The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, August 12, 1906, Page 8

of Templé of the Gun'. C=eo Peru that will of the world, by way of the majfestic uck of . &n | Strait of Megellan % is the hard- Turning no rd at last, the vast ve such” as | Patagonian ‘pampa of Argentina was of this city has explored bef the last three rnia, Mrs. known on both t interested ed es a. revela A native who*is w pictured a typical Spant merican city for a cosmopolitan capital, beau- graces the and progressive, ores of the River Plate. After the Argentine Repu , which Mr. and Mrs. Adams covered from the to know southernmost to ihe northernmost America as no woman | border, came’ picturesque Paraguay, e her had known it. d seenalso in her entire length, end, and she salled three sy following the River Paraguay up into the early Spanish it was this determina- exico, o of the Golden -Gate |, ., . Grosso, the -enormous’ inland = se faraway southlands| e of:Brasil, little known Eastern ®0 ¥ieh in the promisd of unusual WX- | Bolivia “was’eashed Tuad thRS Yes oA R o Yt 2 bast [of :tha Bouft Amierichn éotit: of Titica visiting La Pez, the wpnt sl et o = jour. | Returning again to the Argentine, s - aadiia £ which the |the Alta Parane River was navigated to the wonderful falls of the Iguazu, which at no far-off day will be world most severe hardships were endured, for the trall lay along that bleak plateau which rivals Tibet as the|Trenowned as Niagara's rival roof of the world. Here scattered groups Next came the little sister republic of the Qu still exist, unchanged | of Uruguay, with her modern capital | rce of the Spanish con- |in sharp contrast to her quaint coun- st, the remnants of that mighty greatest of the New World abo- . The final feat achieved in the escent of El Mistl, crowned summit towers 1 above the level of the sea. hen southward to Chile the Cali- try life—the unfortunate republic whose progress - has been checked by | her many revolutions. Peru was| In Venezuela the journey.was con- whose snow- | tinued up the stately Orinoco to theold 9,200 feet | capital, Angostura, now known as’'Clu- dad Bolivar, the trip being taken in a | launch in order to linger among the ornfens journeyed, lingering in the | river's lovely delta islands,. the .better balf-British city of Valparaiso, 1in|to study the life of the Warrows, sur- Bantiago, the capital famed for the | vivors of that tribe of coast Indians| beauty of its situstion, and in Val- | known to Columbus and his followers. @via, the German settlement on me[ Before reaching the Magdalena River fromtier of that great primeval forest in Colombia many weeks were spent in which covers the western slope of the'| the historic cities of thesSpanish main, Andes in Patagonia, before reaching | Cartagena being found second only to Spamsh C ch on Ineo Totindation THE SAN FRANCISCO SUNDAY CALL. ~ Indaans of the she does toaay surraunded by much of the old-time glory when, as “Cartagena of the Indies,” she lorded it over the southern seas. . b In’ Trifidad, Curacso and- Jamalca the travelers entered into the West In- dian life, and on reaching the isthmus again et last crossed from~ Colon to Panama by canoe and trall, seeing the canal work thoroughly. It 18 not to be wondered at then that Punts Arenas, the southeramost town | Cuzco, Peru, in interest, standing as|little Mrs. Adams has marvelous-tales PAraéue az&'~€];§c0’ to. ten s ge, lands and; strange peoples, of hairbreadth escapes:in the forest's depths, of 'terrible ‘hardships endured on.the bleak highlands and far oft the beaten track, where, led’ by;the call of the wild, which cofmes:to.those of us who listen, she had, in spite of fa - tigue, danger and hunger, her hours ot exaltation in realizing that she'alone of civilized women had reached these border lands. evA " “Ome ofthe most beautiful places in - \ Street in L2l Paza S Bolune’ South America, and perhaps. In the world, s the Agnalanl Canyon, In Peru,” sald Mrs. Adams, “but our re- membrance of ‘it is not altogether a pleasant one. "Few trayelers know this reglon, for it 1s reached only by & trail bullt by the Inca Mining and Rubber Company, an important American- concern, lies in the forest land, the office of the company being situated at a rallroad station out on the high plateau. “We had followed this trall from so- called “civilization across the desolate highlands long after nightfall in the little villages of the semi-otvilized In- dlans who ‘inhabit thé tableland, and the day before entering the Agnalani Canyon had endured great hardships, as we crossed the Cordillera at an ele- vation of 17,000 feet, covering ffty miles in th dle.. “Reaching the Pass of Aricoma, with its ‘wonderful glaclers, before the noon hour'in order to avold the dally snow- storm, we were' enveloped in clouds as ‘we began to descend to lower altitydes and s00n were In a heavy rainstorm. “With no hope of shelter until we could reach the little building owned by the company at the head of the canyon of which I have spoken, we kept on, our path being the bed of a brook and our poor tired animals finding it very dif- ficult to make their way over the huge sliding bowlders. “At last, at 10 o'clock at night, we reached the habitation, having been In the saddle since § that morning—all ~ P part of their road to the mine, which ||/ %mcm of " Rucara Vo:n 3 | the Efl\Sar\ds of Teru day “withédt fooed, and wet tor elght long hours, as the storm had not abated. “The next morning we were urged by the two Englishmen who were our hosts in the cabin to postpone our journey until the ‘arreiro,” or muleteer, who was following with our pack mule, should overtake us, but knowing that the friends who awaited us at the mine would be anxious, and as I, being a ‘woman, wanted especially to make the trip te Santo Domingo (where the mine is located) in record time, we made an early start down the canyon, hoping to reach our destination before darkness should fall. “The gorge !s a very narrow eme, with great mountain walls, and & rush- ing torrent flows through it to meet the Mambari River, one of the great B streams of the Amason. ‘The trail, which is & wondertul feat In comstruction, is blasted out of the rock walls high above the rives, and many times crosses from one side of the canyon to the other by way of bridges swung on cables, “I was unable to dismount, as I had been advised to do. whea crossing these bridges, as I was using & side saddle, which, with the narrow trail, made remounting r t only inconven- fent, but dangerous. “In fact, my feet were over fthe precipices most of the time, as the path in _many places is less than a yard wide and at one point is 1200 feet above the river. We made slow progress that day, as our animal were exhausted, and when & no:% overtook us at 4 o'clock in the affer noon were still far from Santo Do= mingo. “We had been warned of a landsiide on the trall, a new road having been buflt Lelow in this particular spot, but at 8 o'clock that night In the piteh darkness and pelting rain we stumb- led on to the old trall by mistake “Mr. Adams was first, on foot, I fol- lowing, our horses behind me, and we well on the way with no hope of re- tracing our steps when we discovered our danger. You can imagine the site uation. The path became %0 narrow that as we faced the canyon, with our backs to the wall, the width of the ground underneath was not the length of my feet, and, In fact, It wasn't ground at all, but loo from above rocks cam struck us, their scars remalning with me for some time. “Above the noise of the storm we could hear the river's roar far below us, but there seemed nothing to de but to creep on, taking each step very carefully, for we felt death very near “The wonderful part of it was th the horses realized it and were mo: intelligent than mules would hav been, for they, too, moved slowly, feel- ing their way, the one dehind me not crowding me over into the chasm, as I am sure a mule would have done “We reached the mew trail at last and pressed on, hoping for shelter, al- most losing our lives again at the river, as the bridgs which we groped for in the darkness had been swept away. “There was no cholce dut to sit on the trail all night, our poor animals near us, but we dared not sleep, fearing that we might roll off into eternity, and when the storm ceased about mid- night the tropical insects made lifs doubly miserable for us, the firefiles lighting the way. “We had !magined the mine teo de just over the river and had shot off a pistol many times signal, but dawn revealed no signs of life, only the great silent forest. “Retracing our ps to the foot of the old trail w! we had so nearly met our fate, we marveled at the es- cape, tor It seamed incredible that even a mountain goat could have scrambled down !n safety. “Of the bridge over the stream a log remained. and, leaving our faithful an- imals, saddlebags and all, behind, we crossed on this log, one by one, lying flat and pulling ourselves over its slip. pery surface inch by inch. realizing that to lose nerve and let go meant sure death In the angry torreat below. “With a safe footing once more wa went on, our tired feet nearly failing us, and the last adventure in the series wes in a brook which jolned the river and was to be forded. “It was deeper than we had antfel- pated and, getting in over my depth, I was being carried downstream—also to jcin the Amazon—when Mr. “Adams managed to pull me out. “Two very wet, hungry and worn- out travelers kept on over the trall, and when, turning a curve.somw miles farther on, we met our friend with tw» other Americans coming out to find us, you can imagine our delight and their rellef, as they had searched for us all night and had dreaded our fate out alone in that hazardous road in the darkress and the storm.” Mrs. Adams has returned to Califor. nia, her health seeming in no paired by such hardships and enthualasm over nature’s wond i