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LAOS , or LAOTIOxs, an important See also:division of the widespread Thai or Shan See also:race found throughout Indo-See also:China from 28° N. and the See also:sources of the See also:Irrawaddy as far as See also:Cambodia and 7° N. in the See also:Malay See also:Peninsula. This Thai See also:family includes the See also:Shans proper, and the Siamese. The name Lao, which appears to mean simply " See also:man," is the collective Siamese See also:term for all the Thai peoples subject to See also:Siam, while Shan, said to be of See also:Chinese origin, is the collective Burmese term for those subject to See also:Burma. Lao is therefore rather a See also:political than an ethnical See also:title, and the See also:people cordially dislike the name, insisting on their right to be called Thai. Owing to the different circumstances which have attended their migrations, the Thai peoples have attained to varying degrees of See also:civilization. The Lao, who descended from. the See also:mountain districts of Yunnan, Szechuen and Kweichow to the highland plains of upper Indo-China, and drove the wilder Kha peoples whom they found in See also:possession into the hills, mostly adopted See also:Buddhism, and formed small settled communities or states in which See also:laws were easy, taxes See also:light and a very See also:fair degree of comfort was attained. There are two See also:main divisions, the Lao Pong See also:Dam (" See also:Black Paunch Laos "), so-called from their See also:habit of See also:tattooing the See also:body from the See also:waist to the knees, and the Lao Pong Kao (" See also: In contradistinction to the Lao Pong Dam, who have derived their written See also:language from the Burmese See also:character, the eastern race has retained what appears to be the See also:early form ofthe See also:present Siamese See also:writing, from which it differs little. They formed important settlements at various points on the Mekong, notably Luang Prabang, Wieng Chan (See also:Vien-Tiane) Ubon and Bassac; and, heading inland as far as See also:Korat or, the one See also:side and the Annamite See also:watershed in the See also:east, they drove out the less civilized Kha peoples, and even the Cambodians, as the Lao Pong Dam did on. the See also:west. Vien-Tiane during the 18th See also:century was the most powerful of the Lao principalities, and was feared and respected throughout Indo-China. It was destroyed by the Siamese in 1828. The inhabitants, in accordance with the Indo-Chinese See also:custom of the See also:day, were transported to See also:Lower Siam. The Lao Pong Kao below 18° N. are a less merry and less vivacious people, and are for the most See also:part shorter and more thick-set than those of Luang Prabang and the See also:north. If possible, they are as a race lazier than the western Lao, as they are certainly more musical. The " khen," or mouth See also:organ, which is universal among them, is the sweetest-toned of eastern See also:instruments. After 1828 the Laos became entirely subject to Siam, and were governed partly by khiao, or native hereditary princes, partly by mandarins directly nominated by the Bangkok authorities. The khiao were invested by a See also:gold dish, betel-See also:box, spittoon and teapot, which were sent from Bangkok and returned at their See also:death or deposition. Of all the khiao the most powerful was the See also:prince of Ubon (15° N., 105° E.), whose See also:jurisdiction extended nearly from Bassac on the Mekong northwards to the See also:great See also:southern See also:bend of that See also:river. Nearly all the Laos See also:country is now divided between See also:France and Siam, and only a few tribes retain a nominal See also:independence. The many contradictory accounts of the Laos are due to the fact that the race has become much mixed with the aboriginal inhabitants. The See also:half-castes sprung from alliances with the See also:wild tribes of Caucasic stock present every variety between that type and the Mongolian. But the pure Laos are still distinguished by the high cheek-bones, small See also:flat See also:nose, oblique eyes, wide mouth, black lank See also:hair, sparse See also:beard, and yellow complexion of the Thai and other branches of the Mongol family. In disposition the Laos are an apathetic, See also:peace-loving, pleasant-mannered race. Though the See also:women have to See also:work, they are See also:free and well treated, and See also:polygamy is rare. The Laos are very superstitious, believe in wer-wolves, and that all diseases are caused by evil See also:spirits. Their See also:chief See also:food is See also:rice and See also:fish. Men, women and See also:children all See also:smoke See also:tobacco. The civilized Laos were See also:long addicted to slave-See also:hunting, not only with the See also:sanction but even with the co-operation of their rulers; the Lao mandarins heading See also:regular expeditions against the wilder tribes.
Closely allied with the Lao are a number of tribes found throughout the See also: See also:Hardy, See also:simple and industrious, fond of See also:music, kind-hearted, and with a strangely See also:artistic See also:taste in See also:dress, these people possess in a wonderful degree the See also:secret of cheerful contentment.
LAO-TSZE, or LAOU-TSZE, the designation of the Chinese author of the celebrated See also:treatise called Tao Teh See also: That date cannot be far from the truth. That he was contemporary with Confucius is established by the concurrent testimony of the Li Kt, and the Kid See also:Yii on the Confucian side, and of Chwang-tsze and Sze-ma Ch'ien on the Taoist. The two men whose See also:influence has been so great on all the subsequent generations of the Chinese people—Kung-tsze (Confucius) and Lao-tsze—had at least one interview, in 517 B.C., when the former was in his See also:thirty-fifth year. The conversation between them was interesting. Lao was in a mocking See also:mood; Kung appears to the greater See also:advantage. If it be true that Confucius, when he was fifty-one years old, visited Lao-tsze as Chwang-tsze says (in the Thien Yun, the fourteenth of his See also:treatises), to ask about the Tdo, they must have had more than one interview. Dr Chalmers, however, has pointed out that both Chwang-tsze and Lieh-tsze (a still earlier Taoist writer) produce Confucius in their writings, as the lords of the See also:Philistines did the See also:captive See also:Samson on their festive occasions, " to make See also:sport for them." Their testimony is valueless as to any See also:matter of fact. There may have been several meetings between the two in 517 B.C., but we have no See also:evidence that they were together in the same place after that See also:time. Ch'ien adds:—" Lao-tsze cultivated the Tdo and virtue, his chief aim in his studies being how to keep himself concealed and unknown. He resided at (the See also:capital of) Chow; but after a long time, seeing the decay of the See also:dynasty, he left it, and went away to the See also:Gate (leading from the royal domain into the regions beyond—at the entrance of the pass of Han-kfl, in the north-west of Ho-nan). Yin Hsi, the See also:warden of the Gate. said to him, ' You are about to withdraw yourself out of sight; I pray you to compose for me a See also:book (before you go).' On this Lao-tsze made a writing, setting forth his views on the tdo and virtue, in two sections, containing more than 5000 characters. He then went away, and it is not known where he died." The historian then mentions the names of two other men whom some regarded as the true Lao-tsze. One of them was a Lao Lai, a See also:con-temporary of Confucius, who wrote fifteen treatises (or sections) on the practices of the school of Tdo. Subjoined to the See also:notice of him is the remark that Lao-tsze was more than one See also:hundred and sixty years old, or, as some say, more than two hundred, because by the cultivation of the Tdo he nourished his See also:longevity. The other was " a See also:grand historiographer " of Chow, called Tan, one hundred and twenty-nine (? one hundred and nineteen) years after the death of Confucius. The introduction of these disjointed notices detracts from the verisimilitude of the whole narrative in which they occur. Finally, Ch'ien states that " Lho-tsze was a See also:superior man, who liked to keep in obscurity," traces the See also:line of his posterity down to the 2nd century B.C., and concludes with this important statement:—" Those who attach themselves to the See also:doctrine of Lao-tsze condemn that of the literati, and the literati on their part condemn Lao-tsze, thus verifying the saying, ' Parties whose principles are different cannot take counsel together.' Li Urh taught that transformation follows, as a matter of course, the doing nothing (to bring it about), and rectification ensnes in the same way from being pure and still." Accepting the Tdo Teh King as the veritable work of Lao-tsze, we may now examine its contents. Consisting of not more than between five and six thousand characters, it is but a See also:short treatise—not half the See also:size of the See also:Gospel of St See also:Mark. The nature of the subject, however, the want of any progress of thought or of logical connexion between its different parts, and the condensed See also:style, with the mystic tendencies and poetical temperament of the author, make its meaning extraordinarily obscure. Divided at first into two parts, it has subsequently and conveniently been subdivided into chapters. One of the See also:oldest, and the most See also:common, of these arrangements makes the chapters eighty-two. Some See also:Roman See also:Catholic missionaries, two centuries ago, fancied that they found a wonderful See also:harmony between many passages and the teaching of the See also:Bible. Montucci of See also:Berlin Supposed ventured to say in 1808: " Many things about a harmony Triune See also:God are so clearly expressed that no one who with has read this book can doubt that the See also:mystery of the' siaiirai See also:Holy Trinity was revealed to the Chinese five centuries teaching. before the coming of Jesus See also:Christ." Even See also:Remusat, the first occupant of a Chinese See also:chair in See also:Europe, published at See also:Paris in 1823 his Memoire sur la See also:vie et See also:les opinions de Ldo-tsze, to vindicate the view that the See also:Hebrew name Yahweh was phonetic-ally represented in the fourteenth See also:chapter by Chinese characters. These fancies were exploded by Stanislas See also:Julien, when he issued in 1842 his translation of the whole treatise as Le Livre de la voie et de la vertu. The most important thing is to determine what we are to understand by the Tdo, for Teh is merely its outcome, especially in man, and is rightly translated by " virtue." Julien translated Tdo by " la voie." Chalmers leaves it untranslated. " No See also:English word," he says (p. xi.), " is its exact equivalent. Three terms suggest themselves—the way, See also:reason and the word; but they are all liable to objection. Were we guided by See also:etymology, ` the way ' would come nearest the See also:original, and in one or two passages the See also:idea of a way seems to be in the term; but this is too materialistic to serve the purpose of a translation. ` Reason,' again, seems to be more like a quality or attribute of some conscious being than Tdo is. I would translate it by ` the Word,' in the sense of the See also:Logos, but this would be like settling the question which I wish to leave open, viz. what resemblance there is between the Logos of the New Testament and this Chinese Tao." Later Sinologues in China have employed " nature " as our best analogue of the term. Thus Watters (Ldo-tsze, A Study in Chinese See also:Philosophy, p. 45) says:— " In the Tdo Teh King the originator of the universe is referred to under the names Non-Existence, Existence, Nature (Tdo) and various designations—all which, however, represent one idea in various manifestations. It is in all cases Nature (Tdo) which is meant." This view has been skilfully worked out; but it only hides the See also:scope of " the Venerable Philosopher." " Nature " cannot be accepted as a translation of Tdo. That character was, primarily, the See also:symbol of a way, road or path; and then, figuratively, it was used, as we also use way, in the senses of means and method—the course that we pursue in passing from one thing or concept to another as its end or result. It is the name of a quality. See also:Sir See also:Robert See also:Douglas has well said (Confucianism and Tdoism, p. 189) : " If we were compelled to adopt a single word to represent the Tdo of Lao-tsze, we should prefer the sense in which it is used by Confucius, ` the way,' that is, thOo8os." What, then, was the quality which Lao-tsze had in view, and which he thought of as the Tdo—there in the library of Chow, at the pass of the valley of Han, and where he met The the end of his life beyond the limits of the civilized doctrine state? It was the simplicity of spontaneity, See also:action of" the (which might be called non-action) without See also:motive, WAY'" free from all selfish purpose, resting in nothing but its own accomplishment. This is found in the phenomena of the material See also:world. " All things springup without a word spoken, and grow without a claim for their See also:production. They go through their processes without any display of See also:pride in them; and the results are realized without any See also:assumption of ownership. It is owing to the See also:absence of such assumption that the results and their processes do not disappear " (See also:chap. ii.). It only needs the same quality in the arrangements and See also:measures of See also:government to make society beautiful and happy. " A government conducted by sages would free the See also:hearts of the people from inordinate desires, fill their bellies, keep their ambitions feeble and strengthen their bones. They would constantly keep the people without knowledge and free from desires; and, where there were those who had knowledge, they would have them so that they would not dare to put it in practice " (chap. iii.). A corresponding course observed by individual man in his government of himself becoming again " as a little See also:child" (chaps. x. and See also:xxviii.) will have corresponding results. " His See also:constant virtue will be See also:complete, and he will return to the See also:primitive simplicity " (chap. xxviii.). Such is the subject matter of the Tdo Teh King—the operation of this method or Tdo, " without striving or crying," in nature, in society and in the individual. Much that is very beautiful and See also:practical is inculcated in connexion with its working in the individual character. The writer seems to feel that he cannot say enough on the virtue of humility (chap. viii., &c.). There were three things which he prized and held fast—See also:gentle compassion, See also:economy and the not presuming to take See also:precedence in the world (chap. lxvii.). His teaching rises to its highest point in chap. lxiii.:— " It is the way of Tdo not to See also:act from any See also:personal motive, to conduct affairs without feeling the trouble of them, to taste without being aware of the flavour, to account the great as small and the small as great, to recompense injury with kindness." This last and noblest characteristic of the Tao, the requiting " See also:good for evil," is not touched on again in the treatise; but we know that it excited general See also:attention at the time, and was the subject of conversation between Confucius and his disciples (Confucian Analects, xiv. 36). What is said in the Tao on government is not, all of it, so satisfactory. The writer shows, indeed, the benevolence of his See also:heart. He seems to condemn the infliction of capital See also:punishment (chaps. lxxiii. and lxxiv.), and he deplores the practice of See also:war (chap. 1xix.); but he had no sympathy with the progress of society or with the culture and arts of life. He says (chap. lxv.):—" Those who anciently were skilful in practising the Tao did not use it to enlighten the people; 'their See also:object rather was to keep them simple. The difficulty in governing the people arises from their having too much knowledge, and therefore he who tries to govern a state by See also:wisdom is a See also:scourge to it, while he who does not try to govern thereby is a blessing." The last chapter but one is the following:— " In a small state with a few inhabitants, I would so See also:order it that the people, though supplied with all kinds of implements, would not (care to) use them; I would give them cause to look on death as a most grievous thing, while yet they would not go away to a distance to See also:escape from it. Though they had boats and carriages, they should have no occasion to ride in them. Though they had See also:buff-coats and See also:sharp weapons, they should not See also:don or use them. I would make them return to the use of knotted cords (instead of written characters). They should think their coarse food sweet, their See also:plain clothing beautiful, their poor houses places of See also:rest and their common simple ways sources of enjoyment. There should be a neighbouring state within sight, and the See also:sound of the fowls and See also:dogs should be heard from it to us without interruption, but I would make the people to old age, even to death, have no intercourse with it." On See also:reading these sentiments, we must See also:judge of Lao-tsze that, with all his See also:power of thought, he was only a dreamer. But thus far there is no difficulty arising from his language in regard to the Tdo. It is simply a quality, descriptive of the style of character and action, which the individual should seek to attain in himself, and the ruler to impress on his See also:administration. The language about the Tao in nature is by no means so clear. While Sir Robert Douglas says that " the way " would be the best translation of Tao, he immediately adds:— " But Tdo is more than the way. It is the way and the way-goer. It is an eternal road; along it all beings and things walk; but no being made it, for it is being itself; it is everything, and nothing Some of these representations require modification; but no thoughtful reader of the treatise can fail to be often puzzled by what is said on the point in See also:hand. Julien, indeed, says with truth (p. xiii.) that " it is impossible to take Tao for the primordial Reason, for the See also:sublime Intelligence, which has created and governs the world "; but many of Lao-tsze's statements are unthinkable if there be not behind the Tao the unexpressed recognition of a personal creator and ruler. Granted that he does not affirm positively the existence of such a Being, yet certainly he does not deny it, and his language even implies it. It has been said, indeed, that he denies it, and we are referred in See also:proof to the See also:fourth chapter:— " Tao is like the emptiness of a See also:vessel; and the use of it, we may say, must be free from all self-sufficiency. How deep and mysterious it is, as if it were the author of all things! We should make our sharpness See also:blunt, and unravel the complications of things; we should attemper our brightness, and assimilate ourselves to the obscurity caused by dust. How still and clear is Tao, a phantasm with the semblance of permanence! I do not know whose son it is. It might appear to have been before God (Ti)." The reader will not overlook the cautious and dubious manner in which the predicates of Tdo are stated in this remarkable passage. The author does not say that it was before God, but that " it might appear " to have been so. Nowhere else in his treatise does the nature of Tdo as a method or style of action come out more clearly. It has no See also:positive existence of itself; it is but like the emptiness of a vessel, and the manifestation of it by men requires that they endeavour to free themselves from all self-sufficiency. Whence came it? It does not See also:shock Lao-tsze to suppose that it had a See also:father, but he cannot tell whose son it is. And, as the feeling of its mysteriousness grows on him, he ventures to say that " it might appear to have been before God." There is here no denial but See also:express recognition of the existence of God, so far as it is implied in the name Ti, which is the personal name for the concept of See also:heaven as the ruling power, by means of which the fathers of the Chinese people See also:rose in prehistoric time to the idea of God. Again and again Lao-tsze speaks of heaven just as " we do when we mean thereby the Deity who presides over heaven and See also:earth." These last words are taken from Watters (p. 8r); and, though he adds, " We must not forget that this heaven is inferior and subsequent to the mysterious Tao, and was in fact produced by it," it has been shown how rash and unwarranted is the ascription of such a sentiment to "the Venerable Philosopher." He makes the Tao See also:prior to heaven and earth, which is a phrase denoting what we often call " nature," but he does not make it prior to heaven in the higher and immaterial usage of that name. The last See also:sentence of his treatise is:— " It is the Tao—the way—of Heaven to benefit and not injure; it is the Tao—the way—of the See also:sage to do and not strive." Since Julien laid the Tdo Teh King fairly open to Western readers in 1842, there has been a tendency to overestimate rather than to underestimate its value as a See also:scheme of thought and a discipline for the individual and society. There are in it lessons of unsurpassed value, such as the inculcation of simplicity, humility and self-abnegation, and especially the brief enunciation of the divine See also:duty of returning good for See also:ill; but there are also the regretful representations of a primitive society when men were ignorant of the rudiments of culture, and the longings for its return. When it was thought that the treatise made known the doctrine of the Trinity, and even gave a phonetic See also:representation of the Hebrew name for God, it was natural, even necessary, to believe that its author had had communication with more western parts of See also:Asia, and there was much See also:speculation about visits to See also:India and See also:Judaea, and even to See also:Greece. The See also:necessity for assuming such travels has passed away. If we can receive Sze-ma Ch'ien's histories as trustworthy, L"ao-tsze might have heard, in the states of Chow and among the wild tribes adjacent to them, views about society and government very like his own. Ch'ien relates how an envoyy came in 624 B.c.—twenty years before the date assigned to the birtkt of Lao-tsze—to the court of See also:Duke Mu of Ch'in, sent by the king of some See also:rude hordes on the west. The duke told him of the histories rr The Ta"o and the Deity. poems, codes of See also:rites, music and laws which they had in the See also:middle states, while yet See also:rebellion and disorder were of frequent occurrence, and asked how good order was secured among the wild people, who had none of those appliances. The See also:envoy smiled, and replied that the troubles of China were occasioned by those very things of which the duke vaunted, and that there had been a See also:gradual degeneration in the See also:condition of its states, as their professed civilization had increased, ever since the days of the See also:ancient sage, Hwang Ti, whereas in the See also:land he came from, where there was nothing but the primitive simplicity, their princes showed a pure virtue in their treatment of the people, who responded to them with See also:loyalty and good faith. " The government of a state," said he in conclusion, " is like a man's ruling his own single See also:person. He rules it, and does not know how he does so; and this was indeed the method of the sages." Lao-tsze did not need to go further afield to find all that he has said about government. We have confined ourselves to the See also:Taoism of the Tao Teh King without touching on the religion Taoism now existing in China, but The which did not take shape until more than five hundred Taoism years after the death of Lao-tsze, though he now occupies of to-day. the second place in its trinity of "The three Pure or Holy Ones." There is hardly a word in his treatise that savours either of superstition or religion. In the See also:works of Lieh-tsze and Chwang-tsze, his earliest followers of See also:note, we find abundance of See also:grotesque superstitions; but their beliefs (if indeed we can say that they had beliefs) had not become embodied in any religious institutions. When we come to the Ch'in dynasty (221–206 B.c.), we meet with a Taoism in the shape of a See also:search for the See also:fairy islands of the eastern See also:sea, where the See also:herb.of See also:immortality might be gathered. In the 1st century A.D. a magician, called Chang Tao-See also:ling, comes before us as the chief See also:professor and controller of this Taoism, preparing in retirement " the pill " which renewed his youth, supreme over all spirits, and destroying millions of demons by a stroke of his See also:pencil. He left his books, talismans and charms, with his See also:sword and See also:seal, to his descendants, and one of them, professing to be animated by his soul, dwells on the See also:Lung-ha' mountain in Kiang-si, the acknowledged See also:head or See also:pope of Taoism. But even then the See also:system was not yet a religion, with temples or monasteries, liturgies and forms of public See also:worship. It borrowed all these from Buddhism, which first obtained public recognition in China between A.D. 65 and 70, though at least a couple of centuries passed before it could be said to have free course in the country. Even still, with the form of a religion, Taoism is in reality a conglomeration of See also:base and dangerous superstitions. See also:Alchemy, geomancy and See also:spiritualism have dwelt and dwell under its See also:shadow. Each of its " three Holy Ones " has the title of Thien Tsun, " the Heavenly and Honoured," taken from Buddhism, and also of Shang Ti or God, taken from the old religion of the country. The most popular deity, however, is not one of them, but has the title of Yin Wang Shang Ti, " God, the Perfect King." But it would take long to tell of all its " See also:celestial gods," "great gods," " divine rulers "and others. It has been doubted whether Lao-tsze acknowledged the existence of God at all, but See also:modern Taoism is a system of the wildest polytheism. The See also:science and religion of the; West meet from it a most determined opposition. The " Venerable Philosopher " himself would not have welcomed them; but he ought not to See also:bear the obloquy of being the founder of the Taoist religion. (J. LE.) LA PAZ, a western department of See also:Bolivia, bounded N. by the See also:national territories of Caupolican and El Beni, E. by El Beni and See also:Cochabamba, S. by Cochabamba and See also:Oruro and W. by See also:Chile and See also:Peru. Pop. (1900) 445,616, the See also:majority of whom are See also:Indians. See also:Area 53,777 sq. m. The department belongs to the great Bolivian See also:plateau, and its greater part to the See also:cold, See also:bleak, puna See also:climatic region. The See also:Cordillera Real crosses it I.W. to S.E. and culminates in the See also:snow-crowned summits of Sorata and Illimani. The west of the department includes a part of the Titicaca See also:basin with about half of the See also:lake. This elevated plateau region is partially barren and inhospitable, its short, cold summers permitting the production of little besides potatoes, quinoa (See also:Chenopodium quinoa) and See also:barley, with a little See also:Indian See also:corn and See also:wheat in favoured localities. Some attention is given to the rearing of llamas, and a few See also:cattle, See also:sheep and mules are to be seen south of Lake Titicaca. There is a considerable Indian See also:population in this region, living chiefly in small hamlets on the products of their own industry. In the lower valleys of the eastern slopes, where climatic conditions range from temperate to tropical, wheat, Indian corn, oats and the fruits and vegetables of the temperate See also:zone are cultivated. Farther down, See also:coffee, cacao, See also:coca, rice, See also:sugar See also:cane, tobacco, oranges, bananas and other tropical fruits are grown, and the forests yield See also:cinchona bark and See also:rubber. The See also:mineral See also:wealth of La Paz includes gold, See also:silver, See also:tin, See also:copper and See also:bismuth. Tin and rapper are the most important of these, the See also:principal tinmines being in the vicinity of the capital and known under the names of Huayna-See also:Potosi, Milluni and Chocoltaga. The chief copper mines are the famous Corocoro group, about 75 m. S.S.E. of Lake Titicaca by the Desaguadero river, the principal means of transport. The output of the Corocoro mines, which also includes gold and silver, finds its way to See also:market by See also:boat and See also:rail to Mollendo, and by See also:pack animals to See also:Tacna and rail to See also:Arica. There are no roads in La Paz worthy of the name except the 5 m. between the capital and the " See also:Alto," though See also:stage-See also:coach communication with Oruro and Chililaya has been maintained by the national government. The railway opened in 1905 between Guaqui and La Paz (54 M.) superseded the latter of these stage lines, and a railway is planned from Viacha to Oruro to supersede the other. The capital of the department is the national capital La Paz. Corocoro, near the Desaguadero river, about 75 M. S.S.E. of Lake Titicaca and 13,353 ft. above sea-level, has an estimated population (1906) of 15,000, chiefly See also:Aymara Indians. LA PAZ (officially LA PAZ DE See also:AYACUCHO), the capital of Bolivia since 1898, the see of a bishopric created in 1605 and capital of the department of La Paz, on the Rio de la Paz or Rio Chuquiapo, 42 M. S.E. of Lake Titicaca (See also:port of Chililaya) in 16° 3o' S., 68° W. Pop. (1goo) 54,713, (1906, estimate) 67,235. The city is built in a deeply-eroded valley of the Cordillera Real which is believed to have formed an outlet of Lake Titicaca, and at this point descends sharply to the S.E., the river making a great bend southward and then flowing northward to the Beni. The valley is about tom. long and 3 M. wide, and is singularly barren and forbidding. Its precipitous sides, deeply gullied by torrential rains and diversely coloured by mineral ores, rise 1500 ft. above the city to the margin of the great plateau surrounding Lake Titicaca, and above these are the snow-capped summits of Illimani and other giants of the Bolivian Cordillera. Below, the valley is fertile and covered with vegetation, first of the temperate and then of the tropical zone. The See also:elevation of La Paz is 12,120 ft. above sea-level, which places it within the pupa climatic region, in which the summers are short and cold. The mean See also:annual temperature is a little above the puna See also:average, which is 54° F., the extremes ranging from 19° to 75°. See also:Pneumonia and bronchial complaints are common, but See also:consumption is said to be rare. The See also:surface of the valley is very uneven, rising sharply from the river on both sides, and the transverse streets of the city are steep and irregular. At its south-eastern extremity is the See also:Alameda, a handsome public See also:promenade with parallel rows of See also:exotic trees, shrubs and See also:flowers, which are maintained with no small effort in so inhospitable a See also:climate. The trees which seem to thrive best are the See also:willow and See also:eucalyptus. The streets are generally narrow and roughly paved, and there are numerous See also:bridges across the river and its many small tributaries. The dwellings of the poorer classes are commonly built with mud walls and covered with tiles, but See also: An electric railway 5 M. long connects the Alto de La Paz with the city, 1493 ft. below. This route is 496 M. long, and is expensive because of trans-shipments and the cost of handling See also:cargo at Mollendo. The vicinity of La Paz abounds with mineral wealth; most important are the tin deposits of Huayna-Potosi, Milluni and Chocoltaga. The La Paz valley is auriferous, and since the See also:foundation of the city gold has been taken from the See also:soil washed down from the mountain sides. La Paz was founded in 1548 by Alonzo de See also:Mendoza on the site of an Indian village called Chuquiapu. It was called the See also:Pueblo Nuevo de Nuestra Senora de la Paz in See also:commemoration of the reconciliation between See also:Pizarro and See also:Almagro, and soon became an important See also:colony. At the See also:close of the war of independence (1825) it was rechristened La Paz de Ayacucho, in See also:honour of the last decisive See also:battle of that protracted struggle. It was made one of the four capitals of the republic, but the revolution of 1898 permanently established the seat of government here because of its accessibility, wealth, trade and political influence. LA PEROUSE, See also:JEAN-See also:FRANCOIS DE GALAUP, See also:COMTE DE (1741-c. 1788), See also:French navigator, was born near See also:Albi, on the 22nd of See also:August 1741. His family name was Galaup, and La Perouse or La Peyrouse was an addition adopted by himself from a small family See also:estate near Albi. As a lad of eighteen he was wounded and made prisoner on See also:board the " Formidable " when it was captured by See also:Admiral See also:Hawke in 1759; and during the war with See also:England between 1778 and 1783 he served with distinction in various parts of the world, more particularly on the eastern coasts of See also:Canada and in See also:Hudson's See also:Bay, where he captured Forts Prince of See also:Wales and See also:York (August 8th and 21st, 1782). In 1785 (August 1st) he sailed from See also:Brest in command of the French government expedition of two vessels (" La Boussole under La Perouse himself, and " L'See also:Astrolabe," under de Langle) for the See also:discovery of the North-West Passage, vainly essayed by See also:Cook on his last voyage, from the Pacific side. He was also charged with the further exploration of the north-west coasts of See also:America, and the north-See also:cast coasts of Asia, of the China and See also:Japan seas, the See also:Solomon Islands and See also:Australia; and he was ordered to collect See also:information as to the See also:whale See also:fishery in the southern oceans and as to the See also:fur trade in North America. He reached See also:Mount St See also:Elias, on the coast of See also:Alaska, on the 23rd of See also:June 1786. After six See also:weeks, marked by various small discoveries, he was driven from these regions by See also:bad See also:weather; and after visiting the Hawaiian Islands, and discovering See also:Necker See also:Island (See also:November 5th, 1786), he crossed over to Asia (See also:Macao, See also:January 3rd, 1787). Thence he passed to the Philippines, and so to the coasts of Japan, See also:Korea and " Chinese Tartary," where his best results were gained. Touching at See also:Quelpart, he reached De Castries Bay, near the modern See also:Vladivostok, on the 28th of See also:July 1787; and on the 2nd of August following discovered the strait, still named after him, between See also:Sakhalin and the See also:Northern Island of Japan. On the 7th of See also:September he put in at See also:Petropavlovsk in See also:Kamchatka, where he was well received by special order of the See also:Russian empress, See also:Catherine II. ; thence he sent See also:home See also:Lesseps, overland, with the See also:journals, notes, plans and maps recording the work of the expedition. He left Avacha Bay on the 29th of September, and arrived at Mauna in the Samoan group on the 8th of See also:December; here de Langle and ten of the See also:crew of the " Astrolabe " were murdered. He quitted See also:Samoa on the 14th of December, touched at the Friendly Islands and See also:Norfolk Island and arrived in See also:Botany Bay on the 26th of January 1788. From this place, where he interchanged courtesies with some of the English pioneers in Australia, he wrote his last See also:letter to the French See also:Ministry of Marine (See also:February 7th). After this no more was heard of him and his See also:squadron till in 1826 See also:Captain See also:Peter See also:Dillon found the wreckage of what must have been the " Boussole " and the "Astrolabe " on the reefs of Vanikoro, an island to the north of the New See also:Hebrides. In 1828 See also:Dumont d'Urville visited the See also:scene of the disaster and erected a See also:monument (See also: Additional information and CommentsThere are no comments yet for this article.
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