vice-president of Peru, 169
Caledonian cross-cut channel projected, 42
Caleta Buena, 222
_Caliche_, nitrate layer, 220
Callao, 6, 12-14, 83, 84
Camache, suburb of Iquique, 185
Camana district, Peru, copper-producing, 132;
sulphur beds, 133
Campaign humor, instance of, 240, 241
Campana, J. J., of Iquique, 219
Canal Commission, 52
Canal Zone, 18, 19, 37-56, 364;
_see_ Panama, Isthmus of
Candamo, Señor Miguel, late president of Peru, 166-172
Cane rum, or _aguardiente_, 27, 128
Cangallo district, Peru, sulphur beds, 133
Canning, George, the statesman, 352, 355
Canta district, Peru, coal deposits, 133
Cape Pillar, 197
Capelo, Joaquin, Peruvian engineer of central highway, 143
Capopo district, copper mines in, 228
Carabaya, Province of, gold mines developed by Americans, 119, 120,
132
Caracas, Bay of, 60
Caracoles silver mines, 230
Caracollo, Bolivia, 302
Casapalca smelting-works on Central Railway of Peru, 103
Castilla, Joaquin, Peruvian patriot, 94
Castrovirreyna district, Peru, silver-producing, 132
Cauca, valley of, 13, 59
_Caucho_, second quality crude rubber, 134
Caylloma district, Peru, coal deposits, 133
Centenarians in San Juan valley, 281
Central Cordillera, 129, 137
Central highway, route from the Amazon to the Pacific, 142-146
Central Plateau, or Altiplanicie, of Bolivia, 279, 297
Central Railway, 100-105, 107, 149;
_same as_ Oroya Railway
Central valley of Chile, 262-264
Cerro de Azul, 84, 125
Cerro de Pasco, district and mines, 105-107, 131-133, 140, 177;
railway, 106, 107, 140, 146, 159
Chacabuco, Hill of, head of central valley, Chile, 262
Chachani, mountain seen from Arequipa, 109, 112
_Chaco_, or tropical prairie and forest region, 341
Chagres River, used as a means of crossing Isthmus, 41;
advocated by Champlain, 42, 43;
one of three proposed by Lopez de Guevara, 43;
engineering problems presented by, 44
Chala, Peru, 85
Challapata, near Lake Poöpo, 298
Chamber of Commerce, Lima, 99, 176
Champlain, concerning Panama and possibility of canal, 43
Chañaral, location of copper-smelting works, 188
Chancay district, Peru, sulphur beds, 133
Chanchamayo valley, cane-producing area, 128;
land-grants to Peruvian Corporation, 140;
development of, 146, 160
_Charqui_, jerked beef, 33
Chauncey, Henry, statue to, 39
Chayanta, tin mines in district, 314;
copper deposits, 322;
gold claims, 324
Checcacupe, Peru, 119
_Cheremoya_, South American fruit, 28, 29
_Chicha_, native drink, 26
Chicla, on Central Railway, 101
Chilcaya borax field, Bolivia, 325
Chile, relation to Canal, 2, 16;
foreign trade, 9, 16;
saltpetre beds, 16, 217;
policy toward Galapagos Islands, 71;
description of, 180-277;
treaty with Bolivia, 346
Chilete (Ancachs) district, Peru, lead deposits, 133
Chili, valley of the river, 109, 117
Chiloe Archipelago, 196, 273
Chimborazo, 60
Chimbote, 81
Chimneys, lack of, in Santiago, 209
Chimoré coal district, 326
Chinchas, or guano islands, 85
Chinese, merchants of Callao, 84;
population of Lima, 96, 97;
land-owners, 158
Chira valley, projected irrigation, 124
Chivalry of Chilean men, 212
Chocaltaga, tin deposit of, 315
Chocaya, tin district, Bolivia, 315
Chocolate (cacao), 63
_Cholos_, 105, 136, 154, 155, 157, 285, 295, 308, 311, 338, 340
Chonta district, Peru, mercury-cinnabar production, 133
Chorolque, tin mines in district, 315;
silver mines, 318, 320;
bismuth deposit, 325
Chosica, on Central Railway, Peru, 103
Christ of the Andes, 269
Chuncho Indians, 154
_Chuni_, potato eaten by natives, 33
_Chupé_, native dish, 28, 292
Chuquicamata, copper mines in the District of, 228
Chuquisaca gold region of Bolivia, 324
Chuquiyupu River, meaning of name, 324
Churches, of Guayaquil, 61;
of Paita, 76;
of Lima, 91, 97, 98;
of Arequipa, 115;
of Santiago, 206
Cinchona tree, 329
Clay, Henry, 3, 371
Climate, along West Coast, 59;
of Guayaquil, 62;
of Lima, 100;
of Arequipa, 109;
of Santiago, 209, 213;
of Chile, 273;
of Oruro, 300;
of Bolivia, 341-343
Clubs, of Callao, 84;
of Lima, 96;
of Iquique, 185;
of Santiago, 211
Coal, in Peru, 107, 131, 133;
in Chile, 194, 229;
consumption of, in nitrate industry, 222;
Bolivian deposits, 326
Coca, plant from which cocaine is made, 156, 328, 329
Cochabamba, Bolivia, 335
Cochrane, Lord, statue to, 190
Codecido, Mr. Emilio Bello, of Santiago, 211
Coffee, from tropical Brazil, 8;
Peruvian settlers compete with Brazil in coffee culture, 161;
Bolivian trade in, 328
Cololo, mountain peaks in Peru, 305
Colombia, relation to Canal, 2, 3, 13;
Colombian control of Isthmus, 46;
J. Q. Adams’s advice, 351
Colon, distance from New York, New Orleans, Panama, and Liverpool,
11, 12;
sketch of, 37-40;
Canal workers leaving, 54;
distance from foreign ports, 63
Colonias, Territory of, Bolivia, 328, 344
Colonization, in Peru, 138, 160;
in Chile, 272;
in Bolivia, 340
Colquechaca silver deposits, 318
Colquiri, tin-mining district, 314
Columbus, statue to, at mouth of Canal, 38;
made search for passage through Isthmus, 41
Commercial traveller’s need of Spanish, 23
_Compania Nacional de Recaudacion_, Peru, 176
Concepcion, third largest city in Chile, 196;
coal mines in district, 229
_Condor_, 72
Consequencia silver mines, Chile, 230
Continental Divide, _see_ Cordilleras
Coolies as plantation laborers, 158
Copacabana, peninsula of, 326
Copiapo district, silver mines, 229;
seat of revolution, 233
Copiapo Railway, 188
Copper, in Ecuador, 70;
in Peru, 131, 132;
in Chile, 194, 195, 228;
in Bolivia, 320-323
Coquimbo, 189, 228, 229
Cordilleras, 4, 42, 45, 51, 67, 74, 123, 129, 130, 143, 149, 161,
162, 188, 201, 269, 279, 297, 305, 314, 326, 342
_See also_ Andes
Cordoba, 5
Corocoro copper mines, 183, 322, 323
Coronel, coaling-station, 194, 195, 229
Coropuna mountain, 109, 112
Corpus Christi festival in Santiago, 208
Cosmopolitan La Paz, 311, 312
Cotagaita, tin district, Bolivia, 315
Cotaigata Mountain, 286
Cotopaxi, 60
Cotton, in Peru, 69, 124-127, 147;
in Bolivia, 329
Council of State, Peru, 173;
in Chile, 240
Cousiño family, controllers of Lota and Coronel, 195
Cousiño Park, Lota, 195
Cousiño Park, Santiago, 213
Crucero Alto, summit of divide, 118
Cuba, compared to Canal Zone, 51;
U. S. relations toward, 361, 362
Cuenca, Ecuador, 67
Culebra Cut, 45, 52
Curarey River, 69
Currency, paper, in Peru, 178;
metal and paper, in Bolivia, 349
Cuzco, Inca capital of Peru, 119, 129
Darien, or Caledonian, cross-cut channel projected, 42
_Darsena_ at Callao, 83
Deafness of infants in mountain regions, 310
Death rate, _see_ Birth and death rates
Debt of Chile, 274
De Costa, Señora Angela, originator of idea of statue “Christ of
the Andes,” 269
De Faramond, Lieutenant Commander, French naval officer, 181
De Lesseps, residence of, 38
Departments of Bolivia, 344
Deposits and depositors in Santiago Savings Bank, 256
Desaguadero River, 299
Desolation Islands, 197
_Deutsche La Plata Zeitung_, 358
Diary-making on Pacific steamer, 59
Diseases, to be controlled by sanitation, 19;
incident to West Coast, 35;
to life in Canal Zone, 51, 52, 54, 55;
yellow fever at Guayaquil, 61;
fever at Arica, 181
Dos de Mayo, Peru, mercury and coal district, 133
Drake, Sir Francis, visit to Arica in 1579, 182
Dress for travellers, 25
Drinks, native, 26, 27
Dudley, Minister, of Lima, 97, 100, 126
Duran, 65
Earthquakes which have shaken Lima, 93;
Arequipa, 116;
Arica, 182
Ecuador, relation to Canal, 2;
trade with U. S., 9;
foreign trade, 13, 14, 63;
railway exploitation, 65, 66, 68;
topography, 67;
products, 68, 69;
minerals, 69;
population, 70;
financial standing and money, 71, 72;
banks and national debt, 72
Editor, the ideal, 215, 216
Edwards, Mr. Augustin, owner of _El Mercurio_, 214
Elections, in Chile, 240;
in Bolivia, 344
_El Mercurio_, of Santiago and Valparaiso, 214, 215, 363
El Misti, extinct volcano, 109, 117
Elmore, Judge Alberto, president of Council of State, Peru, 1903,
169
El Oro, the gold country of Ecuador, 69
Elsa mine, 324
English ports distant from West Coast, 12, 13, 63;
commerce, 15, 16, 64, 84, 136, 196, 271, 347;
interests in oil fields, 131;
in railroads, 139, 140, 161;
at Iquique, 185;
in nitrate fields, 186, 227, 269;
at Valparaiso, 190;
advertising, 202;
in Santiago, 213;
wheat trade with Chile, 263;
diplomatic relations with Bolivia, 346;
concern with Monroe Doctrine, 352 _et seq._
English spoken in South America, 22, 23
Enock, C. Reginald, English engineer, 130
Errazuriz, Frederico, former Chilean president, 235
Escariano, 287, 291
Esmeraldas, 63
Eten, Port of, 79
Eugenie, Empress, statue presented by, 38
Evangelist Islands, 196, 197
Exchange, rates of, 34
Farmer, comprehensive term in Chile, 212, 213
Fashions in Bolivian towns, 285, 295
Ferrenafe, Peru, 79
Ferrol, Bay of, 81
Fever flower of Algiers, 181
Fleas of Quilca, 114
_Fleteros_, or boatmen, 75
_Fomento de Fabrica_, or Manufacturers Association, of Chile, 272
_Foreign Commerce of the U. S., Annual Review 1904_, table compiled
from, 9
Foreigners, may hold municipal offices in Peru, 175;
from colonies around Valdivia, Osorno, and Lake Llanquihue, 272;
in Uyuni, 296;
scarcity in Bolivia, 337;
rights under the government, 345
Forest lands of southern Chile, 264
Fortunes of Chileans, 239
_Four Years among the South Americans_, 66
France in trade with Ecuador, 64;
with Peru, 127
_Fredonia_, U. S. frigate, destroyed by tidal wave, 182
Freight rates, 16-18;
through freight along West Coast, 58;
on Peruvian sugar, 128;
affected by Canal, 188
French community at Valparaiso, 190
Froward, Cape, 198
Fruits, 28, 29
Fuel saved by Canal route, 13
Galapagos Islands, 70, 71, 357
Galera tunnel, Central Railway, 101
Garland, Mr. Alejandro, of Lima, 97
Gatun, first view of Canal obtained from railroad at, 44
Geographical Society of Lima, 152
German colony, 157;
immigrants desired, 159;
Germans in Valparaiso, 190;
in Bolivian rubber region, 327;
concern in Monroe Doctrine, 358 _et seq._
Germany, in trade with Ecuador, 64;
with Peru, 84;
sends minister to Bolivia, 346;
trade with Bolivia, 347
Gold, in Ecuador, 69;
in Peru, 120, 131, 132;
in Chile, 229;
in Bolivia, 282, 323-325
Gold River of St. John, 324
Gold standard, of Panama, 19;
of Peru, 177;
of Chile, 274;
of Bolivia, 349
Gottschalk, United States Consul, 130
Granadilla fruit, 85
Grape brandy, 85
Grape culture in Chile, 265
Grass cross over dwellings, 307
Guachalla, Señor Fernando, 34
Guadalupe Mountain, 280, 286, 291;
district, 318
Gualca, Indian who discovered silver at Potosi, 318
Guamote, Ecuador, 65
Guanaco skins, 182
Guano exported from Peru, 15, 79;
Guano islands, or Chinchas, 85
Guaqui, on Lake Titicaca, scene of Indian uprising, 339
Guayacan copper mines, 228
Guayaquil, distance from U. S. forts, 11, 14;
from Panama, 12;
sketch of, 61;
relation to Canal and commerce, 62, 63;
banks, 72
Guayaquil Chamber of Commerce, 64
Guayaquil, Gulf of, 60
Guayas River, 60
Guevara, Bachiler, forbidden to practise law in Quito, 67
Gulf ports, trade with West Coast ports, 11
Gum, _see_ Rubber
Haciendas, in Peru, 85, 155;
in central valley, Chile, 263
Hamburg, distance from West Coast ports via Panama, 13;
from Guayaquil, 63
Harvard Astronomical Observatory, on Mt. El Misti, 117
Hassaurek, Frederick, his impressions of Quito, 66
Hats, Ecuador’s export trade in, 64
Havre, distance from Guayaquil, 63
Hay-Varilla Treaty, 46
Hay, John, late Secretary of State, 362, 363
Holidays in Bolivia, 345
Hotels, 29-31
_Huaca_, of Trujillo, 81;
of Supe, 82
Hualgayoc district, Peru, silver-producing, 132
Huallaga River, 6, 137
Huamachuco, gold-producing district, Peru, 132
Huamalies district, Peru, gold-producing, 132;
coal deposits, 133
Huancavelica, silver-producing district, Peru, 132;
mercury deposits, 133;
quicksilver mines, 142
Huanchaca, town and mines, 318
Huanchaca Company of Bolivia, their reduction works at Antofagasta,
187, 319
Huanchaco, Port of, 80
Huantayaja silver region, 229
Huanuco, German colony, 157;
district is gold-producing, 132
Huaraz district, Peru, copper-producing, 132;
iron and sulphur deposits, 133
Huarochiri, sulphur, coal, and lead deposits, 133
Huaylas district, Peru, copper-producing, 132;
coal-mining district, 133
Huayna-Potosi, tin-mining district, 314, 315
Humboldt, Von, 2, 325
Humboldt, or Antarctic, current, 59
Hydraulic power of Andes to be developed, 130
Ibarra, Ecuador, 69
Ica district, Peru, gold and copper producing, 132
Illampu, series of peaks in Oriental Cordilleras, 305
Illimani, in the Bolivian Andes, 305, 306
Immigration, 8, 138, 158, 163, 272, 340
Inambari River basin, rubber industry, 120, 136;
gold-washings, 132
_Inca_, Peruvian coin, 35, 177
Inca Caracoles silver mines, 230
Inca Company, headquarters in Arequipa, 116, 119, 120
Indians, 25, 44, 75, 79, 105, 116, 121, 136, 151-157, 181, 195,
198, 199, 251, 285-287, 295, 304, 305, 308, 309, 328, 337-340
Industrial establishments of Chile, 266
Infiernillo (Little Hell or Devil’s Bridge), on Central Railway,
103
Ingenia, 287
Inquisivi, tin-mining district, 314;
bismuth deposit, 325
Intercontinental Railway Survey, 70, 153
Intercontinental railway, _see_ Pan-American trunk line
International Sanitary Bureau, 18
Iodine found in nitrate deposits, 222
Iquique, distance from Panama, 12;
shipping-point for soda nitrates, 16;
one of the three worst ports on West Coast, 86;
sketch of, 184-186
Iquitos, 6, 7, 135, 148
Iron, in Ecuador, 70;
in Peru, 133, 147;
in Chile, 227
Irrigation, 86, 112, 124, 125, 127, 130, 142, 159, 276
Isla de Plata, Silver Island, 73
Islands of Direction, _same as_ Evangelist Islands
Islay, Bay of, 87;
town, 88
Italia, wine made in Pisco district, 85
Italians, in Lima, 96;
agricultural immigrants, 159, 160
Ivory nut, _see_ Tagua
Jauja, valley of, presents possibilities for irrigation, 142
_Jebe_, best quality crude rubber, 134
Jones, Mr. Champion, of Lima, 90
“Journalism, The Land of,” 214
Juliaca, on Southern Railway, Peru, 119, 121
Junin, town and lake, 106, 222
Kaolin, in Chorolque district, Bolivia, 320
Kelley, Frederick M., 42
Kraus, Jacob, Holland engineer, 192
La Boca, railway terminus at Pacific mouth of Canal, 46
Laborers, on Canal, 50;
in Piura cotton lands, 125;
in Peruvian rubber forests, 136;
Indian and _cholo_, 155;
Chinese coolies, 158;
mine workers needed, 159;
at Iquique, 185;
in nitrate fields, 223;
Chilean roto, 251-255;
in Chilean factories, 267;
Bolivian _cholos_, 340
Laca-Amra River, Bolivia, 299
_L’Africaine_, government railway concession, 341
_La Lei_, Santiago newspaper, 215
La Mar, gold-producing district, Peru, 132
Lambayeque region of Peru, 79, 129, 133
Land-owners in central valley, Chile, 263
La Paz, Bolivia, hotels, 30;
travellers to, 300;
sketch of, 310;
tin mined in district, 315;
in gold district, 324;
Aymará inhabitants, 338;
elevation of, 341;
Department in revolution of 1898, 343
La Quiaca, on Argentine frontier, 279
Larecaja placers of Tipuani, Bolivia, 324
Larez district, Peru, iron-producing, 133
Lastarria, J. V., Chilean diplomat and historian, 250, 251
_La Vie Latine_, 366
“Law, The,” Santiago newspaper, 215
Lead, in Ecuador, 70;
in Peru, 132;
in Chorolque district, Bolivia, 320
Leger, Minister, of Haiti, 362, 363
Leguia, Señor, of Peru, 171
_Le Perou_, Auguste Plane, 145
Lima, Peru, pure Spanish spoken, 24;
hotel, 30;
sketch of, 89-100;
censuses, 152;
scene of revolution, 164
Limon, Bay of, 37
Lipez, silver deposit, 318;
copper deposits, 321, 323
Live-stock industry, 8, 121, 133, 134, 263
Llai-Llai, 202
Llama, disposition of the, 309
Llanquihue district exports lumber, 264;
colony on lake, 272
Lobos Islands, 79
Loja, in mining district of Ecuador, 70
Lomas, 85
Lopez de Guevara had scheme for three canals, 43
Loreto, Department of, centre of Peruvian rubber district, 134;
variations in government, 173
Los Andes, location of spiral tunnel, 202
Lota, 194, 195;
copper product of district, 228;
iron mines, 229
Lottery at Lima, 95;
at Santiago, 213
Louisiana Purchase, resources of the, 3
Luya district, Peru, gold-producing, 132
Machacamarca smelting works, 321
Machala, 63, 67
MacKenna, Benjamin V., historian, 205
Madre de Dios rubber region, 327
Magellan, Territory of, 264, 275
Majo, Bolivia, 279, 280
Malinowski, engineer of Central Railway, 101
Manserriche, Falls of, 6, 78, 147, 148
Manufactories, of Lima, 99;
of Chile, 266
Manufacturers’ Association of Chile, 265, 272
Manzanillo, Island of, 37, 40
Mapocho River, Santiago, 207
Marañon River, 6, 78, 80, 132, 137, 147, 148
Maravillas, silver-smelting plant located at, 119
Marcapata valley, 136
Marriage customs among Indians, 155, 309
Martinez, Mr. Juan Walker, 211, 219
Mathieu, Mr., former Secretary of Chilean Legation, 312
Matte, Mr. Auguste, 211
Matucana, 104
Meals, customs concerning, 27
Meier, Mr., American consul at Mollendo, 114
Meiggs, Henry, builder of Central Railway of Peru, 100, 101, 110,
149, 203
Meiggs, Mt., on Central Railway, Peru, 104
Merchant marine of Chile, 270, 271
“Mercury, The,” of Santiago and Valparaiso, 214, 215
Mercury-cinnabar, Peruvian districts which produce, 133
_Mestizos_, 27, 151, 154, 155, 337;
compare with _Cholos_
Methodist Mission at Iquique, 185
Mexico of South America, Bolivia, 313-330
Mica deposits near Quilca, 114
Military party in Chile, 260
Mills, cotton, in Peru, 126
Milluni, tin-mining district, 314, 315
Mineral waters, 26
Mineral wealth, of Andes, 4;
of Ecuador, 69, 78, 81;
Peruvian deposits, 106, 107, 117, 120, 122, 130-133, 146;
Chilean deposits, 217-231, 276;
Bolivian deposits, 282, 294, 313-326
Mining-code, the Peruvian, 133
Mississippi Valley will benefit from Canal, 12
Molina, Father, Jesuit naturalist, 205
Mollendo, distance from Panama, 12;
trade passing through, 14;
relation to Arica, 16;
one of three worst ports on West Coast, 86;
railway terminus and harbor improvements, 88;
trade, 88;
use of Panama Canal, 88
Monastery of San Francisco, Lima, 97, 98
Money, South American, 34;
Ecuadorian, 72
Monroe Doctrine in South America, 70, 351-371
Montaña region, 68, 123
Monte Cristo, from Bay of Caracas, 60
Montes, President Ismael, of Bolivia, 314, 332, 343, 345
Montt, Director of National Library, Santiago, 207
Montt, Captain Jorge, Chilean insurrectionist, 237
Montt, Manuel, former Chilean president, 233
Moquegua district, Peru, sulphur-producing, 133
Morgan, Sir John, sacked Panama, 41, 45
Mountain travel, supplies for, 32, 33
Mule in Andean use, 33
National Library, Lima, 97
National Library, Santiago, 206
National Tax Collection Society, 176
Naturalization of foreigners in Peru, 176
Naval school at Talcahuano, 195
Nazarene, on San Juan River, 280
Negro element, in Panameñans, 44;
blacks engaged in Canal excavation, 50;
in railway building, 66;
in Peruvian population, 157, 158
Neill, Mr. Richard, Secretary American Legation, Lima, 96
New Orleans, distance from West Coast ports, 7, 11, 14, 63
New York, relative position with reference to West Coast ports, 7,
11;
distance from Colon, 12;
from Valparaiso, 12;
from Guayaquil, 14, 62;
from Callao, 14
New York Chamber of Commerce, statistics from, 13
Newspapers, Chilean, 199, 213-216
Nicaragua Canal, one of three proposed by Lopez de Guevara, 43
Nitrate kings, 184, 219
Nitrates of soda, exports from Chile, 16;
shipments from Iquique, 16, 186;
the product, 217-231, 276, 277
Noco, plain of, 86, 125
North, Colonel, the nitrate king, 184
_Nudos_ in inter-Andine region, 67
Oaths, Spanish, 24
O’Higgins, liberator of Chile, 204, 232, 355
Old age attained by Bolivian peasants, 281
Olney, ex-Secretary, 357
Oranges of Pacasmayo, 79
Orcoma, nitrate district, 224
Oregon, Webster’s valuation of, 3
_Oropesa_, S. S., 191, 196
Oroya, on Central Railway, Peru, 101, 105, 107
Oroya Railway, _same as_ Central Railway
Oruro, hotel at, 30;
town seen from hills, 293;
sketch of, 299;
tin and silver mines in vicinity, 314-317, 320
Osorno, colony at, 272
Otuzco district, Peru, gold-producing, 132
Ovalle, copper mines in the district of, 228
Pacasmayo, 79, 80
Pacific Company, concessions to, 147
Pacific Ocean, trade influenced by Canal, 1-20;
described by Friar Calancha, 57;
Pacific steamers, 57;
Southern ocean rough, 194
Pacific Steam Navigation Company, Valparaiso office, 249
Paita, distance from New York, 7;
from Panama, 12;
sketch of, 74-78;
selected as terminus of projected railroad, 147;
district, sulphur deposits, 133
Paita, Bay of, 6, 74
Pallasca district, Peru, silver-producing, 132;
lead deposits, 133
Palma, Dr. Ricardo, Director National Library, Lima, 97
_Palta_, or alligator pear, 28
Panama Bay, 58
Panama Canal, industrial development due to the, 1-20;
toll rates, 11, 15;
relation to Chilean trade, 16;
entrance, 37;
proposed routes, 40-43;
route adopted, 44;
villages and inhabitants along course, 44;
Culebra Cut, 45;
U. S. authority in Canal Zone, 46-50;
sanitation and hygiene in Canal Zone, 50-53;
American employees, 53-55;
instrument in development of Panama, 55;
Guayaquil trade will pass through, 62, 64;
Amazon traffic will pass through, via Paita, 78;
effect upon Callao, 84;
Peruvian traffic, 88, 125, 128, 131, 135, 139, 145, 183;
outlet for Cerro de Pasco mines, 107;
will further Italian immigration, 160;
relation to Iquique and the nitrates, 186, 227;
will tend to lower ocean freight charges, 188;
bearing on Valparaiso as harbor, 193;
relation to Punta Arenas, 199;
effect on Chilean commerce, 270;
value to Bolivia, 331, 332, 350
Panama, City of, distance from Colon, Guayaquil, Paita, Callao,
Mollendo, Arica, Iquique, Antofagasta, and Valparaiso, 12;
growth of, 39;
sacking by Morgan’s buccaneers, 41, 45;
sketch of, 45;
distance from Guayaquil, 62
Panama, Isthmus of, 3;
sanitary conditions on, 18;
gold standard in, 19;
waterways which have been projected, 41;
Champlain conceived project of cutting through, 43;
geographical position, 43;
natives and villages, 44;
government of, 46, 47;
area, wealth, industries, and agriculture, 48;
good to be derived from Canal, 49
Panama Railway, 17;
statue to builders, 39;
hygienic work of, 39
Panameñans, the, 44
Pan-American Conference, 18
Pan-American trunk line, 4
Pando, General, former President of Bolivia, 345
Pandura, 303
Pansio silver mines, Chile, 230
Paper money prohibited in Peru, 178
Para, Peruvian rubber metropolis, 7
Pardo, Señor José, President of Peru, 169-172
Parties, political, in Chile, 246
Pataz district, Peru, silver-producing, 132
Patterson, William, his scheme for canal through Isthmus, 42
Paucartambo district, gold-producing, 132
Peachy, American traveller in Peru, 153
Pelicans, 79
Perez, Carlos, surveys and explorations of, 142
Perez, José Joaquin, former Chilean president, 233
Permanent Industrial Exhibition, 266
Pernambuco, distance from the Cape and New York, 12
Peru, relation to Canal, 2;
rubber industry, 7;
foreign commerce, 14, 15;
description, 73 _et seq._
Peruvian Congress, 175
Peruvian Corporation of London, 101, 107, 119, 139, 140, 142, 143,
160, 161, 333
_Peso_, value of, 274
_Petacas_, or leather trunks, 32
Petroleum, fields of Peru, 78, 122, 131, 132;
districts which produce, 133;
deposits along shores of Lake Titicaca, 326;
crude product used in Caupolican Province, 326
Phillips, Mr., editor of _La Lei_, Santiago, 215, 216
Pichis, or central highway, 142-146
Pierola, General, President in 1896, 143, 167, 170, 177
Pinto, Anibal, former Chilean president, 235
Pisagua, in nitrate and guano region, 184
Pisco, 85
Piura, in northern Peru, 78
Piura region, aridity of, 76, 77;
cotton cultivation, 124, 147;
American project for irrigating, 125;
district produces petroleum and iron, 133
Pizarro, 41, 74, 80, 90, 92, 116
Plane, A., French engineer in Peru, 145
Playa Blanca, ore-smelters of Huanchaca Company at, 320
Political history of Chile, 232-247
Political parties in Chile, 246
Poöpo, Lake, 298;
tin mines in Province of, 314
Population, growth in South America, 3, 4;
in valley and mountain regions, 6;
in cereal region, 8;
in Ecuador, 70;
in trans-Andine country, 138;
in Peru, 151-163;
of Chile, 271, 272;
region between Oruro and La Paz, 306;
of Bolivia, 336-341
Porco, tin-mining district of Bolivia, 315;
silver deposits, 318;
copper, 322
Portugalete Pass, 291;
silver mines in district, 318
Postal service, 144
Potosi, silver mines, 293, 318, 319;
tin mines, 314-316;
need for railroad facilities, 319, 335
Prat, naval hero, statue to, 190
Presidential office, in Chile, 239;
in Bolivia, 344
Priests, in Chilean social life, 212;
Bolivian priesthood, 307
Prieto, Joaquin, former Chilean president, 233
Professional classes, dress of, 25
Projects for cutting through Isthmus, 40, 41
Protective policy of Chile, 266
Protestant churches in Peru, 174
_Puchero_, Spanish dish, 28
Pulacayo, most productive silver mine in South America, 294, 319
Puna, customs and quarantine port, 60
Puno, on Lake Titicaca, 121, 122;
district produces coal, petroleum, and mercury, 133
Punta Arenas, southernmost town, 198-200
Quail in barren country, 288, 292
Quarantine regulations, 33, 34, 63
Quiaca River, on Bolivian boundary, 379
Quichua, or aboriginal Indian race of Peru, 105, 154, 157, 281,
292, 293, 304, 338
Quicksilver mines of Huancavelica, 142
Quilca, 113, 114
Quinine industry, 329
Quinta Normal, or Agricultural Experiment Station, Santiago, 213
_Quinua_, native cereal, 307
Quiros River, irrigation from, 125
Quisma Cruz, or Three Crosses, in Oriental Cordilleras, 305
Quito, 65, 66
Racing a feature at Santiago, 213
Railroads, through Andes, 4, 162, 188;
line joining Buenos Ayres and Valparaiso, 5;
proposed Argentine and Bolivian lines, 5, 15;
passenger rates, 31;
development in Panama, 49;
lines and projects in Ecuador, 65-69;
survey through mining region, 70;
Peruvian line, 78;
road from Eten, 79;
project for road from Cajamarca, 80;
line from Chimbote, 82;
from Pisco to Ica, 85;
Central (Oroya) Railway, 100-107;
American syndicate road between Oroya and Cerro de Pasco, 107;
line to Lake Titicaca, 110;
extension from Sicuani, 119;
engineering in Province of Carabaya, 119;
projected line along Inambari River, 120;
motive power furnished by river Rimac, 130;
use of oil as fuel, 131;
Peruvian lines, 138-142, 145-150;
proposed line out from coffee district, 161;
road from Arica to Tacna, 182;
extension to La Paz, 183;
lines in nitrate district, 187, 219, 221, 222;
Copiapo Railway, 188;
passenger accommodations, 202;
William Wheelright’s road, 203;
Chilean railroad policy, 267-269, 275;
Bolivian roads, 278, 314, 332-336;
mines await railroads, 319-321;
Antofagasta and Oruro Railway, 336;
concession granted by Bolivia, 341;
treaty with Chile, 347, 348;
West Coast railway development, 351 _et seq._
Raimondi, surveys of Department of Anacho, 130;
description of central plateau of Bolivia, 297
Raspadura channel, possible route across Isthmus, 43
Rates of transportation of products, 17, 18
Reclus, representing French company in exploiting Darien route, 42
_Reconnaissance Report upon the Proposed System of Bolivian
Railways_, Sisson, 335
Recuay district, Peru, silver and coal producing, 132
Reloncavi, Bay of, at the head of Gulf of Ancud, 262
Revenue, of Peruvian government, 176;
of Bolivian, 346
Revolutions, in Peru, 164;
in Bolivia, 343
Rice product of Peru, 79, 129
Richest woman in the world, the widow Cousiño, 195
Riesco, President Jerman, of Chile, 247
Rimac valley, Peru, 103, 130
Rivadavia mission to Europe, 355
Road-building, in Panama, 49;
in Peru, 120
Roman Catholic Church, in Peru, 157, 174;
in Chile, 208, 242, 243;
attitude of roto toward, 253, 254;
in Bolivia, 307, 308
Romaña, ex-President Edward, of Peru, 115
Roosevelt, President, 47, 70, 357, 358
Root, Mr. Elihu, 357
_Roto_, 248-259, 264
Royal Andes, 280
Rubber, demand for, 7;
Ecuador’s product, 68, 69;
shipped through Mollendo, 88;
on San Gaban River, 120;
in Coast Region, Peru, 124;
Peruvian forests, 134-136, 138;
Bolivian product, 327, 328
Saddles for mountain travel, 32
Sailors, members of Chilean roto as, 254
Sala, Father, surveys and explorations of, 142
Salaverry, Peru, sugar from, 14;
volume of trade and unique inscription, 81
Salisbury, Lord, 357
Salt fields east of Punta de Lobos, 223
Saltpetre fertilizers, _see_ nitrates
Sambo, origin of name, 158
San Bartholomew, tunnel in Chorolque district, 320
San Bartolomew, on Central Railway of Peru, 103
San Blas route proposed for Canal, 42
Sandia district, gold in, 120, 132
San Gaban River, 120
Sanitary conditions along Canal, 18, 50-52, 54, 55;
in Lima, 99, 100;
among Peruvian Indians, 157;
in Santiago, 207, 258, 259
San José mine, near Oruro, 300, 321
San Juan River, 324
San Leon, tunnel at entrance of Pulacayo mine, 319
San Lorenzo, Island of, in harbor of Callao, 85
San Martin, statue to, Santiago, 205
San Mateo, on Central Railway of Peru, 103
San Miguel Bay named, 41
Santa Cruz, Department of, gum forests awaiting development, 327;
the capital, 341
Santa Lucia, mountain in Santiago, 203-205
Santa Maria, Domingo, former Chilean executive, 236
Santa Rosa, ranch of, near Arequipa, 110
Santa Rosa valley, Bolivia, 282
Santiago, hotels at, 30, 31;
sketch of, 203-216;
social questions, 250;
savings bank, 256;
birth and death rates in province, 257
Santo Domingo, U. S. policy toward, 359
Santo Domingo gold mines, Province of Carabaya, 116, 119, 122
San Vicente, Sierra of, 292
Saracocha, Lake, 118
Savedro, Señor Don Angel, projected waterway through Isthmus, 42
Savings Bank, Santiago, 256
School system of Peru, 157;
school conducted in Aymará language, 304, 305;
Bolivian school system, 344, 345
Selfridge, Commander, 42
Sexes, even ratio of the, 337
Sheep-raising, 133, 264
Shipping interests of Chile, 270, 271
Sicasica, at an altitude of 14,000 feet, 304
Sicuani, 119
Silva, Mr., leader writer on _El Mercurio_, 215
Silver, in Ecuador, 70;
in Peru, 107, 131, 132;
in Chile, 229;
in Bolivia, 304, 318-321
_Sinopsis Estadistica y Geografica de la Republica de Bolivia_, 342
_Siroche_, or mountain sickness, 104, 118, 288-291
Sisson, W. L., 335
Smythe’s Channel, 196
Socavon of the Virgin, silver mine in Oruro district, 321
Social question in Chile, 207, 248-261
Socialistic doctrines at work in Chile, 254
Society, in Lima, 95, 96;
in Santiago, 210-213
_Sol_, Peruvian coin, 35, 177
Solano, Father Francis, founder of Franciscan Order in Peru, 98
Sorsby, Minister, of La Paz, 311
_South America, 1854-1904_, Akers, 364
South American Steamship Company offices burned by mob, 249
Southern Cross, 57
Southern Railway, 101, 120, 149, 334
Southernmost town of world, Punta Arenas, 198-200
Spanish administrative system to be moulded on American model, 48
Spanish-American, the, 2
Spanish language, needed by travellers, 21-25;
spoken in its purity at Lima, 95;
native hostility toward, 157, 338, 339
State ownership of Chilean railways, 267
Steamships, in West Coast foreign trade, 11;
in nitrate trade, 16;
in West Coast passenger service, 57, 58;
in Guayaquil trade, 62;
trading at Callao, 84;
at Valparaiso, 191;
in Chilean trade, 270, 271
Stephens, John L., statue to, 39
Strike in Valparaiso, 248, 249
Stumpff, engineer Elsa Mine, 324
Succession in office in Peru, 168
Suches, placer washings in gold district, Bolivia, 323
_Sucre_, 72
Sucre, old capital of Bolivia, 298, 311
Sugar-beet industry, 265
Sugar industry, in Peru, 14, 18, 127, 128;
in Ecuador, 69;
amount shipped via Pacasmayo, 79;
through Huanchaco, 80;
industry in Chile, 265, 266
Suipacha, on San Juan River, 280
Sulphur beds, near Bay of Sechura, 78;
on Lake Titicaca Railroad, 117;
Peruvian provinces which produce, 133
Supe, the landing-place, 82
Superunda, Count, memoirs of, 93
Taboga Isle, 45
Tacna, Pampas of, 224;
tin mines in district, 315
Tacora, Mt., in Bolivia, 183
Taft, Secretary, 47
Tagua, or ivory nut, Ecuador’s production of, 64
Talcahuano, naval port, 195
Taltal, nitrate shipping-port, 188
Tambilla, 292
Tambo de Mora, 86
_Tambos_, or inns, 31;
one at Majo, Bolivia, 279
Tarapacá, Province of, lost to Chile, 152, 217;
saltpetre region, 217-226
Tarata, sulphur-producing district, Peru, 133
Tarija, capital of agricultural region in southeast Bolivia, 341
Tarma, coal-mining district, Peru, 133
Taxes, in Peru, 176;
in Bolivia, 346
Tayacaja district, Peru, gold-producing, 132
Tehuantepec Canal, one of three proposed by Lopez de Guevara, 43
Telegraph line from Lima to Bermudez, 144
Telegraph line, monument commemorating completion of, Santiago, 205
Timber lands of southern Chile, 264
Tin product of Bolivia, 314-317, 320
Tipuani placer washings in gold district, Bolivia, 323
Tirapata, railroad station for mines of Carabaya Province, 119
Titicaca, Lake, trip from Arequipa to, 117-122
Tobacco, crop in Ecuador, 69;
tax in Peru set aside for railroads, 141
Toll rates through Canal, 13, 15
Tombs at Caracollo, 302, 303, 305
Trades unions in Chile, 250, 251
Travellers, should practise customs of natives, 21;
need for knowledge of Spanish, 21-25;
dress, 25;
eating and drinking, 26-29;
hotels, 29-31;
care of baggage, 31;
railroad fares and night trains, 31;
charges for embarkation and disembarkation, 32;
supplies for mountain travel, 32, 33;
fodder for animals, 33;
quarantine regulations, 33, 34;
money, 34;
diseases, 35;
friction with natives and officials in Peru, 175
Treasure islands, 73
Treaty between Bolivia and Chile ratified 1905, 347, 348
Treaty of Ancon, 83
Trujillo, 81
Trunks carried on pack animals, 32
_Tucapel_, West Coast vessel, 82
Tucker, surveys and explorations of, 142
Tucuman, 5, 188
Tumbez, 73, 74;
district, oil-producing, 131;
sulphur and petroleum deposits, 133
Tupiza, Bolivia, hotel at, 30;
sketch of, 283-286
Ubina Mountain, 286
Ucayali River, 137, 146
Union Club, Santiago, 211
Union district, Peru, gold-producing, 132
United States, trade with Argentine, 9;
with West Coast countries, 10;
policy toward Canal, 11;
direct benefit derived, 12;
authority in Canal Zone, 17-20, 37-40
University of San Marcos, Lima, 97
Uruguay, grain and cattle industries in, 8
Uyuni, Bolivia, 293-296, 315
V’s and VV’s, 102
Valdivia, Pedro, statue to, at Santiago, 203
Valdivia Province, 229, 264;
town, 272
Valparaiso, distance from Panama and New York, 12;
from Liverpool, 13;
hotels, 31;
sketch of, 189-194
Vegetable ivory, _same as_ Ivory nut
Verrugas, on Central Railway of Peru, 103
_Verrugas_, or bleeding warts, 103
Vice-presidency in Chile, 243
Vicuña, Archbishop, memorials to, at Santiago, 204
Vicuña high-grade wool and rugs, 116, 122, 182
Vicuñas, 118, 133
Vilcanota River, 119
Village life in Bolivian Andes, 280 _et seq._
Villamil family controlled Larecaja properties, 324
Villa Villa, Bolivia, 303
Villazon, Señor, Vice-president of Bolivia, 343
Viña del Mar, seashore resort near Valparaiso, 213
Vincocaya, 118
Vineyards of Pisco, 85
Vitor, 110
Vitor River, 113
Von Bülow, Chancellor, 358
Von Hassel, surveyor and explorer, 146
Von Sternberg, Baron, 358
Washington, Booker T., his work a subject of discussion, 215
_Wateree_, U. S. frigate, carried inland by tidal wave, 182
Water-fowl, 117
Watermelons of Pisco, 86
Webster, Daniel, 3
Weed-killing plant in use on tropical railway, 65
Werthemann, surveys and explorations of, 142
Wetherill system in San José smelting works, 321
Wheat shipped from central valley, 263
Wheelright, William, pioneer railroad builder of Chile and Argentina,
188, 190, 203
White Spirit of the Illimani, ancient deity of Bolivian Indians,
308
Whitehead, American traveller in Peru, 153
Wines, imported and native, 26;
Italia, wine made in Pisco district, 85
Wireless telegraphy station at southernmost town of the world, 199
Wolfe, surveys and explorations of, 142
Wolfram in Chorolque district, Bolivia, 203
Women, conductors on Santiago tramways, 205;
Chilean, 212;
Bolivian Indian, 309
Wood, Rev. Dr., Methodist clergyman in Lima, 162
Wool trade, 12, 264
Woollens needed by travellers, 25
Wyse, representing French company in exploiting Darien route, 42
Yani River placer washings, 324
Yauli, on Central Railway, Peru, 103;
silver and copper deposits, 132;
lead deposits, 133
Yauyos, coal-mining district, Peru, 133
Yavari River, frontier, rubber industry, 136
Yunca Indians, 154
Yura, iron and sulphur springs, 115
Yuracares, department of Cochabamba, produces a species of rubber
tree, 327
Yurimaguas on the Huallaga River, 6, 80
Yuruma, village in Royal Andes, 280
Zambo, _same as_ Sambo
Zaruma, centre of gold-mining region, 69
Zarzuela, or one-act comedy, 212
TABLES
Page
Commercial relations of West Coast with United States 9
Distances of shipping ports on West Coast to trade centres 12
Distances and elevation above sea-level of the Central Railway
of Peru 102
Mineral output of Peru for one year 132
Itinerary from Lima to Iquitos via Central Highway 144
Distances on railway from Paita to Piura 148
Product of the nitrate zone 224
Tin product of Bolivia 316
Metals found in combination with copper, Bolivia 322
Population of Bolivia 337
Temperature and products of zones, Bolivia 342
Rainfall, Bolivia 343
Transcriber's Notes
The following changes have been made to the text as printed.
1. Illustrations and end-of-page footnotes (marked with an asterisk)
have been located in appropriate paragraph breaks.
2. Where a word is used repeatedly in the same way, spelling and
hyphenation have been made consistent, preferring the form most
often used in the printed work, or failing that the more usual form
in general use at the time of publication. No typographical change
has been made within direct quotes from other works.
3. The spelling of the following names has been changed to agree
with normal usage at the time of the original publication:
Page 119 and Index: "Vilcanata" to "Vilcanota"
Page 131: "Tolara" to "Talara"
Pages 212, 265, 397 and Index: "Vina del Mar" to "Viña del Mar"
Page 326 and Index: "Copacabama" to "Copacabana"
Page 342 and Index: "Sinopsis Estadictica" to "Sinopsis Estadistica"
Page 355 (twice) and Index: "Rivadiva" to "Rivadavia".
4. Index: the following entries have been amended in line with the
corresponding body text:
"Chilete (Añcachs)" to "Chilete (Ancachs)"
"Chinchona" to "Cinchona"
"Continental Divide, _see_ Cordillerac" to
"Continental Divide, _see_ Cordilleras"
"Guachella" to "Guachalla"
"Malmowski" to "Malinowski"
"Socavan" to "Socavon"
"Von Stenberg" to "Von Sternberg".
On Page 137, "south latitude 40°" should no doubt read
"south latitude 4°". No change has been made.
*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 74660 ***