In Far Bolivia
A Story of a Strange Wild Land
BY
DR. GORDON STABLES, R.N.
Author of "'Twixt School and College" "The Hermit Hunter of the Wilds"
"The Naval Cadet" "Kidnapped by Cannibals" &c.
WITH ILLUSTRATIONS BY J. FINNEMORE, R.I.
BLACKIE AND SON LIMITED
LONDON GLASGOW DUBLIN BOMBAY
1901
TO
MARIE CONNOR LEIGHTON
(NOVELIST AND CRITIC)
THIS BOOK IS INSCRIBED
EVERY KINDLY WISH
BY
THE AUTHOR
PREFACE
Every book should tell its own story without theaid of "preface" or "introduction". But as in thistale I have broken fresh ground, it is but right andjust to my reader, as well as to myself, to mentionprefatorially that, as far as descriptions go, both ofthe natives and the scenery of Bolivia and the mightyAmazon, my story is strictly accurate.
I trust that Chapter XXIII, giving facts aboutsocial life in La Paz and Bolivia, with an account ofthat most marvellous of all sheets of fresh water inthe known world, Lake Titicaca, will be found ofgeneral interest.
But vast stretches of this strange wild land ofBolivia are a closed book to the world, for they havenever yet been explored; nor do we know aught of thetribes of savages who dwell therein, as far removedfrom civilization and from the benign influence ofChristianity as if they were inhabitants of anotherplanet. I have ventured to send my heroes to thisland of the great unknown, and have at the sametime