The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1890-08-03
Tn SOUTH AMERICA,
Where Indians Outnumber White
People Three to One.
ABOUT THE BOLIVIAN LAWS.
And the Manner in Which They are Pro-
mulgated- President Changed
His Cabinet.

BOLIVIA, July 90, 1S90.-[Special CORES
nondence of TIE HERALD This interior
division Of South America was originally
part of the cid Spanish province of Peru,
and arrived at the dignity of separate re-
public through the efforts of the Venezue
Ian liberator of the continent, Simon Boil
var, and hence its. name, Bolivia. Since
Chilli has taken off corner of it, the re-
public now contains 50 $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 unconnted,
its population is about two millions, hardly
one-fourth of which number are whites.
There are several varieties of native and
mixed races, from the choios (half- breeds)
and civilized Quichuas and Aymaras of La
Paz and other cities to the still unconquered
aborigines that prowl about the upper
waters of the Amazon. Little is known of
these savage tribes beyond the fact that
they wear absolutely no clothing and lead
as nomadic lives as the Arabs of the deS-
ert. So far, they have resisted all attempts
to coax or corral them into the habits of
civilization, and until a recent period they
were extremely hostile to any white
people who passed their territory,
either in boats by the river or
through the tangled forests The story
goes that their active hostility was checked
by an accident that happened In this wise
A few years ago when the Bolivian gov
eminent was making surNoy OF the Ma
deira 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 small pox, and of course he was
Immediately isolated from the rest of the
party, hut having been built for him half
mile farther into the forest. Though
carefully attended by the camp physician,
recovery was impossible, and one day while
the good doctor was bending over his dy-
ing 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 wooden spear, and
the Indians carried of in triumph his gar
ments, bed, and everything portable about
the hut. They carried off even 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 small
pox. The survivors regarded the occur
renee as d ulrecb puHlSuuonb lrOu1 Tue
Great Spirit, and have since let the pale
faces religiously alone.
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 species of iron-wood, or
tipped with bit of flint poisoned at the
point. Strange to say, though the merest
or1h Of nraa of fhaca .ot 4
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 paralysis and
instantaneous death, but is comparatively
harmless when taken into the stomach,
South American Indians 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 pois
oned sticks become weapons of warfare
they are more to be dreaded than grape ano
canister, The deadly weapons are perfectly
noiseess, and can be distinguished among
the dense foliage when in the hands OF 3
savage perched like monkey in the
branches of a tree
The secret of the poison has never beer
revealed it being kept within the know.
ledge of a few medicine men, of each
tribe, and handed down from the father x
the son. Sir Robert Thornburg, who has
made poisons life study, says that it il
probably distilled from the sap of the
stsgchnos toriferd, shrub resembling thai
which supplies the ''Qaker button" of com
merce, from which strychnine is made
Others assert that it is taken from the
poison glands of venemous serpants. More
terrible still TO contemplate is the posi-
bility that 1t il derived from the putrefac
ton 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; be
ing stuck full of arrow points and left il
the sun Tor weeks or months, until tn,
flesh is all decayed and the arrows tho
roughly saturated in putrefactlon. Afte
being subjected to that process, even thos
who prepare the arrows must handle then
with the greatest caution, as the slightes
puncture or craze of the skin means uuicl
and horrible death by poison for whicl
there is no antidote. Instances are known
where arrows OF this sort which have Lain
for many years in museums. have kiileS
those who carelessly handled them.
Scarcely one-fourth of Bolivia's area i
under cultivation, large portion of i
being occupied by sky-piercing mountains
The great Andean system that extend
from Panama to Patagonia, mere divide
into two distinct ranges, that runniu
nearest the sea having but few peaks O
extraordinary height, while the caster
range, Known as the Cordillera Real
(Royal mountains, a name well deserved
divides again into five separate parable
chains extending north and south. Alb tn
principal peaks as well as the yariou
ranges. bear local names of a iaw-breakiu
character, with most of which need nc
trouble you.
The third range, counting from the sef
is called the Portugalate, and in it are som
famous silver mines and considerable
town, all of the same name. Potosi, wit
its exhaustless treasures of gold and silver
Is also among these mountains, and Chora
que, a peak nearly twenty thousand fec
high. Near Potosi the great Cordiller
Real scatters off into four minor range:
the first three of them spreading out nea
the centre of the republic and surroundin
the fertile valley of COLLABORATION Farthe
northward these four parallel rows {
mountains re1nite with the main rang,
from what is known as the Nudade Cocha
bamba. Thence they all run on togetheri
five pnbroken lines, away up TO Cuzco
central Peru, a distance of more than seye
hundred miles: and ali the way north froI
Cochabampa the mountains are CONSTANT
covered with ice and snow.
In this republic the Andes present thei
most bleak and forbidding aspect, IS we
as their grandest views. Between La Pa
md Sorata there are more than hundre
peaks, among the highest Of which on
Ellimani, over 10000 feet, and nliyaps
which attains an altitude Of 1850 feet
Though Sucre, or Chuquisaca is the rel
capital Of Bolivia, as incorporated in th
constitution by the first Republican Cor
gross, the constitution also says that cor
gross may be called either at La Paz {
Oruro, according to the exigencies of til
occasion. Sucrc is situated exactly In til
renter Of Bolivia, u. leagues from L
Pa2. Tie Legislative power is compose
Of two houses, senate and chamber of der
aties. They convene but once year, Ii