After an hour or so the Cordillera comes again into view, when the great Illampu will excite profound admiration, until the Alto Station is approached. Two hours from Guaqui the train reaches the station Viacha, a junction from which a road leads south to Oruro, and the newer road west over the mountains, to the sea at Arica. Often there is here a long wait, which begins with much bustle and animation, women offering for sale fruits, rolls, and a variety of curious concoctions. The village is at some distance on the right; a church is conspicuous on a hilltop. A half hour beyond at the Alto Station another pause is made. The train is divided into sections and with a special engine attached the car proceeds in reverse direction. For a moment it continues on the practically level plain, but keep a sharp look out! Presto! You begin to descend and suddenly perceive that you have passed the brink of an enormous cañon, its vicinity hitherto unsuspected, and you gaze in astonishment at the steep enclosing walls and far below in the distance on the red roofs of the city of La Paz more than 1000 feet beneath. A remarkable, astonishing, and delightful ride is before you. One wishes to look all ways at once, to admire the long curves of the winding track, the strangely carved walls of the cañon, the troops of llamas or burros with their Indian drivers, the steep pathways up which they toil, the patches of bright green in the midst of the brown slopes, and the gradually approaching city. The descent is on the sloping head wall of the curiously carved oval basin, the sides of which appear in places perpendicular and converge at the farther end in such a way as to leave no opening visible, though an outlet is really there. The upper edge of this great basin is called the alto or height by the people dwelling below. Thus concealed in the very heart of the Andes is the unique city of La Paz, with its 80,000 inhabitants, over 12,000 feet above the sea, the highest capital on the globe, a curious, fascinating place, surrounded by these strange walls; while brilliant, snow-crowned Illimani, towering in majesty 9000 feet above, adds a charm comparable to that which the Jungfrau gives to Interlaken. But La Paz itself is as high as the shoulders of that glacier-robed Alpine summit; an altitude which in other regions signifies perpetual snow here bringing only a temperate clime, where flowers blossom in the open throughout the year, and the rare inch or two of winter’s snow quickly vanishes in the morning’s sunlight.
The railway down to the city, by many pronounced impossible of accomplishment, was opened in October, 1905, through the initiative and agency of Mr. T. Clive Sheppard, then Superintendent of Public Works. The road, 5½ miles long, has an average grade of six per cent with curves on a radius of 100 meters. The power is electricity obtained from mond gas, an explosive mixture compounded of coal gas, steam, and air, cheaper than either gas or steam; a consideration of importance where coal from Australia in 1908 was selling at retail for $50 a ton.
At the station are porters who for modest fees will transport to your hotel your baggage, both large and small. Big trunks they carry on their backs with apparent ease. Carriages may be at hand, costing one bolivian, 40 cents; or on the other side of the station an electric car, fare 20 centavos, first class, will soon be passing. This will bring you to the Hotel Guibert, half a mile distant, the oldest and best of the hostelries of the city, unless a new one, long promised, should be already completed. 20 centavos is an ample fee for the boy who takes a bag to the car or even to the hotel, and 50 centavos to the man who brings the trunk.
Of the early history of Bolivia, little is known. At the time of the Spanish invasion the country was under the sway of the Incas. These being overthrown, no resistance was here offered to the advance of Diego de Almagro, who chose this route for his southward march for the conquest of Chile. After this unhappy adventure Gonzalo Pizarro invaded the country; the city of Chuquisaca was founded (at times called Charcas, and La Plata), now known as Sucre. Quarrels among the invaders culminated in a victory near Cuzco by the Viceroy Pedro de la Gasca over Gonzalo Pizarro, who was put to death. As a memorial of the peace thus secured, La Gasca ordered Captain Alonso de Mendoza to found a city in the valley of Chuquiapu, where an Indian village already existed, and October 25, 1545, the first anniversary of the battle, the foundations were laid of a city named Nuestra Señora de La Paz. The city of Potosí had been founded a few months earlier, after the discovery of the wonderful silver mines which soon made the city and cerro famous throughout the world.
The country now known as Bolivia, formerly Alto Peru, was a part of the province of New Toledo granted to Almagro, who was beheaded after his party was defeated in a conflict with Pizarro’s forces near Cuzco, subsequent to his return from his unfortunate expedition to Chile. In 1542 the Viceroyalty of Peru was created with authority over all the Spanish American possessions. Under the Viceroy were later two Audiencias Reales, Royal Audiences, of Lima and of Charcas, the latter covering the former New Toledo and having jurisdiction over the provinces of Tucumán, Paraguay, and Buenos Aires. The Audiencias were supreme courts possessing also executive functions, and were responsible to the Crown. The Audiencia of Charcas, created in 1559, had its chief seat at Chuquisaca, the site also of the bishopric of Charcas, and of the University of San Francisco Xavier, renowned in Spanish America for its learning, and ranking with Salamanca in Spain. La Paz became a Cathedral city in 1605, and Chuquisaca in 1609 was made the seat of the archbishopric of La Plata. Other cities were founded; explorations were made east and north of the Andes Mountains; the work of christianizing the Indians was prosecuted by the Jesuit, Franciscan, and other padres. At the same time great abuses were practiced upon the natives, who both in Peru and Bolivia were compelled to work in the mines, and suffered such hardships and cruelties as rapidly to diminish their numbers. In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries there were many struggles and conflicts, chiefly between the native born Americans of Spanish ancestry and the rulers who were for the most part Spanish born; several insurrections occurring with intent to throw off the Spanish yoke. In 1776 the Viceroyalty of Buenos Aires was established, to which the Audiencia of Bolivia was transferred. In 1780 occurred an Indian rising instigated and directed by three brothers named Catari, for whose heads 2000 pesos each were offered by the Audiencia. Thus they were betrayed. The Indian revolt in Cuzco led by Tupac Amaru occurring about this time incited the Bolivian Indians to further efforts. The Indian Ayoayo with 80,000 men for three months besieged the city of La Paz until dispersed by an army from Chuquisaca. The town of Sorata was destroyed, but in the end, after 50,000 lives had been lost among the Spanish Americans and many more of the Indians, they were finally crushed.
Injustice and oppression had been the lot, not of the Indians only, but of the native born Spanish Americans, in spite of the fact that especially from Peru and Bolivia fabulous wealth had flowed into the treasury of Spain. The Revolution in North America was a warning, but the concessions granted were too late. July 16, 1809, conspirators at La Paz deposed and imprisoned the Governor and proclaimed the independence of the country, organizing a Junta of which one of the leaders in the movement, Pedro Domingo Murillo, was elected President. This insurrection deserves especial notice as the first effort in South America towards democratic government. A trained army sent by the Viceroy of Peru overcame the feeble opposition of a few patriots, and Murillo, January 29, 1810, perished on the scaffold; yet full of confidence he exclaimed in the words of another, “The torch which I have lighted shall never be extinguished.” Within a few months the Viceroy at Buenos Aires was deposed and an army from Argentina under General Belgrano met and defeated the royalists on the field of Suipacha. From this time on, there were various conflicts in which the royalists were usually successful; but the patriots, in spite of serious defeats, for years continued a persistent guerrilla warfare in which a large number of their leaders perished. The arrival of General San Martin with his victorious army at Pisco in Peru, and soon after the proclamation of independence at Lima, July 28, 1821, gave new hope to the Bolivians. The battle of Ayacucho December 9, 1824, having ended Spanish dominion in South America, January 29, 1825, just fifteen years after the first patriots suffered martyrdom in the plaza, the last Spanish authorities evacuated La Paz, which was occupied by the Independent Army of Alto Peru under General Lanza the same day. The victorious army under General Sucre, marching from Cuzco, made a triumphal entry, February 7, 1825, in the midst of wild rejoicing. With General Sucre acting as the prime organizer of the Republic, the first National Assembly met in June at Chuquisaca. The Act of Independence bears the date of August 6, 1825; the Republic was named for Bolivar, who was elected its first President, while Chuquisaca was made the capital under the name of Sucre. Nuestra Señora de La Paz became La Paz de Ayacucho. General Bolívar, on his arrival in La Paz August 18, was greeted with unbounded enthusiasm. In November at Sucre he was inaugurated President, but resigned in January, 1826, to return to Lima. The troublous times which followed, continuing many years, must be passed over, up to the Chilian war. A quarrel arising over the collection of an export tax on nitrate, Chile sent troops to occupy Antofagasta, then Bolivian territory. Peru having previously made a secret treaty with Bolivia joined her in the declaration of war, April 5, 1879. As the allies were altogether unprepared, Chile was completely victorious and Bolivia lost what little coast she had previously possessed. During the last thirty years, however, internal dissensions have for the most part ceased, and with more stable government there has been successful development of the rich resources of the country. In 1898 trouble arose over the question of the seat of government, sessions of Congress having been held in several cities. Congress passed a law that Sucre should be the permanent residence of the President and Cabinet. The people of La Paz protesting, a Federation was formed and, after several engagements, General Pando, commander of the revolutionary forces, gained a complete victory, with the result that La Paz was made the real seat of government although Sucre retains the name of capital. General Pando was elected President. During his administration occurred the Acre boundary difficulty settled by the cession of considerable rubber territory to Brazil, in return for which Brazil paid Bolivia £2,000,000 to be used in building railways, while Brazil further agreed to construct the so-called Madera-Mamoré railway around the rapids in those rivers, thus giving to Bolivia an outlet by the Amazon and Pará for her own rubber districts and for a large section of her territory. Under President Montes (1904-1908) a treaty was made with Chile according to which, in addition to bestowing a subsidy and other considerations, Chile agreed to build a railway from Arica to the Altos of La Paz, recently opened to traffic, and affording a shorter route to the Pacific than those by Mollendo or Antofagasta. During the administration of President Eliodoro Villazón progress has continued in other directions and especially in the development of railways. The road from Rio Mulato to Potosí has been opened and that from Oruro to Cochabamba will probably be in operation before the close of 1913; thus these two important cities are brought into better communication with the outside world. The Madera-Mamoré Railway is already in service. President Villazón is now succeeded by former President Montes.
CHAPTER XIV
THE CITY OF LA PAZ
The Grand Hotel Guibert is well situated at a corner of the principal Plaza. Though not on the square, several windows overlook it and from many the music of the band concerts may be heard on Sunday and Thursday evenings. The hotel entrance is on the calle Comercio, one of the principal streets of the city, running longitudinally in the valley. The side windows, on a street running down the steep hill, look across upon the side walls of the Cathedral which fronts upon the Plaza. The hotel, with two stories in front and three in the rear, is an ancient structure several centuries old, with handsome carvings on the inner walls. These once surrounded a large patio, originally open to the sky and with a sloping pavement, which might be entered from the side street. In 1903, the patio was occasionally occupied by a drove of llamas, or by men discharging freight, or with other matters; but now, roofed and floored, it has been converted into a large dining-room. The cookery is a combination of French, Spanish, and Indian styles. The hotel has a rather narrow entrance and stairway, and no salon or parlor in which guests may be received. The chambers, provided with electric bells and lights, are quite palatial with expensive French furniture, thick carpets, canopied bedsteads with embroidered sheets and splendid blankets. The luxurious bed, placed by the door, leaves a large space near the window as a drawing-room where callers may be entertained. When a foreign minister arrived, tall and stately screens were brought in to partition off the bed from the rest of the apartment. After Cuzco and Arequipa, the hotel will seem quite cosmopolitan and satisfactory, though the arrangement of bathrooms and toilet on an inner patio leaves something to be desired. So crowded is the hotel that sufficient accommodations are hardly afforded by the main building and two dependencies, one on the Plaza facing the palace, the other, three stories high, on the same calle Comercio three blocks nearer the station. To secure a good room or even to be sure of any, it is wise to telegraph from Arequipa or Cuzco. Prices vary from 7 to 15 bol. a day for room and board, 8 or 10 being the average fee except for the largest rooms. Morning coffee is served in one’s room, almuerzo is from 11 to 2, the crowd coming between 12.30 and 1.
Another hotel nearer the station, kept by a German, is said to be very neat, and good for the money, the price being lower. It was rumored in 1911 that the millionaire mine owner, Señor Patiño, had purchased a corner on this street on which to erect a large up-to-date establishment. This would be a boon in view of the rapidly increasing travel. On the street floor of the Guibert is a large café, a good part of the day and evening filled to overflowing with gentlemen, both natives and foreigners, at small tables, regaling themselves with a cocktail or some other beverage, discussing business or politics, or shaking dice, to the serious neglect, I was told, of the important affairs of life, as is frequently the case elsewhere.