CHAPTER 1

The Origin of the Enterprise

How few think justly of the thinking few!How many never think, who think they do!

—June Taylor

The Republic of Bolivia, as it existed prior to thetermination of the war with Chile in 1882, had an areaof 597,271 square miles, exclusive of the territory of El Chaco,claimed alike by Bolivia, Paraguay, and Argentina.

The population, though never carefully determined,was estimated by the best Bolivian authorities as two and ahalf million, and of this, about half consisted of savage anddomesticated Indians. In other words, a population aboutequal to that of the State of Massachusetts occupied a territorythree and a half times greater in area than that covered by ourten New England and Middle States combined.

During the colonial days of South America, Bolivia was apart of Peru, having been subdued and annexed by Hernando,a brother of Francisco Pizarro, and in 1559, it was formed intothe Audiencia of Charcas, or Upper Peru. "The haughtiest ofall the old Spanish Conquistadores," says a prominent writer,"settled in the country and clustered their titled familiesaround its ten thousand open silver-mines."

The treasures poured into Spain from Potosi and othermines "exercised a marked influence in European history andlargely furnished the sinews which enabled Spain to hurl herarmies against France, the Netherlands, and Portugal, to turnback the Turks at Lepanto, and fit out the Invincible Armadaagainst England." In mineral resources, Bolivia is probablythe richest country in South America.

The former output of her mines, though well authenticated,seems almost incredible. She has rich deposits of gold, silver,copper, tin, lead, mercury, and rock salt. Beds of coal arebeing worked today, and iron is known to exist.

The silver deposits of Potosi alone, from the time of theirdiscovery in 1546 to 1864, are reported to have yielded theenormous sum of $2,919,899,400.

Nor are these mineral resources by any means exhaustedtoday. The almost impassable barriers to the transportationof machinery, the spirit of revolution, and the indolence,ignorance, and poverty of the people have all combined torender Bolivia's wealth unavailable, but that it exists todaythere is abundant proof.

The correspondent of a prominent American newspaperwriting from La Paz, Bolivia, only a short time ago, says:

The ores of Potosi, Cerro del Pasco, and other notedmines are so rich that a yield of two hundred dollarsper ton is common, even with the primitive methodsnow employed. Remembering that miners of theUnited States find it profitable to work mineral worthonly ten dollars per ton, one may form some idea ofwhat these Andean treasure-houses might be made todisclose in the hands of wide-awake workmen aidedby modern machinery. The gold and silver fields ofthese countries are producing comparatively littlenowadays, owing to the poverty and ignorance of thepeople, their poor methods and worse management.For many years, numbers of the mines most famousin history have had nothing done to them beyondthe reduction by modern processes of the refuse ofthe ancient miners.... Gold has been found in manyplaces, but has never been extensively mined, beingmuch harder to get at by processes in vogue while silveris so plentiful that the people can afford to dispensewith the more precious but troublesome metal. To thisday big nuggets of pure gold are occasionally pickedup by some wandering prospector.... Years ago Potosireceived its greatest boom by means of a stroke oflightning, which detached a mass of solid gold fromsome unknown cliff away up the mountainside anddropped it at the feet of a group of miners...