The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1898-03-20


going to Peru to mine. Our party OF ten
Califofnians was down there eight
months. We were all very i'll with fever
at one time or another while we were in
Peru, and two of our party died of 1t.
marvel that any of us have come away SO
well We were bound to prove the truth
or falsity Of the yarns about the rediscov-
cry of the placers from which the Incas
got their boards of golden wealth centuries
ago. and ] believe we saw more Of the
rural and mining regions of Peru than any
American visitors in that region in some
years.
Briefly, an American miner cannot
make even living in that land of cheap
things. We saw there but two persons not
Peruvians who made respectable wages
in the silver mines-god mines being out
of the question for profit These two
were young chaps from Pennsylvania,
who had a contract with rich banking
firm in Callao for sinking a shaft on
American principles in the Chicaura spur
of the Andes. Stories published in one
California newspaper last spring say that
gold was so plentiful in the streams in
the remote and almost inaccessible can
yons and barrancas of the mountains of
Peru near Hualagayoc that frequently the
sand and gravel went $15 and Sl8 to the
pan; these were deliberate lies. Then
there was a cheerful story afloat in Cali
fOrnia and Nevada last year about how
the native Indian divers in the deep noun
tain streams often brought up handfuls
of gold-bearing sand; how the padres at
a Jesuit mission at Trujillo had saved
flour barrel of solid gold dust and nuggets
that the ignorant Indians had brought
them as gifts by the handful.
THE fact is that the mines were once
valuable, but they were worked out
century ago. For seven years PiZarro
kept the conquered natives hunting for
gold, under penalty of DEATH and they
just about scraped the country as bare
as they knew how of gold. His success
sors did the same thing So there is no
gold left in sight in all that region. Be
sides, it is dangerous and hard work to
prospect in Peru or Ecuador. The can
yons are rock and precipitous, while the
streams are deep and turbulent. We were
In one spot where a legend has il that
the Indians, under command of Pizarro's
soldiers washed out a ton of gold. The
legend has 1T that 300 men were killed
and drowned there in a year. I don't
doubt II.
THE famous silver mines of Peru are at
the highest altitude of any mines in the
world. The best silver region in Peru is in
the valley of Hualagayoc. Its altitude is
lao feet above sea level. There is not a
good silver mine In Peru at a altitude of
less than 1000 feet. The best are higher.
The air Is so thin at the lofty attitudes that
white men cannot work there, and the least
exertion brings weariness and makes one
puff. Two men in our party used to the
mountains of California and Colorado, were
quite out of their heads for a day or two
while we were in Hualagayoc The wealth
er is so cold up there in midsummer that
one must wear heavy winter clothes to
keep warm. The equator is only about six
degrees to the north, too
Notwithstanding the low price of silver
the mines in the Upper Andes are making
money for their owners. The ore is very
rich and the mining Is cheaper there than
in any region on the western continent. The
Indians do all the mining, under the direc-
ton of young Peruvians, who have had
good engineering education in the United
States or France. Skilled laborers in the
mines get so cents day in Peruvian sill
Yer coin, worth about Y cents i'm our mon
ey. Ignorant laborers get what in our coin
age is equivalent to 10 cents day. Think
of an American going to Peru to be min
er with such facts staring him in the face
Thousands of families of six and seven
each live in the mining towns on and 6
cents day.
"a surprising fact in one lofty noun
tain mining town was the evident pros
perity of some of the merchants. They
were the only thrifty persons there. How
any man in the course even of a long life
time can ever accumulate any considerable
real estate from sales of a cent or two
at a time-sometmes not even cent
is a problem in commercial economy that
l don't believe any Yankee has ever
solved. Yet there are merchants in all of
the ancient mining towns of Peru that
have property worth 5000 or $1,000 in our
/ money.
Another fact at which we marveled
every day we were in the mountains of
Peru is the extraordinary endurance of
the human burden bearers-the carga-
deros. They are usually about 5, feet I
inches tall and weigh about $40 pounds
They have, like all the people in these
high attitudes, huge protruding chests
Every day an the year there are some
cargaderos who go up the grade ten and
fifteen miles to Hualagayoc, each with a
burden of merchandise of from 200 to 80
pounds on his back.
Money seems to be no object TO the
Peruvans in the interior of the country.
While they will work In beaten paths as
they have been brought up to do they
will shirk any and all labor of a new
character and out of their regular hours
of work. No appeal, no money will in
duce Peruvians to work when not i'm the
mood, especially when they wish to smoke
housewife
more money for a loaf of bread than her
| husband could earn in two days in the
mines, but because she had never sold
bread and had not the least bit of COM
mercial instinct she shook her head as
! If daZed at our proposition.
THE average Peruvians are the most i'm
| provident civilized people 1 have ever
heard Of At inns in the interior of Peru,
| where the hustle and vigor of foreigners is
| not often encountered, we seldom had
meals at the same hour on any two days i'm
| week. For instance the dinner would be
anywhere from 6 TO $50 p. m No mat
| ter how hungry we Americans were the
| landlord would smile and say POGO item.
| po.' Il is a common thing for a whole
| family of Peruvians to go to a bull fight
and spend all the savings of a month and
! come home to an empty larder A ranch
man may have herds of fine cattle and
| flocks of sheep and yet there is seldom
milk in his house or butter or meat on the
| table. A ranchmans family will subsist on
| black coffee, fruits, and soup and jerked
beef for a week or two at a time because
II is not in their line to butcher, milk
| cows, or churn
The railroads in Peru are unlike any,
| thing of the kind elsewhere in the world
! We Americans, especially we Californlans,
hear a good deal about Henry Meiggs won
| at.fts Il