Edward Davis Mathews

“ No scheme that has for its object the opening-up of the country on any other sides than its northern and eastern can effect this result; for there alone exist immense plains and tracts of country suitable for any kind of agriculture or cattle-rearing. On the western side, the barren and inaccessible heights of the Andes forbid any attempts at settling, while the southern and eastern territory of the Gran Chaco is a cheerless swamp, never capable of affording a home to other than the irreclaimable savage, or the wild animals of the fast-decreasing forests of the continent. ”

“ While in Trinidad I was honoured by a “baile,” or ball, at which, as I had the privilege of supplying the drinks, chicha mascada was rigidly tabooed. At this dance all the respectable families of the town attended, and the affair was a very ceremonious one. We had a full wind and string band of Indians, who played some very fair polka and quadrille music, in which the bass accompaniment of the “bajones” was very prominent. This “bajo” is like an enormous Pan-pipe, or like half a dozen organ tubes, made of bamboo. ”

“ Wherever practicable, we shot the poor beasts, and left their carcases for the condors, eagles, and vultures that are continually soaring over the mule tracks of the Andes on the look-out for their horrid banquet. Often, when riding over the Andes, a huge dark shadow comes suddenly over the path, and the traveller, looking upwards, sees the magnificent condor floating in the bright sunlight and rising to his resting-place amongst the snow-clad peaks. ”

“ The San Antonio, where we first crossed it, is about a mile in width, forming, at this dry season, an immense playa of water-worn stones, through which the river finds its way in shallow channels, whilst during the rains the whole width is covered with a very turbulent and rapid stream, perfectly impassable by man or beast. ”

“ It is not, therefore, too much to say that the realization of the Madeira and Mamoré Railway may be made the means of materially changing and improving the present deplorable financial and political situation of the republic. It is, however, hopeless to expect that the men in power should have sufficient foresight or courage to enable them to foster such an important and promising scheme of progress for their country. ”

“ Politics in Bolivia are best described as purely personal, for the different political parties seem to spring up, change, and die out according as some ambitious leader comes to the front, and soon gives place to a newer man. During my stay in the republic I tried to discover whether there was any difference in the policy of the parties, but, to my perhaps limited vision, they all seemed embued with the same creed, namely, either to turn or keep your adversary out of place and power. ”

“ The scenery in these parts is wild and gloomy, the hills being almost denuded of any kind of vegetation except a long rough grass, which seems to give good pasturage to the cattle, roaming about apparently quite untended or watched by any one. The view from the hills looking across the pampas of Arani and Cliza would have been very fine had it not been much obscured by clouds of dust, and by the mirage left by the intense heat of the mid-day sun. ”

“ Of fish and game, the forest and the river yield an abundant supply to the settler or traveller. Besides turtle in any quantity, alligators are in great numbers. The former is a favourite food of the Indian labourers of Brazil and Eastern Bolivia, who are also not at all averse to a dish of the latter; and I can vouch for the fact that the tail of a young alligator not more than three or four feet in length is a most excellent dish, being as nearly like filleted sole as can be imagined. When the reptiles grow to a larger size, the flesh has a very repugnant flavour and smell of musk. ”

“ A new enterprise has lately been started in London, with the object of placing tugs and barges on the Amazon, and the Madeira and Mamoré Railway Company will doubtless run its own craft between Pará and San Antonio, the terminus of its railway on the Madeira River. The Amazon, therefore, is likely in future years to bear a considerable increase of steam shipping on its broad bosom, for attention seems to be almost universally directed to the magnificent facilities that it offers, for the ready export to the European markets of the produce of Northern Brazil, Peru, and Bolivia. ”

“ To my mind, the Bolivians will never be a people that merit respect until they do away with the numerous chicha mascada shops that are to be found in every town and village, and on every road, throughout the republic. The very idea of the horrid thing is [156] enough to demoralize any people, and how a custom derived from savages can have taken such firm hold upon a people of Spanish descent, is hard to imagine. I must, however, at the same time say that there are numerous Bolivian families amongst the higher classes in which the chicha mascada is never allowed to be seen or used. ”

“ Bolivia is seated upon the masses of silver of the double range of the Andes. She has a territory fertile beyond measure, where the treasures of the most opposite climates are grouped together. With all this, Bolivia perishes from consumption for want of methods of communication which may carry to the markets of the world her valuable productions, and stimulate her sons to labour and industry. ”

“ The banks are, as a rule, much higher and better defined than those of the Amazon, there being few, if any, lagoons on its course from Serpa to the rapids.
The only trade of consequence at present on the river Madeira is the collection of rubber, the forests on either bank abounding in groves of the Syphonia elastica, the tree that yields this valuable product. The rubber trade, as at present carried on, on this river, is a most delusive one, and few, if any, of the speculators have gained fortunes from their labours. ”

“ There are a few merchants and storekeepers of considerable position and resources, whose principal trade appears to be the export of cocoa to Cochabamba and Santa Cruz, receiving in return flour and potatoes from Cochabamba, and dry goods from Santa Cruz, these latter being brought thither from the Brazilian town of Curumbá, on the river Paraguay. The merchants are all Bolivians of Spanish descent, but the bulk of the population is formed of Mojeño, or Trinitario Indians, who appear to me to be the most intelligent, as they certainly are the best-looking, of all the tribes of the Beni. ”

“ There are, however, no public horse or cattle fairs in Bolivia, the trade in animals being carried on quietly between the owners of the flocks of sheep and droves of oxen that one sees on the hills, and the butchers. The beasts are always killed, and their carcases dressed and cut up at public abattoirs outside the town, the meat being sold in the plazas or market-places, there being no butchers’ shops in any of the streets. The houses of Sacába are decently built in regular streets, but as the town is situated in a stony plain, the dust was very trying when a strong north wind was blowing. ”

“ I can only hope that Colonel Church may be spared to a long life, during which he may reap the due reward of his steadfastness of purpose and integrity of motives, by seeing the development of the country, which will then hail him as its best and truest friend since the days of the great liberator Simon Bolivar, who may be said to have given it independence or birth, while Colonel Church will have given it lungs, through which to breath the invigorating stimulus of intercourse with the civilization of Europe. ”

“ The climate of Cochabamba may, in my opinion, be classed amongst the finest of the world, as it enjoys an almost perpetual summer, whilst the nights are pleasantly cool, and therefore invigorating to constitutions depressed by the humid heat of the Madeira and Amazon valleys. There seems to be but little difference all the year round. Certain months have more rain than others, the wettest months being November to January, but even then the rain only falls in the shape of good heavy showers, lasting, perhaps, an hour or so, when the sun breaks out again. ”

“ It is a very bad plan to be continually beating one’s peons, or Indian servants, for every fault they commit. A patron who always has a blow or a bad word for his men cannot expect even Indians to esteem him or work willingly for him; but it must be borne in mind that there is no law or authority to appeal to in the solitudes that have to be travelled through in the centre of South America: in fact, the patron must be the judge, and frequently the executioner as well, of the law ”

“ The resumption of the railway works has led me to think that some interest would attach to a description of a route across South America that has yet been but little travelled over. It has also occurred to me, that nowadays, when the Eastern trip to India, China, Japan, and home viâ San Francisco and New York, has been done by so many [viii] there may be adventurous spirits in search of new worlds to conquer, who would be pleased to know of a journey offering the combined attractions of canoeing on the magnificent affluents of the Amazon and a journey in the saddle across the Andes. ”

“ The tambo of Bolivia is not so well managed as the travelling bungalow of India, where the wayfarer not only finds a room, but also finds the necessary articles of furniture, such as a cot and washing apparatus, while there is always an attendant who can prepare a repast if the traveller has no servant of his own. In Cochabamba the tambo, as a building, outwardly is all well enough, but the rooms are small, dark, and badly ventilated, and in place of furniture a brick or mud shelf, of a width sufficient for sleeping on, is built up in one corner, or right across the end of the room. ”

“ Leñas is a single house, situated in a small plain surrounded entirely by rugged rocky eminences, amongst which Alfredo and the two mozos had great sport hunting “biscachas,” a lively little animal that makes its home in the holes of the rocks, and is so much like them in colour, a dark bluish grey, that a very sharp look-out is wanted to distinguish them. In shape they appear to be a cross between a squirrel and a rabbit, having the tail and ears of the former, and head and body of the latter, to which, when cooked, they assimilate greatly in flavour. ”

“ One would not think that the women required any protection from the sun’s rays, for their faces are like their hands and ankles, of a deep brown colour, from the accumulated dust of years; whilst a red glow, that the cold winds give them, aids the semblance of their skins to well-seasoned mahogany. ”

“ After crossing the summit of the pass the descent to the Pacific coast is commenced, and the steep nature of the western slope of the Andes becomes conspicuous at once. Indeed the whole aspect of the country changes, for there are no more pampas or table-lands in sight, and no grass or other signs of vegetation. Owing to the almost total absence of rainfall, nothing green or growing is to be seen on the western slopes of the Andes, except in the bottom of the ravines, where, by skill and hard labour, some industrious “ranchero” has been able to effect a little irrigation. ”

“ The number of dead mules and donkeys, together with the whitened bones of former corpses, scattered over the plain was something [376] extraordinary, giving such a melancholy look to the place that it seems strange indeed that travellers should make it a halting-place; and how any one could be found to live there, and keep up the posada, was one of those things that pass an ordinary person’s comprehension. Probably this excessive mortality is caused by the “soroche,” or “mountain sickness,” which is doubtless strongest in its effects at this point of the journey over the Andes. ”

“ There is a tradition that the name of Misericordia was given to this rapid after a dreadful occurrence that is said to have happened in the early part of this century, when a party of Brazilian soldiers from the province of Mato Grosso descending the rapids, one of their canoes wrecked in mid-stream; some of the men succeeding in temporarily escaping to the rock, on which, their comrades being unable to afford them any help by ropes, or approach them with canoes, they were starved to death in sight of, but absolutely out of the reach of, their comrades. ”