Oruro

“ There are borax deposits in the western part of the department, but the output is small.
The capital of the department is Oruro, 115 m. S.S.E. (direct) of La Paz; it is an old mining town dating from the 17th century, when it is said to have had a population of 70,000. The census of 1900 gave it a population of 13,575, the greater part of whom are Indians. A considerable number of foreigners are interested in the neighbouring mines. The elevation of Oruro is 12,250 ft. ”

“ From the Pacific coast to the Paraguay river, on the parallel of 18° south latitude, there are three different climates; that of Oruro, cold, with an unproductive soil, thinly populated, and the inhabitants generally poor; the towns becoming every year more and more depopulated, and the resources of the country less valuable than in former years. ”

“ Many who go down to engage in 151railroad construction, to work in mines or smelter, or even to fill office positions in cities, soon become tired and return; others are fascinated with the life, being successful, and persons of more importance than they would be at home, and they are glad to settle permanently in those countries.
Oruro is an important mining town of about 20,000 people, with a very good hotel, the Unión, facing the pretty Plaza. Arriving on Wednesday or Saturday at Oruro, one may the same evening at 7.30 take the express train for Antofagasta, a ride of 36 hours. ”

“ Oruro—Mineral districts and mining operations—“Barilla”—Freighting ore by llamas—Future of mining in Oruro—Attempted revolution in Oruro—Night attack on the Quartel—Start from Oruro for Tacna—The river Desaguadero—The ferry called La Barca—Llollia—Escape of the mules during night—Indian cooking arrangements—Dress and appearance of Indian men and women—El Cruzero—“Quinoa”—Heavy storms—Electrified state of the atmosphere—Peculiar strata observed near El Cruzero—Curahuara de Carangas—Its church, people, and parish priest—Travelling jewellers—Mining prospects of the district. ”

“ The population now is about sixteen thousand, although during the boom it rose to over twenty thousand, of whom more than five thousand were foreigners. A good percentage were Chileans.
Apart from its importance as a mining centre, Oruro has for some time been distinguished as a railroad terminal. A line from here to Potosí is planned. A line from Oruro to Cochabamba, on whose fertile valleys Oruro depends for its food-supply, is in course of construction. The Bolivia Railway’s line to La Paz has recently been completed. The road to Antofagasta has been running since 1892. ”

“ As I expected, the revolution had entirely broken up the posta service between Oruro and Tacna, as well as that upon the La Paz road, so I had to suffer a week’s detention at Oruro, whilst looking out to purchase baggage mules. Animals of every kind were very scarce, but I was fortunate enough to secure a couple, though at very high prices; and our host, finding that we could not purchase any others, lent my companion Alfredo a baggage mule, and so we were at length provided for our journey on to Tacna. ”

“ There are many foreign residents with several clubs and life is not so dismal as may at first glance appear, although the climate at this altitude of 12,500 feet in the exposed position on the plain is a trifle raw. The Government Palace and the University building face the Plaza, and the city boasts of a theater, a public library and a mineralogical museum, as well as the usual churches, hospitals, and schools. Oruro was noted during the colonial period as next to Potosí in the richness and production of its mines and in 1678 is said to have had 76,000 inhabitants. ”

“ With these few remarks upon the routes from Bolivia to the ocean, I will take up the description of the road viâ Potosí and Oruro to Tacna and Arica. In preparing for this journey a traveller should engage a servant who knows the road well; and there are plenty of handy fellows always on the look out for such service. ”

“ After the Congress I retraced my steps into Bolivia by way of the west coast, Arequipa, and Lake Titicaca. Picking up the overland trail again at Oruro, I continued my journey across Bolivia and Peru, via La Paz, Tiahuanaco, and Cuzco, thence by mules over the old Inca road as far as Huancayo, the present terminus of the Oroya-Lima Railroad. At Abancay I turned aside to explore Choqquequirau, the ruins of an Inca fortress in the valley of the Apurimac ”

“ The capital, Oruro, 127 miles south of La Paz, while for years the terminus of the railway from Antofagasta, became an important commercial and industrial centre; in [Pg 216] addition it is one of the busiest mining districts. Half of the mining men are foreigners; a large proportion of the ordinary population is Indian. There is also agreeable society, with people quite up to date in Paris fashions. The only other city in the Department is Challapata.
Cochabamba, south of El Beni, east of La Paz and west of Santa Cruz, is sometimes called the granary of the Republic. ”

“ The richest veins are, however, those only that pay for working at present, on account of the great distance that has to be traversed between Oruro and any seaport. Most of the mercantile houses engaged in Bolivian [349] trade have agencies in the town, and there are several Englishmen and Americans engaged in mining, with as good results as can be expected in the absence of other means of transport for the ore than llamas and donkeys. ”

“ From Asunción one travels up the Paraguay River to Corumbá in Brazil, thence, by a small affluent to Puerto Suárez, eighty-one miles distant on the frontier, thence by a zigzag course of eight hundred miles up the rising elevation to Santa Cruz, a thriving city of 20,000 population, and thence to Cochabamba, still larger and 8000 feet in altitude. From here there is a stage line over one hundred and ten miles of mountainous country to Oruro, where connection is made with the Antofagasta-La Paz railway to the capital. ”

“ The females are invariably the best saddle mules.
Vinchuta is the eastern commercial emporium of Bolivia, but foreign manufactures come down from the mountains of the country instead of up the rivers from the sea. After the cotton goods, glass ware, and 200 cutlery of Europe and North America are disembarked at Cobija, they traverse the Cordilleras over rocky roads, through the desert of Atacama, the barren plains of Oruro, over the Andes, and down those terrible roads we have just travelled. ”

“ On the following day, January 12th, our work was from Llollia to El Cruzero, fourteen leagues, and although we roused up at five o’clock, it took a couple of hours to get the cargoes up and ready for the start. Notwithstanding a heavy hail-storm and rain yesterday evening and during the night, the road was not bad for travelling, as the pampas were more elevated and sandier than those nearer Oruro. Hereabouts there are many ranchos scattered over the pampa, and good crops of barley, potatoes, and quinoa were growing. ”

“ The outlet of Lake Titicaca, the Desaguadero river, flows southward into Lake Pampa-Aullaguas, or Poöpo, on the eastern side of the department near the Cordillera de los Frailes. Lake Pöpo is 12,139 ft. ”

“ To the north-west of both these big rivers lies the great unexplored region, the land of the Bolivian and Peruvian cannibals.
Small need have we to continue to hunt and shoot in Africa, wildly interesting though the country is, when such a marvellous tract of tens of thousands of square miles is hidden here, all unvisited as yet by a single British explorer.
And what splendid possibilities for travel and adventure are here! A land larger than Great Britain, France, and Ireland thrown together, which no one knows anything about; a land rich in forest and prairie ”

“ Bolivia includes several regions quite different in their character. Nearly all the western part is a desert, with a few mining towns scattered here and there, a desert enclosed by the two great almost parallel Cordilleras of the Andes. ”

“ Below this mountainous area the ranges open out and enclose extensive plateaus. The western range, the Cordillera Occidental, a part of the boundary between Bolivia and the northern provinces of Chile, closely follows the coast outline and forms the western rampart of the great Bolivian tableland or alta-planicie, which extends from the Vilcanota knot in Peru, south to the Serrania de Lipez on the Argentine frontier, is 500 m. ”

“ The popular conception of Bolivia is that of an extremely rugged mountainous country, although fully three-fifths of it, including the Chiquitos region, is composed of low alluvial plains, great swamps and flooded bottomlands, and gently undulating forest regions. In the extreme south are the Bolivian Chaco and the llanos (open grassy plains) of Manzo, while above these in eastern Chuquisaca and southern Santa Cruz are extensive swamps and low-lying plains, subject to periodical inundations and of little value for agricultural and pastoral purposes. ”

“ I say the man is alive, full grown, and listening to what I say, who will yet see the Asiatic commerce traversing the North Pacific ocean—entering the Oregon river—climbing the western slope of the Rocky Mountains—issuing from its gorges—and spreading its fertilizing streams over our wide extended Union! ”

“ This is one of the richest districts of Bolivia and is capable of sustaining a large population.
The river-systems of Bolivia fall naturally into three distinct regions—the Amazon, La Plata and Central Plateau. The first includes the rivers flowing directly and indirectly into the Madeira, one of the great tributaries of the Amazon, together with some small tributaries of the Acré and Purús in the north, all of which form a drainage basin covering more than one-half of the republic. The two principal rivers of this system are the Mamoré and Beni, which unite in lat. ”

“ But, as the greater part of Bolivia’s territory is that which falls away from the plateau, like a lady’s train, northward and eastward to the frontiers of Brazil and Paraguay, a more comprehensive and impressive acquaintance with the country can be had by entering either from the north, via the Amazon and Maderia rivers to Villa Bella on the Brazilian frontier, and thence over a thousand miles on horseback to La Paz, or from the east, starting from our last resting place at Asunción in Paraguay. ”

“ In southern Bolivia we had followed a long valley running in a north and south direction, but here our route lay across the valleys. Sometimes we followed the coach road for several leagues and then took a short cut down a steep hillside. At times we did not see a single hut in the twelve or fourteen miles separating the postes. While not quite so sandy and{152} desolate as the region farther south, still it impresses one as being extremely inhospitable and unlikely ever to support a larger population. ”

“ Oran, I have been informed, canoes can be obtained for Corrientes, a distance by river of about 900 miles. The land journey is a rough one, as it passes over a very mountainous country, but probably a traveller would find more resources en route than by the Santa Cruz and Curumbá line. Both Cinti and Tarija are places of considerable trade, and the former is specially noted for its wines and spirits, which find their way, not only all over Bolivia, but into the neighbouring republics of Peru and Chili. ”

“ Waiilatpu is just that—a creek-bottom—the creeks on either side of it fringed with trees; higher land shutting out the view in front; isolation and solitude the most striking features of the place. Yet here came a man and a woman to live and to labor among the savages, when all the old Oregon territory was an Indian country. Here stood the station erected by them: adobe houses, a mill, a school-house for the Indians, shops, and all the necessary appurtenances of an isolated settlement. Nothing remains to-day but mounds of earth, into which the adobes were dissolved by weather, after burning. ”

“ After a delightful three weeks spent between Lima and some friends who lived a few miles out, my uncle sent me word that my ship had sailed, and, as I had enjoyed my holiday, and seen all there was to be seen in the capital of Peru, and now felt ready for work, he proposed to introduce me to the officials of the famous Oroya Railway then in course of construction from Monserrat on the outskirts of Lima, over the Andes Mountains,128 through the valley of the River Rimac, and down the eastern slope to the Indian City of Oroya at the headwaters of the Amazon. ”

“ The range of mountains which extend in width from the head waters of the Missouri, Yellow Stone, Platte, and Arkansas rivers, almost to the shores of the Pacific ocean, is but a continuation of the Andes, which run parallel with the Pacific ocean, entirely from Terra del Fuego, through Chili, Peru, Quito, Guatamala, and Mexico, to the Oregon, and become finally lost in the frozen regions of the north. These mountains are, in manj'- respects, the same in character with those of the south ; they rise in many places above the line of perpetual snow. ”

“ This is the apex of the delta, and here the Niger is, indeed, majestic. From each of these main channels of discharge spring countless others, turning and twisting in fantastic contours until the whole country is honeycombed to such an extent as to become converted into an interminable series of islands. The vastness of the horizon, the maze of interlacing streams and creeks, winding away into infinity, the sombre-coloured waters, the still more sombre unpenetrable mangrove forests—here and there relieved by taller growth—impress one with a sense of awe. ”