a very large rubber forest on a trip to his properties
on the higher reaches of the River Amazon, and hence my privilege of
being able to offer you a perusal of my experiences across the inner
ranges of the Cordillera mountains. His daughter also accompanied him,
and, although the journey is a most uncomfortable one in more ways than
one, she stood the fatigue of many days' riding on mule-back, over
trails which did not deserve the name of roads, just about as well as
any of the rest of us.

For a trip of this kind many provisions have to be made, as very little
indeed can be procured on the journey in the way of good food or
lodging. We accordingly had to carry our beds and bedding, and in fact
everything we could think of in the form of clothes, food, firearms,
and, of course, the necessary accompaniment in liquid form. Most of our
baggage and what we might not require at a moment's notice we sent on
ahead with a day's anticipation, and eventually on the 20th May, 1901,
our caravan departed from the then capital of Bolivia, at 8 a.m. Our
conveyance, to start with, consisted of a coach drawn by four mules, and
it took much longer to climb the steep "Cuesta" than it had taken us to
descend on previous occasions already mentioned. However, our animals
were good and in about an hour and a-half we reached the top of the
hill, and I took what proved to be my last view of La Paz City.

The journey for the first forty miles is over the same ground as I have
already referred to, in the direction of Lake Titicaca, and there is
nothing more to be said about it, beyond that we changed animals at a
place called Ocomisto, this being simply a few Indian huts where there
is always a supply of grain and water for the animals, and the ordinary
country fare for the passing traveller. There was a long journey ahead
of us, so we only remained during the time that was occupied in
outspanning the tired mules and inspanning the fresh lot. At 1 o'clock
we reached Machacamarca, another "tambo" or resting-place, and were very
disgusted to find that our pack animals, which we had dispatched the day
before, had got no farther than this point. Our desired destination for
the night was the Indian town of Achicachi, twelve leagues off, but as
it was now quite out of the question to think of travelling our baggage
animals so far before night should overtake us, we had to change our
plans and therefore directed our coach towards Guarina, another Indi