The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1898-07-17

am travelling may be said to have a
temperate climate. La Paz. in fact, is
just now a little too cold for spring or
fall clothing, and have on two heavy
suits of underwear and the same wool
en- clothes that wear at home in De-
cember. 1t showed this afternoon.
Still, a week or SO on horseback would
take me into tropical Bolivia. The
eastern part of this country is one Of
the richest lands of the world, and I
am told that it will be the great Bolivia
who have gone from La Paz down the
rivers which flow into the Amazon
and by the Amazon to the Atlantic.
They tell me wonderful stories of rub
Der forests, of trees of wild cotton, Of
plants with fiber like silk and Of vege-
tation which Is so dense as to he al
most impenetrable. They speak 6lso of
savages who are cannibals, and of 9TH
err tribes who go about stark naked
and regard not the laws of God FOR
man. At Lima I met a young German
explorer named Kroehle, who had spent
three years in travelling about through
the eastern provinces of Peru ard
among the Indians Of the faraWay
branches of the Amazon.
He had an excellent camera With
him, and have had the good fortune
The most of them 1 dare not publish,
for the figures of both men and wom-
en- are entirely nude, and the curious
features of life which they show, while
interesting from an chronological stard-
point, are hardly fit for family news
paper. Mr.. Kroehle was many times in
danger of his life. He was twice
wounded with poisoned arrows, and he
describes the travel through these re-
gions as dangerous in the -Xtrcme. He
was for a time among the head hunters
of the River Napo in Ecuador and
Peru, and the first pictures ever taken
of these people were made by him.
One of these pictures I publish in cen
nection with my letter on Ecuador.
The Nepo region is full of queer peo-
pie. The Indians of one tribe there
wear plates of wood or metal in the
lohes of their ears as big around as
the bottom of the average lumber:
They have their ears pierced when
they are children and at first put bits
of grass and twigs in the holes to keep
them open. A little later additional
twiGs are inserted and the holes are
. gradually enlarged, until they are as
big around as a bracelet. 1 have
seen in Burmah and in Southern In
dia natives who follow the same Gus
tom. 1t is not an uncommon thing in
Burmah for a woman to carry a cigar
made OF tobacco wrapped in corn
husks and big around as a broom
stick in her ear hole. These Indians
go the Burmese one better, but the
!, extra expenditure they put on theiv
ear holts they save on their dress, fer
both women and men go about naked.
There are other queer tribes on the
N2po. The river you know, rises in
the Andes Of Ecuador and flows a
distance of 500 miles before it empties
into the Amazon. 1t is navigable for
500 miles from it's mouth by small
steamboats,. The Javary river, which
! flows between Brazil and Peru, is said
to be 1,300 miles long, and the Ucayli,
another branch OF the Amazon, is of
about the same length. The Upper
Maranon flows through Peru, and it is
navigable to Borja, a distance OF 2,6oC
miles from the Atlantic. Think of a
stream running across the United
States from New York to far beyond
Salt Lake City, and let this be navi
gable for small steamers, and you have
an idea of the possibilities Of trade
on these Amazon branches. The Benz
is another Amazon branch which flows
through Bolivia, and the Mamora and
GU2pon are other long navi2able wa
terWays.
AMONG THE CANNIBALS
All of these tropical districts of PERI
and Bolivia contain curious tribes