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Have you ever heard of a man named Simon Bolivar? Probably not, but in South America every boy and girl knows him as you know George Washington. In fact, he is often called the George Washington of South America. Just as England once owned the thirteen colonies, Spain once owned a great part of South America. Then this man Bolivar, Simon Bolivar, who lived in Venezuela, thought, as a great many others did, that Spain was not treating his country right. Bolivar had been in the United States and had heard how the United States once belonged to England and how George Washington had led the revolution against England until the United States belonged to itself. So Bolivar went back to South America and started a revolution to make his country and other countries of South America independent of Spain. He had a very hard time of it, indeed. Again and again he had to flee for his life, but again and again he returned to South America and at last succeeded in making five countries of South America independent of Spain. After he died one of these countries that he had freed changed its name from High Peru to Bolivia, after him. Bolivia is one of the few countries in the World that do not touch the sea, from which there is no way to get to the sea by boat.

Much of the tin in the World comes from mines in Bolivia. Tin pans and tin cans are not made of pure tin—it would cost too much if they were. They are made of iron and simply plated with tin. Pans and cans made of iron would rust and so be unfit for food, but tin doesn’t rust and that’s why the pans and cans are covered with a thin coating of tin. When this thin tin wears off, the iron rusts easily enough, and that’s why most tin cans you see on the ash pile are rusty; the tin has worn off.

Between Bolivia and Peru there is a very large lake. Its name sounds funny, like a person stuttering. It is Ti ti ca ca. It is the highest lake of its size I once built a rowboat in my cellar. When I had finished it I found it was so big I couldn’t get it out of the house. So I had to take it apart, carry it outside, and put it together again. There are steamers on Lake Titicaca, but in order to get them there from where they were built they had to be taken to pieces and carried up the mountains to the lake, piece by piece, and there put together again.

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你听说过一个叫做西蒙·玻利瓦尔的人吗？大概没有，但在南美洲，每个男孩女孩都知道他，就像你知道乔治·华盛顿一样。实际上，他经常被叫做“南美洲的乔治·华盛顿”。就像英国曾经拥有13个殖民地一样，西班牙曾经拥有南美洲的大部分土地。当时这个住在委内瑞拉叫做玻利瓦尔的人，西蒙·玻利瓦尔，和许多其他人一样认为西班牙在压迫自己的国家。玻利瓦尔曾经去过美国，听说了美国过去曾是英国的殖民地，而乔治·华盛顿又是如何领导了反抗英国的革命斗争，直到美国成为一个独立的国家。于是玻利瓦尔回到南美洲，为使自己的国家和其他南美国家摆脱西班牙的殖民统治，发动了一场革命。当时他过着艰难困苦的生活，一次又一次地被迫逃亡，但是一次又一次地又回到南美洲，最终革命成功了，使五个南美国家摆脱了西班牙的统治，成了独立的国家。玻利瓦尔去世后，为了纪念他，其中一个国家将国名由“高秘鲁”改成了“玻利维亚”，以他的名字而命名。玻利维亚是世界上少数几个内陆国家之一，那里没有坐船可以到达海洋的航线。

世界上很多锡产自于玻利维亚的锡矿。锡盘和锡罐并不是用纯锡做的——纯锡成本太高，而是用铁做的，仅在外面镀了一层锡。铁盘和铁罐很容易生锈，不适合盛放食物，而锡不会生锈，所以铁盘和铁罐外面都涂上了一层锡。这层锡磨掉后，铁就很容易生锈了，那就是为什么你看见灰堆上的罐子大都是生锈的；上面的锡被磨掉了。

在玻利维亚和秘鲁之间有一个很大的湖。它的名字听起来很有趣，就像一个人结结巴巴地说话一样。叫做“的的喀喀湖”。它在世界上和它同等面积的湖泊中海拔最高。我曾经在家里的地下室里做了一个划艇，做完后发现划艇太大，拿不出来，只能把它拆了，拿到外面，重新组装。的的喀喀湖可通航，但为了把轮船从造船厂运到那里，人们不得不把轮船拆掉，把零部件运到山上，重新组装起来放进湖里。