THE GEOGRAPHIC BASIS OF HUMAN CHARACTER 105 



for the soldier if he did not look carefully after the pack train. 

 From every angle of the zigzag trail that climbs the "cuesta" the 

 soldier scanned the valley road and the trail below him. He was 

 anxious lest news of his escape reach his enemies who had vowed 

 to take his life. Half the day he rode turned in his saddle so as 

 to see every traveler long before he was within harm's reach. By 

 nightfall we safely reached Salamanca, fifty miles away (Fig. 62). 



The alertness of the soldier was unusual and I quite enjoyed 

 his close attention to the beasts and his total abstinence, for an 

 alert and sober soldier on detail is a rare phenomenon in the in- 

 terior of Peru. But all Salamanca was drunk when we arrived 

 —Governor, alcaldes, citizens. Even the peons drank up in brandy 

 the money that we gave them for forage and let the beasts starve. 

 The only sober person I saw was the white telegraph operator 

 from Lima. He said that he had to stay sober, for the telegraph 

 office — the outward sign of government — was the special object 

 of attack of every drink-crazed gang of rioters. They had tried 

 to break in a few nights before and he had fired his revolver point- 

 blank through the door. The town offered no shelter but the dark 

 filthy hut of the Gobernador and the tiny telegraph office. So I 

 made up my bed beside that of the operator. "We shared our meals 

 and chatted until a late hour, he recounting the glories of Lima, 

 to which he hoped to return at the earliest possible moment, and 

 cursing the squalid town of Salamanca. His operator's keys were 

 old, the batteries feeble, and he was in continual anxiety lest a 

 message could not be received. In the night he sprang out of bed 

 shouting frantically : 



"Estan llamando" (they are calling), only to stumble over my 

 bed and awaken himself and offer apologies for walking in his 

 sleep. 



Meanwhile my soldier, having regained his courage, began 

 drinking. It was with great difficulty that I got started, after a 

 day's delay, on the trail to Chuquibamba. There his thirst quite 

 overcame him. To separate him from temptation it became nec- 

 essary to lock him up in the village jail. This I did repeatedly on 

 the way to Mollendo, except beyond Quilca, where we slept in the 



