The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1898-06-26

and on steamer days it is not uncommon to
see thousand mules being loaded and I'M
loaded here. In 1895 more than S1OOO.0OO
worth of imports came into Bolivia by way
of Lake Titlcaca, ard more than 100000
worth of Bolivian goods were shipped out
There are now steamers once a week from
Puno to Chililaya and return, and nearly
all passengers and freight to and from La
Paz, which is, you know, the biggest city
and the commercial capital of Bolivia, go
over this route. 1 am now on my way to
La Paz. The city is about forty-fye miles,
or almost days ride by stage, from here,
and all baggage, freight and passengers are
carried there by horses or mules The
United States mail for Bolivia is brought
across Lake Titicaca, and carried, with
other foreign mail, on a wagon to La Paz.
l tried to bride the mail carrier to take me
with him to-day, but the weight of the mail
bags was 1,600 pounds, and he said that this
was all his eight-horse team could haul on
the gallop and that 1 must wait for the
stage of tomorrow.
The ship in which I crossed Lake Tfti-
caca is the largest and finest of the fleet.
There are three other steamers belonging
to the Peruvian corporation or English
syndicate which has the monopoly Of the
traffic, and in addition they have little
steamers which bring copper, silver and
tin up the Desaguadero river from the rich
mining region of Oruro. The Titicaca steam
er line was founded by the Peruvian govern
ment as part of its transportation system,
which, as 1 have said before, was the most
expensive ever planned or built. The first
steamers cost more than their weight in
silver. They were made in England and
shipped to the Peruvian coast and thence
carried on the backs of men and mules
over the Andes. 1t was ten years after the
ships were landed on the coast before they
got to the lakes, and the English engineers
drew salaries during the delay while boss
ing the job. One of the larger ships was aft
erward cut in two and a section Of hull
fifty feet long inserted This work was done
by the railroad shops at Arequipa, and the
ship so heightened is used on the lake to-
day. The smaller steamers ply to and fro
from the lesser ports. They visit most of
the towns upon the coast and carry freight
and passengers to the numerous islands.
THE SACRED ISLES.
Lake Tfticaca has many beautiful islands
The most of them are rocky, ragged noun
tain peaks, which have their bodies under
the water and thin coating of soil on the
rocks above it. Eight of the islands are in
habited, and these are cultivated to the
very tops of the mountains If the United
States could be as carefully titled as the
parts of Peru through which 1 have tray-
eled, where every available bit of land is
used, it would, believe, furnish enough
food for all of the people of the world and
leave enough grain left to glut the Chicago
markets during corner on wheat. Patches
Of soil as big as bed quilt are surrounded
with stones and carefully titled. Bits of land
between the rocks are green with scanty
crops of potatoes, barley ard guinea, which
are about the only things that will grow at
this altitude, and you see people working on
the sides of hills where they almost have to
hold on with one hand while they use the
rude little hoes of this part of the world
with the other This grubbing for a bare ex-
istence goes on over the greater part of the
plateau in which Lake Titicaca lies It is the
plateau which formed the chief center of
the Inca civilization which prevailed here
when the Spaniards came Lake Titicaca
was the center of a civilization generations
older than that of the Incas, and upon it's
shores still stand ruins so old that the
Incas could not tell the Spaniards anything
about Them and only said that the mighty
monuments were made by a race of giants
who lived about this lake before the sun
appeared in the heavens. These ruins are
those which lie near the little town of Tia
huanaco. They cover an area of about
three miles and consist of the remains of
massive walls, terraced mounds and the
ruins of a great edifice which is sometimes
called the temple. This building covered
about four acres, and it was made of great
blocks of black stone, each thirty inches
thick. The stones, like those of the famed
buildings of Cuzco, We're fitted together
without mortar and were so carefully laid
that it was impossible to insert a knife
blade between them. From these ruins
some of the most curious archaeological
relics have been taken, many of the most
valuable having been secured by Prof
Adobe Bandolier, who is spending his life
in this region as the collector for the New
York Museum.
Professor Bandolier has made many new
discoveries and Investigations about Lake
Titicaca and he is inclined to believe that
the most Of what has been published about
some parts of this region is almost pure
fiction. He has spent months upon Titicaca
island, which some authorities claim was
the Garden of Eden of the Inca mythology,
the spot on which their Adam and Eve first
lived upon earth and from which they
started out to found CuZco ana build up the
race. According to this theory our first
parents were the children of the sun. There
were two Of them, Nance Capac and Mama
Cello, his sister-wife. On this account, so
says Squier, who is one of the authorities
on Lake Titicaca, the Incas considered this
lake and especially Titicaca island holy.
They built their temples here, had wonder
full palaces, and even brought soil to the
island from the mainland in order that corn
might be grown upon the island. This
corn, so says one of the old chronicles,
who Professor Bandolier thinks had
very lively imagination, was consid-
cred so sacred that when a grain of it
was put in one of the public warehouses it
sanctified and preserved all other grains,
and it was also said that man who could
have as much as one grain of Titicaca
island corn in his storehouse would not
lack for food during his lifetime. There
are to-day many ruins on Titicaca island,
and the very rock on which Nance Capac
and his sister-wife stepped when they first
landed from the sun is shown. This rock,
says the same chronicler, was once plated
with gold and kept covered with a veil.
The inhabitants of the island are now
chiefly Aymara Indians, who are said to be
descendants of the tribes who were so nu-
merous about Lake Titicaca years ago.
Vl,axy 1.-Two in LITTLE hilfS 0f mud or stone