4 THE ANDES OF SOUTHERN PERU 



The government troops might come to help you, but they were 

 always too late. 



For this one paid most burdensome taxes. Lima profited 

 thereby, not the valley planters. The coast people were the 

 favored of Peru anyhow. They had railroads, good steamer 

 service, public improvements at government expense, and com- 

 paratively light taxes. If the government were impartial the 

 eastern valleys also would have railways and a dense population. 

 Who could tell? Perhaps the capital city might be here. Cer- 

 tainly it was better to have Lima here than on the coast where 

 the Chileans might at any time take it again. The blessings of 

 the valleys were both rich and manifold. Here was neither a cold 

 plateau nor the hot plains, but fertile valleys with a vernal climate. 



We talked of much else, but our conversation had always the 

 pioneer flavor. And though an old man he saw always the future 

 Peru growing wonderfully rich and powerful as men came to rec- 

 ognize and use the resources of the eastern valleys. This too was 

 the optimism of the pioneer. Once started on that subject he grew 

 eloquent. He was provincial but he was also intensely patriotic. 

 He never missed an opportunity to impress upon his guests that 

 a great state would arise when people and rulers at last recog- 

 nized the wealth of eastern Peru. 



The Highland Shepherd 



The people who live in the lofty highlands and mountains of 

 Peru have several months of real winter weather despite their 

 tropical latitude. In the midst of a snowstorm in the Maritime 

 Cordillera I met a solitary traveler bound for Cotahuasi on the 

 floor of a deep canyon a day's journey toward the east. It was 

 noon and we halted our pack trains in the lee of a huge rock shelter 

 to escape the bitter wind that blew down from the snow-clad peaks 

 of Solimana. Men who follow the same trails are fraternal. In 

 a moment Ave had food from our saddle-bags spread on the snow 

 under the corner of a poncho and had exchanged the best in each 

 other's collection as naturally as friends exchange greetings. By 

 the time I had told him whence and why in response to his inevita- 



