Across South America; an account of a journey from Buenos Aires to Lima by way of Potosí, with notes on Brazil, Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, and Peru . lk of a block ortwo at this altitude makes one quite warm, and inthe middle of the day the sun is hot. Wherever we wandered in this fascinating city,our eyes continually turned southward to the Cerro,the beautifully colored cone that raises itself fifteenhundred feet above the city. It is impossible to de-scribe adequately the beauty of its colors and themarvellous way in which they change as the sun sinksbehind the western Andes. I hope that som
Across South America; an account of a journey from Buenos Aires to Lima by way of Potosí, with notes on Brazil, Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, and Peru . lk of a block ortwo at this altitude makes one quite warm, and inthe middle of the day the sun is hot. Wherever we wandered in this fascinating city,our eyes continually turned southward to the Cerro,the beautifully colored cone that raises itself fifteenhundred feet above the city. It is impossible to de-scribe adequately the beauty of its colors and themarvellous way in which they change as the sun sinksbehind the western Andes. I hope that some day agreat painter will come here and put on canvas themarvellous hues of this world-renowned hill. Pink,purple, lavender, brown, gray, and yellow streaksmake it look as though the gods, having finishedpainting the universe, had used this as a dumping-ground for their surplus pigments. In reality, thehand of man has had much to do with its presentvariegated aspect, for he has been busily engagedduring the past three hundred years in turning thehill inside out. Much of the most beautifully col-ored material has been painfully brought out from. POTOSI 121 the very heart of the hill through long tunnels, inmans effort to get at the rich veins of silver and tinwhich lie within. The discovery of silver at Potosi was made by allama driver about the middle of the sixteenth cen-tury. It was soon found that the mountain was tra-versed by veins of extremely rich ore. After the goldof the Incas had been gathered up and disposed of,Potosi became the most important part of all theSpanish possessions in America. At the beginningof the sevententh century, when New York and Bos-ton were still undreamed of, Potosi was already alarge and extremely wealthy city. It attracted thepresence of hundreds of Spanish adventurers includ-ing many grandees. In short it had taken on all thesigns of luxury that are common to big mining in sumptuous apparel rode gayly capari-soned horses up a
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1910, booksubjectsouthamericadescript
