BOLIVIA. 



vies with Mocha, coca, the best cacao grown in 

 South America, sugar-cane, and the fruits, grains, 

 and vegetables of the temperate and torrid zones 

 do not complete the list. Among the mineral 

 products, besides gold and silver, are copper, tin, 

 mercury, zinc, lead, alum, platinum, magnetic 

 iron ore, coal, white alabaster and the clear kind 

 called berenguela, marbles of many kinds, sye- 

 nite, lapis lazuli, jasper, porphyry, agate, emer- 

 alds, opals, and other precious stones, pumice, 

 saltpeter, borax, chalk, and magnesia. 



The commerce can only be roughly estimated. 

 The exports amount probably to $20,000,000 a 

 year and the imports to $15,000,000. There is 

 scarcely any direct trade with the United States, 

 but American cottons and dry goods, hardware, 

 machinery, and kerosene are imported through 

 the Peruvian port of Arica and sold by the 

 British, French, and German merchants, who 

 have the foreign trade in their hands. A large 

 proportion of the exports consists of silver ore, 

 which is shipped down the La Plata to Buenos 

 Ayres and thence to Europe. 



Communications. The seacoast territory 

 formerly belonging to Bolivia was taken from 

 her by Chili at the end of the war of 1879-'80. 

 The commerce of the country has been greatly 

 hampered for the lack of external communica- 

 tions. This has been partially supplied by the 

 railroad connecting some of the richest districts 

 with the Chilian port of Antofagasta. The line 

 from Antofagasta to Ascotan on the Bolivian 

 frontier has been in existence for two or three 

 years. It was carried to Uyumi and thence to 

 the rich silver-mining district of which Huancha- 

 ca is the center, and on May 15, 1892, the min- 

 ing district of Ururo was also brought into com- 

 munication with the sea by the continuation of 

 the branch line from Huanchaca which was 

 opened on that date. 



Presidential Election. The election of a 

 successor to Aniceto Arce in the presidential 

 chair took place on May 3, 1892. The candi- 

 dates were ex- President Pacheco and Gen. 

 Camacho, known from his services in the war 

 with Chili, who were put forward by the Liberal 

 and Democratic parties, and ex-Minister Mari- 

 ano Baptista, the representative of the Conserva- 

 tive or Clerical party, who was the Government 

 nominee. The Opposition hoped that the vot- 

 ing would be so close that the decision as to the 

 President-elect would have to be rendered by 

 Congress, and therefore they made strenuous 

 efforts to elect their candidates to the national 

 Legislature. The campaign was so heated that 

 violent collisions took place between the rival 

 factions. The Government was accused of using 

 the military to coerce electors and of arresting 

 politicians of the Opposition without cause, and 

 the priests were charged with interfering to the 

 extent of excommunicating political adversaries. 

 When the election resulted in the triumph of 

 Baptista the defeated parties were not inclined 

 to acquiesce, but showed a disposition to unite 

 for the purpose of contesting with arms the re- 

 sult of the ballot. At the first sign of a re- 

 bellion several prominent Liberals were ban- 

 ished. A state of siege was proclaimed, which 

 was continued after the inauguration of the new 

 President on Aug. 6. An attempt to prevent 

 the installation of the new President by an in- 



surrectionary rising starting from Oruro was 

 suspected, and just before the inauguration 

 Gen. Camacho and 16 Deputies and others were 

 conducted across the frontier. Dr. Mariano 

 Baptista before his candidature was Minister of 

 Bolivia at Buenos Ayres, where he concluded a 

 delimitation treaty with the Argentine Govern- 

 ment which was denounced as unpatriotic by his 

 political enemies. In his final message to Con- 

 gress the retiring President recommended the 

 lowering of the export duties in view of the 

 fall in the price of silver, and the levying of 

 higher imposts on imports, especially on alco- 

 holic liquors. In the new Congress there were 

 only 29 Liberals against 49 Conservatives in both 

 houses. The Liberal Deputies refused to attend 

 until the Government should explain its action 

 in deporting some of their number. In order to 

 get Gen. Camacho out of the way the President 

 offered him the post of Minister to Peru, which 

 was declined. The Cabinet was made up with 

 Luis Pas at the head as Minister of Foreign 

 Affairs and Worship, with Sefiores Lisi-Mano, 

 Gutierez, Fernandez, Alonzo Joaquin Ichaso, 

 and Bishop Coronados for his colleagues. 



Indian Revolt. The Bolivian Government 

 in 1892 had to contend with the most serious up- 

 rising of the aborigines that has occurred in 

 many years. The semicivilized Indians in the 

 settled districts of the north, around Lake Titi- 

 caca, who are reduced to a kind of peonage and 

 have had to suffer more or less oppression, goad- 

 ed by real or fancied wrongs, banded together to 

 the number of about 8,000, partly armed with 

 firearms, and menaced the white settlements and 

 missions. They killed a number of people and 

 committed depredations, but were quieted with- 

 out much display of force. 



In the southeastern part of the country, on the 

 borders of Brazil and the Argentine Republic, 

 where there are only Indian missions and scat- 

 tered haciendas of Bolivian, Chilian, and Argen- 

 tine pioneers and a small agricultural population 

 of Christian half-breeds, a rebellion that had been 

 planned, for the insurgents were supplied with 

 French and American rifles, spread like wildfire 

 among the savage tribes, who were exasperated 

 at the encroachments of the whites on their lands. 

 A crafty old Indian of Cururuyuqui is said to 

 have worked upon the fanaticism of the wild In- 

 dians, or barbaros, as they are called, by prophe- 

 sying that the time had arrived for the overthrow 

 of the carays or Christians, and the restoration 

 to the Indians of the country of which they had 

 been robbed. He represented a certain young 

 man who went about with him as the son of their 

 heathen deity who had been sent to be their king. 

 At the time set by the prophet the Indians rose 

 simultaneously through the eastern part of Bo- 

 livia. The Chaco Indians on the Brazilian and 

 Argentinian side of the line joined their brethren 

 in Bolivia. The Chiriguanos of the Andes dis- 

 trict, who were accustomed to work for the whites, 

 joined the wild Tobas. The missions of Santa 

 Rosa and Cuevo and the village of Garandaiti 

 were demolished and every person was killed. 

 Wherever a Christian family was found, whether 

 of Spanish or of Indian descent, old and young 

 were brutally murdered. Houses, crops, and herds 

 of cattle and llamas were destroyed. The Tobas 

 were joined by the Itaquizi, Tatapeyua, Membi- 



