| Show o A1EllIA I 1IIQUTII r1QUTI AMERIA S t S 1 TVliere Indians Outnumber White i People Three to One I ABOUT THE BOLIVIAN LAWS And the Manner in Which They are Pro mnlgatcdHow Ircsident Changed His Cabinet BOLIVIA July 20 1890 Special correspondence corres-pondence of THK HERALD This interior division of South America was originally part of the qld Spanish province of Peru and arrived at the dignity of a separate republic re-public through the efforts of the Venezuelan Venezue-lan liberator of tho continent Simon Bolivar var andcence ite name Bolivia Since Chill has taken off a corner of it tho republic Chi 1S ton of f crner it public now contains 52280 square leagues malting it about twice as large as Prance and three times a large as Spain A nearly as can be approximated in a country where the census is never taken and many of the natives remain to this day uncounted S its population is about two millions hardly onefourth of which number aro whites There are several varieties of native and mixed races from the ciolos halfbreeds and civilized Quichuas and Aymaras of La Paz and other cities to tho still unconquered aborigines that prowl about the upper waters of tho Amazon Little is known of these savage tribes beyond the fact that they wear absolutely no clothing and lead as nomadic lives a the Arabs of the desert des-ert So far they have resisted all attempts to coax or corral them into the habits of S civilization and until a recent period they were extremely hostile to any white people who passed their territory either in boats by the river or through the tangled forests The story goes that their active hostility was checked by an accident that happened In this wise A few years ago when the Bolivian government gov-ernment was making a sur 9 r of the Madeira Ma-deira river a camp was estaolished on the bank of that stream near its celebrated falls Soon after its location one of the men came down with smallpox and of course he was immediately isolated from the rest of the party a hut having been built for him half a mile farther into the forest Though carefully attended by tho camp physician recovery was imnosiblc and ono dav while the good doctor was bending over his dying dy-ing patient the hut door was suddenly darkened by half a dozen naked denizens of the woods bent on deadly mischief The physician managed t escape but the sufferer was assisted in his exit from this world by the thrust of a wooden spear and the Indians carried of In triumph his garments gar-ments bed and everything portable about the hut They carried off even more than they were aware of i the shape of the white mans most dreaded diseaseand soon S nearly the whole tribe died of black small pox Tho survivors regarded the occurrence occur-rence as a direct punishment from tho Great Spirit and have since let the palefaces pale-faces religiously alone These savages and others that inhabit I the almost unknown Amazonian frontiers of Peru and Bolivia kill their game with I tiny poisoned arrows blown through reed guns ten or twelve feet long The arrows are made of a species of ironwood or tipped with a bit of flint poisoned at the point Strange t say though the merest scratch of one of these arrows causes death in less time than it takes to tell it the flesh of the anima killed thereby can be eaten with impunity a the poison acts only through the blood producing paralysis and instantaneous death but is comparatively harmless when taken into tho stomach tkn South American Indians kill more birds tapirs jaguars and even larger animals with the blowgun than the most expert hunters of other lands can bring down with the bet rifles and when these poisoned pois-oned stick become weapons of warfare they are more to be dreaded than grape and canister The deadly weapons are perfectly noiseless and can be distinguished among the dense foliage when in the hands of 1 savage perched like a monkey in the branches of a tree The secret of the poison has never been revee i being kept within the knowledge know-ledge of a few medicine men of each tribe and handed down from the father to the son Sir Robert Thornburg who has 4 made poisons a life study says that it is probably distilled from the sap of the strgchnos toxlfcro a shrub resembling that which supplies the Qaker button of commerce com-merce from which strychnine is made Others assert that it i taken from the poison glands of venomous serpants More terrible stLl t contemplate is the possibility possi-bility that it is > derived from tho putrefaction putrefac-tion of human corpses A recent writer states that the dead bodies after a battle and often those of prisoners taken in war are devoted t this diabolical purpose being S be-ing stuck full of arrow points and left in the sun for weeks or months until the flesh is all decayed and the arrows thoroughly tho-roughly saturated in putrefaction After being subjected t that process even those who prepare the arrows must handle them i with the greatest caution a the slightest puncture or craze of the skin means quick I and horrible death by a poison for whicn there is no antidote Instances are known I where arrows of this sort which have lain for many years in museums have killed I those who carelessly handled them I Scarcely onefourth of Bolivias area is under cultivation a largo portion of it I being occupied by skypiercing mountains The great Andean system that extends from Panama to Patapronia here divides into two distinct ranges that running nearest the sea having but few peaks of extraordinary height while the caster I range known as the Cordillera R Royal mountains a name well deserved divides again into five separate parallel chains extending north and south All the principal peaks as well a tho various ranges bear local names of a jawbreakin character with most of which I need not S trouble you Tho third range counting from the seaS sea-S Is called the Portugalate and in it are some famous silver mines and a considerable town all of the same name Potosi wit S Us exhaustless treasures of cold and silver I IB j also among these mountains and ChoralS S quo a peak nearly twenty thousand feet high Near Potosi tho great Cordiller Real scatters on into four minor ranges the first three of them frt spreading out near the centre of the republic and surrounding i the fertile valley of Cochabamba Farther northward these four parallel rows of k mountains reunite with the main range from what known as the Nudade Cocha bamba Thence they all run on tojretherin five unbroken lines away up to Cuzco in central Peru a distance of more than seven hundred mile and all the way north from r Cocbabamba thu mountains aro constantly r corcred with ico and snow In this republic the Andes present their DOst Weak and forbidding aspect as well is their grandest views Between La Paz I nd Soratn there are more than a hundred peaks among the highest of which are human over vUfetl and Uliyapa I which attains an altitude of 27GSO feet Though Sucro or Chuquisaca is the real apitnl of Bolivia a incorporated in the Qbtitution by the first Republican Con I cress the constitution also says that congress S a con-gress may bo called cither at La Paz or Orr according t time exigencies of the S clion Sucr is situated exactly In the 1 renter of Bolivia 197 leagues from La Pas The legislative power is composed sf two houses senate and chamber of dnp I titles They convene but once a year the Drdinary length of a cession being sixty days There i supposed t be ono deputy for every 40000 peorle as nearly as tho I number of inhabitants is known Each Jepartuient of Bolivia sends the senators VS a department being about the same a a t State in the United States Every department depart-ment is divided into three provinces and ant inch province has a capital city Iu each 1 3f these capitals resides a municipal gov rnor assisted by a local prefect whose m office corresponds somewhat t that of tho S nayor Both prefects and governors arc I tupposed to be elected directly by the peo so but often happens that the president I Sleds men who are bound t serve him wan tnougb ho has t send down strangers i S j rom the federal capital t t The executive power is most emphatically emphatic-ally in the hands of tho president The j constitution sas tlmf fib snoll btTfelectcd by tho people but that myth is even more a delusion here than In most republics That venerable document which professes to be modeled after the constitution of the UnteI States of North America also says thatto be eligible a presidential candidate elgble must beborn la the country but doss not specify whether of Indfan Cholo Spanish or mongrel parentagc andif there arat > yp or three candidates in tho Held whose claims cannot be decided by vox populi congress shall settle the matter by its V t The trntli is however that should suchan emergency arise the adherents of each party would got up a revolution against the thera and tho candidate who could command com-mand the most money J and consequently the most men would seat himselfwhatever congress niigntfhavo say aboutit Since a things political are controlled oy tlielcading few there is rarely but one candidate in the lcd his election is a foregone fore-gone conclusion and except by means of evolution the people have no means of oice in tho matt A president is elected I for four years and cannot legally serve two consecutive terms but in this part of ho world where might is right a president I presi-dent may succeed himself for an indefinite period > as long a ho can maintain control of the army On the othervhand it sometimes some-times occurs that two or three revolutionary revolution-ary leaders make themselves presidents during the term allotted to one man andit is not impossible that the president encum bent who ha yet more than half his term to serve may soon be ousted by tho rebel leader General Camacho who is now at arms against him That was a wise resident in the past who having learned that his cabinet were conspiring with certain cer-tain revolutionists for his overthrow gave Igrand state dinner to which they were all invite together with several leading malcontents In the midst of the banquet in stalked a squad of soldiers and at a given signal each shot his man so that on the morrow a new cabinet had to be appointed pointed No matter what congress may legislate nothing becomes a law without the presidents presi-dents signature According to the revised constitution capital punishment has been abolished except for two crimes assassina tion or rebellion against the government Though the barbarism of hanging up men br the neck until they are dead is not perpetrated petrated here they are shot as traitors on the slightest pretext if inclined to differ with tho powers that be That blessed f ale a-le the constitution also says that there can be no confiscation of property for any offense that letters are inviolate guarantees guaran-tees civil liberty and equal rights t all and invites the people of all nationsto come to Bolivia and be happy There can be no such thing as equal rights in a county where threefourths of the population are keptin subjection by ho remainder After the struggle of 1825 human slavery was abolished i a the South American Republics but that men and women are bought and sold today maybe may-be inferred from an advertisement in alate Bulgarian panel t the effect that a cia chona plantation was to be disposed of at public auction and among other goods and chattels enumerated lor sale t the highest bidder wore 180 peons or Indian laborers The civilized Indians of this country especially pecially those located on the vast estates are slaves to a intents and purposes a much as were negroes in the United States antilbellum days For constant and arduous ardu-ous labor they receive the merest pittance barely enough to keep soul ind body together to-gether and if one of tnem has the temerity to rebel the whip is brought into requisition requisi-tion until he is thoroughly subdued Most of them were born t their present condi ton their parents and grandparents haying hay-ing gotten into debt with the owner of the estate and given himself that is the labor of his hands a security for payment Once in debt thero is no getting out of it with the scanty wages an Indian receives So he takes the woman who would be his wife i he ever had money enough to pay the marriage fee and goes t live in a cane or adobe but near the scene of his labors Their children grow up around them in due time taking their places in tho Jields the mines or as house servants and aU are known as Senor soandsos p ons Taus it goes on from generation t generation neither debtor nor creditor master nor eetor man showing any desire to change his relations ations towards one another There are some wise laws as well as foolIsh ish ones i that constitution and among the former is one that prohibits interfer enc with any useful industry another which gives to every inventor the exclusive right t ube his own invention unless he wishes to sell it for a period of fifteen years Everybody who introduces now machinery for example like the smelting work and diamond drill of the young Bostonian Bos-tonian who owns the Empresa Titicaca gets the exclusive privilege of working hem from three t ten years according to the amount of capital invest Whenever the Bolivian congress passes a new law or the president issues an edict it is published in the official newspaper although al-though the vast majority of the populatio never sees it and could not read it if they did When there is occasion for special hate in the matter a regiment of soldiers i sent out preceded by u band who stop at every street cornerwhere the commanding command-ing officer proclaims the law inaloud voice This is no field for missionaries though in all Bolivia there is not a Protestant church The Jesuits who have been banished ban-ished from nearly all civilized lands are welcomed here They are nov building a splendid monastery at La Paz and one of their number is a cabinet minister After South America gained her independence inde-pendence from Spain and tho republics were being mapped out Bolivia was given a little strip of land between Chili and Peru in order that she being inland might have a pathway to the sea I lay between the 23d and 25th parallels and was recognized as belonging to Bolivia on all the maps of Chi as well a those of other countries It was 0 barren and waterless desert supposed sup-posed to be worthless in every respect until some years ago rich deposits of silver and nitrate of soda were discovered therein When this became known Chili suddenly ascertained that under some ancient grant this strip of land belonged t her and she kindly offered to divide it with Bolivia but in such a way that all the silver and nitrate I were left on Chilis side Of course Bolivia resisted and having a treaty of offence and defence with Peru she called upon the latter nation to assist in the de fence of her rights This was the real cause of the late disastrous war which took away all Bolivias sea coast and utterly utter-ly ruined Peru Chilis ostensible excuse for her part in it was that Bolivia charged too mncli export duty on nitrate 10 cents per hundred weight but now that Chill has secured the territory SlJTi per hundred weight is charged for export duty at the same place I No treaty of peace has yet been made between be-tween Chili and Bolivia I is believed by I some that the former will restore thestolen I territory i the treaty i made but it is moreS more-S probable that tho aggressive little southern j i republic which has ro back country t boast of but extends a long and narrow strip between tho mountains and the sea will march up here somo day and gobble all the rest of Bolivia a As to Bolivias credit it is not to be credit wondered at that her currency is below par aud tho country so poor when we remember I re-member that President Arco owes to the I national bank 1000100 his predecessor owes it another million and a number of i tho present cabinet owe hal a million more r FANKIE B WAnix |
