THROUGH BOLIVIA AND PERU.
CHAPTER XXII.
Coni and its trade—Yuracaré Indians—Their bark shirts, ornaments, and dyes—Musical instruments—Tradition of Cain and Abel—Difference between the Indians of the interior and those of the plains—Bravery of the Yuracarés—Start from Coni—Pachimoco—River San Antonio—Cristal Maio—Continuous rains—Zinc-roofed houses—Coca plantations—Minas Maio—Metalliferous character of district—Coffee and cotton—El Chaco—Cuesta of Lina Tambo—Los Jocotales—Inca Corral—Cuesta de Malaga—Snowstorms.
Coni is distant about forty-five leagues from Cochabamba, and is only a small clearing in the jungle, with a few huts, where the mule-drivers and traders from Cochabamba remain while waiting in the dry season for the arrival of the canoes from Trinidad. At this place I found a corregidor and a few traders who had come down from Cochabamba, the corregidor to receive the departmental tolls on the traffic, and the traders their cargoes of cocoa, as well as to ship the return loads of wheaten flour, salt, and potatoes.
The salt is made up in bricks weighing probably ten or twelve pounds each, and is brought from the “salitreras,” or salinas of Central and Western Bolivia. A brick, or “pan” as it is called, is worth three pesos, or about 9s. 6d., in Trinidad. The trade in this article is a very important one to the civilized Indians of the Beni, as that department is entirely without any salt deposits; but the savages of the Madeira, such as the Caripunas and Pacaguaras, do not seem to have acquired a taste for the luxury, as, although they will eat salted provisions when given to them, they do not ask for salt or care to accept it.
There were about 200 mules in all waiting at Coni, the cargo for each one being eight Bolivian arrobas, or about two hundred-weight. During the five or six months that this trade is open, more than 1000 cargoes of eight arrobas each are received from Cochabamba in salt or flour, while a similar quantity of cocoa, dressed hides, and tiger skins is returned; and this trade is carried on under every possible difficulty of miserable roads and defective means of navigation. As the mule-drivers only come to Coni when they expect to get a freight, intending travellers must make arrangements to have animals ready for their arrival, or they will probably have to foot it over very bad roads. The hire of a mule from Coni to Cochabamba, or vice versâ, is fourteen pesos (about £2 5s.).
Coni is about 950 feet above sea-level, and has a delightful climate, the vegetation not being of that dense and rank nature found on the Amazon and Madeira Rivers. There are consequently fewer insect plagues, such as mosquitoes, etc., and fever and ague are very little if at all known. When the Amazonian route for the commerce of Bolivia begins to be fairly opened up, the present location of the port of Coni must be abandoned, and a clearing and port made on the Chimoré, at the small Indian village of the same name on that river.
The district is the home of the Yuracaré Indians, who are called savages, but are very friendly and well disposed. They are nomads in so far as that they only live in one clearing for perhaps two or three years, until they are tired of the spot, or fancy that the chaco does not yield so well as it did at first; while possibly another reason for the move is that, as they are very smart hunters, the game has got scarce within reasonable walking distance. They then shift to another part of their district, which extends from the higher waters of the Chapari to the foot of the hills of San Antonio and Espiritu Santo on the road to Cochabamba.