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.