New Roads To Riches In The Other Americas

NE In. tke OtKer Americas EDWARD TOMIJNSON Charles Scrilmers Sons Netr Yo k Otarles ScriBners Sons Ltd 1939 CONTENTS NEW ROADS TO RICHES ix VENEZUELA I. LAND OF THE LIBERATOR 3 II. FABULOUS EMPIRE 17 III. THE ROAD TO MARACAY 31 IV. OIL ON THE WATERS 44 V. RECORD OF THE REHABILITATOR 57 COLOMBIA I. GIBRALTAR OF THE SPANISH MAIN 75 II. LIFE ON THE COLOMBIAN NILE 89 III. THE CAPITAL OF LIBERALISM 104 IV. THE NEW EL DORADO 121 V. THE GOLD TREES OF ANTIOQUIA 134 PANAMA I. ISTHMUS OF VANITY FAIR 155 II. THE DREAM OF ALVARA DE SAAVEDRA 172 III. THE LISTENING POST 188 v Contents ECUADOR I. TROPICAL ADVENTURE 207 II. SHANGHAI IN MINIATURE 222 III. POLITICS AMONG THE VOLCANOES 237 PERU I. GHOSTS IN THE CANEFIELDS 255 II. THE CITY OF THE KINGS 276 III. FROM THE SEA TO THE JUNGLE 298 IV. RENAISSANCE IN THE SOUTH 317 V. DEATH AND RESURRECTION 334 VI. THE WORLD IN PERU 354 BOLIVIA I. THE LAKE IN THE SKY 375 II. LAND OF THE TIN KINGS 397 III. EAST TO THE ORIENT 415 INDEX 429 vi A New Road to Riches in the Peruvian Andes Frontispiece PAGE Hacienda La Vega 8 Road from La Guaira to Caracas 9 Rural Highway in the Valencia Valley 46 Oil on the Maracaibo Waters 47 The Gome Club and Gardens in Maracay 64 On the Road to Maracay 65 The New and Old, Cartagena 80 Gasoline Refinery on the Magdalena 8 1 Bridge Across The Colombian Nile 96 San Andres Gold Mine, Antioquia 97 The Peon of Antioquia Is White 144 Sheltered Gold Trees of Antioquia 145 Main Street on the Isthmus of Vanity Fair 176 A Shif Enters the Canal Locks 177 Cacao Bean Sorters Enjoy a Photographic Interlude 2 1 6 vii Illustrations PAGE A Highlander Ready for a Cockfight 217 Rural Life Near Quito 248 Weaving the Sombrero de Jip-jafa 249 Highway fromthe Sea to the Jungle 288 Modern Boulevard in the New Lima 289 The Author Reviews a Llama Punta in the Cordillera 304 Yarn Sinners of the Andes 305 A Chuncho Gives a Lesson in Amazonian Archery 312 Terraced Farms in the Tarma Valley 313 Newly Planted Andean Cornfield 320 Father Misti Over Arequtya 321 Travel by Balsa on Lake Titicaca 384 Sorting Potatoes on a Titicaca Farm 385 New Roads East to the Orient 408 Farms and Mining Camf in the Tin Country 409 viii L. T LAST Americans are discovering one another. From Alaska to Cape Horn the peoples of the Western Hemisphere are becoming conscious of their peculiar relationships, the ties material and spiritual which, because of geography, science and circumstance, bind them together. Before the World War burst upon mankind in 1914, in terest, news, and travel in the American nations were all oriented East and West. A majority of the families in this country, Colombia, and Argentina alike, were linked either by blood or sentiment to the countries of Europe. Millions still are. In the speech of many there remains the trace of Old World accents. Naturally, when the average citizen of the United States, Venezuela, or Chile thought of the world beyond the borders of his own immediate country, he thought of the homelands of his forebears. When he travelled abroad he wanted to return to the ancestral haunts. He wanted to see the cities, the cathe drals, art galleries, and libraries so often described by his grand parents that to him they had become treasured traditions. He was anxious for information concerning the happenings, incidents, and changes in Europe. Consequently, his news papers and periodicals, sensitive to the currents of thought and ixNew Roads to Riches interest, enabled him to follow them. Foreign news and Euro pean news were synonymous. Telegraphic and cable communications had been laid not be tween New York and Lima or Valparaiso, but between New York and London, and between Buenos Aires, Rome and Paris. And since the people of Virginia, Massachusetts, Chile and the other American countries alike wanted to travel to England, France, Spain, Italy and Germany, maritime accommodations had been organized to suit popular demand...