The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1898-04-21
YANKEES HAD BETTER
STEER CLEAR OF PERU
An American Miner Cannot Make Living in the Land
of the IncaS-PecuaritieS of Life in This South
American Country.

Los Angeles Letter in the sun.
Among the several hundred people
who went 10 Peru last May, when the
rews was spread that fabulously rich
gold placerS and some lodges had Decn
discovered in the upper Andes near
HualagaNoc ana Maritime. was Abram
z. Foster, a former member OF the
Oregon Legislature ana gold miner in
California Cf twenty years experience.
He came up the Pacific coast from
Peru The other day with a party of
other CalifOrnians, all Of whom were
angry because they had been lured to
South America at large personal eX-
pense and loss of time, only to find
that the information was without 'foun-
dation.
81 hope you will warn Americans
from going ITO Peru or anywhere in
that region to make money i'm gold or
silver mining" said Mr.. Foster. There
is no chance there at all for any Ameri-
can in mining, no matter whether he
is a prospector, capitalist, mining en-
gineer, or gold digger The stories that
came out of Peru last year about the
riches that abounded in the mountains
of Peru and Ecuador were cruel hoaxes,
started by Americans and Germans
who would be much benefited pecuniar-
lily by a rush of gold-hungry men into
that region. Many man has spent his
all in going to Peru TO mine. Our party
of ten Calfornians 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
nf II | of
have come away SO well. We were
bound to prove the truth or falsity of
the yarns about the redscovery of the
placers from which the Incas got their
boards of golden wealth centuries ago,
and l believe we saw more Of the rural
and mining regions of Peru than any
American visitors in that region in
some years.
RAINBOW CHASERS.
Briefly an American miner cannot
make even Il living in that land of
cheap things We saw there but two
persons not Peruvians who made re-
spectacle wages in the silver mines
gold mines being out of the question
for profit These two We're young chaps
from Pennsylvania, who had a con-
tract with a rich banking firm in Cal
lao for sinking a shaft on American
principles in the Chicaura spur of the
Andes. Stories published in one Cali
fornia newspaper last spring said that
gold was SO plentiful in the streams in
the remote and almost inaccessible
canons and barrancas of the mountains
of Peru near Hualagayoc that fire.
quently the sand and gravel went $l5
and SIS to the pan these were deliber-
ate lies. Then there was a cheerful
story ailoat in California and Nevada
last year about how the native Indian
divers in the deep mountain streams
often brought up handfuls of gold
bearing sand; how the padres at a
Jesuit mission at Trujillo had saved a
flour barrel of solid gold dust and mug
gets that the ignorant Indians had
brought them as gifts by the handful
a dozen such alluring stories We're cur
rent in the mining camps of the west
year ago. They seem reasonable
when we think of the enormous guam
titles Of gold Pizarro's troops took from
Peru early in the sixteenth century
Well, we prospeCted and interviewed
people all through the so-called min
ing regions of Peru, and we never
found enough color to buy a meal once
a week
MINES WORKED OUT
THE fact is that the mines We're once
valuable but they We're worked out a
century ago. For seven years PiZarro
kept the conquered natives hunting for
gold under the penalty of death and
they just about scraned the country
as bare as they knew how Of gold His
successors did the same thing. So
there ir no gold left in sight of all that
region Besides, it II dangerous and
hard work 10 prospect in Peru or Ecua-
dor. The canOns are rocky and pre-
cipitous, while ihe streams are deep
and turbulent. We were in one spot
where legend has ii that the indians
under command Of PiZarrO's soldiers
washed out ton of gold. The legend
has it that 900 men We're killed and
drowned there in year l don't doubt
it. The Indians were let down by rOpcs
of straw from the granite cliffs above
into the stream. about forty feet below.
There the poor saVa"cS had to stand
in the water, bracnG themselves
against bouders. while the cold, foam
ing water surged down through the
narrow canon. A misstep at any
moment, and the placer miner might
be carried down stream to his death
Pl2arro's soldiers used TO march the
indians to the canon every day like
so many cOnvicts, and make them seek
gold there from dawn till dark
TOO HIGH FOR HEALTH
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
Hualogayoc. This valley is none of
your pretty little verdant wales nesting
at the feet Of mountains, but is away
up among the uppermost, fiinry, bald
peaks Of the Andes. It's altitude is
1l1,40O ret above the sea level There
are three poaks-- nalned Jesus Maria.
and Jose. after the Holy FamiIy-and
they rise 1900 and 800 feet higher
among the clouds. A few settlements
ot Indians live away UP there ana