LOADED LLAMAS.
Since the days of the Jesuit missionaries the Mojos Indians in the prairies on the Mamoré north of Santa Cruz have retained a measure of civilisation, breeding cattle and keeping up a connection with the Creoles at Santa Cruz. Lately the latter have pressed on into the rubber regions of the lower Mamoré and even crossed into the valley of the Beni and founded the town of Riveralta where the Orton joins the Beni. From La Paz daring men painfully made their way down the roadless gorges of the great Cordillera and reached navigable water where the Beni emerges from the mountains. Thence to Riveralta the way was comparatively easy and little steamboats now ply those waters. This region is permanently inhabitable by civilised man, but to the north-east the country drops off into swampy plains drained by the Acre, a tributary of the sluggish Purus. Up the latter river the Brazilian rubber hunters had come from Manaos and found the banks of the Acre unprecedentedly rich in the finest gum. Thousands poured into the territory and by the early nineties it was furnishing a large percentage of the world's supply. Though the Bolivian boundary had long been believed to cross the Acre near the 9th degree, the Brazilian rubber gatherers did not hesitate to enter an entirely unoccupied territory and even penetrated as far south as the 12th degree in a region undisputably Bolivian. The authorities at La Paz attempted to assert their political control, but since it was well-nigh impossible to get troops into the country except by way of the Atlantic, the rubber gatherers defied them. The Brazilian government intervened to protect the interests of its citizens; President Pando headed an expedition in 1902 which was met at the borders of the Acre valley, and after some fighting with the insurgent Brazilians, which seemed likely to bring on a war between the two powers, a treaty was agreed upon by which Brazil takes the territory, paying a money indemnity, agreeing to build the railroad around the Madeira Falls, and ceding a port on the Paraguay.
Internally the condition of Bolivia has in the main been quiet since the Chilean war, and the contest between clericalism and radicalism has lost much of its bitterness. General Camacho led an unsuccessful insurrection in 1890 and afterwards fled to Valparaiso. Three years later he planned another insurrection and the government had great difficulty in obtaining arms and money for operations against him. Chileans finally furnished rifles and a loan, and shortly afterwards a treaty was negotiated by which Bolivia abandoned its alliance with Peru and came under Chilean influence. Peru resented this and the following year her restrictions on Bolivian commerce nearly brought the two countries to blows. The crisis, however, passed, and Bolivia has returned to the policy of avoiding entangling alliances, while pressing Brazil, Chile, or Peru to give her outlets to the ocean. In 1896, Alonso, leader of the conservatives, and that energetic general and explorer, José Manuel Pando, chief of the liberals, contested the presidential election. In this contest the geographical jealousies which exist between northern and southern Bolivia played a considerable rôle. Alonso was successful and served as president during three years, but early in 1899 Pando began warlike operations and in April overthrew Alonso in a decisive battle. Under his vigorous administration the country has been quiet. The plain of the Madeira has been opened up to settlement, and the international position of the government is now vastly improved.
ECUADOR
