Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
graph was printed. Without saying a word he made me a sign to read the text that was printed
under the picture, and this is what I saw in Spanish:
'J
HONNY
W
ELINTON
, the deaf and dumb American explorer and foot-walker, who on a
wager has undertaken to walk around the world twice in ten years, visiting every capital and
city, using no other means of locomotion but his feet. This card is given away free of charge,
but any donation you are willing to make will be thankfully received.'
Havingreadthishighlyinterestingtext,Ihadagoodlookatthis,tome,unknowncelebrity,
who, besides the clue of the badly spelt name, gave me anything but the impression of being
an American, and somehow I thought he did not 'look' deaf and dumb. When I spoke to him
hemadesignsthatIshouldputmywordsonpaper,whichIthendidinSpanishinordertoput
him to a test. Having read my question, he answered it in faultless Spanish, and his handwrit-
ingwasofthetypethatistaughtthroughouttheschoolsinLatinAmerica.Ithenproducedone
of my maps and asked him to show me the route he had followed from the States down, but it
was evident that he had not the slightest idea about the geography of the countries, and I was
convinced that he was travelling just like all the other globe trotters I had run into - namely,
by using ships and railways from place to place where money can be picked up, and carefully
avoiding uninhabited and poor regions.
After a while I was able to get rid of this fellow by giving him a small present, but in the
evening he again appeared at the officers' quarters where the dance was being held. At first
some were inclined to feel sorry for this poor deaf and dumb
Americano
, as they called him,
but when I told them about my suspicions, we hit on a plan to find out the truth. We invited
him into the refreshment room, where we started by giving him as much food and liquor as he
was willing to take, and in order to show how
American
he was he naturally gave preference
tothewhiskybottle,butunfortunatelyhisdesiretoacthisparttoperfectionwasmorethanhis
capacitytostandtheeffectsofthealcohol,andafterthesecondstiffdrinkhebegantoswayto
the music of the piano, and presently he even danced, and when our hero of the dark and un-
known forests and scorching deserts had quietly 'passed out,' we tied a bunch of fire-crackers
to the tail of his coat, and these performed the great miracle, for no sooner had they started to
fizz and explode with loud bangs than our deaf and dumb friend shot into the air like a rocket,
andthekindofexclamationsheshriekedatthetopofhisvoicewerestrictlySpanish,although
they do not figure in the average dictionary.
Next morning the poor deaf and dumb
Americano
was seen taking the train that left for La
Paz,andevenifhestillmutteredclassicalcursestohimself,Ihopehehadtimeenoughtocool
down sufficiently to be deaf and dumb again before he reached his destination.
Leaving Guaqui we followed a fair trail along the western shores of the lake. The scenery
was as delightful as the dry, clear and cool atmosphere, and whilst we were slowly moving
along I had ample time to observe things around me, and for hours I thought about the fas-
cinating history and mythology of the ancients. Here the Aymaras used to five, and their su-
preme being was Pachacamae. They adored objects of nature which they believed to be mani-
