The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Putumayo, by W. E. Hardenburg.

Henry M. Read, 4 Lancaster Gate Terrace, Hyde Park, London, W.

Sir John Lister Kaye, Bart., 26, Manchester Square, London, W.

John Russel Gubbins, Esq., 22, Carlton Hill, London, N.W.

Baron de Sousa Deiro, Chairman of Goodwin, Ferreira Company, Ltd., Manchester.

M. Henri Bonduel, Banker, Rue d’Aumale, Paris.

Señor Julio César Arana, Iquitos, Peru.

Señor Abel Alarco, Salisbury House, London, E.C., managing director.

The secretary is Walter Bramall, F.C.I.S., and the registered office of this Christian and humanitarian syndicate is at Salisbury House, London Wall, London, E.C.

Of these seven directors, there are at least two who are well aware of the state of affairs in their “possessions,” who are far better informed than I am of the murders, the robberies, the flagellations, the violations of little eight and ten year old girls, the tortures, the incredible mutilations, and the other stupendous crimes committed by this company and its employees in the terrible Putumayo. These criminal employees are not restrained by Julio César Arana and the manager in Iquitos, his brother-in-law, Pablo Zumaeta, but, on the contrary, are actually aided and encouraged by these monsters in their horrible work.

The other five directors are either dupes who have been taken in by the slick tongues of Julio César Arana and his accomplice, Abel Alarco, and who are not aware of the awful and appalling crimes committed in their names by their employees in the sanguinary Putumayo, or else they are hardened ruffians, who deliberately pocket the products of slavery, torture, and crime.

This criminal syndicate has endeavoured to unload its million of worthless shares upon the British public at £1 each. In their prospectus they make such extraordinary statements, misstatements, and omissions that they make themselves liable to the law to answer to the charges of swindling, obtaining money under false pretences, and various others.

In a prospectus published by this company in the Sunday Times of London, December 6, 1908, I note among others, and denounce as deliberate lies, the following statements:—

1. That they have any legal rights or legal titles in regard to their gruesome “possessions” in the Putumayo.

4. That these Indians are being taught to improve the crude methods that were formerly used of treating the rubber.

6. That the territory in their possession “contains valuable auriferous quartz and gravel and deposits of coal and other minerals.”

8. That “the boundary question, even should it affect politically a portion of the Putumayo territory, will not affect the legal rights of the settlers.”

The following statement, made by the Minister of Foreign Relations of the Republic of Colombia, which I translate from the Jornal do Comercio of Manaos, Brazil, of June 3, 1908, gives an idea of how Colombia views the proceedings of the “civilising company”:—

“The companies that are exploiting the adjacent regions of the Putumayo to-day have no legal existence in Colombia, but, on the contrary, are violating many of our legal dispositions and are even committing crimes for which our laws provide penal punishment. When the time comes, the Government of Colombia will not only refuse them protection, but will punish the agents of those companies that are responsible for criminal acts with all the rigours of the law.”

2. That the Nanay estate, utterly neglected and abandoned, is now, and has been for nearly two years, in the possession of Muniz & Co.

3. That their “large staff” of European employees in the sanguinary Putumayo does not exceed eight or ten men at the most.

4. That the “extensive plains” are all covered with the thick, dense forest of the tropics, and that it is a tedious and expensive task to clear even a few acres of land there.

5. That in the short space of three or four years the Putumayo rubber will be completely exhausted.

6. And that “they force the Pacific Indians of the Putumayo to work day and night at the extraction of rubber, without the slightest remuneration; that they give them nothing to eat; that they keep them in the most complete nakedness; that they rob them of their crops, their women, and their children to satisfy the voracity, lasciviousness and avarice of themselves and their employees, for they live on the Indians’ food, keep harems and concubines, and sell these people at wholesale and retail in Iquitos; that they flog them inhumanly, until their bones are visible; that they give them no medical treatment, but let them die, eaten up by maggots, or to serve as food for the chiefs’ dogs; that they castrate them, cut off their ears, fingers, arms, legs; that they torture them by means of fire, of water, and by tying them up, crucified, head down; that they burn and destroy their houses and crops; that they cut them to pieces with machetes; that they grasp children by the feet and dash their heads against walls and trees, until their brains fly out; that they have the old folks killed when they can work no longer; and, finally, that to amuse themselves, to practise shooting, or to celebrate the sábado de gloria[109]—as Fonseca and Macedo have done—they discharge their weapons at men, women, and children, or, in preference to this, they souse them with kerosene and set fire to them to enjoy their desperate agony.”[110]

And all this, let us remember, is done by a gang of human beasts, who, consulting exclusively their own evil interests, have had the audacity to form themselves into an English company and put themselves and their gruesome “possessions” under the protection of the English flag, in order to carry out more conveniently their sanguinary labours in the Putumayo and to inspire confidence here.

People of England! Just and generous people, always the advanced sentinels of Christianity and civilisation! Consider these horrors! Put yourselves in the place of the victims, and free these few remaining Indians from their cruel bondage and punish the authors of the crimes!

CHAPTER VII

HARDENBURG’S INVESTIGATIONS

THE CRIMES OF THE PUTUMAYO

Translated from “La Felpa,” December 29, 1907.

The Indians of the Putumayo.

All the indigenous inhabitants of those selvas are of mild character, industrious, meek, hospitable, humble, and obedient. This assertion may seem untrue to more than one person, for we have always heard that the natives there are ferocious, indomitable, and even cannibals, but this is false and exaggerated.

The Indians are divided into nations, and each one of these has a chief, whom they denominate the capitán. They are enemies of polygamy, and both men and women are jealous in the extreme. The latter cultivate fields, while the men dedicate themselves to hunting, fishing, and rubber collection.

These poor people, “simple,” not cannibal, lived there happily until Arana and his brigands invaded them. Then began the Tantalus for all of them—men, women, children, and aged folk.

The chiefs of sections, such as the famous bandits, Norman, Agüero, the two Rodríguez brothers, and others, already known and enumerated, all impose upon each Indian the task of delivering to them 5 arrobas[111] of rubber every fabrico.[112] When the time comes to deliver the rubber, these unhappy victims appear with their loads upon their backs, accompanied by their women and children, who help them to carry the rubber. When they reach the section the rubber is weighed. They know by experience what the needle of the balance should mark, and when it indicates that they have delivered the full amount required, they leap about and laugh with pleasure. When it does not, they throw themselves face downwards on the ground and, in this attitude, await the lash, the bullet, or the machete. This is at the option of the chief of section, but they are generally given fifty lashes with scourges, until the flesh drops from their bodies in strips, or else are cut to pieces with machetes. This barbarous spectacle takes place before all the rest, among whom are their women and children.

When they deliver the full amount of rubber required from them, they are given a mouth-organ, worth 30 centavos [113], a coloured cotton handkerchief, worth 50 centavos, a few beads, or similar trash. This they receive with great pleasure, for, on the contrary, they are flogged or shot to death.

They do not worry about the Indians’ food, and as to the clothes of these unfortunates, they have none, for both men and women live in the most complete nakedness.

All these tribes, fifteen years ago, amounted to over twenty thousand persons; to-day they do not reach ten thousand. Desolation invaded these selvas together with the Aranas, worse even than the cholera morbus and the bubonic, terrible and awful plagues that from time to time leave Asia to traverse other parts of the globe, sowing panic, pain, death, and mourning.

Now, as there are but relatively few male Indians left, they have the cruelty to oblige the women to work at the extraction of rubber. Nor does their sex protect them from the punishments that these barbarous bandits of Arana inflict upon them, for they flog them, torture them, and cut them to pieces.

A certain periodical, subsidised by this criminal company, speaking of some memoirs of the explorer Robuchon,[114] states that he mentions that these Indians are hospitable. From this it is clear that we are not the first to make this assertion, and persons who have been in Puerto Bermudez can form an idea of what these Indians are like by comparing them with the Campas, which is the fiercest tribe. Nevertheless, there in Puerto Bermudez these Campas are in intimate contact with all who pass there, and furnish the traveller with everything in their power.

The appearance of the unfortunate Indians of the Putumayo is ghastly and horrible; thin, cadaverous, and attenuated, they look more like ghosts than human beings. And nevertheless, they go out to meet the employees when these latter pass through their villages, and give them what few fruits they have. These gifts have been rewarded by death, on more than one occasion.

Only very rarely have they rebelled; but this rebellion consists only in fleeing from their villages to emigrate far off, trying to get out of reach of their executioners. They do this only when they are murdered, flogged, burnt, tortured, mutilated, and robbed of their wives and children with more than usual frequency. This is the crime of the Putumayo Indians—trying to hide themselves from their murderers. Well, these villains, enraged beyond all bounds, collect in parties of fifty or more and start in pursuit of the fugitives. They fall upon them at midnight, and after surrounding the huts in which their victims are asleep, set fire to them and shoot all who try to escape.

Is it not reasonable that these unfortunates should defend themselves and their dear ones when attacked in their last possessions? It is here that sometimes, not always, desperate struggles take place, the criminals with their rifles and the Indians with clubs and machetes. As is natural, the latter are always defeated and once more the victims of their torturers, who burn them by hundreds or else again reduce them to slavery.

We believe it right to make known that the rubber there is becoming exhausted, and that to collect even one ounce of it means real sacrifices. It would be well if the English purchasers who have formed a syndicate in order to exploit that region could see that its resources are all imaginary, for Arana & Co. sell what does not belong to them, as slavery does not exist in Peru.

We shall treat of other points in regard to this matter later, for the unfortunate syndicate that has embarked in this adventure should be informed of the real state of affairs and in what difficult conditions things are in, for certain international treaties exist with Colombia which have, at the present time, assumed a most serious and bellicose aspect.

In accordance with our promise to our readers, we give the following news, as complete as possible, of a barbarous deed, the theatre of which was a point close to one of our frontiers.

This narrative, detailed and horrible, we believe to be true, for it was related to us by one of the victims, who is at present in this city, the Colombian Roso España, a young man twenty-one years of age, of low stature and agreeable features.

In the last days of 1906 Aquileo Torres, Felipe Cabrera, Feliciano Muñoz, Pascual Rubiano, José de la Paz Gutiérrez, Bonifacio Cabrera, Jorge Carbajal, Carlos María de Silva, Heleodoro X — —, Crisanto Victoria, Roso España, and two women, all employees of the firm of Urbano Gutiérrez, set out from Florencia, Dept. of Tolima, Republic of Colombia.

They embarked in six canoes, with a large quality of merchandise, for the River Caquetá or Japurá, where they were going to extract rubber and begin traffic with the Indians, so that the latter would help them in this work. After a tedious journey of thirty-five days, they reached the Lower Caquetá, where a tribe of Indians called the Andoques live. Here they were well received by the indigenes of this Colombian territory. In order to gain the friendship of these natives, the Colombians presented them with various trifles and received from them in return manioca and bananas. Thus the first difficulty was conquered, for within a few days the Indians yielded themselves up completely to the new-comers.

As the construction of a house for the shelter of the personal[115] and the merchandise was of urgent necessity, the chief of the party, Felipe Cabrera, ordered some of the men to begin this operation, with the help of the Indians, while the rest proceeded to burn the brush, in order to make the necessary plantations.

A few days afterwards, when the clearing was finished and the construction of the house well advanced, a group of nearly 20 Peruvian caucheros,[116] all armed with rifles, appeared upon the scene. Two Barbados negroes formed part of this band. The Peruvians first encountered a group of eight persons—four men and one Colombian woman, two Indian men and one Indian woman, all of whom were apart from their companions, engaged in the fabrication of mandioca flour. Of this inoffensive group the two Indians fell, shot dead. Then the Peruvians sent a letter to one Señor Norman, an agent of the Arana Company, who arrived on the scene three days later, accompanied by another group of individuals. Norman, questioning the prisoners, learned that Felipe Cabrera, the chief, was among them, and forced him, with threats, to send an order to José de la Paz Gutiérrez, who was absent with the rest of the men, to deliver up all the arms they had.

The prisoner, in fear of his life, wrote the order, which Norman took to its destination.

Then, in possession of the arms, they began another butchery. The Peruvians discharged their weapons at the Indians who were constructing the roof of the house. These poor unfortunates, pierced by the bullets, some dead, others wounded, rolled off the roof and fell to the ground.

The bandits, for it is only by that name that they can be called, not content with these cowardly murders, for they had already killed twenty-five, took the Indian women of advanced age, threw them into the canoes of the Colombians and conducted them to the middle of the river and discharged their rifles at them, killing them all.

What they did with the children was still more barbarous, for they jammed them, head-downwards, into the holes that had been dug to receive the posts that were to support the house.

The Peruvians, after taking possession of the merchandise, conducted the Colombians, the tuchaua of the Andoques, two Indians, and an Indian woman, to Matanzas, the dwelling-place of the criminal Norman, the journey taking two days. Here the prisoners were tied up with cords and afterwards shut up in one of the houses, where they passed a night of torture. In the morning the tuchaua and the two Indians were taken out to an adjacent knoll and clubbed to death.

At about mid-day those who had escaped with their lives were taken to La Sabana, where the chief is Juan [117] Rodríguez, arriving there at about 10 p.m. and stopping for the night. In the morning they were sent to Oriente, the chief of which is a Peruvian named Velarde.

Here still more barbarities were committed, the Colombians suffering horrors, for on the day after their arrival they were chained up by the neck and by the legs. As they were unable to endure such cruel treatment, the unhappy prisoners appealed to their jailers, who took off the chains, but in exchange put their legs in stocks.

In the house that these poor people were imprisoned in there were also a large number of Indians in chains, who received daily violent castigations, flagellations, and clubbing. Some of these Indians suffered from awful wounds, many of them produced by firearms. Five days afterwards the chiefs of the Colombians, Messrs. Felipe Cabrera, Aquileo Torres, and José de la Paz Gutiérrez, were taken to the section known as Abisinia. It is not known what fate has been meted out to them.

The other prisoners remained nearly two months in Oriente, until it was known that the steamer Liberal was in the Igaraparaná, an affluent of the Putumayo. Here the principal branch establishment of the J. C. Arana and Hermanos Company in the Putumayo is situated.

The Colombians were then embarked in the Liberal, which was to take them prisoners to Iquitos. They remained on board this vessel four days, but just before they reached the Brazilian fiscal port at Cotuhué the commandant, fearing that the Brazilian officials might discover the prisoners when they visited the vessel, disembarked the victims, abandoning them in a canoe in midstream, with a few tins of sardines and a little fariña. The victims, rowing with all their might, started for the fiscal port, but did not reach it until after the Liberal had left for Iquitos. Here they presented themselves to Señor Nestor, the chief of the port of Cotuhué, and narrated to him what had passed. In Brazilian territory the unfortunates were kindly received and well treated.

As the Colombians had to make their living, they asked Señor Nestor for work, and the Brazilian official, taking pity on these poor men, gave them work at fair pay. When the Governor of the State and General Marques Porto visited that port on the Virginia, the Colombians were still there.

Some days afterwards the war-launch Amapá, under Lieut. Olavo Machado, while en route to the frontier to relieve a sergeant and some soldiers, stopped at Cotuhué. Then Roso España, who has given us this narrative, approached that official of our navy and asked him for passage to this city. Lieut. Machado, after learning of his misfortunes, gave Roso España a passage on the Amapá, and the officials afterwards employed him as servant, giving him 50 milreis per month.

I certify that in one of the establishments of La Chorrera, in the section Matanzas, the chief, Armando Norman, applies two hundred or more lashes, which are given with rough scourges of crude leather, to the unhappy Indians, when they—to their misfortune—do not deliver punctually the number of rolls of rubber with the weight that Norman desires. At other times, when the Indian, fearful of not being able to deliver the required amount of rubber, flees, they take his tender children, suspend them by their hands and feet, and in this position apply fire, so that under this torture they will tell where their father is hidden.

On more than one occasion, always for lack of weight of the rubber, the Indians are shot, or their arms and legs are cut off with machetes and the body is thrown around the house; and more than once the repugnant spectacle of dogs dragging about the arms or legs of one of these unfortunates has been witnessed.

At port Tarma, four hours from La Chorrera, section Oriente, of which Fidel Velarde is chief, the Colombian Aquileo Torres is held prisoner, with an enormous chain around his neck. This unhappy wretch lives in a dying condition in the cellar of the house where he was taken from the Caquetá. When the higher employees of the company get drunk—which occurs with great frequency—they make the unfortunate Torres the target of their cowardly attacks, for they spit on him, beat him, and abuse him vilely.

I have also witnessed another scene, excessively inhuman and repugnant. Juan C. Castaños embarked in the Liberal for this place, and wished to take along with him his Indian woman Matilde, which was not permitted, for Bartolomé Zumaeta had taken a fancy to the beauty of the unhappy woman; Castaños, upon seeing that they refused to let him take her with him, in spite of all Matilde’s pleadings to be allowed to accompany him, had to abandon her, and, in his presence, the unfortunate woman was given to Zumaeta. The Indian woman fled from this repugnant and diseased wretch, who continued his journey to El Encanto, and, upon her return to La Chorrera, she went to sleep on board one of the vessels anchored in that port, where, it is said, all kinds of excesses were committed upon her, and, not content with what they had already done to the unhappy woman, they delivered her to the company; here she was inhumanly scourged with twenty-five lashes, and her body was almost cut to pieces by the effects of the lash. She was shut up in a warehouse, where she remained at the time of our departure from La Chorrera.

Finally, two well-known Colombians, who are under the orders of the agency of El Encanto, flogged the Capitánes Cuyo, Guema, and Nampí, of the Yaquebuas tribe, and Capitán Acate, of the Nuisayes; the first was flogged to death and the others, after the flagellation, were kept chained up for several months, all for the “crime” of their people in not delivering the number of kilos of rubber fixed by the company. Just before these occurrences one of the men in reference murdered three Indians, stabbing them with his own hands.

These are the actual deeds that are carried out constantly in the Putumayo, and for the lack of one kilogram in the weight of their quota of rubber they murder, mutilate, and torture the people.

The relation which I have just made of some of the many crimes committed in this tragic territory of the Putumayo is made only for the sake of the suffering and defenceless Indians in the hope that a stop will be put to the crimes. It is inconceivable that within two steps of Iquitos, where there are political authorities [118] and a superior court of justice, crimes of the class I have described are committed.

Señor Benjamin Saldaña Rocca,—I have heard that you are about to begin a legal action denouncing the criminal deeds committed in the Arana “possessions” on the tributaries of the River Putumayo, and as I was an eye-witness of many of these tragedies I will recount to you what I have seen.

We had scarcely arrived at La Chorrera when Señor Macedo ordered us to the section of José Inocente Fonseca, who was then on a correría. The food given us was a little fariña and water, but Fonseca and his numerous concubines ate abundant viands. We stopped at night at one of the many tambos[119] in this region, the hammocks were slung, the sentinels were posted, and those who did not mount guard lay down to sleep. Within a few hours I heard people arriving, and three Indians entered, each one carrying on his back several small bundles, wrapped up in what looked like baskets. The chief was awakened, and he told them to unroll what they had brought.

I thought they were fruits or something of that sort, but what was my horror when on unwrapping the coverings there appeared first the head of an Indian, second that of a woman, and third that of an infant, and so on for the rest. The emissary as he unwrapped the heads explained, “This is that of So-and-So, this other that of his wife, the third that of his son,” and so on. Fonseca, with the utmost unconcern, as though they were cocoa-nuts or other fruits, took them in turn by the hair, examined them, and then threw them away. I do not record the names of the victims, Señor Saldaña, for they were Indian names, difficult to remember. This took place in Ultimo Retiro, among the nation or sub-tribe of the pacific Aifugas Indians, in March, 1906.

On the sábado de gloria Fonseca observed several Indians going out of the house to fetch water. Taking his revolver and carbine, he turned towards them, saying to us (there were present Juan C. Castaños, Pérez, Alfredo Cabrera, Miguel Rengifo, Ramón Granda, Sparro, Lorenzo Tello, and many others whose names I do not recollect now), “Look, this is how we celebrate the sábado de gloria here,” wantonly let fly at the Indians, killing one man and hitting a girl of fifteen years. This girl did not die immediately, being only wounded, but the criminal Miguel Rengifo, alias Ciegadiño, finished her with a carbine bullet.

When Fonseca returned from the correría and went to his section-house, Victoria, one of his nine concubines was accused of infidelity in his absence. Enraged, Fonseca tied her up to a tree by her opened arms and, raising her skirt to her neck, flogged her with an enormous lash, continuing until he was tired out. He then put her in a hammock inside a warehouse, and as the scars received no treatment in a few days maggots bred in them; then by his orders the Indian girl was dragged out and killed. Luis Silva, a Brazilian negro, who is at present in the section Unión, is the man who executed this order. After murdering Victoria as I have described they threw her body into the banana plantation.

The floggings of Indians were carried out daily, and from time to time some Indians were killed.

Señor Benjamin Saldaña Rocca,—By the articles published in your worthy newspaper, La Sanción, I understand that you accept the voluntary statements of those who, like myself, have witnessed some of the awful crimes committed in the Putumayo by the brigands of Arana Hermanos. I shall now relate to you what I have seen and what they do there to-day.

In the year and fifteen days that I have been in El Encanto in Macedo’s section—Monte Rico—and in Artemio Muñoz’ section—Esmeraldas—I have seen them flog Indians in a most barbarous manner, generally leaving them dead or nearly so. The executioner in Monte Rico was Belisario Suárez, the second chief; in the two months and a half that I was in his service I have seen more than three hundred Indians flogged, each one receiving from twenty to one hundred and fifty or two hundred lashes, this latter number being given when they wish to kill him on the spot by flogging. Other Indians are given one hundred or more lashes and are then thrown out in the forest to die there, full of maggots, for even their own companions flee from them in horror. In this section all the employees are obliged to do the floggings: among them were Andrés Guerra, Gonzalez, and others whom I cannot remember now, but will cite later.

In Esmeraldas similar crimes are committed. The chief is Artemio Muñoz, another barbarian. In this section I remained three months and a half, and they flogged over four hundred, among men, women, children of eight years, and even old folks, six of whom they killed in this way. There was one Indian who endured two hundred lashes, and, seeing that he was not yet dead on the second day, the chief ordered an Italian, named Ernesto Acosta, to kill him with the butt of a carbine, which he did, the unhappy Indian dying in this barbarous way.

In both sections, after the flagellation, a chain is tied around the Indian’s neck, and in this way many of them die. Señor Loayza knows all this perfectly well, for he himself gives the order to flog all who do not bring in the amount of rubber they impose upon them. In Esmeraldas, Don Bartolomé Guevara, inspector of sections, killed two capitánes; this is the individual who introduced the method of having men tied to four stakes and flogging them. When he makes his correrías and orders the floggings he says that the Indians must either work or die, for he does not wish to return to his country poor. This terrible man must have flogged over five thousand Indians during the six years he has resided in this region. He has also, I am told by people who have seen him, shot many whites to death.

Don Luis Alcorta had a mistress named Carolina Diaz, who had a little son by a German. Alcorta, the stepfather of this little boy, who was three or four years old, could not bear the sight of him, and almost daily this wicked wretch kicked and clubbed him; when the mother intervened she, too, was clubbed. The poor woman has become consumptive and lives here now, but as to her little son, this Alcorta killed him in two months with the numerous clubbings he gave him.

When this same man killed Faustino Hernandez, shooting him to death with the help of Belisario Suárez, they made a great feast, in which, among others, Miguel S. Loayza, Luis Alcorta, Belisario Suárez, Olivarez, and Dagoberto Arriarán took part, celebrating the graces, valour, and courage of the assassins. It is worthy of note that the Barbados negro, King, and the white, Olivarez (the one-eyed man), were the ones who shot the unfortunate Hernandez in the head; these also took part in the festivity, which terminated in drunkenness and scandal, all with the consent and approval of the manager of El Encanto, Señor Loayza.

This, Señor Saldaña, is what I know and have witnessed, and I am ready to maintain this statement anywhere.

Make any use you deem convenient of this declaration, in favour of those sufferers.

Note.—For obvious reasons the author of the following letter does not sign his name in full.

Señor Benjamin Saldaña Rocca,—I write you this to inform you about the horrible crimes, such as murders, robberies, floggings, tortures, &c., that are committed in the possessions of Señores J. C. Arana and Hermanos on the River Putumayo.

The principal criminals are the following chiefs of sections: Armando or Felipe Norman, José Inocente Fonseca, Abelardo Agüero, Augusto Jiménez, Arístides Rodríguez, Aurelio Rodríguez, Alfredo Montt, Fidel Velarde, Carlos Miranda, and Andrés O’Donnell. With the exception of O’Donnell, who has not killed Indians with his own hands, but who has ordered over five hundred Indians to be killed, all the rest—every one of them—have killed with their own hands, the least criminal, like Jiménez, ten in two months; others, like Fonseca, more than a hundred in one year.

I have served two months in Abisinia, of which Abelardo Agüero is chief, and during that time I have seen three Indians flogged; one of them was a pregnant woman. After flogging her they cut her throat with machetes and then burnt her up. Afterwards they flogged, during the two months I spent here, about one hundred Indians, giving them ordinarily one hundred and fifty lashes. This chief robbed me of one month’s pay, which amounted to S.50.

Afterwards, Señor Saldaña, I served in Matanzas, under the orders of Norman, for the space of one month and five days. In this time I saw ten Indians killed and burnt and three hundred were flogged who died slowly, for their wounds are not treated, and when they are full of maggots they kill them with bullets and machetes and afterwards burn some of them. Others are thrown aside and, as they rot, emit an insupportable stench. This section stinks so that at times it is impossible to remain here on account of the rotting flesh of the dead and dying Indians.

Here in Matanzas, Armando Norman ordered me to kill a little Indian about eight or ten years old who had been cruelly flogged for running away, and who, in consequence of this barbarous punishment, was full of maggots and dying, his back being completely torn to pieces from the lashes he had received. I refused, Señor Saldaña, to kill the boy, but Norman, enraged beyond all bounds, grasped his carbine and aimed at me to kill me, and, as I had seen him kill so many people and had nobody to appeal to, I had to kill the little Indian.

In Ultimo Retiro I served nearly a year, and the chief was José Inocente Fonseca. During my stay here they killed about two hundred Indians, among men, women, and children. The bones of the victims are scattered about over the ranches and everywhere else.

Here they made me commit one crime more. There was in this place an Indian woman called Simona, whose lover was a boy named Simón; Argaluza, the sub-chief, said that I had had relations with her, and for this reason they gave Simona twenty-five lashes, which were applied by the Barbados negroes Stanley S. Lewis and Ernest Siobers. The Indian woman was left with her back literally torn to pieces, and in four days, when she began to stink and had maggots in her rotten flesh, Fonseca came and ordered me to kill her. Upon my refusal he put me in the stocks and threatened to kill me. Then, terrified and helpless, I had to kill Simona.

I was also in Porvenir six months, the chief being Bartolomé Guevara. Here I saw only about ten Indians flogged.

I also wish to inform you, Señor Rocca, that they take away from the Indians their women and children.

Every Indian is obliged to deliver to the company every three months 60 kilos of rubber, and in payment they are given a knife or a small mirror, worth 20 centavos, or a harmonium or a string of beads, weighing one ounce. To all who deliver 5 pagos—each pago being composed of 100 kilos—or, in other words, to those who deliver 500 kilos or bind themselves to do so, they give a shot-gun of the value of S.15. The Indians are never given food; they themselves furnish it. To those who do not deliver the 60 kilos every three months—a part of which must be ready every ten days—and to those who lack even half a kilo five or ten lashes are applied.

The Indian is so humble, that as soon as he sees that the needle of the scale does not mark the ten kilos, he himself stretches out his hands and throws himself on the ground to receive the punishment. Then the chief or a subordinate advances, bends down, takes the Indian by his hair, strikes him, raises his head, drops it face downwards on the ground, and, after the face is beaten and kicked and covered with blood, the Indian is scourged. This is when they are treated best, for often they cut them to pieces with machetes.

In Matanzas I have seen Indians tied to a tree, their feet about half a yard above the ground. Fuel is then placed below, and they are burnt alive. This is done to pass the time.

When Señor Castaños was in Porvenir, Fonseca ordered him to kill two Indians with the Boras, Remigio and Buchico, and to bring, tied up, three Indian women that Fonseca wanted as his concubines: these were Josefa, with her little child by Carlos Lemus, A—— and Z——. As Castaños would not obey this order, he was taken to Ultimo Retiro, and there they wished to kill him, but when Fonseca pulled out his revolver, Castaños defended himself in an energetic attitude with his carbine. Castaños took the Indian women to La Chorrera and Fonseca had the Indians killed in the forest, and, to take revenge on Castaños, had his Indians taken away, also his woman, Isabel, who was pregnant and about to give birth, and a boy named Adolfo. I heard afterwards that Fonseca ordered Isabel to be killed, when she was with her tribe, the Noruegas.

The Indians are tame and humble, and bring us food. Often, after these unfortunates bring food to the chief of the section, he has them murdered.

Declaration made by Señor João Baptista Braga, a Brazilian citizen, thirty-eight years of age, of the State of Pará, before Lieutenant José Rosa Brazil, Commandant of the detachment of Constantinopolis.

In the year 1902 I was contracted as fireman of the launch Preciada, which ran from Iquitos to the River Putumayo and belonged to Messrs. J. C. Arana and Hermanos. About one year, more or less, after this, I resigned and began work on the launch of Mr. David Cazes, British Consul in Iquitos, where I worked for the space of one year.

On December 6, 1904, I was again engaged by the J. C. Arana and Hermanos Company to direct a band of sixty-five men (Peruvians), with a salary of S.80 per month, besides a gratification of S.100. My chiefs were Abelardo Agüero and Augusto Jiménez.

Immediately after my arrival Señor Agüero called me in order to show me the method of proceeding with the prisoners they have there; so taking eight Indians out of the cepo where they had been barbarously martyrised, he had them tied to eight posts in the patio, and, after drinking a bottle of cognac with his partner Jiménez, they began to murder these unfortunates, who perished, giving vent to horrible shrieks, helpless victims of the ferocious instincts of their masters. The crime they had committed was that of having fled to escape the horrible treatment to which they were subjected.

About three months after this, Señor Agüero, the chief of the section, ordered me to shoot thirty-five men, whom he had in chains for the same crime as the others had committed. As I refused to commit such a hellish crime, he insulted me and threatened to have me shot if I did not obey this order.

In spite of this menace, I roundly refused to carry out this order, telling him that I was a Brazilian citizen and would never be an assassin.

“Well, then,” he replied, “if you won’t obey my orders, I have another who will,” and calling the second chief, Augusto Jiménez, ordered him to “kill those worthless wretches at once!” Those thirty-five unfortunates, still in chains, were thus murdered in cold blood, and from this instant forward they began to persecute me, making me endure all kinds of miseries. They began by refusing me food to such an extreme that I was frequently obliged to eat airambo (a leaf resembling the Brazilian vinagrera), caguana, palmito, &c.—the few things that they gave us to prevent our dying from hunger being quite insufficient for the numerous band.

In these conditions, and seeing that at any moment I might become the victim of the ferocity of the chiefs of the section, I resolved to resign my position, and wrote asking for permission to return to Brazil. This I repeated four times, always receiving the reply that, as they had no other employee to take my place, they could not let me go.

Thus I remained without anybody to appeal to, without resources, and without means of transportation, for there was no canoe in which I could escape.

At last I understood that they did not mean to let me leave there, for, naturally, they feared that I would relate the series of monstrous crimes committed there.

During these three years and eight months of prison I had the opportunity of seeing an infinity of atrocities, the like of which could hardly have been committed in the Inquisition.

One day a tuchaua called Iubitide, arrived with seventy Indians and gave an Indian woman of his tribe to Jiménez, the chief of the section; but Jiménez, not satisfied with this gift, asked the tuchaua for his own woman. The refusal of the latter was sufficient for Jiménez to order him to be tied up and shot to death.

It would be an endless task to relate the innumerable crimes that I have seen committed during my stay in this section. Here, recently, in the month of July, the tuchaua known as Tiracahuaca and his wife were held prisoners in chains. When Jiménez—who had been temporarily absent—arrived, he had them brought into his presence and told them that if their tribe did not appear within the space of eight days, he would show them what he would do with them.

The eight days passed, and as the tribe did not come, he ordered a can of kerosene to be poured over them, and then, striking a match, he set fire to these unfortunates, who fled to the forest uttering the most desperate cries.

Naturally, upon seeing such an awful crime committed, I expressed my horror at it to Jiménez, who replied that if there were anybody who wished to protest against the orders he gave, he would be served in the same manner, and that if the company kept him as chief, it was because he knew how to do his duty.

Then I perceived that my life was in more danger every day, and I resolved to escape at any risk.

On the 28th of July, the Peruvian Independence Day, I took advantage of the orgy in which I found the chiefs of the section engaged, and embarked in an Indian canoe that I found in the port, at 4 a.m.

My companions were Felipe Cabrera, a Colombian, who had been a prisoner for eighteen months, and a Peruvian, Melchor Sajamín, who was in the same condition as myself, having been flogged several times.

This is the truth of what passed and of what I have witnessed, and I appeal to the authorities of my country, who will, I trust, demand an explanation from the Government of Peru of the abuses and crimes committed upon Brazilian citizens and those of other nations by the employees of the J. C. Arana and Hermanos Company.

I present the person who signs this declaration with me as a witness of my signature.

Señor W. E. Hardenburg,—As you have written to me, I shall give you a full account of all the deeds I have witnessed in the region of the Putumayo in the year 1903.

On the 4th of August of that year I began work on correría service in the section Abisinia, where they sent us to guard the poor Indians and see that they brought in the rubber that the chief demanded.

On the 20th of the same month Agüero committed a most savage murder, cutting off an Indian’s head. He is just the sort of man to commit all kinds of atrocities, such as cutting Indian women’s limbs off, burning their houses, setting fire to their dead bodies, &c. On the 10th of the same month he had some fifty Indians put in stocks, and as he gave them neither water nor food, the poor Indians began to dry up like pieces of wood, until they reached such an extreme as to be quite useless and dying. Then he tied them up to a post and exterminated them by using them as targets for his Mauser revolver.

On the 15th of this month this same man went out on a correría with eight men. At one of the houses where they stopped to rest they found two Indian women who were ill of smallpox. The two poor sufferers begged Agüero for some medicine to cure themselves. Agüero replied that he would see that the fever continued no longer, and so saying, grasped a machete and cut off the heads of the two women.

On the 20th of September I began work at the section Morelia, where Jiménez was the chief, and on the 30th a commission arrived, bringing fifteen Indian prisoners, who were put in stocks. When on the point of dying of hunger, one of the victims told the chief that it would be better to kill them at once and not make them suffer such cruel agonies, whereupon he took a machete, cut off the man’s leg, and then ordered him to be dragged away, killed, and burned.

On the 4th of the following month a commission of whites under Jiménez set out on a correría. When they had journeyed for two days, they met a young Indian, whom they asked as to the whereabouts of the other Indians, and as soon as they had received a reply Jiménez cut off his head with a machete.

Four days after this terrible crime they came across two Indian women, planting yuca in a chacra, and asked them where their men were. Enraged at not obtaining a clear answer, they threatened the women with death, and as the latter refused to say anything, these wretches began to cut them to pieces. About five days after the execution of this crime they met with a number of infieles, and proceeded to kill them all. These crimes took place in the section Morelia, the chief of which was this Jiménez, and I can vouch for them, as I saw them with my own eyes.

In the year 1904 I was employed in Santa Catalina, where lives Aurelio Rodríguez, the chief of this section, who ordered the employees out on correrías, from which they returned ill and decimated by hunger, for the infieles endeavoured to emancipate themselves from the work on account of the cruel punishment given them, as those who unfortunately fell into the hands of this chief were killed in a most barbarous manner.

Finally, a commission of ten men went out on a correría and committed the most savage outrages, killing all the poor infieles, big and small, that they met on their march. On their return they brought some forty Indians as prisoners, whom they put in stocks, where an epidemic of smallpox arose among them. Although they were in a most pitiable condition, Rodríguez took them out, one by one, and used them as targets to practise shooting at.

About nine days after this an Indian woman fell into his hands, but as she became ill of the same disease, Rodríguez ordered them to kill her. She begged for her life, but in vain, for he had her killed as he did not care for her.

As my time is limited and the crimes I have witnessed are numerous, I will conclude this statement by informing you that the vicinity of the house where this man lives is sown with skeletons.

O’Donnell, the chief of Entre Ríos, compels the infieles to bring him a certain quantity of rubber, and if they do not do so, he submits them to most cruel punishments, mutilating them and then ending by murdering them.

For all legal purposes and for the good of the country, I give you the present statement, which I sign in the presence of two witnesses.

Dear Sir,—I have just received your letter of yesterday asking for information about the rubber possessions of the Peruvian Amazon Company in the Putumayo and its tributaries, and I have pleasure in answering it, narrating voluntarily some of the things I have witnessed in that ghastly region, and authorising you to make any use of this letter that you deem convenient.

On March 6, 1908, I left Iquitos on the small steamer Liberal, bound for El Encanto, from where we descended to La Chorrera. Here I began work as an employee on April 1st of the same year.

As soon as I had landed at this port I noticed the unfortunate Indians, who loaded and unloaded the small steamers at the port—thin, hungry, weak, and covered with great scars produced by the lash and the machetes—I saw that they were the helpless victims of excessively barbarous system of forced labour. When any of these wretched beings fell down, overcome by weakness, or sat down to rest, their taskmasters, the employees of the Peruvian Amazon Company, clubbed them cruelly and brutally with sticks of firewood and huge, raw-hide scourges, laughing at the cries and moans of agony emitted by the unfortunate victims.

I also saw Dancurt, the official executioner of La Chorrera, flog the poor Indians almost daily for the most trivial faults: all with the knowledge and approbation of Victor Macedo, manager of La Chorrera and Justice of the Peace of the Putumayo.

Abelardo Agüero, who had just arrived in the war-launch Iquitos, asked me to go with him to Abisinia, a section he was in charge of, assuring me that they did not flog the Indians there, that they had good food, and that he would pay me 80 dollars per month. Believing in his good faith, and, above all, not wishing to witness any more crimes, I accepted his offer, and within a few days we began the journey, going in a launch as far as Santa Julia. From here we continued the journey on foot to a place called Araras, where I was overcome by weakness, owing to lack of food. But Agüero and his companions, who had offered me so much, left me in the forest without medicines or a grain of food.

In this state, and seeing that death was certain unless I got something to eat, I started to crawl painfully about in search of herbs to eat, and found a tree called huava. I picked some of its fruit and ate it, but shortly afterwards had terrible pains in the stomach, and vomited up all the fruit that I had eaten.

After acute sufferings I managed to reach Abisinia, without having eaten anything during the two days and a half of the journey.

In Abisinia I saw the eight concubines of Agüero. Some of these were of the Boras tribe, and others were Huitotos, all of different ages—for this group of unfortunates was composed of girls from nine to sixteen years. Agüero kept his eight women separated from each other, the Boras on one side and the Huitotos on the other, so that they would not quarrel, on account of the antagonisms that exist between the different tribes.

One day I witnessed an excessively atrocious scene, the barbarous flogging of three unfortunate Indians, who, for the mere fact of not having brought in all the rubber that Agüero had required, were scourged with such fury that their backs and hips were completely cut to pieces, the blood rushing from their wounds. Upon seeing this barbarity, I withdrew, for I could not endure it nor the diabolical jokes and laughter of those fiends upon seeing the desperate agony of their victims.

I also saw the two unfortunates, Paz Cutierrez and one Cabrera, who were prisoners, shut up in a small, dirty room under sentinels; to these unhappy wretches they gave almost no food at all, and abused and insulted them vilely and cowardly. One of them at last succeeded in escaping, but the other still remained in the hands of his jailers at my departure from Abisinia.

In May of the same year I went to Morelia. I arrived there also after a very tedious journey, and had hardly reached this section when I witnessed the cruel flogging of seven Indians for the usual crime—that of not delivering enough rubber to satisfy the ambitions of the company’s agents. Two of these victims were mere boys, and I heard their cries of agony and saw the lash cutting into their flesh. All this I saw, but could not defend them from their murderers, as I knew that if I tried to do so they would kill me in an instant.

After a stay of eight days in Morelia I returned to Abisinia, in accordance with orders. A few days afterwards the syphilitic Bartolomé Zumaeta, the brother-in-law of Julio C. Arana, and notorious among the criminals of the Putumayo, arrived, together with the famous Augusto Jiménez, the author of various violations, arsons, floggings, and homicides. The arrival of these two men was the occasion for a drinking-bout, comparable only to the orgy of a horde of savages.

The day after this debauch Agüero ordered one of his concubines to be flogged for having held a conversation with one Alberto Urdinibia. They suspended the poor woman from a rafter of the roof and lashed her for two hours without compunction, and then, regardless of her sex, they removed her garment and exhibited her naked body, bruised and cut to pieces by the lash. When this unfortunate woman fainted, they shut her up in a dirty room without treating her wounds! Urdinibia also had to receive his punishment; they put him in stocks, where he remained two days, practically without food.

Seeing that an honest man neither could nor should remain here, I resolved to escape in company with Urdinibia; but as those fiends noticed our absence, they sent in pursuit and took us back to Abisinia.

Impatient at my continual complaints, Agüero at last gave me permission to go to Santa Julia. On this journey I suffered greatly, as I made it alone and without food, for they gave me no food whatever for my trip. After considerable suffering I arrived at Santa Julia, where the chief, Manuel Aponte, in spite of seeing me sick and in a state of complete misery, began to annoy me, in accordance with the instructions he had received from Agüero, making me labour from early morning until late at night—all this in spite of the fact that the company had promised me food and medicines gratis when ill. Unfortunate is the poor wretch who lets himself be deceived by the smooth words of the “civilising” company!

During the fifteen days that I stayed in Santa Julia I saw three Indian women flogged most barbarously, without the slightest reason, by order of this notorious Manuel Aponte. Here a negro who served as cook played the rôle of executioner, and this miserable wretch, whose conscience was as black as his skin, seemed to take pleasure in his disgusting task, for a devilish smile distorted his blubber lips at seeing the blood spurt out at each blow of the lash. This flogging, like all the rest I have seen in this awful region, was excessively inhuman; but, not content with this, these fiends, after flogging the poor women, put salt and vinegar into their wounds so as to increase the pain.

At last I embarked in the launch for La Chorrera, where I found that Agüero had deceived me; for instead of paying 80 soles per month, as had been promised me, they paid me at the rate of only 50 soles, and deducted from this sum the food and the few medicines they had supplied, so that after three months of hard work and sufferings I had only 71 soles to the good.

I was badly received in La Chorrera, above all by one Delgado, who was the accountant, for Agüero had written him a letter discrediting me slanderously. As I was not able to continue on to Iquitos, I secured employment in the so-called apothecary-shop from Dr. Rodríguez, where I remained some months. Here I had the opportunity to observe that the free medicines that this company so generously offers to its employees are reduced to a little Epsom salt. They also occasionally dole out a few grains of quinine.

During the time I was employed here I saw many gruesome cases. The criminal Dancurt, during all the time that I remained in La Chorrera, continued his work of scourging and other excesses upon the helpless Indians, with the full knowledge and authorisation of Macedo, who thinks of nothing more than his bottle of whisky.

Now that I have mentioned drink, I will say that in La Chorrera, as well as in the other sections, the vice that dominates the employees of this company is drunkenness, which, added to their criminal instincts, turns them into regular human panthers and the Putumayo into a veritable hell.

With regard to the pay they give the Indians for the rubber that these poor wretches extract, this is the most shameless system that can be imagined. In La Chorrera, which is the principal branch of this company in the Putumayo, I saw them give some Indians a few caps, matches, mirrors, and other trifles, the value of which did not amount to five soles, in return for a large quantity of rubber that they had delivered. The Indians, humble and resigned, took this trash and disappeared into the forest, seeing, reflected in the mirrors they received in exchange for their labour, the scars that the infamous hands of the Peruvian Amazon Company’s employees had made all over their weak bodies.

The Indians of the Putumayo are more than slaves of the “civilising” company, as this syndicate of crime has the barefacedness to call itself, for it exploits them in all ways, and the poor Indians can reckon neither with their lives, their women, nor their children: the company is the absolute owner of life and property.

My belief is that the slavery of these Indians will terminate only when the rubber is exhausted here, which will not be very distant; for even now the Indians, in their desire to collect all the rubber demanded by their owners, and not finding it near, mix the juices of other trees with it, and it is for this reason that the rubber extracted in the Putumayo at present is of such a poor quality. When the rubber gives out, the detestable slavery of the Indians will end. But which will be exterminated first, the Indians or the rubber-trees, it is hard to say.

In conclusion, I will state that if there were no Indians in the region of the Putumayo to work free, the company would have nothing to deal in, and consequently would fall to the ground, for its assets are acquired by pillage.

Trusting that this will help you somewhat in the task you have undertaken of unmasking these wolves.

Sr. W. E. Hardenburg,—In reply to your letter of the 16th inst., I give you the following exact and reliable information of what I have witnessed during my stay on the River Putumayo, to be used for any purpose that you deem proper:—

On the 15th of June, 1907, I arrived at the section Matanzas, which is under the orders of the sanguinary and criminal Armando Norman, the chief of this section. As soon as I arrived he ordered a commission, composed of twenty-five men, to go out on a correría and to bring in chained up, all the Indians they might find, together with their women and children. The bandit Norman furnished to this commission, as food for the twenty days they would be absent, fifteen tins of sardines, at the same time ordering that nobody should carry any more clothes than he wore on his back, in order to avoid the extra weight, for in this way they would be better able to carry out the orders he imparted to them.

At the end of about twenty days the commission returned, bringing in, among men, women, and children, about thirty Indians, all in chains, who, as soon as they arrived at the house, were delivered to Norman. Then Norman stepped up and asked three old Indians and two young women, their daughters, where the rest of the Indians were. They replied that they did not know, as several days before they had all dispersed in the forest, owing to the fear they had of him. Norman then grasped his machete and murdered these five unfortunate victims in cold blood. Their bodies were left stretched out near the house and Norman’s dogs took charge of them, for he has them well trained; so well trained are these animals that the morning is rare that they do not appear with an arm or a leg of a victim at the bedside of this monster.

The rest of the Indians brought by this commission were, by the orders of Norman, secured in the cepo, which, as a rule, exists in all the sections. As Norman had given the order not to give the poor wretches any food, it was not long before they began to fall ill and utter cries of pain and desperation; whenever this occurred, Norman grasped his machete and cut them to pieces, leaving the remains of these victims, for the space of from four to six days, at the side of their companions, who were doomed to a similar fate. Whenever these remains—already in a state of putrefaction—became offensive to this bandit, he compelled the Indian prisoners to put them in heaps and set fire to them.

About twenty days after this event Norman ordered another commission of ten criminals to go out and bring in a capitán, with all his family. This order was strictly carried out, the criminals returning in five days, bringing the capitán, his wife, and two children, all in chains. As soon as they arrived Norman submitted them to a cross-examination, asking them why they did not bring in the amount of rubber that he required from them and that his superiors had ordered him to get, to which the capitán replied that as the quantity he demanded was very large, sometimes it was impossible to collect it all. This answer was sufficient to cause Norman to tie up his hands and feet with a chain and to order three armfuls of wood to be placed about the unfortunate victim, he himself bringing half a tin of kerosene and, with his own hands, setting fire thereto. When the poor wretch’s wife saw this horrible act of cruelty, she implored Norman not to murder her husband in such a barbarous manner; this sufficed for Norman to cut off her head and throw her on the funeral pile of her husband. After this he took the two children and, after dismembering them with his machete, threw their remains on the same fire.

To terminate with this repugnant criminal, whom I have seen commit crimes so horrible that perhaps they are unequalled in the history of the entire world, it is sufficient to say that I have seen him repeatedly snatch tender children from their mothers’ arms, and, grasping them by the feet, smash their heads to pieces against the trunks of trees.

I have also seen him commit another most barbarous crime. This was on the 11th of July, 1907, at about 4 p.m. The victim was a poor Indian woman whom he had ordered to serve as a concubine for one of his adjutants. The woman refused to obey this order as she already had an Indian husband. This was sufficient for Norman to cut off her legs and leave her in a field near the house, where she remained a night and a day, until he himself went out to finish her with his Mauser revolver.

CHAPTER VII HARDENBURG’S INVESTIGATIONS THE CRIMES OF THE PUTUMAYO

CHAPTER VII

HARDENBURG’S INVESTIGATIONS

THE CRIMES OF THE PUTUMAYO