Elk City mining news. (Elk City, Idaho) 1903-1913, 1904-02-27
Inambari, headwaters of the Amazon

Inambari, headwaters of the Amazon,
Peru, Jan. 1, 1904.
Mr.. G. 1. Porter, Elk City, Idaho.
Friend Porter:-You doubtless wonder
where 1 am and why 1 don't write and
i wonde at times, too, how everything
and everybody is at Elk. 1 wanted to
write several times, but l always
thought some day 1 would strike it rich
n then l could bring the letter my
self and tell you all about it, but as 1
see no hope of striking it in the near
future 1 will compromise and write
(even if it is hard work..
Well, when | left the Occur d'Alenes
went east to visit my mother whom 1
I had not seen for nearly fifteen years
n made my peace with her. l stayed
home three months and could not stand
it any longer, everything was so chang
ed, so l went to Mexico and after var
led adventures, wrestling with the Ian
guage, ETC., l secured a position as
shift boss in a big mine but like a fool
l could not stand prosperity (for made
money there) and when one of my ac-
quaintances suggested that we go to
Peru and get rick quick 1 Immediately
fell in with the scheme, SO we went to
Peru and we have been kicking our
selves ever since and calling one anoth-
er fools. My partner has enough of it
and is going back to Mexico but 1 am
going to stay a year or so and give it a
good trial.
We arrived here in just the very
worst part of the year-the rainy sea-
son, which in the forests or ''Montanes''
lasts from October to June and if you
was played on continuously with a hy-
draulic giant during that time you
could not get wetter or more dissatis-
fled. 1t is so damp here hat the ink
won't dry without holding it over the
fire. And the strangest thing of it all
is that it never rains on the coast of
leros of the Andes do you get rain or
timber. On the west side there grows
no timber OF brush, nothing only
what has been planted in about 100
miles from the coast. You cross the
main range at an altitude of from 400
to 100 feet and cold words can't ex-
press it; no wood to burn and the wind
blowing and hailing or showing always.
You can imagine what kind of a rail
road it takes to cross the range in
less than 100 miles. There are only two
railroads that cross it in Peru and when
they cross it that is as far as they can
60, for the east side is as bad or worse
than the west.
Well, after we left the railroad at a
station called Santa Rosa we hired
mules to Muscani, two days, to Aya-
pata, one day, and from there we had
to take it afoot as you could not get
over it with horses or mules, four days
to lnambari river, where we are now
camped on the border between the
slightly known and the unknown. On
the other side of the river is the coun-
try Of the wild Indian tribes, the
'Chunchs, " 'Solojes," and others who
go entirely naked, armed with bows
and arrows. We have not seen any
yet but expect to in the dry season as
they do not travel much in the rainy
season.
1 could write you all day about that
trail from Ayapoto to Inambari, but
just to give you ar idea of what they
call a good "Quipiri" trail-a ''Qui-
piri" is a man who carries on his back
the first w days were not so bad,
only rather steep, up one mountain and
down another and a good part of it
paved with big stones so that it resem-
bled a stairway as it was built by the
Spaniards 500 years ago, who used to
take horses over it part of the way to
Esquilaya, but now you can barely get
over it afoot and the Indians carry 60
pounds over it. On the second day we
arrived at Esquilaya after coming down