Arizona weekly journal-miner., 1900-01-31
MORE PERUVIAN NEWS.
A Yavapai County Mining Man Writes ofHIs Experience in Search for
 Gold in South America.

The following letter written by W. H. Harlan, who left Prescott last fall to seek his fortune in Peru. will be read with much interest by his many friends in this county. The letter was written to ex-Super- visor Thomas Roach, who has kindly given 1t to the JoURNAL-MNER. The letter reads as follows:
 We landed here on the 18th of October. We were fifty days on the road. We were eight days on the last 150 miles as we had to foot it fifty miles. The mountains are so steep that animals cannot get through. In one place we made descent of l1,000 feet in eight miles. Talk about sore legs, we had them when we got to the bottom.
 It rains here almost all the time. We hardly ever see the sun and water Is running everywhere. There are water falls 400 and 500 feet high Ill several places which would fur nish plenty of water power.
 It is a great mineral country. Gold everywhere, but man has to nave a big fortune to get possession of a mine and then the government IS liable to take it away from him. A man has no protection to speak of They have a very poor mining law and another drawback is 1t Is a hard country to prospect in. The mountains are so steep and besides if one gets of the trail he has 70 cut his way through the brush and has to have Indians to do his packing. They pack from 50 to 100 pounds.
 The boys all stood the trip splen- didly, and we have all been at work ever since our arrival. The com pany has four-stamp mill up and Is having twenty stamps more packed in and that is slow work. The mill is brought in in sections. They are building a trail that they can get animals through when finished.
 Well, we'll tell you little about the county we passed through Panama would be a good country to make money in if a white man could live there, but it would be impossi- ble for anything but negros and Chinamen to live there on account of the levers. Take it from there down to Guyaquil, Ecuador it IS about the same. From Guyaquii down is a good, healthy country. i Take it back from the coast, along the streams, they raise any thing they plant. They loaded ton after ton of rice, sugar, coffee, alcohol and fruits of all kinds, but the people are thousand years behind the age. They blow with forked sticks and 1you never see a wagon. The people are kept in ignorance like MexIcO was few years ago. When they get new form of government it will be great country for farming, stock raising and mining, but at the present time 1 think a man had better stay with the stars and stripes.
 We landed at CaIlao aud stayed three days and went up to Lima. Callao has about 10000 inhabitants Lima has 10000, mostly all SF anish It IS healthy place and a pretty place for a Spanish town, but be hind the times the same as all Spanish towns. They have a good farming country and good many mines and cotton works and the only harbor along the coast. At Mole ando we had to take small boats tC land. There we took the railroad for 300 miles and 1t took three days to run it for it was a climb up hil of 14,000 feet.
 Regards to all the boys"