A Tour Through South America

by A. S. Forrest

[Cartagena]	[Frontispiece]
[An Old Map of the Isthmus]	[16]
[“Caribs” in Terra Firma]	[19]
[Gold Nose Ring]	[21]
[Ancient Gold Nose Ring]	[21]
[Darien]	[23]
[Ancient Indian Pottery found in the Graves on the Isthmus]	[24]
[Pottery from the Graves in Chirique]	[27]
[The Pacific, from a Peak in Darien]	[29]
[Huts near the Ancient City of Panama]	[31]
[The Pirate “L’Ollonois”]	[35]
[Sir Henry Morgan.—From an old print]	[37]
[Fort Lorenzo]	[39]
[Old Sentry Tower on the Chagres River]	[41]
[The Old Church Tower, Old Panama]	[46]
[The Ramparts, Fort Lorenzo]	[47]
[Old Wharves, Colon]	[49]
[A Family Party, Colon]	[51]
[A Camp at Balboa]	[53]
[The First Labour Camp, Gatum]	[56]
[The Old Church on the Island of Tobago, off Panama]	[58]
[A Labour Camp (Evening), Canal Zone]	[61]
[A Toilet on the Zone]	[65]
[A Street in the Old Quarters, Panama]	[69]
[Water-babies by a River-side]	[70]
[An Old Church and Buildings, Panama]	[73]
[A Stretch of the Chagres River]	[77]
[Interior of a Shack on the Isthmus]	[79]
[The Old Panama Railway Track]	[81]
[Jamaican Labourer on the Zone]	[84]
[Barbadian Labourer on the Zone]	[85]
[Map of Republic of Panama]	[89]
[The Church at Chagres]	[92]
[Outside a Church on Christmas Eve, Panama]	[98]
[The Flat Arch of St. Dominic]	[100]
[Old Houses on the Sea Wall, Panama]	[102]
[Panama from Ancon]	[105]
[A Bit of the Old Town]	[108]
[The Plaza, Panama]	[110]
[An Interior, Cartagena]	[112]
[In the Market, Panama]	[116]
[A Colombian Mother]	[118]
[A Colombian Village]	[122]
[On the Banks of the Magdalena River]	[124]
[Map of Peru and Bolivia]	[126]
[A Dwelling by a River-side, Ecuador]	[129]
[A Peruvian Girl]	[133]
[The Cathedral, Lima]	[135]
[A Milkmaid, Lima]	[136]
[The Arid Coast of Peru]	[139]
[A Llama in Gold, made by the Incas]	[141]
[Inca Portraiture on a piece of Old Pottery]	[143]
[A Reduced Human Head]	[145]
[An Inca Mask in Gold]	[147]
[Pre-Inca Monoliths in Bolivia]	[148]
[A Fruit-Stall at Mollendo]	[150]
[The Jesuit Church on the Site of the Inca “Temple of the Sun”]	[152]
[A Bolivian Woman]	[153]
[Sailing on Lake Titicaca]	[154]
[Balsas on Lake Titicaca]	[155]
[A Chilian Farmer]	[158]
[An Araucanian Family]	[159]
[An Araucanian Indian]	[161]
[Araucanian Girls]	[163]
[On the Guano Deposits]	[165]
[Map of Argentine]	[169]
[The Lemon-shaped Dome of the Capital]	[171]
[Desolation]	[173]
[Landscape near Mendoza]	[175]
[The Bridge of the Inca]	[176]
[Crossing the Hills]	[177]
[A Glimpse of Aconcagua]	[178]
[Travellers by a River-side]	[179]
[Chasing Rheas]	[181]
[A “Pulperia”]	[184]
[Morning: Going to Work]	[186]
[Evening]	[187]
[Pegging out Hides]	[189]
[An “Estancia”]	[191]
[Gaucho Preparing a Meal]	[193]
[A Gaucho]	[195]
[The Lonely Camp]	[196]
[A Prize Hereford Bull]	[199]
[Colon]	[201]
[The Village of Frey Bentos]	[204]
[On the Parana]	[208]
[Frey Bentos]	[209]
[A Paraguayan Lady]	[211]
[Shepherds and Cowboys, Corrientes]	[215]
[Igeasu Falls on the Alto Parana]	[217]
[Old Houses in Corrientes]	[218]
[A “Posada,” Corrientes]	[219]
[Sharp’s Map of South America]	[221]
[Travellers on the Steamer]	[223]
[The Custom-house, Asuncion]	[227]
[The Dome of the Oratoire de Lopez]	[230]
[A Street in Asuncion]	[233]
[Paraguayan Savages]	[235]
[Crossing the Paraguay]	[238]
[A Paraguayan Gentleman]	[245]
[Map of Brazil]	[250]
[Beauties at Pernambuco]	[252]
[Near Rio]	[253]
[The Railway up to Corcovada]	[256]
[Coming down from Corcovada]	[257]
[The Church of the Candeliera, Rio]	[259]
[The Falls of Tombos in the State of Rio]	[262]
[Entrance to Rio Harbour]	[264]
[The Summit of Corcovada, Rio]	[266]
[“The Silent Bay”]	[267]
[A Suburban Street, Rio]	[269]
[Avenida Beira-Mar, Rio]	[271]
[The Sugar-Loaf by Night, Rio]	[273]
[A Bit of Rio Harbour]	[274]
[The Gavea, Rio]	[275]
[The Botanical Gardens]	[277]
[End of Santa Cruz]	[279]
[An Old Church near Rio]	[280]
[The Shore, Santa Cruz]	[281]
[Santa Cruz]	[282]
[Santa Cruz]	[283]
[Santa Cruz]	[285]
[At the Back of the Organ Mountains]	[287]
[A Road amongst the Hills, Petropolis]	[288]
[The Square of Tiradentes, Ouro Preto]	[289]
[Near the San Francisco River]	[290]
[Above the Falls at Tombos.--The Carangola River about 4300 miles from Rio]	[291]
[Waterfall near Matilde, on the Line to Victoria Espirito Santo]	[292]
[The Rapids at Pirapora, on San Francisco River]	[293]
[Old Houses, Bahia]	[294]
[The Baras de Aquino.--The curious winding track of the Leopoldina Railway]	[296]
[The Railway over the Confluence of the Paquequr and Parahyba Rivers]	[297]
[The Road to São Paulo from Rio]	[301]
[The Approach to Santos]	[303]
[Government Buildings in the Largo de Palacio]	[305]
[The National Museum at Ypiranga]	[307]
[The Theatre of S. Paulo]	[309]
[The Penteado Technical College]	[311]
[The Villa Penteado]	[312]
[Officers of the São Paulo Army]	[314]
[A Waterfall near São Paulo]	[315]
[The Wharves of Santos]	[316]
[The Docks of Santos]	[317]
[The Power Station]	[321]
[The Falls of Parnahyba]	[325]
[A Fazenda]	[329]
[A Coffee Fazendiero]	[331]
[Colonists’ Houses at Martino Prado]	[333]
[The Prado Mansion House, São Paulo]	[336]
[Harvey]	[341]
[Sebastian]	[347]

FOREWORD

THE artist or the writer who visits South America to-day finds it as a diamond of a hundred facets, and his main difficulty is to select those points upon which to concentrate his gaze. So vast is the subject, so full of romance, glamour, pulsating life, and world possibilities that not one book but many must be written upon it before the reader can form the barest idea of the well-nigh illimitable nature of the theme. Hence an author who offers any contribution to so vast a study has no need to excuse himself for his apparent temerity, provided he sets on record some new point of view or chronicles his impressions of paths not too well known.

Even if he fails in either or both these aims his work is justified if it contains individual conceptions of the myriad wonders which the continent discloses to the seeing eye. For this far-reaching stretch of earth is the last to be really explored and civilised by Western man. Compared with many portions of it, the forests of Central Africa, the plateaus of Middle Asia, and the deserts of Australia, are as open books. It is only South America to-day, or, to be more correct, a great part of it that is “a field enclosed, a fountain sealed.”

Consequently any contribution which aims at familiarising stay-at-home folk with the marvellous cities, the impressive scenery, the rich products, and the limitless resources of this mighty territory has surely a title to consideration.

The present writer claims to be neither an explorer nor a political theorist, nor, although profoundly impressed with the magnificence of South America’s destiny, has he attempted to forecast the lines along which that destiny will shape itself.

His aim has been far less ambitious, much more simple. Whatever he saw in the country or amongst the people that interested him he has endeavoured to transcribe with interest for the benefit of others. Even so he submits that the ensuing pages will give the general reader a fair conspectus of the rise and development of South America from those far-off days when it was discovered, subjugated, and colonised by Spanish and Portuguese conquistadores to the present day, where a dozen independent Republics have their seats of government in cities where once the flags of the conquerors waved.

The history of each State has been lightly touched upon and space has been devoted to a consideration of the men of light and leading who have helped to direct the fortunes of the continent from the earliest beginnings of its modern history. The romantic adventures of Pizarro are told in one chapter; in another the exploits of the sinister Dr. Francia of Paraguay are recorded; and the reader will not set down the book until he has learned what General O’Higgins and Lord Cochrane did for the independence of Chili, and how San Martin, the Galahad of South America, laid as though on a rock the foundations of that thriving State now known as the Argentine Republic. Moreover, the part played by Simon Bolivar in liberating the northern half of the continent from the Spanish yoke is, the writer trusts, set forth with a due sense of proportion.

Mighty men these, and more or less so because their dramas were enacted on a remote stage of the world-theatre.