Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1890-08-02
4 SOUTu AMERICAN REPUBLIC.
WHERE INDIANS 0UTNUMBER WHITE
PEOPLE THREE TO ONE.
Something About Bolivian Laws and
How They Are Promulgated
Changing Cabinet.

was originally part of the old Spanish pro-
vince of Peru, and arrived at the dignity
of republic through the efforts of the
Venezuelan hberator of the continent,
Simon Bolivar, and hence its name, Bo-
iyia. Since Chile has taken of corner
of it, the republic now contains 2,2SC
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 num-
Der are whites.
There are several varieties of the native
and mixed races, from the chOtoS (half-
breeds) and civilized Quichuas and Ay-
maras 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 be-
yond the fact that they wear absolutely NO
clothing and lead as nomadic lives as the
Arabs of the desert So far, they have
successfully resisted all attempts to coax
or corral into the habits of civilization,
and until recent period they were ex-
tremely 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 Government was making a survey
of the Medeira river, camp was estab-
Gshed 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 a 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 dying
patient the hut door was suddenly dark
ened by half dozen naked denizens OF
the woods bent on deadly mischief The
physician managed to escape but the suf-
ferer was assisted in his exit from this
world by the thrust of a wooden spear,
and the Indians carried off in triumph his
garments, bed and everything portable
about the hut. 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 survivors regarded the
occurrence as a direct punishment from
the 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 a species of ironwood, or
tipped with bit of flint poisoned at the
point. Strange to say, though the merest
scratch of one of these arrows causes death
in less time than it takes to tell it, the
flesh of the animals killed thereby can be
eaten with IMMUNITY, as the poison acts
only through the blood, producing paraly-
sis and instantaneous death, but is compar-
atively harmless when taken into the
stomach. South American Indians kill
more birds, tapirs, jaguars and even larger
animals with the blowgun than the most
expert hunters of other lands can bring
down with the best rifles and when these
poisoned sticks become weapons of warfare
they are more to be dreaded than grape
and canister. The deadly weapons are per
fectly noiseless and cannot be distinguished
among the dense foliage when in the
hands of a savage perched like a monkey
In the branches of tree.
The secret of the poison has never been
revealed, it being kept within the knowl-
edge Of a few "medicine-men" of each
tribe, and handed down from the father to
the son. Sir Robert Thornburg, who has
made poisons life study, says that it is
probably distilled from the sap Of the
st,ychnos toryerG, 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 venomous serpents. More
terrible still to contemplate is the possibil-
ity that it is derived from the putrefac-
ton of human corpses. A recent writer
states that the dead bodies of prisoners
taken in war are devoted to this diaboli-
cal 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 putre-
faction. After being subjected to that pro-
cess, even those who prepare the arrows
must handle them with the greatest eau
ton, as the slightest puncture or Craze OF
the skin means quick and horrible death
by poison for which there is no antidote
Instances are known where arrows of this
sort which have lain for many years in
museums, have killed those who carelessly
handled them.
Scarcely one-fourth of Bolivia's area is
under cultivation, large portion of il
being occupied by sky-piercing mountains.
The great Andean system that extends
from Panama to Patagonia 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 Cordillera Real
(Royal Mountains, name well-deserved) y.
divides again into FIVE separate parallel
chains extending north and south, All
the principal peaks as well as the variou.
ranges bear local names of breaking
character, with most of which l need moi
trouble you.
The third range, counting from the sea
is called the Portugalate, and in it are
some famous silver mines and consider
able town, all OF the same name. Potosi
with its exhaustleSs treasures of gold anC
silver, IS also among these mountains, anC
Choralque, peak nearly 10000 feet high
Near Potosi the great Cordillera Real scat
tiers off into four minor ranges, the frs
three Of them spreading out near the cen
ter Of the republic, aud surrounding thu
fertile valley of Cochabamba Furthe
northward these four parallel rows o
mountains reunite with the main range
from what is known as the Nuda de Cocha
banda. Thence they all ruE on togethe
in FIVE unbroken lines, away up to Cuzct
in central Peru, distance OF more thai
200 miles; and all the way north from
Cochabamba the mountains are continually
covered with ice and snow.
In this republic the Andes present thei
most bleak and forhiddins aspect, as wei
as their grandest views Between La Pa
and Sorata there are more than hundre,