106 THE ANDES OF SOUTHERN PERU 



hot marshy valley out of reach of drink, and where the mosquitoes 

 kept us so busy that either eating or drinking was almost out of 

 the question. 



The drunken rioters of Cotahuasi and their debauched brothers 

 at Salamanca are chiefly natives of pure or nearly pure Indian 

 blood. They are a part of the great plateau population of the 

 Peruvian Andes. Have they degenerated to their present low 

 state, or do they display merely the normal condition of the 

 plateau people? Why are they so troublesome an element! To 

 this as to so many questions that arise concerning the highland 

 population we find our answer not chiefly in government, or re- 

 ligion, or inherited character, but in geography. I doubt very 

 much if a greater relative difference would be seen if two groups 

 of whites were set down, the one in the cold terrace lands of 

 Salamanca, the other in the warm vineyards of Aplao, in the Majes 

 Valley. The common people of these two towns were originally 

 of the same race, but the lower valley now has a white element 

 including even most of those having the rank of peons. Greater 

 differences in character could scarcely be found between the Aztecs 

 and the Iroquois. In the warm valley there is of coarse drunken- 

 ness, but it is far from general ; there is stupidity, but the people 

 are as a whole alert; and finally, the climate and soil produce 

 grapes from which famous wines are made, they produce sugar 

 cane, cotton, and alfalfa, so that the whites have come in, diluted 

 the Indian blood, and raised the standard of life and behavior. 

 Undoubtedly their influence would tend to have the same general 

 effect if they mixed in equal numbers with the plateau groups. 

 There is, however, a good reason for their not doing so. 



The lofty towns of the plateau have a really wretched climate. 

 White men cannot live comfortably at Antabamba and Salamanca. 

 Further, they are so isolated that the modest comforts and the 

 smallest luxuries of civilization are very expensive. To pay for 

 them requires a profitable industry managed on a large scale and 

 there is no such industry in the higher valleys. The white who 

 goes there must be satisfied to live like an Indian. The result is 

 easy to forecast. Outside of government officers, only the disso- 



