THE LAND OF MYSTERY--PERU
When we reach the backbone of Peru we are not only above the clouds as
in Bolivia, but we are surrounded by mystery. Here can be seen today the
ruins of temples that were richer perhaps than any of those of the
countries with which we are all so familiar. This article, however, will
largely have to do with the Peruvian country as it is today. You could
take a map of Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, North and South Dakota,
Iowa, Illinois, Missouri, Nebraska and Oklahoma, place them all on the
map of Peru and have territory left.
The country runs largely north and south, having some fourteen hundred
miles of sea coast. In the north is a great desert plain, but in this
almost lifeless desert there is a great valley in which is a most
interesting city. The name of this city is Piura and it is on a small
river bearing the same name. This river is more like the Nile in Egypt
than any other river known. Up and down this river are farms and
plantations with irrigation ditches leading to fields of rice and grain,
sugar cane and cotton as well as other valuable farm products.
But upon the rise of the water in the river depends the life and
prosperity of the people. Like the people of Egypt and the Nile, these
people look upon this river with feelings of reverence. They have a
great feast day for the river. In their spring time when the snows melt
the river gradually rises, spreading over the valley bottom and filling
all the low places and irrigation ditches with water.
As the time for this rise approaches every traveler from upstream is
questioned and on the day the big rise is due the great feast day is
proclaimed and the people, generally five thousand or more, march toward
the coming tide to meet the water. If there is an abundance of water
they are sure of a great harvest. With fife and drum they meet the
oncoming flood and go back with it; if it is a great flood they are
happy and merry, but if the tide is low they are sad and gloomy for they
know that many will be hungry.
It rains here about once in seven years and these are called the seven
year rains. Following the showers there is a wonderful burst of life
everywhere. Quick growing grasses cover the land with a carpet of green
and fragrant blossoms fill the air with sweetness; but in a short time,
except where the irrigation ditches reach the land, the entire region
once more becomes a yellow, parched desert.
In this valley grows the best cotton that is produced anywhere. It is a
well known fact among cotton growers that Piura cotton has a peculiar
strength of fiber that makes it sell for nearly double the price of that
grown in our southern states. As goats can live where other animals will
starve, this valley is also noted for its great goat herds which make
their living on the dry mountain sides.
The greatest seaport of Peru is Callao. If the sea were rough this would
be a dangerous harbor for all ocean liners must anchor far from the
docks as only very small ships can approach them. I counted forty-two
ocean liners in the harbor so you can imagine that it is a busy place.
These liners represented nearly every sea-faring country on the globe.
The city of Callao has had its ups and downs. Some one has said that the
chief product of Peru is revolutions and Callao has had its share of
them. Also, nearly every earthquake along the coast gives this city a
shaking up. At one time many years ago when the city had a population of
some six thousand people there came an earthquake followed by a mighty
tidal wave that only left two persons alive. The very site of the city
sunk beneath the waves of the ocean and never came up, the present city
being built upon a new site entirely.
The short ride from Callao to Lima, the capital city, is interesting.
Here one is introduced to the famous "mud fence," as the fences are all
made of mud. Little patches of ground are tilled and bananas, pears,
oranges, and all kinds of fruit and vegetables as well as corn and other
grain grow in abundance. Everything looks ancient. The ground is plowed
by oxen hitched to a wooden stick. The mud huts and houses of the
farmers are almost as bare of furniture as a hen coop and almost as
dirty. It hardly seems possible that people so near the port as well as
the capital city could be so far behind the times.
The railroad runs along the Rimac river, but this is nearly dry much of
the time, the water being used for irrigating purposes. Everything
smells bad and the people are even dirtier than in Chile. Of course,
there are some beautiful spots in the country and plazas in the cities,
but all this gush about the beauty and loveliness of things in general
makes one tired.
I saw more turkey buzzards and vultures in ten minutes in the city of
Lima than I ever saw before all put together. At the slaughter house one
can see a stream of blood running in the open soil and I suppose the
offals are dumped out for the vultures to devour. The Rockefeller
Foundation has set apart twenty-five million dollars, so I understand,
to be spent in twenty-five Peruvian cities for the purpose of cleaning
them up and providing sanitary systems for them. The leaders of this
foundation have certainly found an appropriate place to spend money. I
have seen four or five of the cities that are to benefit by this
appropriation and they all sure do need cleaning up.
In Lima, of course, I went to the great cathedral. Everybody does this
for it is about the most outstanding thing to be seen. It is said to be
the largest cathedral in South America. The corner stone was laid by the
great Pizarro himself in 1535. His bones are in the cathedral now. I saw
them. They are in a coffin the side of which is made of glass. The very
holes that were made in the bones when they tortured him can be seen.
The guide declared that such is the case and of course he would not yarn
to a stranger in a sacred church.
The houses in Lima are, as a rule, only one story high. The tops are
flat and many of them are almost covered with chicken coops. They say
that many a rooster is hatched, grows up to old age and enters the
ministry without ever having set foot upon the ground.
The small plaza in front of the cathedral is really beautiful and there
are some good substantial buildings around it. The large depot is a
modern, well built stately building. The streets are narrow and the shop
doors are open to the street. The doors of these shops are corrugated
iron and are raised up like the cover of a roll-top desk. Above the
shops are the residences of the more well-to-do class. Little balconies
are built out over the sidewalk and here the "idle rich" ladies sit and
watch the crowds below.
To me a very interesting place was a building that used to be a sort of
a place of refuge something like the cities of refuge we read about in
the Bible. In the wide door, so they say, there used to be a chain
stretched across and any man who could reach this was safe regardless of
the crime he had committed. No officers or law could touch him. Of
course, he was in the power of the keepers of the refuge. They could
enslave him for life or kill him and no law could touch them. At least
this is the story told me by a resident of the city.
But the briefest article about Peru should not leave out at least a
mention of the wonderful mountain railways of the country. The Central
Peruvian railway tracks reach the dizzy height of 15,865 feet above sea
level, which is almost a mile higher than the famous Marshall Pass in
the Rockies. This railroad too is a standard gauge. To reach this
altitude the train passes over forty-one bridges, one of which is two
hundred and fifty feet high. It passes through sixty tunnels, the
highest one of which is the Galeria tunnel, which is 15,665 feet above
the sea.
This railroad, perhaps the most wonderful ever constructed, was built by
Henry Meiggs, an American contractor from New York. Some eight thousand
men were employed in the construction and in some places in order to
gain a foothold to begin their work they had to be swung down from
dizzy heights above and held while they cut a safe place in the rocks.
As might be expected many men were killed during the building of this
railway. Once a runaway engine crashed into a derrick car on the top of
a bridge and the debris can be seen in the valley below to this day.
Several Americans lost their lives in this one accident. It is quite
remarkable, however, that there has not been a single accident where a
life was lost since the construction was completed years ago. This line
is two hundred and fifty miles in length and every mile cost a snug
fortune. It takes a train almost ten hours to reach the summit and the
average rise the entire distance is twenty-seven feet per minute.
Near Callao are some islands which are very interesting to tillers of
the soil especially. In passing them I noticed millions and millions of
birds. For many centuries these islands have been the nesting places for
these sea fowl. Not only have these birds lived and died here but
multiplied thousands of seal have come here to breed. The droppings of
these millions of birds and animals and the accumulating bodies of the
dead have decayed and made a kind of grayish powder. This substance is
called guano and it is hundreds of feet thick.
Hundreds of years ago it was discovered that this substance is the best
fertilizer known. In the early days the Incas took every precaution to
distribute this guano to agriculturists in the country. Districts of
this deposit were allotted to certain territories and the boundaries of
each district were clearly defined and all encroachments upon the rights
of others were severely punished. No one was allowed to go about these
islands during the breeding season under pain of death and the same
penalty was meted out to any man who killed either birds or animals
here.
Of late years millions of dollars worth of this guano have been shipped
to all parts of the world. While the islands are closed to shipping
during the breeding season and it is thought that many of the birds
especially have been frightened away, yet they come in such numbers at
times that it is said that the sky is darkened as they fly over.