Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1890-08-02
AMONG THE BOLIVIANS
A South American Republic and How
It is Governed.
NATIVES AND THEIR CUSTOMS
Where Indians OutnunIber the White
People Three to One-IzOw q Presi.
dent Changed His Cabimet-S0methinE
About Bolivian Lava.
TEE sTAa's Travelling Commissioner.


IA was originally part of the old Spanish
province of Peru, and arrived at the dig
entity of a separate republic through the
~ efforts of the Venezuelan liberator Of
the continent, Simon Bolivar, and hence its
name, Bolivia. Since Chill has taken off
corner OF it the republic now contains 81, $50
square leagues, making it about twice as large
as France and three times as large as Spain.
As nearly as can be appropriated in a country
where the census is never taken and many of
the natives remain to this day uncounted, its
population is about two millions, hardly one
fourth Of which number are whites.
There are several varieties of the native and
mixed races, from the cholos (half breeds) and
civilized Quichuas and Aymaras of La Paz and
other cities, to the still unconquered aborig-
ines that prowl about the upper waters of the
Amazons. Little is known of these savage
tribes beyond the fact that they wear abso-
lutely no clothing and lead as nomadic lives as
the Arabs of the desert. So far they have sue
cessfuIly resisted all attempts to coax or corral
into the habits of civilization, and until re-
cent period they were extremely hostile to any
white people who passed their territory, either
in boats by the river or through the tangled
forests
HOW TIE NATIVES WE'RE PUNISHED.
The story goes that their active hostility was
checked by an accident that happened in this
wise: few years ago when the Bolivian gov
eminent was making a survey Of the Madeira
river camp was established on the bank of
that stream near its celebrated falls. Soon
after its location one of the men came down
with smallpox, and of course he was imme-
diately isolated from the rest of the party.
hut having been built for him half mile
farther into the forest. Though carefully at
tended by the camp physician recovery was
impossible, and one day while the good doctor
was bending over his dying patient the hut
door was suddenly darkened by half dozen
naked denizens of the woods bent on deadly
mischief. The physician managed to escape.
but the sufferer was assisted in his exit from
this world by the thrust of a wooden spear,
and the Indians carried off in triumph his gar
ments, bed and everything portable about the
nut They carried off also more than they
were aware Of in the shape Of the white mans
most dreaded disease, and soon nearly the
whole tribe died of black smallpox. The sur
vlvors regarded the occurrence as a direct
punishment from the Great Spirit and have
since let the pale faces religiously alone.
POISONED ARROWS.
These savages and others that inhabit the
almost unknown Amazonian frontiers of Peru
and Bolivia kill their game with tiny poisoned
arrows blown through reed guns ten or twelve
feet long. The arrows are made of a species Of
iron wood or tipped with a bit Of flint
poisoned at the point. Strange to saw though
the merest scratch Of one Of the arrows causes
death in less time than it takes to tell it, the
flesh of the animals killed thereby can be eaten
with impunity, as the poison acts only through
the blood. producing paraly sis and instant
death, but is comparatively harmless when
taken into the stomach. South American In
dams kill more birds, tapirs, jaguars and even
larger animals with the blow-gun than the
most expert hunters Of other lands can bring
down with the best rifles, and when these Poi
soned sticks become weapons Of warfare they
are more to be dreaded than grape and can
lister. The deadly weapons are perfectly noise
less and cannot be distinguished among the
dense foliage when in the hands of savage
perched like a monkey in the branches Of a
tree.
SECRET OF THE POISON.
The secret Of the poison has never been re-
vealed, it being kept within the knowledge of
few medicine men, of each tribe, and
handed down from the father to the son. Sir
Robert Thornburg, who has made polsons a
life study, says that 1T is probably distilled
from the sap OF the strychnos toxifera. a shrub
resembling that which supplies the Quaker
button" OF commerce, from which strychnine
is made Others assert that it is taken from
the poison glands of yenomous serpents More
terrible still to contemplate Is the possibility
that 1t 10 derived from the putrefaction OF
human corpses. A recent writer states that
| the dead bodies after battle, and often those
OF prisoners taken in war, are devoted to this
diabolical purpose; being stuck full of arrow
points and left in the sun for weeks or months,
until the flesh is all decayed and the arrows
thoroughly saturated in putrefaction. After
being subjected to that process, even those
who prepare the arrows must handle them with
the greatest caution, as the slightest puncture
or Craze Of the skin means quick and horrible
death by poison for which there is no anti
dote. instances are known where arrows of
this sort which have lain for many years in
museums have killed those who carelessly han
died them.
THE MOUNTAINS.
Scarcely one-fourth Of Boliyia's area Is under
cultivation, a large portion Of it being occupied
by sky-piercing mountains. The great Andean
system, that extends from Panama to Patago-
MIA, here divides into two distinct ranges; that
running nearest the sea having but few peaks
Of extraordinary height, while the eastern
range, known as the Cordillers Real Royal
mountains, q name we'll deserved), divides
AGAIN into five separate parallel chains extend
ing north and south. All the principal peaks
as well as the various ranges bear local names
Of a jaw-breaking character, with most of
which need not trouble you.
The third range, counting from the sea, is
called the Portugalate, and in it are some
famous silver mines and considerable town.
all of the same name Potosi. with its ex-
hsustIess treasures of gold and silver, is also
among these mountains and Choralque. a peak
nearly 10000 feet high. Near Potosi the great
Cordillera Real scatters off into four minor
ranges, the first three Of them spreading out
near the center OF the republic and surround
ing the fertile valley Of Ccchabamba. Farther
northward these four parallel rows of noun
tains reunite with the main range and form what
is known as the Nuda de Cochabamba Thence
they all run on together in five unbrokep lines
away up to Cuzco in central Peru, a distance OF
more than 700 miles, and all the way north
from Cochabamba the mountains are continue
ally covered with ice and snow. In this repub-
lie the Andes present their most bleak and for
bidding aspect, as we'll as their grandest views.
than q hundred peaks, among the highest of
which are Illimani, over 26, 600 feet, aud ILL.,
yapa, which attains an altitude Of q, $50 feet
THE CITIES.
Though Sucre, or Chuquisaca, IL the real
capital of Bolivia, as incorporated in the con-
stitution by the first republican congress, the
constitution also says that congress may be
called either at La Paz or Oruro, according to
uated exactly in the center Of Bolivia 1877
leagues from La Paz. The legislative power is
composed Of two houses, senate and chamber
of deputies. They convene but once year.
the ordinary length OF a session being sixty
days. There is supposed to be one deputy for
every 40, 900 people, as nearly as the number
Of inhabitants Is known. Each department of
Bolivia sends the senators, department"
being about the same as q state in the United
States. Every department. is divided into
three provinces, and each province has q capt.
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