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SOUTH AMERICA
SOUTH AMERICA
THE MACMILLAN COMPANY NEW YORK · BOSTON · CHICAGO DALLAS · SAN FRANCISCO MACMILLAN & CO., Limited LONDON · BOMBAY · CALCUTTA MELBOURNE THE MACMILLAN CO. OF CANADA, Ltd. TORONTO SOUTH AMERICA OBSERVATIONS AND IMPRESSIONS BY JAMES BRYCE AUTHOR OF "THE HOLY ROMAN EMPIRE" "THE AMERICAN COMMONWEALTH," ETC. WITH MAPS NEW EDITION CORRECTED AND REVISED New York THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 1914 All rights reserved Copyright, 1912, 1914, By THE MACMILLAN COMPANY. Set up and electrotyped. Published Septe
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PREFACE
PREFACE
This book records observations made and impressions formed during a journey through western and southern South America from Panama to Argentina and Brazil via the Straits of Magellan. The nature of its contents is briefly outlined in the Introduction which follows, so all that I have to do here is to acknowledge gratefully the many kindnesses I received in every part of South America which I visited, and in particular from the following persons: Colonel Goethals, Chief Engineer of the Panama Can
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INTRODUCTION
INTRODUCTION
Whoever read as a boy the books of old travellers in the Andes, such as Humboldt's Aspects of Nature , or pored over such accounts of the primitive American peoples as are given in Prescott's Conquest of Peru must have longed to visit some day the countries that fired his imagination. These had been my experiences, and to them there was subsequently added a curiosity to learn the causes which produced so many revolutions and civil wars in Spanish America, and, still later, a sense that these cou
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CHAPTER I THE ISTHMUS OF PANAMA
CHAPTER I THE ISTHMUS OF PANAMA
South America is bounded at its northern end by an isthmus and at its southern by a strait. They are the two gateways by which the western side of the Continent, cut off from the western and central portions by a long and lofty mountain range, can be approached from the Atlantic. It was by crossing the Isthmus that Vasco Nuñez de Balboa discovered the South Sea. It was by penetrating the Strait that Magellan, seven years later, discovered that this South Sea was a vast ocean stretching all the w
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CHAPTER II THE COAST OF PERU
CHAPTER II THE COAST OF PERU
The first part of the voyage from Panama down the coast towards Peru is enjoyable when made in a steamer, for the sea is smooth, the southerly breeze is usually light, and after passing through the picturesque isles that lie off Panama one sees at no great distance those Pearl Islands which at one time rivalled the isles of Bahrein in the Persian Gulf as the chief pearl fishery of the world. One wonders at the difficulties experienced by the first Spanish adventurers, Vasco Nuñez de Balboa, and
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NOTE ON THE FORTRESS OF SACSAHUAMAN
NOTE ON THE FORTRESS OF SACSAHUAMAN
The walls of Sacsahuaman are built in three parallel lines, the lowest of which stands on level ground, at the very base of the hill; the second about six yards behind the first, and therefore on the slope; the third still higher on the slope, three yards behind the second. The space behind each wall has been filled in and levelled, so as to be a nearly flat terrace, supported by the wall in front of it. These three lines of wall extend along and protect the whole northern face of the hill, near
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CHAPTER IV LAKE TITICACA AND THE CENTRAL ANDES
CHAPTER IV LAKE TITICACA AND THE CENTRAL ANDES
From Cuzco, the oldest of South American cities, with its mingled memories of an Indian and a Spanish past, I will ask the reader to follow me to a land of ancient silence where an aboriginal people, under the pressure of a stern nature, and almost untouched by all that modern civilization has brought, still lead the lives and cling to the beliefs that their ancestors led and held many centuries ago. This is the heart of the Andean plateau, where, in a country almost as purely Indian as it was w
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CHAPTER V LA PAZ AND THE BOLIVIAN DESERT
CHAPTER V LA PAZ AND THE BOLIVIAN DESERT
Bolivia was for two centuries after the Spanish Conquest a part of Peru and has neither natural boundaries nor any distinctive physical character to mark it off from its neighbours, Peru on the northwest and Argentina on the southeast. It is an artificial creation, whose separate national existence is due to two events. After the Jesuits had, by the king of Spain's decree in 1769, been forced out of Paraguay, which they had ruled with considerable success for many years, the Spanish government f
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CHAPTER VI CHILE
CHAPTER VI CHILE
Except Egypt, there is not in the world a country so strangely formed as Chile. Egypt is seven hundred miles long and nowhere save in the Delta more than twelve miles wide. Chile is nearly three thousand miles in length, nowhere more than one hundred and thirty miles wide and for most of her length much narrower. Even Norway, whose shape and sea-front best resemble those of Chile, has but fifteen hundred miles of coast and has, in her south part, two hundred and fifty miles of width. Much of the
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NOTE TO CHAPTER VII GENERAL SAN MARTIN'S PASSAGE OF THE ANDES
NOTE TO CHAPTER VII GENERAL SAN MARTIN'S PASSAGE OF THE ANDES
The passage of the Andes by the army of San Martin has been pronounced by military historians of authority to have been one of the most remarkable operations ever accomplished in mountain warfare. The forces which he led were no doubt small compared to those which Suvarof and Macdonald commanded in their famous Swiss campaigns, and small also when compared to those which Hannibal and Napoleon carried across the Alps. But the valleys which the two detachments of San Martin's army had to traverse
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CHAPTER VIII THE STRAITS OF MAGELLAN
CHAPTER VIII THE STRAITS OF MAGELLAN
In the annals of maritime discovery three great voyages stand out as the most daring in their inception, the most striking in their incidents, the most momentous in their results. They are those of Columbus in 1492, of Vasco da Gama to the coast of India in 1498, of Magellan in 1519–1522, and of these three, Magellan's was in some ways the most wonderful. It was by far the longest, and was performed under hardships and sufferings which were absent from the others. Vasco da Gama had a powerful ar
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CHAPTER IX ARGENTINA
CHAPTER IX ARGENTINA
The interest which Argentina arouses is entirely unlike that which appeals to the traveller's eye and mind in Peru or Bolivia or Chile. In each of these three countries there is scenery grand in scale and different in type from what any other part of the world has to shew. In Peru and Bolivia there are also the remains of a primitive civilization, scanty, no doubt, but all the more attractive because they stimulate rather than satisfy our curiosity. They speak of antiquity, and indeed all three
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CHAPTER X URUGUAY
CHAPTER X URUGUAY
Whoever wishes to have something by which to distinguish Uruguay from its many sister republics, the size and character of each of which are unfamiliar to many of us in Europe, may learn to remember that it is the smallest of the South American states, and that it has neither mountains, nor deserts, nor antiquities, nor aboriginal Indians. Nevertheless, it is by no means a country to be described by negatives, but has, as we shall presently see, a marked character of its own. Having belonged to
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CHAPTER XI BRAZIL
CHAPTER XI BRAZIL
That more than half of South America was settled by and still belongs to the men of Portugal is due to what may be called an historical accident. In the year following the discovery of the West Indies by Columbus, Pope Alexander the Sixth issued his famous Bull ( A.D. 1493) which assigned to the Crown of Castile and Leon "all the islands and lands to be discovered in the seas to the west and the south of a meridian line to be drawn from the Arctic to the Antarctic Pole, one hundred leagues to th
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CHAPTER XII THE RISE OF NEW NATIONS
CHAPTER XII THE RISE OF NEW NATIONS
In A.D. 1808, when Napoleon Bonaparte, the true Liberator of Spanish America, moved his armies into Spain, the dominions of the Spanish Crown stretched south eight thousand miles from the bay of San Francisco to the Straits of Magellan. The population that was scattered thinly over that vast region was mostly native Indian, but there may possibly have been a million of pure Spanish stock and many times that number of mixed Spanish and Indian blood. All except the Indians spoke Spanish; all excep
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CHAPTER XIII THE RELATIONS OF RACES IN SOUTH AMERICA
CHAPTER XIII THE RELATIONS OF RACES IN SOUTH AMERICA
Although races, unlike in character and differing in the scale of upward progress, must have come into contact from the earliest times, it is only in recent years that the phenomena attending that contact have been carefully observed and studied. From the end of the fifteenth century European nations have been conquering the backward races. In some countries they enslaved, in others they extirpated, these races. They have now portioned out the whole world of savagery, barbarism, and semiciviliza
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CHAPTER XIV THE TWO AMERICAS AND THE RELATION OF SOUTH AMERICA TO EUROPE
CHAPTER XIV THE TWO AMERICAS AND THE RELATION OF SOUTH AMERICA TO EUROPE
Alexander Hamilton bade his fellow citizens to think continentally; and Herodotus, in the short introduction prefixed to his history, explains its theme as being an account of the relations of two great continents, Europe and Asia, and of the reasons which produced such recurring strife between them. Let us attempt to think a little of the southern part of the Western world as a whole, in its relations as a continent to the other continents, and especially to that continent with which it is conn
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CHAPTER XV THE CONDITIONS OF POLITICAL LIFE IN SPANISH AMERICA
CHAPTER XV THE CONDITIONS OF POLITICAL LIFE IN SPANISH AMERICA
It is not my purpose to describe or discuss either the political institutions or the practical politics of the South American states. Even with a fuller knowledge of them than I was able to acquire in the short time at my disposal it would have been difficult for me to treat of them with the requisite freedom. But that which a traveller who has been the recipient of many courtesies may do without offence, and that which even a limited knowledge may qualify him to do, is to present a summary acco
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CHAPTER XVI SOME REFLECTIONS AND FORECASTS
CHAPTER XVI SOME REFLECTIONS AND FORECASTS
Whether it is well to rejoice that the population of our planet has grown so fast during the last century, even as the inhabitants of a city rejoice when a decennial census reveals a rapid growth in their city, is a question which may be deemed a branch of the larger one whether life is worth living. The fact, however, being unquestionable, raises a practical question. If the present rate of growth should continue for a few centuries, there presently will be little room left on the planet. What
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NOTES
NOTES
Note I. The reader who desires fuller information regarding the countries treated of here may wish to be referred to some books in English. The most convenient general historical accounts are perhaps to be found in Mr. Akers' History of South America, 1854–1904 , and in Mr. T. C. Dawson's The South American Republics (2 vols.). For Peru Sir Clements Markham's History of Peru is still the best, to which may be added, for the earlier period, his recent work, The Incas of Peru . Mr. Scott Elliot's
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Map of Argentina, Uruguay, and Chile
Map of Argentina, Uruguay, and Chile
T he following pages contain advertisements of books by the same author or on kindred subjects. A GREAT WORK INCREASED IN VALUE The American Commonwealth By JAMES BRYCE New edition, thoroughly revised, with four new chapters Two 8vo volumes $4.00 net "More emphatically than ever is it the most noteworthy treatise on our political and social system."— The Dial. "The most sane and illuminating book that has been written on this country."— Chicago Tribune. "What makes it extremely interesting is th
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Transcribers' Notes
Transcribers' Notes
Punctuation, hyphenation, and spelling were made consistent when a predominant preference was found in this book; otherwise they were not changed. Simple typographical errors were corrected. Ambiguous hyphens at the ends of lines were retained. Index not checked for proper alphabetization or correct page references. Some instances of "Argentine" perhaps should be "Argentina"; none were changed here. "de iure" was printed that way twice. Text uses both "Musulman" and "Mussulman", "fetish" and "fe
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