_“The Gateway to an Imprisoned Land”_
Mollendo, the port for Arequipa, Cuzco, La Paz, is anything but an
inviting place. It is a dismal town like Iquique, Arica, Paita, and many
others on the rainless coast that stretches for hundreds of weary miles
down the Pacific. The port is unsheltered and strong south-westerly
winds prevail, making the landing in small boats a matter of no little
difficulty. The landing-stage or mole belonging to the Peruvian
Corporation is the most important feature of the dusty town, for from it
all the rich products of the far-distant interior are shipped into the
barges which carry them out to the steamers that anchor in the
roadstead. The exports are alpaca and sheep’s wool, hides, coca leaves,
Peruvian bark, silver, tin, and iron ores. The town itself is built upon
steep, rising ground, the roads of which are carpeted with thick layers
of ruddy dust, which the wind drives about to the inconvenience of the
visitors, although it does not apparently annoy the dirty-looking
inhabitants. There are two hotels in the town that offer little choice,
and it is a toss-up which is the more deserving of patronage. The houses
are all built of wood and painted with colours that soon lose their
original hues, for the sun, unmasked by clouds, beats down on them with
relentless fury and, combined with the efforts of the dust, contrives to
reduce them to a uniform tint of bleached dismalness. The shops expose
cheap goods of German manufacture, for all along the Pacific seaboard
the irrepressible Teuton is fast obtaining a strong and tenacious
foothold. The native market exudes such unmistakable evidences of its
contents that only persons with strong stomachs dare venture to make a
visual inspection of the wares. Swarthy Indians, enveloped in
brilliantly coloured ponchos, lounge on the wharves or in the shade
cast by the buildings. The church, built of wood and corrugated iron, in
a style absolutely unsuitable to the materials, has two towers
surmounted by conical caps that are quite original and absurd. Women sit
at little stalls in the gutters or on the pavements, and above their
heads little square sunshades stuck on poles give some protection to the
medley of fruit in the baskets in front of them. The whole place looks
temporary, and one would not be surprised to learn that the authorities
were only waiting for funds to lay out a more habitable town. The place
has only about 5000 inhabitants, who deserve the sympathy of all
right-feeling people. But Mollendo is only a seaport, and the doorway to
vast and interesting regions in the interior, many of which are
unexplored, and one of which, Bolivia, is still waiting for a proper
recognition of its vast resources. The railway to Arequipa and Puno on
the Peruvian shore of the highest navigable lake in the world, and to
Cuzco, the ancient city of the Incas, has brought these hitherto
little-visited centres into closer touch with outside civilisation.
[Illustration: A FRUIT-STALL AT MOLLENDO.]
The first part of the journey to Arequipa is through a succession of
sand dunes, desolate and bare, stretching away into the distance on all
sides. These dunes, crescent-shaped, are in a state of slow motion,
moving in the direction of their horns at the rate of about 100 feet in
the course of a year, so that they could give a glacier a few thousand
years’ start in a race. Towards Arequipa, which is approached through
fertile and cultivated land upon which maize and sugar-cane grow, cattle
graze, or, driven by natives, tread out the corn. The city is about 122
kilometres from the coast, and lies in a beautiful valley, green and
luscious. The elevation of the city at 7600 feet ensures a cooler clime
than that left behind in the baked and roasted coast.
Away in the distance the great snow-clad mountain peaks of Misti,
Pichupichu, and Charehani tower into the blue vault above. The city in
the valley is built largely of the brown lava thrown up by a volcano in
the vicinity. With an almost cynical indifference to the terrible forces
of nature, the builders of the city have utilised the product of the
volcano to protect themselves from the devastating earthquakes to which
the whole Pacific slope of the Cordillera is subject. The architecture
of Arequipa and Cuzco differs in many respects from that of Lima, for in
both the former cities there are many traces of the strong influences
that the indigenous art of the country had upon that of the conquerors.
The heavy carvings on the façades and doorways of the many churches and
convents in Arequipa betray the influence more than the general design,
and many ornamental forms are introduced that belong entirely to the New
World. The railway from Arequipa crosses the Cordillera at the altitude
of 14,600 feet above the sea, and from the Crucero Alto descends through
rich pasture lands upon which great flocks of llamas, sheep, alpacas,
and the wild vicuna graze.
At the junction Juliaca the line branches, the northern route leading to
the ancient Inca capital. This city Cuzco lies between two streams at an
altitude of 12,000 feet, and is a great favourite with tourists from the
United States, who go in great numbers to see the many interesting
remains of the old civilisation. Although much of the old Temple of the
Sun which aroused the cupidity of the Spanish invaders has given place
to a Jesuit convent, there are still many buildings that retain the
massive walls built by the conquered race. The lower portions of most of
the houses are good specimens of the fine masonry for which the old
builders are distinguished. The lighter construction of the upper
stories is of the Spanish period, with many of its characteristic
architectural features. The other line, that branches south from
Juliaca, leads to Puno, which lies on the shores of Lake Titicaca, where
a steamer completes the connection with the Bolivian shore at Guaqui,
from whence trains depart for La Paz, the capital of Bolivia. Named
after the great Liberator, Simon Bolivar, Bolivia is a large country
covering about 597,000 square miles, bounded on the north, south, and
east by Brazil, Paraguay, and the Argentine Republic, and shut away from
the Pacific seaboard on the west by Peru and Chili. Prior to the
assertion of its independence it was known as Upper Peru, and in its
early years it was virtually a part of a neighbouring State, from which
it derived its name. The country is naturally divided into two portions,
the high lands to the westward and the grean plains that roll away to
the east. The centre of the country is a fertile plateau which is
capable of supporting vast herds of sheep and cattle, and raising all
kinds of crops. The mineral wealth of the country is rich, copper and
gold being found in considerable quantities. But the staple mineral
product is silver, for Bolivia is the third largest producer of silver,
and in the mines of Potosi, which have been worked for centuries, there
would seem to be a practically inexhaustible supply of that precious
metal.
[Illustration: THE JESUIT CHURCH ON THE SITE OF THE INCA “TEMPLE OF THE
SUN.”]
Like so many other of the South American republics, Bolivia possesses
undreamt of potentialities for development, but her industry and her
commerce with the outside world are sadly hampered for want of a port on
the Pacific. Bolivians live in hopes that they will get it one day, not
by force of arms, but through the good offices of Chili. Already an
arrangement has been arrived at with Brazil under which Bolivia has a
better outlet for her products from the north-west. One of her greatest
desiderata is to despatch as promptly and cheaply as possible her large
and valuable supplies of rubber for shipment to the port of Para.
[Illustration: A BOLIVIAN WOMAN.]
Bolivia has been called the cradle of civilisation, and long before the
Incas in the neighbouring State of Peru founded their kingdom it was
inhabited by a cultivated race, who have left behind monuments of their
skill in the shape of statues and buildings strongly wrought of carved
stone. Whatever the warlike prowess of this primitive folk may have
been, it was not sufficiently developed to resist the invasion of the
Incas, and when the Spaniards, under the redoubtable Pizarro, entered
the country, they found it under the domination of the latter race.
Bolivia may also make the unique boast that on its soil was struck the
last blow for South American independence. The victory of Ayacusho,
achieved in December, 1824, proved the death-blow to Spanish domination
in the sub-continent, and it is therefore a landmark not only in the
history of South America, but of the world.
[Illustration: SAILING ON LAKE TITICACA.]
Bolivia may also be proud--if nations should be proud of such
things--that she has had more revolutions than any other State even in
that part of the globe where revolutions are a favourite pastime.
The Bolivians resemble a certain king in one of Browning’s poems, they
have favourites manifold, and shift their ministry
[Illustration: BALSAS ON LAKE TITICACA.]
some once a month. The obvious result of this is that the later history
of the country makes confused and rather weary reading. One dictator
followed another after the collapse of Bolivar’s ambitious dream of
establishing a Central South American dictatorship for himself, with the
heads of all the other communities subject to his authority. Some of
these men, to their credit be it recorded, tried to assume the mantle of
the wise ruler, but others were bloodthirsty tyrants. Few of them stand
out in bold relief like Francia in Paraguay or Bolivar in New Granada.
One of the most celebrated of the bunch was Melgarejo, who in the
sixties of the last century abandoned all pretence of governing by any
sanction except that of brute force and terror. Although the lives of
Bolivians were very insecure, for none of them ever knew when they would
be charged with conspiracy against the State and sent to execution,
Melgarejo’s regime was not one of undiluted evil. The best points in his
rule were exemplified in the application of funds for public purposes,
and before his overthrow in 1871 silver production had enormously
increased, foreign capital had flowed freely into the country, and the
Mollendo Railroad, extending to the head of Lake Titicaca, had been
opened.
The war with Chili, in which she joined forces with Peru, ended
disastrously for Bolivia, for it entailed the loss of her nitrate
territory, and cut her off entirely from the Pacific Ocean.
It is in the retrieving of that highway to the sea that her prosperity
in the future lies.
The highlands of Bolivia have been compared with Thibet, the roof of the
world, but whilst the Asian tableland consists merely of mountain
pastures, that of South America supports towns and populous cities, and
affords food for numerous herds of cattle, llamas, vicunas, and sheep,
and is covered with harvests of cereals. The mineral wealth of Bolivia
lies principally in the western districts, which are consequently the
most populous and settled, containing the chief centres of trade at La
Paz, Cochabamba, Sucre, Potosi, and Oruro. The eastern provinces of Beni
and Santa Cruz cannot as yet point to more than their possibilities,
which are vividly suggested in the description of a traveller from the
United States, who declared that “the few scattered inhabitants gaze
upon a wealth sufficient to pay the national debts of the world.”
The population of the country is something just under three millions.
The trade is principally in the hands of Germany and England, but the
former country is making far greater headway in the Bolivian markets
than are our own merchants and manufacturers. The reason doubtless is
that Germany and also France in a lesser degree are taking the trouble
to find out what the foreign public really requires.