In Far Bolivia: A Story of a Strange Wild Land

Stables Gordon

In Far Bolivia: A Story of a Strange Wild Land

PREFACE

Every book should tell its own story without theaid of "preface" or "introduction". But as in thistale I have broken fresh ground, it is but right andjust to my reader, as well as to myself, to mentionprefatorially that, as far as descriptions go, both ofthe natives and the scenery of Bolivia and the mightyAmazon, my story is strictly accurate.

I trust that Chapter XXIII, giving facts aboutsocial life in La Paz and Bolivia, with an account ofthat most marvellous of all sheets of fresh water inthe known world, Lake Titicaca, will be found ofgeneral interest.

But vast stretches of this strange wild land ofBolivia are a closed book to the world, for they havenever yet been explored; nor do we know aught of thetribes of savages who dwell therein, as far removedfrom civilization and from the benign influence ofChristianity as if they were inhabitants of anotherplanet. I have ventured to send my heroes to thisland of the great unknown, and have at the sametime endeavoured to avoid everything that mightborder on sensationalism.

In conclusion, my boys, if spared I hope to takeyou out with me again to Bolivia in another book, and together we may have stranger adventures thanany I have yet told.

THE AUTHOR.

CHAPTER I-ON THE BANKS OF THE GREAT AMAZON

Miles upon miles from the banks of the mightyriver, had you wandered far away in theshade of the dark forest that clothed thevalleys and struggled high over the mountain-topsthemselves, you would have heard the roar and theboom of that great buzz-saw.

As early as six of a morning it would start, or soonafter the sun, like a huge red-hot shot, had leapt upfrom his bed in the glowing east behind the greeneryof the hills and woods primeval.

To a stranger coming from the south towards theAmazon-great queen of all the rivers on earth-andnot knowing he was on the borders of civilization, thesound that the huge saw made would have beendecidedly alarming.

He would have stopped and listened, and listening, wondered. No menagerie of wild beasts could havesent forth a noise so loud, so strange, so persistent!Harsh and low at times, as its great teeth tore throughthe planks of timber, it would change presently into adull but dreadful basso profundo, such as might havebeen emitted by antediluvian monsters in the agoniesof death or torture, rising anon into a shrill howl orshriek, then subsiding once again into a steady gratingroar, that seemed to shake the very earth.

Wild beasts in this black forest heard the sounds, and crept stealthily away to hide themselves in theircaves and dens; caymans or alligators heard them too,as they basked in the morning sunshine by lakeletor stream-heard them and crawled away into caves,or took to the water with a sullen plunge that causedthe finny inhabitants to dart away in terror to everypoint of the compass.

"Up with the tree, lads. Feed him home," criedJake Solomons loudly but cheerily. "Our pet ishungry this morning. I say, Bill, doesn't she look abeauty. Ever see such teeth, and how they shine, too, in the red sunlight. Guess you never did, Bill.I say, what chance would the biggest 'gator that evercrawled have with Betsy here. Why, if Betsy gotone tooth in his hide she'd have fifty before youcould say 'Jerusalem', and that 'gator'd be cut in two.Tear away, Betsy! Grind and groan and growl, mylass! Have your breakfast, my little pet; why, yourvoice is sweetest music to my ear. I say, Bill, don'tthe saw-dust fly a few? I should smile!

"But see," he continued, "yonder come the darkieswith our matutinal. Girls and boys with baskets, and I can see the steam curling up under Chloe's armfrom the great flagon she is carrying! Look how herwhite eyes roll, and her white teeth shine as she smilesher six-inch smile! Good girl is Chloe. She knowswe're hungry, and that we'll welcome her. Wo, now,Betsy! Let the water off, Bill. Betsy has had hersnack, and so we'll have ours."

There was quietness now o'er hill and dell andforest-land.

And this tall Yankee, Jake Solomons, who wasfully arrayed in cotton shirt and trousers, his brownarms bare to the shoulder, stretched his splendidlyknit but spare form with a sort of a yawn.

"Heigho, Bill!" he said. "I'm pining forbreakfast. Aren't you?"

"That I am," replied Burly Bill with his broadestgrin.

Jake ran to the open side of the great saw-mill.Three or four strides took him there.

"Ah! Good-morning, Chloe, darling! Morning,Keemo! Morning, Kimo!"

"Mawning, sah!" This was a chorus.

"All along dey blessed good-foh-nuffin boys I nocome so queeck," said Chloe.

"Stay, stay, Chloe," cried Jake, "never let yourangry passions rise. 'Sides, Chloe, I calculate suchlanguage ain't half-proper. But how glittering yourcheeks are, Chloe, how white your teeth! There! yousmile again. And that vermilion blouse sets off yourdark complexion to a nicety, and seems just made forit. Chloe, I would kiss you, but the fear of makingBill jealous holds me back."

Burly Bill shook with laughter. Bill was wellnamed the Burly. Though not so tall as Jake, hisframe was immense, though perhaps there was a littlemore adipose tissue about it than was necessary in aclimate like this. But Bill's strength was wonderful.See him, axe in hand, at the foot of a tree! How thechips fly! How set and determined the man's face, while the great beads of sweat stand like pearls onhis brow!

Burly Bill was a white man turned black. Youcouldn't easily have guessed his age. Perhaps he wasforty, but at twenty, when still in England, Bill wassupple and lithe, and had a skin as white as a schoolboy's.But he had got stouter as the years rolled on, and his face tanned and tanned till it tired of tanning, and first grew purple, and latterly almost black. Thesame with those hirsute bare arms of his.

There was none of the wild "Ha! ha!" about Bill'slaughter. It was a sort of suppressed chuckle, thatagitated all his anatomy, the while his merrygood-natured eyes sought shelter behind his cheeks'rotundity.

Under a great spreading tree the two men laidthemselves down, and Chloe spread their breakfast ona white cloth between them, Jake keeping up hisfire of chaff and sweet nothings while she did so.Keemo and Kimo, and the other "good-foh-nuffin boys"had brought their morning meal to the men who fedthe great buzz-saw.

"Ah, Chloe!" said Jake, "the odour of that coffeewould bring the dead to life, and the fish and the beefand the butter, Chloe! Did you do all this yourself?"

"All, sah, I do all. De boys jes' kick about dekitchen and do nuffin."

"Dear tender-eyed Chloe! How clever you are!Guess you won't be so kind to me when you and I getspliced, eh?"

"Ah sah! you no care to marry a poor black gallike Chloe! Dere is a sweet little white missiewaiting somew'eres foh Massa Jake. I be your maid, andshine yo' boots till all de samee's Massa Bill's cheekfoh true."

As soon as Chloe with her "good-foh-nuffin boys"had cleared away the breakfast things, and retiredwith a smile and saucy toss of her curly poll, the menlay back and lit their pipes.

"She's a bright intelligent girl that," said Jake."I don't want a wife or-but I say, Bill, why don'tyou marry her? I guess she'd make ye a tip-topper."

"Me! Is it marry?"

Burly Bill held back his head and chuckled till hewell-nigh choked.

Honest Bill's ordinary English showed that he camefrom the old country, and more particularly from theMidlands. But Bill could talk properly enough whenhe pleased, as will soon be seen.

He smoked quietly enough for a time, but everynow and then he felt constrained to take hismeerschaum from his mouth and give another chuckle ortwo.

"Tchoo-hoo-hoo!" he laughed. "Me marry! Andmarry Chloe! Tchoo-hoo-hoo!"

"To change the subject, William," said Jake, "seein'as how you've pretty nearly chuckled yourself silly,or darned near it, how long have you left England?"

"W'y, I coom over with Mr. St. Clair hisse'f, andRoland w'y he weren't more'n seven. Look at 'enow, and dear little Peggy, 'is sister by adoption asever was, weren't a month over four. Now Rolly 'ebees nigh onto fifteen, and Peggy-the jewel o' theplantation-she's goin' on for twelve, and main tallfor that. W'y time do fly! Don't she, Jake?"

"Well, I guess I've been here five years, and durnme if I want to leave. Could we have a better home?I'd like to see it. I'd smile a few odd ones. Butlisten, why here comes the young 'uns!"

There was the clatter of ponies' feet, and nextminute as handsome a boy as ever sat in saddle, andas pretty and bright a lassie as you could wish tomeet, galloped into the clearing, and reined up theirspirited little steeds close to the spot where the menwere lounging.

Burly Bill stuck his thumb into the bowl of hismeerschaum to put it out, and Jake threw his pipeon the bank.

Roland was tall for his age, like Peggy. But whilea mass of fair and irrepressible hair curled aroundthe boy's sun-burned brow, Peggy's hair was straightand black. When she rode fast it streamed outbehind her like pennons in the breeze. What abright and sunny face was hers too! There was evera happy smile about her red lips and dark eyes.

"You've got to begin to smoke again immediately,"said the boy.

"No, no, Master Roland, not in the presence of yoursister."

"But," cried Peggy, with a pretty show ofpomposity, "I command you!"

"Ah, then, indeed!" said Jake; and soon both menwere blowing clouds that made the very mosquitoeschange their quarters.

"Father'll be up soon, riding on Glancer. This nagthrew Father, coming home last night. Mind, Glanceris seventeen hands and over."

"He threw him?"

"That he did, in the moonlight. Scared at a 'gator.Father says he heard the 'gator's great teeth snappingand thought he was booked. But lo! Jake, at thatvery moment Glancer struck out with both hind-legs-youknow how he is shod. He smashed the 'gator'sskull, and the beast turned up his yellow belly tothe moon."

"Bravo!"

"Then Father mounted mighty Glancer and rodequietly home.

"Peggy and I," he continued, "have ridden alongthe bank to the battlefield to hold a coroner's inqueston the 'gator, but he's been hauled away by hisrelations. I suppose they'll make potato soup of him."

Burly Bill chuckled.

"Well, Peggy and I are off. See you in the evening,Jake. By-by!"

And away they rode, like a couple of wild Indians, followed by a huge Irish wolf-hound, as faithful a dogto his mistress-for he was Peggy's own pet-as everdog could be.

They were going to have a day in the forest, andeach carried a short six-chambered rifle at the saddle.

A country like the wild one in which they dweltsoon makes anyone brave and fearless. They meantto ride quite a long way to-day and not return till thesun began to decline in the far and wooded west. So, being already quite an old campaigner, Roland hadnot forgotten to bring luncheon with him, and somefor bold Brawn also.

Into the forest they dashed, leaving the mighty river, which was there about fifteen miles broad probably,in their rear.

They knew every pathway of that primeval woodland, and it mattered but little to them that most ofthese had been worn by the feet of wild beasts. Suchtracks wind out and in, and in and out, and meetothers in the most puzzling and labyrinthine manner.

Roland carried a compass, and knew how to use it, but the day was unusually fine and sunny, so therewas little chance of their getting lost.

The country in which they lived might well havebeen called the land of perpetual summer.

But at some spots the forest was so pitchy dark, owing to the overhanging trees and wild floweringcreepers, that they had to rein up and allow Coz andBoz, as their ponies were named, to cautiously feelthe way for themselves.

How far away they might have ridden they couldnot themselves tell, had they not suddenly entered akind of fairy glade. At one side it was bounded bya crescentic formation of rock, from the very centreof which spouted a tiny clear crystal waterfall.Beneath was a deep pool, the bottom of which wassand and yellow shingle, with here and there a patchof snow-white quartz. And away from this a littlestream went meandering slowly through the glade, keeping it green.

On the other side were the lordly forest trees, bedraped with flowering orchids and ferns.

Flowers and ferns grew here and there in the rockfaceitself. No wonder the young folks gazed aroundthem in delighted wonder.

Brawn was more practical. He cared nothing forthe flowers, but enjoyed to the fullest extent the clearcool water of the crystal pool.

"Oh, isn't it lovely?" said Roland.

"And oh, I am so hungry, Rolly!"

Rolly took the hint.

The ponies were let loose to graze, Brawn beingtold to head them off if they attempted to take to thewoods.

"I understand," said Brawn, with an intelligentglance of his brown eyes and wag of his tail.

Then down the boy and girl squatted with thenoble wolf-hound beside them, and Roland speedilyspread the banquet on the moss.

I dare say that hunger and romance seldom treadthe same platform-at the same time, that is. Itis usually one down, the other up; and notwithstandingthe extraordinary beauty of their surroundings, for some time both boy and girl appliedthemselves assiduously to the discussion of the goodthings before them; that meat-pie disappearing as ifby magic. Then the hard-boiled eggs, thewell-buttered and flouriest of floury scones, received theirattention, and the whole was washed down withvinum bovis, as Roland called it, cow's wine, or goodmilk.

Needless to say, Brawn, whose eyes sparkled likediamonds, and whose ears were conveniently erect, came in for a good share.

Well, but the ponies, Boz and Coz, had not theremotest idea of running away. In fact they soondrew near to the banqueting-table. Coz laid his noseaffectionately on his little mistress's shoulder andheaved an equine sigh, and Boz began to nibble atRoland's ears in a very winning way.

And the nibbling and the sigh brought them cakesgalore.

Roland offered Boz a bit of pie.

The pony drew back, as if to say, "Vegetarians, weren't you aware?"

But Brawn cocked his bonnie head to one side, knowingly.

"Pitch it this way, master," he said. "I've got acrop for any kind of corn, and a bag for peas."

A strange little rodent creature, much bigger thanany rat, however, with beautiful sad-looking eyes, camefrom the bush, and stood on its hind-legs begging, nota yard away. Its breast was as white as snow.

Probably it had no experience of the genus homo,and all the cruelties he is guilty of, under the title ofsport.

Roland pitched several pieces of pie towards theinnocent. It just tasted a morsel, then back it rantowards the wood with wondrous speed.

If they thought they had seen the last of it, theywere much mistaken, for the innocent returned intwo minutes time, accompanied not only by anotherof his own size, but by half a dozen of the funniestlittle fairies ever seen inside a forest.

"My wife and children," said innocent No. 1.

"My services to you," bobbed innocent No. 2.

But the young ones squawked and squealed, andtumbled and leapt over each other as they fed in amanner so droll that boy and girl had to laugh tillthe woods rang.

Innocent No. 1 looked on most lovingly, but tooknot a morsel to himself.

Then all disappeared as suddenly as they had come.

Truly the student of Nature who betakes himselfto lonely woods sees many wonders!

It was time now to lie back in the moss and enjoythe dolce far niente.

The sky was as blue as blue could be, all betweenthe rifts of slowly-moving clouds. The whisper of thewind among the forest trees, and the murmur of thefalling water, came like softest music to Roland's ears.Small wonder, therefore, that his eyes closed, and hewas soon in the land of sweet forgetfulness.

But Peggy had a tiny book, from which she readpassages to Brawn, who seemed all attention, but keptone eye on the ponies at the same time.

It was a copy of the "Song of Hiawatha", a poemwhich Peggy thought ineffably lovely. Hark to hersweet girl voice as she reads:

"These songs so wild and wayward,These legends and traditions".

They appealed to her simple soul, for dearly didshe love the haunts of Nature.

"Loved the sunshine of the meadow,Loved the shadow of the forest,Loved the wind among the branches,The rushing of great riversThrough their palisades of pine-trees."

She believed, too:

"That even in savage bosomsThere are longings, yearnings, strivingsFor the good they comprehend not;That feeble hands and helpless,Groping blindly in the darkness,Touch God's right hand…And are lifted up and strengthened".—

Roland slumbered quietly, and the day went on apace.

He slept so peacefully that she hardly liked toarouse him.

The little red book dropped from her hand and fellon the moss, and her thoughts now went far, far awayadown the mighty river that flows so sadly, sosolemnly onwards to the great Atlantic Ocean, fed onits way by a hundred rapid streams that melt in itsdark bosom and are seen nevermore.

But it was not the river itself the little maiden'sthoughts were dwelling on; not the strange wild birdsthat sailed along its surface on snow-white wings; not the birds of prey-the eagle and the hawk-thathovered high in air, or with eldritch screams dartedon their prey like bolts from the blue, and bore theirbleeding quarries away to the silent forest; not eventhe wealth of wild flowers that nodded over the banksof the mighty stream.

Her thoughts were on board a tall and darksomeraft that was slowly making its way seaward todistant Pará, or in the boats that towed it. Forthere was someone on the raft or in those boats whoeven then might be fondly thinking of thedark-haired maiden he had left behind.

But Peggy's awakening from her dream of romance, and Roland's from his slumber, was indeed a terribleone.

CHAPTER II-STRANGE ADVENTURES IN THE FOREST-LOST!

Fierce eyes had been watching the little camp foran hour and more, glaring out on the sunnyglade from the dark depths of a forest tree not faroff; out from under a cloudland of waving foliagethat rustled in the balmy wind. Watching, andwatching unwaveringly, Peggy, while she read; watchingthe sleeping Roland; the great wolf-hound, Brawn; and watching the ponies too.

Ever and anon these last would come closer to thetree, as they nibbled grass or moss, then those fierceeyes burned more fiercely, and the cat-like tail of amonster jaguar moved uneasily as if the wild beastmeditated a spring.

But the ponies, sniffing danger in the air, perhaps-whocan tell? – would toss their manes and retreat tothe shadow of the rocks.

Had the dog not been there the beast would havedared all, and sprung at once on one of those nimblesteeds.

But he waited and watched, watched and waited, and at long last his time came. With a coughingroar he now launched himself into the air, theelasticity of the branch giving greater force to hisspring.

Straight on the shoulders or back of poor Bozhe alighted. His talons were well driven home, hiswhite teeth were preparing to tear the flesh from thepony's neck.

Both little steeds yelled wildly, and in nightmarish terror.

Up sprang Brawn, the wolf-hound, and dashed on tothe rescue.

Peggy seized her loaded rifle and hurried after him.

Thoroughly awake now, and fully cognizant of theterrible danger, Roland too was quickly on the sceneof action.

To fire at a distance were madness. He mighthave missed the struggling lion and shot poor Boz, oreven faithful Brawn.

This enormous dog had seized the beast by onehock, and with his paws against the pony wasendeavouring to tear the monster off.

The noise, the movement, the terror, caused poorRoland's head to whirl.

He felt dazed, and almost stupid.

Ah! but Peggy was clear-headed, and a brave andfearless child was she.

Her feet seemed hardly to touch the moss, solightly did she spring along.

Her little rifle was cocked and ready, and, takingadvantage of a few seconds' lull in the fearfulscrimmage, she fired at five yards' distance.

The bullet found billet behind the monster's ear, his grip relaxed, and now Brawn tore him easily fromhis perch and finished him off on the ground, withawful din and habbering.

Then, with blood-dripping jaws he came with hisears lower, half apologetically, to receive the praiseand caresses of his master and mistress.

But though the adventure ended thus happily, frightened beyond measure, the ponies, Coz and Boz, had taken to the bush and disappeared.

Knowing well the danger of the situation, Rolandand Peggy, with Brawn, tried to follow them. ButIrish wolf-hounds have but little scent, and so theysearched and searched in vain, and returned at lastto the sun-kissed glade.

It was now well on towards three o'clock, and asthey had a long forest stretch of at least ten milesbefore them ere they could touch the banks of thegreat queen of waters, Roland determined, with theaid of his compass, to strike at once into thebeast-trodden pathway by which they had come, and makeall haste homewards before the sun should set anddarkness envelop the gloomy forest.

"Keep up your heart, Peggy; if your courage andyour feet hold out we shall reach the river beforedusk."

"I'm not so frightened now," said Peggy; but herlips were very tremulous, and tears stood in her eyes.

"Come, come," she cried, "let us hurry on! Come,Brawn, good dog!"

Brawn leapt up to lick her ear, and taking nothought for the skin of the jaguar, which in morefavourable circumstances would have been borneaway as a trophy, and proof of Peggy's valour, theynow took to the bush in earnest.

Roland looked at his watch.

"Three hours of light and more. Ah! we can doit, if we do not lose our way."

So off they set.

Roland took the lead, rifle in hand, Peggy camenext, and brave Brawn brought up the rear.

They were compelled to walk in single file, for thepathways were so narrow in places that two couldnot have gone abreast.

Roland made constant reference to his littlecompass, always assuring his companion that they werestill heading directly for the river.

They had hurried on for nearly an hour, whenRoland suddenly paused.

A huge dark monster had leapt clear and cleanacross the pathway some distance ahead, and takenrefuge in a tree.

It was, no doubt, another jaguar, and to advanceunannounced might mean certain death to one of thethree.

"Are you all loaded, Peggy?" said Roland.

"Every chamber!" replied the girl.

There was no tremor about her now; and nobackwoods Indian could have acted more coolly andcourageously.

"Blaze away at that tree then, Peg."

Peggy opened fire, throwing in three or four shotsin rapid succession.

The beast, with a terrible cry, darted out of the treeand came rushing along to meet and fight the littleparty.

"Down, Brawn, down! To heel, sir!"

Next moment Roland fired, and with a terribleshriek the jaguar took to the bush, wounded andbleeding, and was seen no more.

But his yells had awakened the echoes of the forest, and for more than five minutes the din of roaring, growling, and shrieking was fearful.

Wild birds, no doubt, helped to swell the pandemonium.

After a time, however, all was still once more, andthe journey was continued in silence.

Even Peggy, usually the first to commence aconversation, felt in no mood for talking now.

She was very tired. Her feet ached, her brow washot, and her eyes felt as if boiling in their sockets.

Roland had filled his large flask at the littlewaterfall before leaving the glade, and he now made herdrink.

The draught seemed to renew her strength, and shestruggled on as bravely as ever.

—

Just two and a half hours after they had left theforest clearing, and when Roland was holding outhopes that they should soon reach the road by thebanks of the river, much to their astonishment theyfound themselves in a strange clearing which theyhad never seen before.

The very pathway ended here, and though the boywent round and round the circle, he could find noexit.

To retrace his steps and try to find out the rightpath was the first thought that occurred to Roland.