I. A PEEP AT THE CONTINENT 11 II. BRAZILIAN BROWNIES 17 III. BLOSSOM BABIES 30 IV. PARAGUAYAN PICCANINNIES 37 V. ARGENTINE ALL-SORTS 57 VI. DIMINUTIVE DWELLERS IN THE LAND OF FIRE 74 VII. CHILIAN CHILDREN 86 VIII. BOLIVIAN BAIRNS 95 IX. PEARLS OF PERU 113 CHILDREN OF SOUTH AMERICA CHAPTER I A PEEP AT THE CONTINENT South America is a tremendous continent in the Western Hemisphere, and occupies one-eighth of the land surface of the world. By looking at this chart you will get some little idea as to the size of it, by comparing it with other countries. South America, you will therefore see, is twice the size of Europe, three times the size of China, four times the size of India, and sixty times the size of our British Isles. From Panama, at the extreme north, to the furthest southern point of Tierra-del-Fuego (“the Land of Fire”), it is about 4700 miles in length, and it is 3000 miles from east to west. South America (leaving out the three northern Guianas) is divided up into eleven countries, or rather republics, each republic being under its own president. The names of the republics are:-- Brazil Argentina Peru Bolivia Ecuador Venezuela Chili Colombia Paraguay Uruguay and Panama Everything in South America is on a large scale--rivers, forests, mountains, and plains. There is the mighty River Amazon, with its many tributaries, flowing through Northern Peru and Brazil; the Orinoco, in Venezuela; the Araguaya, in Brazil; and the River Plate, which runs through the Republic of Argentina. [Illustration: AN AMAZONIAN CREEK] I hope you will study a map as we go along. If you look on the western side of the continent you will see a long range of mountains, called the Andes, tipped with sleeping volcanic fires on some, and capped by perpetual snow on others. Nestling away up among these rugged peaks is the highest body of water in the world, called Lake Titicaca, on which float the rush-boats of the Inca Indians, the silent and down-trodden “Children of the Sun.” How vast China seems; and India, too, how big! Africa we feel we know very little about as yet, in spite of Livingstone and all the books that have been written; but here is South America--so neglected, and so large, that there is more unexplored territory there than in any other part of the world.