The record-union., 1898-01-30
THE LAND OF THE IACAS.
IMPRESSIONS OF A RETURNED
GOLD-SEEKER.
The Natives Do Not Like Foreign
ers and He Advises White
Men to Keep Away.


er he went with a party last March
during the gold excitement. A report
came few months ago that Mr.. Johns
and a number of the party had died of
yellow fever in Panama, but if he did
he is a remarkably healthy looking
ghost, considerably over six feet tall
end Of proportionate size. He is, how
ever. pretty thoroughly Disguised with
his trip, and with the Peruvian coun-
try and its inhabitants.
Speaking yesterday of his experiences
to a Record Union reporter, he said:
It cannot too strongly warn Ameri-
cans whether capitalists or laborels,
against going to Peru with the idea OF
benefiting themselves, for they will
surely find themselves dead broke in
short time in a strange country, and
very hard one to make a living in, un-
less they take time by the 'forelock as
/ did. and leave the country while they
are able to do so. In all my travels
there / found only one man who was
making anything and he had taken
contract on a mine II 600 feet above the
sea level.
I'VE were given glowing accounts OF
the marvellous richness of the placeIs
on one or two rivers, where the ln>
dians dive down and bring up their
hands full Of the golden sands, but it is
a miserable lie and has been the cause
of leaving many poor fellow there
and stranding him. We prospected the
rivers named, and found that there was
no gold in them. When PiZarro con-
ouered Peru the Incas, who were
highly intelligent race had collected
vast amounts of gold-nobody viii ever
know how much-from the sands OF the
streams. Pizarro and his men set the
natives at work to collect more, ana
the work has been going on ever since.
Then came the Portuguese, who were
so successful that the SpaniardS got
Jealous of them and drove them away.
The result is that the placers We're all
mined out long ago. 1t is very nara
prospecting. also. as the streams are
swift and the mountain sides rough and
very steep.
There are rich silver mines there, but
they are very high up, 1900 feet or
more. and the air is so rare that
white man cannot work and the work
is done by Indians. The native Peru
yians work very little, making the In
lians do their work | know of only one
successful mine as low down as 6,ooo
feet There is very little show, too.
for a man to find employment in other
directions than mining, for he must
come into competition with the lndl-
ans. who are poorly paid.
THE native Peruvians are the LATEST
people you can imagine. They not
only make no provision for next week,
but none even for the next day, meal
ahead being about the extent OF thelr
solicitude. Time is no object TO them'
and they pay very little attention to it.
They do not like foreigners and delay
and discourage them in every possible
way 1t does not make much dlfter-
ence whether they are Americans, Eng
lish or German-they are all "grlngoes
TO the Peruvians, as they are TO ms
Mexican brethren, and he dislikes them
all This may be partly because they
annoy him by their progressiVeness, and
wake him up out of his lethargy too
much to suit him.
with thousands of cattle he has no
milk or butter, drinking black coffee ana
living on soup twice a day, potatoes and
dried mutton. If they can get tins meal
they let the next one take care of itself.
They have herds of fllamas, horses, mules
and aloacas, but the horses and mules
from Argentina, where the European
stock has been brought in. There are
many flocks of sheep and they contribute
largely to the welfare of the inhabitants.
The grass of the country is a rough
sort of wire grass, like this. 1t grows
ir punches some of them as much as
four feet across. and does not look as Il
IL was of much account for food for
hut mutton
and beef.
Harry Meiggs is about the only
American that has ever done we'll i'll
Peru, and L do not know how he ever
managed to get so good a show given
TO him. they dislike strangers so. He
built a good road and it is considerably
used. but It seemed funny to me how
they run their trains. a train runs
three times a week to the Titicaca basin,
and it takes it's time. 1t runs TO Are
suipa and then stops for the night The
next morning it starts again and runs all
day, stopping again at night, and takes
three days to get to the basin.
ION the Pacific side ii is dry, rainlesS
region, but on the Amazon side. it rams
nearly every iay. When one gets ap
into the Cordilleras. it is al right ;ts
SCng as the sun is up, bat N the might
ii gets vers- cold. ] had very rard werl;
10 find transportation and my experience
illustrates Tho character ri the peoi'Ie.
When YOU haTr gone as far as the rail
road will take YOU, you mlsS get mules
L.. go farther and there is the rub. Il
YOU Set mll@s their owner viii agree 10
tahc lou d certain distance but he VIII
take YOU nc further nor MIL NJ :siNe
you q reason for his refusal 20 9o so.
After / arrived at the end of the railroad,
j was sixteen days trying to get lnalee
before / succeeded. The Sape instE.l Dent
of a mine WHO did me man. great fav-
ors. after some days of entreaty persua-
ded rich Peruvian TO se..d his mules to
take me 1.o miles. but Il would not
take me a bit further and ] had to wait
there sixteen days longer before | OBJ
tanned more mules There is no use of
fretting, for it does not do a particle Of
good and money is no object to such
people.
When you arrive at a town, the Cob
Nj