Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1890-06-29
FLEEING THE GRIP.
Experience Of Dispatch Correspond
ent in South America.
CAUGHT AT LAST In BOLIVIA.
Natures Wonders Beyond the Andes Near
the Amazon Headwaters.
The BEAUTIFUL VALLEY OF IUNGAS
rcorrrsroSprScr OF THE prsrArcH,,

rcoKREsPoNpENcE OF THE DIsPATcB,l
La PAz, BOLIVIA, May 24.-We have
been fleeing, far and fast, before the dread
ful grip, but with Indifferent success. 1t
was hoped that the indefatigable traveller,
which has nearly circumnavigated tine
globe. might somehow miss South America,
but like thief in the night it came. appear
ing simultaneously on both sides of the con-
tinent in Buenos Ayres. Valparaiso and
Lima, soon making sad havoc in all the
coast cities.
At that time we were in the midst of
some most interesting researches in Peru;
but as one of our party is consumptive,
travelling expressly to prolong his span of
life, and another had been repeatedly warned
by physicians to escape influenza at any
cost, on account of chronic throat trouble,
we stood not upon the order of going, but
went at once. Stopping awhile in Are
quipa, lovely old city in Eastern Peru, it
happened one day that the whole
garrison of wretched soldiers fell down as
one man under the stern grasp of the grip.
Then we fed to Bolivia, the great but
almost unknown republic that lies, corner
wise, between Peru, Brazil, the Argentine
country and Chill, in the vain hone that the
disease might expend its force near sea level
and not cross the intervening cordilleras of
the Andes, the seven successive walls, snow
topped and sky-piercing, with the deserts
Snd great lake that lie between.
RELENTLESS IN ITS PURSUIT.
But at La Psz again we had reckoned
without our host, and one fine morning
awakened to the knowledge that fully 70
per cent of the city's population were wrest-
ling with the scourgel There was but one
way of escape, to run away into the interior.
An arriero, or muleteer, was quickly en-
gagged, who supplied a mule for each person
and several for carrying our beds, provision,
hampers and other luggage; q mozo, or man.
servant, was taken in tow, and early one
morning the fight into Egypt began.
But alas! The enemy from which we
fed went with US, in the throat of the arriero.
The second day out he developed the grin
In its worst form, which speedily ran into
pneumonia. We were compelled to leave
the poor fellow at farmhouse, after doing
all that was possible for his comfort, leaving
medicines and money with the people who
took him In charge; but in little more than
q week he was dead.
While on the influenza subject, it may
not be amlss to add few facts concerning
its caprices on the Southern Continent. In
the higher attitudes the disease has been
uniformly light, unless the lungs became
involved, in which case death was almost
sure to ensue. Among the people of the
coast larger percentage OF cases have been
fatal. The Chilian newspapers state, with
what truth do not know, that the disease
returned to some villages which it had al
ready devastated and in many instances at
tackled the same victims second time.
ALONG A MOUNTAIN PATHWAY.
The round trip between the cities of La
Paz and Chulumani, the latter being the
capital of the department OF Yungas, is a
distance of about 272 Yankee miles.
Though most of the products that are used
in and exported from Bolivia come from the
narrow Yungas Valley, and though the
Government annually expends large sum
on the alleged road thereto, the only high
way of centuries is mostly a narrow trail,
cut round and round the edges of the
mountains. sometimes zigzagging to and fro
over their perpendicular faces, like the
tacking OF ship. Llamas, those strange
animals that are found only in the Andes,
are also used as beasts of burden in the
mountains, but as they cannot live below
a certain elevation they are never seen near
sea level.
The wonder is that any road at al could
ever have been made in these stupendous
heights. On the first daY out, about Is
miles from La PaZ and 1000 feet above it,
the highest point is attained, called Alto del
Cruz, which is 2,40O ieet higher than the
very top of Pixies Peak, or about 10000
feet nearer the stars than YOU are at home.
The "AltO" extends almost on a dead
level Tor several miles before a gradual
descent begins, At any time of year the
traveller away up here is apt to encounter a
snow storm, the big, round fixes that
look like hail melting as they fall, wetting
his garments through and through, while a
stinging wind chills him to the marrow.
In addition to the usual programme a
thunder storm was thrown in for our enter
tainment lightning playing in the clouds
below and hollow echoes reverbrating from
peak to peak. OF course, our animals
suffered severely and were obliged to halt
every few moments, painting painfully;
while we, between the wet and bitter cold,
had not a breath to spare with which to
urge them onward.
FOUND DEAD IN THE ROAD.
To add to the general melancholy of this
most desolate spot, we passed the body of a
dead man lying prone across the road, with
CLASSY eyes staring up to the cherries skv
Whether he had been murdered or had died
from natural causes, we dared not pause to
investigate, for if the former the finder of
the corpse might be held for months in La
Paz to give testimony In the slow process of
the Bolivian courts. A number of Indians
had just discovered the unfortunate and to
their care we left him.
From time immemorial these lonely noun
tains have been infested with bands of high
waymen, who murder even the Door Indian
on his return to Yungas from the sale OF his
little crop of cocoa for the sake of the few
dollars his half-year's work has gained. At
intervals all along the uninnabited part of
the highway the Government has caused
places of shelter for man and beast to be
erected. These are called tambos, and
each is in charge of a family. The |
evening .1eal, which is called by courtesy
dinner" consists of two things, viz: coffee |
and chupe, the latter kind OF thick |
soup, made of dried sheep which has been |
stewed to the tenderness of an old boot top. |
mixed with a good deal of rice, various |
seeds and vegetables, prominent among
which are onions, all made hotter than so
many spoonfuls of live Goals bv means of |
red peppers and ali. 1t is the national dish |
of Bolivia, among all classes, high and low,
and Thousands of families suDsist entirely |