THE GEOGRAPHIC BASIS OF HUMAN CHARACTER 89 



cuss the subject specifically and for that purpose now turn to the 

 conditions of life in the remoter mountain valleys and to one or 

 two aspects of the revolutions that occur now and then in Peru. 

 The last one terminated only a few months before our arrival and 

 it was a comparatively easy matter to study both causes and 

 effects. 



A caution is necessary however. It is a pity that we use the 

 term "revolution" to designate these little disturbances. They 

 affect sometimes a few, again a few hundred men. Earely do 

 they involve the whole country. A good many of them are on a 

 scale much smaller than our big strikes. Most of them involve 

 a loss of life smaller than that which accompanies a city riot. They 

 are in a sense strikes against the government, marked by local dis- 

 orders and a little violence. 



Early in 1911 the Prefect of the Department of Abancay had 

 crowned his long career by suppressing a revolution. He had 

 been Subprefect at Andahuaylas, and when the rebels got control 

 of the city of Abancay and destroyed some of the bridges on the 

 principal trails, he promptly organized a military expedition, con- 

 structed rafts, floated his small force of men across the streams, 

 and besieged the city. The rebel force was driven at last to take 

 shelter in the city jail opposite the Prefectura. There, after the 

 loss of half their number, they finally surrendered. Seventy-five 

 of them were sent to the government penitentiary at Arequipa. 

 Among the killed were sons from nearly half the best families of 

 Abancay. All of the rebels were young men. 



It would be difficult to give an adequate idea of the hatred felt 

 by the townspeople toward the government. Every precaution 

 was taken to prevent a renewal of the outbreak. Our coming was 

 telegraphed ahead by government agents who looked with suspi- 

 cion upon a party of men, well armed and provisioned, coming up 

 from the Pasaje crossing of the Apurimac, three days' journey 

 north. The deep canyon affords shelter not only to game, but also 

 to fugitives, rebels, and bandits. The government generally 

 abandons pursuit on the upper edge of the canyon, for only a pro- 

 longed guerilla warfare could completely subdue an armed force 



