Vagabonding down the Andes

Vagabonding down the Andes - Being the Narrative of a Journey, Chiefly Afoot, from Panama to Buenos Aires

In the Monte Grande, the Great Wilderness of Bolivia, the commander of the first garrison insisted on sending a boy soldier, with an ancient and rusted Winchester, to protect me from the savages A few years ago, when I began looking over the map of the world again, I chanced to have just been reading Prescotts Conquest of Peru, and it was natural that my thoughts should turn to South America. My only plan, at the outset, was to follow, if possible, the old military highway of the Incas from Quito to Cuzco. Every traveler, however, knows the tendency of a journey to grow under ones feet. This one grew with such tropical luxuriance that before it ended I had spent, not eight months, but four full years, and had covered not merely the ancient Inca Empire, but all the ten republics and three colonies of South America. A considerable portion of this journey was made on foot. The reader may be moved to ask why. First of all, I formed the habit of walking early in life, developing an inability to depend on others in my movements. Then, too, the route lay through many regions in which no other animal than man can make his way for extended periods. Moreover, there was the question of caste. It is one of the drawbacks of South America that a white man cannot efface himself and be an unobserved observer, as on the highways of Europe. Social lines are so sharply drawn that he who would be received in frank equality by the peon, by the great mass of the population, must live and travel much as they do. Merely to ride a horse lifts him above the communality and sets a certain barrier, akin to race prejudice, between him and the foot-going hordes among whom my chief interest lay. ......Buy Now (To Read More)

Product details

Ebook Number: 56673
Author: Franck, Harry Alverson
Release Date: Mar 3, 2018
Format: eBook
Language: English