Including a side trip to the source of the Paraguay River in the State of Matto Grosso, Brazil, and a journey across the Andes to the Rio Tambo in Peru By Henry Stephens Harvard, A.B., Vienna, Ph.D. FIRST EDITION   The Knickerbocker Press New York 1920 Copyright BY HENRY STEPHENS 1920 TO MR. H. L. MENCKEN, OF BALTIMORE, MARYLAND WHO IS CONSIDERED TO BE AMERICA'S FOREMOST CRITIC OF LITERATURE I GLADLY DEDICATE THIS BOOK OF TRAVELS...

In my former book, South American Travels , I made a statement relative to the pronunciation of the word "Montevideo" as follows: "Many foreigners make the mistake of pronouncing the name of the city with the accent on its penultima 'e'. Each syllable should be pronounced alike, with no distinction made as onto which syllable the accent falls." I have since found out that I was wrong, and am convinced so by my losing a ten-dollar bet with a gentleman relative to the pronunciation of the Uruguaya

Buenos Aires which should have been named Malos Aires, on account of the enervating, depressing humidity of its summer climate when the thermometer sometimes registers as high as 104° Fahrenheit, and when not a breath of air is stirring, is a city of nearly 1,750,000 inhabitants and rivals Philadelphia towards being the third in population in the New World. This capital of Argentina, built upon the west bank of the muddy La Plata River in latitude 34° south is the entrepôt and distributing point

The average stranger coming to the United States to see the country very seldom pays a visit to an obscure state capital. The very contrary to this is what I did after I had been but little over a week in Buenos Aires, as I maintain that the only way to see a foreign country properly is to avoid the show places and get out among the people in the smaller cities. Knowing that San Luis was but a short distance from the main line of the Buenos Aires Pacific Railway between Buenos Aires and Mendoza,

From Dr. A. R. Davila, proprietor of La Prensa , South America's largest newspaper, I received a letter of introduction to one of Mendoza's best known and wealthiest men, Dr. Juan Carlos Serú, a lawyer and country proprietor, who resides in a fine residence at 1055 Avenida San Martin. I went to see him to pay my respects and from him obtained some valuable information. Up to the present time viticulture has been the staple industry of the Province of Mendoza, the landscape being covered with vin

Mr. William Boyce, of the Chicago Saturday Blade , made a trip to Tucumán and wrote a chapter about it in his book, Illustrated South America . This book I read with pleasure and determined that I should visit that city if ever an opportunity presented itself. One morning, armed with credentials and letters of introduction to prominent personages in the far provinces, I boarded the train for Tucumán. Two railroads connect Buenos Aires with Tucumán, the Central of Córdoba and the Central of Argen

Córdoba is the third province of Argentina in population, it having had in 1914, 732,727 inhabitants. In area it contains 62,160 square miles. It is the heart of Argentina, being situated in the center of the republic. The eastern part is pampa while the western part is a high, dry plateau, traversed from north to south by mountain ranges notably among which are chains of Pocho and Ischilin. These mountain ranges which are two hundred miles in length are isolated from the Andean system; their so

Overeating, oversleeping, and overindulgence in liquid refreshments (this applies to soft drinks as well as to others) constitute the whole time of the stranger in Buenos Aires, who has nothing else to do, than, seated at a table in front of one of the cafés on the Avenida de Mayo, to study human nature, and watch the endless stream of humanity, horses, cabs, and automobiles pass by. Tiring of this I thought of going to Mar del Plata and from some good point of vantage gaze in admiration at the

Strolling down to the dock one day I saw a sign stating that the steamer Asuncion would be sailing for Corumbá, Brazil that same evening at six o'clock. I inquired how long it took to reach its destination, and upon being told four days, bought a ticket. I once had the misfortune of being a passenger on the S. S. Asuncion when it ran aground on a mud bank in the Paraná River and was moored twenty-six hours in midstream. It is one of the older ships of the Mihanovich Line and formerly plied betwe

It is not the intention of the writer in these pages to go into a detailed and minute historical, geographical, and statistical description of Chile. This will appear in a later work. Therefore here will be taken up only those statistics, political conditions, and geography that the reader should digest in following me on my trips. The Republic of Chile, whose total length of 2660 miles is included between latitudes 18° and 56° south, averages in width but 150 miles which is the territory embrac

In Lady Anne Brassey's nonpareil book, Around the World in the Yacht Sunbeam , published by Henry Holt and Company, New York, 1882, she describes on pages 159-161 her visit to the Baths of Cauquenes where she sojourned two days, October 23-25, 1876. When I was in Chile in 1913, I never heard of these baths and returned home ignorant of their existence. In the interim I thoroughly read Lady Brassey's book and determined that if the opportunity ever presented itself that I would likewise visit the

The crowd on the platform at the covered train shed of the Chillán station is the most animated to be found at any railroad station in Chile with the possible exception of that at Llai-Llai. Landscape gardeners have endeavored to enhance the depot approach by planting cedar trees in square holes in the middle of the sidewalk. These trees have attained the growth of three feet. Leaving the depot, Gumprecht was walking on my left. Presently he uttered an oath and upon my looking around I was just

I remained a couple of months in Santiago after returning from Chillán which I put in profitably by making excursions and foot tours to the nearby mountain canyons, visiting the small towns in the neighborhood and studying the business possibilities of the future as applied to the Chilean capital. One night as I sat having my shoes shined in a bootblack stand underneath the Portal Fernans on the south side of the Plaza de Armas, I noticed passing by an Englishman named Greenberg, an old acquaint

Arica is seven hours north of Pisagua. Its population is 4886. It is the pleasantest port on the rainless coast for in its neighborhood is verdure due to irrigation from the Lluta River. It looks nice from the steamer's deck, which appearance is not belied by a visit to the lower town. The upper town, which extends to the desert, is a compactly built place of low buildings, but is far superior to the other coast towns of its size. In the lower town are the banks, shipping offices, and government

Although the chapters of this book are supposed to treat only of the southern republics of South America, it would nevertheless be a shame not to mention Lima and the Peruvian hinterland, therefore this and the following chapter. Callao, the port of Lima, where the ships anchor, has a population of forty-five thousand. It is here that one first gets an idea of genuine Peruvian architecture. The two and three storied houses, many of which are adorned by steeples and towers, invariably have enclos

Professor Edward Alsworth Ross in his book South of Panama says of Peru: "Were I to be exiled, and confined the rest of my life to one country, I should choose Peru. Here is every altitude, every climate, every scene. The lifeless desert and the teeming jungle, the hottest lowlands and the bleakest highlands, heaven-piercing peaks and rivers raving through canyons—all in Peru. The crassest heathenism flourishes two days in the saddle from noble cathedrals, and the bustling ports are counterpoise

The object of these travels was not to see the country dealt with as much as it was to study the business conditions and future possibilities in those lines in Chile, Argentina, and Paraguay. Although there are undoubtedly great opportunities at the present time and in the future to enter into business enterprises in the northern republics of South America, which as yet, only have their surface towards development, the republics farther south which are partially developed, offer better inducemen