Vagabonding Down The Andes

Author : Harry A. Franck
Publisher :
ISBN 13 : 9781331931072
Total Pages : 664 pages
Book Rating : 4.9/5 (31 download)

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Download or read book Vagabonding Down the Andes written by Harry A. Franck and published by . This book was released on 2015-07-21 with total page 664 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Excerpt from Vagabonding Down the Andes: Being the Narrative, of a Journey, Chiefly Afoot, From Panama to Buenos Aires A few years ago, when I began looking over the map of the world again, I chanced to have just been reading Prescott's "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 one's 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. At best these lines of caste are a drag on observant travel in South America. The "gringo" can never get completely out of his social stratum. His very color betrays him. It is always "Goot mawning, Meestear," too often with a silly, patronizing smile, from the "gente decente" class; among the rest his mere appearance makes him as conspicuous as a white man among West Indians. Never can he be an inconspicuous part of the crowd, as in Europe. To get in touch with the "common people" requires actually living in their huts and tramping their roads. The dilettante method of approaching them, "slumming," will not do. The disadvantages of the primitive means of locomotion in wild regions, such as the Andes, are obvious. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.