the air is full. The El Dorado for which the world was hunting two
centuries ago was but a shadow of the substance said to have been found
here. Away in the heart of the Andes, almost beyond the reach of men,
involving an enormous cost for transportation, and an expense of
operation which miners of modern times would consider unprofitable, the
priests and monks in past centuries found untold tons of treasure. The
one-fifth which was always set apart for the King of Spain, and of which
a record was scrupulously kept by the viceroys, reached into the
millions, and the tithes which were paid to the Church amounted to
millions more. During the last few decades the mines have scarcely been
worked, for as large a product of silver as Peru could consume was found
in more convenient localities.
[Illustration: COWHIDE BRIDGE OVER THE RIMAC.]
The railroad was begun by Mr. Meiggs in 1870. Starting from the sea, it
ascends the narrow valley of the once sacred Rimac, rising five thousand
feet in the first forty-six miles to a beautiful valley, where the
people of Lima have found an attractive summer resort; then it follows a
winding, giddy pathway along the edge of precipices and over bridges
that seem suspended in the air, tunnels the Andes at an altitude of
fifteen thousand six hundred and forty-five feet--the most elevated spot
in the world where a piston-rod is moved by steam--and ends at Oroya,
twelve thousand one hundred and seventy-eight feet above the sea.
Between the coast and the summit there is not an inch of down grade, and
the track has been forced through the mountains by a series of
sixty-three tunnels, whose aggregate length is twenty-one thousand feet.
The great tunnel of Galera, by which the pinnacle of the Andes is
pierced, will be, when completed, three thousand eight hundred feet
long, and will be the highest elevation on the earth’s surface where any
such work has been undertaken. Besides boring the mountains of granite
and blasting clefts along their sides to rest the track upon, deep
cuttings and superb bridges, the system of reverse tangents had to be
adopted in cañons that were too narrow for a curve. So the track zigzags
up the mountain side on the switch and back-up principle, the trains
taking one leap forward, and after being switched on to another track,
another leap backward, until the summit is won; so that often there are
four or five lines of track parallel to each other, one above another,
on the mountain side. Almost the entire length of the road was made by
blasting. There is no earth in sight except what was carted for use in
ballasting, and the work of grading was done, not by the pick and
shovel, but with the drill and hundreds of thousands of pounds of
powder.
[Illustration: INCA RUINS OF UNKNOWN AGE.]
It is estimated that the construction of this road cost Peru seven
thousand lives. Pestilence and accident, landslides, falling boulders,
premature explosions, _sirroche_--a disease which attacks those who are
not accustomed to the rare air of the high latitudes--fevers due to the
deposits of rotten granite, and other causes resulted in a frightful
mortality during the seven years the road was under construction; but
the project was pushed on until the funds gave out. The cost in human
life was no obstacle. At several points it was necessary to lower men by
ropes over the edges of precipices to drill holes in rocks and put in
charges of blasting-powder, and this reckless mode of construction was
attended by frequent fatalities. A curious accident occurred at one
point on the line, where a plumber was soldering a leak in a water-pipe.
A train of mules, loaded with cans of powder, was being driven up the
trail. One of them rubbed against the plumber, who struck at the animal
with his red-hot soldering-iron, which in some way came in contact with
the powder, and caused an explosion that blew the whole train of mules,
the gang of workmen, the plumber, and everybody who was by, over the
precipices, the sides and bottom of which were strewn with fragments of
men and mules for a mile.
[Illustration: A SETTLEMENT OF THIS CENTURY.]
The scenic grandeur of the Andes is presented nowhere more impressively
than along the cañon of the Rimac River, which this railroad follows.
The mountains are entirely bare of vegetation, and are monster masses of
rock, torn and twisted, rent and shattered by tremendous volcanic
upheavals. At
[Illustration: A CITY OF FOUR CENTURIES AGO.]
the bottom of the cañon, and where it occasionally spreads out into a
valley of minute dimensions, are the remains of towns and cities, whose
origin is hidden in the mists of fable, and whose history is unknown.
This region bears no resemblance to any other picture of nature--lifted
above the rest of the world, as coldly and calmly silent, as
impenetrable, as the arctic stars. Here was developed a civilization
which left memorials of its advancement, genius, and industry carved in
massive stone, and written upon the everlasting hills in symbols which
even the earthquakes have been unable to erase. Here are the ruins of
cities which were more populous than any that have existed in Peru
since--evidences of industry which their destroyers were too indolent to
imitate, and of a skill which could cope with everything but the
destructive weapons of the invaders. A survey of their remains justifies
the estimates given of their enormous population, which are that the
people once herded in these narrow valleys were as numerous as those now
spread over the United States. The struggle which they had to sustain
themselves is shown in the traces of their industry and patience. They
built their dwellings upon rocks, and buried their dead in caves, in
order to utilize what soil there was for agriculture. They excavated
great areas in the desert until they reached moisture enough for
vegetation, and then brought guano from the islands of the sea to fill
these sunken gardens. They terraced every hill and mountain side, and
placed soil in the crevices of the rocks, until not an inch of surface
that could grow a stalk of maize was left unproductive.
The steep mountains along the Rimac are terraced up to the very summit,
these terraces being often as narrow as the steps of a stairway, and
many of them are walled up with stone. They are veritable
hanging-gardens, and lie on such slopes that they look as if it were
impossible for any one to get foothold to cultivate them, or even for
the roots of what was planted there to sustain the mighty winds which
sometimes sweep down the valley.
[Illustration: A BIT OF INCA ARCHITECTURE.]
The irrigation system of the Incas was perfect, their ditches extending
for hundreds of miles, and curving around the hills, here sustained by
high walls of masonry, and there cut through the living rock. They were
carried over narrow valleys upon enormous embankments, and show evidence
of engineering skill as great as that which lifted the Meiggs railroad
above
[Illustration: RELIC OF A PAST CIVILIZATION.]
the clouds into the mountains. Massive dams and reservoirs were erected
to collect the floods that came from the melting snows, and the water
was taken to localities which were rainless. Under these conditions, in
this great struggle for existence, the Incas established and sustained a
Government--the first in which the equal rights of every human being
were recognized--and worshipped a being whose attributes were similar to
those of the Christian God. The great sea, breaking with ceaseless
thunder upon the rocky coast, impressed the dweller in the desert with
reverence and awe, and he recognized by an equally natural logic that
the sun was the source of light and happiness. Hence these two objects,
the sun and the sea, were personified, and were seated upon the thrones
in the magnificent pantheons of the Incas. The race which conquered them
came with dripping swords and lust for plunder. Skilled in the arts of
peace, but powerless in war, there was no adequate resistance, and the
blood-and-gold-thirsty Pizarro rode up this valley on a mission of
murder, rapine, and destruction. The towns stand as he left them, with
not even an echo to break the silence. Occasionally the Spaniards built
new places of residence to utilize the improvements of the Incas, but in
1882 the Chilian army came down the valley, and treated the Peruvians as
Pizarro had treated the race which he found here.
[Illustration: RUINS OF THE TEMPLE OF THE SUN.]
A visit to the Incas’ cemeteries, where millions of bodies are buried in
the drifting sand, gives a clew to the extent of the original
population, as well as to their arts, religion, and customs. The dead
were preserved after the custom of ancient Egypt, and a few moments’
toil with a shovel will disclose mummies whose features are perfectly
preserved, whose eyes are petrified, whose fingers are clasped with
rings, and who are surrounded with such implements and utensils as those
who buried them thought they would need in the other world. As the
soldier takes his blanket and the cooking-kit, his food and his
portable treasures, so did the doctrine of future life cause the dead
Incas to be equipped for their departure from one world to another. In
this rainless region, protected by the magnetic sand, nothing can decay,
and the contents of the Inca graves are as well preserved as if their
age were counted by days instead of centuries. Wood, vegetable, and
flesh petrify, fabrics and articles of stone and clay are preserved.
There is no moisture to produce decay of the bodies, and there are no
insects to consume them. The contents of the sand-hills are protected
from every form of destruction, and their extent has never been
measured.
[Illustration: AN OLD SETTLER.]
[Illustration: FRESH FROM THE TOMB.]
It is still fashionable to go on resurrection expeditions to the Inca
burying-grounds for mummies, and for the articles that were placed in
their graves. In each grave are found articles of decoration, as well as
the utensils required by the spirits to set up house-keeping in the
happy land--rings and other ornaments of gold and silver, cups and
platters of both metals made in quaint designs, copper articles, strings
of beads, weaving and cooking apparatus, water-jugs, weapons of war, and
other curiosities that interest antiquarians nowadays. Professor
Ramondi, a distinguished French scientist in Lima, has a collection of
Inca relics for which he was offered two hundred thousand dollars in
gold by the British Museum. Under the patronage of the Government he is
writing a voluminous work on the antiquities of Peru, three volumes of
which have been published, and five more are yet to come.
The most curious things in Peru are the mummies’ eyes--petrified
eyeballs--which are usually to be found in the graves, if one is careful
in digging. The Incas had a way of preserving the eyes of the dead from
decay, some process which modern science cannot comprehend, and the
eyeballs make very pretty settings for pins. They are yellow, and hold
light like an opal. It is an accepted theory among scientists, however,
that before the burial of their mummies the Incas replaced the natural
eye with that of the squid, or cuttle-fish, and that these beautiful
things are shams.
LA PAZ DE AYACUCHO.
THE CAPITAL OF BOLIVIA.
“The Callao painter” is something that skippers dread. Its brush is the
breeze, and its pigments are in the air. It comes and goes without
premonition, and its work is usually done in the night. A vessel will
enter the harbor of Callao with its timbers as white as the virgin snow,
and its planking as clean as holy-stone and elbow-grease can make them.
The disgusted sailors may awaken in the morning and find everything
covered with a brown, nasty film, which penetrates the cabin, and even
the battened hatchways of the vessel, filling the air with a repulsive
odor, and clinging to the wood-work until it is scraped off. It looks
like a chocolate-colored frost, but does not melt in the sun. When it is
damp one can remove it easily, but if it once dries it sticks like
paint, and its tenacity is not easily overcome. The origin and source of
this mysterious and aggravating artist is unknown, but it is peculiar to
that harbor. Nowhere else is the phenomenon noticed, or at least
ship-masters who have sailed the world over say that Callao is the only
place where a ship can be painted inside and outside in a single night.
Of course there are theories about it which may or may not hold good,
and over them scientific minds have argued, and will argue interminably.
Some say that the guano is forced up by vapors into the atmosphere,
while others assert that it is a species of volcanic dust driven through
the water by subterranean forces. However, the only point on which all
agree is that it is a repulsive phenomenon, and has been the cause of
more profanity than anything else which seamen encounter on the west
coast. It is never noticed on land, but only in the harbor, and for a
few miles up and down the shore.
The glory of Callao as a shipping centre has departed. Where formerly
there were a hundred vessels in the harbor, there are only half a dozen
now. The lack of trade in Peru, the poverty of the people, the enormous
tariffs imposed by the Government, and the exorbitant port dues charged,
have driven commerce away. Two years ago the Government in its poverty
and need of funds was willing to dispose of everything it could control
for spot cash, and practically sold the harbor at Callao to a French
company, to whom the docks and anchorage have been leased for a term of
years at two hundred thousand dollars a year. This company has the right
to tax shipping to any extent it pleases, and has established a system
of rules so oppressive as to drive most of the vessels away.
[Illustration: WHERE PERU’S WEALTH CAME FROM.]
From Callao to Valparaiso the coast is a panorama of desolation--a
constant succession of bleak and barren cliffs, with not a green or
lovely thing for fifteen hundred miles. On one side is the Pacific
Ocean, with its great swells sweeping almost around the globe, as
regular and constant as the throbbings of the human pulse. On the other
side rise the impenetrable Andes in a range whose altitude averages
fifteen thousand feet, and whose peaks tower twenty and twenty-two
thousand feet above the sea. Between the ocean and the mountains for a
thousand miles, with a varying width from twenty to fifty miles, lies a
strip of drifting sand, which no rivers water, and where rain never
falls. All the water used by the inhabitants is taken from the ocean,
that for mechanical purposes being used in its natural condition, and
that for food being condensed into steam, and purged of its salt by
machinery. There is not a well or a spring along the coast, and
drinking-water is an article of merchandise, like ice or flour, costing
about seven cents a gallon to the consumers.
Some distance below Callao, upon a great rock which rises from the sea,
and shows an unbroken surface to the western sun, is carved the image of
a candelabra--an eight-horned candlestick--about one hundred feet long
and fifty feet across from end to end of the lower arms. The execution
is perfect, and it is said to be carved in lines about a foot deep and a
yard wide. When and how the picture came there no one can tell. The
oldest sailor on the coast says that the oldest man he knew when a boy
could tell nothing of its origin. They call it “The Miraculous
Candlestick,” and pious Catholics say that St. James dropped it when he
came to Peru and placed himself at the head of the Spaniards, at the
time they were driving the Incas out of their ancient homes.
In the interior of Peru, upon a similar rock, is the imprint of a human
foot as long as a pikestaff, which is supposed to mark where the Apostle
alighted when he dropped down from heaven to aid in the subjugation of
the heathen and the triumph of the Cross. At any rate, like the foot of
St. James, this image of the Holy Candlestick, if made by human labor,
must have cost months and months of toil at a time when such things were
needed to impress the Indians with a reverence for the Church of Rome
and the doctrines it taught. Sometimes, if the wind blows seaward, the
carving is covered by the drifting sand, when the padre of the nearest
village goes down with a lot of Indians to dig it out.
[Illustration: A PERUVIAN PORT.]
The first port of importance on the coast south of Callao is the town of
Mollendo (pronounced _Molyendo_), the western terminus of the railway
that furnishes means of communication for Bolivia and the interior of
Peru to the sea. It was built in 1876 by Henry Meiggs for the Peruvian
Government, at a cost of forty-four million dollars--an enormous average
of one hundred and thirty-five thousand dollars per mile; for it is only
three hundred and twenty-five miles long. Its western terminus is the
highest point now reached by steam, being something over fourteen
thousand five hundred feet above the sea, although the Oroya road will
be higher when it reaches the Cerro del Pasco mines. No other railway in
the world can show an equal amount of excavation or such massive
embankments, but the Oroya road has more tunnels. The line is now under
the management of a Boston man, Mr. Thorndike, and everything is
conducted upon the United States plan. Along the side of the track, for
a distance of eighty-five miles, is an eight-inch iron pipe, for the
purpose of supplying the stations with water, as there is none on the
coast; and it is the longest aqueduct in the world, coming from springs
in the mountains, seven thousand feet above the sea, to the port of
Mollendo.
[Illustration: THE OLD TRAIL.]
Across a hot, lifeless, desolate desert the railway runs one hundred and
seven miles to the city of Arequipa--the name appropriately signifying
“a place of rest;” and it is one of the oldest, most celebrated, and
beautiful towns in Peru, situated in a small oasis in the desert, rich
in its agricultural resources, and surrounded by valuable mines. Just
behind the city is as magnificent and imposing a mountain as can be
found anywhere in the world--the volcano Misti, 18,538 feet high, and
covered with eternal snow. The city was founded by Pizarro in 1540, and
has always been second to Lima in size and importance, being the
political as well as the commercial capital of the Southern provinces,
and the seat of a university which for nearly three hundred years has
been the most famous upon the west coast in South America, and has
[Illustration: AREQUIPA.]
graduated the most eminent scholars and statesmen in the history of
Peru.
Crossing the Paso de Arricroo between the greatest cluster of peaks in
the Andes, south of Quito, the railway reaches Vuicarrago, one hundred
miles from Arequipa, the highest town in the world, where the barometer
in the plaza shows an elevation of 14,443 feet. The ascent to it is
usually made by stages, the traveller taking two or three days for it,
so as to accustom himself gradually to the altitude; for the sudden
change from tide-water to this enormous elevation--a distance of only
two hundred and seven miles--generally brings on that distressing
disease sirroche. It is always painful, and often dangerous. The first
symptom is numbness of the limbs, then dizziness and nausea; the blood
bursts from the ears and nose, the lips crack and bleed, a feeling of
faintness makes it impossible to stand, and there is no cure but
absolute quiet or a return to a lower altitude. During the construction
of the railway a great many men died from the effects of the dreaded
sirroche, which is often followed by a sudden and quickly fatal mountain
fever. Few people escape the ailment, and no animal but the llama and
others of that species native to the mountain regions can survive. At
every town along the road droves of llamas can be seen which have been
driven in from the mountain settlements laden with furs and skins, or
with ore from the mines. The llama is the only beast of burden in the
Upper Andes, and is docile, patient, sure-footed, and speedy. It can
carry a burden of one hundred pounds, which is fastened to a
pack-saddle, and when that weight is exceeded will lie down and refuse
to move until the surplus is removed. The llama is about as large as a
one-year-old colt or a good-sized black-tail buck. It has a heavy coat
of wool; but those that are used for transportation purposes are seldom
sheared.
The vicuña, a sort of gazelle, a gentle, timid animal, is found in large
numbers in the interior of the Andes, particularly in Bolivia. It is
fawn-colored, has long, soft, silken hair, with a peculiar gloss that
resembles what are known as “changeable
[Illustration: THE VICUÑA.]
silks,” and changes color in different lights. In the old Inca days,
before the Spanish invasion, centuries ago, the vicuña was the royal
ermine of the Inca kings, and no one but the Imperial family and nobles
of a certain rank was allowed to wear it. The animal was also protected
by some sacred tradition, and was allowed to go unharmed in the forests,
where it accumulated in great numbers; but the Spanish invaders,
regardless of all rights, human and divine, hunted it down, and
slaughtered it for food. The Indians expected that some severe penalty
would be visited upon the invaders for destroying and eating the sacred
animal, and lost faith when they escaped divine retribution. Now vicuña
skins are very scarce and are expensive, and the natives attempt to
[Illustration: LAKE TITICACA.]
impose upon strangers who seek them robes made of the skins of guanaco
kids, killed and skinned the moment they are born.
The guanaco is supposed to be a cross of the vicuña and the llama, and
is next in value and beauty to the vicuña. If the kid is killed the
moment it is born the hair has the same color, and is about as fine as
the genuine vicuña, but is not so long or so luscious. This animal is
numerous, easily domesticated, and breeds rapidly. It is almost as
plentiful in South America as the goat, and is valuable for its skin and
flesh. The body is deep at the breast, but narrow at the loins, and is
covered with long, soft, very fine hair, which is usually a pale yellow,
except under the belly, where it is a beautiful snowy white. It has many
of the characteristics of the North American deer, being very
swift-footed and graceful, combined with the strength and endurance of
the llama, being able to carry a load of from seventy-five to one
hundred and twenty-five pounds for a long distance. The flesh resembles
that of the antelope, but is not as juicy as venison. The skin is
invaluable to the Indians, as it furnishes the material of which their
garments are made. Occasionally in the stomach of a guanaco is found
what is called a “bezoar” stone, a magical sort of affair, which will
cure any kind of disease if carried in the pocket. Large numbers of
guanaco skins are sent to Europe, where they are used for carriage
robes, for lining coats and cloaks, for trimming, and for other purposes
to which fine fur is adapted. Large quantities of alpaca and also llama
wool are exported from Chili and Peru; some of it comes to the United
States.
The alpaca is a sort of cross between the llama and the sheep. The
llamas, alpacas, and guanacos have a peculiar way of defending
themselves. If abused or made angry by teasing, they will turn upon
their assailants, and squirt a pint or so of saliva, like a shower-bath,
from between their teeth, being able to throw it with great force five
or six feet. If this saliva gets into the mouth or eyes, or upon any
place on the flesh where the skin is broken, it is poisonous, and
inflammation sets in at once. It is said that men frequently die of
blood-poisoning from this cause, and a native will keep clear of the
nose of a vicious guanaco as a colored person will avoid the heels of an
Irish mule.
[Illustration: A STREET IN CUZCO.]