Gulf Coast breeze. [volume] (Crawfordville, Fla.) 1897-19??, 1897-12-24
LASSOING THE CONDOR.
A FORTUNE GAINED IN A YEAR IN
THIS UNIQUE TRADE.

Hird. D,stroycd Cattle Twenty tondorS
aFrcqucnt Days work for an American.
Henry VI. Knowles, who went TO
Chile from San Francisco in 1870 with
Henry Mcigs of South American rail
roal fame aud enormous wealth, came
mp the coast 10 Los Angeles the other
day. after mn absence of fifteen years
from California. He went away II
poor boy from San Francisco, and is
now paying taxes on some million dol
lars worth of property in Callan,
Peru, and in Valparaiso and other cit
les in Chile.
81 got my start toward fortune, "
said he to Los Angeles corresponds
ent Of the Philadelphia Times, when
pressed to tell how he had prospered
in South America, "by lassoing con.
doris. That may seem II very strange
occupation for money making, but 1t
was not 40 uncommon down in Chile
and Peru. You sec had lived "A II
boy so long among the plninsmcn in
Kansas and Nevada that | became cX-
pert with the lariat and on n horse
The Chilean government, Mt the sng-
gcstion of Mcigs, gave bounty of 50
for every condor killed in the repub.
lie. You see the birds had become
such nuisance and were increasing
so fast that they dcvoured tens of
thousands of dollars worth of food
every year, aud attacked herds of
sheep, aud even calves and colts, IN
their ferocity for . carcass 10 prey
upon.
"Wcll, the Chileans felt SO prosper
Gus that, coupled with their natural
indolerce, they did not care to avail
themselves Of the opportunities to
make money by Staying the condors,
for the vocation requires hard work
and many physical risks. had not
been down in Chile week before |
saw chance to make more money
than had ever before dreamed Of pos
sessing by lassoing aud killing the
mammoth birds. There we're three of
us Yankees in Valparaiso, and we de-
cided to go into the condor-killing
business. The next day, mounted ON
horses that Meigs bought for us. and
armed with guns and lariats, we start
ed out to hunt condOrs among the
foothills and canyons and crRgs Of the
Andes mountains. We went over 800
miles, out among the cattlemen and
sheep herders. For few days we
had instructions from few Chileans
IA to the most experienced methods of
capturing the enormous and savage
birds.
"In few weeks we Yankees had
learned every detail of hunting con-
doris, and our native ingenuity had
added to the experience of the Chill
cans. For months got from ten to
twenty condor heads every day, and
each one in our party did half as well
as that. Every month during the
years 1871 and 1872 and 1873 got
warrants on the Chilean treasury for
from 800 to $500. one month when
! had forwarded DIG dried condor
heads to tho controller of Chile and
had sworn that there was no fraud by
me, got warrant for SlOSO.
"rhc big birds used to be found in
flocks Of seventy or eighty IN the graz
ing countries of the lower Andes IN
Central Chile. Like other members
of the vulture family they search ev-
erywhere for carcasses upon which to
feed They have wonderfully keen
eye, and ! have proved to myself that
condor can see dead animal ten and
even fifteen miles away.
"rwenty-iiye years ago 1t was no
uncommon thing to- see hundreds OF
these freebOotors lowering over the
plains, each one rayenous aud de
termincd dinner robbcr from the
herds below, to which the shadow Of
q condor's wing carried ~ much terror
as the appearance Of II hawk does to a
brood Of chickens. The condor was
the greatest enemy the stool .raisers
in that part Of South America had TO
contend with, and il was his persist
ent and destructive raids on grazing
cattle that made him An outlaw with a
price on his head.
GLOW did we capture these fero-
cious birds? Our first job every morn
ing before we had even u peep Of sun
light over the mountains was To carry
the carcass Of q dead animal, AZ u
horse or COW, out ON the plain,
where it could easily he seen from all
points Of the compass. We moved
about every few days from one locality
TO another, and never put the body
twice in the same place, because of the
extreme suspiciousness Of an average
condor. Generally, We would move
three or four miles every twenty-four
hours. Sometimes, when we were