2'2 Gardiner G. Hubhard — South America. 



In 1890 there was no money to meet the interest and general 

 prostration ensued. 



It is difficult to ascertain the debt of the republic ; but if the 

 accounts given in the English publications are correct the debt is 

 greater in proportion to its population and wealth than that of 

 any other country in the world. The only hope of the Argentine 

 Republic is to wipe out the debt by insolvency and bankruptcy. 



Peru. 



A strip of land with 1200 miles of sea coast, without a natural 

 harbor, and 200 to 300 miles wide, consisting of a plain, mountains, 

 a plateau, and still another range of mountains — this is Peru. 



In the west, where the rain never falls, are numerous small 

 rivers, to-day mountain torrents, to-morrow dry, rocky beds. 



Between the lofty ranges of snow mountains is the highest 

 plateau in the world, after Thibet. The southern part of this 

 plateau is dry and desolate, the northern portion is well watered, 

 with beautiful streams running now through deep canons and 

 then through rich, fertile valleys steadily descending toward 

 the northeast ; the valleys growing ever broader, warmer and 

 more delightful, until the montaiia is reached, only a few hundred 

 feet above the Atlantic, where the streams have become rivers, 

 navigable to the ocean. 



The western slope of the mountains is dry and barren, so that 

 breadstuffs and provisions are imported from Ecuador on the 

 north, or from lower Chili, far to the south. Yet no other country 

 has contributed so much to the world's fertility ; for here are the 

 great deposits of guano and nitrates, moi'e valuable than mines of 

 gold and silver. These deposits yielded for over thirty years a net 

 annual revenue of $20,000,000. 



The eastern slope, rich and fertile, producing every ti'ee and 

 flower, all fruits and vegetables grown in any part of the world ; 

 in the mountains, mines of gold and silver, platinum and 

 cinnabar, copper and tin, lead and iron, coal and petroleum, 

 nitrates and asphalt : a bankrupt nation in the midst of untold 

 wealth — such is Peru. 



To bi'ing the minerals down to the ocean, tens of millions of 

 dollars were expended on thirteen roads ; but though none of them 

 were ever finished, they reached a few of the poorer mines. Seven 

 of these roads were built by the government, the others by private 

 parties. 



