THE RETURN

Hokitika Guardian, 28 December 1920, Page 4

THE RETURN

ri’iafrw*'' -- - ( JOTTINGS BY THE-WAY. . (

PART 4. The tomb of the bravo Benbow is to he seen at Kingston, Jamaica. It was recovered from a ruined church. Vice Admiral John Benbow who died “of a .wound in his leg received in an engagement with -Mon du Chase” during a battle on August 21st, 1702. Benbow fought with one ship against five. Out of seven English ships, five refused to support him, and the sixth was soon disabled. . . In 171)1) a curious thing happened. The brig “Nancy” was suspected of being engaged unlawfully, hilt her pa pers .seemed to he correct. But a day or two later her papers, which were of a very incriminating nature were discovered in the maw of shark just captured. The shark papers are to lie seen to this day in Kingston Institute. Oct. 22nd, we set sail at 5 p.m. for the Isthmus of Panama. What a romantic .history is woven round these regions. The" Spanish Main, Portobello,. Cartagena, Chngres, Cruces. Who does not conjure up remembrances of tales of treasure, Spaniards and hold adventures on hearing these magic names? Robinson Crusoe, Teach, Capt Kidd, Amyas Leigh—these heroes of popular boys’ books—all fought _or cruised about these parts. “Truth is said often to he “Stranger than fiction” and when reading tlie history of this home of romance, one is induced to think tlie same, for it would be a bold novelist that would dare to write anything that would exceed in strangeness tho adventures of the daring and hardy men who toiled through the almost impenetrable forests fighting hunger and thirst, enemies more deadly than Indians or Spaniards. It was in 1497 that Columjius landed

on tho mainland of South America. A couple of years later, Amerigo Vespucci a Florentine navigator, also landed there, and it was after him that America ri-as named. Columbus, strange to say, was ignorant of the full extent of his own discovery and died in the belief that he had discovered the eastern shore of Asia. In 1519, Mexico was conquered by the Spaniards, under Certez, who at first treated the natives cruelly, and then tried to convert them. The accounts of the cruelty of the Spaniards are most melancholy reading. Montezuma,'the last native Emperor, was imprisoned, and died in captivity. Mexico was constituted a kingdom, and Cortez became its Governor. Andrea Navagiere, who travelled through Spain in 1525, states that the eagerness to explore became so great that the principal cities became more or less stripped

of their populations. Tlie adventurers whether successful or not, brought hack wonderful tales of warlike Amazons, and Patagonian giants. They believed implicitly in a fabulous El Dorado where the sands sparkled with gems, and where golden pebbles as large as bird’s eggs were dragged in nets out of the rivers. Gold was for ever in thenminds, and the name of Castilla, del oio (Golden Castille), the most unhealthy and unprofitable region of the Isthmus, held out a bright promise to the unfortunate settler, who too often, instead of gold, found there only his grave. The excitement in Europe at the time of tho Australian rushes, or later of the boom in the Klondyke, could be as nothing when compared with tlie feverish activity of the Spanish adventurers. The odds were ns great as any found in the legends of King Arthur's Knights. Hunger and thirst and fatigue, were no less deadly than the pestilent mists of the swamps, while the swarms of venemous insects added to the discomforts of the men . toiling through the trackless jungle under the scorching sun of the tropics. Gold was the incentive and tlie reward, and in pursuit of this the Spaniard stopped at nothing. His courage was sullied with cruelty, which, strangely enough, sprang froin his religion. The Castilian too proud for liypocrae.v, committed more cruelties in the name of religion than were ever practised by the pagan idolator or by the fanatical Moslem. Panama owed its importance to the ' fact that it was the only practicable route by which the treasures of the Incas could be transported from the western coast. Floating rumours had reached the Spaniards, from time to time,. of countries in the far ‘West, teeming with gold which they so much coveted, but it was iiot until 1511 that they knew anything definite of Peru. A young Indian told Vasca Nrihez de Balboa (who soon after discovered tile Pacific) that lie knew of a country where- gold was as cheap as iron was with the Spaniards. When lie had sueweded in the difficult task of crossing the Isthmus, Vasca Nunez rushed fullarmed into the water of the Pacific, waving his sword and shouting as lie did so, “I claim this unknown sea and all it contains for the King of Castilie, and I will make good the claim against all, Christian or Infidel, who dare to gainsay it.” Little did he know of New Zealand and Australia lying on the other side of the Pacific.

Although he tried to reach the golden regions, and sailed his earaval some twenty leagues south of the Gulf of St Michael, he was not successful. It is interesting to observe how highly civilised were the Peruvians. A country more unfavourable, than the Empire of the Incas, to both agriculture and internal communication scarcely could be conceived. Rain rarely falls on the sandy strip along the coast, while the precipitious sides of the Sij erra wliieli rises to sueli a iheiglit that I the tropical sun never wholly melts the ! snow on the tops, would seem to be favourable to neither farming nor road making. Yet the industry of the Indians overcame these difficulties. Water was conveyed by means of canals, aqueducts and tunnels. Some of the aqueducts, consisting of large slabs of freestone nicely fitted together without any cement, were of great length. One that led water from the heart of the mountains, and passed through the district of Coridesuvu, was between four and five hundred miles in length. The difficulties encountered and surmounted by the Indians without iron tools were such that modern engineers might well have been proud of having done the work. • The water was carefully measured and allotted to thq owners of the land through which it was conducted. Similar difficulties wore met by the road-makers, and were overcome in the same way. The principal of the keystone seems to have been unknown

to tho Incas, so instead of construct- ' ing stone arches across tho ravines they 1 encountered, they built solid causeways 1 of rock up to the level of tho road. < Over some of the torrents it was neces- i sary to throw suspension bridges, swung on huge cables, twisted from the tough Maguey. The traveller in the interior still meets with memorials of the past. There are ruins of temples, forts, palaces and great military roads. In the royal magazines and the “nuieas” or tombs of the Incas, have been found all kinds of skillfully . made

articles, vases of gold and silver bracelets, collars etc., utensils of every description, some of fine clay and some of copper, numerous mirrors made of hard stone, polished, or of burnished silver etc., etc. It is wonderful what the natives were able to do with their primitive tools. It would have been comparatively easy for them to mould and cast metals, hut one wonders how they should have shown a like facility in cutting and shaping the hardest substances —emeralds, rabies and other precious stones. Although the soil is largely impregnated with iron, the natives made no Use of it, (mis relied on tools of stone and copper. They appear to have hardened the latter with a small quantity of tin, and to iiavo given it, by some process unknown to civilised Europeans, a temper little inferior to that of steel. Under the Incas, idleness was a. crime. Long before Sir Thomas Moore wrote his “Utopia” there was an almost perfect state in full swing; work was provided for all and everybody was eared for by tlio State. Nobody could become unduly rich, and any, through ,any unforeseen mischance, lose what he possessed, the State made it good. It seems that, like the Pitcairn the fertile parts of the land were divided up into lots ail'd each far mily was given its right proportion lie1* 1. _ IL.. unmhnll Tlll-f fillnf - .-

cording to its number. J>ut tne juiolments were not hereditary, ns the division of the soil was renewed every year and the possession of the tenant was increased or diminished according to the numbers of his family. The tenant had no'.right to add to, or sell his possessions, so that at the end of the year he ' was no better off than at the beginning. ' Such a. system would seem to discourage thrift, for like in Russia, under the Bolsheviks, a man owned neither body nor soul. The policy of tho Incas, seems to have been one of prevention. In order to prevent any disturbances in the government of tho country, they provided against poverty and idleness. In these rightly discerned the two great I causes of disaffection in a populous ' country. The industry of the people was secured not only by the compul- . sory occupations at home ( but by their employment on those great public works

which covered every part of the country. How different might have been tho history of Russia if there had been no poverty, much less idleness. When a nation is poor the members of it have to work hard in order to live; so they have no time to discuss politics and become discontented. Likewise, when there is no idleness thero is little time for revolutionary talk. (To he continued).