Shot-guns are valuable; but the people refuse to pay coin for them; there is very little here indeed. The Amazon trader, who comes from a cacao-producing country, is invited to accept so many pounds of chocolate for a shot-gun, or to exchange shot for the same article.
The copper coin and paper money of Brazil are of no value here. The smallest coins in Bolivia are three-cent silver pieces. There is no copper currency. The metal is found on the plains of Oruro in too great abundance. Neither have they paper money in Bolivia as in Brazil.
The authorities mentioned to Don Antonio he would be expected to pay a duty for every thousand dollars he may collect in silver and gold in the country. The people seem jealous of the foreigner who brings them goods and carries off silver.
CHAPTER X.
Horned cattle and horses—"Peste"—Salt trade—Church service—Bull-fight—Mariano Cuyaba—Rules and regulations of the town—Laws and customs of the creoles—A walk through the plaza at midnight—Scenes on the road to the town of Loreto—Annual deluge—The beasts, birds, and fishes—Loreto—Inhabitants—Grove of tamarind trees—Winds of the Madeira Plate—A bird-hunter—Trapiche—A black tiger burnt out—Departure in Brazilian boats—Enter the Mamoré river again—An Indian overboard.
Horned cattle and horses are scattered over the plains of Mojos far away from the settled parts, and are now roaming wild through the country, so that it is impossible to estimate their numbers. A creole returned to Trinidad from Reyes reported many thousand cattle roaming wild between the Mamoré and Beni rivers.
These cattle and horses are suffering under the effects of an epidemic, which the Creoles call "peste"—plague. This disease is said to have been brought from Brazil, where the cattle are affected in the same way. The horse seems to suffer the most. Within the last few years nearly all the horses in Mojos have been swept away by the "peste."
The first symptoms are weakness in the limbs. The animal does not lose his appetite, but gradually falls away, until his strength is entirely gone, when he lies down and eats the grass around him even to the roots with a most ravenous hunger. The nearer death approaches the greater his desire for food, when he ceases to be able to hold up his head, and finally is lost. We have seen a fine saddle-horse in good order kept clear of the peste by placing a cake of Potosi salt where he might lick it when he chose. This noble animal seemed really to feed upon the salt. His coat was sleek, and he held his head up above the pampa horses, who are never supplied with this expensive article.
The cattle all look miserably thin and stunted, as though not well fed, yet the plains are covered with a fine growth of grass. This epidemic commenced in 1846. There is no telling the sweeping effect it has had upon the cattle. As to the horses, we judge they have nearly all been destroyed. We see them still dying about on the plain. Mules are affected in the same way, though they linger longer than horses. Salt dissolved in water will sometimes bring them to after they are unable to stand on their legs.
As we never heard the Gauchos of the pampas of Buenos Ayres speak of this disease, there is reason to believe it is principally confined within the rain-belt region, where fresh water covers so much of the pasture lands. We have no account of this disease having destroyed the cattle and horses of Chiquitos, where evaporation is greater than the precipitation.